uct of the deceased. The judges sat on the
opposite side of a lake; and while they crossed the lake, he who sat
at the helm was called Charon, which gave rise to the fable among the
Greeks, that Charon conducted the souls of deceased persons into the
infernal regions.

CHAPTER IV.

Babylon--The Chaldeans were Priests, Philosophers,
Astronomers, Astrologers, and Soothsayers--Downfall of
Babylon predicted--Worship of the Medes and
Persians--Devils confined in an Egg--Sacred Fire--The
Gaures--Births and Deaths in Early Times--A narrow
Bridge--An immense Tree--Creation of Prophets--A Stone
to which Abraham tied his Camel--Adam and Eve's
Trysting Place--Black Art--Ways of discovering whether
a supposed Criminal was Guilty or Innocent--Looking
into Futurity--Canaanites, Syrians, and
Arabians--Strange Fables--Abraham breaking Heathen
Idols--Worship of the Egyptian Thorn--Altars--Religion
of the Carthagenians and Tyrians--Supremacy of the
Gods.

The great city of Babylon owed its origin to the ambition of the proud
people who built the tower of Babel. In course of time Babylon rose to
great grandeur, but superstition became so prevalent that it proved a
snare to the inhabitants. Like the heathen around, they worshipped
fire and images. The Babylonians pretended to great skill in
astrology, soothsaying, and magic. The Chaldeans, so called in a
strict sense, were a society of pretenders to learning, priests,
philosophers, astrologers, and soothsayers, who, it is said, dwelt in
a region by themselves, and the rest of the people were called
Babylonians. While Babylon was in its glory, prophets predicted that
dreadful judgments would befall it. And so it happened. On the very
night the destruction came, the king, alarmed by the mysterious
handwriting on the wall, consulted his magicians; and Daniel, who had
been made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and
soothsayers, made known the sad end of Belshazzar and his kingdom.

The Medes and Persians worshipped the sun, fire, water, the earth, the
winds, and deities without number. Human sacrifices, as in other
idolatrous countries, were offered by them, and they burned their
children in fiery furnaces appropriated to their idols. At first the
gods they worshipped were Arimanius, the god of evil, and Oromasdes,
the giver of all good. Plutarch says that Oromasdes created several