ifest their
anger against the Igigi. They are sent out by the gods to do service.
Their character is, on the whole, severe and cruel. They are not
favorable to man, but rather hostile to him. Their brilliancy consumes
the land. Their power is feared, and Assyrian kings more particularly
are fond of adding the Igigi and Anunnaki to the higher powers--the gods
proper--when they wish to inspire a fear of their own majesty. At times
the Igigi alone are mentioned, but generally the Igigi and Anunnaki
appear in combination. To the latest period of Babylonian history these
two groups continue to receive official recognition. Nebuchadnezzar
II.[221] dedicates an altar, which he erects at the wall of the city of
Babylon, to the Igigi and Anunnaki. The altar is called a structure of
'joy and rejoicing,' and on the festival of Marduk, who is the 'lord of
the Anunnaki and Igigi,' sacrifices were offered at this altar. In the
great temple of Marduk there was a fountain in which the gods and the
Anunnaki, according to a Babylonian hymn, 'bathe their countenance'; and
when to this notice it be added that another hymn praises them as the
'shining chiefs' of the ancient city of Eridu, it will be apparent that
the conceptions attached to this group span the entire period of
Babylonian-Assyrian history.

Besides the Igigi and Anunnaki there is still a third group of seven
spirits, generally designated as the 'evil demons,' who represent the
embodiment of all physical suffering to which man is subject. They
appear, however, only in the incantation texts, and we may, therefore,
postpone their consideration until that subject is reached. The point to
be borne in mind, and which I have attempted to emphasize in this place,
is the close relationship existing in the _popular_ forms of the
Babylonian religion between the gods and the spirits. The latter belong
to the pantheon as much as the former. Primitive animism continues to
enchain the minds of the people, despite the differentiation established
between the higher and the secondary powers, and despite the high point
of development reached by the schoolmen in their attempts to systematize
and, in a measure, to purify the ancient beliefs.

FOOTNOTES:

[213] The technical name for this class of monuments was _Kudurru_,
_i.e._, mark, and then used like the German word _Mark_ both for
boundary and for the territory included within the bounds. A notable
contribution to the interpretation of th