to a scorpion.

We cannot pretend to notice every detail of this curious monument as their
explanation would lead us too far, and, with all the care we could give
them, we should still have to leave some unexplained. We shall be satisfied
with pointing out those features of the composition whose meaning seems to
be clear.

In the first place the division of the field into four zones should be
noticed; it coincides with what we know of the Assyrian mode of dividing
the universe among the powers of heaven, the demons, mankind, and the dead.
The chief incident of the third zone shows us that, like the Egyptians, the
Assyrians wished to assure themselves of the protection of some benevolent
deity after death. In the Nile valley that protector was Osiris, in
Mesopotamia Anou, Oannes, or Dagon, the fish god to whom man owed the
advantages of civilization in this world and his safety in the next. The
kingdom of shadows, into which he had to descend after death, was peopled
with monstrous shapes, to give some idea of which sculptors had gone far
afield among the wild beasts of the earth, and had brought together
attributes and weapons that nature never combines in a single animal, such
as the claws of the scorpion, the wings and talons of the eagle, the coils
of the serpent, the mane and muzzle of the great carnivora. The conception
which governs all this is similar to that of which we see the expression in
those Theban tombs where the dead man prosecutes his voyage along the
streams of Ament, and runs the gauntlet of the grimacing demons who would
seize and destroy him but for the shielding presence of Osiris. And the
resemblance is continued in the details. The boat is shaped like the
Egyptian boats;[443] the river may be compared to the subterranean Nile of
the Theban tombs, while it reminds us of the Styx and Acheron of the
Grecian Hades. We remember too the line of the chant we have quoted:

"There too stand the foundations of the earth, the meeting of the
mighty waters."

Certain obscure points that still exist in connection with the
Chaldaeo-Assyrian _inferno_ and with the personages by whom it is peopled,
will, no doubt, be removed as the study of the remains progresses. We have
been satisfied for the moment to explain, with the help of previous
explorers, the notions of the Semites of Mesopotamia upon death and a
second life, and to show that they did not differ sensibly from those of
the Egyptians or