tached to the hymns and prayers which had
to be recited are minute and complicated. The hymns had been formed into
a sort of Bible, which had in time acquired a divine authority. So
sacred were its words, that a single mispronunciation of them was
sufficient to impair the efficacy of the service. Rules for their
pronunciation were accordingly laid down, which were the more necessary
as the hymns were in Sumerian. The dead language of Sumer had become
sacred, like Latin in the Middle Ages, and each line of a hymn was
provided with a translation in Semitic Babylonian.

In appearance, a Babylonian temple was not very unlike those of Canaan
or of Solomon. The image of the god stood in the innermost shrine, the
Holy of Holies, where also was the mercy-seat, whereon it was believed,
as upon a throne, the deity was accustomed to descend at certain times
of the year. In the little temple of Balawat, near Nineveh, discovered
by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, the mercy-seat was shaped like an ark, and
contained two written tables of stone; no statue of the god, however,
seems in this instance to have stood beside it. In front of it was the
altar, approached by steps.

In the court of the temple was a "sea" or "deep," like that which was
made by Solomon. An early hymn which describes the construction of one
of them, states that it was of bronze, and that it rested on the figures
of twelve bronze oxen. It was intended for the ablutions of the priests
and the vessels of the sanctuary, and was a representation of that
primaeval deep out of which it was believed that the world originated.

One peculiarity the Babylonian temples possessed which was not shared by
those of the west. Each had its _ziggurat_ or "tower," which served for
the observation of the stars, and in the topmost storey of which was the
altar of the god. It corresponded with the "high-place" of Canaan, where
man imagined himself nearest to the gods of heaven. But in the flat
plain of Babylonia it was needful that the high-place should be of
artificial construction, and here accordingly they built the towers
whose summits "reached to" the sky.

The temples and their ministers were supported partly by endowments,
partly by voluntary gifts, sometimes called _kurbanni_, the Hebrew
_korban_, partly by obligatory contributions, the most important of
which was the _esra_ or "tithe." Besides the fixed festivals, which were
enumerated in the calendar, special days of thanksgiving or h