e passes which opened on to the basins of
the Upper Euphrates and Tigris; it protected the roads leading to the
east and south-east in the direction of the table-land of Iran and the
Persian Gulf, and it was the key to the route by which the commerce of
Babylon reached the countries lying around the Mediterranean. We have no
means of knowing what affinities as regards origin or race connected
it with Uru, but the same moon-god presided over the destinies of both
towns, and the Sin of Harran enjoyed in very early times a renown nearly
equal to that of his namesake.

* Tilli, the only one of these towns mentioned with any
certainty in the inscriptions of the first Chaldaean empire,
is the Tela of classical authors, and probably the present
Weranshaher, near the sources of the Balikh.

** Kharranu was identified by the earlier Assyriologists
with the Harran of the Hebrews (_Gen._ v. 12), the Carrhse
of classical authors, and this identification is still
generally accepted.

He was worshipped under the symbol of a conical stone, probably an
aerolite, surmounted by a gilded crescent, and the ground-plan of the
town roughly described a crescent-shaped curve in honour of its patron.
His cult, even down to late times, was connected with cruel practices;
generations after the advent to power of the Abbasside caliphs, his
faithful worshippers continued to sacrifice to him human victims, whose
heads, prepared according to the ancient rite, were accustomed to give
oracular responses.* The government of the surrounding country was
in the hands of princes who were merely vicegerents:** Chaldaean
civilization before the beginnings of history had more or less laid hold
of them, and made them willing subjects to the kings of Babylon.***

* Without seeking to specify exactly which were the
doctrines introduced into Harranian religion subsequently to
the Christian era, we may yet affirm that the base of this
system of faith was merely a very distorted form of the
ancient Chaldaean worship practised in the town.

** Only one vicegerent of Mesopotamia is known at present,
and he belongs to the Assyrian epoch. His seal is preserved
in the British Museum.

*** The importance of Harran in the development of the
history of the first Chaldaean empire was pointed out by
Winckler; but the theory according to which this town was
the capital o