through the fire, according to the abominations of the
heathen".[61] Ezekiel declared that "when ye offer your gifts, when ye
make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with
all your idols".[62] In _Leviticus_ it is laid down: "Thou shalt not
let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch".[63] It may be
that in Babylonia the fire-cleansing ceremony resembled that which
obtained at Beltane (May Day) in Scotland, Germany, and other
countries. Human sacrifices might also have been offered up as burnt
offerings. Abraham, who came from the Sumerian city of Ur, was
prepared to sacrifice Isaac, Sarah's first-born. The fire gods of
Babylonia never achieved the ascendancy of the Indian Agni; they
appear to have resembled him mainly in so far as he was connected with
the sun. Nusku, like Agni, was also the "messenger of the gods". When
Merodach or Babylon was exalted as chief god of the pantheon his
messages were carried to Ea by Nusku. He may have therefore symbolized
the sun rays, for Merodach had solar attributes. It is possible that
the belief obtained among even the water worshippers of Eridu that the
sun and moon, which rose from the primordial deep, had their origin in
the everlasting fire in Ea's domain at the bottom of the sea. In the
Indian god Varuna's ocean home an "Asura fire" (demon fire) burned
constantly; it was "bound and confined", but could not be
extinguished. Fed by water, this fire, it was believed, would burst
forth at the last day and consume the universe.[64] A similar belief
can be traced in Teutonic mythology. The Babylonian incantation cult
appealed to many gods, but "the most important share in the rites",
says Jastrow, "are taken by fire and water--suggesting, therefore,
that the god of water--more particularly Ea--and the god of fire ...
are the chief deities on which the ritual itself hinges". In some
temples there was a _bit rimki_, a "house of washing", and a _bit
nuri_, a "house of light".[65]

It is possible, of course, that fire was regarded as the vital
principle by some city cults, which were influenced by imported ideas.
If so, the belief never became prevalent. The most enduring influence
in Babylonian religion was the early Sumerian; and as Sumerian modes
of thought were the outcome of habits of life necessitated by the
character of the country, they were bound, sooner or later, to leave a
deep impress on the minds of foreign peoples who settled in the Garden
o