time to the upper world through certain openings in the
ground (mundi), whose solemn uncovering was one of the regular
observances of the festal calendar".[248]

According to Babylonian belief, the dead who were not properly buried
roamed through the streets searching for food, eating refuse and
drinking impure water.

Prior to the period of ceremonial burials, the dead were interred in
the houses in which they had lived--a custom which has made it
possible for present-day scientists to accumulate much valuable data
regarding primitive races and their habits of life. The Palaeolithic
cave-dwellers of Europe were buried in their caves. These were then
deserted and became the haunts of wild animals. After a long interval
a deserted cave was occupied by strangers. In certain characteristic
caves the various layers containing human remains represent distinct
periods of the vast Pleistocene Age.

When Mediterranean man moved northward through Europe, he utilized
some of these caves, and constructed in them well-built graves for his
dead, digging down through older layers. In thus making a "house"
within a "house", he has provided us with a link between an old custom
and a new. Apparently he was influenced by local practices and
beliefs, for he met and mingled in certain localities with the men of
the Late Palaeolithic Age.

The primitive house-burial rite is referred to in the Ethiopic version
of the life of Alexander the Great. The "Two-horned", as the hero was
called, conversed with Brahmans when he reached India. He spoke to one
of them, "saying: 'Have ye no tombs wherein to bury any man among ye
who may die?' And an interpreter made answer to him, saying: 'Man and
woman and child grow up, and arrive at maturity, and become old, and
when any one of them dieth we bury him in the place wherein he lived;
thus our graves are our houses. And our God knoweth that we desire
this more than the lust for food and meat which all men have: this is
our life and manner of living in the darkness of our tombs.'" When
Alexander desired to make a gift to these Brahmans, and asked them
what they desired most, their answer was, "Give us immortality".[249]

In the Gilgamesh epic the only ray of hope which relieves the gloomy
closing passages is Ea-bani's suggestion that the sufferings endured
by the dead may be alleviated by the performance of strict burial
rites. Commenting on this point Professor Jastrow says: "A proper
burial with a