With regard to the Fauna, the lion ((li.sw, labbti) was a very common tenant of the reed-beds between Arabia and Babylonia ; and not only the i>anther (nimru), the jackal (ak-hti, hnrbani), the fox (.^elilnt), and the wild lioar (shakhS, dabw), but especially the wild ox (r?niH, Heh. 2s-i)^ frequently figure in the literature and the pictorial repre- sentations (e.g. on the oldest cylinder-seals). Many species of gazelles, antelopes, and wild goats were found along the frontiers of the country. The horse (.</s«, Heb. did, but Syr. ''^P'O) was unknown to the earliest settlers. The Sumerians called it ' ass of the East ' or ' the mountain ' (an.thu kurra), just as by circumlocution they called the lion lig-magh ' big dog.' The strictly domestic animals were the cow {alpri), the sheep {semi, lahru, and other words), the goat (i))Z!()-the ass (imeru, an incorrectly written form of himeni, Sumerian anslni), and the dog (kalbu). The elephant (ptru) of Mesopotonua, the camel (gam- miilti) and the wild ass (bjir'imu) of Arabia, were also known to the Babylonians. Such a word as gammalu shows by its very form (if it were a geiuiine Babylonian word it would be written i/amlu) that it has been borrowed from Arabia. Of tame birds, we may mention the raven (aribu), the swallow (sinnntu), and the dove (summatu) (cf. Gn 8'*'- and the Babylonian account of the Flood) ; of half-wild birds, geese and waterhens (the late Heb. Siiii 'cock,' comes from the Sumerian dar-nugalln 'king's fowl'), falcons {surdu) which were tamed even at this early period by the Babylonians for the purj^ose of hunting. Of birds of jirey, the eagle {aru and ertt, also nasliru) holds the first place, then come the owl {issipu, Heb. n'">:']:) and the horn-owl (kadR), etc.
In the sphere of Ethnology and Language, it can be shown that a du.alisiu existed in Babylonia from the earliest period. The Sumerians, who in all probability came from Central Asia, and whose language is related to the Turanian, as the Babylonian method of writing proves, were the Charles .^en'hner^^ .'<nr}x
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founders of all the civilisation of anterior Asia. Besides these, we find ;i.s early as li.C. 5000 or 6000 distinct traces of a Semilic population, which came from the Xorth-Wcst (Mesopotamia) and took possession of the civilised settlements founded by the }>unicrians, until, by their gradual incorpora^ tion with the orii;inal inhabitants of the countr}', there arose a sinde new race.
The Semitic Babylonians have the closest re- lationship with the other Semites (Hebrews, Arabs, and Aramaeans), and yet, in opposition to these, they form a special group, as the grammar atid lexicon clearly prove. If the Syro-Arabian Semites may be properly designated jcest Semites, the ancient Kgyplian speech, on the other hand, beloni.'s to the east Semitic, or the Bab.-Assyrian branch of Semitic languages. The Egyptians must in the remotest antiijuity have emigrated from .Mesopotamia to Africa. Apart from considerations of grammar and the great number of Suinerian loan-words contained in their language (which is otherwise Semitic), this is proved by extensive coincidences between the Egyptian and Babylonian systems of writing, their religion, and other branches of culture.
Tlie Religion of the Baljylonians meets us even in the oldest inscriptions as a tolerably finished system. Although most of the names of the gods are Sumerian, the Semites must have had a more or less important share in the development of this system. Many gods have two names, one .Semitic and one Sumerian, e.g. Belu 'Lord' (West Semitic Baal), Sumerian En-lilln, 'Lord of the air,' and we cannot always be certain that the Sumerian name is the older and more original. As kings who are without doubt Semitic {e.g. the kings of Nisin) set up Sumi-rian inscriptions, so may Semitic gods in primitive times have received Sumerian names even from Semitic Babylonians, especially since Sumerian continued for long to be the sacred tongue. The beginnings of B.ibylonian culture go farther back than any inscri]>ti()ns, and we cannot therefore answer questions such as this witli any- thing like certainty. We get, however, the general im|)rission that the baser elements of the Baby- lonian religion originally belonged to the Sumer- ians, while the purer and nobler ideas in it came from the Semites. The .sovereign position occu- pied by Bel (in spite of his .secondary rank in the genealogical system) points to this conclusion. Even the Star-worsliip (Sun, Moon, and Planets), which the Semites at an early date conjoined witli the cult of Bel, is a far purer and nobler type of Polytheism than the crude idolatry of so many other heathen peoples.
If the fttimerianii in their old incantations always invoke Heaven anil Earth as the two highest powers of nature, regarding the earth-god as the 'good' spirit and offering him the greater devotion, it seems to have been the Semili's who i-xpaniled this dualism into a genealogical .system : first liy insertins: their Bel between the original two, and then by adding the sun and planet-gods, which were all regarded as children of the earth-god. It s.'ems to have been the Semites, too, who converted the more general concejilion of 'Heaven' into the more special one of an 'ocean of heaven,' which extended over the Firmament ('the waters above the Eirmament,' Gn T). To this they gave the Sumerian title nun (with a dialectical variant <liiit). and regarded it also as continuing behind the horizon and inider the earth. This 'Ocean of Heaven,' Atiun or Aiiitm (as the Sumerians pre- ferred to write it), was placed at the top of the gencilogieal tree. Then came Bel, ' Lord of the air' (En-liUa, Sem. Ilel-zakiki), as his son, and Ea or En-ki (-Lord of the earth') as his grandson. An ancient title for Bel, as god of the air and