but there is little cultivation, the inhabitants subsist- ing chiefly upon dates. More than half the country is left dry and waste from the want of a proper system of irrigation, while the remaining half is to a great extent covered with marshes, owing to the same neg- lect. Thus it is at once true that *' the sea has come up upon Babylon, and she is covered with the waves thereof* (Jer. li, 42) ; that she is made " a possession for the bittern, and pools of water" (Isa. xiv, 28) ; and also that ^^ a drought is upon her waters, and they are dried up" (Jer. 1, 88), that she is "wholly desolate"— *'the hindermost of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert" (i6. 12, 13). (See Loftus's Chaldma and Swiana; Layard's JVtn. and Bab, ch. xxi-xxiv; Bawlinson's fferodottUy vol. i. Essay ix ; and Mr. Tay- lor's Paper in the Journal of the Aeiatic Society, voL XV.) — Smith, s. v. See Babylonia.
8. Inhabitants, — The monuments of Babylonia fur- nish abundant evidenoe of the fact that a Hamitic race held possession of that country in the earliest times, and continued to be a powerful element in the popula- tion down to a period very little preceding the acces- sion of Nebuchadnezzar. The most ancient historical records found in the country, and many of the relig- ious and scientific documents, are written in a lan- guage which belongs to the AllophyUian family, pre- senting aflinities with the dialects of Africa on the one hand, and with those of High Asia on the other. The people by whom this language was spoken, whose principal tribe was the Akkad (Aocad, Geiu x, 10), may be regarded as represented by the Chaldsans of the Greeks, the Kasdim of the Hebrew writers. This race seems to have gradually developed the type of language known as Shemitism, which became in course of time the general language of the country; still, however, as a priest-caste, a portion of the Akkad pre- served their ancient tongue, and formed the learned and scientific Chaldsans of later .times (Rawlinson, Herodotus, i, 583). Their language was the language of science in those countries ; and the Chaldeans de- voted themselves to the study of the sciences, and e8« pecially astronomy. See Chaij>jean Philobopht. The scientific tablets discovered at Nineveh are all in this dialect. These &cts throw new and clear light on the many allusions to the Chaldsan wise men in ^he Bible (Dan. i, 4; ii, 2; iv, 7; Ezek. xxiii, 14> The influence and power of the Chaldsans rapidly in- creased, so that in the early part of the ninth century B.C. they became the dominant race in Babylonia, and gave that kingdom their name (2 Chron. xxxvi, 17 ; Dan. ix, 1). During the eighth century B.C. a number of them emigrated from their native plains, and settled in the mountains of Armenia. This is pos- sibly the true explanation of the occurrence of the Chaldieans in that region, as noted by many ancient writers (Xenoph. Anab, iv, 3, 4; Strabo, xii; Steph. Byz. s. V. XaXSaia); and this, too, shows why Gesenius and other recent authors were led to believe that the Chaldflsans of Babylonia were a colony from the north- em mountains, settied in that country by one of the later Assyrian monarchs. (See Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies^ Lond. 1864 sq. ; Ditmar, Vaierland d, ChaU dder, Berlin, 1786; Palmblad, J)e rebus JBabylomcis, Upeal. 1820; Bochart, (re(;^ap^.>— Kitto, s. v. See Chaldebs.
ChalcUe'an. See Chaldeans ; Chaldees.
C?halcUBan Philosophy. Bitter (History of Philosophy, bk. ii, ch. i) remarks that he passes over the pmlosophy of the Chaldaans without special nO' tice ; both '* because the fhigments of Manetho, Bero- sus, and Sanchoniatho are not free from suspicion as to genuineness and antiquity, and also because the ideas and conceptions prevailing in them are of little value philosophically." Beard, in Kitto's Cyclopatdia (s. V. Philosophy), remarks, nevertheless, that the sub- ject is " of interest to the student of the Bible, in coup
CHALDEANS
200
CHALDEE LANGUAGE
sequence of the general and decided influence which the Babylonian philosophy exerted on the opinions and manner of thinking of tlie Israelites during their cap- tivity in Babylon, as the Rabbins themselves admit, in alleging that the names of the angels and of the months were derived by the house of Israel from Babylon (Roth ffcuhanak, p. 66). See Captivity. The system of opinion and manner of thinking which the captives met with in Babylon was made up of elements whose birthplace was in various parts of the East, and wliich appear to have found in Babylon a not uncongenial soil, where they grew and coalesced into one general system. Of these elements the two principal were the Chaldssan and the Medo-Persian or Zoroastrian.
*'The former of these, which alone we shall here con- sider, seems to have originated in the cultivation of astronomy (q. v.), a science very early pursued under the clear sky of Babylonia, although generally cor- rupted with a mixture of astrology (q. v.). Lipfu nat- urally «ame to- be regarded as a divine principle, and the heavenly bodies were worshipped as the residence or impersonation of Deity. This soon diverged into polytheism, as the celestial luminaries were assigned to separate powers of Nature. See Idolatbt. An observation of the astronomical phenomena led not only to the formation of horoscopes with a view to di- vining the future, but it likewise induced a belief in certain intermediate powers, which were supposed (as by the now discovered bond of gravitation) to link all bodies together, and whose presence was made to fill the void between them and the invisible Being at the centre. Thus arose the enumaUcn theory, which fig- ures so conspicuously in the Cabbala (q. v.) and in Gnosticism (q. v.). These intermediate or derived existences were invested with intelligence, and form- ed again a link between spirit and matter, giving rise to a whole world of damofu (q. v.), of various charac- ters and capacities* To guard against the malignant influence of some of these, talismans (q. v.) were used, and the arts of sorcery (q. v.) were resorted to. See Chaldees.