regarding the food supply, which might be provided for them by nature in lavish abundance; others were compelled to wage a fierce and constant conflict against hostile forces in inhospitable environments with purpose to secure adequate sustenance and their meed of enjoyment.  Various habits of life had to be adopted in various parts of the world, and these produced various habits of thought.  Consequently, we find that behind all systems of primitive religion lies the formative background of natural phenomena.  A mythology reflects the geography, the fauna and flora, and the climatic conditions of the area in which it took definite and permanent shape.

In Babylonia, as elsewhere, we expect, therefore, to find a mythology which has strictly local characteristics—­one which mirrors river and valley scenery, the habits of life of the people, and also the various stages of progress in the civilization from its earliest beginnings.  Traces of primitive thought—­survivals from remotest antiquity—­should also remain in evidence.  As a matter of fact Babylonian mythology fulfils our expectations in this regard to the highest degree.

Herodotus said that Egypt was the gift of the Nile:  similarly Babylonia may be regarded as the gift of the Tigris and Euphrates—­those great shifting and flooding rivers which for long ages had been carrying down from the Armenian Highlands vast quantities of mud to thrust back the waters of the Persian Gulf and form a country capable of being utilized for human habitation.  The most typical Babylonian deity was Ea, the god of the fertilizing and creative waters.

He was depicted clad in the skin of a fish, as gods in other geographical areas were depicted wearing the skins of animals which were regarded as ancestors, or hostile demons that had to be propitiated.  Originally Ea appears to have been a fish—­the incarnation of the spirit of, or life principle in, the Euphrates River.  His centre of worship was at Eridu, an ancient seaport, where apparently the prehistoric Babylonians (the Sumerians) first began to utilize the dried-up beds of shifting streams to irrigate the soil.  One of the several creation myths is reminiscent of those early experiences which produced early local beliefs: 

    O thou River, who didst create all things,
    When the great gods dug thee out,
    They set prosperity upon thy banks,
    Within thee Ea, the king of the Deep, created his dwelling.[10]

The Sumerians observed that the land was brought into existence by means of the obstructing reeds, which caused mud to accumulate.  When their minds began to be exercised regarding the origin of life, they conceived that the first human beings were created by a similar process: 

    Marduk (son of Ea) laid a reed upon the face of the waters,
    He formed dust and poured it out beside the reed ... 
    He formed mankind.[11]

Ea acquired in time, as the divine artisan, various attributes which reflected the gradual growth of civilization:  he was reputed to have taught the people how to form canals, control the rivers, cultivate the fields, build their houses, and so on.