This appeal indicated that she desired to ransom her life—­like the hags in the European folk tales—­so Nergal unloosed his hold.

Then Eresh-ki-gal continued:  “Be thou my husband and I will be thy wife.  On thee I confer sovereignty over the wide earth, giving thee the tablet of wisdom.  Thou shalt be my lord and I will be thy lady.”

Nergal accepted these terms by kissing the goddess.  Affectionately drying her tears, he spoke, saying:  “Thou shalt now have from me what thou hast demanded during these past months.”

In other words, Nergal promises to honour her as she desired, after becoming her husband and equal.

In the “Descent of Ishtar” the Babylonian Underworld is called Cuthah.  This city had a famous cemetery, like Abydos in Egypt, where many pious and orthodox worshippers sought sepulture.  The local god was Nergal, who symbolized the destructive power of the sun and the sand storm; he was a gloomy, vengeful deity, attended by the spirits of tempest, weariness, pestilence, and disease, and was propitiated because he was dreaded.

In Nether Cuthah, as Ea-bani informed Gilgamesh, the worm devoured the dead amidst the dust and thick darkness.

It is evident that this Underworld was modelled on the grave.  In early times men believed that the spirits of the dead hovered in or about the place of sepulture.  They were therefore provided with “houses” to protect them, in the same manner as the living were protected in their houses above the ground.

The enemies of the human ghosts were the earth spirits.  Weapons were laid beside the dead in their graves so that they might wage war against demons when necessary.  The corpse was also charmed, against attack, by the magical and protecting ornaments which were worn by the living—­necklaces, armlets, ear-rings, &c.  Even face paint was provided, probably as a charm against the evil eye and other subtle influences.

So long as corpses were left in their graves, the spirits of the dead were, it would appear, believed to be safe.  But they required food and refreshment.  Food vessels and drinking urns were therefore included in the funerary furniture, and the dead were given food offerings at regular intervals.  Once a year the living held feasts in the burial ground, and invited the ghosts to share in the repast.  This custom was observed in Babylonia, and is not yet obsolete in Egypt; Moslems and Coptic Christians alike hold annual all-night feasts in their cemeteries.

The Japanese “Land of Yomi” is similarly an underworld, or great grave, where ghosts mingle with the demons of disease and destruction.  Souls reach it by “the pass of Yomi”.  The Mikado, however, may be privileged to ascend to heaven and join the gods in the “Eternal Land”.

Among the ancient Romans the primitive belief survived that the spirit of the dead “just sank into the earth where it rested, and returned from time to 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]