The Labartu, to whom we have referred, was a female who haunted mountains and marshes; like the fairies and hags of Europe, she stole or afflicted children, who accordingly had to wear charms round their necks for protection.  Seven of these supernatural beings were reputed to be daughters of Anu, the sky god.

The Alu, a storm deity, was also a spirit which caused nightmare.  It endeavoured to smother sleepers like the Scandinavian hag Mara, and similarly deprived them of power to move.  In Babylonia this evil spirit might also cause sleeplessness or death by hovering near a bed.  In shape it might be as horrible and repulsive as the Egyptian ghosts which caused children to die from fright or by sucking out the breath of life.

As most representatives of the spirit world were enemies of the living, so were the ghosts of dead men and women.  Death chilled all human affections; it turned love to hate; the deeper the love had been, the deeper became the enmity fostered by the ghost.  Certain ghosts might also be regarded as particularly virulent and hostile if they happened to have left the body of one who was ceremonially impure.  The most terrible ghost in Babylonia was that of a woman who had died in childbed.  She was pitied and dreaded; her grief had demented her; she was doomed to wail in the darkness; her impurity clung to her like poison.  No spirit was more prone to work evil against mankind, and her hostility was accompanied by the most tragic sorrow.  In Northern India the Hindus, like the ancient Babylonians, regard as a fearsome demon the ghost of a woman who died while pregnant, or on the day of the child’s birth.[92] A similar belief prevailed in Mexico.  In Europe there are many folk tales of dead mothers who return to avenge themselves on the cruel fathers of neglected children.

A sharp contrast is presented by the Mongolian Buriats, whose outlook on the spirit world is less gloomy than was that of the ancient Babylonians.  According to Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, this interesting people are wont to perform a ceremony with purpose to entice the ghost to return to the dead body—­a proceeding which is dreaded in the Scottish Highlands.[93] The Buriats address the ghost, saying:  “You shall sleep well.  Come back to your natural ashes.  Take pity on your friends.  It is necessary to live a real life.  Do not wander along the mountains.  Do not be like bad spirits.  Return to your peaceful home....  Come back and work for your children.  How can you leave the little ones?” If it is a mother, these words have great effect; sometimes the spirit moans and sobs, and the Buriats tell that there have been instances of it returning to the body.[94] In his Arabia Deserta[95] Doughty relates that Arab women and children mock the cries of the owl.  One explained to him:  “It is a wailful woman seeking her lost child; she has become this forlorn bird”.  So do immemorial beliefs survive to our own day.