The serpent did as Shamash advised, and the birds of the air began to flock round the carcase in which she was hidden.  The eagle came with the rest, and at first kept aloof, looking for what should happen.  When she saw that the birds flew away unharmed all fear left her.  In vain did the wise eaglet warn her of the danger that was lurking within the prey; she mocked at him and his predictions, dug her beak into the carrion, and the serpent leaping out seized her by the wing.  Then “the eagle her mouth opened, and spake unto the snake, ’Have mercy upon me, and according to thy pleasure a gift I will lavish upon thee!’ The snake opened her mouth and spake unto the eagle, ’Did I release thee, Shamash would take part against me; and the doom would fall upon me, which now I fulfil upon thee.’  She tore out her wings, her feathers, her pinions; she tore her to pieces, she threw her into a cleft, and there she died a death of hunger and of thirst.”

The gods allowed no living being to penetrate with impunity into their empire:  he who was desirous of ascending thither, however brave he might be, could do so only by death.  The mass of humanity had no pretensions to mount so high.  Their religion gave them the choice between a perpetual abode in the tomb, or confinement in the prison of Allat; if at times they strove to escape from these alternatives, and to picture otherwise their condition in the world beyond, their ideas as to the other life continued to remain vague, and never approached the minute precision of the Egyptian conception.  The cares of the present life were too absorbing to allow them leisure to speculate upon the conditions of a future existence.

[Illustration:  230.jpg Endplate]

CHAPTER III—­CHALDAEAN CIVILIZATION

CHALDAEAN CIVILIZATION—­ROYALTY—­THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FAMILY AND ITS PROPERTY—­CHALMAN COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY.

The kings not gods, but the vicegerents of the gods:  their sacerdotal character—­The queens and the women of the royal family:  the sons and the order of succession to the throne—­The royal palaces:  description of the palace of Gudea at Lagash, the facades, the zigurat, the private apartments, the furniture, the external decoration—­Costume of the men and women:  the employees of the palace and the method of royal administration; the military and the great lords.

The scribe and the clay books.—­Cuneiform writing:  its hieroglyphic origin; the Protean character of the sounds which may be assigned to the ideograms, grammatical tablets, and dictionaries—­Their contracts, and their numerous copies of them:  the finger-nail mark, the seal.

The constitution of the family:  the position held by the wife—­Marriage, the contract, the religious ceremonies—­Divorce:  the rights of wealthy women; woman and marriage among the lower classes—­Adopted children, their position in the family; ordinary motives for adoption—­Slaves, their condition, their enfranchisement.