triumphantly to the earth:  every year there was a repetition of the same passionate infatuation, suddenly interrupted by the same mourning.  The earth was united to the young sun with every recurring spring, and under the influence of his caresses became covered with verdure; then followed autumn and winter, and the sun, grown old, sank into the tomb, from whence his mistress had to call him up, in order to plunge afresh with him by a common impulse into the joys and sorrows of another year.

* The solar character of Nergal, at least in later times, is admitted, but with restrictions, by all Assyriologists.  The evident connection between him and Ninib, of which we have proofs, was the ground of Delitzsch’s theory that he was likewise the burning and destructive sun, and also of Jensen’s analogous concept of a midday and summer sun.

** Pr.  Lenormant seems to have been the first to distinguish in Merodach, besides the god of the planet Jupiter, a solar personage.  This notion, which has been generally admitted by most Assyriologists, has been defined with greater exactitude by Jensen, who is inclined to see in Merodach both the morning sun and the spring sun; and this is the opinion held at present.

The differences between the gods were all the more accentuated, for the reason that many who had a common origin were often separated from one another by, relatively speaking, considerable distances.  Having divided the earth’s surface between them, they formed, as in Egypt, a complete feudal system, whose chiefs severally took up their residence in a particular city.  Anu was worshipped in Uruk, Enlil-Bel reigned in Nipur, Eridu belonged to Ea, the lord of the waters.  The moon-god, Sin, alone governed two large fiefs, Uru in the extreme south, and Harran towards the extreme north-west; Shamash had Larsam and one of the Sipparas for his dominion, and the other sun-gods were not less well provided for, Nergal possessing Kutha, Zamama having Kish, Ninib side by side with Bel reigning in Nipur, while Merodach ruled at Babylon.  Each was absolute master in his own territory, and it is quite exceptional to find two of them co-regnant in one locality, as were Ninib and Bel at Nipur, or Ea and Ishtar in Uruk; not that they raised any opposition on principle to the presence of a stranger divinity in their dominions, but they welcomed them only under the titles of allies or subjects.  Each, moreover, had fair play, and Nebo or Shamash, after having filled the role of sovereign at Borsippa or at Larsam, did not consider it derogatory to his dignity to accept a lower rank in Babylon or at Uru.  Hence all the feudal gods played a double part, and had, as it were, a double civil portion—­that of suzerain in one or two localities, and that of vassals everywhere else—­and this dual condition was the surest guarantee not only of their prosperity, but of their existence.  Sin would have run great risk of sinking