* It was thus in the time of Alexander and his successors, and the information given by the classical historians about this period is equally applicable to earlier times, as we may conclude from the numerous passages from Assyrian inscriptions which have been collected by Fr. Delitzsch.

     ** Delitzsch conjectures that Ianzi, or Ianzu, had
     become a kind of proper name, analogous to the term
     Pharaoh employed by the Egyptians.

*** A certain number of Cossaean words has been preserved and translated, some in one of the royal Babylonian lists, and some on a tablet in the British Museum, discovered and interpreted by Fr. Delitzsch.  Several Assyriologists think that they showed a marked affinity with the idiom of the Susa inscriptions, and with that of the Achaemenian inscriptions of the second type; others deny the proposed connection, or suggest that the Cossaean language was a Semitic dialect, related to the Chaldaeo-Assyrian.  Oppert, who was the first to point out the existence of this dialect, thirty years ago, believed it to be the Elamite; he still persists in his opinion, and has published several notes in defence of it.

**** It has been studied by Pr.  Delitzsch, who insists on the influence which daily intercourse with the Chaldaeans had on it after the conquest; Halevy, in most of the names of the gods given as Cossaean, sees merely the names of Chaldaean divinities slightly disguised in the writing.

They worshipped twelve great gods, of whom the chief—­Kashshu, the lord of heaven-gave his name to the principal tribe, and possibly to the whole race:* Shumalia, queen of the snowy heights, was enthroned beside him,** and the divinities next in order were, as in the cities of the Euphrates, the Moon, the Sun (Sakh or Shuriash), the air or the tempest (Ubriash), and Khudkha.*** Then followed the stellar deities or secondary incarnations of the sun,—­Mirizir, who represented both Istar and Beltis; and Khala, answering to Gula.****

     * The existence of Kashshu is proved by the name of
     Kashshunadinakhe:  Ashshur also bore a name identical with
     that of his worshippers.

** She is mentioned in a rescript of Nebuchadrezzar I., at the head of the gods of Namar, that is to say, the Cossaean deities, as “the lady of the shining mountains, the inhabitants of the summits, the frequenter of peaks.”  She is called Shimalia in Rawlinson, but Delitzsch has restored her name which was slightly mutilated; one of her statues was taken by Samsiramman III., King of Assyria, in one of that sovereign’s campaigns against Chaldaea.

*** All these identifications are furnished by the glossary of Delitzsch.  Ubriash, under the form of Buriash, is met with in a large number of proper names, Burnaburiash, Shagashaltiburiash, Ulamburiash, Kadashmanburiash, where the Assyrian