Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/81

 TlIK ClIALD.MAN RELIGION. 61 This belief in spirits is the second phase that the primitive religion, which we studied in Egypt under the name of fetishism or animism, has to pass through. 1 In the beginning mere existence is confounded with life. All things are credited with a soul like that felt by man within himself. Such lifeless objects as FIG. 6. Demons ; from the palace of Assurbanipal at Kcuyundjik. British Museum. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier. stones and mountains, trees and rivers, are worshipped ; so too are both useful and noxious animals. 2 Childish as it seems to us 1 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt, vol. i. pp. 47-57. 2 At Erzeroum Mr. LA YARD heard of some Kurdish tribes to the south-west of that place who, he was told, "are still idolatrous, worshipping venerable oaks, great trees, huge solitary rocks, and other grand features of nature." Discweries, p. 9.