Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/208

192 the formation of the calendar, are the mythological poems which grew out of the development of a solar worship and the personification of the attributes of the gods. Two of these poems we possess intact, on the Deluge and the descent of Istar into Hades, and part of a third which describes the war of the seven evil spirits against the moon. The first two form the sixth and eleventh books of a very remarkable epic which centred round the adventures of a solar hero, older and originally independent lays being woven into it as episodes. The epic was divided into twelve books, each book dealing with a legend appropriate to the name of the corresponding zodiacal sign. This astronomical basis of the national epic shows how thoroughly the study had penetrated the mind of the people ; and the clearness with which we can trace the growth and formation of the whole work throws great light on the history of epic literature generally, and adds one more confirmation to the theory of &quot;Wolf. The Assyrians also had their epic, in imitation of the Accadians, and M. Lenormant has pointed out that the Semi-ramis and Nannarus of the Greeks and the other personages of Ctesias were really figures of this mythical epopee. The historical and chronological works that have been preserved are of purely Assyrian origin, though there is every reason to suppose that when the libraries of Accad come to be excavated similar compositions will be found in them. The legal literature of the Accadians was certainly very extensive, and a collection of fables, one a dialogue between the ox and the horse, and another between the eagle and the sun, has been met with. Language, Law, and Trade.—As above stated, the language of the primitive Sumirian and Accadian population of Assyria and Babylonia belonged to the Turanian or Ural-Altaic family of speech. The Semitic tribes, who first possessed themselves of the tetrapolis of Sumir or Shinar, and then gradually spread over the whole of Assyria and Babylonia, borrowed many words from their more civilised predecessors, and lent them a few others in return. The so-called Assyrian language is sub-divided into the two dialects of Assyria and Babylonia, the latter dialect being characterised by a preference for the softer sounds, and a fuller use of the vowels. Literature and the influence of a dead language stereotyped it to such an extent that it underwent comparatively little change during the 1500 years during which we can watch its career ; at least this is the case with the literary dialect. The closest affinities are with Hebrew and Phoenician ; it shares their peculiarities in phonology, grammar, and vocabulary ; and some obscure points in Hebrew etymology have already been cleared up by its help. Next to Hebrew, it shows perhaps the greatest resemblance to Arabic ; differing most widely, on the other hand, from Aramaic. Aramaic, however, from becoming the lingua franca of trade and diplomacy after the fall of Tyre and Sidon, ended (like Arabic in later times) in superseding its sister idioms ; but in Babylonia this did not happen until after the Persian conquest. A large number of the legal precedents of an Assyrian judge, like the titles upon which he had to decide, went back to the Accadian epoch. A table of early Accadian laws shows us that the mother occupied the same prominent place as among modern Turanian tribes. The son is punished with a fine for denying his father, but with banishment for denying his mother. On the other hand, the husband can divorce the wife upon payment of a pecuniary compensation, while the wife who repudiates her husband is condemned to be drowned. The life and person of the slave are already under the protection of the state, the master who misuses him being subject to a fine, while the slave could purchase his freedom. The rights of property, however, were strictly guarded by the law; the maximum of interest seems also to have been defined ; and houses, land, or slaves could be taken as security for a debt. The carefulness with which deeds were signed and attested, and adjudicated cases reported, the deeds and cases being afterwards enclosed in an envelope of clay on which the names and main points were inscribed, testifies to a wide-spread study of law. Witnesses and contracting parties generally affixed their seals ; but where they were too poor to possess any, a nail-mark was considered sufficient. In the Accadian period a father could assign property to his son during his lifetime, though he could not put him in possession ; and in later times a limited power of willing was in existence. The private will of Sennacherib, in which he bequeaths certain treasures to his favourite son Essar-haddon, is one of the most curious documents of antiquity ; unlike other persons, the monarch does not require any witnesses. Great activity of trade is evidenced by this development of law. But here again we must note a distinction due to situation between the northern and southern kingdoms. Of the Chaldeans, it is emphatically said that &quot; their cry was in their ships,&quot; and we have many indications of early commerce with the southern coast of Arabia. The trade of Assyria, on the other hand, was wholly overland; and its first fleet was the one built by Phoenician captives for Sennacherib, when pursuing the fugitive Chaldeans through the Persian Gulf. Like the Jews, however, the Assyrians showed an aptitude for trade from the very first. The earliest Semitic settlements in Babylonia seem to have been mainly for commercial purposes, and their career there may be compared with that of the English in India. In the 12th century B.C. the trading spirit had so thoroughly pervaded them that not only were objects of utility and art a marketable commodity, but we find Tiglath-Pileser I. bringing trees from the countries he had overrun, and acclimatising them in Assyria. The fullest development of business and commerce, however, does not show itself until the 8th and 7th centuries B.C., when Nineveh was a busy centre of trade. Sidon and Tyre had been ruined by the Assyrian kings indeed, it is very possible that the obstinate wars with the Phoenician cities had their origin in commercial jealousy, and trade had accordingly transferred itself to Carchemish, which was conveniently situated on the Euphrates. The maneh of Carchemish became the standard of weight, and Aramaic the common language of trade. The interest upon money was usually at 4 per cent. ; but sometimes, more especially when objects like iron were borrowed, at 3 per cent. Payment might still be made in kind ; but more ordinarily in bars of the three chief metals, which were weighed, though mention of coined money also occurs. Houses could be let on lease, and the deeds which conveyed them give a careful inventory of the property and its appurtenances. Commercial relations extended from India on the one side, whence came ivory and the teak found at Mugheir, which Sennacherib probably means by &quot; wood of Sinda,&quot; to the tin islands of Cornwall on the other.

Religion and Mythology.—The earliest religion of Accad was a Shamanism resembling that of the Siberian or Samoyed tribes of to-day. Every object had its spirit, good or bad; and the power of controlling these spirits was in the hands of priests and sorcerers. The world swarmed with them, especially with the demons, and there was scarcely an action which did not risk demoniac possession. Diseases were regarded as caused in this way, and the cherubs, bulls, and other composite creatures which guarded the entrance to a house, were believed to protect it from mischief. In course of time certain spirits (or rather deified powers of nature) were elevated above the rest into the position of gods ; and at the head of all stood the 