Page:The Babylonian conception of heaven and hell - Jeremias (1902).djvu/23

 the bosom of the Underworld the Sun-god sent him down to the land of the dead, with lamentations was he filled on the day when he fell into great tribulation, in the month that let not his life come to completion, on the path where all is at end for man ('that brings the children of men to rest,' adds the scribe), to the wailing of the deed, he, the hero, to the far off invisible land."

Some little knowledge of Babylonian funeral customs can be gained from the scenes and inscriptions. The corpse was preserved by means of milk, honey, oil, and salt; it was swathed in linen, strewn with spices, and laid on a stone bier. In the so-called Hades reliefs the fore- arms of the corpse point upward. Wailers, both male and female, are in attendance at the funeral, lamenting and playing the flute; the relatives are present in "rent garments" or in mourning garb; libations, incense, dirges, prayers, and perhaps animal sacrifices forming part of the rites. On the reverse side of an unpublished fragment from the library of Asurbanipal, the obverse of which represents a royal burial, is the inscription: "The wives lamented, the friends replied," pointing evidently to the use on such occasions of antiphonal singing between men and women.

The accompanying action and gestures were