Page:The Babylonian conception of heaven and hell - Jeremias (1902).djvu/25

 little river Tebilti had so disturbed the royal tombs in the midst of Ninev]] as to lay bare the sarcophagi. Great care was lavished on furnishing the graves of the rich and the great. The Assyrian fragment mentioned above (page 11) describes the funeral ceremonies at the death of a king. "In royal oil I laid him, with meet solemnity, the gate of his grave, of his place of rest have I closed with strong copper and have made fast his Vessels of gold and silver, all that pertains to the furnishing of the tomb, (also) the emblems of his authority which he loved have I presented before the Sun god and laid them in his grave with the father who begat me. Gifts gave I to the princes, to the Anunaki, and to the gods who inhabit the earth," i.e., the Underworld. Drinking vessels and dishes of food for the dead were not only laid with them in the tomb, but were also placed upon it. Special care was taken to supply the manes of the dead with water to drink, and to this end apparently cisterns were made in the cemeteries. "If the dead have none to care for him," concludes the Twelve Tablet epic, "then is he consumed by gnawing hunger, vainly he languishes for refreshment; what is cast out on the street that he eats." The libations, regularly offered on the anniversary of death, formed the most important item in the worship of the dead, and the responsibility for