Page:The Babylonian conception of heaven and hell - Jeremias (1902).djvu/39

 xviii. 2 are in exact accordance with fact as regards the Babylonian dread of spirits: "Babylon the great is become a habitation of devils, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird." Specially dreaded, as we have seen, were the sepulchral Utukku and Ekimmu, the ghosts of the dead. "They penetrate into the houses, seize upon man and cast him down in the night." There were many means of exorcism of which the most effective was to draw a picture of the demon and solemnly burn it. Of death alone no image could be made for this purpose. In a religious text occurs the passage:

For the student of comparative religion the fact is specially noteworthy that among the Babylonians also the gods of the Underworld were closely allied with those of fertility and agriculture. The growth and decay of vegetation was brought into connection with the Underworld.