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 sacred water. In his temple was a holy fountain and frequent mention is made of Marduk's "vessel of purification," and of the "vessel of the decree of fate." This water may well have been represented at the great festival of the decree of fate, and it may be assumed that the vessel on wall sculptures and seal cylinders carried by winged genii to the tree of life represents the vessel of the water of life, and the fruit of the tree the corresponding food of life. 



The Babylonian belief in a future life rested evidently in the first place on the conception of the soul as an individual entity, which forsakes the body at death. The body was regarded as done with (this belief is indicated, as we have seen, by the very word for corpse, shalamtu, see page 31), when with the last breath the soul had forsaken it. The soul therefore is called napishtu—i.e., "breath," and it is said of a ghost which has been conjured up that he rises "like a breath of wind" out of the earth (page 30).

Among many peoples the conceptions of the world of the dead have been shaped according to the wishes and hopes raised in the minds of men