Page:A History of Art in Chaldæa & Assyria Vol 1.djvu/367

NOTIONS AS TO A FUTURE LIFE. 345 is disengaged from the body ; it is called in Assyrian ekimmou or dgimmou. . . . The dkiinmon inhabits the tomb and reposes upon the bed (zalalu) of the corpse. If well treated by the children of the defunct, he becomes their protector ; if not, their evil genius and scouree. The greatest misfortune that can befall a man is to O C3 be deprived of burial. In such a case his spirit, deprived of a resting-place and of the funerary libations, leads a wandering and miserable existence ; he is exposed to all kinds of ill-treatment at the hands of his fellow spirits, who show him no mercy." Here we find certain elements of that primitive belief that would escape us in a mere examination of the Chaldcean tombs. We see how they understood the connection between the living and the dead, and why they so passionately desired to receive due sepulture. These ideas and sentiments are identical with those which M. Fustel de Coulanges has analysed so deeply in his Cite antique. They subsisted in all their strength in Assyria, and must have had all the consequences, all the social effects that they had elsewhere, and yet we find mentioned a home for the dead, a joyless country in which they could assemble in their countless numbers; as Egypt had its Ament -and Greece her Hades, so Chalda^a and Assyria had their hell, their place of departed ghosts. We know from the narrative of I star that they looked upon it as an immense building, situated in the centre of the earth and bounded on every side by the great river whose waters bathe the foundations of the world. This country of the dead is called the "land where one sees nothing" (mat lanamari], or the " land whence one does not return " (mat la tayarti). The government of the country is in the hands of Nergal, the god of war, and his spouse Allat, the sister of Astarte. The house is surrounded by seven strong walls. In each wall there is a single door, which is fastened by a bolt as soon as a new comer has entered. Each door is kept by an incorruptible guardian. We cannot quote the whole of the story ; we give, however, a few lines in which the chief features of the Assyrian conception is most clearly shown. Istar speaks : Let me return [toward the house], [Toward] the house in which Irkalla lives, In which the evening has no morning, [Towards the country] whence there is no return, Y V