Spirit of Heaven, oh, help! Help, oh, Spirit of Earth! They are seven, thrice said they are seven; For the gods they are Bearers of Thrones, But for men they are Breeders of Dearth And the authors of sorrows and moans. They are seven, thrice said they are seven. Spirit of Heaven, oh, help! Help, oh, Spirit of Earth! FOOTNOTES: [AC] "La Magie et la Divination chez les Chaldeens," 1874-5. German translation of it, 1878. [AD] Alfred Maury, "La Magie et l'Astrologie dans l'Antiquite et au Moyen-age." Introduction, p. 1. [AE] "UD" not being a proper name, but the name of the sun in the language of Shumir and Accad, it can be rendered in translation by "Sun," with a capital. [AF] Another and more recent translator renders this line: "God who knowest I knew not." Whichever rendering is right, the thought is beautiful and profound. [AG] This hymn is given by H. Zimmern, as the text to a dissertation on the language and grammar. IV. CUSHITES AND SEMITES.--EARLY CHALDEAN HISTORY. 1. We have just seen that the hymns and prayers which compose the third part of the great Magic Collection really mark a later and higher stage in the religious conceptions of the Turanian settlers of Chaldea, the people of Shumir and Accad. This improvement was not entirely due to a process of natural development, but in a great measure to the influence of that other and nobler race, who came from the East. When the priestly historian of Babylon, Berosus, calls the older population "men of foreign race," it is because he belonged himself to that second race, who remained in the land, introduced their own superior culture, and asserted their supremacy to the end of Babylon. The national legends have preserved the memory of this important event, which they represent as a direct divine revelation. Ea, the all-wise himself, it was believed, had appeared to men and taught them things human and divine. Berosus faithfully reports the legend, but seems to have given the God's name "Ea-Han" ("Ea the Fish") under the corrupted Greek form of OANNES. This is the narrative, of which we already know the first line: