[391] Was this gonorrhœa or diabetes? See Leviticus, xv. [392] Ana. [393] Hea. [394] Chaldean Magic, p. 4. [395] Chaldean Magic, p. 20. [396] _Ibid._, p. 22. [397] Lenormant remarks that the assimilation was probably made when Mardux had become emphatically the god of the planet Jupiter, “the great fortune” of the astrologers, which justified them in connecting with his other attributes the favorable and protecting office of Silik-mulu-khi. He was originally a solar deity. [398] Chaldean Magic, p. 190. [399] Jeremiah, v, 15. [400] Or Shinar. See Gen., xi, 2. Essentially Babylonia. [401] See Smith’s Chaldean Account of Genesis, p. 19. Revised edition, by Mr. Sayce, 1880. [402] The Semitic language, called Assyrian, as the one spoken by the Babylonians, including part of the Chaldeans, before the people of Assur (see Gen., x, 11) became a nation, which was later than the time of the great King Sargon (B.C. 2000); and here I may say that cuneiform inscriptions are largely Assyrian. I may add that Lenormant takes Assur to be Nimrod, and the latter Mardux, reduced to the position of a hero. [403] Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology, vol. iii, p. 466. [404] Kaldu, or Kaldi, was the name of a tribe of Accadio-Sumerians that rose to prominence about nine centuries before our era. The title was subsequently given to the whole race. [405] Zend Avesta, vol. i, p. 85. [406] _Ibid._, vol. ii, p. 44. [407] North American Indians, vol. i, p. 78. [408] Ecclesiasticus, xxxviii, 13. [409] Ecclesiasticus, xxxviii, 13. [410] Bacchus. [411] Fire was duly esteemed by the ancients. The worship was closely related to that of the sun. Atar of the Zend Avesta means fire, and a personification of it, spoken of as the son of Ahura-Mazda, is characterized as “the god who is a full source of glory, the god who is a full source of healing” (vol. ii, p. 8). The Parsis and also the Hindus were forbidden to blow a fire lest the effete emanations from the system, present in the breath, might contaminate the flame. Menstruating women were forbidden even to look at it. [412] Zoological Mythology, vol. i, p. 410. [413] See Gen., ii, 7. Hippocrates appears to take _pneuma_, the breath, and the soul and vital principle to be the same. It is still a common thing to hear the breath spoken of as the divine and immortal element in man. [414] Ninevah and its Remains, vol. ii, p. 233. London, 1849. See Ex., xxviii, 33-34, and 1 Kings, vii, 41-42. [415] Fir-trees were regarded with much favor in the East. Ezekiel likens the Assyrian nation to a great cedar, envied by “all the trees of Eden,” none being “like unto him in his beauty.” Ez., xxxi, _passim_.