PRIMITIVE MYTHOLOGY—ANŪ—SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS—ACCADIAN POEM—ASSUR—HEA—NIN- CI-GAL—SIN, THE MOON GOD—HEA-BANI—NERGAL—MERODACH—NEBO—NINIP— CHEMOSH—INCANTATIONS TO FIRE AND WATER—IM—BAAL—TAMMUZ-ISHTAR—ISHTAR OF ARBELA—ISHTAR OF ERECH—LEGEND OF ISHTAR AND IZDŪBAR-ISHTAR, QUEEN OF LOVE AND BEAUTY—THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR. The East was the home of poetry and the land of mythology before the hundred gates of Palmyra were swung upon their massive hinges, or the crown of her beautiful queen had been set with its moonlight pearls. A land which was rich with jewels and radiant with flowers, held in her background a mythology so primitive that it appears to have been the mother of them all. Tablet and palace walls have alike been questioned concerning these early myths, and behind the dust of the centuries, in the legends that lie beneath them, we find stories of gods like Indra, the storm-king of the Hindūs, and Jove of Olympus—like Odin and Thor of the Northmen. Even the gigantic symbols that guarded the portals of ancient hall and palace are replete with wonder, for their strange wings have sheltered the very beginnings of mythology. Chaldea’s cosmogonies comprehend the ideas of the Greek and Norseman—nay, even the wildest dreams of Hindū and Persian are apparently drawn from this common source.[63] The intelligent study of Persian literature compels an examination of the early myths and legends where her poetry and romance found their sources—compels the study not only of the inscriptions of Persian kings, but of the tablets which have brought down to us the idols of a primitive people. Therefore, it is the province of this chapter to give a brief yet comprehensive outline of the principal deities and legends which seem to form the basis not only of Persian mythology, but of the luxuriant growth of myth and fable which has permeated India, Greece, and Rome, as well as Northern Europe. A Chaldean legend of the creation is found upon a clay tablet which contains a description of the struggle between the evil powers of darkness and chaos, and the bright powers of light and order. This is doubtless the origin of the struggle between good and evil—the unceasing contest between Ormazd and Ahriman which forms the key-note of Persian thought so fully illustrated in the Avesta.