[132] There is a point of great interest here. It would seem from Captain Lyons' examination of the temples at Wady Halfa, which I make out to have been oriented to α Centauri, that when the two races were amalgamated in later times, both the stars to which I have referred as heralding the equinox were personified by the same goddess, Serk-t. [133] Besides the book on omens we have "The observations of Bel," or "Illumination of Bel" (Mul-lil), seventy-two books dealing with conjunctions of Sun and Moon, phases (?) of Venus, and appearance of comets. (Sayce, "Hibbert Lectures," p. 29.) The complete materials for the study of Babylonian and Assyrian astronomy cannot be available until the catalogue of the Kouyunjik Collection, now in course of publication by the British Museum, is finished. [134] Rawlinson, vol. i., p. 316. [135] Maspero, "Histoire Ancienne," p. 165. [136] Pierret, "Le Panthéon Égyptien," p. 48. I have before referred to a doubt on this point. [137] Maspero, _op. cit._, p. 357. [138] "Le Panthéon Égyptien," p. 4. [139] "Kosmologie der Babylonier," p. 147. [140] "Proc. Zool. Soc.," 1850, p. 160. [141] Dr. Wallis Budge informs me that An was an old name of the sun-god. [142] Rawlinson, vol. ii., p. 64. [143] "Kosmologie der Babylonier," p. 147. [144] Sayce, "Hibbert Lectures," 1887, p. 193. [145] Sayce, p. 193. [146] Jensen, p. 149. [147] Sayce, p. 439. [148] Sayce, "Hibbert Lectures," p. 190. [149] Sayce, p. 280. There is a bas-relief in the British Museum showing this ceremonial. [150] Sayce, p. 101. [151] _See_ "Guide to the British Museum," p. 71. [152] Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, p. 33. Flinders Petrie, _Nature_, Aug. 9, 1883, p. 341. [153] Sayce, _op. cit._, p. 135. [154] One gets the idea, from reading Professor Sayce's work, that there might have been in the earliest times a north-star-worshipping race up the valley before Ía and Sun and Moon worship were established at Eridu; and that the addition of Ía to the Bīl-Anu-worship to make one triad, and the addition of Bīl to the Ía-Asari-worship to make another, were both compromises. See Sayce, pp. 320, 347, 400. [155] Prof. Sayce has been good enough to inform me that he is of opinion that Marduk or Merodach was originally a local god of Babylon, and that he was identified with the son of Ea when a colony came to Babylon or founded that city, bringing with it the culture and theology of the south. In this way the sun-god of Babylon became confounded with the sun-god of Eridu. I should add that Assyriologists are not all agreed about the transitions to which I have referred.