The ancient Sumerian city of Eridu, which means “on the seashore”, was invested with great sanctity from the earliest times, and Ea, the “great magician of the gods”, was invoked by workers of spells, the priestly magicians of historic Babylonia.  Excavations have shown that Eridu was protected by a retaining wall of sandstone, of which material many of its houses were made.  In its temple tower, built of brick, was a marble stairway, and evidences have been forthcoming that in the later Sumerian period the structure was lavishly adorned.  It is referred to in the fragments of early literature which have survived as “the splendid house, shady as the forest”, that “none may enter”.  The mythological spell exercised by Eridu in later times suggests that the civilization of Sumeria owed much to the worshippers of Ea.  At the sacred city the first man was created:  there the souls of the dead passed towards the great Deep.  Its proximity to the sea—­Ea was Nin-bubu, “god of the sailor”—­may have brought it into contact with other peoples and other early civilizations.  Like the early Egyptians, the early Sumerians may have been in touch with Punt (Somaliland), which some regard as the cradle of the Mediterranean race.  The Egyptians obtained from that sacred land incense-bearing trees which had magical potency.  In a fragmentary Babylonian charm there is a reference to a sacred tree or bush at Eridu.  Professor Sayce has suggested that it is the Biblical “Tree of Life” in the Garden of Eden.  His translations of certain vital words, however, is sharply questioned by Mr. R. Campbell Thompson of the British Museum, who does not accept the theory.[49] It may be that Ea’s sacred bush or tree is a survival of tree and water worship.

If Eridu was not the “cradle” of the Sumerian race, it was possibly the cradle of Sumerian civilization.  Here, amidst the shifting rivers in early times, the agriculturists may have learned to control and distribute the water supply by utilizing dried-up beds of streams to irrigate the land.  Whatever successes they achieved were credited to Ea, their instructor and patron; he was Nadimmud, “god of everything”.

CHAPTER III.

RIVAL PANTHEONS AND REPRESENTATIVE DEITIES

Why Different Gods were Supreme at Different Centres—­Theories regarding Origin of Life—­Vital Principle in Water—­Creative Tears of Weeping Deities—­Significance of widespread Spitting Customs—­Divine Water in Blood and Divine Blood in Water—­Liver as the Seat of Life—­Inspiration derived by Drinking Mead, Blood, &c.—­Life Principle in Breath—­Babylonian Ghosts as “Evil Wind Gusts”—­Fire Deities—­Fire and Water in Magical Ceremonies—­Moon Gods of Ur and Harran—­Moon Goddess and Babylonian “Jack and Jill”—­Antiquity of Sun Worship—­Tammuz and Ishtar—­Solar Gods of War, Pestilence, and Death—­Shamash as the “Great Judge”—­His Mitra Name—­Aryan Mitra or Mithra and linking