enemies.  Even when a demon was given concrete human form it remained essentially non-human:  no ordinary weapon could inflict an injury, and it was never controlled by natural laws.  The spirits of disease and tempest and darkness were creations of fancy:  they symbolized moods; they were the causes which explained effects.  A sculptor or storyteller who desired to convey an impression of a spirit of storm or pestilence created monstrous forms to inspire terror.  Sudden and unexpected visits of fierce and devastating demons were accounted for by asserting that they had wings like eagles, were nimble-footed as gazelles, cunning and watchful as serpents; that they had claws to clutch, horns to gore, and powerful fore legs like a lion to smite down victims.  Withal they drank blood like ravens and devoured corpses like hyaenas.  Monsters were all the more repulsive when they were partly human.  The human-headed snake or the snake-headed man and the man with the horns of a wild bull and the legs of a goat were horrible in the extreme.  Evil spirits might sometimes achieve success by practising deception.  They might appear as beautiful girls or handsome men and seize unsuspecting victims in deathly embrace or leave them demented and full of grief, or come as birds and suddenly assume awesome shapes.

Fairies and elves, and other half-human demons, are sometimes regarded as degenerate gods.  It will be seen, however, that while certain spirits developed into deities, others remained something between these two classes of supernatural beings:  they might attend upon gods and goddesses, or operate independently now against mankind and now against deities even.  The “namtaru”, for instance, was a spirit of fate, the son of Bel-Enlil and Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades.  “Apparently”, writes Professor Pinches, “he executed the instructions given him concerning the fate of men, and could also have power over certain of the gods."[103] To this middle class belong the evil gods who rebelled against the beneficent deities.  According to Hebridean folk belief, the fallen angels are divided into three classes—­the fairies, the “nimble men” (aurora borealis), and the “blue men of the Minch”.  In Beowulf the “brood of Cain” includes “monsters and elves and sea-devils—­giants also, who long time fought with God, for which he gave them their reward".[104] Similarly the Babylonian spirit groups are liable to division and subdivision.  The various classes may be regarded as relics of the various stages of development from crude animism to sublime monotheism:  in the fragmentary legends we trace the floating material from which great mythologies have been framed.

CHAPTER V.

MYTHS OF TAMMUZ AND ISHTAR