we have in her case at least the ascertained framework of her dynasties, in which each fact and each new name falls eventually, and after some uncertainty, into its proper place.  The main outlines of the picture are drawn with sufficient exactitude to require no readjustment, the groups are for the most part in their fitting positions, the blank spaces or positions not properly occupied are gradually restricted, and filled in from day to day; the expected moment is in sight when, the arrangement of the whole being accomplished, it will be necessary only to fill in the details.  In the case of Chaldaea the framework itself is wanting, and expedients must be resorted to in order to classify the elements entering into its composition.  Naramsin is in his proper place, or nearly so; but as for Gudea, what interval separates him from Naramsin, and at what distance from Gudea are we to place the kings of Uru?  The beginnings of Chaldaea have merely a provisional history:  the facts in it are certain, but the connection of the facts with one another is too often a matter of speculation.  The arrangement which is put forward at present can be regarded only as probable, but it would be difficult to propose a better until the excavations have furnished us with fresh material; it must be accepted merely as an attempt, without pledging to it our confidence on the one hand, or regarding it with scepticism on the other.

CHAPTER II—­THE TEMPLES AND THE GODS OF CHALDAEA

THE CONSTRUCTION AND REVENUES OF THE TEMPLES—­THE POPULAR GODS AND THE THEOLOGICAL TRIADS——­THE DEAD AND HADES.

Chaldaean cities:  the resemblance of their ruins to natural mounds caused by their exclusive use of brick as a building material—­Their city walls:  the temples and local gods; reconstruction of their history by means of the stamped bricks of which they were built—­The two types of ziggurat:  the arrangement of the temple of Nannar at Uru.

The tribes of the Chaldaean gods—­Genii hostile to men, their monstrous shapes; the south-west wind; friendly genii—­The Seven, and their attacks on the moon-god; Gibil, the fire-god, overcomes them and their snares—­The Sumerian gods; Ningirsu:  the difficulty of defining them and of understanding the nature of them; they become merged in the Semitic deities.

Characteristics and dispositions of the Chaldaean gods—­the goddesses, like women of the harem, are practically nonentities; Mylitta and her meretricious rites—­The divine aristocracy and its principal representatives:  their relations to the earth, oracles, speaking statues, household gods—­The gods of each city do not exclude those of neighbouring cities:  their alliances and their borrowings from one another—­The sky-gods and the earth-gods, the sidereal gods:  the moon and the sun.

The feudal gods:  several among them unite to govern the world; the two triads of Eridu—­The supreme triad:  Anu the heaven; Bel the earth and his fusion with the Babylonian Merodach; Ea, the god of the waters—­The second triad:  Sin the moon and Shamash the sun; substitution of Bamman for Ishtar in this triad; the winds and the legend of Adapa, the attributes of Ramman—­The addition of goddesses to these two triads; the insignificant position which they occupy.