[Illustration:  086.jpg TEMPLE OF KHALDIS AT MUZAZIR]

This deity was assisted in the government of the universe by Teisbas, god of the air, and Ardinis the sun-god.  Groups of secondary deities were ranged around this sovereign triad—­Auis, the water; Ayas, the earth; Selardis, the moon; Kharubainis, Irmusinis, Adarutas, and Arzi-melas:  one single inscription enumerates forty-six, but some of these were worshipped in special localities only.

[Illustration:  089.jpg ASSYRIAN SOLDIERS CARRYING OFF OR DESTROYING THE FURNITURE OF AN URARTIAN TEMPLE]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Botta.  Scribes are weighing
     gold, and soldiers destroying the statue of a god with their
     axes.

It would appear as if no goddesses were included in the native Pantheon.  Saris, the only goddess known to us at present, is probably merely a variant of the Ishtar of Nineveh or Arbela, borrowed from the Assyrians at a later date.

The first Assyrian conquerors looked upon these northern regions as an integral part of Nairi, and included them under that name.  They knew of no single state in the district whose power might successfully withstand their own, but were merely acquainted with a group of hostile provinces whose internecine conflicts left them ever at the mercy of a foreign foe.* Two kingdoms had, however, risen to some importance about the beginning of the ninth century—­that of the Mannai in the east, and that of Urartu in the centre of the country.  Urartu comprised the district of Ararat proper, the province of Biaina, and the entire basin of the Arzania.

     * The single inscription of Tiglath-pileser I. contains a
     list of twenty-three kings of Nairi, and mentions sixty
     chiefs of the same country.

[Illustration:  090.jpg SHALMANESEE III.  CROSSING THE MOUNTAINS]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from one of the bas-reliefs on the
     bronze gates of Balawat.

Arzashkun, one of its capitals, situated probably near the sources of this river, was hidden, and protected against attack, by an extent of dense forest almost impassable to a regular army.  The power of this kingdom, though as yet unorganised, had already begun to inspire the neighbouring states with uneasiness.  Assur-nazir-pal speaks of it incidentally as lying on the northern frontier of his empire,* but the care he took to avoid arousing its hostility shows the respect in which he held it.

* Arzashku, Arzashkun, seems to be the Assyrian form of an Urartian name ending in _-ka_, formed from a proper name Arzash, which recalls the name Arsene, Arsissa, applied by the ancients to part of Lake Van.  Arzashkun might represent the Ardzik of the Armenian historians, west of Malasgert.

He was, indeed, as much afraid of Urartu as of Damascus, and though he approached quite close to its boundary in his second campaign, he preferred to check his