It is very obscure to
us, since it originated, like that of the Chaldean people, in a
confusion of religions very differently mingled. The Turanians, like
the present yellow race of Siberia, imagined the world full of demons
(plague, fever, phantoms, vampires), engaged in prowling around men to
do them harm; sorcerers were invoked to banish these demons by magical
formulas. The Cushites adored a pair of gods, the male deity of force
and the female of matter. The Chaldean priests, united in a powerful
guild, confused the two religions into a single one.
=The Gods.=--The supreme god at Babylon is Ilou; in Assyria, Assur. No
temple was raised to him. Three gods proceed from him: Anou, the "lord
of darkness," under the figure of a man with the head of a fish and
the tail of an eagle; Bel, the "sovereign of spirits," represented as
a king on the throne; Nouah, the "master of the visible world," under
the form of a genius with four extended wings. Each has a feminine
counterpart who symbolizes fruitfulness. Below these gods are the Sun,
the Moon, and the five planets, for in the transparent atmosphere of
Chaldea the stars shine with a brilliancy which is strange to us; they
gleam like deities.
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