PAGANS AND GNOSTICSThe sorcerers became white-robed, hereditary, sacrament-administer-
ing priests.^126 The Ginza describes a ceremony that involved entering
the house of Tammuz, sitting there for twenty-eight days while slaugh-
tering sheep, mixing ingredients in bowls, offering cakes, and mourn-
ing in the house of Dlibat.^127 The images of their gods with their hands
folded close to their bodies were hidden in underground chambers.
Mandaeans lived along the edges of the swamps and at some point
seem to have merged with the Mughtasila or a similar group that had
a tradition of ritual ablutions. The many aspects of Mandaean ritual
that seem to be of Magian origin were probably acquired from Ma-
gians around Basra and the borders of southeastern Iraq.m The com-
bined evidence of the incantation bowls and the Ginza suggests that
the Mandaean sect was formed during the seventh century among
Chaldaeans who used the Mandaic dialect by combining gnostic ideas
with pagan traditions and by writing down their doctrines in the local
language.
So pagans survived by becoming gnostics and by forming their own
communities. All of these groups had incorporated some form of gnos-
tic dualism which emphasized the negative, evil aspect of the power
of the planets at the same time that it preserved the belief in it. Gnos-
ticism may have been attractive as an escape from fatalism to those
who believed in fatalism the most. The appeal of gnosticism may also
be a measure of alienation among a declining pagan population. But
in this way the astral cult, idols (out of sight), and sacrifice were
preserved.
PAGAN SURVIVALS IN NON-PAGAN RELIGIONS
In addition to surviving among pagans and gnostics the third major
way in which pagan ideas and practices survived was within non-
pagan religious traditions. This usually took the form of a continuing
belief in demons, and of resorting to magic to deal with them. Magians,
Jews, and Christians all believed that demons were real. One of the
Jewish magical texts from Nippur seeks protection against the Liliths
which appear in dreams at night or in sleep by day, and the rabbis
held that it was unwise to have sexual relations in the daytime because
126 Ibid., pp. xxiii, 146, 152, 165-66; Yamauchi, Incantation Texts, p. 16.
127 Lidzbarski, Ginzii, p. 447.
128 Drower, Mandaeans, p. 101. For comparisons between Parsi and Mandaean rit-
uals, see Drawer, Water into Wine (London, 1956), pp. 199-255.