The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

430 The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia

any other meaning to this than that which makes it refer to the
sacrifice of children.
The question, however, is really settled by the evidence of
archæology. On the famous stela of the Vultures, now in the
Louvre, a sort of wicker-work cage is represented, filled with
captives who are waiting to be put to death by the mace of the
king.^367 On a certain class of seal-cylinders, moreover, a scene
is engraved which Ménant seems to me to have rightly explained
as depicting a human sacrifice. In later times, it is true, human
sacrifice ceased to be practised; there are few, if any, references
to it in the inscriptions, and the human victim is replaced by
an ox or sheep. It was to the offended majesty of the Assyrian
king rather than of the god Assur that the Assyrian conqueror
impaled or burnt the beaten foe; and among the lists of offerings
that were made to the deified rulers of Babylonia, we look in
vain for any mention of man or child. As in Israel, so too in the
[469] kingdoms of the Euphrates and Tigris, human sacrifice seems to
have disappeared at an early date.
So, moreover, does another custom which has been revealed
to us by the archaic sculptures of Tello. That was the custom
of approaching the deity stripped of clothing;^368 and Professor
Jastrow aptly compares with it not only the scanty dress of the
Mohammedan pilgrims on Mount Arafat, but also Saul's conduct
when the spirit of prophecy fell upon him. A similar custom
prevailed in Keltic Ireland, and the Hindu still strips himself
when he sits down to eat.
The growth of culture, and it may be also the mixture of races,
thus deprived the gods of two of the prerogatives they had once
enjoyed. They could no longer claim the firstborn of men, nor
translated as a passive.

(^367) De Sarzec,Découvertes en Chaldée, iv. 1, pl. 4bis. This was in the time of
king E-anna-du. A bas-relief of the time of Entemena on the same plate, 5bis
(3b), represents what may also be a human sacrifice, one naked captive lying
on the ground already slain, while another is being led to execution.
(^368) References are given in Jastrow,Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 666.