Part 22

Asshur-nazir-pal, King of Assyria, size of hall in his palace at Calah (Nimrud), 63.

Assyria, the same as Upper Mesopotamia, 7; rise of, 228.

Astrology, meaning of the word, 106; a corruption of astronomy, 234; the special study of priests, ib.

Astronomy, the ancient Chaldeans' proficiency in, 230; fascination of, 231; conducive to religious speculation, 232; degenerates into astrology, 234; the god Nebo, the patron of, 242.

Babbar, see Ud.

Babel, same as Babylon, 237.

Bab-el-Mandeb, Straits of, 189.

Bab-ilu, Semitic name of Babylon; meaning of the name, 225, 249.

Babylonia, a part of Lower Mesopotamia, 7; excessive flatness of, 9; later name for "Shumir and Accad" and for "Chaldea," 237.

Baghdad, capital of the Arabs' empire in Mesopotamia, 5; its decay, 6.

Bassorah, see Busrah.

Bedouins, robber tribes of, 8; distinctively a nomadic people, 116-118.

Bel, third god of the first Babylonian Triad, 239; meaning of the name, 240; one of the "twelve great gods," 246; his battle with Tiamat, 288-290.

Belit, the wife of Bel, the feminine principle of nature, 244-245; one of the "twelve great gods," 246.

Bel-Maruduk, see Marduk.

Berosus, Babylonian priest; his History of Chaldea, 128; his version of the legend of Oannes, 184-185; his account of the Chaldean Cosmogony, 260-261, 267; his account of the great tower and the confusion of tongues, 292-293; his account of the Deluge, 299-301.

Birs-Nimrud or Birs-i-Nimrud, see Borsippa.

Books, not always of paper, 93; stones and bricks used as books, 97; walls and rocks, ib., 97-99.

Borsippa (Mound of Birs-Nimrud), its peculiar shape, 47; Nebuchadnezzar's inscription found at, 72; identified with the Tower of Babel, 293.

Botta begins excavations at Koyunjik, 14; his disappointment, 15; his great discovery at Khorsabad, 15-16.

Bricks, how men came to make, 39; sun-dried or raw, and kiln-dried or baked, 40; ancient bricks from the ruins used for modern constructions; trade with ancient bricks at Hillah, 42.

British Museum, Rich's collection presented to, 14.

Busrah, or Bassorah, bulls and lions shipped to, down the Tigris, 52.

Byblos, ancient writing material, 94.

Ca-Dimirra (or Ka-Dimirra), second name of Babylon; meaning of the name, 216, 249.

Cain, his crime, banishment, and posterity, 129.

Calah, or Kalah, one of the Assyrian capitals, the Larissa of Xenophon, 3.

Calendar, Chaldean, 230, 318-321, 325.