Assyrian Discoveries.

to be Nimrod , as this reading of the name Izdubar is made probable by Smith ancl others . Yet the same has been found on inscriptions to have been worshipped as a god ancl addressed in prayers . Indeed , he is described in our poem as coming along with the limbs of a god on his body ; bis

shape is divine , " his work is human . " Nor can we help suggesting the same to have been the original type of all the Samsons and the Hercules , Avhen beholding the large figure of Nimrod on a statue , taken from the gate of the palace at

Chorsabad , showing a gigantic shape of a man strangling a young lion with his one arm , Avhile holding a club or boomerang in the other .

There is also mention made in the most interesting poem of the various amours of Ishtar , the Assyrian Venus , whose charms " Firebrand" despised . Of these , her marriage with the unfortunate Tammuz , " whose loss country after country if , mourning , " is of especial interest , as it is

the same whom Ezekiel found the idolatrous Avoman iveeping for ( chap , viii ., 5 . 14 ) , and whose loss Avas lamented in the same way by Ishtar , as Avas Adonis in Phenician mythology by Venus , and Osiris by the Egyptian goddess Isis , as seen in another remarkable piece , describing the descent of Ishtar into the land of the dead in the search of her lost beloved . Frrmi

the description of the nether world , in this and the other piece I mentioned above , it appears that the notions concerning Heaven ancl hell belong to the remotest antiquity , ancl , I think , it is not too bold to assert that they Avere fonvarded in an unknown time by Chaldean priests to

Egypt ancl to India , where we find them in common with many other reli gious beliefs and rites peculiar to the Chaldeans . This may account also for the striking similarity observed by scholars betAveen the Hindoo legend of the floodand the

, Chaldean account . In tbe same way attention has been called to a large number of coincidences in tbe belief in spirits and their evil influences , in the tree of life ancl tho water of life , in exorcisms by the use of signs ancl sacred numbersfound between

, the old Chaldean religion and more or less that of all the others . To mention another instance , we find the infant-life of almost all great heroes surrounded by one ancl the same beautiful legend , showing the

protecting hand of HeaA'en held over their precious life . Egypt has her Osiris , Rome her Romulus , Greece her Hercules and Perseus , Persia her Cyrus , Judaism its Moses , Buddhism its Buddha , ancl Christianity its Jesus , all saved in some way from dangers threatening their infant life . To

learn their original , or , at least , a story anterior to all of them , Ave must turn to Chaldea , to hear Sargon , the founder of the early City of Akkad , telling this story in a poem reading as follows :

I am Sargon , the mighty King of Akkad . I was born of a mortal mother , yet not her husband , but a god , is my father . When being delivered of me my mother placed me on the Euphrates , Putting me in an ark of rushes , coated Avith bitumen .

Onward the river carried me to meet A . kki , the gardener . He made me his son , ancl , reaching my seA'enth year , I from a gardener became a King ,

Nevertheless , I am far from believing people to have merely copied from each other for 10 , 000 or 21 , 000 years . There is a fine story told of King Midas , who turned everything to gold Avhile touching it . This is the nature of true genius . Though draAving all their knowledgeart

, and science from others , the Greeks stamped whatever they undertook to copy AVith the seal of their genius , and it turned into beauty . The prophets , the poets , ancl the Avise men of Israel , too , derived a good deal of what they kneAV from heathen

nations , even the form of Hebrew poetry having been proved to be of old Chaldean origin ; but they threw all the wisdom gathered from others into the crucible of

their mind , ancl it came forth all pervaded Avith the spirit of holiness , and shining with the aAve-inspiring majesty of divine truth . There is one curious little discovery which I cannot refrain from mentioning lastly . Small images of clay with either a human head ancl a lion ' s body , or a lynx ' s

head and a human body , Avere found in small cavities at the threshold of the entrances within the royal palaces of Ninevah , besides slabs of gypsum inscribed with prayers ancl magic formulas , ostensibly for the purpose of protecting the abodes of the King , while the principal doorways were guarded by cherubs , the genii , in the