CHAPTER III.
GENERAL TRAITS OF THE OLD BABYLONIAN PANTHEON.
The Babylonian religion in the oldest form known to us may best be described as a mixture of local and nature cults.

Starting with that phase of religious beliefs known as Animism, which has been ascertained to be practically universal in primitive society, the Babylonians, from ascribing life to the phenomena of nature, to trees, stones, and plants, as well as to such natural events, as storm, rain, and wind, and as a matter of course to the great luminaries and to the stars--would, on the one hand, be led to invoke an infinite number of spirits who were supposed to be, in some way, the embodiment of the life that manifested itself in such diverse manners; and yet, on the other hand, this tendency would be restricted by the experience which would point to certain spirits, as exercising a more decisive influence upon the affairs of man than others.

The result of this would be to give a preponderance to the worship of the sun and moon and the water, and of such natural phenomena as rain, wind, and storms, with their accompaniment of thunder and lightning, as against the countless sprites believed to be lurking everywhere.

The latter, however, would not for this reason be ignored altogether.

Since everything was endowed with life, there was not only a spirit of the tree which produced the fruit, but there were spirits in every field.