The new regime would be expressed by making the conquered deity, the servant of the victorious, or the two might be viewed in the relation of father to son; and again, in the event of a peaceful amalgamation of two cities or districts, the protecting deities might join hands in a compact, mirroring the partnership represented by the conjugal tie.

In this way, there arose in Babylon a selection, as it were, out of an infinite variety of personified forces, manifest or concealed, that at one time may have been objects of worship.

The uniformity of the spirit world, which is the characteristic trait of primitive Animism, gave way to a differentiation regulated by the political development and the social growth of Babylonia.

The more important natural forces became gods, and the inferior ones were, as a general thing, relegated to the secondary position of mere sprites, like the _jinns_, in Arabic beliefs.

Only in the case of the guardian spirit of an entire city or district, would there result--and even this not invariably--an elevation to the grade of deity, in the proper sense of the word.