OCR Text |
Show Spook-Rldden Babylon. ' In a lecturo In connection with the Egjpt Exploration tfund, on "Burial Customs in Mesopotamia and Egypt," Dr. L. W. King Bald tho spirit which unlmatcd tho Egyptian? in their varied and changing practices toward tho dead was based o,n affection and reverence, rev-erence, but tho Babylonian, in the main, wns prompted by fear. Tho Babylonians woro probably more spook:rlddcn than any other nation of antiquity, nnd their magical texts maulo it clear t,hat the most terrible class of spirits wero tho ghosts of tho dead who for some reason had been unablo to enter tho undorworld. Driven to hunger and thirst, such a ghost might roam about and fasten on anyone with whom lt had relations in this life, and it would plaguo him until ho performed tho rites that could give peace. It was mainly to lay tho ghost and provent it from "haunting" "haunt-ing" that tho Babylonians woro scrupulous scru-pulous In performing tho duo burial rites. Loudon Times. |