The searchlight. [volume] (Culbertson, Mont.) 1902-current, 1910-01-07
TELLS OF BABYLON
LIFE IN OLD LAND DESCRIBED ~
MAN OF SCIENCE.
Prof. Delitxsch Has DeIved Deeply IN
70 Matter, and Graphically Por-
trays the Habits and Gus
toms Of Ancient Empire.

Prof. Friedrich Delitzsch. whom the
kaiser, In an access Of just enthusi
asm, once described as knowing
more about Biblical culture than the
Biblical chroniclers themselves" has
just delivered q remarkable lecture
on Old Babylon before the German
Orient society. The records OF Baby
lon, said the professor. are Of espe-
cial interest now. for the destruction
OF the city seems to have been An ex.
act parallel with the overwhelming
Of Messina. The GODDESS Istar, mother
Of all mankind. was much enraged
after Babylon's destruction to find
that Bel, the god OF the earth. had
been granted 20 much power. and the
result was that for a thousand years
there was not another earthquake.
Old Babylon In those days was
smaller In extent than northern Italy.
Il was flat, rainless land. intersect.
ed by hundreds Of canals; and the II
girls and Euphrates, which then issued
into the sea. were united by big ca
nal. Thousands Of rowing and sail
Ing boats. and OF wicker canoes
crowded the waterways. Everywhere
was active life and q genuine cul.
ture. The whole country was crowd
ed with small villages. built chiefly Of
reeds. but bricks and stone we're used
for important ediices. From rs cents
to 50 annually was the rent Of the av-
erage house. Every girl found hus.
band. Severe winter frosts and ter
rife summer heat made life disagree
able. and the country was overrun
with lions and swarmed with myriads
Of fies. while parts were periodically
swept by sandstorms.
The original civilized race Of south
and central Babylonia was the Sumo.
rian, . tremendously gifted people.
whose women for beauty rivaled the
statues Of ancient Greece. In north
Babylonia the people were Semites.
The later civilization was the result
Of q union OF the two. Afterward fol
lowed the Chaldeans. whose king. Ne
buchadnezzar. lived 1000 years before
Christ It was the original Sumerians
who invented cuneiform writing. They
were great mathematician. and had
a sexagesimal system Of counting
with separate signs for l and 10. but
no zero. Prof. Delitzsch said he had
himself found their clay tablets with
multiplication and division tables. ant
their methods Of calculating cube,
and quadrates. The Sumerians wen
clean shaved. whereas the Semites al
ways wore long boards and long hair
In the third millennium befor,
Christ the Babylonians were usinl
gold and silver as a medium OF e,
change. This was an Inevitable dc
velopment, as trade and industry wer
already highly developed. and bus
ness was even carried on by CON
panies and corporations. One OF tn
Oldest Institutions of cid Babylon wa
the banking firm Of Egbi & SOM
Dealing In stocks on margins mus
have been . profitless business. a
the Babylonian rate Of interest fo
loans was usually 20 per cent.
The Babylonians had NO standin
army. but they had strong militi'
Their ideas on sorcery and witcl
craft are largely responsible for th
superstitions on these subjects {
western countries. II Is possible. sal
the professor. that Christianity IL q
% indebted to their heather temple
for the towers and steeples Of 4
churches.