The Phœnician origin of Britons, Scots & Anglo-Saxons : discovered by Phœnician & Sumerian inscriptions in Britain, by preroman Briton coins & a mass of new history : with over one hundred illustrations and maps, str. 379

ORIGIN OF MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL 343

the reason why the Sumerians, in their human craving for the more immediate presence of God on the earth, delegated his powers on earth to a deputy in the person of “ The firstborn Son of Ia,”’ the Archangel ““ TaS’’ or Taxi (Mero-Dach or Mar-Duk), who ultimately was made in Babylonia to overshadow his Father and was given most of the titles of the latter—not only “ King of Heaven and Earth,” “ Lord of the Lands,” “‘ Creator,” and “ Holder of the Tablets of Fate,’ but even “Slayer of the Dragon of Darkness,” which achievement thus became credited to him as St. Michael.t And the later Chaldean polytheists made him king of their motley pantheon, amongst whom the various departments of Nature were parcelled out, and they even also called him “ Bel” or Father-god.

But amongst the purer Hitto-Sumerians and Phcenicians, adhering to monotheism and its “ Sun-worship,”’ Tas appears to have retained his original character of the archangel of The One God, although he is addressed as a “ god,” which also has the general sense of “ divinity.’ Thus in many of the Sumerian psalms and litanies he is the mere agent on the earth of the Father-god who is enthroned in heaven. He is “ The great Messenger, the pure one of Ja,’ ‘‘ Companion of Heaven and /a,’* ‘‘ The Merciful One who loveth to give Life to the Dead,’’* “ Lord of Life and Protector of Habitations,”° and “ Ever ready to hear the Prayers of mankind,” he transmits these to his Father, The Enthroned Zax (Zeus) in heaven and carries out the orders of the latter. And we have such scenes pictured in Hittite seals, e.g., Fig. 63, which shows a sick man on his bed attacked by the Dragon of Death, and he appeals to TaS, who in turn intercedes with his Father-god Indara.

Thus we read in the old Sumerian psalms and litanies such invocations and incidents as the following :—

May thou, Son Tas, the Great Overseer of the Spirits of

Heaven, exalt thy head !§

“ (To) the Corn-god I have offered! . . .” wo alone killed the Dragon without aid of ‘‘ Maruta” (Marduk). t.V., I, 165, 6.

HSWEUlR, Sere 31b,, I * Langdon, S.P., 277. SSHL.L., 557