of men and decides what their lot is to be. If in the systematized religious system, Marduk appears as the arbiter of human fates, the conclusion is warranted that Marduk is here imbued with the authority which originally was in the hands of his son. A reconciliation between the rival claims was effected by continuing Nebo in the rôle of scribe, but as writing at the dictation of the gods, thus recording what the divine assembly, gathered in the “chamber of fates” (known as Ubshu Kinakku) within the precincts of E-Saggila—Marduk’s temple at Babylon—under the presidency of Marduk, had decided.
Nebo also does homage to his father by paying him an annual visit during the New Year celebration, when the god was solemnly carried across to Babylon, and in return Marduk accompanied his son part way back to his shrine at Borsippa. Within E-Saggila, Nebo had a sanctuary known, as was his chief temple at Borsippa, as E-Zida, “the legitimate (or ‘firm’) house,” and the close bond existing between father and son was emphasized by providing for Marduk within the precinct of E-Zida, a sanctuary which bore the same name, E-Saggila, “the lofty house,” as Marduk’s temple at Babylon. The kings, and more particularly those of the neo-Babylonian dynasty, devote themselves assiduously to the worship and embellishment of both E-Saggila and E-Zida. In their inscriptions Marduk and Nebo are invoked together and the names of the two temples constantly placed side by side. The symbols of the two gods are similarly combined. On boundary stones and cylinders, when Marduk’s symbol—the lance—is depicted, Nebo’s symbol—the stylus—is generally found adjacent. The dragon, though of right belonging to Marduk (q.v.), as the conqueror of Tiamat, also becomes the symbol of Nebo, and similarly in other respects the two form a close partnership. Such is the relation between the two that occasionally, as in the official reports of astrologers and in official letters, Nebo is even mentioned before Marduk without fear of thereby offending the pride of the priests of Marduk.
In Assyria the Nebo cult likewise enjoyed great popularity, and there is a record of one Assyrian ruler who made Nebo his specific deity and called upon his subjects to put their whole trust in him. One may discern, indeed, a tendency in Assyria to take advantage of the almost equal plane on which Nebo stands with Marduk in Babylonia, to play off Nebo as it were against Marduk. The Assyrian kings in this way, by glorifying at times Nebo at the expense of Marduk, paid their debt of homage to the south without any risk of lowering the grade of their own chief deity Assur. Marduk was in a measure Assur’s rival. This was not the case, however, with Nebo, and they accordingly showed a desire to regard Nebo rather than Marduk as the characteristic representative of the southern pantheon. In the astral-theological system Nebo was identified with the planet Mercury. His consort, known as Tashmit, plays no independent part, and is rarely invoked except in connexion with Nebo.
See also Babylon, Borsippa, Babylonian and Assyrian Religion. (M. Ja.)
NEBRASKA, a state just N. of the centre of the U.S.A., lying
approximately between 40° and 43° N. and between 18° 18′ W.,
and 27° W. from Washington. It is bounded on the N. by South
Dakota, on the E. by Iowa and a corner of Missouri, on the
S. by Kansas, on the S. and W. by a corner of Colorado, and
on the W. by Wyoming. The Missouri river extends along the
eastern and north-eastern border. The extreme length of the
state is about 430 m., and extreme breadth about 210 m. The
area is 77,520 sq. m., of which 712 are water surface.
Physical Features.—The state lies partly in the physiographic province of the Great Plains (covering more than four-fifths of its area) and partly in that of the Prairie Plains, and slopes gently from the N.W. to the S.E. The altitudes of extreme geographical points are as follows: Rulo, in the S.E. corner of the state, 842 ft.; Dakota city, in the N.E., 1102; Benkelman, in the S.W. in Dundy county, 2968; Kimball, in the S.W. in Kimball county, 4697; Harrison, in the N.W. corner, 4849 ft. There are three physiographic subdivisions; the foot-hills (and Bad Lands), the sand-hills and the prairie—all three being portions of three great corresponding regions of the Great Plains and Prairie Plains provinces.
The western portion of the state lies in the foot-hills of the Rocky Mountain system, and is much rougher than western Kansas. The surface of western Nebraska is characterized by high, barren table- lands, broken by canyons, dotted with buttes, and dominated by some bold and lofty ridges. Pine Ridge, a picturesque escarpment of the Great Plains, cuts across the N.W. corner of Nebraska from Wyoming into South Dakota. A ridge of low hills and bluffs, often precipitous, marked by buttes and deeply cut in places by canyons, it is the most striking surface feature of the state. The altitude in this region varies from 3500 to 5000 ft. In the fork of the North and South Platte are the Wild Cat Mountains with contours rising to 5300 ft., in which Wild Cat Mountain, long reported as the highest point in the state, attains 5038 ft., Hogback Mountain 5082 ft., and various other hills—Gabe Rock (5006), Big Horn Mountain (4718), Coliseum Rock (5050), Scotts Bluff (4662) &c.—rise to heights of 4500 to 5000 ft. In the extreme N.W. the White river and Hat Creek have carved canyons in deep lacustrine deposits, creating fantastic cliffs and buttes, bare of vegetation, gashed with drainage channels, and baked by the sun. The buttes—bare, pyramidal or conical, flat-topped, precipitous hills, and often fantastic, towering pinnacles—are rather widely distributed through the foot-hill region. They are never more than 600 to 1000 ft. above the surrounding country. Nature is not grand in any part of Nebraska, but the Bad Lands are imposing, and in the wooded foot-hills there is an abundance of bold and attractive scenery, particularly in Sioux county, and in Cherry county around Valentine and on the canyon of the Snake river. East of the Bad Lands is the sand-hill region, which includes an area of possibly 20,000 sq. m. The sand-hills proper are scattered over an area of perhaps 15,000 sq. m., between the meridians of 98° and 103° W. long., lying mainly N. of the Platte; though there are some along the Republican river. In places they rise in tiers, one above another, like miniature mountains, and are 200 to 300 ft. high; but in general they are very low (25-50 ft. high) and are scattered over a plain. Their present contours are wholly the result of wind action. Save in rare instances, however, they have long ceased to be shifting dunes; for, with the cessation of prairie fires and the increase of settlement, they have become well grassed over and stable; although sand-draws, and even occasional “blow-outs” scooped by the winds in the summits or sides of the hills are still characteristic landmarks. All about and inter-penetrating the foot-hill and sand-hill regions are the prairies, which include three-fourths of the state. They are sometimes characteristically flat over wide areas, but are usually gently rolling. Stream valleys and bottom lands are the conspicuous modifying feature of the prairie region; but in general, owing to the gentle slope of the streams and the great breadth of the plains, erosion has been slight; and indeed the streams, overloaded in seasonal freshets, are building up their valley floors. The water-partings are characteristically level uplands, often with shallow depressions, once lakes, and some of them still so. The valleys of the greatest streams are huge shallow troughs. The valley floor of the North Platte in the foot-hills, the flood-plain of an older river, is in places 700 ft. or more below the bounding tableland, and 10 to 15 m. wide; the present flood-plain being from 1 to 4 m. in width. Hundreds of small tributaries to the greater streams (especially along the Republican and the Logan) complicate and beautify the landscape. No farming country is richer in quiet and diversified scenic charm than the prairies of the eastern half of the state. The Missouri is noteworthy for high bluffs cut by ravines, which border it almost continuously on at least one side. In the foot-hills there are typical canyons, as along the Platte forks, and in the northern edge of the sand-hills. Those of the upper Republican are the largest, those of the Bad Lands are the most peculiar; and the Niobrara tributary system is the most developed.
Rivers.—The Missouri skirts the eastern border for perhaps 500 m. It is not navigated, and save at Sioux City and Omaha serves practically no economic purposes, irrigation being unnecessary in the counties on which it borders. Its bluffs, cut for the most part in the loess but at places in the rock, are frequently from 100 to 200 ft. high. At Vermilion, South Dakota, its alluvial plain, 1131 ft. above the sea, is 330 ft. above the mouth of the Nemaha. The current is always rapid and heavily loaded with sediment,[1] and its axis is forever shifting. Large areas of soil are thus shifted back and forth between Nebraska and the bordering states, to the encouragement of border lawlessness and uncertainty of titles; some portions E. of the thread and apparently well within Iowa remain under the jurisdiction of Nebraska, or vice versa; and Yankton has been seriously threatened with a sudden transfer from the South Dakota to the Nebraska side. The Platte system is also heavily loaded with sediment in Nebraska. The North and South forks both rise in Colorado; each, especially the latter, has a rapid primary descent, and a very gradual fall down the foot-hills of the Great Plains.[2] Across Nebraska it maintains a remarkably straight course and an extraordinarily even gradient (about 6 ft. per mile). In the spring freshets it is a magnificent stream, but in summer its volume greatly shrinks, and it is normally a broad, shallow, sluggish, stream, flowing through interlacing channels among the sand-bars it heaps athwart its course. The underflow is probably much greater than the summer
