descending nearly to the waist. Sometimes it curls crisply upon the
face, but below the chin depends over the breast in long, straight
locks. At other times it droops perpendicularly from the cheeks and the
under lip.15 Frequently, however, the beard is shaven off, and the whole
face is smooth and hairless.

The Chaldaean females, as represented by the Assyrians, are tall
and large-limbed. Their physiognomy is Assyrian, their hair not very
abundant. The Babylonian cylinders, on the other hand, make the hair
long and conspicuous, while the forms are quite as spare and meagre as
those of the men.

On the whole, it is most probable that the physical type of the later
Babylonians was nearly that of their northern neighbors. A somewhat
sparer form, longer and more flowing hair, and features less stern
and strong, may perhaps have characterized them. They were also, it
is probable, of a darker complexion than the Assyrians, being to some
extent Ethiopians by descent, and inhabiting a region which lies four
degrees nearer to the tropics than Assyria. The Cha'ab Arabs, the
present possessors of the more southern parts of Babylonia, are nearly
black; and the "black Syrians," of whom Strabo speaks, seem intended to
represent the Babylonians.

Among the moral and mental characteristics of the people, the first
place is due to their intellectual ability. Inheriting a legacy
of scientific knowledge, astronomical and arithmetical, from the
Proto-Chaldaeans, they seem to have not only maintained but considerably
advanced these sciences by their own efforts. Their "wisdom and
learning" are celebrated by the Jewish prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
Daniel; the Father of History records their valuable inventions; and an