1 The native account of the Deluge shows that this name must be corrected to Opartes, the native name being Ubara-Tutu.

2 A common title of the early Accadian kings is “shepherd,” pointing to the fact that the Accadians had led a pastoral life before their settlement and organization in the Babylonian plain.

3 Assyrian, Tiamtu, “the deep.”

4 Assyrian, Apsu, “the ocean.”

5 Assyrian, Mummu, “chaos.”

6 Assyrian, Lakhmu or Lakhvu; and Lakhama or Lakhva.

7 Though Lakhmu properly represented Anu or Anatu, he sometimes takes the place of the Solar hero Ninip as husband of Gula, “the great” goddess.

8 The seven “sheep (or oxen) of the hero” Tammuz (Orion), of which the first was “the plough-handle,” perhaps Benelnash. One of the others was “the shepherd of the heavenly flock” or Arcturus.

9 This is Dr. Oppert’s rendering of a line which is so mutilated as to make any attempt at translation extremely doubtful.

10 The word used here is Accadian (ba-an-an-me).

11 Since, however, a bilingual tablet states that the pronunciation of the Accadian word for “the desert” which lay on the west side of the Euphrates (where Ur was built) was edinna, it is possible that “the Garden of Eden” of Genesis may be the cultivated portion of edinna, “the desert,” in the neighbourhood of Eridu.

12 The seven mustakridhÂt of Syria, the seven days between February the 25th and March 3rd, when evil spirits are supposed to have special power.

13 This is the Assyrian translation. The Accadian original has simply “men of death.” The lightnings are still regarded as serpents by the Canadian Indians who call the thunder their hissing (Baring-Gould, “Curious Myths,” ii. p. 146).

14 A constellation which rose heliacally in Marchesvan or October. The word means “Dog of death.”

15 Compare Jer. li. 34.

16 This is the reading of the original Accadian text. The Assyrian translation has, “was his establisher.”

17 Itak had his worshippers as well as Dibbara. Thus an Accadian seal in the possession of Dr. Huggins bears a legend stating that it belonged to “Ruru-lukh, the servant of Itak, the street-traverser.” The god is represented on this seal as a man in a flounced dress, to whom a kid is being offered, and is symbolized by two animals one of which looks like a locust, the other like a monkey.

18 Another copy of the legend reads “lover.”

19 Literally, “a thing hung up.”

20 Or “bull of heaven.” It was a constellation, perhaps Taurus.

21 “Joy” and “Seduction.”

22 A great necropolis seems to have existed in Cutha.

23 Literally “precious stones.”

24 That is, “Go forth, cause it to be light!”

25 Literally “the man who is a female dog,” or “lion.”

26 Literally “stone stakes” or “cones,” the symbols of the goddess AshÊrah. Cf. 1 Kings vii. 15-22.

27 Tillili, the Accadian name of Kharimat, is here used. Tillili was the wife of the Sun-god Alala symbolized by the eagle, which we are told was “the symbol of the southern” or “meridian sun.” What Sir H. Rawlinson calls the monotheistic party among the Babylonians resolved Tillili into Anatu and Alala into Anu.

28 This last sentence is found only in the fragment discovered by Mr. Rassam.

29 Or: He then intelligently.

30 The fragment brought to England by Mr. Rassam reads 6.

31 The word used here is ziggurrat, which is employed to denote the towers attached to Babylonian temples. These towers were commonly used as observatories.

32 Bricks have been found at Warka or Erech bearing the name of a certain king Sin-kudur, who calls himself the son of this same goddess, and describes himself as the builder of the temple of Anu at Erech.