Page:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876).djvu/199



The opening words of the first tablet are preserved, they happen as usual to form the title of the series, but the expressions in the title are obscure, from want of any context to explain them. There are two principal or key words, naqbi and kugar; the meaning of kugar is quite unknown, and naqbi is ambiguous, having several meanings, one being "channel" or "water-course," which I have before conceived to be its meaning here; but it has another meaning, which I now think better fits the character of the legends, this meaning is "curse" or "misfortune." Taking this meaning, the opening line will read as the title of the legends, "Of the misfortune seen to happen to Izdubar." This makes the legends the story of a curse or misfortune which befell the great Babylonian king Izdubar; and, now that the fragments are put together and arranged in order, it appears that this is a correct description of the contents of these curious tablets.

After the heading and opening line there is a considerable blank in the story, two columns of writing being entirely lost. It is probable that this part contained the account of the parentage and previous history of Izdubar, forming the introduction to the story. In the subsequent portions of the history there is very little information to supply the loss of this part of the inscription; but it appears that the mother of Izdubar was named Dannat,