Page:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876).djvu/267

 the head and tail while Izdubar killed it, and Heabani in the engraving is represented holding the bull by its head and tail.

At the close of the sixth tablet the story is again lost, only portions of the third and fourth columns of the next tablet being preserved, but light is thrown on this portion of the narrative by the remarkable tablet describing the descent of Ishtar into Hades. I think it probable that this tablet was in great part

an extract from the seventh tablet of the Izdubar legends.

The tablet with the descent of Ishtar into Hades was first noticed by Mr. Fox Talbot in the "Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature," but he was entirely abroad as to the meaning of the words. After this I published a short notice of it in the "North British Review," to clear up some of the difficulties, and it has been subsequently translated by Lenormant and Oppert, and re-translated by Mr. Fox Talbot. These translations and various notices