Page:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876).djvu/320

 in some parts of the legends, particularly in the names of the patriarchs before the Flood, that it is evident further information is required before attempting to decide the question. Passing to the next, the twelfth and last tablet, the picture there given, the lament for Heabani, and the curious story of his ghost rising from the ground at the bidding of Merodach, serve to make this as important in relation to the Babylonian religion as the eleventh tablet was to the book of Genesis.

Asakku is the spirit of one of the diseases, and Simtar is the attendant of the goddess of Hades; the trouble appears to be that Simtar and Asakku would not receive the soul of Heabani, while he was equally repudiated by Nergal and shut out from the region appointed for warlike heroes. The soul of Heabani was confined to the earth, and, not resting there, intercession was made to transfer him to the region of the blessed. I at one time added to this tablet a fragment which then appeared to belong and which I interpreted to refer to Heabani's dwelling in hell and taking his way from there to heaven. The discovery of a new fragment has forced me to alter both the translation and position of this notice, which I now place in the seventh tablet. This considerably weakens my argument that the Babylonians had two separate regions for a future state, one of bliss, the other of joy.

Under the fourth column I have provisionally placed a curious fragment where Izdubar appears