ght with each other
and Uruk may be delivered.'When Aruru heard them, she created in her
heart a man of Anu. Aruru washed her hands, took a bit of clay, cast it
upon the earth, kneaded it and created Babani, the warrior, the exalted
scion, the man of Ninib, whose whole body is covered with hair, whose
tresses are as long as those of a woman; the locks of his hair bristle
on his head like those on the corn-god; he is clad in a vestment
like that of the god of the fields; he browses with the gazelles, he
quenches his thirst with the beasts of the field, he sports with the
beasts of the waters." Frequent representations of Eabani are found upon
the monuments; he has the horns of a goat, the legs and tail of a bull.*
He possessed not only the strength of a brute, but his intelligence also
embraced all things, the past and the future: he would probably have
triumphed over Gilgames if Shamash had not succeeded in attaching them
to one another by an indissoluble tie of friendship. The difficulty was
to draw these two future friends together, and to bring them face to
face without their coming to blows; the god sent his courier Saidu,
the hunter, to study the habits of the monster, and to find out the
necessary means to persuade him to come down peaceably to Uruk.
"Saidu, the hunter, proceeded to meet Eabani near the entrance of the
watering-place. One day, two days, three days, Eabani met him at the
entrance of the watering-place. He perceived Saidu, and his countenance
darkened: he entered the enclosure, he became sad, he groaned, he cried
with a loud voice, his heart was heavy, his features were distorted,
sobs burst from his breast. The hunter saw from a distance that his face
was inflamed with anger," and judging it more prudent not to persevere
farther in his enterprise, returned to impart to the god what he had
observed.

* Smith was the first, I believe, to compare his form to
that of a satyr or faun; this comparison is rendered more
probable by the fact that the modern inhabitants of Chaldaea
believe in the existence of similar monsters. A. Jeremias
places Eabani alongside Priapus, who is generally a god of
the fields, and a clever soothsayer. Following out these
ideas, we might compare our Eabani with the Graico-Roman
Proteus, who pastures the flocks of the sea, and whom it was
necessary to pursue and seize by force or cunning words to
compel him to give oracular pred