r parallel to be drawn between Adam's punishment and
Eabani's fate.

Dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return

applies to Eabani as well as to Adam. He was formed of clay, as we have
seen,[995] and when he dies he is 'turned to clay.'[996] Still the
fortunes awaiting those who die are not alike. Those who die in battle
seem to enjoy special privileges, provided, however, they are properly
buried and there is some one to make them comfortable in their last hour
and to look after them when dead. Such persons are happy in comparison
with the fate in store for those who are neglected by the living. The
one who is properly cared for, who

On a soft couch rests,
Drinking pure water,
Who dies in battle, as you and I have seen,[997]
His father and mother supporting his head,
His wife[998] ... at his side,--

the spirit of such a one is at rest. The circumstances attending death
presage in a measure the individual's life after death.

But he whose corpse remains in the field,
As you and I have seen,
His spirit[999] has no rest in the earth.
The one whose spirit is not cared for by any one,
As you and I have seen,
He is consumed by gnawing hunger, by a longing for food.
What is left on the street he is obliged to eat.[1000]

To be left unburied was the greatest misfortune that could happen to a
dead person.

With this sentiment the epic closes. Gilgamesh must rest content with
the unsatisfactory consolation that Eabani offers him. Man must die, and
Gilgamesh cannot escape the universal fate. Let him hope for and, if
possible, provide for proper burial when death does overtake him. He
will then, at least, not suffer the pangs of hunger in the world of
spirits to which he must go.

The twelfth tablet exhibits somewhat more traces of the theology of the
schools than the others. Eabani's speech, while conveying sentiments
that thoroughly represent the popular beliefs of Babylonia, is couched
in terms that give to the address the character of a formal declaration
of doctrines. The conjuring up of the spirit of Eabani is also a feature
that appears to be due to theological influences, and the whole episode
of Gilgamesh's wandering from place to place seeking for information
appears to be a 'doublet' suggested by the hero's wanderings, as
narrated in the ninth and tenth tablets.

The problem propounded in the earlier tablets--the search for
immortality--is, as has been shown, a perfectly na