man and the gods, so regular that at
times the compilers of the epic do not find it necessary to specify the
fact, but take it for granted. To Gilgamesh, Eabani's coming is revealed
and he asks his mother Aruru to interpret the dream.

The third and fourth tablets take us back to the history of Uruk.
Gilgamesh, aided by his patron Shamash, succeeds in gaining Eabani as a
'companion' in a contest that is to be waged against Khumbaba, who
threatens Uruk. The name of this enemy is Elamitic, and it has been
customary to refer the campaign against him to the tradition recorded by
Berosus of a native uprising against Elamitic rule, which took place
about 2400 B.C.[891] It must be said, however, that there is no
satisfactory evidence for this supposition. Elam, lying to the east of
the Euphrates, was at all times a serious menace to Babylonia.
Hostilities with Elam are frequent before and after the days of
Hammurabi. If Gilgamesh, as seems certain, is a Cassite,[892] the
conflict between him and Khumbaba would represent a rivalry among
Cassitic or Elamitic hordes for the possession of Uruk and of the
surrounding district. While the Cassites do not come to the front till
the eighteenth century, at which time the center of their kingdom is
Nippur, there is every reason to believe that they were settled in the
Euphrates Valley long before that period. The course of conquest--as of
civilization in Babylonia--being from the south to the north, we would
be justified in looking for the Cassites in Uruk before they extended
their dominion to Nippur. At all events, the conflict between Gilgamesh
and Khumbaba must be referred to a much more ancient period than the
rise of the city of Babylon as a political center.

Shamash and Gilgamesh promise Eabani royal honors if he will join
friendship with them.

Come, and on a great couch,
On a fine couch he[893] will place thee.
He will give thee a seat to the left.
The rulers of the earth will kiss thy feet.
All the people of Uruk will crouch before thee.

Eabani consents, and in company with Gilgamesh proceeds to the fortress
of Khumbaba. It is a long and hard road that they have to travel. The
terror inspired by Khumbaba is compared to that aroused by a violent
storm, but Gilgamesh receives assurances, in no less than three dreams,
that he will come forth unharmed out of the ordeal.

The fortress of Khumbaba is situated in a grove of wonderful grandeur,
in the midst of which