before the mass
Of waiting fuel on the altar piled.
The centring rays--the fuel glowing gild
With a round spot of fire and quickly, spring
Above the altar curling, while they sing!

[7] "Oh, to the desert places may it fly,
This incantation holy!
O spirit of the heavens, us this day
Remember, oh, remember!
O spirit of the earth, to thee we pray,
Remember! Us remember!

"O God of Fire! a lofty prince doth stand,
A warrior, and son of the blue sea,
Before the God of Fire in thine own land,
Before thy holy fires that from us free
Dread Darkness, where dark Nuk-khu reigns.
Our prince, as monarch we proclaim,
His destiny thy power maintains,
Oh, crown his glory with wide fame!

"With bronze and metal thou dost bless
All men, and givest silver, gold.
The goddess with the horned face
Did bless us with thee from of old.
From dross thy fires change gold to purity;
Oh, bless our fire-king, round him shine
With Heaven's vast sublimity!
And like the earth with rays divine,
As the bright walls of Heaven's shrine."

[Footnote 1: "Sar," king.]

[Footnote 2: "Khanga," chorus.]

[Footnote 3: One of the Accadian psalms is here quoted from "Chaldean
Magic," by Lenormant, pp. 185, 186. See also "Records of the Past," vol.
xi. pl. 17, col. 2.]

[Footnote 4: Literally, "Right into my marrow, O Lords of breath."]

[Footnote 5: Literally, "Direct the breath of my mouth!"]

[Footnote 6: Sacred glass, sun-glass used to light the sacred fire.]

[Footnote 7: Incantation to Fire ("Records of the Past," vol. xi. p. 137).
The Accadian and Assyrian text is found in "C.I.W.A.," vol. iv. pl. 14,
and on tablet K. 49,002, in the British Museum.]

COLUMN V

ISHTAR AND HER MAIDS IN THE FAVORITE HAUNT OF IZDUBAR

The king while hunting where a forest grows,
Around sweet hyacinths and budding rose,
Where a soft zephyr o'er them gently flows
From the dark _sik-ka-ti_[1] where Kharsak[2] glows;
And Sedu[3] softly dances on the leaves,
And a rich odorous breath from them receives;
Where tulips peep with heliotrope and pink,
With violets upon a gleaming brink
Of silver gliding o'er a water-fall
That sings its purling treasures o'er a wall
Of rugged onyx sparkling to the sea:
A spot where Zir-ri[4] sport oft merrily,
Where Hea's[5] arm outstretched doth form a bay,
Wild, sheltered, where his sea-daughters play;
A jasper