y deity:
59 I caused it to rest: and may thy power
60,61 bring its treasures abundantly to my land.
62 I, whether as King and embellisher,
63 am the rejoicer of thy heart
64 or whether as High Priest appointed,
65 embellishing all thy fortresses,

(_Continued on Column X_.)

COLUMN X

1,2 For thy glory, O exalted Merodach
3 a house have I made.
4 May its greatness advance!
5 May its fulness increase!
6,7 in its midst abundance may it acquire!
8 May its memorials be augmented!
9 May it receive within itself
10 the abundant tribute
11,12 of the Kings of nations and of all peoples![1]
13,14 From the West to the East by the rising sun
15 may I have no foemen!
16 May they not be multiplied
17,18 within, in the midst thereof, forever,
19 Over the dark races may he rule!

[Footnote 1: Compare Dan. i. 2, "He brought the vessels into the
treasure-house of his god."]

ACCADIAN POEM ON THE SEVEN EVIL SPIRITS

TRANSLATED BY REV. A.H. SAYCE, M.A.

The following poem is one of the numerous bilingual texts, written in the
original Accadian with an interlinear Assyrian translation, which have
been brought from the library of Assur-bani-pal, at Kouyunjik. The seven
evil spirits who are mentioned in it are elsewhere described as the seven
storm-clouds or winds whose leader seems to have been the dragon Tiamat
("the deep") defeated by Bel-Merodach in the war of the gods. It was these
seven storm-spirits who were supposed to attack the moon when it was
eclipsed, as described in an Accadian poem translated by Mr. Fox Talbot in
a previous volume of "Records of the Past." Here they are regarded as the
allies of the incubus or nightmare. We may compare them with the Maruts or
storm-gods of the Rig-Veda (see Max Mueller, "Rig-Veda-Sanhita: the Sacred
Hymns of the Brahmans translated and explained," Vol. I). The author of
the present poem seems to have been a native of the Babylonian city of
Eridu, and his horizon was bounded by the mountains of Susiania, over
whose summits the storms raged from time to time. A fragment of another
poem relating to Eridu is appended, which seems to celebrate a temple
similar to that recorded by Maimonides in which the Babylonian gods
gathered round the image of the sun-god to lament the death of Tammuz.

A copy of the cuneiform text will be found in the "Cuneiform Inscriptions
of Western Asia," Vol. IV, pl. 15. M. Fr. Lenormant has translated a
portion of i