Page:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876).djvu/274

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ILLNE88 AND WANDERINGS

06. the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth . . .

07. when Heabani was troubled . . .

08. the eleventh and twelfth . . .

09. Heabani in that evening . . .

10. Izdubar asked also . . .

11. is my friend hostile to me . . .

12. then in the midst of fight . . .

13. I turn to battle and . . .

14. the friend who in battle . . .

15. I in . . . . . .

. . . . . . .

It must here be noted that my grounds for making this the eighth tablet are extremely doubtful, it is possible that the fragments are of different tablets; but they fill up an evident blank in the story here, and I have inserted them pending further discoveries as to their true position.

In the first column Heabani appears to be addressing certain trees, and they are supposed to have the power of hearing and answering him. Heabani praises one tree and sneers at another, but from the mutilation of the text it does not appear why he acts so. I conjecture he was seeking a charm to open the door he mentions, and that according to the story this charm was known to the trees. The fragment of the sixth column shows Heabani unable to interpret a dream, while Izdubar asks his friend to fight.

After this happened the violent death of Heabani, which added to the misfortunes of Izdubar; but no fragment of this part of the story is preserved.