TABLET VII--COLUMN I

THE KING AND SEER CONVERSING ON THEIR WAY TO KHASISADRA--INTERPRETATION OF THE KING'S DREAM IN THE PALACE ON THE NIGHT OF THE FESTIVAL

"The dream, my seer, which I beheld last night
Within our tent, may bring to us delight.
I saw a mountain summit flash with fire,
That like a royal robe or god's attire
Illumined all its sides. The omen might
Some joy us bring, for it was shining bright."
And thus the Sar revealed to him his dream.

Heabani said, "My friend, though it did seem
Propitious, yet, deceptive was it all,
And came in memory of Elam's fall.
The mountain burning was Khumbaba's halls
We fired, when all his soldiers from the walls
Had fled;--the ni-takh-garri, ¹--on that morn,
Of such deceptive dreams, I would thee warn!"

Some twenty kaspu they have passed this day,
At thirty kaspu they dismount to pray
And raise an altar, Samas to beseech
That they their journey's end may safely reach.
The tent now raised, their evening meal prepare
Beneath the forest in the open air;
And Izdubar brought from the tent the dream
He dreamed the festal night when Ishtar came
To him;--he reads it from a written scroll:
"Upon my sight a vision thus did fall:
I saw two men that night beside a god;
One man a turban wore, and fearless trod.
The god reached forth his hand and struck him down
Like mountains hurled on fields of corn, thus prone

p. 109

He lay; and Izdubar then saw the god
Was Anatu, ² who struck him to the sod.
The troubler of all men, Samu's fierce queen,
Thus struck the turbaned man upon the plain.
He ceased his struggling, to his friend thus said:
'My friend, thou askest not why I am laid
Here naked, nor my low condition heed.
Accursèd thus I lie upon the mead;
The god has crushed me, burned my limbs with fire.'

The vision from mine eyes did then expire.
A third dream came to me, which I yet fear,
The first beyond my sight doth disappear.
A fire-god thundering o'er the earth doth ride;
The door of darkness burning flew aside;
Like a fierce stream of lightning, blazing fire,
Beside me roared the god with fury dire,
And hurled wide death on earth on every side;
And quickly from my sight it thus did glide,
And in its track I saw a palm-tree green
Upon a waste, naught else by me was seen."

Heabani pondering, thus explained the dream:
"My friend, the god was Samas, who doth gleam
With his bright glory, power, our God and Lord,
Our great Creator King, whose thunders roared
By thee, as through yon sky he takes his way;
For his great favor we should ever pray.
The man thou sawest lying on the plain
Was thee, O King,--to fight such power is vain.
Thus Anatu will strike thee with disease,
Unless thou soon her anger shalt appease;
And if thou warrest with such foes divine,
The fires of death shall o'er thy kingdom shine.
The palm-tree green upon the desert left
Doth show that we of hope are not bereft;
The gods for us their shares have surely weft, ³
One shall be taken, and the other left."

p. 110

Footnotes

108:1 "Ni-takh-garri," "the helpers," or soldiers of Khumbaba.

109:2 "Anatu," the consort of Anu.

109:3 'Weft," weaved.