Of ornaments upon her breast and feet
And arms; her bracelets, girdle from her waist,
Her robe next took, and flung the Queen undrest
Within a cell of that dark solitude. 
At last, before Queen Ishtar Allat stood,
When she had long remained within the walls,
And Allat mocked her till Queen Ishtar falls
Humiliated on the floor in woe;
Then turning wildly, cursed her ancient foe. 
Queen Allat furious to her servant cries: 
“Go!  Naintar! with disease strike blind her eyes! 
And strike her side! her breast and head and feet;
With foul disease her strike, within the gate!”

[Footnote 1:  “Ir-kal-la,” the King of Hades, who was hurled from the heights of heaven with the evil gods who rebelled with Tiamatu, the goddess of chaos, against the reign of the gods of heaven.]

COLUMN II

EFFECT OF ISHTAR’S IMPRISONMENT IN HADES—­LOVE DEPARTS FROM THE EARTH—­THE EARTH’S SOLEMN DIRGE OF WOE.

When Ishtar, Queen of Love, from Earth had flown,
With her love fled, and left all nature prone;
From Earth all peace with love then fled amain. 
In loneliness the bull stalked o’er the plain,
And tossed his drooping crest toward the sky,
In sadness lay upon the green to die;
On the far kine looked weary and bereaved,
And turned toward the gods, and wondering grieved. 
The troubled kine then gravely chewed their cud,
And hungerless in the rich pastures stood. 
The ass his mate abandoned, fled away,
And loveless wives then cursed the direful day;
And loving husbands kiss their wives no more,
And doves their cooing ceased, and separate soar;
And love then died in all the breasts of men,
And strife supreme on earth was reveling then.

The sexes of mankind their wars divide,
And women hate all men, and them deride;
And some demented hurl aside their gowns,
And queens their robes discard and jewelled crowns,
And rush upon the streets bereft of shame,
Their forms expose, and all the gods defame. 
Alas! from earth the Queen of Love has gone,
And lovers ’void their haunts with faces wan
And spurn from them the hateful thought of love,
For love no longer reigns, all life to move. 
An awful thrill now speeds through Hades’ doors,
And shakes with horror all the dismal floors;
A wail upon the breeze through space doth fly,
And howling gales sweep madly through the sky;
Through all the universe there speeds a pang
Of travail.  Mam-nu-tu[1] appalled doth hang
Upon her blackened pinions in the air,
And piteous from her path leads Black Despair,
“The queen in chains in Hades dying lies,
And life with her,” they cry, “forever dies!”
Through misty glades and darkened depths of space,
Tornadoes roar her fate to Earth’s sweet face;
The direful tidings from far Hades pour
Upon her bosom with their saddest roar;