to him his adventures, and sought his permission to take away with him one of the sacred courtesans. “’Go, my hunter, take the priestess; when the beasts come to the watering-place, let her display her beauty; he will see her, he will approach her, and his beasts that troop around him will be scattered.’"*** The hunter went, he took with him the priestess, he took the straight road; the third day they arrived at the fatal plain.  The hunter and the priestess sat down to rest; one day, two days, they sat at the entrance of the watering-place from whose waters Eabani drank along with the animals, where he sported with the beasts of the water.

     * Haupt, Das Babylonische Nimrodepos, p. 9, 11. 42-50.  The
     beginning of each line is destroyed, and the translation of
     the whole is only approximate.

** The priestesses of Ishtar were young and beautiful women, devoted to the service of the goddess and her worshippers.  Besides the title qadishtu, priestess, they bore various names, kizireti, ukhati, kharimati; the priestess who accompanied Saidu was an ukhat.

*** As far as can be guessed from the narrative, interrupted as it is by so many lacunae, the power of Eabani over the beasts of the field seems to have depended on his continence.  From the moment in which he yields to his passions the beasts fly from him as they would do from an ordinary mortal; there is then no other resource for him but to leave the solitudes to live among men in towns.  This explains the means devised by Shamash against him:  cf. in the Arabian Nights the story of Shehabeddin.

“When Eabani arrived, he who dwells in the mountains, and who browses upon the grass like the gazelles, who drinks with the animals, who sports with the beasts of the water, the priestess saw the satyr.”  She was afraid and blushed, but the hunter recalled her to her duty.  “It is he, priestess.  Undo thy garment, show him thy form, that he may be taken with thy beauty; be not ashamed, but deprive him of his soul.  He perceives thee, he is rushing towards thee, arrange thy garment; he is coming upon thee, receive him with every art of woman; his beasts which troop around him will be scattered, and he will press thee to his breast.”  The priestess did as she was commanded; she received him with every art of woman, and he pressed her to his breast.  Six days and seven nights, Eabani remained near the priestess, his well-beloved.  When he got tired of pleasure he turned his face towards his cattle, and he saw that the gazelles had turned aside and that the beasts of the field had fled far from him.  Eabani was alarmed, he fell into a swoon, his knees became stiff because his cattle had fled from him.  While he lay as if dead, he heard the voice of the priestess:  he recovered his senses, he came to himself full of love; he seated himself at the feet of the priestess, he looked into her face, and while