invaded and completely flooded by the waves; the king and his soldiers took refuge in haste on the galleys, where they were kept prisoners for five days “as in a huge cage.”  As soon as the waters abated, they completed their preparations and started on their voyage.  At the point where the Euphrates enters the lagoon, Sennacherib pushed forward to the front of the line, and, standing in the bows of his flag-ship, offered a sacrifice to Ea, the god of the Ocean.  Having made a solemn libation, he threw into the water a gold model of a ship, a golden fish, and an image of the god himself, likewise in gold; this ceremony performed, he returned to the port of Bab-Salimeti with his guard, while the bulk of his forces continued their voyage eastward.  The passage took place without mishap, but they could not disembark on the shore of the gulf itself, which was unapproachable by reason of the deposits of semi-liquid mud which girdled it; they therefore put into the mouth of the Ulai, and ascended the river till they reached a spot where the slimy reed-beds gave place to firm ground, which permitted them to draw their ships to land.*

* Billerbeck recognises in the narrative of Sennacherib the indication of two attempts at debarcation, of which the second only can have been successful; I can distinguish only one crossing.

The inhabitants assembled hastily at sight of the enemy, and the news, spreading through the neighbouring tribes, brought together for their defence a confused crowd of archers, chariots, and horsemen.  The Assyrians, leaping into the stream and climbing up the bank, easily overpowered these undisciplined troops.

[Illustration:  052.jpg A SKIRMISH IN THE MARSHES]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from Layard.

They captured at the first onset Nagitu, Nagitu-Dibina, Khilmu, Pillatu, and Khupapanu; and raiding the Kalda, forced them on board the fleet with their gods, their families, their flocks, and household possessions, and beat a hurried retreat with their booty.  Merodach-baladan himself and his children once more escaped their clutches, but the State he had tried to create was annihilated, and his power utterly crushed.  Sennacherib received his generals with great demonstrations of joy at Bab-Salimeti, and carried the spoil in triumph to Nineveh.  Khalludush, exasperated by the affront put upon him, instantly retaliated by invading Karduniash, where he pushed forward as far as Sippara, pillaging and destroying the inhabitants without opposition.  The Babylonians who had accompanied Merodach-baladan into exile, returned in the train of the Elamites, and, secretly stealing back to their homes, stirred up a general revolt:  Assur-nadin-shumu, taken prisoner by his own subjects, was put in chains and despatched to Susa, his throne being bestowed on a Babylonian named Nergal-ushezib,* who at once took the field (694 B.C.).