1 50 Lutz, \'iticulture and Brewing. 



on credit, at the time of harvest she shall receive 50 qa of 

 barley"!. 



Zimmern has recently published ^ the transliteration and 

 translation of a text, which is of interest in this connection, 

 It contains incantations and rituals, which were intended to 

 increase the business of a taverner, which had for some 

 reason or other fallen off^. Two incantations were to be re- 

 cited by an incantation-priest, while the third incantation, 

 a love charm, was to be used by a demimondaine, or a vo- 

 tary' of Ishtar, in order to bring back the lovers, who had 

 stayed away from the inn and the brothel.J, The text con- 

 tains an additional proof, if proof were necessary, that the 

 Babylonian inn was at the same time a brothel. All three 

 incantations are addressed to Ishtar, the goddess of love, and 

 possibly also a goddess of beer and wine, like her Egyptian 

 counterpart Hathor. Some passages may illustrate the general 

 character of the text. "O Ishtar, enter at my word, and this 

 tavern let be thy tavern! O Ishtar, support thy hand on the 

 jug and the pressing vat! May profit enter unceasingly, (since) 

 thou takest upon thyself responsibility!" The harlot recites: 

 "Come enter into our house; thy beautiful bed-fellow may 

 enter with thee, (and) thy lover and thy courtesan". The in- 

 cantation of the harlot ends with the sentence: "As the heaven 

 fructifies the earth (and) plants are plentiful, so may be plen- 

 tiful the (saying): 'Be sweet unto me'". 



In mythology we meet with a divine female taverner, 

 Siduri sabiUi, who dwells at the "seat of the ocean" . Gilga- 



i) summa salsabttum istht fihain ana qtptim id din ina eburivi jo qa 

 se'im iliqi, 



2) Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie, Vol. XXXIl. pp. 164 184. 



3) Inim-nim-ma summa'"" nii-hi-ir-tum ina bit amihisa-bi-i par-sat, "In- 

 cantation in case that the profit has ceased in the house of the taverner"; inim- 

 nim-ma is-di-ih sa-bi-i ka-ri-ka, "Incantation for the profit of the innkeeper 

 at the dyke". 



4) ICusse tamti; Zimmern, ZA, Vol. XXXII, p. 169 explains this phrase 

 quite naturally, by referring to the s&bu kari, "the innkeeper of the dyke" 

 and to the si-bi-'-i ka-a-ri in Gray's Hymn to Somas, Col. Ill, 45 (= Jensen, 

 KB, Vol. VI, 2, I, p. 104) and ZA, Vol. XXXII, 114, 16. See, however, also 

 Albright [AJSL, Vol. XXXVI, p. 260) who considers the phrase "a very cu- 

 rious detail". 



