44 THEO. G. PINCHES : ON CEETAIN INSCRIPTIONS AND EECORDS 



The important text for this is the large tablet published 

 ill the W. A.L, v. pi. 15 (*), lines 25-67, which was first referred 

 to, I believe, by Prof. Sayce, who has given translations 

 of it. My excuse for again mentioning it is, that I have 

 found some rather important additions nearly completing 

 2 (= 4 bilingual) lines of the inscription, and referring to 

 the rivers, which, in this case, are an important indication 

 of the spot where the Babylonians located their home of 

 the blessed, called by them Eridu, a coriiiption of the 

 Akkadian guru-duga, '"the good city." This text reads as 

 follows : — 



1. In Eridu there grew a dark vine — in a glorious place 



was it brought forth ; 



2. Its form bright lapis-stone, set in the Avorld beneath. 



3. The path of Ae in Eridu is filled (with) fertility ; 



4. His seat is the centre-place of the earth ; 



5. His couch is the bed of Nammu. 



6. To the glorious house, which is like a forest, its shade 



is set — no man enters its midst. 



7. In its interior is the sun-god. Tammuz, 



8. Between the mouths of the rivers (which are) on both 



sides. 



There is no doubt that this highly poetical description is 

 that of the Babylonian paradise — the name Eridu, mentioned 

 above, is a sufficient indication of that, for it is the name of 

 a city, a '• good city '" which, at the time the Persian Gulf 

 extended farther inland than now, stood upon its shore. 

 Within it grew " the dark vine," probably so called from its 

 shade-giving branches, which, according to the line num- 

 bered 6, extended like a forest to '• the glorious house " {ana 

 Mil ellu), or, as the Akkadian has, "its glorious house" 

 (e-azaggdnifa). Eridu was regarded by the Babylonians as 

 being the place which the path of Ea, the god of rivers, 

 streams, etc., filled with fulness of fertility, the "place of the 

 eye of the land " ( Akk. ki igi kurani), where Nammu, the 

 river-god, had his bed, which formed also the resting-place 

 of Ae. Here, too, was the abode of Tammuz — " Tammuz of 

 the Abyss," who dwelt between the mouths of the rivers 

 that were on both sides {ina hirit pi 7}drd[ti] . . . kilallan). 



The Babylonian paradise had, therefore, the tree, either 

 of knowledge or of life, and the picture they give of it is 

 grand in its way — a wide-extending vine, gloriously bright 

 like unto beautiful lapis-lazuli, blue and white (iiknu ebbi) 



