EEFK WRING TO BABYLONIA AND ELAM, KTC. 73 



£-iiai/ila u H-zida, "patron of (the temples) E-sagila and 

 E-z)da.'" and it is apparently the meaning which zanin 

 has here. 



9. Usomkit, '' he causes to be slain," is apparently the 

 verb to the lost portion of the line, and perhaps refers to 

 malhi f<t zaniii \j''sr('ti?\ "the rnler who was not patron of 

 tJie [temples ?]." in line <^. 



T ^Sf^T '"i^'ll, "^4" T*^' Ddr-sir-Udiii, " the supreme for- 

 tress of the gods," is a phrase that one would hardly expect 

 to find as the name of a man. Such names, however, were 

 probably not uncommon at the time, for we find such expres- 

 sions as y >->-'^ E^lSl ^T'^ ^^Iy' ^^ssur-dtir-pani-ia, " Asshur 

 is a fortress before me." etc., used as names of men. The 

 transcription of the first syllable of Dur-sir-ilani is confirmed 

 by the variant .^;;X for J^Q^y in S". II, 9.S7, line 19 

 (plate II). Cf. page 69. 



For y >:^y ->f ^y ]} Jgf, Eri-(I).l\)[£]-a-kii, variant 

 y >^Y >->f ^y J^ y{, Eri-{D.P.) U-hi-u (apparently a mis- 

 take for the first form) and Prof. Sayce's remarks upon the 

 pronunciation of ^y, see p. ()9. 



10. Isliil, " he carried off," " spoiled," seems to belong to 

 the words at the beginning of the line, noAv lost. The 

 phrase " waters Cf^ }^, ^nc) over Babylon and E-saggil'' is 

 obscure. The character yj^ has so many meanings besides 

 that of "water," that it is difficult to choose between them. 

 As, therefore, the meaning here adopted is by far the most 

 common, it seems best to retain it, regarding the word as 

 probably used as a poetical expression for •' destruction." 

 E-scu/gil was the name of the great temple-tower at Babylon, 

 and it is noteworthy that, the spelling ^y J^iycy H, E-saqgil 

 (probably pronounced ^-sauc/il) is late. Th:* earlier texts 

 generally give ^y ^y^y ^^IJ^y, J'^-saffila, which is more 

 correct. 



lo. The name Tudhula corresponds very well with that 



of Tidal (Heb. .i^l^)'*^^® Greek form of which is Sapja\, 

 showing that the y had the guttural sound similar to the 

 Arabic c, represented in Assyrian, as a rule, by h ( = n = j^), 



which was the nearest that those who used the wedge- 

 writing could get to this sound. The LXX. had the disad- 

 vantage of an incorrect reproduction of the name (1 for 1) 



