10 OLD BABYLONIAN INSCRIPTIONS CHIEFLY PROM NIPPUR. 



propose to publish separately in the course of next summer, in cooperation with my 

 esteemed colleague, Dr. P. Jensen, Professor in the University of Marburg. 



In conclusion, it is but just that I should express here publicly my profound 

 gratitude to Dr. William Pepper, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, Messrs. 

 Clarence H. Clark, E. W. Clark, W. W. Frazier, Charles C. Harrison, Prof. Dr. 

 Horace Jayne, Prof. Allen Marquand, Jos. D. Potts, Rev. Dr. H. Clay Trumbull, 

 Talcott "Williams, Richard "Wood, Stuart Wood, and to all the other gentlemen whose 

 lively interest in the history and civilization of ancient Babylonia, and whose liberal 

 and constant support, have made possible the thorough researches at one of the most 

 ancient ruins of the world. * That the publication of this first part of the results 

 obtained by the American Expedition does not take place until nearly four years after 

 it was begun, is due to the extraordinary difficulties it encountered, on both sea and 

 land, through shipwreck near Samos, through the hostility of Arab tribes, through 

 the burning and plundering of our camp, through the outbreak of malignant cholera 

 in Babylonia, through the delay of the antiquities on their way to America, and 

 through the severe illness from which nearly all the members suffered. Often it 

 seemed as though the grewsome curse of King Sargon I, one of the oldest monuments 

 of Semitic speech published in the following pages, had rested on the American Expe- 

 dition, as that of the Phoenician king Eshmunazar rested on Napoleon : " Whosoever 

 removes this inscribed stone, his foundation may Bel and Shamash and JSTinna tear up, 

 and exterminate his seed !" We trust, hoAvever, that the rage of Enlil, lord of the 

 demons, who set loose against the Expedition all the Igigi and Anunnaki, will abate 

 with the publication of these cuneiform inscriptions, almost every one of which pro- 

 claims the glory of the great Bel, " lord of the lands," and that the curse of nearly six 

 thousand years ago will be transformed into the kindly blessing which King STazi- 

 Maruttash utters in his poetic prayer : 



ikribishu ana sheme to hear his prayer, 



teslissu magari to grant his supplication, 



unnenishu leke to accept his sigh, 



napishtashu nasari to preserve his life, 



umeshu urruke to lengthen his days. 



(PL 27, No. 78.) 



H. V. HlLPRECHT. 



Philadelphia, January 1, 1893. 



* Cf. Pinches, Records of the Past \ Vol. VI, p. 109, 1. 6. (The Non-Semitic Version of the Creation Story). 



