354 NO ROD—CLOSE INTERCOURSE WITH EGYPT 
The first concerns the goddess Ereshkigal, the other transmits 
the legend of Adapa.! 
From the Bekten stele we deduce a close intercourse between 
the two countries about the XIXth Dynasty, for we read of 
Rameses II.?2 being in Mesopotamia “ according to his wont, 
year by year,’ and receiving tributes and presents from the 
chiefs of the countries round about. 
The connection between Assyria (proper) and Egypt rests 
on ample evidence. Fish, or “‘ beasts of the sea,’’ passed as 
presents, perhaps as trade. On the Broken Column of Tiglath- 
Pileser I. (Cylinder IV. 29-30) we read, “ And a great beast 
of the River, a great beast of the Sea, the king of Musre” 
(probably Egypt) ‘‘ sent (unto him).”’ 
The Select Papyri (pl. 75, I, 7) tell of certain fish being 
brought, perhaps as a staple of trade, from the Puharuta or 
Euphrates to Egypt, and (in pl. 96, 1, 7) of another fish or 
fishy substance called Ruva, being imported from the land of 
the great waters, Mesopotamia. 
1 The Babylonian legend of Adapa is thus known to have circulated in 
Palestine and Egypt before the Hebrew Exodus. The story of Adapa is 
thought by some to have influenced the Hebrew version of the story of Adam 
and Eve and the loss of Paradise. See the excellent discussion in T. Skinner, 
Genesis (in the International Critical Commentary (1912), p. 91 ff), and 
Langdon, The Sumerian Epic of Paradise (University of Pennsylvania, 
Publications of the Babylonia Section, 1915), vol. X., pp. 38-49. 
2 Rameses II. was held in high esteem as a rain-maker—perhaps rain-god 
—as is evidenced by the sacrifices offered by the Hittites that their princess 
should on her journey to Egypt to marry Rameses enjoy fair weather, despite 
that it was the season of the winter storms. In consequence of this power 
over the elements, the Hittite chiefs strongly advocated friendship with 
Egypt, as otherwise Rameses IJ. would probably stop rain and cause a famine 
in their country (Breasted, Ancient Records, Ill. 423, 426). 
3 Layard, Nineveh (London, 1849), vol. II. p. 438. 
