THE LADY OF THE WATERS 381 
by-product of her lavation. Possibly the fish of Chabura (like 
the thyme fish) exhaled a “ most sweet scent,” and so effected 
“the sweet smelling.’’ But probably to preserve their power, 
“they will come to feed from men’s hands.” } 
I have adduced sufficient proof that fish were plentiful in 
Mesopotamia. Additional testimony has needlessly been 
sought in Professor Sayce’s now fairly accepted suggestion 
that the ideogram for Nineveh implies the House of the Waters 
or of Fish.2 
Another explanation of Nineveh as The Lady of the Waters 
deduces from Nina (said to be a daughter of Ea and a fish 
goddess) lengthening into Nineveh. But the term The Lady, 
t.e. The Lady par excellence, in Assyrian especially applies 
to Bélit the spouse of Asur, who became generally identified 
with Ishtar of Nineveh. 
If The Lady of the Waters translate correctly the ideogram 
of Nineveh, the term may have sprung from a temple to this 
reputed Fish Goddess standing in that city. But even if the 
existence of such a temple can be inferred, its original site 
probably lay in Sumerian Lagash, not in Nineveh. 
1 N. H., XXXII. 7. 
2 Hibbert Lecture (London, 1887), p. 57. 
= On the ancient goddess Nina, see Langdon, Tammuz and Ishtay (London, 
1914). There is no known representation of Nina. Of Bélit, or Ishtar, many 
exist; of Ishtar arma ferens that on a seal in Tammuz and Ishtar, Plate I., 
No. 1. is perhaps the best. 
