1893.] Legends of the Sumiro-Accadians of Chaldea. 107 
nature, wandered forever on their appointed paths. The 
earthly ocean, a counterpart of the heavenly ocean, was imag- 
ined as-a broad river, or watery rim, flowing all round the 
edge of the inverted bowl, precisely as Herodotus described it. 
And so late as the Middle Ages, we find Dante’s conception of 
the structure of the world to be substantially thatof the Accad- 
ians; the “ purgatorio ” is an immensely high mountain join- 
ing earth and sky, through whose circles pass the souls in a 
state of probation, till at the top they step into the lower 
heaven. 
In the fine Accadian epic of which the account of the Deluge 
furnishes the eleventh book, the ark is represented as resting 
on this mountain. It relatés* that Tzdubar, the national hero, 
was beloved by the goddess Tshtar. She promised him a “ char- 
iot of gold and precious stones; that kings and princes should 
bow before him, and kiss his feet; that his flocks and herds 
should multiply two fold, and his mules and oxen be peerless 
of their kind.” But Tzdubar laughed her love to scorn, and 
the enraged goddess implored her father, Anu, to take ven- 
geance on him. A monstrous bull was sent against his city of 
Erech, but it was slain by Tzdubar’s friend, Eâbani, and laid 
before the altar of the god Shamash, whilst the people spent 
the night in feasting and rejoicing. But the vengeance of 
Tshtar was not to be so easily foiled. With the help of her 
mother she smote EAbani with sudden death and Tzdubar 
with a dire disease, which made life a burden. He determined 
in his anguish to seek relief from his great ancestor, Hasisadra, 
who dwelt, immortal, in the Blessed Land, at the “ mouth of 
the rivers” beyond the Waters of Death. Long and weary 
was the journey, and on his way Tzdubar passed the giant 
warders of the sun—half men and half scorpions—who kept 
watch over his rising and his setting. On the shore of the 
Waters of Death the hero met the ferryman Urubél, and for a 
month and fifteen days they journeyed together over that 
dreary sea, till they reached the Chaldean “ Valley of Avilon,” 
and Tzdubar met his ancestor face to face. Here Hasisadra 
related to his descendant the story of the Deluge, and his own 
‘Chaldea, pp. 301-17. 
