110 The American Naturalist. [February, 
there is no return, and the seven gates of Arallu will open 
before thee. . . . Conjure Allat with the name of the great 
gods; stiffen thy neck and keep thy mind on the Spring of 
Life. Let the Lady (Tshtar) gain access to the Spring of 
Life, and drink of its waters.” Allat in her fury beat her 
breast and bit her fingers with rage. She ordered Namtar to 
let Tshtar drink of the Spring of Life, and bear her from her 
sight. Namtar took the goddess through the seven enclosures, 
restoring at each the article of her attire that had been taken 
from her. At the last gate he said: “ Thou hast paid no ran- 
som to Allat for thy deliverance; so now return to Dumuzi, 
the lover of thy youth; sprinkle over him the sacred waters, 
clothe him in splendid garments, adorn him with gems.” 
The last lines of the poem are mutilated, but it is evident 
that they bear on the reunion of Tshtar with her young lover. 
Not only does this myth remind one of the legends of Deme- 
ter and Persephone, of Adonis, of Balder, the beautiful, and of 
Osiris, but what—if it were possible—seems like a variant of 
the same myth, is the legend amongst the Tee-Wahn’ Indians 
of Nah-chu-ru-chu (the Bluish Light of Dawn) and his lost 
wife, the Moon-maiden. Nah-chu-ru-chu held the well-being 
of all his people in his hands for life and death. When the 
jealous Corn-maidens had thrown his wife down a deep well 
where none could find her, Nah-chu-ru-chu sat for days, 
neither speaking nor moving, his head bowed upon his hands. 
Then no rain fell and the crops died, and thirsty animals wan- 
dered, crying along the dry rivers. The coyote, the badger 
and the eagle went to seek the lost Moon, and when at last she 
was found, the choked earth drank and was glad and green, 
the dead crops came to life, and for four days the people danced 
and sang in the public square. 
In innumerable ways have the Accadians been the priests 
and schoolmasters of mankind in Europe and Asia, for through i 
the Bak tribes of Elam, in Southern Chaldea, they are consid- 
ered to have been the founders of the ancient civilization of 
China; and through the Semitic ‘peoples they have conferred 
upon us gifts, good and bad; the art of writing, the signs of 
’Tee-Wahn Folk Stories. St. Nicholas, March, 1892. 
