The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. fi?> 
eagle owl, from its large size and fierce look, is a bird which 
is mentioned in some of the incantations; it is there also 
called itslsur limutti, or "bird of evil" (omen). 
The essebu is mentioned as a bird of evil omen in a tablet 
relating to evil spirits, W.A.T., IV, pi. 1, line 20, 21, where 
the full Accadian form of ^| T<<<J occurs 
as the equivalent of ((( ^ essebu. This evil bird, the 
Great Eagle Owl, wanders about the city causing disaster. 
Essebu has been explained as meaning " a prince," doubtless 
in reference to the size and majestic appearance of this bird. 
The reading of the Accadian name is unknown, but the 
meaning is obvious: it is "the bird of the god so and so"; 
J<<<J<<<y signifying " such an one, I do not care to mention 
him." Compare Smith's Assurb., p. 287. 
Cu - um D.P. Ai - u ta - ah ina-manamma 
instead of Yautah or so-and-so 
E£H^Hfflf I T -s^w<-<T< 
as - cun -su ana sar -u- ti 
/ appointed him to the kingdom. 
Perhaps in the instance of the bird, the idea is that of a 
god or demon whose name is too evil or dreadful to mention. 
The reluctance to express an object, whether too sacred or 
too detested for pronunciation, by its right name, is well 
known to have prevailed amongst the Jews ; we may, for 
instance, compare with the case of the bird-god before us, 
that of the name of the pig, which the Jews held in such 
detestation that sometimes they would not designate the 
unclean beast by its Hebrew name of kliazir p^n), but 
replaced the odious word by the euphemism of dabar akhar 
(inN "111), Le. 9 "the other thing," "the thing," as being 
too abominable to mention by name. It may perhaps seem 
strange that the same bird should be regarded in the two very 
opposite lights of being both "a grand prince" and "an agent 
of evil": but this is what we meet with in the natural history 
