110 The Birch of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 
four names for "a nest" or "a pigeon bole " may be seen 
together in W.A.L, IV, 27, L 14-18. Among other dreadful 
things caused by evil demons, they drove pigeons from the 
dove-cot, and swallows from their nests. In Accadian — 
»&? »? r K tHTT **T £TT HF- ISJ ISJ E5 S^tT 
Tu khu ab -lal- bi- ta ba - da - an -dib-dib-bi- ne 
The pigeon from within its hole they cause to seize. 
-T<fc *J mi K sETTT **! &W<BfMf-SAsl 
Nam-bir id - pur -bi-ta ba - ra - dul-du- ne 
The bird on its icings they cause to ascend. 
►W* -M m tEf c!!T* ^ sETTT &TT HP- HW 
nam -khu u - ci - si - ga - bi - ta ba - ra - an - ri - 
The swallow from its nest they cause to mount 
ri - e - ne 
aloft. 
The Assyrian version is very similar; the word for pigeon 
is summatu, and from the mention of the holes of the dove-cot, 
it is evident that this bird was early domesticated among the 
Semites, contrary to the opinion of Victor Heyn, who main- 
tain a comparatively recent culture (see " Kulturpflanzen 
und Hausthiere," pp. 296, 297). The summatu, or tu (Te 
Sumerian) of the Deluge Tablet, is evidently the same bird, 
and doubtless a domesticated pigeon. The Accadian name 
of i a i > "house" + "filling," is ideographically expressed 
by T Yy ¥*~ y, which is a picture of the young 'a = son + |" 
lal = " to fill ") inside the enclosure or nest J^J ; but as the 
hole of the dove-cote is the nest where it rears its young as 
well as its general home, the same word and the same mono- 
gram express both ; so that I think the ucisiga is the general 
name for any bird's nest, while the eslal is the pigeon's nest 
or home. A difference between the ucisiga of the swallow 
and the es-lal of the pigeon is, at all events, maintained in 
