234 SEAL CYLINDERS OF WESTERN ASIA. 
or acedar. There was a sacred grove said to have grown in the Paradise of Adapa 
at Eridu. ; 
In Eridu there grew a dark palm, by a pure place it sprouted up; 
Its appearance was shining as lapis lazuli; it overshadowed the ocean; 
Where is the course of Ea in Eridu, full to overflowing; 
Whose habitation is the place of the Underworld; 
His dwelling-place is the residence of Gur (Bau?); 
Within the shining house, shaded like a forest, where no man dare enter; 
There dwell Shamash and Tammuz 
Between the mouths of two rivers. 
Related to this would appear to be the claim by Rim-Sin, about 2200 B.C., 
to be the “Conjurer of the holy tree of Eridu”’ (“ Keilinsch. Bibl.,” 111, p. 94). 
In the Gilgamesh epic there is a mythic cedar tree. It grows on a mountain 
of cedars in the sanctuary of Irnina and is guarded by the Elamite king Humbaba. 
When Gilgamesh and Eabani in their wanderings reach the place we are told: 
They stand considering the forest, 
Gazing on the height of the cedars, 
Gazing on the entrance of the forest, 
Where Humbaba is wont to wander about with great strides; 
The ways are laid out, the paths are well made; 
They gaze on the hill of cedars, the dwelling-place of the gods, the sanctuary of Irnini. 
In front of the hill a cedar rises in grandeur, 
Goodly is its shade, full of gladness... .. 
It produces samtu-stones as fruit; 
Its boughs hang with them, glorious to behold; 
The crown of it produces lapis lazuli; 
Its fruit is costly to gaze upon. 
But these trees are not clearly connected with the Assyrian sacred tree. Indeed, 
trees could not but enter into the mythical imagination of any people. ‘They must 
have some Yegdrasil, or Tuba tree, and it will take many forms. There was a tree 
in Elam the fruits of which produced easy birth for women, as we have seen in 
Chapter xxi, on “Etana and the Eagle,” and it was natural that the fruit of a 
tree should be health-giving, or life-giving. The desire of man is for long life. 
“O King, live forever,” was the address to Nebuchadnezzar. But this longing was 
always thwarted. When Gilgamesh had gone on a long quest for the plant of life 
and had just seized it, it was snatched out of his hand by a serpent. A midrash 
has the similar story of a man who saw a dead bird on which a second bird laid 
a branch, when the dead bird came to life. The man picked up the branch and 
soon came by a dead fox. He laid the branch on it and it immediately came to 
life again. ‘he man then thought he would apply the branch to the corpses of 
Israel, but as he passed along he saw a dead lion, on which he laid the branch, 
when it also revived and ate him up, illustrating the fact that immortality is not 
for man. 
While the references in the inscriptions to the tree of life are not very definite, 
whether we search both the Babylonian or the Assyrian texts, we may find some 
further suggestions in the Babylonian art, which may have relation to the Assyrian 
tree of life. The most important is shown in fig. 419. Here the archaic bas-relief 
gives a seated goddess in front view, before whom there is a plant in a vase, which a 
nude attendant is watering froma pitcher. From each side of the spreading plant 
