ile, as among all peoples still
sunk in semi-barbarism, to go forth to the attack of these beasts
single-handed, and to sacrifice themselves one after the other, until
one of them more fortunate or stronger than the rest should triumph
over these mischievous brutes. The kings of Babylon and Nineveh in later
times converted into a pleasure that which had been an official duty of
their early predecessors: Gilgames had not yet arrived at that stage,
and the seriousness, not to speak of the fear, with which he entered
on the fight with such beasts, is an evidence of the early date of the
portions of his history which are concerned with his hunting exploits.
The scenes are represented on the seals of princes who reigned prior to
the year 3000 B.C., and the work of the ancient engraver harmonizes so
perfectly with the description of the comparatively modern scribe that
it seems like an anticipated illustration of the latter; the engravings
represent so persistently and with so little variation the images of
the monsters, and those of Gilgames and his faithful Eabani, that the
corresponding episodes in the poem must have already existed as we know
them, if not in form, at least in their main drift. Other portions of
the poem are more recent, and it would seem that the expedition against
Khumbaba contains allusions to the Elamite* invasions from which Chaldaea
had suffered so much towards the XXth century before our era. The
traditions which we possess of the times following the Deluge, embody,
like the adventures of Gilganes, very ancient elements, which the
scribes or narrators wove together in a more or less skilful manner
around the name of some king or divinity.

* Smith thought he could restore from the poem a part of
Chaldaean history: he supposed Izdubar-Nimrod to have been,
about 2250, the liberator of Babylon, oppressed by Elam, and
the date of the foundation of a great Babylonian empire to
have coincided with his victory over the Elamites. The
annals of Assurbanipal show us, in fact, that an Elamite
king, Kudurnankhundi, had pillaged Uruk about 2280 B.C., and
had transported to Susa a statue of the goddess Ishtar.

[Illustration: 082.jpg GILGAMES STRUGGLES WITH A LION]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a Chaldaean intaglio in the
British Museum. The original measures about 1 2/5 inch in
height.

The fabulous chronicle of the cities of the Euphrates existed,
ther