h his messenger Ilabrat. "His
messenger Ilabrat answered him: 'My master,--Adapa, the son of Ea,
has broken Shutu's wings.'--Anu, when he heard these words, cried out:
'Help!'" and he sent to Ea Barku, the genius of the lightning, with an
order to bring the guilty one before him. Adapa was not quite at his
ease, although he had right on his side; but Ea, the cleverest of the
immortals, prescribed a line of conduct for him. He was to put on at
once a garment of mourning, and to show himself along with the messenger
at the gates of heaven. Having arrived there, he would not fail to meet
the two divinities who guarded them,--Dumuzi and Gishzida: "'In whose
honour this garb, in whose honour, Adapa, this garment of mourning?'
'On our earth two gods have disappeared--it is on this account I am as
I am.' Dumuzi and Gishzida will look at each other,* they will begin
to lament, they will say a friendly word--to the god Anu for thee, they
will render clear the countenance of Anu,--in thy favour. When thou
shalt appear before the face of Anu, the food of death, it shall be
offered to thee, do not eat it. The drink of death, it shall be offered
to thee, drink it not. A garment, it shall be offered to the, put it on.
Oil, it shall be offered to thee, anoint thyself with it. The command I
have given thee observe it well.'"

* Dumuzi and Gishzida are the two gods whom Adapa indicates
without naming them; insinuating that he has put on mourning
on their account, Adapa is secure of gaining their sympathy,
and of obtaining their intervention with the god Anu in his
favour. As to Dumuzi, see pp. 158, 159 of the present work;
the part played by Gishzida, as well as the event noted in
the text regarding him, is unknown.

Everything takes place as Ea had foreseen. Dumuzi and Gishzida
welcome the poor wretch, speak in his favour, and present him: "as he
approached, Anu perceived him, and said to him: 'Come, Adapa, why didst
thou break the wings of Shutu?' Adapa answered Anu: 'My lord,--for the
household of my lord Ea, in the middle of the sea,---I was fishing,
and the sea was all smooth.--Shutu breathed, he, he overthrew me, and
I plunged into the abode of fish. Hence the anger of my heart,--that he
might not begin again his acts of ill will,--I broke his wings.'" Whilst
he pleaded his cause the furious heart of Anu became calm. The presence
of a mortal in the halls of heaven was a kind of sacrilege, to be