ual was a hideous medley of human
and animal parts, in which the most repellent features were artistically
combined. Lions' heads stood out from the bodies of scorpion-tailed
jackals, whose feet were armed with eagles' claws: and among such
monsters the genii of pestilence, fever, and the south-west wind took
the chief place. When once the dead had become naturalized among this
terrible population, they could not escape from their condition,
unless by the exceptional mandate of the gods above. They possessed
no recollection of what they had done upon earth. Domestic affection,
friendships, and the memory of good offices rendered to one
another,--all were effaced from their minds: nothing remained there but
an inexpressible regret at having been exiled from the world of light,
and an excruciating desire to reach it once more. The threshold of
Allat's palace stood upon a spring which had the property of restoring
to life all who bathed in it or drank of its waters: they gushed forth
as soon as the stone was raised, but the earth-spirits guarded it with a
jealous care, and kept at a distance all who attempted to appropriate a
drop of it. They permitted access to it only by order of Ea himself, or
one of the supreme gods, and even then with a rebellious heart at seeing
their prey escape them. Ancient legends related how the shepherd Dumuzi,
son of Ea and Damkina, having excited the love of Ishtar while he was
pasturing his flocks under the mysterious tree of Eridu, which covers
the earth with its shade, was chosen by the goddess from among all
others to be the spouse of her youth, and how, being mortally wounded by
a wild boar, he was cast into the kingdom of Allat. One means remained
by which he might be restored to the light of day: his wounds must be
washed in the waters of the wonderful spring, and Ishtar resolved to
go in quest of this marvellous liquid. The undertaking was fraught with
danger, for no one might travel to the infernal regions without having
previously gone through the extreme terrors of death, and even the gods
themselves could not transgress this fatal law. "To the land without
return, to the land which thou knowest--Ishtar, the daughter of Sin,
turned her thoughts: she, the daughter of Sin, turned her thoughts--to
the house of darkness, the abode of Irkalla--to the house from which he
who enters can never emerge--to the path upon which he who goes shall
never come back--to the house into which he who en