iologie_, ii.
627-33.

[528] The opening lines, containing a reference to the Gimirrites, are
imperfectly preserved.

[529] _I.e._, he is the greatest scion of the reigning dynasty.

[530] 'Lord of the court'--a title of Ashur.

[531] As a protection, just as Jahwe appears in a pillar of cloud to
protect his people.

[532] IVR. 2d Ed. 61, col. vi. 47-52.

[533] See I Kings, xxii. 23.

[534] Strong, _Beitraege zur Assyriologie_, ii. 628, 629.

[535] Published and translated by S. A. Strong, _Transactions of the
Ninth International Oriental Congress_ (1893), ii. 199-208.

[536] Supplied from the context, through comparison with similar
compositions.

[537] Lit., 'my soul cannot overcome.'

[538] The composition continues in this strain, Ashurbanabal and Nabu
speaking alternately.

[539] See Tiele, _Babyl.-Assyr. Geschichte_, pp. 371 _seq_.

[540] George Smith, _Annals of Ashurbanabal_, p. 121.

[541] Rassam Cylinder, VR. col. v. ll. 95-103.

[542] George Smith, _Annals of Ashurbanabal_, pp. 119-121.

[543] With maternal kindness.

[544] Lit., 'look up.'

[545] Rassam Cylinder, col ii. ll. 98 _seq._

[546] _Ib._ col. iii. ll. 122-124.

[547] _E.g._, IVR. 59, no. 2, 21b.

CHAPTER XX.

VARIOUS CLASSES OF OMENS.

There is a close connection between the various branches of the
religious literature of Babylonia and Assyria that we have hitherto been
considering. The magic incantations are, as we have seen, a form of
prayer. On the other hand, prayers, whether hymns or confessions of sin
with an appeal for relief from suffering or distress, or embodying the
petition for a divine response to some question or questions, are never
entirely dissociated from incantations, and are invariably based upon
the same beliefs that give to the element of magic such a prominent
place in the religion. The omens form part of this same order of
beliefs. The connecting link between incantations and omens is the sense
of mystery impressed upon man by two orders of phenomena--the phenomena
of his own life and the phenomena of the things about him. In his own
life, nothing was more mysterious to him than the power of speech. It is
doubtful whether he recognized that the animals communicated with one
another by means of the sounds that they emitted; but even if he did,
the great gap separating such means of communication from the power
residing in the combination of sounds, of which he could avail himself,
must