.

(1) For the text, see Ebeling, _Assurtexte_ I, No. 6; it is
translated by him in _Orient. Lit.-Zeit._, Vol. XIX, No. 4
(April, 1916).

(2) The line reads: _30 beru sa-ka-a ri-(sa-a-su)_. Dr.
Ebeling renders _ri-sa-a_ as "heads" (Koepfe), implying that
the dragon had more than one head. It may be pointed out
that, if we could accept this translation, we should have an
interesting parallel to the description of some of the
primaeval monsters, preserved from Berossus, as {soma men
ekhontas en, kephalas de duo}. But the common word for
"head" is _kakkadu_, and there can be little doubt that
_risa_ is here used in its ordinary sense of "head, summit,
top" when applied to a high building.

(3) The line reads: _a-na 1/2 ta-am la-bu-na li-bit en(a-
su)_. Dr. Ebeling translates, "auf je eine Haelfte ist ein
Ziegel (ihrer) Auge(n) gelegt". But _libittu_ is clearly
used here, not with its ordinary meaning of "brick", which
yields a strange rendering, but in its special sense, when
applied to large buildings, of "foundation, floor-space,
area", i.e. "surface". Dr. Ebeling reads _ena-su_ at the end
of the line, but the sign is broken; perhaps the traces may
prove to be those of _uzna su_, "his ears", in which case
_li-bit uz(na-su)_ might be rendered either as "surface of
his ears", or as "base (lit. foundation) of his ears".

(4) i.e. the length of his pace was twenty _beru_.

(5) Lit. "the black-headed".

The text here breaks off, at the moment when Pallil, whose help against
the dragon had been invoked, begins to speak. Let us hope we shall
recover the continuation of the narrative and learn what became of this
carnivorous monster.

There are ample grounds, then, for assuming the independent existence of
the Babylonian Dragon-myth, and though both the versions recovered
have come to us in Semitic form, there is no doubt that the myth itself
existed among the Sumerians. The dragon _motif_ is constantly recurring
in descriptions of Sumerian temple-decoration, and the twin dragons
of Ningishzida on Gudea's libation-vase, carved in green steatite and
inlaid with shell, are a notable product of Sumerian art.(1) The very
names borne by Tiamat's brood of monsters in the "Seven Tablets" are
stamped in most cases with their Sumerian descent, and Kingu, whom she
appointed as her champion in place of