In a communication before the Oriental Club of Philadelphia (Feb. 10, 1920), Prof. Haupt made the suggestion that _sa-bi-tum_ (or _tu_), hitherto regarded as a proper name, is an epithet describing the woman who dwells at the seashore which Gilgamesh in the course of his wanderings reaches, as an "innkeeper". It is noticeable that the term always appears without the determinative placed before proper names; and since in the old Babylonian version (so far as preserved) and in the Assyrian version, the determinative is invariably used, its consistent absence in the case of _sabitum_ (Assyrian Version, Tablet X, 1, 1, 10, 15, 20; 2, 15-16 [_sa-bit_]; Meissner fragment col. 2, 11-12) speaks in favor of Professor Haupt's suggestion. The meaning "innkeeper", while not as yet found in Babylonian-Assyrian literature is most plausible, since we have _sabu_ as a general name for 'drink', though originally designating perhaps more specifically sesame wine (Muss-Arnolt, Assyrian Dictionary, p. 745b) or distilled brandy, according to Prof. Haupt. Similarly, in the Aramaic dialects, _se_bha is used for "to drink" and in the Pael to "furnish drink". Muss-Arnolt in his Assyrian Dictionary, 746b, has also recognized that _sabitum_ was originally an epithet and compares the Aramaic _se_bhoyâthâ(p1) "barmaids". In view of the bad reputation of inns in ancient Babylonia as brothels, it would be natural for an epithet like _sabitum_ to become the equivalent to "public" women, just as the inn was a "public" house. Sabitum would, therefore, have the same force as _samhatu_ (the "harlot"), used in the Gilgamesh Epic by the side of _harimtu_ "woman" (see the note to line 46 of Pennsylvania Tablet). The Sumerian term for the female innkeeper is Sal Gestinna "the woman of the wine," known to us from the Hammurabi Code §§108-111. The bad reputation of inns is confirmed by these statutes, for the house of the Sal Gestinna is a gathering place for outlaws. The punishment of a female devotee who enters the "house of a wine woman" (bît Sal Gestinna §110) is death. It was not "prohibition" that prompted so severe a punishment, but the recognition of the purpose for which a devotee would enter such a house of ill repute. The speech of the _sabitum_ or innkeeper to Gilgamesh (above, p. 12) was, therefore, an invitation to stay with her, instead of seeking for life elsewhere. Viewed as coming from a "public woman" the address becomes significant. The invitation would be parallel to the temptation offered by the _harimtu_ in the first tablet of the Enkidu, and to which Enkidu succumbs. The incident in the tablet would, therefore, form a parallel in the adventures of Gilgamesh to the one that originally belonged to the Enkidu cycle. Finally, it is quite possible that _sabitum_ is actually the Akkadian equivalent of the Sumerian Sal Gestinna, though naturally until this equation is confirmed by a syllabary or by other direct evidence, it remains a conjecture.