Oh, drop o'er him your fragrant dewy tears, For your own queen who brings you joy, For Love, the Queen of Love, no longer cheers, Upon my heart it all doth cloy. Alas! I give you love, nor can receive, O all my children for me grieve; Ah, me, my Tammuz! Alas! alas! my heart is dying--dead! With all these bitter pangs of grief Despair hath fallen on my queenly head, Oh, is there, sisters, no relief? Hath Tammuz from me ever, ever, gone? My heart is dead, and turned to stone; Ah, me, his queen! My sister spirits, O my brothers dear, My sorrow strikes me to the earth; Oh, let me die! I now no fate can fear, My heart is left a fearful dearth. Alas, from me all joy! all joy! hath gone; Oh, Ninazu, what hast thou done? Ah, me, his queen!" To Hades' world beyond our sight they go, And leave upon the skies Mar-gid-da's[3] glow, That shines eternally along the sky, The road where souls redeemed shall ever fly. Prince Tammuz now again to life restored, Is crowned in Hades as its King and Lord,[4] And Ishtar's sorrow thus appeased, she flies To earth, and fills with light and love the skies. [Footnote 1: "Zi-ni," pronounced "Zee-nee," spirits of the wind.] [Footnote 2: "Ah, me, my brother, and, ah, me, my sister! Ah, me, Adonis (or Tammuz), and ah, me, his lady (or queen)!" is the wailing cry uttered by the worshippers of Tammuz or Adonis when celebrating his untimely death. It is referred to in Jer. xxii. 18, and in Ezek. viii. 14, and Amos viii. 10, and Zech. xii. 10, 11. See Smith's revised edition of "Chal. Acc. of Genesis," by Sayce, pp. 247, 248.] [Footnote 3: "Mar-gid-da," "the Long Road." We have also given the Accadian name for "The Milky Way." It was also called by them the "River of Night."] [Footnote 4: "Lord of Hades" is one of the titles given to Tammuz in an Accadian hymn found in "C.I.W.A.," vol. iv. 27, 1, 2. See also translation in "Records of the Past," vol. xi. p. 131.] TABLET VII--COLUMN I THE KING AND SEER CONVERSING ON THEIR WAY TO KHASI-SADRA--INTERPRETATION OF THE KING'S DREAM IN THE PALACE ON THE NIGHT OF THE FESTIVAL "The dream, my seer, which I beheld last night Within our tent, may bring to us delight. I saw a mountain summit flash with fire, That like a royal robe or god's attire Illumined all its sides. The omen might Some joy us bring, for it was shining bright." And thus the Sar revealed to him his dream. Heabani said, "My friend, though it did seem Propitious, yet, deceptive was it all, And came in memory of Elam's fall. The mountain burning was Khumbaba's halls We fired, when all his soldiers from the walls Had fled;--the _ni-takh-garri_,[1]--on that morn, Of such deceptive dreams, I would thee warn!"