In this leaf, a building struck by lightning is portrayed, through a thunderbolt shot by Jupiter, and conveyed by the "Messenger," Mercury. The "lightning god" was one of Nebo's titles, and the mark is retained on the Japanese cards, although probably accidentally, since there is no connection between their playing cards and the original Atouts. Some writers call this tower the "castle of Plutus" (the Roman god of wealth), deeming it a warning to misers, for it recalls the legend relating to an incident in the life of Rameses II, recorded in Herodotus. The Pharaoh ordered a tower to be built for his treasures, and he alone had its key, but daily he discovered that his valuables were disappearing, although there was only one egress. A watch was set, and it was found that two of the sons of the architect could enter by displacing a stone, that had been left for the purpose of thieving, and when the men were entrapped inside, they threw themselves headlong from the tower. This picture shows a connection with Egyptian legend that must not be disregarded in seeking to trace the Tarots to the mysteries of Thoth. Besides, some persons believe that the card represents the destruction of the temples of Babylon, and due weight must be given to the significance awarded by that people to lightning, when consulting the gods through divination, particularly as it was the weapon of Jove (Merodach), who was connected with the Baal of the Bible, and sometimes worshipped as Enlil, who was frequently implored not to destroy his people by lightning. But there are other legends connected with the destruction of ancient temples that are even older than that of Egypt, and we are lucky to have access to one that has lately been translated from the Sumerian language, written in cuneiform characters on one of the tablets discovered by Prof. Herman V. Hilprecht in the Temple Library of Nippur. Above two hundred of them were of a religious or historical character, which he set apart for the well-known scholar, Doctor Radau, to translate. These related chiefly to the worship of the gods of the second dynasty of Ur, or about two thousand five hundred years before Christ. "Although the beginning of the Babylonian religion, as portrayed in these tablets," says Doctor Radau, in "Miscellaneous Sumerian Texts from the Temple Library of Nippur" (page 389), "has to be sought somewhere at about 5700 B. C., when the religions of Babylon were systematized." One tablet relates how a king of that period conquered his enemies with the help of the chief god, who at that time was named Enlil, "the Governor of the gods," "the god who destines fate." It was his son, Nebo, who was his confidential messenger, his "lightning-rod," and who wrote on the "tablets of Fate" the decrees of the supreme being at the birth of each mortal. It may be noted that Nebo is given a different father at different times, but so it is in the mythologies as now