The text of the Twelfth Tablet is very fragmentary, and contains large gaps, but it seems certain that Gilgamish did not abandon his hope of finding the secret of immortality. He had failed to find it upon earth, and he made arrangements with the view of trying to find it in the kingdom of the dead. The priests whom he consulted described to him the conditions under which he might hope to enter the Underworld, but he was unable to fulfil the obligations which they laid upon him, and he could not go there. Gilgamish then thought that if he could have a conversation with Enkidu, his dead friend, he might learn from him what he wanted to know. He appealed to Bêl and asked him to raise up the spirit of Enkidu for him, but Bêl made no answer; he then appealed to Sin, and this god also made no answer. He next appealed to Ea, who, taking pity on him, ordered the warrior god Nergal to produce the spirit of Enkidu, and this god opened a hole in the ground through which the spirit of Enkidu passed up into this world "like a breath of wind." Gilgamish began to ask the spirit of Enkidu questions, but gained very little information or satisfaction. The last lines of the tablet seem to say that the spirit of the unburied man reposeth not in the earth, and that the spirit of the friendless man wandereth about the streets eating the remains of food which are cast out from the cooking pots. E. A. Wallis Budge. Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum, July 24th, 1920. Note. The Trustees of the British Museum have published large selections of cuneiform texts from the cylinders, tablets, etc., that were found in the ruins of Nineveh by Layard, Rassam, Smith and others, in the following works:-- CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS OF WESTERN ASIA. Vol. I. 1861. Fol. Il. (Out of print.) ---- Vol. II. 1866. Fol. Il. (Out of print.) ---- Vol. III. 1870. Fol. Il. ---- Vol. IV. Second edition. 1891. Fol. Il. (Out of print.) ---- Vol. V. Plates I.-XXXV. 1880. Fol. 10S. 6d. (Out of print.) ---- Vol. V. Plates XXXVI-LXX. 1884. Fol. 10S. 6d. (Out of print.) ---- Vol. V. Plates I.-LXX. Lithographed reprint. 1909. Fol. Il. 7s. INSCRIPTIONS FROM ASSYRIAN MONUMENTS. 1851. Fol. I1. 1s. CUNEIFORM TEXTS FROM BABYLONIAN TABLETS, &C., IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Parts I.-V., VII.-XXIII., XXV., XXVII.-XXXIV. 50 plates each. 1896-1914.7s.6d. each. ---- Part VI. 49 plates. 1898. 7s. 6d. ---- Part XXIV. 50 plates. 1908. Fol. 10s. ---- Part XXVI. 54 plates. 1909. Fol. 12s. ANNALS OF THE KINGS OF ASSYRIA. Cuneiform texts with transliterations and translations. Vol. I. 1903. 4to. 1l. CATALOGUE OF THE CUNEIFORM TABLETS IN THE KOUYUNJIK COLLECTION. Vol. I. 8vo. 1889. 15s. ---- Vol. II. 1891. 15s. ---- Vol. III. 1894. 15s. ---- Vol. IV. 1896. 1l. ---- Vol. V. 1899. 1l. 3s. ---- Supplement. 8vo. I914. 1l. FOOTNOTES [1] A group of Sumerian words for "library" are (girginakku), and these seem to mean "collection of writings."