Berosus and Critodemus are said by Pliny to have made the inscribed stellar observations reach to 480 years before the era of Phoroneus; as the latter date was supposed to be about the middle of the eighteenth century B.C., 480 years before it comes also to about the period of Kudur-nankhundi. Diodorus makes the Assyrian empire commence a thousand years or more before the Trojan war. Ctesias and Cephalion make its foundation early in the twenty-second century B.C. The two last statements, however, are probably derived from Ctesias, whose so-called history has been shown by cuneiform decipherment to have been a mere fiction put together out of misunderstood myths and fragments of theology. In any case, too, they apply only to the foundation of the Assyrian power, which was modern as compared with that of Babylonia, in spite of the assertion of Sargon, who boasts of having been preceded on the throne by 350 kings. Of the latter part of the first tablet of the Izdubar Epic we have as yet no knowledge. CHAPTER XII. MEETING OF HEA-BANI AND IZDUBAR. Dream of Izdubar.—Hea-bani.—His wisdom.—His solitary life.—Izdubar’s petition.—Zaidu.—Kharimtu and Samkhat.—Tempt Hea-bani.—Might and fame of Izdubar.—Speech of Hea-bani.—His journey to Erech.—The midannu or tiger.—Festival at Erech.—Dream of Izdubar.—Friendship with Hea-bani. In this chapter are included the fragments of what appear to be the second and third tablets or books. In this section of the story Izdubar comes prominently forward, and meets with Hea-bani. The notice of his mother Dannat appears in one of the tablets given in this chapter. Izdubar, in the Babylonian and Assyrian sculptures, is always represented with a marked physiognomy, and his peculiarities can be seen by noticing the photograph from a Babylonian gem at the beginning of the book, the engraving from an Assyrian sculpture in the last chapter, and the engraving in page 249 showing Izdubar and Hea-bani struggling with wild animals. In all these cases, and in every other instance where Izdubar is represented, he is indicated as a man with masses of curls over his head and a large curly beard. The type is so marked and so distinct from either the Assyrian or the Babylonian one that it is hard to say to what race it should be attached. The deity of Izdubar was Lugal-turda, the god who was changed into the bird of storm according to the old myth, from which it may be supposed that he was a native of the district of Amarda or Marad, where that god was worshipped. This district Mr. Smith thought was probably the Amordacia or Mardocæa of Ptolemy, but its situation is uncertain. The fragments of the second and third tablets assume by their notices that Izdubar was already known as a mighty hunter, and it appears a little later that he claimed descent from the old Babylonian heroes, as he calls Xisuthrus, the Chaldean Noah, his “father.” TABLET II.