29. Hea his son the god Merodach called, and the word he spake: 30. “Go, my son Merodach! 31. the light of the sky, my son Sin, whom heaven is grievously eclipsed, 32. (in) his eclipse from heaven is departing. 33. Those seven wicked gods, serpents[13] of death, having no fear, [Illustration: EAGLE-HEADED MAN. FROM NIMROUD SCULPTURE.] 34. those seven wicked gods, who like a whirlwind 35. (destroy) the life of mankind, 36. against the earth like a storm they come down. 37. In front of the bright one Sin fiercely they came, 38. the hero Samas and Rimmon the warrior, to their quarters (returned), 39. (Istar, with Anu the king, an illustrious seat chooses, and in the dominion of heaven is glorious). Most of the remainder of the legend, consisting of some forty lines, is unfortunately lost, owing to a fracture of the tablet. What is left, however, shows that Merodach, “the brilliance of the sun,” for such is the meaning of his name, who always appears in the Accadian hymns as a kind of Babylonian Prometheus and universal benefactor, comes to the help of the “labouring” moon, and “awe” goes before him. Dressed in “glistening armour of unsoiled cloths and broad garments,” he enters “the gate of the palace,” “a king, the son of his god, who, like the bright one, the moon-god, sustains the life of the land,” and there with a helmet of “light like the fire” upon his head, successfully overthrows the seven powers of darkness. The poem concludes with a prayer that they may never descend into the land, and traverse its borders. In this story, which differs again from all the others, Bel is supposed to place in the heaven the Moon, Sun, and Venus, the representative of the stars. The details have no analogy with the other stories, and this can only be considered a poetical myth of the Creation. This legend is part of the sixteenth tablet of the series on evil spirits; but the tablet contains other matters as well, the legend apparently being only quoted in it. There is another remarkable legend of the same sort in praise of the fire-god, on another tablet of this series published in “Cuneiform Inscriptions,” vol. iv. p. 15. The whole of this series concerns the wanderings of the god Merodach, who goes about the world seeking to remove curses and spells, and in every difficulty applying to his father Hea to learn how to combat the influence of the evil spirits, to whom all misfortunes were attributed.