The place where dust is their nourishment, and mud their food;
Light is never seen, in darkness they dwell.”
Parallel with this is the description of Hades, supposed to be given by the dead friend of Gisdhubar, in the [pg 153] great Chaldean epic in which the account of the deluge is embodied. Here we read—
“To Hades, the land whence none return, I turn myself,
I spread like a bird my hands.
I descend, I descend, to the house of darkness, the dwelling of the god Irkalla.
To the house out of which there is no exit.
To the road from which there is no return,
To the house from whose entrance the light is taken,
The place where dust is their nourishment, and mud their food,