[4] Assyrian, Apsu, “the ocean.”
[5] Assyrian, Mummu, “chaos.”
[6] Assyrian, Lakhmu or Lakhvu; and Lakhama or Lakhva.
[7] Though Lakhmu properly represented Anu or Anatu, he sometimes takes the place of the Solar hero Ninip as husband of Gula, “the great” goddess.
[8] The seven “sheep (or oxen) of the hero” Tammuz (Orion), of which the first was “the plough-handle,” perhaps Benelnash. One of the others was “the shepherd of the heavenly flock” or Arcturus.
[9] This is Dr. Oppert’s rendering of a line which is so mutilated as to make any attempt at translation extremely doubtful.
[10] The word used here is Accadian (ba-an-an-me).
[11] Since, however, a bilingual tablet states that the pronunciation of the Accadian word for “the desert” which lay on the west side of the Euphrates (where Ur was built) was edinna, it is possible that “the Garden of Eden” of Genesis may be the cultivated portion of edinna, “the desert,” in the neighbourhood of Eridu.
[12] The seven mustakridhât of Syria, the seven days between February the 25th and March 3rd, when evil spirits are supposed to have special power.
[13] This is the Assyrian translation. The Accadian original has simply “men of death.” The lightnings are still regarded as serpents by the Canadian Indians who call the thunder their hissing (Baring-Gould, “Curious Myths,” ii. p. 146).