[424] The prayers and hymns of the Babylonians are only beginning to receive the attention they deserve at the hands of scholars. Sayce, e.g., in the specimens attached to his Hibbert Lectures, pp. 479-520, does not even distinguish properly between pure hymns and mere incantations. Now that Dr. Bezold's great catalogue of the Koujunjik collection of the British Museum is completed, the opportunity is favorable for some one to study the numerous unpublished fragments of hymns in the British Museum, and produce in connection with those that have been published a comprehensive work on the subject. Knudtzon's Assyrische Gebete an den Sonnengott may serve as a model for such a work.
[425] IVR. 28, no. 1.
[426] Some specification of the kind of vessel meant.
[427] Inscriptions were written on various metals,—gold, silver, antimony, lead, copper, etc.
[428] IVR. 20, no. 2.
[430] Published by Bertin in the Revue d'Assyriologie, no. 4, and translated by Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, p. 573. I adopt Sayce's translation, Bertin's publication being inaccessible to me.
[431] Probably 'horizon.'
[432] Lit., speak to thee of peace.