The queen with her own maids alone
Retired within her palace walls
For purity in Erech's halls.

Like the corn-god his face concealed,
Of men and countries he possessed,
Great wisdom by the gods revealed:
As Ner[3] the god, his limbs were dressed.
With wild gazelles he ate his food
While roaming with them in the night;
For days he wandered in the wood,
And bu-hir-tser-i[4] him delight.

The Zi-ar-ri[5] Heabani loves,
That play within the running streams;
With Zi-ti-am-a-ti[6] he roves
Upon the sands in warm sunbeams.

"The prince returns, O Sar!" the herald said,
And low before the throne he bowed his head;
"Our Zaidu, the bewitcher of all men,
Doth unsuccessful to us come again.
Before the cave the seer confronted him
Three days where Khar-sak's snowy brow doth gleam.
Heabani with his beast in his cave went,
And Zaidu waited, but his courage spent
When he beheld the seer and beast remain
Within the cave, and all his words were vain.
The prince remains without with downcast face,
And beg of thee, his Sar, thy sovereign grace."