employment and significance of myth in magic, and we shall have occasion
to refer to other instances, Sumerian, Babylonian, and Egyptian, in
which a myth has reached us in a magical setting.

(1) It will be seen that the subject-matter of any myth
treated in this way has a close connexion with the object
for which the incantation was performed.

In the present case the inference of magical use is drawn from certain
passages in the text itself, which appear to be explicable only on that
hypothesis. In magical compositions of the later period intended
for recitation, the sign for "Incantation" is usually prefixed.
Unfortunately the beginning of our text is wanting; but its opening
words are given in the colophon, or title, which is engraved on the
left-hand edge of the tablet, and it is possible that the traces of
the first sign there are to be read as EN, "Incantation".(1) Should
a re-examination of the tablet establish this reading of the word,
we should have definite proof of the suggested magical setting of the
narrative. But even if we assume its absence, that would not invalidate
the arguments that can be adduced in favour of recognizing the existence
of a magical element, for they are based on internal evidence and enable
us to explain certain features which are inexplicable on Dr. Poebel's
hypothesis. Moreover, we shall later on examine another of the
newly published Sumerian compositions from Nippur, which is not only
semi-epical in character, but is of precisely the same shape, script,
and period as our text, and is very probably a tablet of the same
series. There also the opening signs of the text are wanting, but far
more of its contents are preserved and they present unmistakable traces
of magical use. Its evidence, as that of a parallel text, may therefore
be cited in support of the present contention. It may be added that in