^{page 39 note 1} The text appears to suggest that the lady prepared a meal for the successful rebels by roasting a kid. The abrupt transition here to a definite feminine verbal form—not expected, as the several renderings of the passage suggest—is comparable to the well-known passage in Ashurbanipal's Prism (Rassam prism, VI. 122, 123, ina kirib Uruk^ki ušeribši-ma ina E-ḫilianna ša tarammu, ‘Into Erech I caused her to enter, into E-ḫilianna which she loves’).

^{page 39 note 2} If there is one thing that the Prefect is not doing, it is to mourn the King, and I cannot agree with Bezold, Meissner, Olmstead, or Ebeling on the interpretation of this text. Meissner (Bab.-Ass. I. 79) says: ‘Ein Brief berichtet uns von Feierlichkeiten, die in der Stadt Assur bei einer solchen Gelegenheit stattfanden: Die Bewohner der Stadt weinen, der Statthalter führt seine Gemahlin aus dem Palaste, ein Opferlamm wird geschlachtet, ein Offizier wird beim Stadtpräfekten einquartiert, die Offiziere legen Trauerkleider an, versammeln sich, mit goldenen Spangen geschmückt, beim Stadt-präfekten, wo ein Sänger mit seinen Sängerinnen Lieder vorträgt.’ Ebeling (Tod und Leben, 58) says that it ‘Trauerceremonien bei der Meldung vom Tode eines assyrischen Königs beschreibt’. Olmstead (Hist. 341) thus gives his views of the events which took place: ‘When the news was made public that Sennacherib was dead, the wife of the governor of Ashur hastily entered the palace to comfort him, but he sent her out. The inhabitants wept, a kid was sacrificed, the officials placed rings on their fingers and clothed themselves in red, the colour of death. … The governor and his troops were covered with wrappings and the partisans of Esar-haddon frankly admit that at first they feared when they saw the drawn iron daggers of the governor of Ashur and his assassins.’

The ‘red dress’ (most improbable as a mourning garb) is now eliminated with the reading kusiati, ‘headbands’, and we can now abandon this, as well as the suggestion adirti for ṣubat dir-ti, made by von Soden, (Z.A. 1936, 255)Google Scholar. The fact that the officers put on headbands shows that a mourning was definitely not intended, for Sargon says ( Thureau-Dangin, , Huit. Camp. 1.411)Google Scholar “ ^mUrsâḳaḳḳariš ippalsiḫ naḫlapâte-šu ušarriṭ-ma uššera idê-šúišḫuṭ Uhut kubussu pirat-su iḫsip, &c., ‘Ursa threw himself on the ground, rent his garments, loosed his loins, tore off his headband, tore his hair’, &c.

^{page 41 note 1} It might almost be suggested that the letter (Harper, ib. No. 1023, K. 5213, b) written to a king might be assigned here, ‘On this fifth day of Ṭebet, whoever there is of the city of Rimusi who does not come, who has not come for the life of the king, my lord, verily every man before the god Ashur … the king my lord, … will give …’. It has certainly a modern Dictatorial ring about it.

^{page 42 note 1} The so-called ‘Nabu’ statues. That these cannot have been of the god Nabu is well shown by Gadd, , The Stones of Assyria, 150 Google Scholar.