volume 2

INTRODUCTION. xvii
the astrologers to write both omen reports and letters,
and certain letters mention, incidentally, facts which
we should, hardly expect to find in this class of
document. Thus the writer of K. 167 excuses himself
from setting out on a journey because the day is not
favourable ; the writer of K. 551 tells the story of how
a fox made its way into the Royal Park of the city of
Assur and took refuge in a lake, but was afterwards
caught and killed ; and
the writer of Rm. "j^x, tells the
king that he believes the twentieth, twenty-second
and twenty-fifth days to be lucky for entering into
contracts.
The variety of the information contained in these
reports is best gathered from the fact that they were
sent from cities so far removed from each other as
Assur in the north and Erech in the south, and it can
only be assumed that they were dispatched by runners
or men mounted on swift horses. As reports also
come from Dilbat, Kutha, Nippur and Borsippa, all
cities of ancient foundation, the king was probably
well acquainted with the general course of events in
his empire.
Of the documents printed in this book all but
three are astrological ; they
are written on rectangular
clay tablets varying in size from ij by | inch to
3I by 2\, and they generally bear the senders name.
They contain quotations from ancient astrological
works concerning the omens, but it is interesting to
note that, although the ipsissima verba were preserved,
the interpretations were based upon more modern
2