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THE VERB 139
bi indicates a subject remote from the centre. The notion of self­
interest, i. e., the dative force of the oblique case, is expressed by ba.
The subject (ba) comes and acts in his own interest. In fact bi may
represent a subject acting from a distant place, as in the phrase su-bi­
drg, • they have caused slaughter', a phrase used in the tablet' ot
Urukagina which describes how the soldiers of Umma carne to La­
gash and slew the people in their sanctuaries. Often in the phrase
gln-sú bi-sl!], •he smote with the axe', employed especially in the inscrip­
tions of Eannatum to describe the conquest of foreign countries.
The use of the prefix bi is rare and in business documents of the
classical period almos! exclusively confined to the phrase gis-bi-iag,
'he slaughtered' 2, em ployed of slaughtering sheep for sacrifice 3. ba
would then represent a subject acting from a distance for himself.
Thus in RTC. 46, a list of sheep brought to Lagash, in one instance we
find the entry, su-bi bUT'-d.nidaba X '-bi ba-iúm, • its pelt Bur-Nidaba
the tanner has taken away '. Especially clear is RTC. no. 25; a mer­
chant goes from Lagash to U mma taking copper to purchase gold; he is
given the copper by the wife of the patesi in Lagash (e-na-lal, 'she has
weighed out to him') i the phrase concerning the merchant runs, da-du­
lul dandwr umma-(ki)-Sú ba-ium, 'Dadulul, the merchant, hastaken
(the copper) to Umma'. nw having the force of near association is
clearly distinguished from the ethical ba of ren~ote association in NIK.
293; .• One mana of pure gold for purchasing slaves Ur-é-Innina, mer­
chant for the ' House of the \Vomen " has taken (ba-iúm). Therewith
one slave for 14 shekels of gold he has brought back mu-túm, and Urki
the gardener has taken him (ba-túm)". Here the two prefixes are
distinguished by a feeling of nearness in regard to mu, and of remoteness
and foreign self-interest in regard to ba. In the case of mu the subject
acts for the • centre' ; in the case of b the action, although in both cases
1. SAK. 56 le).
2. AIso frequently passive, as in RTC. ,í" rey. col. lII, 2.
3. Other examples oE prefixed bi IlOt in this sense but indefinite, in Syntaxe,
245, and ef. bi-ag, DP. 31 VI end,.
4. RTC. 293.