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247 Fig. 80 She cast me into the river; it did not sink me. The river bore me up. it carried me to Akki the irrigator. Akki the irrigator lifted me up when he drew water; Akki, the irrigator, as his son made me and reared me. Akki. the irrigator, appointed me as his gardener. This Moses-like tale (written more than a thousand years before the time of Moses!) then continues to answer the obvious question: How could a man of unknown fatherhood, a mere gardener, be- come a mighty king? Sargon answered the questions thus: While I was a gardener, Ishtar granted me her love. And for four and fifty years I exercised Kingship; The Black-headed people I ruled and governed. ter between Sargon the workingman and Ishtar the lovely goddess was accidental but far from innocent: "A Queen Am I!" The laconic statement is elaborated in another text. The encoun-