The king called his chamberlain to his side, a man most trusted, and charged him, saying, “Go take this Nintursu, this temple maiden, and carry her into the land of Kithis, entering by stealth. She is with child and when it is born slay it letting its blood fall upon the soil in the land of Kithis”.
The chamberlain prepared and departed, taking with him men of blood and their captain. They traveled so they came upon the temple at first light in the morning. Nintursu was taken and they left ornaments of gold and silver.
Now, Nintursu was not delivered of the child when they came to the boundary of the land, so they camped there and in the days that followed men went out to spy. The captain was a man skilled in war and courageous, a man of many battles, and Nintursu spoke often with him. But between her and the chamberlain few words were spoken.
It happened that when Nintursu’s time was upon her and the child to be delivered, it was the days of full moon; therefore, the child could not be slain, so they bided until the dark of the moon. Then, when the order of things was right, the chamberlain called the captain and said, “This is a task for a man of blood and I am not such a one, therefore you take the child and slay it over the border. Seven men will go with you, that all these may bear witness to the deed and swear to it”.
Now, the men of blood were grim men of battles, strangers to soft beds and gentle ways of women, but some among them were the companions of Nintursu during the first days of her motherhood. Also there was one whose father had been a worshipper at the Temple of the Seven Enlightened Ones before it was abandoned by all who followed the king. There were those who murmured, saying, “This is a task for those in high places who speak with honeyed tongues and carry concealed knives that stab in the back, this is not for fighting men”.
It was true. This was no task for men of clashing metal, it was a deed more suited to squeamish-stomached courtiers; but, lacking backbone, these have ever needed others to do their dirty work spawned through intrigue and conspiracy. Lord, hasten the day when real men are no longer manipulated by half men! The captain put the child into a basket prepared by Nintursu. It was placed upon an ass. Then he and his men went over the boundary to a place where neither tree nor grass grew; but about ten bowshots distant a stream ran through it to water fields and pastures in the valley below. When they stopped, the captain took down the basket and opened it, but when he gazed upon the face of the child his heart held his hand. He was a man of battles who slew in war, a slayer of men in combat, not a weak-kneed man of intrigue and slayer of children. He closed the basket and said to those who had come with him, “We will bide our time here until nightfall. If we loose the blood of the child here it will be absorbed into dead soil and do no harm, but if we carry it further, down into the valley, it will fall on living soil”. None with him answered, for they were but simple fighting men knowing not that the blood could have been let into the waters. Or maybe they understood the heart of their captain. The captain said, “It is hot, we have time enough before those who dwell below are asleep; therefore, let us drink wine and rest awhile”. So they drank wine which had been brought and rested; becoming drowsy they eventually fell asleep. Darkness fell.
Now, the ass had not eaten since the morning, nor had it drunk at the stream and the captain of men bided his time, for he had a plan and this was a place known to him. In the gathering darkness he put the basket, with the child inside, back on the ass. It was a good place of concealment, under an overhanging rock, with thickets of thorn all around while below the ground fell away steeply, being covered with rocks and loose stones. Only the captain knew how, in the darkness, a large stone was loosed from above, bringing down many others with it, so that stones fell all about the place where the men lay under the overhang. They were heavy with wine, they shouted, they stumbled and fell; one was struck by a dart, another by a spear; there was a clash in the darkness though none was killed. The ass, loosed from its halter, fled and none could stop it.
Wrathfully the captain shouted, “What kind of men have I been given, why have you not brought trumpets to announce our coming? Who can see the ass among the bushes or hear it among the stones? Then, as lights appeared below and the voices of men were heard in the night, they withdrew.
Coming to a place of safety the men took counsel among themselves, for the captain of the men said, “If you would go unpunished for this night, then you must slay me now; even then, can you return without me? Also, who knows where the blood will flow? Therefore, shall we not all say, with mine own eyes I beheld the blood of this child and know it is dead? Are we men of wisdom who live, or are we foolish ones who die? Thus, borne on the back of an ass Hurmanetar came to the land of Kithis.