256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Sitnapistim then beheld the land, Mount Nizir, on which the 

 ship grounded. It remained swinging there for seven days ; on 

 the seventh day Sitnapistim sent out a dove, which returned, then 

 a swallow, which flew to and fro, but also returned, and finally a 

 raven: "The raven went, saw the going down of the waters, 

 came croaking nearer, but did not come back." Sitnapistim then 

 left the ship with his people, built an altar on the summit of the 

 mountain, and offered sacrifice. The poem then runs : 



"The gods smelt the savor, the gods smelt the sweet savor, 

 The gods gathered like flies over the sacrificer. 



The mistress of the gods, Ishtar, lifted up the (bow?) which Anu had made 

 according to her wish." 



A discussion then takes place among the gods, who all through 

 are very human, and in its course Ea suggests to Bel, who seems 

 to have been the prime mover in all the mischief, that he should 

 for the future destroy mankind in a less undiscriminating man- 

 ner by wild beasts, pestilence, and famine. The scene ends 

 happily with the apotheosis of Sitnapistim and his wife. 



The surprising resemblance of the story to the biblical narra- 

 tive, extending into identity of words, as in the case of the " gods 

 smelt the sweet savor/' points to direct derivation or borrowing, 

 and there can be very little doubt in deciding on which side the 

 borrowing lav. The biblical narrative is indeed a Jahvistic or 

 monotheistic edition of the Chaldean. To this conclusion the 

 most distinguished Assyrian scholars have been led. I need 

 only mention here Prof. Sayce, whose opinion is expressed on 

 page 119 of his work on The Higher Criticism and the Monu- 

 ments, published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowl- 

 edge, during the current year. 



The Chaldean story certainly reduces the flood to much smaller 

 dimensions, and so far brings it nearer the range of probability ; 

 the rain lasted only seven days, and the waters have subsided 

 sufficiently at the end of a fortnight for Sitnapistim to land. 

 They do not cover all the high mountains, and the stranding of 

 the ship on Mount Nizir when the flood was at its climax gives 

 us a maximum height, which it can not have exceeded ; for if this 

 mountain had been deeply submerged, it could not have arrested 

 the passage of the ship. The height of the Nizir mountains is 

 about one thousand feet above the sea level, which still leaves 

 room for a very respectable flood. 



The skepticism which prevailed in the middle of this century 

 with regard to legends seems to have given place to an almost 

 equally great credulity. The older argument seemed to be that 

 the presence of some obviously unveracious statements in a legend 

 condemned the rest, want of faith in some was want of faith in 



