GEOLOGIES AND DELUGES. 259 



flood," might liave drank up all the sea water which came there 

 without any assistance from Glenlivat. If we admit that the 

 Tigris valley was ever submerged up to this point and restored to 

 its original condition in the course of fourteen days, we are con- 

 fronted with a catastrophe not only stupendous in degree, but of 

 a nature beyond our present powers of explanation. 



But are we compelled to admit anything of the sort, and would 

 it not be well before doing so to inquire a little more closely into 

 the credentials and character of the Chaldean story ? We have 

 seen that the tablets on which it occurs were found in King Assur- 

 banipal's library, and it is fairly certain that they were copied 

 from others much older preserved in the ancient city of Erech, the 

 city of books. It is indeed probable that the tablets in Erech may 

 date from the time of King Khammarubi, or from about 2350 b. c. 

 Tlie tablets present themselves therefore with good recommenda- 

 tions, and we proceed to the character of the story itself. It does 

 not occur alone, but as one chapter out of twelve in a long poem 

 of about three thousand lines, concerning the adventures of a 

 mythical hero named Izdubar or Gizdubar, perhaps the same as 

 Nimrod, that " mighty hunter before the Lord " of biblical story, 

 and plainly the prototype of the Greek Hercules. 



The first tablet, containing the first chapter, is incomplete. So 

 far as can be made out, it sets forth the misfortunes of the city of 

 Erech, probably under the oppression of its Elamite enemies, who 

 were so terrible in battle that poor Ishtar, its protecting goddess, 

 " could not lift up her head against the foe." 



The second and third introduce Gizdubar, already famous as a 

 hunter, as the hero, who was looked for to deliver the city. His 

 rivals induce Ururu, the mother of the gods, to fashion a strange 

 being, Eabani, half man and half bull, to fight with Gizdubar. 

 This monster comes to Erech, bringing with him a powerful lion, 

 desert-bred, to fight Gizdubar ; but the hero succeeds in slaying 

 the lion, and so wins the friendship and esteem of Eabani. In 

 the fourth and fifth tablets the friends encounter and overcome 

 the terrible tyrant Humbaba, whose voice was as " the roaring of 

 the storm, his mouth wickedness, and his breath poison." The 

 sixth tablet, which is well preserved, tells how the hero was be- 

 loved of Ishtar. " Be my husband," she says, " and I will be thy 

 wife. I will make thee to ride in a chariot of gold and precious 

 stones, with golden wheels and diamond horns. When thou 

 enterest our house under the pleasant fragrance of the cedar, men 

 shall kiss thy feet. Kings, princes, and lords shall bow down be- 

 fore thee, and bring tribute." Gizdubar, however, is not to be 

 seduced; he repels the advances of the goddess, who then presents 

 herself as a naturally angry woman before her father Ann, and 

 persuades him to frame a divine bull which is to destroy Gizdu- 



