404 
fragments of inscriptions in the space of four months. Many of 
them formed part of the texts, the other portions of which were 
already in the British Museum, and the recently acquired 
fragments enable scholars either to complete or to enlarge these 
inscriptions. 
Previous to Mr. Smith’s two visits to Assyria and Babylonia, 
the list of Babylonian Kings was very limited. In “ Rawlinson’s 
Ancient Monarchies,” second edition, published in 1871, only 28 
are given, reaching backward from B.c. 747 (after that period 
they are well known). A great advance has now been made, 
though the catalogue is not complete, but there are upwards of 
130 that are now upon record. 
The light already thrown by the Assyrian inscriptions on 
Biblical History forms one of the most interesting features in 
cuneiform enquiry, and there can be no question (as Mr. Smith 
observes) that further researches will settle many questions still 
in doubt, and give us new information in this field, of an impor- 
tant character. ‘The value of the Assyrian and Babylonian 
mythology rests not only on its curiosity as the religious system 
of a great people, but in the fact that here we must look, if 
anywhere, for the origin and explanation of many of the obscure 
points of mythology of Greece and Rome. It is evident that 
in every way the classical nations of antiquity borrowed far more 
from the valley of the Euphrates than that of the Nile, and 
Chaldea rather than Egypt is the home even of the civilization 
_ of Europe.”* 
After all the inscriptions we have obtained through Mr. 
Smith’s exertions, he calculates that there remain at least 
® Mons. Lenormant has lately shown that the Figures which occur in 
Gnostic Gems, and which were supposed by De Rossi and Mr. King to be 
Chinese, are really of Assyrian origin, and represent Demons of Plagues and 
Diseases, which are engraved upon amulets for the purpose of preservation 
from harm. See “ La Majic.” - 
