H4 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



This may be supposed to correspond with the Hebrew 

 verses following : 



And no plant of the field was yet in the earth. 



And no herb of the field had yet sprung up. 



For Jahveh Elohim had not caused it to rain on the 

 earth. 



And there was not a man to till (irrigate) the ground. 



And there went up a vapour from the earth, and watered 

 the surface of the ground. 



This is the Hebrew idea of the condition of the 

 great Mesopotamian plain after the pleistocene sub- 

 mergence, and before the appearance of man. The 

 Chaldean version refers to the same region, but is 

 more elaborate and artificial, and brings in the his- 

 toric cities of a later time. This difference alone 

 would induce us to suppose that the Hebrew record 

 may be a better guide for our present comparison. 



The Hebrew writer in the first place gives us to 

 understand that a period of comparative desolation 

 preceded the appearance of man, a great winter of 

 destruction preparatory to a returning spring. He 

 then proceeds to localise primeval man by placing 

 him in Eden, the Idinu of the Chaldean accounts* 

 which we also recognise by the geographical indica- 

 tions of the Euphrates and Tigris as its rivers, with 

 two companion streams which can scarcely be other 

 than the Karun and the Kerkhat. Thus the Bible 

 and the Chaldean account agree in their locality for 

 the advent of man, for Idinu was the ancient name of 

 the plain of Babylonia. It has been objected to this 



