THE DELUGE OF NOAH 135 



diction, so that they remain in their original form of 

 the alleged testimony of eye-witness.es, a peculiarity 

 which attaches also to the Chaldean version, as this 

 purports to be in the form given by Hasisadra, the 

 Chaldean Noah, himself. 1 



Let us now inquire into the physical aspects of 

 the Deluge, as they are said to have presented them- 

 selves to the ancient witness or witnesses to whom 

 we owe the Biblical account of the catastrophe, and 

 endeavour to ascertain if they have any agreement 

 with the conditions of the great post-glacial Deluge 

 of geology. Let it be observed here that we are 

 dealing not with prehistoric events but with a 

 written history, supposed by some to have been 

 compiled from two contemporary documents, and 

 corroborated by the testimony of the ancient Chal- 

 dean tablets copied by the scribes of Assurbanipal, 

 apparently from different originals, preserved in very 

 ancient Chaldean temples. 



The preparation of an ark or ship, and the 

 accommodation therein, not only of Noah and his 

 family, but of a certain number of animals, is a 

 feature in which most Deluge narratives agree. 

 This implies a considerable advance in the arts of 

 construction and navigation, but not more than we 



1 Translation of G. Smith and others. With reference to the 

 preservation of this and the Hebrew narrative in writing, we should 

 bear in mind that writing was an art well known in Chaldea and 

 Egypt immediately after the Deluge, or at least between 2000 and 

 3000 B.C., and that the Chaldean narrator speaks of documents hidden 

 by Noah at Sippara before the Deluge. 



