136 GEOLOGY AND HI 'STORY 



have a right to infer from the perfection of these arts 

 in early postdiluvian times, when it can scarcely be 

 supposed that the new communities of men had fully 

 regained the position of their ancestors before the 

 destruction caused by the great Flood. Lenormant, 

 however, remarks here : 



'The Biblical narrative bears the stamp of an 

 inland nation, ignorant of things appertaining to 

 navigation. In Genesis the name of the ark, Tebah, 

 signifies " chest," and not " vessel " ; and there is 

 nothing said about launching the ark on the water ; 

 no mention either of the sea, or of navigation, or any 

 pilot. In the Epopee of Uruk, on the other hand, 

 everything indicates that it was composed among 

 a maritime people ; each circumstance reflects the 

 manners and customs of the dwellers on the shores 

 of the Persian Gulf. Hasisadra goes on board a 

 vessel, distinctly alluded to by its appropriate appel- 

 lation ; this ship is launched, and makes a trial-trip 

 to test it : all its chinks are calked with bitumen, 

 and it is placed under the charge of a pilot.' 



This remark, which I find made by other com- 

 mentators as well, suggests, it seems to me, somewhat 

 different conclusions. The Hebrews when settled, 

 either in Egypt or in Canaan, were near to the sea- 

 coast, and familiar with boats and with the ships of 

 the Phoenicians. If, therefore, they persisted in 

 calling Noah's ark a ' chest/ it must have been from 

 unwillingness to change an old history derived from 

 their Chaldean or Mesopotamian ancestors, or be- 



