vii HASISADRA'S ADVENTURE 241 



The story thus given in summary abstract, told 

 in an ancient Semitic dialect, is inscribed in 

 cuneiform characters upon a tablet of burnt clay. 

 Many thousands of such tablets, collected by 

 Assurbanipal, King of Assyria in the middle of 

 the seventh century B.C., were stored in the 

 library of his palace at Nineveh ; and, though in 

 a sadly broken and mutilated condition, they have 

 yielded a marvellous amount of information to 

 the patient and sagacious labour which modern 

 scholars have bestowed upon them. Among the 

 multitude of documents of various kinds, this 

 narrative of Hasisadra's adventure has been found 

 in a tolerably complete state. But Assyriologists 

 agree that it is only a copy of a much more 

 ancient work ; and there are weighty reasons for 

 believing that the story of Hasisadra's flood was 

 well known in Mesopotamia before the year 

 2000 B.C. 



No doubt, then, we are in presence of a 

 narrative which has all the authority which 

 antiquity can confer; and it is proper to deal 

 respectfully with it, even though it is quite as 

 proper, and indeed necessary, to act no less 

 respectfully towards ourselves; and, before pro- 

 fessing to put implicit faith in it, to inquire what 

 claim it has to be regarded as a serious account of 

 an historical event. 



It is of no use to appeal to contemporary 

 history, although the annals of Babylonia, no less 



105 



