HASISADRA'S ADVENTURE vn 



than those of Egypt, go much further back than 

 2000 B.C. All that can be said is, that the 

 former are hardly consistent with the supposition 

 that any catastrophe, competent to destroy all the 

 population, has befallen the land since civilisation 

 began, and that the latter are notoriously silent 

 about deluges. In such a case as this, however, 

 the silence of history does not leave the inquirer 

 wholly at fault. Natural science has something 

 to say when the phenomena of nature are in 

 question. Natural science may be able to show, 

 from the nature of the country, either that such 

 an event as that described in the story is 

 impossible, or at any rate highly improbable ; or, 

 on the other hand, that it is consonant with 

 probability. In the former case, the narrative 

 must be suspected or rejected ; in the latter, no 

 such summary verdict can be given : on the 

 contrary, it must be admitted that the story may 

 be true. And then, if certain strangely prevalent 

 canons of criticism are accepted, and if the 

 evidence that an event might have happened is 

 to be accepted as proof that it did happen, 

 Assyriologists will be at liberty to congratulate 

 one another on the " confirmation by modern 

 science " of the authority of their ancient 

 books. 



It will be interesting, therefore, to inquire how 

 far the physical structure and the other conditions 

 of the region in which Surippak was situated are 



