APPENDIX A 81 



of Nizir stopped the ship. The fifth day, the sixth day, the 

 mountain of Nizir stopped the ship. The seventh day when it 

 approached I sent forth a dove, and it left. The clove" went and re- 

 turned, and found no resting-place, and it came back. Then I sent 

 forth a swallow, and it left. The swallow went and returned and 

 found no resting-place, and it came back. I sent forth a raven, 

 and it left. The raven went and saw the carrion on the water, 

 and it ate, it swam, it wandered away ; it did not return. I sent 

 (the animals) forth to the four winds, I sacrificed a sacrifice. I 

 built an altar on the peak of the mountain. I set vessels [each 

 containing the third of an ephah] by sevens ; underneath them I 

 spread reeds, pinewood, and spices. The gods smelt the savour ; 

 the gods smelt the good savour ; the gods gathered like flies over 

 the sacrifices. Thereupon the great goddess at her approach 

 lighted up the rainbow which Ami had created according to his 

 glory. The crystal brilliance of those gods before me may I not 

 forget." 



Prof. Sayce goes on to say that " The land of Nizir, in which 

 the vessel of Sisuthros rested, was among the mountains of Pir 

 Mam, to the north-east of Babylonia." A widespread Eastern 

 tradition makes Gebel Gudi or Mount Gudi on the boundary 

 between Armenia and Kurdistan, the mountain on which the 

 Ark rested. The mountains of Ararat might have been the 

 Kurdish ranges of Southern Armenia. 



The peculiar value of the Babylonian Tablets consists in their 

 having preserved the uncorrupted Accadian or Chaldean version 

 of the Deluge. The tradition however survived in all its 

 main points, though with variations, in the countries round 

 Armenia and in the Euphrates Valley, whence it passed into 

 Greece under the designation of the Deluge of Deucalion. Lucian 

 in his work De Ded Syrid, after recording the tradition that the 

 former race of man was doomed to destruction on account of its 

 wickedness, and was destroyed by a flood which covered the whole 

 earth, proceeds to say that Deucalion alone was preserved to 

 re-people the world, and that " His preservation was effected in 

 this manner. He put all his family, both his sons and their 

 wives, into a vast ark, which he had provided ; and he went into 

 it himself. At the same time animals of every species, boars y 



G 



