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the great god Marduk, the Son of the Earth, or Danikina. It is, in fiict, 

 only the old story of the fight which went on through all the Aryan mytho- 

 logy — -the contest between light and darkness, and, metaphorically, between 

 good and evil. We have only one part of the tablet ; the other is still under 

 Babylon, waiting to be dug out by Mr. Eassam. In another case a piece of a 

 tablet came over. It was only a few inches long and a few inches broad. Mr, 

 George Smith made out purt of a story from the inscription upon it, and shortly 

 afterwards Mr. Rassam brought over another piece which fitted the first and 

 turned out to belong to the very same inscription. In 1881, Mr. Rassam 

 sent over some more materials, one of which proved to be the bottom of the 

 tablet, and from these fragments was built up a complete history. Such is the 

 fate of some of the tablets. With regard to the word Babel, it is written 

 722 in the Hebrew. If it meant confusion, there is a root for it in the 

 Hebrew, which is 7?3 which means to " confuse." If Bdlal, or Battel 

 is to come to Ba-bel, one "1" must be assimilated, and you must have 

 Bab-bel for Bal-bel. The inscriptions, however, spell it Ba-bi-hi, so there is 

 no doubt whatever about it meaning " Gate of God," or Bab-el, and the word 

 has nothing to do with " confusion." I have treated this matter at some 

 length in my forthcoming little book on " Babylonian Life and History." 

 As to Nineveh, it is not the fish city which some people say it is. The 

 name is made up of signs which mean city, couch, and Nana respectively, 

 all of which means the resting-place of the chief god Nana. I have now 

 only to thank the meeting for the manner in which my paper has been 

 received. 



The meeting was then adjourned. 



