338 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 89. 



raven flew off, and as it saw that the water 

 had fallen it turned back. It waded in the 

 water, but it returned not. 



" Then I caused all to go forth to the 

 four winds, and made a sacrifice. I erected 

 an altar on the peak of the mountain. I 

 disposed of the measured vases, seven by- 

 seven ; beneath them I spread seeds — cedar 

 and juniper. The gods smelled the odor. 

 The gods smelled the good odor. The gods 

 gathered like flies above the master of the 

 sacrifice. From afar then the goddess Istar 

 at her approach raised the great bows that 

 Anu has made as their glory. She said, 

 ' By the ornaments of my neck never will I 

 forget. These days will I remember and 

 never will I forget them forever. May the 

 gods come to my altar. Bel shall never 

 come to my altar, because he has not con- 

 trolled himself, and because he made the 

 deluge, and my people he has given over to 

 destruction.' 



'^ Bel also, at his approach, saw the vessel 

 from afar. Bel stood still; he was full of 

 anger against the gods and the god-like 

 ones. 



" "What soul has then escaped? 



" Never shall man survive the destruc- 

 tion. 



"Adar opened his mouth and he spake. 

 He said to the warrior Bel: 



" ' Who, also, if it be not Ea, can have 

 planned this ? And Ea knew and has in- 

 formed him.' Ea opened his mouth and 

 spake. He said to the warrior Bel: * Thou 

 herald of the gods, warrior, why hast thou 

 not controlled thyself; why hast thou made 

 the deluge ? Visit upon the sinner his sin, 

 upon the blasphemer his blasphemy. Be 

 persuaded not to destroy him. Be merci- 

 ful that he be not destroyed. Instead that 

 thou shouldst make a deluge, let the lions 

 come, and let them cut off men. Instead 

 that thou shouldst make a deluge, let the 

 hyenas come, and let them devour men. 

 Instead that thou shouldst make a deluge. 



let the famine come and destroy the land. 

 Instead that thou shouldst make the deluge, 

 let the god of pestilence come and destroy 

 the land. I have not disclosed the decision 

 of the great gods. Hasisadra has inter- 

 preted a dream, and has understood the 

 decision of the god.' Then Bel came to a 

 better mind. He mounted to the interior 

 of the vessel ; he took my hand and made 

 me to rise; myself made he to rise. He 

 made my wife to stand up, and put her 

 hand in mine; he turned around to us and 

 blessed us. 



'' ' Hitherto Hasisadra was mortal, and 

 behold, now, Hasisadra and his wife are 

 lifted up to the gods. He shall dwell far 

 away at the mouths of the rivers.' 



" They took me, and in a secluded place 

 at the months of the rivers they made me 

 abide." 



Surippak, the home of the wise man, on 

 the banks of the Euphrates, of high au- 

 thority before the deluge, is the same as 

 Sippara, where Xisuthros' ( = Hasisadra) , 

 according to Berosus, buried the holy writ- 

 ings before the flood. Its ruins have been 

 found in the Hill of Abu-Habba, about half- 

 way between Babylon (now Hilleh) and 

 Bagdad.* 



It was 'at the mouths of the rivers;' 

 that is, in time of the poem, the Euphrates 

 and the Tigris emptied separately into the 

 Persian Gulf. Hfow the Schat el Arab, 

 formed by the union of the two streams, 

 empties into the gulf, perhaps 400 kilome- 

 ters below the site of the ancient city, 

 across a delta so low and flat that the tide 

 runs up 300 kilometers, and at Old Mne- 

 vah the elevation is only 300 m. De- 

 litsch f has collected the evidence that the 

 two streams once flowed separately into 

 the gulf. Pliny says that almost nowhere 

 does the formation of land by a stream ad- 

 vance so rapidly as here. He mentions a 



* Carl Schmidt, loc. cit. , p. 20. 

 t Wo lag das Paradies. 



