1893.] Legends of the Sumiro-Accadians of Chaldea. 105 
LEGENDS OF THE SUMIRO-ACCADIANS OF 
CHALDEA. 
By Atice BODINGTON. 
(Continued from Vol. XXVII, p. 19.) 
In Genesis, as is well known, two distinct accounts exist of 
the creation of the world and of Man, of which variants are 
found in the cuneiform inscriptions. One of these variants, 
lately found on a tablet of baked clay, with a parallel Semitic 
translation, is of great interest. It begins at an earlier period 
of cosmic history than either the Biblical or the hitherto known 
Chaldean account! Whilst the version of the first chapter of 
Genesis’ begins with a description of chaos and the old Semitic 
Babylonian version with the time “ when the heavens were not 
proclaimed and the earth recorded not a name,” the Sumiro- 
Accadian account begins with a description of the time when 
the “ glorious house of the gods (apparently the sky,) had not 
been made, a plant had not been brought forth nor a tree 
created; when a brick had not been laid, a beam not shaped, 
a house not built, a city not constructed and a glorious foun- 
dation or dwelling of men had not been made.” But when 
“within the sea there was a stream,” then “ the glorious city 
of the gods, the divine Eridhu,” was built, of which Babylon, 
the earthly Eridhu, was a faint copy. Then the tablet men- 
tions the creation of living beings, not men as yet, but gods 
and the spirits “Anunnaki” ; and the supreme deity proclaims 
the existence of the “ glorious city, the seat of the joy of their 
hearts.” Meridug, son of Ea, now “ made a foundation before 
the waters”; made dust and poured it out with the blood, 
and in one single line “he made mankind.” The female 
principle, the goddess Araru, (the Bohu of Chaldean legend 
the Bohu of Genesis 1.2) “ made the seed of mankind with him.” 
1That deci ith. 
*New Vasa a ope ence Paper read by Mr. T. G. Pinches, 
of the British Museum, at the International Oriental Congress. 
8 
