136 THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES^ LL.D., M.R.A.S., ON THE 



The most complete version of the Babylonian acconnt of the 

 Flood is the first one here referred to. This document forms 

 the eleventh tablet of the Gilgames series, and, as fate (or 

 Providence, if you will) would have it, this portion of the 

 legend is more perfect than any of the remaining tablets 

 — twelve in number — of the series. Layard, Kassam, G. Smith, 

 have all contributed, by the fragments they discovered, to its 

 completion, and the last-named recognised and adjusted, with 

 infinite patience, practically the whole of the fragments (one 

 little piece only fell to my share during the time of my em- 

 ployment at the British Museum) of which that eleventh 

 tablet is composed. It is pleasant to think that one of our 

 own countrymen was able to do such a good piece of work, and 

 thus lay the foundation of a really trustworthy text of these 

 important documents, besides attending to numerous fragments 

 of tablets in almost all the other sections of Assyro-Babylonian 

 literature. 



Before proceeding to speak of Professor Hilprecht's recent 

 discovery, however, it would perhaps be well to place before 

 you a very brief outline of the contents of the Gilgames series 

 in general, in order that you may understand how it comes that 

 the story of the great deluge — the very same deluge as that 

 related in Genesis, finds a place in it. Gilgames is the 

 Babylonian hero, king of Erech, whose name was at first read 

 Izdubar and Gistubar. The reading of Gilgames is furnished 

 by a Babylonian bilingual list excavated by Mr. Hormuzd 

 Eassam (we had to deplore his loss only last year) about thirty 

 years ago, and the pronunciation, as we have it, is therefore 

 authoritative. This hero has been identified with the Gilgamos 

 of Aelian, in his De NaUira Animcdiuw, xii, 21, where he is 

 described as having been the grandson of Sevechoros or 

 Sacchara. The daughter of this Babylonian king had been 

 confined by her father in a citadel in order that no offspring of 

 hers should take her father's kingdom, as the Babylonian sages 

 had predicted. A son was born to her notwithstanding this 

 precaution, and the daughter's guards, to save themselves, threw 

 the child down from the tower. A sharp-sighted eagle, however, 

 saw the falling infant, and flying beneath it, caught it on its 

 back, and let it down safely in a neighbouring garden, where 

 it was found by the caretaker, who, noticing the beauty of the 

 child, took a great liking for him, and brought him up. It was 

 he who, under the name of Gilgamos, became king of the 

 Babylonians. Aelian points out, however, that this is not 

 a unique instance of this kind of legend, another being the 



