THE LATEST DISCOVERIES IN BABYLONIA. 



169 



have preceded the less perfect — the birds and creeping things. 

 This is a point in which the Biblical account is the more consis- 

 tent, though we cannot speak with absolute certainty, as the 

 Babylonian records (except the bilingual version) are not 

 complete at this point. The Dailji TcJrgrcqih fragment, more- 

 over, reads, as far as it is preserved, as follows : 



"AVhenthe gods, in their assembly, created [living things] 

 They formed the azure(?) firniament(!'), they C()mpacted(?) 



"the .... 

 They sent forth the livino- [creatjures .... 

 The beasts of the field, [the animals of] the Held, and the 



denizens of . . . 

 . . . . to the living creatures .... 

 [The beasts of] the field and the denizens of the city they 

 brought [into beiug(^)].*" 



This inscrii)ti()n, which is very mutilated, seems to have 

 formed part of a relation in the first ])erson, as it has, in line 8, 

 the words sa ina 'p^^Jii'^ l-imfi-i", which in the assembly of my 

 family." The next line contaius the name of the god Nin-igi- 

 azao-a, " the Lord of the bri£!;ht eye," one of the names of the 

 god Ea as god .sa nemeqi, " of deep wisdom " (among other 

 things) as a creator. 



A Comparison with the Creation-narrative in Genesis i.f 



Damascius, in his " Doubts and Solutions of the First 

 Principles," makes a special reference to the Babylonians 



* The following is a tian.sciiption of this fnigineiit. as far as it is 

 preserved : — 



E-nu-nia ilaiii iiia pu[h]ri-su-nii ibnu 



nbassiinu . . . l)n]rLiiiii iksii[ni 



iisclpfi [sikiijat Jia])isti 



bfil sori u[niaiii] srri ii namiiKissO 



ana sikiiat iiapisti 



bill s]cii u iiaiiuuassC' ali uza'i- 



giinri luaiuinasti gimir nabniti 



sa ill puhri kiiuti-ia 



-ma '^-Xiu-igi-azaga niina su-ha- 



l']''l}i'i namiiiasti iistaiii[h 



kulla hauiaiii ii- 



is qa l^i si 



is qa pi si ii sa 



• • si at 



t Suggested by a consideration of Mr. Mauiider's paper thereon at 

 the last Meeting of the A^ictoria Institute. 



