THE BABYLONIAN STORY OF THE CREATION. 



47 



other constellations, which I copied several years ago, and 

 published in transcription in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society, 1900, p. 573 ff. This has the star or constellation of 

 the bow, the long chariot (perhaps the great chariot in which 

 Merodach went forth to fight the Dragon), the Star of Death, 

 with whose divinity Kingu, Tiawtliu's spouse, was associated, 

 the constellation of the raging dog, probably one of those 

 creatures described as Tiawthu's helpers, and the Star of Mero- 

 dach, " king of the Igigi/' or gods of the heavens. In all, there 

 are thirty-six constellations, being three for each month, as 

 stated in that part of the legend where Merodach's creation and 

 arrangement of the heavenly bodies are spoken of. From the 

 fragments known to him, Mr. Robert Brown, jun., had already 

 recognized this fact. 



But in the compass of a single paper it is impossible to touch 

 upon all the details of these interesting legends, every section 

 of which presents several points of interest. Many, unfortu- 

 nately, are of a somewhat technical nature, but I trust that 

 what I have said concerning those of which I have spoken will 

 not have been thought too dry. I should have liked also to 

 touch upon those interesting glossaries of the last tablet of the 

 Semitic series, but this I think best to reserve for the notes 

 upon these legends which I hope to write later on. At present 

 it will suffice to say that these fragments, which have been 

 known to scholars for many years, show the importance which 

 the ancient Babylonians attached to the last tablet of the series, 

 and also to the legend as a whole. There is also part of a com- 

 mentary bearing upon the first tablet of the series, as well as 

 some fragments of late date which are possibly copies of early 

 glossaries and commentaries. It is true that other inscriptions 

 also had similar critical apparatus and aids to study, but there 

 were probably but few which were so well provided. It was to 

 all appearance their holy book — their Bible, hence the care which 

 the early Babylonians lavished upon it. Whether the glossary 

 to the last tablet of the Semitic version bears upon the question 

 of the origin of the legend is uncertain, but it probably points 

 to a Sumerian, that is, a non-Semitic source for it. Like all 

 other explanatory lists from Babylonia and Assyria, it is written 

 with the non-Semitic words in the left-hand colunm, and the 

 Semitic translations on the right. This probably points, as in 

 the case of other bilingual texts, to the probability that the 

 Semitic version (notwithstanding that it is the only one with 

 which we are acquainted) is not the original one. If this be 

 the case, the original language was the dialect of Sumerian, in 



