50 



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



The epic was probably drawn up during that period, but prior 

 to that there was a story that had been associated with the god 

 mentioned here. He is not only the god of water, but the god of 

 agriculture, and the very open lines of the new portions of the 

 seventh tablet all distinctly show how prominent the god of 

 agriculture was. The account of the real work of the Creation 

 does not begin until the middle of the fourth tablet. 



The composition of this legend shows that we have to go back 

 prior to 2000 B.C. for the later portion of it, and that is clearly 

 shown by this remarkable Semitic fragment which Dr. Pinches has 

 referred to, and these remarkable hymns which have been 

 published. Those hymns are really popular songs; but the 

 interesting part of them is that their grammatical construction and 

 peculiarities are the same as those found in the creation narrative. 

 Go back to the creation week that appears in the first chapter of 

 Genesis, in which everything culminates on the seventh day. We 

 are constantly told by those who have been to Babylon (and I have 

 been there myself), that the sabbath is a Babylonian institution. 

 There is no proof of it. A sabbath applies to the seventh, 

 fourteenth and twenty-first days ; but it only applies to the kings. 

 The king would not wash or change his clothing, or ride on those 

 days that were so set apart, otherwise all the functions of life were 

 carried out on the seventh day, and the king being, ex officio, a 

 priest, it was connected with the priests. 



I will close my remarks by saying that Dr. Pinches' paper will be 

 extremely valuable to us. I think almost all Assyriologists have 

 had a turn at these tablets, and I suppose we have now the most 

 complete and ancient poem in the world. 



Mr. jNIartin Rouse. — I would ask Mr. Boscawen if it is not the 

 fact, as stated in Professor Sayce's Higher Criticism and the Monu- 

 ments, that the days of the week were named by the Babylonians 1 



Mr. Boscawen. — Professor Sayce says so, but I have never found 

 it so. 



Mr. Rouse. — Granted that is not correct, how is it that the 

 king is told not to light a fire or drive in his chariot on a certain 

 day, and that the day is called " the day of rest to the heart"; and 

 further, that even the prophets were not to prophecy on that day 1 

 It is a very remarkable thing. 



Mr. Boscawen. — It is nothing of the kind, sir. 



