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T. G. PINCHES ; LL.D., M.R.A.S., ON VERSIONS 



promised to follow it. Ut-napisti m then sent forth to the four 

 winds, and pouring out a libation, made an offering on the 

 mountain-peak ; and the gods, gathering like flies over the 

 sacrificer, found gratification that divine service was held in 

 their honour again. Then the mother-goddess Mah came, and 

 raising the "great signets "* which Ami had made for her, swore 

 by the lapis-stone of her neck that she would not forget these 

 days. All the gods were to come to the sacrifice except Ellila, 

 who had made a flood, and consigned her people to destruction. 

 Ellila, however, when he came, was angry that mankind had 

 escaped total destruction, but Ea argues with him, reproaching 

 him with having sent the flood without due consideration. If 

 it were needful to punish mankind, let it be by wild animals 

 (the lion and the hyaena), by famine, or by the god lira 

 (pestilence). As for himself, he had not revealed to Atra-hasis 

 the decision of the great gods — he had caused him to see a 

 dream, and the princely patriarch had thus gained knowledge 

 of their decision. Then Ea went up into the ship, and led the 

 patriarch up with his wife, and having touched them, he 

 blessed them, saying : " Formerly Ut-napisti 111 was a man — now 

 let him and his wife be like unto us gods, and dwell afar at the 

 mouths of the rivers." So Ut-napisti m was taken and placed 

 afar at the mouths of the rivers. 



The patriarch, having completed his narrative, gives instruc- 

 tions for the restoration of Gilgames' health, and how he might 

 see the life — eternal life, it may be supposed, like that of 

 Ut-napisti m himself — which he sought. 



Such is an outline of this interesting legend, the likeness of 

 whose details with the account in Genesis has been recognized from 

 the first. With regard to the variant versions of the story, 

 there is no need for me to touch upon them here. As far as we 

 know them, they are much too fragmentary to make analysis 

 profitable. That of which a very small piece was discovered by 

 George Smith at Kouyunjik, details the command to build and 

 enter the ship, and Atrahasis 5 reply. This narrative is told, 

 not in the first, but in the third person. A fragment of an 

 archaic tablet with another version (apparently) was discovered 

 and translated by Father V. Scheil some years ago, and now 

 forms part of the Pierpont Morgan Collection ; and a fragment 

 of a fourth tablet, also archaic, was discovered by Professor 

 Hilprecht, and described by me in the Journal of this Institute 

 for 1911. This also gives the god's instructions for the 



* Or perhaps, "rings," meaning the rainbow. 



