OF THE BABYLONIAN CREATION AND FLOOD STORIES. 307 



building of the ship, and is in the Semitic language of 

 Babylonia. It is regarded as being, in the fragments of lines 

 preserved, more like the Biblical version than any of the others. 



The Non-Semitic Account of the Creation and the Flood 

 fko.u NiFFER (identified with the Calneh of Genesis x, 9). 



In April last year, I had the pleasure of giving an account of 

 the new story of the Creation and the Flood, as outlined by 

 Dr. Arno Poebel in the Pennsylvania Museum Journal for June, 

 1913 (see the Journal of this Institute for 1914, lecture read on 

 April 14th). As the same scholar has now given, in the official 

 publication of the Pennsylvania University Museum, the text 

 of this document, with a full translation and very complete 

 commentary, I am able to treat of the inscription much more 

 satisfactorily. 



The tablet is described as being 5| inches (14*3 centimetres) 

 wide by 7 inches (17'8 centimetres) high. About a third of the 

 original text has been preserved to us. Each side has three 

 columns, and as the existing portion is the lower part of the 

 obverse and the upper part of the reverse, both the beginning 

 and the end are wanting, as well as two-thirds of the matter 

 between columns one and two, two and three, four and five, and 

 five and six. It is thought that further fragments belonging to 

 the text may ultimately be found, either at Philadelphia or at 

 Constantinople, where other tablets of the same collection lie. 

 Besides the wanting portions, there are several places where the 

 text is defaced, but, as was to be expected in the case of such 

 an important religious inscription, it has seemingly been very 

 carefully written. 



In the first column a goddess, either Xin-tu, the " lady of 

 reproduction," or Mn-hursaga, " the lady of the mountain,'' 

 speaks of the destruction of mankind, which she apparently 

 wishes to discuss, as well as the question of her creation in 

 general. The people, however, were seemingly to return to 

 their settlements (bi-ura-hi-ta), and were to rebuild the cities 

 (uru-ki-?ne-a-bi himminclu), and unite under their (the gods') 

 protection. They were to lay the brickwork of (the gods') 

 houses in a pure locality, and in such a place were the gods' 

 vessels to be fashioned (?). The foundation-stones or bricks 

 were to be " set aright " by fire, and the divine law was to be 

 perfected therein. At this point comes the doubtful phrase 

 hia immahgu diga muningar, and then we have the statement 

 that Ana-Enlila, Enki, and the goddess Nin-hursaga had 

 created the black-headed ones (mankind, especially the people 



x 2 



