The Deluge--the Chaldean Account Of It

The interest e.eitod a oouple of years ago liy Gteórge tttnith's franslation of ;i fragmentary Ohaldean account of the Deluge, ir'oni the Assyrian tablets dis oovered by Layard, is renewed by the samo gjentleman's recovery from the ruine of Kouyunjik of missing parts of that record, nearly restoring the whole insiiipUon, which in HuppoHcd to Alta froni at least two thousand years before the ('lm.stianer.il. This Chald'ran ver.sicin, howeyor, difiera in many resp_ócra irom Ilie Hiblieal Legend, of wliich it is manifestly the prototype, not only in itp details! but oniefly in the i olytiieism pi Ik niyth. Hasisadra, tho Ohaldean Noali, is üransformod iufco a demiguéj ivlm, in lus inmioral bode, tells au eaftbly visitor the story of his esciipc from the flood wherein the gods piniished t.li! wiofcedness of the ehilihvai of men. (lis fioatings on the face of tlie Avaters wie of much briefer diiration than thoHO reheavsed in (enesis, the. deluge áescribed by him haring l,ist;d but six days, and liis vesnel having been stranded apon the Mountains of Nizir on the seventh diiy, wliilst tho Noachiaii ark foirnd no reating place mitil the seveiileeiith day of tho seventh month from its lavrnclmig, and noarly a year elapsed before the earth was restorau to habitable eonditiou. The graoefaj scriptura] legend 1' the winged mqpaSUr gerof peace, from which tho olive brauoh derivea il.s eniblematical signilicance, in Icss p.ietieally given in the oíd versión, thoügh the coiTCspondencc of the two if) close enough to .show their relationshi]). Tho raven (irst sent out by Noali ptejB 110 inipovtaiit part in the drama, the huccessive jddmeya of the dove; lus later emissary, leadkijj to liis ultimato releQfle. In Uu; Asayrian story tlie.se episodes are reversad in order of linio and imporf altre. Ihisisadra is made to Hay: on the seventh clay in the ooiirpo of it I Krul . i'i.rlli :i . (Ihm' mul it l'lt. 'J'li" ilovi' -H'iii and I unird, :nil A restiug plce It t i ( oot tod, ;ml it r. turned. 1 som lurlli i swullow and it left. Tho swallow veilt, and 1uriU''l. ;ind A resting place U dld imt tind, and il retnrnefl, The caven weat, and the oorpseg on tlnj Water if BftW, and It clid i:ii,it sw.uii, and wandirefl away. and did not return. I Bent the animale forth to the four wimls, I ponred out a libution, I iiuill au altar in the i';ak of tin mounta n. BJ wvrii lirrliK 1 t-ut. i thr hnltini ,il IIhuiI pliwd reeds, pikeB autl Bhngar. The ko'Is oollected at it-s burning, Uip goda collacfed aL it h good burniilii: The i'ds likc flir over tli' sacriflee gathered. In addition to this most intereslüig disctover.y, Mr. fc5nnth found in the coursö of his Assyrian explorations more tlian threo thousand fragments of anciont inscriptions relating, among other thiugs, tho legenda of. the Creation, of the Tower of Babel, etc., which may prove of great impqrtaace, not only in their niythological but in their cthnológicai bearings.