we shall notice, and the one with which the
Hebrew agrees most closely, having been copied from it,[22:1] is the
_Chaldean_, as given by Berosus, the Chaldean historian.[22:2] It is as
follows:

"After the death of Ardates (the ninth king of the Chaldeans),
his son _Xisuthrus_ reigned eighteen sari. In his time
happened a great _deluge_, the history of which is thus
described: The deity Cronos appeared to him (Xisuthrus) in a
vision, and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of the
month Desius there would be a flood, by which mankind would be
destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the
beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things, and to
bury it in the City of the Sun at Sippara; and to build a
vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations,
and to convey on board everything necessary to sustain life,
together with all the different animals, both birds and
quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the deep. Having
asked the deity whither he was to sail, he was answered: 'To
the Gods;' upon which he offered up a prayer for the good of
mankind. He then obeyed the divine admonition, and built a
vessel five stadia in length, and two in breadth. Into this he
put everything which he had prepared, and last of all conveyed
into it his wife, his children, and his friends. After the
flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated,
Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel; which not finding
any food, nor any place whereupon they might rest their feet,
returned to him again. After an interval of some days, he sent
them forth a second time; and they now returned with their
feet tinged with mud. He made a trial a third time with these
birds; but they returned to him no more: from whence he judged
that the surface of the earth had appeared above the waters.
He therefore made an opening in the vessel, and upon looking
out found that it was stranded upon the side of some mountain;
upon which he immediately quitted it with his wife, his
daughter, and the pilot. Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to
the earth, and, having constructed an altar, offered
sacrifices to the gods."[22:3]

This account, given by Berosus, which agrees in almost every particular
with that found in Genesis, and with that found by George Smith of the
Br