ingly, a legend of the Creation, preserved in the library
of Cuthah, contains this curious statement: "On a memorial-tablet none
wrote, none explained, for bodies and produce were not brought forth in
the earth." To the author of the legend the art of writing seemed to mount
back to the very beginning of mankind.

This legend of the Creation, however, is not the only one that has been
recovered from the shipwreck of Assyrian and Babylonian literature.
Besides the account given in the fragments of Berossus, there is another,
which bears a striking resemblance to the account of the Creation in the
first chapter of Genesis. It does not appear, however, that this last was
of Accadian origin; at all events, there is no indication that it was
translated into Assyrian from an older Accadian document, and there are
even reasons for thinking that it may not be earlier--in its present form
at least--than the seventh century B.C. We possess, unfortunately, only
portions of it, since many of the series of clay tablets on which it was
inscribed have been lost or injured. The account begins as follows:--

1. At that time the heavens above named not a name,

2. Nor did the earth below record one:

3. Yea, the deep was their first creator,

4. The flood of the sea was she who bore them all.

5. Their waters were embosomed in one place, and

6. The flowering reed was ungathered, the marsh-plant was ungrown.

7. At that time the gods had not issued forth, any one of them,

8. By no name were they recorded, no destiny (had they fixed).

9. Then the (great) gods were made,

10. Lakhmu and Lakhamu issued forth (the first),

11. They grew up....

12. Next were made the host of heaven and earth,

13. The time was long (and then)

14. The gods Anu (Bel and Ea were born of)

15. The host of heaven and earth.

It is not until we come to the fifth tablet of the series, which describes
the appointment of the heavenly bodies--the work of the fourth day of
creation, according to Genesis--that the narrative is again preserved. Here
we read that the Creator "made beautiful the stations of the great gods,"
or stars, an expression which reminds us of the oft-recurring phrase of
Genesis: "And God saw that it was good." The stars, moon, and sun were
ordered to rule over the night and day, and to determine the year, with
its months and days. The latter part of the tablet, how