may provisionally be pronounced
Gisdhubar. The amalgamated account was introduced as an episode into the
eleventh book, the whole epic being arranged upon an astronomical
principle, so that each book should correspond to one of the signs of the
Zodiac, the eleventh book consequently answering to Aquarius. Sisuthros,
who had been translated without dying, like the Biblical Enoch, is made to
tell the story himself to Gisdhubar. Gisdhubar had travelled in search of
health to the shores of the river of death at the mouth of the Euphrates,
and here afar off in the other world he sees and talks with Sisuthros.
Fragments of several editions of the poem have been found, not only among
the ruins of Nineveh, but also in Babylonia; and by fitting these together
it has been possible to recover almost the whole of the original text. The
translations of it made by different scholars have necessarily improved
with the progress of Assyrian research, and though the first translation
given to the world by Mr. George Smith was substantially correct, there
were many minor inaccuracies in it which have since had to be corrected.
The latest and best version is that which has been published by Professor
Haupt. The following translation of the account is based upon it:--

(Col. I) "Sisuthros speaks to him, even to Gisdhubar: Let me reveal unto
thee, Gisdhubar, the story of my preservation, and the oracle of the gods
let me tell to thee. The city of Surippak, the city which, as thou
knowest, is built on the Euphrates, this city was already ancient when the
gods within it set their hearts to bring on a deluge, even the great gods
as many as there are--their father Anu, their king the warrior Bel, their
throne-bearer Adar, their prince En-nugi. Ea, the lord of wisdom, sat
along with them, and repeated their decree: 'For their boat! as a boat, as
a boat, a hull, a hull! hearken to their boat, and understand the hull, O
man of Surippak, son of Ubara-Tutu; dig up the house, build the ship, save
what thou canst of the germ of life. (The gods) will destroy the seed of
life, but do thou live, and bid the seed of life of every kind mount into
the midst of the ship. The ship which thou shalt build, ... cubits shall
be its length in measure, ... cubits the content of its breadth and its
height. (Above) the deep cover it in.' I understood and spake to Ea, my
lord: 'The building of the ship which thou hast commanded thus, if it be
done by me, the children of