the unknown district beyond the
mouth of the Euphrates became a representative of the other world; and the
Euphrates itself was identified with Datilla, the river of "the God of
life and death," as well as with the stream or "great deep" which was
supposed to encircle the earth like a monstrous serpent.

The name of the Chaldean Noah, Sisuthros, or, as it is written in the
cuneiform, Khasis-adra, or Adra-khasis, is really a title, given to him on
account of his righteousness, and signifying "wise (and) pious." His
proper name is one which means "the Sun of Life," though the exact
pronunciation of it is somewhat uncertain. Neither of these names agrees
with that of the Biblical Noah, but the latter has received a full
explanation from the Assyrian language, where it signifies "rest."

After the Flood, we are told in Genesis that men journeyed from the east
until they came to the plain of Shinar, where they built the tower of
Babel, in the vain hope of ascending into heaven. God, however, confounded
their language and scattered them over the face of the earth. The
references in this narrative to Shinar and Babel, or Babylon, indicate
that here again we may expect to find a Babylonian account of the
Confusion of Tongues, just as we have found a Babylonian account of the
Deluge. As we have seen, the Accadians regarded themselves as having come
from the "mountain of the east" where the ark had rested, while Shinar is
the Hebrew form of the native name Sumir--or Sungir, as it was pronounced
in the allied dialect of Accad--the southern half of pre-Semitic Babylonia.
Now Mr. George Smith discovered some broken fragments of a cuneiform text
which evidently related to the building of the Tower of Babel. It tells us
how certain men had "turned against the father of all the gods," and how
the thoughts of their leader's heart "were evil." At Babylon they essayed
to build "a mound" or hill-like tower, but the winds blew down their work,
and Anu "confounded great and small on the mound," as well as their
"speech," and "made strange their counsel." The very word that is used in
the sense of "confounding" in the narrative of Genesis is used also in the
Assyrian text. The Biblical writer, by a play upon words, not uncommon in
the Old Testament, compares it with the name of Babel, though
etymologically the latter word has nothing to do with it. Babel is the
Assyrian Babili, "Gate of God," and is merely a Semitic translation of the
old Ac