uman shape with fins like
fishes, and fishes like sirens, and dragons, and creeping things, and
serpents, and fierce creatures, the images of which are preserved in the
temple of Bel.

"Over all these ruled the great mother, Um Uruk. But Bel, whom your people
call Baal, divided the darkness and clove the woman asunder. Of one part
he made the earth, and of the other the sun, the moon, the planets. He
drew off the water, apportioned it to the land, and prepared and arranged
the world. The creatures on it could not endure the light of day and
became extinct.

"Now when Bel saw the land fruitful yet uninhabited, he cut off his head
and made one of the gods mingle the blood which flowed from it with earth
and form therewith men and animals that could endure the sun. Presently
Chaldaea was plentifully populated, but the inhabitants lived like animals,
without order or rule. Then there appeared to them from the sea a monster
of the name of Yan. Its body was that of a fish, but under its head
another head was attached, and on its fins were feet, and its voice was
that of a man. Its image is still preserved. It came at morning, passed
the day, and taught language and science, the harvesting of seeds and of
fruits, the rules for the boundaries of land, the mode of building cities
and temples, arts and writing and all that pertains to civilized life, and
for four hundred and thirty-two thousand years the world went very well.

"Then in a dream Bel revealed to Xisuthrus that there would be a great
storm, and men would be destroyed. He bade him bury in Sepharvaim, the
city of the sun, all the ancient, mediaeval, and modern records, and build
a ship and embark in it with his kindred and his nearest friends. He was
also to take food and drink into the ship, and pairs of all creatures
winged and four-footed.

"Xisuthrus did as he was bidden, and from the ends of heaven the storm
began to blow. Bin thundered; Nebo, the Revealer, came forth; Nergal, the
Destroyer, overthrew; and Adar, the Sublime, swept in his brightness
across the earth. The storm devoured the nations, it lapped the sky,
turned the land into an ocean, and destroyed everything that lived. Even
the gods were afraid. They sought refuge in the heaven of Anu, sovereign
of the upper realms. As hounds draw in their tails, they seated themselves
on their thrones, and to them Mylitta, the great goddess, spake: 'The
world has turned from me, and ruin I have proclaimed.' She w