is
proved by the equation Sum. _ur-ur_ = Sem. _sa-pa-nu_
(Rawlinson, _W.A.I._, Vol. V, pl. 42, l. 54 c) and by the
explanation Sum. _ur-ur_ = Sem. _sa-ba-tu sa a-bu-bi_, i.e.
"_ur-ur_ = to smite, of a flood" (_Cun. Texts_, Pt. XII, pl.
50, Obv., l. 23); cf. Poebel, _Hist. Texts_, p. 54, n. 1.

It may be worth while to pause for a moment in our study of the text, in
order to inquire what kind of boat it was in which Ziusudu escaped the
Flood. It is only called "a great boat" or "a great ship" in the
text, and this term, as we have noted, was taken over, semitized, and
literally translated in an early Semitic-Babylonian Version. But the
Gilgamesh Epic, representing the later Semitic-Babylonian Version,
supplies fuller details, which have not, however, been satisfactorily
explained. Either the obvious meaning of the description and figures
there given has been ignored, or the measurements have been applied to
a central structure placed upon a hull, much on the lines of a
modern "house-boat" or the conventional Noah's ark.(1) For the latter
interpretation the text itself affords no justification. The statement
is definitely made that the length and breadth of the vessel itself are
to be the same;(2) and a later passage gives ten _gar_ for the height of
its sides and ten _gar_ for the breadth of its deck.(3) This description
has been taken to imply a square box-like structure, which, in order to
be seaworthy, must be placed on a conjectured hull.

(1) Cf., e.g., Jastrow, _Hebr. and Bab. Trad._, p. 329.

(2) Gilg. Epic, XI, ll. 28-30.

(3) L. 58 f. The _gar_ contained twelve cubits, so that the
vessel would have measured 120 cubits each way; taking the
Babylonian cubit, on the basis of Gudea's scale, at 495 mm.
(cf. Thureau-Dangin, _Journal Asiatique_, Dix. Ser., t.
XIII, 1909, pp. 79 ff., 97), this would give a length,
breadth, and height of nearly 195 ft.

I do not think it has been noted in this connexion that a vessel,
approximately with the relative proportions of that described in the
Gilgamesh Epic, is in constant use to-day on the lower Tigris and
Euphrates. A _kuffah_,(1) the familiar pitched coracle of Baghdad, would
provide an admirable model for the gigantic vessel in which Ut-napishtim
rode out the Deluge. "Without either stem or stern, quite round like a
shield"--so Herodotus described the _kuffah_ of his day;2() so, too, is
it represented o