"hole"), and daylight fell
upon my countenance.
The light of the hero, the Sun-
god, (he) causes to enter into
the interior(?) of the great
boat.
Ziusudu, the king,
Bows himself down before the I bowed myself down and sat down
Sun-god; weeping;
The king sacrifices an ox, a Over my countenance flowed my
sheep he slaughters(?). tears.
I gazed upon the quarters (of
the world)--all(?) was sea.

It will be seen that in the Semitic Version the beams of the Sun-god
have been reduced to "daylight", and Ziusudu's act of worship has become
merely prostration in token of grief.

Both in the Gilgamesh Epic and in Berossus the sacrifice offered by the
Deluge hero to the gods follows the episode of the birds, and it takes
place on the top of the mountain after the landing from the vessel. It
is hardly probable that two sacrifices were recounted in the Sumerian
Version, one to the Sun-god in the boat and another on the mountain
after landing; and if we are right in identifying Ziusudu's recorded
sacrifice with that of Ut-napishtim and Xisuthros, it would seem that,
according to the Sumerian Version, no birds were sent out to test the
abatement of the waters. This conclusion cannot be regarded as quite
certain, inasmuch as the greater part of the Fifth Column is waning. We
have, moreover, already seen reason to believe that the account on our
tablet is epitomized, and that consequently the omission of any episode
from our text does not necessarily imply its absence from the original
Sumerian Version which it follows. But here at least it is clear that
nothing can have been omitted between the opening of the light-hole and
the sacrifice, for the one act is the natural sequence of the other. On
the whole it seems preferable to assume that we have recovered a simpler
form of the story.

As the storm itself is described in a few phrases, so the cessation
of the flood may have been dismissed with equal brevity; the gradual
abatement of the waters, as attested by the dove, the swallow, and the
raven, may well be due to later elaboration or to combination with some
variant account. Under its amended form the narrative leads naturally up
to the landing on the mountain and the sacrifice of thanksgiving to
the gods. In the Sumerian Version, on the other hand, Ziusudu regards
himself as saved when he sees the Sun shining; he needs n