In Chapter XIV it is possible that “change” should read “chain” in 32. thou didst strike him; to a pillar thou didst change him, Italics are represented thus _italic_. THE CHALDEAN ACCOUNT OF GENESIS. [Illustration: Izdubar (Nimrod) in conflict with a lion] THE CHALDEAN ACCOUNT OF GENESIS CONTAINING THE DESCRIPTION OF THE CREATION, THE DELUGE, THE TOWER OF BABEL, THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM, THE TIMES OF THE PATRIARCHS, AND NIMROD; BABYLONIAN FABLES, AND LEGENDS OF THE GODS; FROM THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS. BY GEORGE SMITH, FORMERLY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ORIENTAL ANTIQUITIES, BRITISH MUSEUM, AUTHOR OF “HISTORY OF ASSURBANIPAL,” “ASSYRIAN DISCOVERIES,” ETC. ETC. A NEW EDITION, THOROUGHLY REVISED AND CORRECTED (WITH ADDITIONS), BY A. H. SAYCE, DEPUTY-PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS._ NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS 743 AND 745 BROADWAY. PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. It is now five years since the present volume was first laid before the public by Mr. George Smith, just before setting out on his last ill-fated expedition to the East. It naturally awakened extreme interest and curiosity. The earlier chapters of Genesis no longer stood alone. Parallel accounts had been discovered by the author among the clay records of ancient Babylonia, which far exceeded in antiquity the venerable histories of the Bible. All those who had a theory to support, or a tradition to overthrow, turned eagerly to the newly-discovered documents, which possessed an equal interest for the students of history, of religion, and of language. The five years that have elapsed since the publication of “The Chaldean Account of Genesis” have been five years of active work and progress among Assyrian scholars. The impulse given to Assyrian research by Mr. Smith has survived his death; numberless new tablets and fragments of tablets have been brought to Europe from Assyria and Babylonia; fresh students of the inscriptions have risen up in this country and on the continent, more especially in Germany; and the scientific spirit which has been introduced into the study of the Assyrian language has immeasurably increased our knowledge of it. Thanks to the labours of men like Oppert, Lenormant and Guyard in France, or of Schrader, Delitzsch, Haupt and Hommel in Germany, texts which were obscure and doubtful at the time of Mr. Smith’s death have now become almost as clear as a page of the more difficult portions of the Old Testament. The Assyrian student, moreover, has an advantage which the Hebrew student has not; he possesses dictionaries and vocabularies compiled by the Assyro-Babylonians themselves, and these frequently throw light on a word which otherwise would be a “hapax legomenon.” The more backward condition of our knowledge of Assyrian, however, was not the only difficulty against which Mr. Smith had to contend. He was pressed for time when writing the present volume, which had to be finished before his departure for the East. The class of texts, also, which he had brought to light was a new class hitherto unknown, or almost unknown, to the Assyrian decipherer. He had to break fresh ground in dealing with them. Their style differed considerably from that of the texts previously studied; they had a vocabulary of their own, allusions of their own, and even, it may be added, a grammar of their own. If the texts had been complete the difficulty perhaps would not have been so great; but it was enormously increased by their mutilated condition. The skill and success with which Mr. Smith struggled against all these difficulties show more plainly than ever what a loss Assyrian research has sustained in him. Nevertheless, even the genius of...