Mythical Monsters. Gould Charles

of the plains, and the sons of the people, I made them all ascend.

      Shamash (the sun) made the moment determined, and – he announced it in these terms: – “In the evening I will cause it to rain abundantly from heaven; enter into the vessel and close the door.” – The fixed moment had arrived, which he announced in these terms: “In the evening I will cause it to rain abundantly from heaven.” – When the evening of that day arrived, I was afraid, – I entered into the vessel and shut my door. – In shutting the vessel, to Buzurshadirabi, the pilot, – I confided this dwelling with all that it contained.

      Mu-sheri-ina-namari102– rose from the foundations of heaven in a black cloud; – Ramman103 thundered in the midst of the cloud – and Nabon and Sharru marched before; – they marched, devastating the mountain and the plain; – Nergal104 the powerful, dragged chastisements after him; – Adar105 advanced, overthrowing before him; – the archangels of the abyss brought destruction, – in their terrors they agitated the earth. – The inundation of Ramman swelled up to the sky, – and [the earth] became without lustre, was changed into a desert.

      They broke … of the surface of the [earth] like …; – [they destroyed] the living beings of the surface of the earth. – The terrible [Deluge] on men swelled up to [heaven]. – The brother no longer saw his brother; men no longer knew each other. In heaven – the gods became afraid of the waterspout, and – sought a refuge; they mounted up to the heaven of Anu.106– The gods were stretched out motionless, pressing one against another like dogs. – Ishtar wailed like a child, – the great goddess pronounced her discourse: – “Here is humanity returned into mud, and – this is the misfortune that I have announced in the presence of the gods. So I announced the misfortune in the presence of the gods, – for the evil I announced the terrible [chastisement] of men who are mine. – I am the mother who gave birth to men, and – like to the race of fishes, there they are filling the sea; – and the gods by reason of that – which the archangels of the abyss are doing, weep with me.” – The gods on their seats were seated in tears, – and they held their lips closed, [revolving] future things.

      Six days and as many nights passed; the wind, the waterspout, and the diluvian rain were in all their strength. At the approach of the seventh day the diluvian rain grew weaker, the terrible waterspout – which had assailed after the fashion of an earthquake – grew calm, the sea inclined to dry up, and the wind and the waterspout came to an end. I looked at the sea, attentively observing – and the whole of humanity had returned to mud; like unto sea-weeds the corpses floated. I opened the window, and the light smote on my face. I was seized with sadness; I sat down and I wept; – and my tears came over my face.

      I looked at the regions bounding the sea; towards the twelve points of the horizon; not any continent. – The vessel was borne above the land of Nizir, – the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over. – A day and a second day the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over; – the third and fourth day the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over; – the fifth and sixth day the mountain of Nizir arrested the vessel, and did not permit it to pass over. – At the approach of the seventh day, I sent out and loosed a dove. The dove went, turned, and – found no place to light on, and it came back. I sent out and loosed a swallow; the swallow went, turned, and – found no place to light on, and it came back. I sent out and loosed a raven; the raven went, and saw the corpses on the waters; it ate, rested, turned, and came not back.

      I then sent out (what was in the vessel) towards the four winds, and I offered a sacrifice. I raised the pile of my burnt-offering on the peak of the mountain; seven by seven I disposed the measured vases,107– and beneath I spread rushes, cedar, and juniper wood. The gods were seized with the desire of it, – the gods were seized with a benevolent desire of it; – and the gods assembled like flies above the master of the sacrifice. From afar, in approaching, the great goddess raised the great zones that Anu has made for their glory (the gods’).108 These gods, luminous crystal before me, I will never leave them; in that day I prayed that I might never leave them. “Let the gods come to my sacrificial pile! – but never may Bel come to my sacrificial pile! for he did not master himself, and he has made the waterspout for the Deluge, and he has numbered my men for the pit.”

      From far, in drawing near, Bel – saw the vessel, and Bel stopped; – he was filled with anger against the gods and the celestial archangels: – “No one shall come out alive! No man shall be preserved from the abyss!” – Adar opened his mouth and said; he said to the warrior Bel: – “What other than Ea should have formed this resolution? – for Ea possesses knowledge and [he foresees] all.” – Ea opened his mouth and spake; he said to the warrior Bel: – “O thou, herald of the gods, warrior, – as thou didst not master thyself, thou hast made the waterspout of the deluge. – Let the sinner carry the weight of his sins, the blasphemer the weight of his blasphemy. – Please thyself with this good pleasure, and it shall never be infringed; faith in it never [shall be violated]. – Instead of thy making a new deluge, let hyænas appear and reduce the number of men; instead of thy making a new deluge, let there be famine, and let the earth be [devastated]; – instead of thy making a new deluge, let Dibbara109 appear, and let men be [mown down]. – I have not revealed the decision of the great gods; – it is Khasisatra who interpreted a dream and comprehended what the gods had decided.”

      Then, when his resolve was arrested, Bel entered into the vessel. – He took my hand and made me rise. – He made my wife rise, and made her place herself at my side. – He turned around us and stopped short; he approached our group. – “Until now Khasisatra has made part of perishable humanity; – but lo, now, Khasisatra and his wife are going to be carried away to live like the gods, – and Khasisatra will reside afar at the mouth of the rivers.” – They carried me away and established me in a remote place at the mouth of the streams.

      This narrative agrees with the Biblical one in ascribing the inundation to a deluge of rain; but adds further details which connect it with intense atmospheric disturbance, similar to that which would be produced by a series of cyclones, or typhoons, of unusual severity and duration.

      The intense gloom, the deluge of rain, terrific violence of wind, and the havoc both on sea and land, which accompany the normal cyclones occurring annually on the eastern coast of China, and elsewhere, and lasting but a few hours in any one locality, can hardly be credited, except by those who have experienced them. They are, however, sufficient to render explicable the general devastation and loss of life which would result from the duration of typhoons, or analogous tempests, of abnormal intensity, for even the limited period of six days and nights allotted in the text above, and much more so for that of one hundred and fifty days assigned to it in the Biblical account.

      As illustrating this I may refer to a few calamities of recent date, which, though of trivial importance in comparison with the stupendous event under our consideration, bring home to us the terribly devastating power latent in the elements.

      In Bengal, a cyclone on October 31, 1876, laid under water three thousand and ninety-three square miles, and destroyed two hundred and fifteen thousand lives.

      A typhoon which raged in Canton, Hongkong, and Macao on September 22, 1874, besides much other destruction, destroyed several thousand people in Macao and the adjacent villages, the number of corpses in the town being so numerous that they had to be gathered in heaps and burnt with kerosene, the population, without the Chinese who refused to lend assistance, being insufficient to bury them.

      A tornado in Canton, on April 11, 1878, destroyed, in the course of a few minutes, two thousand houses and ten thousand lives.

      In view of these few historical facts, which might be greatly supplemented, there appears to my mind to be no difficulty in believing that the continuance,

102

“The water of the twilight at break of day,” one of the personifications of rain.

103

The god of thunder.

104

The god of war and death.

105

The Chaldæo-Assyrian Hercules.

106

The superior heaven of the fixed stars.

107

Vases of the measure called in Hebrew Seäh. This relates to a detail of the ritualistic prescriptions for sacrifice.

108

These metaphorical expressions appear to designate the rainbow.

109

The god of epidemics.