Page:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876).djvu/112

 Eden, eliciting from her the statement that there was a tree in the middle of the Garden, the fruit of which was forbidden to them. There is nothing in the present fragments indicating a belief in the Garden of Eden or the Tree of Knowledge; there is only an obscure allusion in lines 16 and 22 to a thirst for knowledge having been a cause of man's fall, but outside these inscriptions, from the general body of Assyrian texts, Sir Henry Rawlinson has pointed out the agreement of the Babylonian region of Karduniyas or Ganduniyas with the Eden of the Bible. Eden is a fruitful place, watered by the four rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Gihon, and Pison, and Ganduniyas is similar in description, watered by the four rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Surappi, and Ukni. The loss of this portion of the Creation legend is unfortunate, as, however probable it may be that the Hebrew and Babylonian traditions agree about the Garden and Tree of Knowledge, we cannot now prove it. There is a second tree, the Tree of Life, in the Genesis account (ch. iii. 22), which certainly appears to correspond to the sacred grove of Anu, which a later fragment states was guarded by a sword turning to all the four points of the compass.

In several other places in the Genesis legends, and especially in the legends of Izdubar, there are allusions to the tree, grove, or forest of the gods, and this divine tree or grove is often represented on the sculptures, both in the Babylonian gem engravings, and on the walls of the Assyrian palaces and temples. When