Page:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876).djvu/125



OTHER BABYLONIAN ACCOUNTS OF THE CREATION.

N the last chapter I have given the fragments of the principal story of the Creation and Fall from the cuneiform inscriptions, but it appears from the tablets that all these legends were "traditions" or "stories" repeated by word of mouth, and afterwards committed to writing. When such traditions are not reduced to writing, and depend on being handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth, they are liable to vary, sometimes very widely, according to the period and condition of the country. Thus many different versions of a story arise, and there can be no doubt that this was actually the case with the Creation legends. There must