Page:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876).djvu/180

 from the generality of these inscriptions, being very obscure and difficult. In consequence of this and other reasons, I only give an outline of most of the story.

We are first told of a quarrel between a mother and her daughter, and that the mother shuts the door of the house, and turns her daughter adrift. The doings of a man named Zamu have some connection with the affair; and at the close we are told of Atarpi, sometimes called Atarpi-nisi, or Atarpi the "man" who had his couch beside a river, and was pious to the gods, but took no notice of these things. Where the story next opens, the god Elu or Bel calls together an assembly of the gods his sons, and relates to them that he is angry at the sin of the world, stating also that he will bring down upon them disease, poison, and distress. This is followed by the statement that these things came to pass, and Atarpi then invoked the god Hea to remove these evils. Hea answers, and announces his resolve to destroy the people. After this the story reads:

1. Hea called his assembly he said to the gods his sons

2. I made them

3. shall not stretch until before he turns.

4. Their wickedness I am angry at,

5. their punishment shall not be small,

6. I will look to judge the people,

7. in their stomach let food be exhausted,

8. above let Vul drink up his rain,