Page:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876).djvu/28

6 could not be arranhed in order from want of indication of the particular tablets to which they belonged.

Some other fragmentary legends, including the war of the gods and three fables, I also found at the same time, but these were in such mutilated condition that I could not make a connected translation of them.

In my lecture on the Deluge tablets, I gave a sketch of the Izdubar legends, and expressed my belief that the Chaldean inscriptions contained various other similar stories bearing upon the Book of Genesis, which would prove of the highest interest.

Just at this time happened the intervention of the proprietors of the "Daily Telegraph" newspaper. Mr. E. Arnold, who is on the direction of that paper, had already sent to me expressing his interest in these discoveries, and immediately after my lecture he came armed with a proposition from the proprietors of the "Daily Telegraph" to re-open, at their cost, the excavations in Assyria, and gain some new information on the subject of these legends. This proposition was submitted to the trustees of the British Museum, and they directed me to go to Assyria and make a short excavation, leave of absence for six months being granted to me for this purpose. I have related, in my work, "Assyrian discoveries," the history of this expedition, which brought me the next fragments of these legends. Soon after I commenced excavating at Kouyunjik, on the site of the palace of Assurbanipal, I found a