Page:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876).djvu/313

 whose territories formed a connecting link between these two extremes. The Aramean and Hittite races who once inhabited the region along the Euphrates and in Syria have passed away, their history has been lost, and their mythology and traditions are unknown; until future researches on the sites of their cities shall reveal the position in which their traditions stood towards those of Babylonia and Palestine, we shall not be able to clear up the connection between the two.

There are some differences between the accounts in Genesis and the Inscriptions, but when we consider the differences between the two countries of Palestine and Babylonia these variations do not appear greater than we should expect. Chaldea was essentially a mercantile and maritime country, well watered and flat, while Palestine was a hilly region with no great rivers, and the Jews were shut out from the coast, the maritime regions being mostly in the hands of the Philistines and Phœnicians. There was a total difference between the religious ideas of the two peoples, the Jews believing in one God, the creator and lord of the Universe, while the Babylonians worshipped gods and lords many, every city having its local deity, and these being joined by complicated relations in a poetical mythology, which was in marked contrast to the severe simplicity of the Jewish system. With such differences it was only natural that, in relating the same stories, each nation should colour them in accordance with its own ideas, and