Page:The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876).djvu/330

 In my theory for the position of Nimrod, one thing is certainly clear: I have placed him as low in the chronology as it is possible to make him.

Making the date of Nimrod so recent as 2250, I have only left from 200 to 250 years between his time and the age of the oldest known monuments. Looking at the fact that it is highly probable that these legends were written about 2000, the intervening period of two centuries does not appear too great. I think it probable that the traditions on which these legends were founded arose shortly after the death of Izdubar; in fact, I think that every tradition which has any foundation in fact springs up within a generation of the time when the circumstances happened. With regard to the supernatural element introduced into the story, it is similar in nature to many such additions to historical narratives, especially in the East; but I would not reject those events which may have happened, because in order to illustrate a current belief, or add to the romance of the story, the writer has introduced the supernatural.

There is, I think, now too general a tendency to repudiate the earlier part of history, because of its evident inaccuracies and the marvellous element generally combined with it. The early poems and stories of almost every nation are, by some writers, resolved into elaborate descriptions of natural phenomena; and in some cases, if this were true, the