(Many lines lost.)
- 1. The clothing of the god ....
- 2. What in the house is (fixed) ....
- 3. What in the secret place is ....
- 4. what is in the foundation of the house ....
- 5. what on the floor of the house is fixed, what ...
- 6. what the lower part ....
- 7. what by the sides of the house goes down ....
- 8. what in the ditch of the house broad nigitstsi ....
- 9. what roars like a bull, what brays like an ass,
- 10. what flutters like a sail, what bleats like a sheep,
- 11. what barks like a dog,
- 12. what growls like a bear,
- 13. what into the fundament of a man enters, what into the fundament of a woman enters.
- 14. Then Lugal-girra (Nergal) heard the wise word the son of the people
- 15. asked, and all the gods he urged (to solve it):
- 16. Let your solution be produced, that I may bring back your answer.
After this there is a mutilated passage containing the names, titles, and actions of the gods who consider the riddle. It is evident that it is air or wind which the wise man means in his riddle, for this is everywhere, and in its sounds imitates the cries of animals.
Next we have another single fragment about a person named Sinuri, who uses a divining rod to ascertain the meaning of a dream.
- 1. Sinuri with the cut reed pondered ....
- 2. with his right hand he broke it, and Sinuri speaks and thus says:
- 3. Now the plant of Nusku, the shrub? of Samas art thou.
- 4. Judge, thou judgest (or divinest), divine concerning this dream,
- 5. which in the evening, at midnight, or in the morning,
- 6. has come, which thou knowest, but I do not know.
- 7. If it be good may its good not be lost to me,
- 8. if it be evil may its evil not happen to me.
There are some more obscure and broken lines, but no indication as to the story to which it belongs.
A specimen of early Babylonian folklore may fitly be added here. It is a bilingual fragment which treats of a foundling who was picked up in the streets and finally became a great scholar. Unfortunately both the beginning and the end of the story are wanting.
- 1. He who father and mother had not,
- 2. who his father (and) his mother knew not,
- 3. in the gutter (was) his going, in the street (his) entering.
- 4. From the mouth of the dogs one took him,
- 5. from the mouth of the ravens one put him away.
- 6. In the presence of the soothsayer the .... of his mouth one took.
- 7. The sole of his feet with the seal the soothsayer has marked.
- 8. To a nurse he gave him.
- 9. To his nurse for three years, corn, a cradle (?)
- 10. (and) clothing he guaranteed.
- 11. Then and ever he hid from him how he was taken (from the streets).
- 12. His rearer he rooted out (?).
- 13. The ..... of the milk of mankind he gave him, and
- 14. as his own son he made him.
- 15. As his own son he inscribed him.
- 16. A knowledge of writing he made him possess.
- 17. For his education (he cared).
One of the most obscure incidents in the Book of Genesis is undoubtedly the building of the Tower of Babel. So far as we can judge from the fragments of his copyists, there was no reference to it in the work of Berosus, and early writers had to quote from writers of more than doubtful authority in order to confirm it.
