We take up the special subjects of some of these deciphered tablets. Following the Biblical and historical order of events, we commence with
THE CREATION.
It is fortunate that the very commencement of the Chaldean legend
on this subject—possibly the written account which Berosus mentions—is found on a comparatively large and legible fragment. We give it line by line as Mr. Smith has translated it, marking the missing portions by points. It will serve as a favorable sample of the condition of such fragments:
“When above were not raised the heavens:
And below, on the earth, a plant had not grown up;
The abysses also had not broken open their boundaries.
The chaos Tiamate [the abyss of waters] was the producing-mother of them.
Those waters at the beginning were ordained: but
A tree had not grown, a flower had not unfolded.