the serpent, eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, and so by disobedience brought sin into the world. These details are also lost in the cuneiform text, which opens again where the gods are cursing the dragon and the Adam or man for this transgression, corresponding to the passage, Genesis, iii. 9 to 19. Throughout this, corresponding passages may be found which show that the same idea runs through both narratives, but some passages in the cuneiform account are too mutilated to allow any certainty to be attached to the translation, and the loss of the previous parts of the text prevents our knowing what points the allusions are directed to.
Although so much of the most important part of the text is lost, the notices in other parts, and the allusions in the mythological scenes on the Babylonian gems will serve to guide us as to the probable drift of the missing portion.
SACRED TREE, SEATED FIGURE ON EACH BIDES AND SERPENT IN BACKGROUND, PROM AN EARLY BABYLONIAN CYLINDER.
1. . . . . he fixed . . . .
2. . . . . to his right hand he distributed
MERODACH, OR BEL, ARMED FOR THE CONFLICT WITH THE DRAGON; FROM ASSYRIAN CYLINDER.
who has become her husband, and meets Merodach in battle. The description of the fight and the subsequent triumph of the god are very fine, and remarkably curious in their details, but the connection between the fragments is so uncertain at present that it is better to reserve comment upon them until the text is more complete. This war between the powers of good and evil, chaos and order, is extra to the Creation, does not correspond with anything in Genesis, but rather finds its parallel in the war
FIGHT BETWEEN BEL AND THE DRAGON, FROM BABYLONIAN CYLINDER.
