cords extant in their time. Their care and diligence are also
shown by the fact that where different versions of these records
existed in different cities, they have made copies of these variant
manuscripts, instead of attempting to reduce them to one text. The
subjects treated of in the Nineveh tablets are very various, but those
that concern our present purpose are the documents relating to the
creation, the fall of man, and the deluge, of which considerable
portions have been recovered, and have been translated by Mr. Smith.

These documents carry us back to a time when the Turanian religions
had not yet been separated from the Semitic. The early Chaldeans,
termed Cushites in the Bible, and who under Nimrod seem to have
established the first empire in that region, are now known to have
been Turanian; and among them apparently arose at a very early period
a literature and a mythology. The Chaldeans were politically
subjugated by the Semitic Assyrians, but they retained their religious
predominance; and until a comparatively late period existed as a
learned and priestly caste. To these primitive _Chasdim_ were
undoubtedly due the creation legends collected by the scribes of
Assurbanipal. They were obtained in the old Chaldean cities, in the
temples under the guardianship of Chaldean priests; and their date
carries them back to a time anterior to the Assyrian conquest, and in
which Chaldean kings still reigned. Here, then, we have an important
connecting link between the cosmogonies of the Turanian and Semitic
races; and leaving out of sight for the present the legends of the
deluge and other matters allied to it, we may inquire as to the nature
and contents of the Assyrian and Chaldean record of creation.

The Assyrian Genesis is similar in order and arrangement to that in
our own Bible, and gives the same general order of the creative work.
Its days, however, of creation, as indeed there is good internal
evidence to prove those of Moses also are, seem to be periods or ages.
It treats of the creation of gods, as well as of the universe, and
thus introduces a polytheistic system; and it seems to recognize, like
the Avesta, a primitive principle of evil, presiding over chaos, and
subsequently introducing evil among men. These points may be
illustrated by an extract from Mr. Smith's translation. It relates to
the earlier part of the work:

"When above were not raised the heavens,
And below on the earth a plant had