, went out and set off
in search of him, calling him by name. He did not show himself to them,
but a voice from heaven enjoined upon them to be devout towards the
gods, to return to Babylon and dig up the books in order that they might
be handed down to future generations; the voice also informed them that
the country in which they were was Armenia. They offered sacrifice in
turn, they regained their country on foot, they dug up the books of
Sippara and wrote many more; afterwards they refounded Babylon." It was
even maintained in the time of the Seleucido, that a portion of the ark
existed on one of the summits of the Gordyaean mountains.** Pilgrimages
were made to it, and the faithful scraped off the bitumen which covered
it, to make out of it amulets of sovereign virtue against evil spells.

[Illustration: 051.jpg THE JUDI MOUNTAINS SOMETIMES IDENTIFIED WITH TUB
NTSIB MOUNTAINS.]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by G. Smith, _Assyrian
Discoveries_, p. 108.

* We are ignorant of the object which the goddess lifted up:
it may have been the sceptre surmounted by a radiating star,
such as we see on certain cylinders. Several Assyriologists
translate it arrows or lightning. Ishtar is, in fact, an
armed goddess who throws the arrow or lightning made by her
father Anu, the heaven.

** Bekossus, fragm. xv. The legend about the remains of the
ark has passed into Jewish tradition concerning the Deluge.
Nicholas of Damascus relates, like Berossus, that they were
still to be seen on the top of Mount Baris. From that time
they have been continuously seen, sometimes on one peak and
sometimes on another. In the last century they were pointed
out to Chardin, and the memory of them has not died out in
our own century. Discoveries of charcoal and bitumen, such
as those made at Gebel Judi, upon one of the mountains
identified with Nisir, probably explain many of these local
traditions.

The chronicle of these fabulous times placed, soon after the abating of
the waters, the foundation of a new dynasty, as extraordinary or almost
as extraordinary in character as that before the flood. According to
Berossus it was of Chaldaean origin, and comprised eighty-six kings, who
bore rule during 34,080 years; the first two, Evechous and Khomasbelos,
reigned 2400 and 2700 years, while the later reigns did not exceed
the ordinary limits of hum