form of Ut-napishtim's vessel was no doubt
traditional, and we may picture that of Ziusudu as also of the _kuffah_
type, though smaller and without its successor's elaborate internal
structure. The gradual development of the huge coracle into a ship would
have been encouraged by the Semitic use of the term "ship" to describe
it; and the attempt to retain something of its original proportions
resulted in producing the unwieldy ark of later tradition.(1)

(1) The description of the ark is not preserved from the
earlier Hebrew Version (J), but the latter Hebrew Version
(P), while increasing the length of the vessel, has
considerably reduced its height and breadth. Its
measurements are there given (Gen. vi. 15) as 300 cubits in
length, 50 cubits in breadth, and 30 cubits in height;
taking the ordinary Hebrew cubit at about 18 in., this would
give a length of about 450 ft., a breadth of about 75 ft.,
and a height of about 45 ft. The interior stories are
necessarily reduced to three. The vessel in Berossus
measures five stadia by two, and thus had a length of over
three thousand feet and a breadth of more than twelve
hundred.

We will now return to the text and resume the comparison we were making
between it and the Gilgamesh Epic. In the latter no direct reference
is made to the appearance of the Sun-god after the storm, nor is
Ut-napishtim represented as praying to him. But the sequence of events
in the Sumerian Version is very natural, and on that account alone,
apart from other reasons, it may be held to represent the original
form of the story. For the Sun-god would naturally reappear after the
darkness of the storm had passed, and it would be equally natural that
Ziusudu should address himself to the great light-god. Moreover, the
Gilgamesh Epic still retains traces of the Sumerian Version, as will be
seen from a comparison of their narratives,(1) the Semitic Version being
quoted from the point where the hurricane ceased and the sea became
still.

(1) Col. V, ll. 7-11 are here compared with Gilg. Epic, XI,
ll. 133-9.

SUMERIAN VERSION SEMITIC VERSION

When I looked at the storm, the
uproar had ceased,
And all mankind was turned into
clay;
In place of fields there was a
swamp.
Ziusudu opened the opening of I opened the opening (lit.
the great boat;