o further tests
to assure himself that the danger is over, and his sacrifice too is one
of gratitude for his escape. The disappearance of the Sun-god from the
Semitic Version was thus a necessity, to avoid an anti-climax; and the
hero's attitude of worship had obviously to be translated into one of
grief. An indication that the sacrifice was originally represented as
having taken place on board the boat may be seen in the lines of
the Gilgamesh Epic which recount how Enlil, after acquiescing in
Ut-napishtim's survival of the Flood, went up into the ship and led
him forth by the hand, although, in the preceding lines, he had already
landed and had sacrificed upon the mountain. The two passages are hardly
consistent as they stand, but they find a simple explanation of we
regard the second of them as an unaltered survival from an earlier form
of the story.

If the above line of reasoning be sound, it follows that, while the
earlier Hebrew Version closely resembles the Gilgamesh Epic, the later
Hebrew Version, by its omission of the birds, would offer a parallel to
the Sumerian Version. But whether we may draw any conclusion from this
apparent grouping of our authorities will be best dealt with when we
have concluded our survey of the new evidence.

As we have seen, the text of the Fifth Column breaks off with Ziusudu's
sacrifice to the Sun-god, after he had opened a light-hole in the boat
and had seen by the god's beams that the storm was over. The missing
portion of the Fifth Column must have included at least some account of
the abatement of the waters, the stranding of the boat, and the
manner in which Anu and Enlil became apprised of Ziusudu's escape, and
consequently of the failure of their intention to annihilate mankind.
For in the Sixth Column of the text we find these two deities reconciled
to Ziusudu and bestowing immortality upon him, as Enlil bestows
immortality upon Ut-napishtim at the close of the Semitic Version. In
the latter account, after the vessel had grounded on Mount Nisir and
Ut-napishtim had tested the abatement of the waters by means of the
birds, he brings all out from the ship and offers his libation and
sacrifice upon the mountain, heaping up reed, cedar-wood, and myrtle
beneath his seven sacrificial vessels. And it was by this act on his
part that the gods first had knowledge of his escape. For they smelt
the sweet savour of the sacrifice, and "gathered like flies over the
sacrificer".(1)