IN THE BEGINNING

"Old stuff!" the Babylonian reviewers must have said, when the Book of Genesis appeared in their bookstalls. To them the Hebrew Story of Mankind was nothing more than the rehash of an old Sumerian legend which they had learned in their cradles, a sort of Macbeth-out-of-Holinshed affair, lacking even the frankness to acknowledge its source.

At least that is the opinion suggested by a recent discovery. A tablet has been found at Nippur unmistakably antedating the Hebrew epic by ten centuries, and giving in surprisingly similar detail, even to names, the creation and fail of man. Supplemented by other records, a complete Sumerian legend can be constructed, which carries the history of Babylonia up to a flood strangely like that which bore Noah on his famous voyage. Thenceforward, the tale is different, and, as the critics would have said, the Hebrew plagiarism ceases.

Perhaps there is another way, besides literary theft, to account for the coincidences. The scientists may continue their studies, and perhaps uncover a new Ossian scandal; but meanwhile it is safe to make what conjectures our imaginations suggest. The Hebrew Adam tasted forbidden fruit to gain knowledge; the Sumerian Adapa did likewise; the temptation in each case involved a woman; both were driven out of their paradises in the Euphrates Valley to toil in unproductive fields; finally the descendants of both were chastened by a flood which wiped out all but the worthy. In fine, it might seem almost reasonable to think the later accounts not an imitation, but a fresh version drawn from the identical events.

Perhaps Abraham, the father of his country, really did emigrate from Ur of Chaldea. And Noah might have been confused in his story: responsibilities aboard-ark must have made it difficult for him to scan the horizon with full care. Perhaps an unnoticed house-top floated away with a pair of lucky occupants to another valley, saving the Sumerian branch of the family to carry on the tradition in Babylonia.

And Greek legend, too, might be reconstructed on this surmise. A stray gate or barn door, with its precious freight, might have traveled even further, and carried to the land of the Hellenes their fabled ancestors. Deucalion and Pyrrha.