right person.  Ea did not disavow his acts:  “he opened his mouth and spake; he said to Bel the warrior:  ’Thou, the wisest among the gods, O warrior, why wert thou not wise, and didst cause the deluge?  The sinner, make him responsible for his sin; the criminal, make him responsible for his crime:  but be calm, and do not cut off all; be patient, and do not drown all.  What was the good of causing the deluge?  A lion had only to come to decimate the people.  What was the good of causing the deluge?  A leopard had only to come to decimate the people.  What was the good of causing the deluge?  Famine had only to present itself to desolate the country.  What was the good of causing the deluge?  Nera the Plague had only to come to destroy the people.  As for me, I did, not reveal the judgment of the gods:  I caused Khasisadra to dream a dream, and he became aware of the judgment of the gods, and then he made his resolve.’” Bel was pacified at the words of Ea:  “he went up into the interior of the ship; he took hold of my hand and made me go up, even me; he made my wife go up, and he pushed her to my side; he turned our faces towards him, he placed himself between us, and blessed us:  ’Up to this time Shamashnapishtim was a man:  henceforward let Shamashnapishtim and his wife be reverenced like us, the gods, and let Shamashnapishtim dwell afar off, at the mouth of the seas, and he carried us away and placed us afar off, at the mouth of the seas.’” Another form of the legend relates that by an order of the god, Xisuthros, before embarking, had buried in the town of Sippara all the books in which his ancestors had set forth the sacred sciences—­books of oracles and omens, “in which were recorded the beginning, the middle, and the end.  When he had disappeared, those of his companions who remained on board, seeing that he did not return, 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.