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./Expos.Times/, Nov., 1915, pp.88 ff.).He, ProfessorPrince, and Professor Jastrow independently showed that the actionof Enki in the myth in sending water on the land was not punitivebut beneficent; and the preceding section, in which animals aredescribed as not performing their usual activities, was shownindependently by Professor Prince and Professor Jastrow to havereference, not to their different nature in an ideal existence inParadise, but, on familiar lines, to their non-existence in adesolate land.It may be added that Professor Barton and Dr.Petersagree generally with Professor Prince and Professor Jastrow intheir interpretation of the text, which excludes the suggestedGet any book for free on: www.Abika.com LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT103biblical parallels; and I understand from Dr.Langdon that he veryrightly recognizes that the text is not a Deluge myth.It is asubject for congratulation that the discussion has materiallyincreased our knowledge of this difficult composition.[2] Cf.Col.VI, ll.24 ff.; thus /Ab/-u was created for the sicknessof the cow (/ab/); Nin-/tul/ for that of the flock (u-/tul/); Nin-/ka/-u-tu and Nin-/ka/-si for that of the mouth (/ka/); Na-zi forthat of the /na-zi/ (meaning uncertain); /Da zi/-ma for that ofthe /da-zi/ (meaning uncertain); Nin-/til/ for that of /til/(life); the name of the eighth and last deity is imperfectlypreserved.We have already noted examples of a similar use of myth in magic,which was common to both Egypt and Babylonia; and to illustrate itsemployment against disease, as in the Nippur document, it will sufficeto cite a well-known magical cure for the toothache which was adoptedin Babylon.[1] There toothache was believed to be caused by thegnawing of a worm in the gum, and a myth was used in the incantationto relieve it.The worm's origin is traced from Anu, the god ofheaven, through a descending scale of creation; Anu, the heavens, theearth, rivers, canals and marshes are represented as each giving riseto the next in order, until finally the marshes produce the worm.Themyth then relates how the worm, on being offered tempting food by Eain answer to her prayer, asked to be allowed to drink the blood of theteeth, and the incantation closes by invoking the curse of Ea becauseof the worm's misguided choice.It is clear that power over the wormwas obtained by a recital of her creation and of her subsequentingratitude, which led to her present occupation and the curse underwhich she laboured.When the myth and invocation had been recitedthree times over the proper mixture of beer, a plant, and oil, and themixture had been applied to the offending tooth, the worm would fallunder the spell of the curse and the patient would at once gainrelief.The example is instructive, as the connexion of ideas is quiteclear.In the Nippur document the recital of the creation of the eightdeities evidently ensured their presence, and a demonstration of themystic bond between their names and the corresponding diseasesrendered the working of their powers effective.Our knowledge of agood many other myths is due solely to their magical employment.[1] See Thompson, /Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia/, Vol.II, pp.160 ff.; for a number of other examples, see Jastrow, /J.A.O.S./,Vol.XXXVI, p.279, n.7.Perhaps the most interesting section of the new text is one in whichdivine instructions are given in the use of plants, the fruit or rootsof which may be eaten.Here Usmû, a messenger from Enki, God of theDeep, names eight such plants by Enki's orders, thereby determiningthe character of each.As Professor Jastrow has pointed out, thepassage forcibly recalls the story from Berossus, concerning themythical creature Oannes, who came up from the Erythraean Sea, whereit borders upon Babylonia, to instruct mankind in all things,including "seeds and the gathering of fruits".[1] But the only part ofthe text that concerns us here is the introductory section, where thelife-giving flood, by which the dry fields are irrigated, is picturedas following the union of the water-deities, Enki and Ninella.[2]Professor Jastrow is right in emphasizing the complete absence of anyGet any book for free on: www.Abika.com LEGENDS OF BABYLON AND EGYPT104conflict in this Sumerian myth of beginnings; but, as with the otherSumerian Versions we have examined, it seems to me there is no need toseek its origin elsewhere than in the Euphrates Valley.[1] Cf.Jastrow, /J.A.O.S./, Vol.XXXVI, p.127, and /A.J.S.L./, Vol.XXXIII, p.134 f.It may be added that the divine naming of theplants also presents a faint parallel to the naming of the beastsand birds by man himself in Gen.ii.19 f.[2] Professor Jastrow (/A.J.S.L./, Vol.XXXIII, p.115) comparessimilar myths collected by Sir James Frazer (/Magic Art/, Vol.II,chap.xi and chap.xii, § 2).He also notes the parallel theirrigation myth presents to the mist (or flood) of the earlierHebrew Version (Gen.ii.5 f).But Enki, like Ea, was no rain-god;he had his dwellings in the Euphrates and the Deep.Even in later periods, when the Sumerian myths of Creation had beensuperseded by that of Babylon, the Euphrates never ceased to beregarded as the source of life and the creator of all things.And thisis well brought out in the following introductory lines of a Semiticincantation, of which we possess two Neo-Babylonian copies:[1]O thou River, who didst create all things,When the great gods dug thee out,They set prosperity upon thy banks,Within thee Ea, King of the Deep, created his dwelling.The Flood they sent not before thou wert!Here the river as creator is sharply distinguished from the Flood; andwe may conclude that the water of the Euphrates Valley impressed theearly Sumerians, as later the Semites, with its creative as well aswith its destructive power
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