Books Should Be Free Loyal Books Free Public Domain Audiobooks & eBook Downloads |
|
Hasisadra's Adventure By: Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) |
---|
![]()
ESSAY 7 FROM "SCIENCE AND HEBREW TRADITION"
By Thomas Henry Huxley Some thousands of years ago there was a city in Mesopotamia called
Surippak. One night a strange dream came to a dweller therein, whose
name, if rightly reported, was Hasisadra. The dream foretold the speedy
coming of a great flood; and it warned Hasisadra to lose no time in
building a ship, in which, when notice was given, he, his family and
friends, with their domestic animals and a collection of wild creatures
and seed of plants of the land, might take refuge and be rescued from
destruction. Hasisadra awoke, and at once acted upon the warning. A
strong decked ship was built, and her sides were paid, inside and out,
with the mineral pitch, or bitumen, with which the country abounded;
the vessel's seaworthiness was tested, the cargo was stowed away, and a
trusty pilot or steersman appointed. The promised signal arrived. Wife and friends embarked; Hasisadra,
following, prudently "shut the door," or, as we should say, put on the
hatches; and Nes Hea, the pilot, was left alone on deck to do his
best for the ship. Thereupon a hurricane began to rage; rain fell in
torrents; the subterranean waters burst forth; a deluge swept over
the land, and the wind lashed it into waves sky high; heaven and earth
became mingled in chaotic gloom. For six days and seven nights the gale
raged, but the good ship held out until, on the seventh day, the storm
lulled. Hasisadra ventured on deck; and, seeing nothing but a waste
of waters strewed with floating corpses and wreck, wept over the
destruction of his land and people. Far away, the mountains of Nizir
were visible; the ship was steered for them and ran aground upon the
higher land. Yet another seven days passed by. On the seventh, Hasisadra
sent forth a dove, which found no resting place and returned; then he
liberated a swallow, which also came back; finally, a raven was let
loose, and that sagacious bird, when it found that the water had abated,
came near the ship, but refused to return to it. Upon this, Hasisadra
liberated the rest of the wild animals, which immediately dispersed
in all directions, while he, with his family and friends, ascending a
mountain hard by, offered sacrifice upon its summit to the gods. The story thus given in summary abstract, told in an ancient Semitic
dialect, is inscribed in cuneiform characters upon a tablet of burnt
clay. Many thousands of such tablets, collected by Assurbanipal, King
of Assyria in the middle of the seventh century B.C., were stored in
the library of his palace at Nineveh; and, though in a sadly broken
and mutilated condition, they have yielded a marvellous amount of
information to the patient and sagacious labour which modern scholars
have bestowed upon them. Among the multitude of documents of various
kinds, this narrative of Hasisadra's adventure has been found in a
tolerably complete state. But Assyriologists agree that it is only a
copy of a much more ancient work; and there are weighty reasons
for believing that the story of Hasisadra's flood was well known in
Mesopotamia before the year 2000 B.C. No doubt, then, we are in presence of a narrative which has all
the authority which antiquity can confer; and it is proper to deal
respectfully with it, even though it is quite as proper, and indeed
necessary, to act no less respectfully towards ourselves; and, before
professing to put implicit faith in it, to inquire what claim it has to
be regarded as a serious account of an historical event. It is of no use to appeal to contemporary history, although the annals
of Babylonia, no less than those of Egypt, go much further back than
2000 B.C. All that can be said is, that the former are hardly consistent
with the supposition that any catastrophe, competent to destroy all the
population, has befallen the land since civilisation began, and that
the latter are notoriously silent about deluges. In such a case as this,
however, the silence of history does not leave the inquirer wholly at
fault... Continue reading book >>
|
This book is in genre |
---|
Science |
eBook links |
---|
Wikipedia – Thomas Henry Huxley |
Wikipedia – Hasisadra's Adventure |
eBook Downloads | |
---|---|
ePUB eBook • iBooks for iPhone and iPad • Nook • Sony Reader |
Kindle eBook • Mobi file format for Kindle |
Read eBook • Load eBook in browser |
Text File eBook • Computers • Windows • Mac |
Review this book |
---|