Note 5 — INTRODUCTORY.

The Scriptural narrative of a great flood, and of a great vessel to float upon it, has just met with a remarkable confirmation. At a meeting of the Society of Biblical Archæology, Sir Henry Rawlinson in the chair, on December 3, 1872, Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum, read a paper, giving an account of his discovery, on cuneiform tablets (part of the so-called library of Ashur-ban-i-pal, king of Nineveh), of an unquestionable account of the Deluge. The name of the king under whom this event occurred cannot as yet be deciphered, nor can anything like a certain date be assigned to it; but Sir Henry Rawlinson accepted fully the truth of Mr. Smith’s decipherings. Of the inscription describing the Flood, there are fragments of three copies, containing duplicate texts.