last lacuna with these words, the last two lines will

2. In front had Anu lifted up,

3. To Bel-esir his father, a shrine . . .

The

Bel, is here the original father-God El or Ilu, for he is made father even to Anu or Alalu, who later became the heaven-father and "father of all the gods" with the Chaldæans. Alalu is the Hebrew "Hallelu," afterwards Jahveized in the invocatory "Hallelu-jah." We thus see the origin of the plural form in the text (Gen. xi. 7) "Let us go down and there confound their language." Two gods were actually at work in the "confounding;" - El or Eloah, and Hallelu, Bel and Alalu. That these two ultimately became one God with the Hebrews, we know. The origin of the tradition is simple enough. great structure would seem the work of Divinity, (at least, Divinely aided,) to the unlettered Chaldee and Hebrew common-folk. They knew only so much of its objects as that it was in some way to increase the knowledge of the heavens. When great storms, night after night, with strokes of lightning, threw down the new and soft brick walls as fast as they were built up during the day, and superstition had led to a suspension or temporary abandonment of the building, what more natural than that the "folk" should fancy that the gods, irritated at the attempt. to scale the heavens, had thrown down the structure and confounded the builders? The idea of the "confusion of tongues," (or "counsel ")-as following, is a most natural consequence in a hive of nations like Babylon, and where slaves or workmen of various tongues had doubtless been employed to push the structure rapidly forward.' Professor Sayce's view is as follows:

The actual "confusion" of "tongues" and "counsel" prevailing at such a worldcity as Babylon, would seem, to strangers from the upland plains, like the Hebrews, and even to the rural Chaldees, something miraculous and requiring a miraculous explanation, especially when contrasted with the universal theory of the common origin of mankind from a single pair and one primary language. An actual storm and stroke of lightning, such as is stated by early historians to have interrupted the works, gave

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"The etymology of the name of Babel from balbel 'to confound,' suggested in Genesis, is one of those 'popular etymologies' or plays on words, of which the Old Testament writers are so fond. Thus, for instance, the name of Joseph is connected first with 'âsaph 'to take away,' and then with yâsaph 'to add,' (Gen. xxx. 23, 24)." Babel is the Assyrian Bab-il, 'the gate of God,'" [Il or Elu.] "or, as it is occasionally written in the plural, Bab-ili, 'Gate of the gods,' which was the Semitic translation of the old Accadian name of the town, Cadimirra, with the same meaning; "-(Smith's "Chaldean Account of Genesis," edited by the Rev. Professor A. H. Sayce).

The date of the building is uncertain, but was probably not far from 2200 to 2100 B.C. Its site was one that had been used for similar purposes by the Akkadians, and perhaps by Sisathra, B.C. 2240:'

Chapter xi. concludes with the genealogy of the preAbramic patriarchs.

The extraordinary ages assigned to these patriarchs in chap. xi., and previously, cannot be credited in view of the statement of the Prisse papyrus. Not only were the Chaldæans given to assigning immense ages to mythic characters, but the recorded vast antiquity of Egypt, which the Hebrews became acquainted with after they entered that country, led them to increase the ages of the generations on their own records, to match if possible the Egyptian actual periods. This tendency is shown by the fact that the Septuagint writers, - translating the Pentateuch into Greek at Alexandria under the auspices of Ptolemy Philadelphus, having freer access to Egyptian records than the earlier Hebrew writers, and finding even the great ages already assigned to the patriarchs in the Hebrew work insufficient to cover the Egyptian periods, — coolly added one hundred years to the age of each patriarch at the time

rise to "confusion" among the builders; hence the origin of the legend of the varieties in human language, first accounted for in Babylon, as arising from this "confusion," and hence too the natural perversion of the real meaning of the name of the tower from that of the gate or house of the one God, " Bab-Il," to that of "balbel, babel," confusion.

In parting from this legend, I refer the reader to Mr. Smith's work for the Chaldæan original of the "destruction of Sodom."

of the eldest son's birth! Thus they effected a large addition to the age of the world without increasing the patriarchs' already enormous total ages! They also invented and inserted into the genealogy an extra patriarch, (a second "Cainan,") as son to Arphaxad. Thus:

The addition begins with Abram's grandfather Nahor, to whose age a half-century is added by the Septuagint writers and the Samaritans who copied them. Every previous patriarch receives the addition of a century to his age at birth of first child. The Septuagint writers also added an entirely new post-diluvian patriarch, another "Cainan." All this liberality, nevertheless, fell far short of bringing the Hebrew chronology to the level of the recorded Egyptian periods as required by the dynasties.

CHAPTER IX.

HEBREW WANDERINGS TOWARD AND FROM EGYPT.— THE ABRAMIC LEGEND.

THE name Hebrews, 'Ibhrim, from ebher, beyond, across, on the other side, signified the "men from beyond, from the other side," i.e. from the other side of the River, the Great River, Euphrates. This name must have been given them by the Chaldæans when they first appeared in the country of the latter people. According to Eastern usage, this appellation of the tribe, "'Ibhrim," would be used with the form "sons of;" the 'Ibhrim would be called "the sons of the 'Ibhrim." "The sons of the 'Ibhrim" easily became "the sons of 'Ibhrim," and 'Ibhrim thus became a personification of the Hebrews, a personal forefather from whom they descended. In the same way ebher itself had been personified and become the patriarch Eber the ancestor of Abhram. Ablr, "stranger," is however, also a probable origin for Eber, and "the strangers," "the sons of the stranger," (Abhr,) would in the same way become the "sons of Eber," as they were, also, called the sons of 'Ibhrim or Abhram.

That Abhram or Avram was originally 'Ibhrim gains. additional probability from the fact that the Arabic to this day preserves that name in Ibraim or Ibrahim, its reading of the name of the "father of the Hebrews."

But neither ebher nor abhr nog 'Ibhrim contains the meaning "father." Abh-ram, however, is the Hebrew for "high father, father on high." Hence 'Ibhrim the father of the Hebrews readily became Abhram the high father or heaven-father.

In this position the older myth or poetic legend of Brahm-a the Indian (and probably originally Thibetan) heaven-father and god of sacrifice, his wife the "princess" Sara-iswati, (Sarai, Sarah in Hebrew,) and their son Ikswaka, with the sacrifice of the latter, (the sun,) under his Hebrew name of Yitschak the laugher, by his father the heaven or the night-sky, a myth which had been floating in the minds and mouths of the story-loving common-folk for many generations, attaches itself to that of the "high-father" of the Hebrews. This seems the most probable account of the origin of the myth of the sacrifice of Yitschak or "Isaac." As the character of Abhram became shaped by countless repetitions of his story, and the Hebrew monotheism made faith in the one God the prominent element in that character, the sacrifice of the Son, Ikswaka, (originally a Sun-God and son of Brahm-a the Heaven-father,) which was, at first, a myth of sun-setting, became a trial of the faith of Avram, by a command from God (Elohim), in direct contravention of His promises of descendants from this son, that the "child of promise" should be sacrificed; a trial which was ended by the intervention of Yehovah to save the child of promise.

It seems most likely that Av-ram, whose name is afterwards changed to Av-rahham, "the father of multitudes,' must be looked upon as originally a mere personification of the Hebrew tribe or people. Many legends, some of them of great beauty, have clustered about this representative name. Others of these legends, of a less pleasing character, are seemingly inventions for the purpose of exalting the Hebrews at the expense of neighbor tribes. The oft-repeated appearances of Yehovah, and his many times reiterated assurances to Av-ram and his successors that he will make of them a great nation, cannot, of course, be considered as historical, or any other than this kind of patriotic or self-magnifying inventions, on the part of the Hebrew writers. The person denoted by the Hebrew