I do not gather from the narrative
that the "mountains of Nizir" were supposed to be submerged, but
merely that they came into view above the distant horizon of the
waters, as the vessel drove in that direction. Certainly the
ship is not supposed to ground on any of their higher summits,
for Hasisadra has to ascend a peak in order to offer his
sacrifice. The country of Nizir lay on the north-eastern side of
the Euphrates valley, about the courses of the two rivers Zab,
which enter the Tigris where it traverses the plain of Assyria
some eight or nine hundred feet above the sea; and, so far as I
can judge from maps<3> and other sources of information, it is
possible, under the circumstances supposed, that such a ship as
Hasisadra's might drive before a southerly gale, over a
continuously flooded country, until it grounded on some of the
low hills between which both the lower and the upper Zab enter
upon the Assyrian plain.
The tablet which contains the story under consideration is the
eleventh of a series of twelve. Each of these answers to a
month, and to the corresponding sign of the Zodiac. The Assyrian
year began with the spring equinox; consequently, the eleventh
month, called "the rainy," answers to our January-February, and
to the sign which corresponds with our Aquarius.
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