There is one point which still deserves notice: these traditions are not fixed to any localities in or near Palestine, but even on the showing of the Jews themselves, belong to the neighbourhood of the Euphrates valley, and Babylonia in particular; this of course is clearly stated in the Babylonian inscriptions and traditions. Eden, according even to the Jews, was by the Euphrates and Tigris; the cities of Babylon, Larancha, and Sippara were supposed by the Babylonians to have been founded before the Flood. Surippak was the city of the ark, the mountains east of the Tigris were the resting-place of the ark, Babylon was the site of the tower, and Ur of the Chaldees the birthplace of Abraham. These facts and the further statement that Abraham, the father and first leader of the Hebrew race, migrated from Ur to Harran in Syria, and from thence to Palestine, are all so much evidence in favour of the hypothesis that Chaldea was the original home of these stories, and that the Jews received them originally from the Babylonians; but on the other hand there are such striking differences in some parts of the legends, particularly in the names of the patriarchs before the Flood, that it is evident further information is required before we can determine how or when they were received by the Jews. To pass, now, to the twelfth tablet of the Izdubar Epic, a curious fragment has been provisionally placed by Mr. Smith in the fourth column, in which Izdubar appears to call on his cities to mourn with him for his friend. This tablet is remarkable for the number of cities mentioned as already existing in the time of Izdubar. Combining this notice with other early inscriptions, the statements of Berosus and the notice of the cities of Nimrod in Genesis, we get the following list of the oldest known cities in the Euphrates valley:— 1. Babylon and its suburb 2. Borsippa. 3. Cutha. 4. Larsa. 5. Surippak, called Larancha by Berosus. 6. Eridu. 7. Nipur. 8. Erech. 9. Calneh. 10. Sippara. (Sepharvaim.) 11. Kisu (or Kis). 12. Ganganna. 13. Amarda or Marad. 14. Ur 15. Nisin or Karrak. 16. Agané. 17. Duban or Duran. 18. Abnunna or Mullias. 19. Zirghul. To these we may also add the great cities of Assyria:— 20. Assur, the primitive capital. 21. Ninua or Nineveh. 22. Calah. 23. Resen (Assyrian Res-eni, “the head of the spring.”)