The reason of the coming of the Flood seems to have been regarded by the Babylonians as two-fold. In the first place, as Pir-napištim is made to say (see p. 100), “Always the river rises and brings a flood”—in other words, it was a natural phenomenon. But in the course of the narrative which he relates to Gilgameš, the true reason is implied, though it does not seem to be stated in words. And this reason is the same as that of the Old Testament, namely, the wickedness of the world. If it should again become needful to punish mankind with annihilation on account of their wickedness, the instrument was to be the lion, or the hyæna, or pestilence—not a flood. And we have not to go far to seek the reason for this. By a flood, the whole of mankind might—in fact, certainly would—be destroyed, whilst by the other means named some, in all probability, would escape. There was at least one of the gods who did not feel inclined to witness the complete destruction of the human race without a protest, and an attempt on his part to frustrate such a merciless design. Little doubt exists that there is some motive in this statement on the part of the Babylonian author of the legend. It has been already noted that Merodach (the god who generally bears the title of _Bêl_, or “lord”) was, in Babylonian mythology, not one of the older gods, he having displaced his father Ea or Ae, in consequence of the predominance of Babylon, whose patron god Merodach was. Could it be that the Babylonians believed that the visitation of the flood was due to the vengeful anger of Merodach, aroused by the people’s non-acceptance of his kingship? It seems unlikely. Pir-napištim was himself a worshipper of Ae, and on account of that circumstance, he is represented in the story as being under the special protection of that god. To all appearance, therefore, the reason which Pir-napištim is represented as having given, for the building of the ship, to his fellow-townsmen, was not intended to be altogether false. The god Ellila hated him, and therefore he was going to dwell with Ae, his lord—on the bosom of the deep which he ruled. An announcement of the impending doom is represented as having been made to the people by the patriarch, and it is therefore doubly unfortunate that the next paragraph is so mutilated, for it doubtless gave, when complete, some account of the way in which they received the notice of the destruction that was about to be rained down upon them.