[164] Rawlinson says that there is no doubt that Nebo represents the planet Mercury, and between the attributes of Mercury or Hermes, the epithets of Nebo, and the traditions concerning Shem, there is something in common. He is the god of eloquence and persuasion--the god of alliances and peace. "He contributed to civilise the manners and cultivate the minds of the people." "He united them by commerce and good laws." The Egyptian Mercury or Thaut first invented landmarks. Finally, "He was consulted by the Titans, his relations, _as an augur_, which gave occasion to the poets to describe him as interpreter of the will of the gods."--_L'Abbe de Tressan, "Mythology."_ The difficulty, however, is in understanding how the worship of Shem came to Assyria _from_ Babylonia. I can only reconcile it upon a theory that _all_ idolatry came from Babylonia, _i.e._ from the Hamitic race. There remains a difficulty which will doubtless occur to every one who has read the chapter in Rawlinson to which I must acknowledge myself so much indebted, and it is a difficulty which I ought, perhaps, to have dealt with before; and that is, that there is in the pages of Rawlinson (I. vii. 184) the most distinct identification of Noah with Xisuthrus. Of this there can be no doubt, from his direct connection with the Deluge, the circumstances of which are perfectly recorded in the Babylonian tradition.[165] This establishes the fact that the tradition of Noah and the Deluge was still among them when Berosus wrote. But if Xisuthrus is Noah, then it may be said Hoa, Oannes, and Nin cannot be Noah. It is a _non sequitur_, but will still, I fear, be very influential with many. It is difficult to understand the tendency to reduplication, and still more difficult to realise how a tradition so clear and decided could be contemporaneous with other identical traditions so entangled and confused. I believe this explanation to be that the account of Xisuthrus was part of the esoteric tradition to which Rawlinson refers, and which was also the tradition of their learned men--"Vixere fortes ante Agamemnon";--and we cannot suppose that Berosus (of whom we should have known nothing if his works had not been preserved to us at third or fourth hand) was the first chronicler of his nation.[166] [165] "Notwithstanding the difficulty of ascending to so distant a period, there will always be found some traces by which truth may be discovered.... The historian Josephus relates that the Chaldæans from the _earliest_ times _carefully preserved_ the remembrance of past events by public inscriptions on their monuments. He says they caused these annals to be written by the wisest men of their nation."--_L'Abbe de Tressan, "Hist. of Heathen Mythology."_ London, 1806.