That is to say, the civilized race that followed the great cataclysm,
with whom the history of the event was

[1. Discourses," book iii, chapter xiii.

2. Brinton's Myths of the New World," p. 215.

3. Proctor's Pleasant Ways," p. 393.]

{p. 224}

yet fresh, and who were impressed with all its horrors, and who knew
well the tenure of danger and terror on which they held all the
blessings of the world, turned their attention to the study of the
heavenly bodies, and sought to understand the source of the calamity
which had so recently overwhelmed the world. Hence they "marked," as
far as they were able, "the positions of the 'comets,'" "that they
might not" again "do injury, and not trouble any one." The word here
given is _Nibir_, which Mr. Smith says does not mean planets, and, in
the above account, _Nibir_ is contradistinguished from the stars;
they have already been arranged in constellations; hence it can only
mean comets.

And the tablet proceeds, with distinct references to the Age of
Darkness:

"8. The positions of the gods Bel and Hea he fixed with him,

9. And _he opened the great gates in the darkness shrouded_.