beings that existed were foul demons and devils, and the God of
Creation only appears at a later period, but in the latter the
conception of God is that of a Being Who existed in and from the
beginning, Almighty and Alone, and the devils of chaos and evil are
His servants.

[Illustration: Marduk destroying Tiamat, who is here represented in the
form of a huge serpent. From a seal-cylinder in the British Museum.
[No. 89,589.]]

Among the primitive Semitic peoples there were probably many versions of
the story of the Creation; and the narrative told by the Seven Tablets
is, no doubt, one of them in a comparatively modern form. It is quite
clear that the Account of the Creation given in the Seven Tablets is
derived from very ancient sources, and a considerable amount of literary
evidence is now available for reconstructing the history of the Legend.
Thus in the Sumerian Account the narrative of the exploits of the hero
called ZIUSUDU [1] begins with a description of the Creation and then
goes on to describe a Flood, and there is little doubt that certain
passages in this text are the originals of the Babylonian version as
given in the Seven Tablets. In the Story of ZIUSUDU, however, there is
no mention of any Dragon. And there is reason to think that the Legend
of the Dragon had originally nothing whatever to do with the Creation,
for the texts of fragments of two distinct Accounts [2] of the Creation
describe a fight between a Dragon and some deity other than Marduk. In
other Accounts the Dragon bears a strong resemblance to the Leviathan of
Psalm civ, 26; Job xli, 1. In the one text he is said to be 50 _biru_
[3] in length, and 1 _biru_ in thickness; his mouth was 6 cubits (about
9 feet) wide, and the circumference of his ears 12 cubits (18 feet). He
was slain by a god whose name is unknown, and the blood continued to