REMARKABLE NEW LEGEND OF CAIN AND ABEL.

North Otago Times, 3 December 1910, Page 3 (Supplement)

REMARKABLE NEW LEGEND OF CAIN AND ABEL.

—~f . PROOF. OF THE BIBLE STORY.

One of the most interesting results of. the great irrigation Work undertaken by the new Turkish Government in Babylonia is the light it has thrown on, the ancient story of Cain and Abel. Sir William Willcocks, who is in charge of this work, has found a local version of the Cain and Abel story current among the people, which seems to be amply confirmed by the conditions of the country. .. According to'this account, Cain was an agriculturist and desired irrigation, , while Abel was a shepherd,

" and wished to have all the water ' for his sheep, and did not wish the country cut up with irrigation canals. Thus a mortal quarrel arose'between ? them and Cain killed Abel, perhaps s at the time'the latter was endeavouring to block' one of the former's irri--1 'gation canals. It is probable that ■ Cain was'the head of one tribe of people and Abel of another. 3 According to this tradition, Gain ■■ was the victor in the dispute, and ! became the great founder of>agricul- ' ture and civilisation in the Tigris- ' Euphrates delta, or the Babylonian region. . This • version is confirmed 1 in many respects by the adcount in the book of Genesis, although there '' are some.important differences. ,For instance, we read in the Bible that Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain 1 was a tiller of the ground. ' " WHY CAIN MURDERED. " Cain brought of the fruit of 'the ground, an offering unto the Lord," the book of Genesis tells us. " And Abel he also brought up the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof." This shows clearly that Cain was an agriculturist and Abel a shepherd. But then Genesis goes on to tell us that. Abel's offering found more favour in the eyes of the Lord than that of Cain, wherefore Cain rose up and slew his brother. According to Sir William Willcocks, the same warfare between agriculturists and shepherds has been I going on in ■ Mesopotamia from the time of Cain and Abel to the present day. Only when there is a strong civilised government in control docs ; irrigation or agriculture gain ' the : upper hand. ' i " About May 5 of last year," said Sir William, " when the flood was at its highest, I was riding up the left bank of the Euphrates from Ramadi to Hit, and counted over. i fifty flocks of sheep of about 200 each or 10,000 sheep in all, walking into the valley from the desert. The appears nee of shepherds made the agriculturists alert, and on my way down the river. in a boat the' next I day I heard two shots fired quic';ly one after the other, and in an instant the cultivated plain was covered with men on horseback and on foot rushing to the spot, some with spades and some with guns. They were prepared to fight the Bedouin shepherds or the flood.

j " Meeting one of the head sheikhs, I asked him why they could not arrange to let some of the land be inundated, and put some under wheat and barley, He said they could not agree among themselves, but would be pleased to see some order and method instead of the eternal feud. .He added that if working [rules were laid down, the agriculturists were sufficiently humerous to insist on their being respected." In just what region were Cain and Abel when their mortal feud broke out ? The book of Genesis tells us that it occurred after Adam and Eve had been driven out of the Garden of Eden. But the work of the.irrigation officials throw more light on the

point, They show that the Garden of Eden must have been in a certain region up the Euphrates between the present Anah and Hit, where,' owing to the geographical formation, the soil is extremely fertile without irrigation. When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden they went down stream towards the

region between the Euphrates and Tigris, which was to become the site of Babylonia and the centre of the world's early civilisation. , THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

j -The engineers have marked a site which they call the Gate of Eden,or the Gate of Paradise. It was cerj tainly somewhere ■ just outside this .that Adam and Eve settled with their growing family. ■lt was probably near the spot where the River Pison, mentioned in Genesis, leaves the Euphrates. ' There the necessity of irrigation owing to the alternations of floods and droughts, became apparent, and thus .the cruel feud between Cain and Abel occurred. The possibilities of agriculture in the Tigris-Euphrates delta drew men of different races or tribes together from distant parts of the world at the dawn of history, They were doubtless lawless and turßulent, Probably methods of irrigation formed'the chief subject of their disputes, • The curious episode of the Tower of Babel described in Genesis, apparently arose from the diversity of tongues, among the workmen brought together in this region. Sittings." ,