The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-07-10
BABEL BESIDE E|FF[L.
It Was Very Small Tower, Built
For a Very Different
Purpose.
Various Legends Anent the Fam
GUS Old 5ky-Scraper Of An
tiquity.
Suggested by the Recent Flight of Some
Foolish People to the Hillside
mansions.

Foolish People to the Hillside
mansions.
The recent flight of sundry foolish folks
to the hills was not the only occasion on
which people have sought safety in high
places, says the San Francisco Chronicle.
The incident of the Tower of Babel is one
that will naturally commend itself to the
reader. There are few narratives in the
five books of Moses that are more impress
i've than that of the erection o. the Tower
of Babel, and there are few concerning
which there has been more discussion.
The little that is certainly Known, aud
something of the much that has been
coniectured, will form the subject of this
article.
The deluge being over, the ''sons of men,
seem to have wandered about the Asian
lands in an aimless, nomadic sort Of way,
until they struck the plains of Shinar, in
Mesopotamia, when they decided to settle
down and build a city-partly because of
the level and then fertile character of the
land. and partly because of the abundance
of brick clay and bitumen, with which the
plains were rich. Being on the plains,
however. and mindful Of the cataclysm
through which they had just passed, they
decided not only to build q city. but also to
build rallying point, which might prove
an asylum in case of another great danger,
and possibly by means of which they might
even get up among the gods themselves. At
any rate, whether the deity was offended
because the tower was an evidence of lack
Of belief in the promise that there should
be no more flood, or because it was an evil
dence of impious presumption, the building
Of the tower was suddenly brought to a
close. A confusion of tongues was sent to
plague the builders, their language. was
COMPOUNDED, work was stopped. and the
workmen once more scattered "abroad on
the face of the earth"
There the Biblical story ends. It is
worthy Of note, however, that many stories
or legends of similar trend are to be
Chaldean tradition that the first men rely
ing on their strength and size raised a
tower reaching toward heaven, but that the
winds, assisting the gods, brought the
building down on the heads of the builders
Plato also reports q tradition that the
were COMPOUNDED in their speech by Jupiter.
Then, too, in the details of the story of the
war of the Titans against the gods may be
traced a Evolutionary resemblance to the
narrative of the Bible. Again, Josephusr Ills
authority for the statement that the Sibyl
some of them built high tower, as if they
would thereby ascend to heaven, but the
gods sent storms of wind, and one threw
the tower and gave every ono his peculiar
language. Lastly, for the purposes of this
article, there is the legend that Nimrod in
high for the waters again to reach, but that
the tower was split from the top to the bot
Il IS evident from this multiplicity yet
general similarity of the Babel legends
legends, it may be added, which are quite
as numerous as those referringth to delaee-
that there must have been some great cause
Or origin of them that challenges consider
alton and respect, even if viewed only as
an attempt to account for the origin of the
diversity of languages.
It is not quite clear, however, that the
That the tower gave it's name to Babylon
there is now no doubt, and there is quite
respectable mass of authorities that Baby
Ion contained certain tOwer-like building
Of unusual Dimensions. Arrian, Diodorus
Siculus and atrabo are three names that
may be mentioned in this list. It is relat-
ed, too, by Herodotus that when the Jews
were carried captives into Babylonia they
were SO struck with the vast magnitude 4
and peculiar character Of the Babylonian
temples that they imagined they saw
among them the very tower Of their Scrip
lures. It would seem from this that they
also accepted it as fact that the Tower of
Babel was not irremediably destroyed at
the time of the confusion of tongues, and
that it was repaired and completed. The
Father of History goes even further,
and describes the tower as the Jews saw it
at the time of their captivity, and as he
saw it in ruins.
''In the middle of the sacred inclosure,'
he says, there stands solid tower of
stadium both in depth and width; upon
this tower another is raised, and another |
upon that, to the number of eight towers. |
An ascent to them has been made on the |
outside. in circle extending round all the |
towers"
The tower was then dedicated to Bel or |
Belus, SO, that it would seem, having been |
first consecrated to immoderate ambition,
to have become temple of idolatry.
With the fall of the Chaldean empire and |
the ruin of it's capital the modern identifi- |
cation of the ruins of the Tower of Babel |
has become an extremely difficult task. |
When Christian travellers first began to |
visit the ruins of the plains of Shinar, they |
generally attached the name of the Tower |
OF Babel to whatever mass was the loftiest |
and most imposing. As consequence |
there were soon six or seven towers added |
to the archaeological list. Late explora- |
tions. however, have resulted in a cons an
sns OF opinion in favor of Birs Nimrod, or
Nimrod's tower. The appearance of this
>~AA ~ NOSVAy AAAPAO OSASOs tAoAAs
suddenly as it does out of wild desert
plain, with its rent, fragmentary and fire.
blasted pile, and the whole hill itself |
on which it stands, dreary and desolate.
The base of the tower at present meas-
ures something over 1000 feet, and
is formed of the most beautiful brick
masonry, though the upper portions are
torn and vitritied as though by lightning.
Birs Nimrod appears by careful examina-
tion to have been retreating pyramid |
built in seven receding stages. TIE whole
height has been calculated to have been 1b6 |
feet. This is no very great height, it is
true, but taken in connection with the hill |
on which it stands, and which was probably
terraced, the whole must have been of oylite
an effective and sky-reaching appearances. |
Whether this is really the tower by means
of which the postidluvian relics intended |
scaling high heaven is of course pure CON |
lecture, but it stands as another proof of |
the fact that modern exploration in tie |
Orient is constantly clearing the way to the |
acceptance of the early Bible stories as |
something mole than rabbinical legends.
Few Resign. |
BERLIN, July 9.-The North German Ga |
Zafte aavs. Parnp Wiscmau 10 i'll md 70