REMARKABLE NEW LEGEND OF CAIN AND ABEL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 49, 19 August 1911, Page 8

REMARKABLE NEW LEGEND OF CAIN AND ABEL.

PIIOOE OF THE BIBLE STOitY. One of the most interesting results of the great irrigation work undertaken by tile new Turkish Government in Babylonia is the light 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 conformed by the conditions of the country. According to this account, Cain was an agriculturalist and desired irrigation, while Abel was a shepherd, and wished to 'have all the water for his sheep, and did not wish th* country cut up with irrigation canals. Thus a mortal quarrel arose between then and Cain killed Abel, perhaps at the time the latter was endeavoring to block one of the former's irrigation canals. It is probable that Cain was the head of one tribe of people and Abel of another.

According to this tradition, Cain was the victor in the dispute, and became the great founder of agriculture and civilsation in the Tigris-Euphrates delta, or the Babylonian region. This version is confirmed in many respects by the account 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 was a tiller of the ground.

WHY CAIN MURDERED. "Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, an ottering unto the Lord," the book of Genesis tells us. "And Abel he also brought up the firstlings of file ltock and of the fat thereof." This shows olearly that Cain was an agriculturalist and Abel a shepherd. But then Genesis goes on to tell us that Abel's offering found more favor 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 agriculturalists and shepherds has been 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 does irrigation or agriculture gain the upper hand. "About May'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 fifty flocks of sheep of about 200 each, of 10,000 sheep in all, walking into title valley from the desert. The appearance of shepherds made the agriculturalists alert, and on my way down the river in a boat the next day I heard two shots fired qwickly 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 spade and some with guns. They were prepared to fight the Bedouin shepherds or the Hood. "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 barley and wheat. 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 agriculturalists were sufficiently numerous 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 «arly civilisation.

THE GARDEN OF EDEN. The engineers have marked a site which tihey can the Gate of Eden or the Gate of Paradise. It was certainly somewhere just outside this that Adam and Eve settled with tlieir growing family. It was probably near the spot when the "Rher Pison, mentioned in Genesis, leaves tihe Euphrates. There the necessity of irrigation owing to the alternations of floods and droughts, became apparent, 1 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 turbulent. 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.