individuals of the branches of Japheth. Dr. Doig, iiil the article " Philology," in the Encydop, Hritannica (7th ed. 1842), has entered at some length into this question, and arrives at the following conclusion: ''From these circumstances, we hope it ap])ears that the whole mass of mankind was not engaged in liinUl- ing the tower of Babel ; that the language of all the hu- man race was not confomided upon that occasion, and that the dispersion reached oidy to a combination of Hamites, anil of the most profligate [lart of the two oth- er families who liad joined their wicked confederacy." Nevertheless, as this was the first occurrence of any dia- lectical variety, it is properly given by the sacred writer as the initial point of that wide ethnic diversity of tongues which has since gradually spread over the earth,
4. Traces (f the Ecent. — (1.) Monumental. — The his- tory of the confusion of languages was preserved at Babylon, as we learn by the testimonies of classical and Babylonian authorities (Abydenus, Eragm. Jlist. Onec. [ed. Didot], vol. iv). Only the Chahheans then)selves did not admit the Hebrew etymology <if the name of their metropolis; they derived it from Bab-el, the door of El ( Kronos, or Saturnus), whom Diodorus Siculus states to have been the planet most adored by the Baby- lonians.
The Talmudists say that the true site of the tower of Babel was at Borsif, the (ireek Borsippa, the Birs Nimrud, seven miles and a half from Hillab, S.W., and nearly eleven miles from the northern ruins of Baby- lon. Several passages state that the air of Borsippa makes forgetful (FIST'S "I'^'^X, arir 7nashkach) ; and one rabbi says that Borsif is Bulsif, the confusion of tongues {Bereshilh Rabba, fol. 42, p. 1). The Babylonian name of this locality is Barsip, or Barzipa, which we ex- plain by " Tower of Tongues." The French expedition to Mesopotamia found at the Birs Nimrftd a clay cake, dated from Barsij) the 30th day of the 6th month of the Itith year of Nabonid, and the discovery confirmed the hypothesis of several travellers, who had supposed the Birs Nimriid to contain the remains of Borsippa.
Borsippa (the Tongue Tow-er) was formerly a suburb of Babylon, when the old Babel was merely restricted to the northern ruins, before the great extension of the city, which, according to ancient writers, was the great- est that the sun ever warmed with its beams. Nebu- chadnezzar included it in the great circimivallation of 480 stades, but left it out of the second wall of 3(')0 stades; and when the exterior wall was destroyed by Darius, Borsippa became independent of Babylon. The histori- cal writers respecting Alexander state that Borsippa had a great sanctuary dedicated to Apollo and Artemis (Strabo, xvi, 739; Stephanus Byz. s. v. IJi)prT/7r7r«), and the former is the building elevated in modern times on the very basement of the old tower of Babel.
This building, erected by Nebuchadnezzar, is the same that Herodotus describes as the tower of Jupiter Belus. In the E.rpedition en Mesopotamie, i, 20.S, there is given a description of this ruin, jiroving the identity. This tower of Herodotus has notldng to do with the pyramid described by Strabo, which is certainly to be seen in the remains called now Babil (the Mujellibeh of Rich). The temple of Borsippa is written with an ideogram (6jV-2?-(/(/ ), composed of the signs for honse and spirit (anima), the real pronunciation of which was probalilv sarakh, tower.
The temple consisted of a large substructure, a stade (six hundred Babylonian feet) in breadth and seventy- five feet in height, over which were built seven other stages of twenty-five feet each. Nebuchadnezzar gives notice of this building in the Borsippa inscription. He named it the temple of the Seven Lights if the Earth, i. e. the planets. The top was the temple of Nebo, and in the sidjstructure (igar) was a temple consecrated to the god Sin, god of the month. This building, men- tioned in the East India House inscription (col. iv, 1. 61), is spoken of by Heroilotus (i, 181, etc.).
TONGUES, CONFUSION OF 4G5 TONGUES, CONFUSION OF
Here follows the Borsippa inscription :
" NabHchodouosor, king of B.ibylon, slieplierd of peo- ples, who attests the immutable afteciion of Alerodach, the mighty ruler-exalting N^jbo ; the savior, the wise man wlio lends his ears to the orders of the highest god ; the lieutenant without reproach, the repairer of the Pyra- mid and the Tower, eldest sou of Nabopallassar, king of Babylon.
" We say : Merodach, the great master, has created me : he has imposed on me to reconstruct his building. Nebo, the guardian over the legions of the heaven and the earth, has charged my hands with the sceptre of justice.
"The Pyramid is the temple of the heaven and the earth, the seat of Merodach, the chief of the gods; the place of the oracles, the spot of his rest, I have adorned m the form of a cupola, with shining gold.
"The Tower, the eternal house, which I founded and built, I have completed its magnificence with silver, gold, other metals, stone, enamelled bricks, fir, and pine.
"The first, which is the house of the earth's base, the most ancient monument of Babylon, I built and finished it; I have highly exalted its head with bricks covered with copper.