reminded him of the pyramids of Antediluvian Chemosh.
“ Can such a thing be built by us?” Canaan asked.
“ I say it can,” Nimrod said. “What do you think, Father?”
Kush looked in wonder at the model, and it dawned on him that wh ile he had a vague notion of what to construct, the angel had given Nimrod precise details.
“ Seems like it would take an awful lot of work building such a thing,” Ham said.
“ Which is why we must all unite in this grand task,” Nimrod said. “By it, we will lift ourselves out of primitivism and into a glorious civilization.”
“ I’m impressed,” Zidon said. “I don’t want to be, but I’m impressed.” He looked around, seeming to recover himself as he did. “I’m impressed if for no other reason than it has stirred the savage hunter into aspirations for civilization.”
“ Is this why you first came to Babel?” Canaan asked Kush. “Is this why you risked tribal division?”
Kush nodded solemnly.
“What wisdom will we gain upon the Tower’s completion?” Canaan asked.
“ If we knew,” Nimrod said, “we wouldn’t have to build it.”
Laughter rang out, and Canaan rubbed his smooth chin, his eyes alight as he studied this fabulous possibility . “Yes,” he said. “Let us build this Tower as Noah once built the Ark. Let our names ring throughout the ages as civilization’s architects. Let us no longer scatter across the Earth for the animals to devour, but let us be as one in our endeavor as we labor for heaven’s wisdom.”
“ Let it be so!” Nimrod cried.
Festival
1.
A season passed . Canaan and his clan moved to Babel, although some hardworking sons remained in the Zagros settlement, with the task of collecting ores and various rare timbers to caravan later to Babel. The city on the plain grew. Kush, Nimrod and Anom the Architect, a son of Menes, worked out a blueprint for the Tower, and that winter they measured off the foundations.
“ So vast as that?” Canaan asked.
“ A monument to the ages cannot be meager,” Nimrod said. “It must stagger the imagination. It must awe and terrify. And it must draw the others to us, as honey draws a bear.”
“ It will take ages to build,” Canaan said.
Nimrod shook his head . “Not so long as that, eh, Father?”
Kush brooded . He slept less these days. He pondered an imponderable, wondering on the treasures of heavenly wisdom. On the Tower’s completion, what would the angel impart to humanity? He lusted to know. Impatiently, he wished to begin construction today if possible, baking the bricks himself and smearing them with slime.
“ Clay, wood and bitumen,” rumbled Kush, “in immense quantities.”
Canaan agreed . “Reed bundles won’t fire a quarter of the brick-baking kilns before we denude Shinar. You must send teams north and hew a forest of wood, stockpiling for the future. We must gather materials like Noah once did when building the Ark.”
Kush turned to Nimrod . “Will the Hunters go north?”
Nimrod grinned . “Before the next floodtide, look for a deluge of logs.”
2.
Opis worked apart from the other girls. They laughed as they waded barefoot into the Euphrates, soaking clothes on a sandy shore and pounding them on boards. Alone, by a flat rock, Opis beat her woolens clean, reeds behind her swaying in the wintry breeze.
Her father Lud had made it harder again for Gilgamesh to see her . Visitations were permitted only at certain times, and always with an escort. “What if someone else ends up marrying her?” Lud had told Gilgamesh. “My daughter must be above any slanderous charge. Now, now, I know you are an honorable man. But as Opis’s parents, we must take the proper precautions.”
Gilgamesh had been furious . She knew from the fire in his eyes. Yet he was a Hunter. He knew how to bide his time. Then Ramses said that Father had spoken again with Uruk’s father, thus making everything doubly difficult and uncertain.
She lifted
“ Can such a thing be built by us?” Canaan asked.
“ I say it can,” Nimrod said. “What do you think, Father?”
Kush looked in wonder at the model, and it dawned on him that wh ile he had a vague notion of what to construct, the angel had given Nimrod precise details.
“ Seems like it would take an awful lot of work building such a thing,” Ham said.
“ Which is why we must all unite in this grand task,” Nimrod said. “By it, we will lift ourselves out of primitivism and into a glorious civilization.”
“ I’m impressed,” Zidon said. “I don’t want to be, but I’m impressed.” He looked around, seeming to recover himself as he did. “I’m impressed if for no other reason than it has stirred the savage hunter into aspirations for civilization.”
“ Is this why you first came to Babel?” Canaan asked Kush. “Is this why you risked tribal division?”
Kush nodded solemnly.
“What wisdom will we gain upon the Tower’s completion?” Canaan asked.
“ If we knew,” Nimrod said, “we wouldn’t have to build it.”
Laughter rang out, and Canaan rubbed his smooth chin, his eyes alight as he studied this fabulous possibility . “Yes,” he said. “Let us build this Tower as Noah once built the Ark. Let our names ring throughout the ages as civilization’s architects. Let us no longer scatter across the Earth for the animals to devour, but let us be as one in our endeavor as we labor for heaven’s wisdom.”
“ Let it be so!” Nimrod cried.
Festival
1.
A season passed . Canaan and his clan moved to Babel, although some hardworking sons remained in the Zagros settlement, with the task of collecting ores and various rare timbers to caravan later to Babel. The city on the plain grew. Kush, Nimrod and Anom the Architect, a son of Menes, worked out a blueprint for the Tower, and that winter they measured off the foundations.
“ So vast as that?” Canaan asked.
“ A monument to the ages cannot be meager,” Nimrod said. “It must stagger the imagination. It must awe and terrify. And it must draw the others to us, as honey draws a bear.”
“ It will take ages to build,” Canaan said.
Nimrod shook his head . “Not so long as that, eh, Father?”
Kush brooded . He slept less these days. He pondered an imponderable, wondering on the treasures of heavenly wisdom. On the Tower’s completion, what would the angel impart to humanity? He lusted to know. Impatiently, he wished to begin construction today if possible, baking the bricks himself and smearing them with slime.
“ Clay, wood and bitumen,” rumbled Kush, “in immense quantities.”
Canaan agreed . “Reed bundles won’t fire a quarter of the brick-baking kilns before we denude Shinar. You must send teams north and hew a forest of wood, stockpiling for the future. We must gather materials like Noah once did when building the Ark.”
Kush turned to Nimrod . “Will the Hunters go north?”
Nimrod grinned . “Before the next floodtide, look for a deluge of logs.”
2.
Opis worked apart from the other girls. They laughed as they waded barefoot into the Euphrates, soaking clothes on a sandy shore and pounding them on boards. Alone, by a flat rock, Opis beat her woolens clean, reeds behind her swaying in the wintry breeze.
Her father Lud had made it harder again for Gilgamesh to see her . Visitations were permitted only at certain times, and always with an escort. “What if someone else ends up marrying her?” Lud had told Gilgamesh. “My daughter must be above any slanderous charge. Now, now, I know you are an honorable man. But as Opis’s parents, we must take the proper precautions.”
Gilgamesh had been furious . She knew from the fire in his eyes. Yet he was a Hunter. He knew how to bide his time. Then Ramses said that Father had spoken again with Uruk’s father, thus making everything doubly difficult and uncertain.
She lifted
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