Free Fortune Favors by Sean Ellis Page A

whereas Uta-Napishtim was supposed to be immortal.”
    “Noah lived to be nearly a thousand years old; the longest any man lived after the Great Flood. His son Shem apparently possessed a similar gift of longevity. To the rest of the world, they would certainly seem immortal.”
    “And it is your contention that they possessed some vestige of the Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden that kept them alive well beyond the limit of an ordinary life span?”
    “Contention? Better to call it an hypothesis. I am a scientist Mr. Kismet, studying the religions of the world, ancient and modern, not so much to determine what is true, but to find the commonality that might educate us as to the origin of faith.”
    Leeds flipped to the back of his notebook as he spoke, and Kismet realized that the thick leather bound volume was actually a Bible. “In the Western world, it is generally accepted that, if there is a religious truth, it is expressed in the Judeo-Christian belief system. Now, if we are to accept the Holy Scriptures as essentially factual—and that is a leap of faith which many in our modern society are no longer willing to make—then the account of Genesis proves unquestionably that the antediluvians lived to extraordinary ages. Adam, Methuselah and Noah himself, all lived to be nearly a thousand years of age. These accounts were not meant to be taken as allegory, as so many today want to believe; the language is very precise. Those men living before the Great Flood had extraordinarily long life spans. What changed?
    “The answer is here. Genesis chapter two: 'And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.'“
    Leeds looked up from the pages and watched for a reaction, but Kismet could only shake his head. “I'm not sure I follow you.”
    “The rivers that issued out of Eden, the garden of life, were likely imbued with the properties of the Tree of Life, mentioned here in verse nine: 'the Tree of Life also in the midst of the garden.' Adam and Eve were not permitted to eat of the fruit of that tree. They were expelled from the garden for their transgression and barred from entering by the cherubs and the blade of a flaming sword. Nevertheless, the life-giving properties of the Tree of Life flowed out of Eden in the waters of those rivers; diluted to be sure, but still potent enough to enable those men to live to extraordinary ages.”
    “Then the Flood came and washed it all away,” continued Kismet, making no effort to limit the skepticism in his tone. “So how did Noah and Shem manage to live on for so long afterward?”
    “One explanation would be that both were born into the antediluvian world; both would have tasted the waters of life. But I postulate a different theory.
    “Noah was certainly the favored of God, even as Uta-Napishtim was in the Epic of Gilgamesh. I believe that Noah may have carried pieces of the Tree, perhaps its fruit, plucked from the river waters before the Flood. He would have given these powerful items to his sons Japheth and Shem, though not to Ham, the accursed progenitor of the Negro race.”
    Kismet winced at the unexpected diatribe. He was liking Leeds less as the conversation progressed.
    “Nimrod,” continued Leeds, “was a descendant of Ham, and likely coveted the gift that Noah had passed to his superior offspring. Perhaps the quest of Gilgamesh is an allegory describing Nimrod's desire to seize that power from the children of his grandfather's brothers.”
    “Sounds like you’ve got it all figured out.”
    “There is much more evidence to support my claim.”
    Kismet wanted to leave; wanted to be away from the odious Dr. Leeds as much as he wanted to take refuge in his stateroom, but the unequivocal assertion held him rooted in place. “Evidence?”
    “Earlier you asked why no one else had ever discovered the secret of immortality. In fact, an eighteenth century French nobleman, the Comte de Saint-Germain,