SNOW CRASH

lasts forever. He spoke of pollen blowing in the wind-I gather that this was some kind of analogy.”

“It was. Tell me-has the inscription on this clay envelope been translated?”

“Yes. It is a warning. It says, ‘This envelope contains the namshub of Enki”

“I know what a namshub is. What is the nam.shub of Enki?” The Librarian stares off into the distance and clears his throat dramatically.

“Once upon a time, there was no snake, there was no scorpion,

There was no hyena, there was no lion,

There was no wild dog, no wolf,

There was no fear, no terror,

Man had no rival.

In those days, the land Shubur-Hamazi,

Harmony-tongued Sumer, the great land of the me of princeship,

Un, the land having all that is appropriate,

The land Martu, resting in security,

The whole universe, the people well cared for,

To Enlil in one tongue gave speech.

Then the lord defiant, the prince defiant, the king defiant,

Enki, the lord of abundance, whose commands are trustworthy,

The lord of wisdom, who scans the land,

The leader of the gods,

The lord of Eridu, endowed with wisdom,

Changed the speech in their mouths, put contention into it,

Into the speech of man that had been one.

That is Kramer’s translation.”

“That’s a story,” Him says. “I thought a namshub was an incantation.”

“The namshub of Enki is both a story and an incantation,” the Librarian says. “A self-fulfilling fiction. Lagos believed that in its original form, which this translation only hints at, it actually did what it describes.”

“You mean, changed the speech in men’s mouths.”

“Yes,” the Librarian says.

“This is a Babel story, isn’t it?” Hiro says. “Everyone was