Introduction

The five clay tablets from your recent excavation in the ruins of Babylon arrived on the same boat with your letter. I have been fascinated no end and have spent many pleasant hours translating their inscriptions. The tablets arrived without damage thanks to your careful use of preservatives and excellent packing. You will be as astonished as we in the laboratory at the story they relate. One expects the dim and distant past to speak of romance and adventure, Arabian night sort of things, you know. When instead it discloses the problem of a person named Debussy or to pay off his debts,. one realizes that conditions upon this old world have not changed as much in 5,000 years as one might expect.