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far as Noah's sons covering him when drunk, and the others scoffing at it,"* etc. "In Peru," says Herrera in the same work, "the ancient Indians reported, they had received by tradition from their ancestors, that many years before there were any Incas, at the time when the country was very populous, there happened a great flood; the sea breaking out beyond its bounds, so that the land was covered with water, and all the people perished. The Guancas inhabiting the vale of Xausca, and the natives of Chiquito in the province of Callao, add that some persons remained in the hollows and caves of the highest mountains, who again peopled the land. Others of the mountain people affirm, that all perished in the deluge, only six persons being saved on a float, from whom descended all the inhabitants of the country." The natives of Terra Firma believe, "that when the universal deluge happened, one man, with his wife and children, escaped in a canoe, and that from them the world had been peopled," etc. The most barbarous of the Brazilians," says Herrera, "have some knowledge of a general deluge; it being their opinion that the whole race of mankind. were extirpated by a general deluge, except one man and his own sister, who being with child before, they by degrees repeopled the world." The Brazilians near the coast, had a very particular tradition of a deluge, which grew out of a quarrel between two brothers, and which rose until the earth was entirely covered. All mankind were destroyed except the two brothers and their wives, who were saved by climbing trees on the tops of the mountains.

The tradition of a general flood is found among the natives of the South Sea Islands. The inhabitants of Tahiti, being asked concerning their origin, replied, that "their Supreme God, a long time ago, being angry, dragged the earth through the sea, when their island was broken off and preserved."

We do not see how this wide spread coincidence between the Mosaic account of Noah's deluge and tradition, not merely as to the fact of such a catastrophe, but also in regard to circumstances of a very peculiar character, can be accounted for philosophically without supposing them all to refer to the same event; and that too, the deluge described by Moses. Partial and local deluges have, indeed, happened in various parts of the world, so extensive and destructive as to make a deep impression on the

• Herrera's History of America, as quoted by Catcott, p. 72.

minds of a whole people. Such was the deluge in Syria in the year 1095, which destroyed many lives; also that in Friesland in 1164; and that in the same country in 1218, which drowned 100,000 persons; also those in Netherlands in 1421, and 1727, which made striking ravages. But whence is it that we find the ark so frequently mentioned as the vessel in which the survivors were preserved, when it would be more natural to imagine them rescued in a vessel of the ordinary form? Still more remarkable, whence the notion of sending out the dove and the raven, to ascertain whether the earth was dry, when it would be more natural to infer that the inmates of the ark need only look out upon the earth's surface, to determine whether the waters had retired? And why is the deluge always thrown back into the earliest and the fabulous periods of a nation's history? Admit these traditions to be all founded upon the Noachian deluge, and all difficulties vanish; but deny this identity, and we need a miracle, greater than would be required for a universal deluge, to resolve them.

7. Finally, the deluge of Noah seems to have formed, in a good measure, the ground-work of heathen mythology. Noah and his sons, the ark, the dove, the raven, and the rainbow, may be found incorporated into a large part of the characters, ceremonies, and mysteries of idol worship. It cannot be expected that we should here go into the detailed proof of this position. This has, however, been already done with great ability and industry, by Bryant, in his New System, or Analysis of Ancient Mythology, and by his disciple Faber, in the Mysteries of the Cabiri. We can only state the leading results to which their researches have conducted them.

Noah and his sons may be distinctly recognized in the character of Atlas, Saturn, Dionusos, Inachus, Janus, Zeus, and many other gods and demigods among the Greeks. Thus, because Noah planted the vine and invented fermented liquors, he was called Zeuth, which signifies ferment, or leaven. In the East, Noah was called Noas, Noasis, Nusus and Nus. Hence the Greek Dionusos, the prototype of the Latin Bacchus, whose name has been generally supposed to be derived from 40s, the genitive of Zeus, and Nvon, a city of India; but it is more probable that the city took its name from Nusus; since there were many cities by that name, as well as mountains, in various

* In three volumes, quarto. London 1775.

VOL. IX. No. 25.

12

parts of the world, mostly distinguished, however, for the cultivation of the vine. This Dionusos the Greeks made a great warrior, "who went with an army over the face of the whole earth; and taught mankind as he passed along, the method of planting the vine; and how to press out the juice, and receive it in proper vessels."*

Such an allusion to the character, and some of the most striking incidents in the life of Noah, can hardly have been accidental. In the ancient sacred mysteries, also as well as in the histories of the individual who survived some terrible catastrophe, we find frequent reference to the door of the ark, and the imprisonment of Noah within it for a time. "The entrance through it," (the door) says Bryant, "the ancients esteemed a passage to death and darkness; but the egress from it was represented as a return to life. Hence the opening and shutting of it were religiously recorded. And as the stay in the ark was an intermediate state between a lost world and a world renewed, this was also alluded to in their hieroglyphical representations. We accordingly find Janus described with two faces; having a retrospect to what was past, as well as a view forward to what was to come. They styled him Patulcius and Clusius, in allusion to the history above given," etc. "The person preserved is always mentioned as preserved in an ark. He is described as being in a state of darkness, which is represented allegorically as a state of death. He then obtains a new life which is called a second birth, and he is said to have his youth renewed. He is on this account, looked upon as the first born of mankind, and both his antediluvian and postdiluvian states are commemorated, and sometimes the intermediate state also is spoken of."†

Κικλήσκω Διονυσον, επιβρόμον, ευαστήρα,

Πρωτόγονον, διφυή, τριγονον.

The Triad (Aurikeinios Toias) of Plato, Proclus, and other ancient writers, Bryant supposes, with much plausibility, to have been derived from the deification of the three families of which Noah was the head. It is well known that this has been supposed to have reference to the Trinity of the Bible; but other parts of the writings of these authors show that they had no idea

• Diodorus Siculus, L. 3.

+ Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, Vol. 2, p. 255, and 209. Orphic Hymn, 29, p. 222, as quoted by Bryant.

of such a doctrine. And in other connections the patriarch and his three sons are frequently alluded to by the ancient mythologists.

In the ceremonies of heathen worship, the ark was a very conspicuous object. There was the sacred Baris of the Egyptians, made use of in celebrating the rites of Osiris; the ship of Iris at Rome, carried yearly in procession, and the sacred cups in the form of boats, called Cymbia and Scyphi, which were used in a similar manner. The deification of the ark, or rather of the genius of the ark, is very manifest in the names and characters of numerous heathen deities. The ark was distinguished by the terms Theba, Baris, Arguz, Aren, Arene, Laris, Boutus, Boeotus, Cibotus, etc. And from these names were formed different divinities. But as the terms have various degrees of correspondence, a relation more or less remote was supposed to exist between the deities formed from them. Sometimes we perceive a confounding together of the ark and Noah; but this is not unexpected, for the whole of the heathen mythology consists of an absurd mixture of truth with error.

In this connection the famous Ogdoas of the Egyptians should be mentioned. This consisted of eight persons sailing together in the sacred Baris or ark. And there is not small reason for believing that the famous Argonautic Expedition, celebrated by the Greeks, was fabulous, and that its history was in fact derived from the history of the Noachian deluge.

Among other mementos of this catastrophe incorporated into ancient mythology, we find the dove, the raven, and the rainbow. The latter, having been constituted the token of a covenant between God and man, according to Moses, was held in uncommon regard for many ages. But the dove is found in almost all the mythological histories. It was regarded as a peculiar messenger of the gods, and the emblem of peace and good fortune. On the other hand, the raven, which unlike the dove disappointed the hopes of Noah by never returning to the ark, was generally regarded as a bird of ill omen. Among the ancient Amonians the name of the dove was Iön, Iönah, or Iönas; hence the Oivas of the Greeks. This bird was assumed by the Babylonians for their national ensign, having been depicted upon their military standards. They were hence styled Iönim, or children of the dove, and their city Iönah.* It was a cus

* These titles are giveu in Jeremiah 25: 38, also 46: 16 and 50: 16.

tom among the ancient mariners to let fly from the ship during a voyage, a dove or a pigeon, in order to predict by its movements the success of their voyage. It was thought to be the best time for sailing when the sun and the seven stars near the head of Taurus were in conjunction. Hence these stars are called Peleiades or Pleiades, the doves. The goddess Venus appears to have been the ancient Iönah; and hence in her history are numerous allusions to the dove of Noah and the deluge. The mythologies of other nations, besides that of Greece and Rome, to which thus far we have chiefly alluded, afford similar allusions to the Noachian deluge. We find them for instance in the histories of the Phenician Sydyk, Dagon, and Agmenes; the Assyrian Derceto and Astarte, the Egyptian Isis, Osiris, Sesostris and Oannes; the Chinese Fohi and the Hindoo Menu, Buddhu and Vishnu. But we will not go into details; for our object under this last head of argument is to give the reader an idea of its nature, rather than of its force, when presented in all its details. On such a subject there is, indeed, much room for the play of a fertile imagination; but the allusions are too striking often, and the coincidences too remarkable, to permit us to impute all to fancy; and they justify us in coming to the conclusion, that the deluge of Noah formed a principal groundwork of ancient mythology. Fruitful as is the human imagination it needs realities for the basis of its airy creations. And we may be sure that the most remarkable and impressive events in a pagan nation's history will constitute the frame-work of its religion. Hence in the Sandwich Islands, since volcanic phenomena are more terrific and recent than the last deluge, they give the character to the mythology recently prevalent there. The truth on this subject is very clearly and briefly stated by Lactantius: Non res ipsas gestas finxerunt poetae; sed rebus gestis addiderunt quendam colorem.* "The poets did not invent the facts; but gave them their coloring."

With all these evidences before us of an identity of origin for the vast number of traces of diluvial agency among the traditions of all nations, we cannot hesitate to admit the long cherished opinion that nearly all of them sprung from the deluge of Noah as recorded in Scripture. For among all the histories of deluges that exist, not one can compare for a moment in verisimilitude with the Mosaic all others have so much of palpa

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* De Falsa Relig. L. 1. C. 2.

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