ANCIENT EGYPT THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
NOTES TO BOOK 9
[1] [Naville, 'Inscription of the Destruction of Mankind by Ra,' RP, 6, 103. See p. 107.]
[2] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, p. 57. 'The Codex Chimalpopoca, or Chimalpopoca MS., after Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. des Nat. Civ., tom, i., p. 53. This Codex Chimalpopoca, so called by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg, is an anonymous manuscript in the Mexican language. What we really know of this much-talked-of document is little, and will be best given in the original form. This manuscript, or a copy of it, fell into the hands of the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg in the city of Mexico, in the year 1250.']
[3] [Ibid., vol. 3, pp. 69-70. 'Yet
another record remains to us of a traditional Mexican deluge, in the following
extract from the Chimalpopoca Manuscript. Its words seem to have a familiar
sound; but it would hardly be scientific to draw from such a fragment any very
sweeping conclusion as to its relationship, whether that be Quiche or Christian:
When the Sun, or Age, Nahui-Atl came, there had passed
already four hundred years; then came two hundred years, then seventy and six,
and then mankind were lost and drowned and turned into fishes. The waters and
the sky drew near each other; in a single day all was lost; the day Four Flower
consumed all that there was of our flesh. And this year was the year Ce-Calli;
on the first day, Nahui-Atl, all was lost. The very mountains were swallowed up
in the flood, and the waters remained, lying tranquil, during fifty and two
spring-times. But before the flood began, Titlacahuan had warned the man Nata
and his wife Nena, saying: Make now no more pulque, but hollow out to yourselves
a great cypress, into which you shall enter, when, in the month Tozoztli, the
waters shall near the sky. Then they entered into it, and when Titlacahuan had
shut them in, he said to the man: Thou shalt eat but a single ear of maize, and
thy wife but one also. And when they had finished eating each an ear of maize,
they prepared to set forth, for the waters remained tranquil and their log moved
no longer; and opening it they began to see the fishes. Then they lit a fire,
rubbing pieces of wood together, and they roasted fish. And behold the deities
Citlalliriicue and Citlallatonac, looking down from above, cried out: O divine
Lord! what is this fire that they make there? wherefore do they so fill the
heaven with smoke? And immediately Titlacahuan Tetzcatlipoca came down, and set
himself to grumble, saying: What does this fire here? Then he seized the fishes
and fashioned them behind and before, and changed them into dogs.']
[4] [2 Esd. 7:30-33. 'At the end of that time, my son the Messiah shall die, and so shall all mankind who draw breath. Then the world shall return to its original silence for seven days as at the beginning of creation, and no one shall be left alive. After seven days the age which is not yet awake shall be roused and the age which is corruptible shall die. The earth shall give up those who sleep in it, and the dust those who rest there in silence; and the storehouses shall give back the souls entrusted to them. Then the Most High shall be seen on the judgement-seat, and there shall be an end of all pity and patience.' The NEB version.]
[5] [Naville, 'Inscription of the Destruction of Mankind by Ra,' RP, 6, 103. See p. 106.]
[7] [Source. Unable to trace.]
[8] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, p. 153. 'The Okanagans believe in a good spirit or master of life, called Elemeliunikillanwaist or Skyappe; and in a bad spirit, Kishtsainah or Chacha; both moving constantly through the air, so that nothing can be done without their knowledge. The Okanagans have no worship public or private, but before engaging in any thing of importance they offer up a short prayer to the good spirit for assistance; again, on state occasions, a pipe is passed round and each one smokes three whiffs toward the rising sun, the same toward the setting, and the same respectively toward the heaven above and the earth beneath. Then they have their great mythic ruler and heroine, Scomalt, whose story is intimately connected with a kind of Okanagan fall or paradise lost. Long ago, so long ago that the sun was quite young and very small and no bigger than a star there was an island far out at sea, called Sarnahtumiwhoolah, or the White Man's Island. It was inhabited by a white race of gigantic stature, and governed by a tall fair woman called Scomalt; and she was a great and strong medicine, this Scomalt. At last the peace of the island was destroyed by war, and the noise of battle was heard, the white men fighting the one with the other; and Scomalt was exceedingly wroth. She rose up and said: Lo, now I will drive these wicked far from me; my soul shall be no longer vexed concerning them, neither shall they trouble the faithful of my people with their strivings anymore. And she drove the rebellious together to the utter most end of the island, and broke off the piece of land on which they were huddled, and pushed it out to sea to drift whither it would. This floating island was tossed to and fro many days, and buffeted of the winds exceedingly, so that all the people thereon died, save one man and one woman, who, seeing their island was ready to sink, made themselves a canoe and gat them away toward the west. After paddling day and night for many suns, they came to certain islands, whence steering through them, they came at last to where the mainland was, being the territory that the Okanagans now inhabit; it was, however, much smaller in those days, having grown much since. This man and woman were so sorely weather-beaten when they landed that they found their original whiteness quite gone, and a dusky reddish color in its place. All the people of the continent are descended from this pair, and the dingy skin of their storm-tossed ancestors has become a characteristic of the race. And even, as in time past the wrath of the fair Scomalt loosed the island of their ancestors from its mainland, and sent it adrift with its burden of sinful men, so in a time to come the deep lakes, that like some Hannibal's vinegar soften the rocks of the foundations of the world, and the rivers that run forever and gnaw them away, shall set the earth afloat again; then shall the end of the world be.']
[9] [Ps. 29:10. 'The LORD sitteth upon the flood; yea, the LORD sitteth King for ever.']
[11] [Turner, Samoa, p. 12. 'Tangaloa
of the heavens and his son Lu built a canoe or vessel up in the heavens. They
were aided by a carpenter called Manufili. When finished it was taken down and
set on the Laueleele, or surface of the earth. There was no sea at that time.
Lu had a wife called Gaogao o le tai, expanse of sea. She had a son who
was also called Lu, and when he grew up the vessel was given to him. When she
next brought forth it was a lot of all kinds of shell-fish. Lu said to his
mother, "What is the use of having all these things lying there bare in the
sun?" "Leave it with me to make a lake for them," was her reply; and then
she told him to go and get his vessel in order, and be ready to get into it when
the sea was made.
The sea was the product of the next birth. Lu caught two fowls, and when the sea
rose took them with him into the vessel. He was not many days afloat, some say
six, when his vessel rested on the top of the mountain called Malata, in Atua,
east end of Upolu. Lu lived there at the village called Uafato, and had there
his Sa Moa, or preserve fowls, which were not to be killed. Another story
says that Lu came from the west with his fowls, and that from his crew all the
islands of the group were peopled. He was said to have come from Pulotu, Papatea,
Pau, Vau, Aoao, and Ngaelu. Others say he came with his fowls direct from Tafiti
apaau, or the Winged Fiji.
Two of the people of Tangaloa of the heavens came down to fish. As they were
returning with two baskets of fish, the fowls of Lu leaped up to peck at the
fish. The lads caught and killed the precious preserve, or Sa Moa, and ran off
with them to the heavens.
In the morning Lu missed the fowls, and went off in search of them. He saw from
the unbroken early morning cobwebs across the roads east and west, that no one
had passed along there. He suspected the fishing party from the heavens, and
away he went up there from the top of the mountain. He had nothing in his hand
but his fly-flapper.
In the first heavens he smelled roast fowl, and presently he came upon the two
culprits as they were eating, and believed that they were crunching the bones of
the very fowls of which he was in search. He charged them. They did not deny,
but commenced to lay the blame the one on the other, and hence the proverb to
this day: "It was not I, but you." He set upon both of them with his fue, or
fly-flapper, and hence the word to fue, or to fly-flapper, is used as a
milder term to express beating or killing.
Away the lads fled, and he after them up through the nine heavens, laying out on
them with his fue. When they reached the tenth heaven, Tangaloa made his
appearance and called out, "What is all this about? Don't you know this is Malae
totoa, the place of rest? There must be no fighting here."
In the tenth heaven no strife was allowed; the place was kept beautifully clean,
no rubbish to be seen about the roads, and there were no clubs hanging in the
houses.
Lu told the cause of his anger: his Sa Moa or preserve fowls had been stolen,
and he had found the thieves in the very act of eating them. Tangaloa said, "It
is indeed very bad; but now that you have left behind all the places where wars
may be fought out, and have come to this heaven of peace, let your wrath abate,
spare these men, and you shall go back with the title of King of heaven,
and take my daughter Langituavalu, Eighth heavens, to be your wife."
"Very good," said Lu; "let these men live, and let us be at peace, and conform
to the custom of Malae totoa."
A handsome dowry was got up, the marriage took place, and Tangaloa told Lu to
name the earth Samoa when he came down, and so keep in remembrance his
preserve fowls.
The two came down, had a child, and named him Samoa, and from them these islands
have been peopled. Hence also the proverb from this lady coming from heaven and
having children on earth: "The heavens are swinging and touching the earth." Of
any one who marries a person far away it is also said, "It is like Langituavalu."
At the marriage of Langituavalu and Lu, Tangaloa ordered all his people to
contribute a fine white mat each, with which to form her dowry. A great feast
was also provided, but only those were admitted who had contributed a white mat.
When the festive day came there were many outside who were chagrined that they
had not made an effort to get the white mat, and so have been permitted to share
in the grand celebration, to the music of which they could only listen outside
and in the distance.']
[12] [Ibid., see note above.]
[13] [Renouf, HL, pp. 221. 'In a papyrus at Turin, the following words are put into the mouth of "the almighty God, the self-existent, who made heaven and earth, the waters, the breaths of life, fire, the gods, men, animals, cattle, reptiles, birds, fishes, kings, men and gods" [in accordance with one single thought] "I am the maker of heaven and of the earth. I raise its mountains and the creatures which are upon it; I make the waters, and the Mehura comes into being I am the maker of heaven, and of the mysteries of the two-fold horizon. It is I who have given to all the gods the soul which is within them. When I open my eyes, there is light; when I close them, there is darkness I make the hours, and the hours come into existence. I am Chepera in the morning, Ra at noon, Tmu in the evening."']
[14] [Renouf,
HL, pp. 222-3. 'Another text says, "I am yesterday, I am to-day, I am
to-morrow." "Hail to thee, Ptah-tanen, great god who concealeth his form, ....
thou art watching when at rest the father of all fathers and of all gods
Watcher, who traversest the endless ages of eternity. The heaven was yet
uncreated, uncreated was the earth, the water flowed not; thou hast put together
the earth, thou hast united thy limbs, thou hast reckoned thy members; what thou
hast found apart, thou hast put into its place; God, architect of the world,
thou art without a father, begotten by thine own becoming; thou art without a
mother, being born through repetition of thyself. Thou drivest away the darkness
by the beams of thine eyes. Thou ascendest into the zenith of heaven, and thou
comest down even as thou hast risen. When thou art a dweller in the infernal
world, thy knees are above the earth, and thine head is in the upper sky. Thou
sustainest the substances which thou hast made. It is by thine own strength that
thou movest; thou art raised up by the might of thine own arms. Thou weighest
upon thyself, kept firm by the mystery which is in thee. The roaring of thy
voice is in the cloud ; thy breath is on the mountain-tops; the waters of the
inundation cover the lofty trees of every region Heaven and earth obey the
commands which thou hast given; they travel by the road which thou hast laid
down for them; they transgress not the path which thou hast prescribed to them,
and which thou hast opened to them Thou restest, and it is night; when thine
eyes shine forth, we are illuminated―
O let us give glory to the God who hath raised up the sky, and who causeth his
disk to float over the bosom of Nut, who hath made the gods and men and all
their generations, who hath made all lands and countries, and the great sea, in
his name of Let-the-earth-be! .... The babe who is brought forth daily, the
ancient one who has reached the limits of time, the immovable one who traverses
every path, the height which cannot be attained."']
[15] [Huxley, NC, 1890, pp. 14-15.]
[16] [Egypt's Place in Universal History.
See vol. 3, p. 379. 'The Chinese language is the farthest point beyond that of
the formation of the Egyptian language, which represents, as compared with it,
the middle ages of mankind, the Turanian and Chamitic stages of development. The
Chinese, who migrated before the deluge, have no reminiscences any more than the
Egyptians, of the great catastrophe which we know by the name of the Flood of
Noah.'
Ibid., vol. 4, p. 435. 'The Egyptians, having emigrated before the
catastrophe which overwhelmed Northern Asia, had no knowledge of any great
interruption of human life in the primeval land. It is clear, therefore, that
what the Greeks knew of it cannot have come from Egypt.
Our previous researches will not permit us to doubt that the oldest Hellenic
tradition about the flood of Deukalion was a legendary reminiscence of that
great historical deluge. It was neither an originally ideal myth, nor the
offshoot of some event in the history of the Thracian Greeks. The coins of
Apamea with the ark on them, of the genuineness of which there is no question,
and the stories about Annakos, king of Iconium, who foretold the deluge, prove
the Noachian story to have been in circulation not only in Syria but Asia
Minor.'
And on Plato's Timaeus, he says this,
ibid., vol. 4, pp. 461-9. 'THE ATLANTIC TALE, AND ITS BEARING ON THE
ASIATIC REMINISCENCES OF THE EGYPTIANS, AND ON PRIMITIVE HISTORY AFTER THE
DELUGE.
In analyzing Philo's accounts of the theogony and kosmogony of the Phoenicians,
we have met with some passages about the origines of mankind. These, however,
were always either theogonical ideas in disguise, or else purely local
reminiscences.
The case is still worse in regard to our knowledge of the corresponding
traditions of the Egyptians themselves. No mention is made in any of them of
historical anthropogony, everything connected with this subject occurs among the
divine origines. It is barely possible that the Egyptians should have considered
themselves as autokhthones, children of the soil, and yet that there should have
been no trace of this belief either in what they say on their monuments when
speaking of themselves as contrasted with the other races and nations, or in
what the Greeks say when treating of the origines of this, to them, so
remarkable a people.
But the celebrated passage in the Timaeus says the very reverse, and we take
this opportunity of laying it before our readers in full. It has from early
times given rise to the most opposite interpretations. Plato's residence in
Egypt has been so fully confirmed by astronomy and his own account of the
religious and political condition of the country that it is admitted to be
historical, while the invention of later writers, that the Hellenic pupil of
Sokrates learned his philosophy from the Egyptians, is generally repudiated.
The communication made to Solon by the priests of Sais, in the introduction to
the Timaeus, may fairly be considered as only the vehicle for introducing the
story. Some ancient sage must be mentioned, and Solon seemed to answer the
purpose as well as any other.
But in regard to the substance of the communication, it is assuredly not an
invention of the philosopher, which would have been a pitiful piece of deceit,
but a straightforward account of what he himself heard at Sais. It might however
be mere vainglorious boasting on the part of the priests, as their assertion
certainly was that they could show to Solon Athenian names of his
"fellow-citizens" who lived 9000 years before that time and 1000 before the
Egyptian origines. Let us hear the account itself.
The remarkable passage is as follows (p. 21. e.):
"There is in Egypt," said Solon, "in the Delta where the Nile branches off into
two streams, the so-called Saitic nome. Its principal town is Sais, the same of
which King Amasis was also a native. The inhabitants consider it to have been
founded by a Goddess known to the Egyptians under the name of Neith, and to the
Greeks, as they assert, of Athena. They state that the Athenians and themselves
were the greatest friends, and that there was some blood-relationship between
them. Solon said that he was treated with the greatest respect, but that when he
inquired of the best informed among the priests about the ancient times, he
found that neither he nor any other Greek, so to speak, knew anything at all
about these matters. Once upon a time, when he wished to draw them out into
conversation about the ancient histories, he began by talking about the early
history of this country, and about Phoroneus, who is called the First, and about
Niobe, and after the Flood about Deukalion and Pyrrha, and the manner of their
preservation. He then tried to enumerate the genealogies of their descendants,
and by endeavouring to bring back to his recollection the number of years that
had elapsed since those events, to calculate the chronology. Thereupon one of
the oldest of the priests exclaimed: 'Solon, Solon! you Greeks will always be
children: an old Greek never existed.' Upon hearing this he replied, 'What do
you mean?' 'You are all,' the other continued, 'of modern minds: for you have no
faith based upon the tradition of early times, no knowledge of any kind which
has grown hoary with age. And the reason of it is this. There have been many and
various races of men which have fallen into decay, and there will be many more.
The principal causes of these catastrophes are fire and water, some of lesser
importance arising from various other circumstances. There is a fable current
among you, that Phaethon, the son of Helios, once on a time drove his father's
chariot, but that failing to take his father's course he set the world on fire,
and perished by lightning. This is told rather in the form of a myth, but the
truth is, that the stars which revolve round the earth in the heavens suffer a
perturbation, and then, at vast intervals, whatever is on the earth perishes in
the great conflagration. "When these portents occur, naturally those who live on
the mountains and on lofty dry spots perish in greater numbers than those who
dwell about the rivers and seas. We, for instance, are preserved by the Nile,
who is our preserver generally, on these occasions also, for he helps us out of
our trouble. If, on the other hand, the Gods mean to ravage and destroy the
earth by water, the herdsmen and shepherds who live on the mountains probably
are saved, while those who live in cities are carried away by the stream into
the sea. But with our country the case is different; the water does not overflow
our fields, but on the contrary everything is so arranged that it rises from
below. It is in this way and for these reasons, as they say, that the oldest
traditions are preserved among us. The truth, however, is, that in all countries
where there is not a great excess of rain or intense heat to interfere with it,
there is a race of men sometimes more, sometimes less numerous. Now what-ever
happens among you, or among us, or in any other place that we know anything
about, anything beautiful or great, or important in any other way, all is
recorded in our temples from the earliest times, and so has been preserved. But
scarcely had writing and the other necessities of civilised states been invented
among you and elsewhere, when there came down from heaven at certain intervals a
Flood, like a pestilence, sparing only the ignorant and uneducated, so that you
had to start afresh from the beginning, as though you were a young people, and
knew nothing as to what had occurred here or in your own country in ancient
times. The genealogies of your country, Solon, at all events, which you have
just gone over are very like children's stories.
For in the first place you only record a single flood, whereas there have been a
great many; and then you do not seem to know that your country was inhabited by
the fairest and noblest race of men, from whom you and the whole of your present
inhabitants are descended, but a very small remnant of them having survived. You
have forgotten all this, because the few survivors out of the great numbers who
perished left no written records behind them. For, Solon, before that great
catastrophe took place the present Athenian State was very glorious in war, and
very celebrated also for the excellence of its laws. There it was that the
noblest deeds were performed, and there was the most perfect constitution of all
those which now exist of which we have any knowledge.'
"When Solon heard this he was astounded, as he said, and earnestly entreated the
priests to tell him everything in detail and in regular order about his old
countrymen. Whereupon his informant continued: 'There is no objection to this,
Solon, and I will tell it you for your own sake and for the sake of your city,
but most especially for the sake of pleasing the Goddess who has taken under her
protection your country and this, and has cherished and nurtured it: yours
indeed, in the first instance, a thousand years before ours, she having received
the germ from the Earth and from Hephaistos, and ours afterwards.
"'Now our sacred books contain a record of our institutions for 8000 years; but,
as regards your countrymen 9000 years ago, I will briefly tell you about their
laws and the most celebrated of their exploits. The more especial details of all
these matters we will go into some other time at our leisure, when we have the
records themselves before us. Consider for a moment the laws as compared with
those in force here, and you will find many analogies to those which then
existed in Greece. In the first place the sacerdotal caste, separated from all
the rest. Then the caste of artisans, each of which worked by itself and never
mixed with the others. Then the shepherds, the hunters, and the husbandmen. The
military caste again you will find distinct, upon whom the only duty imposed by
law is that of making war. The art of arming with shields and spears, which was
practised by us before the inhabitants of Asia, we as well as they learned from
the Goddess, but first of all she taught you. Lastly, as regards knowledge, you
see how much importance the law attaches to principles, seeing that everything
relating to the order of social life, including divination and the art of
medicine for the preservation of health, is by it provided out of these divine
things, and all the other sciences which result from them are applied for the
benefit of mankind. Now, the whole of these institutions and ordinances the
patron Goddess first put in force among you, she having founded your state
before this, and previously selected the spot on which you were born; foreseeing
that the favourable nature of the climate and seasons would produce the most
intelligent men. For, as she loves war as well as wisdom, she selected that spot
for the foundation of a state which she knew would produce men most like
herself. Under such, laws as these and a yet more excellent form of government
you then lived, excelling all other men in virtue, as those should excel who are
descended from and fostered by the Gods. There are many great works of yours
here recorded, which excite our admiration. But there is one especially which
surpasses all the rest in grandeur and glory. The records state that your
country once checked the advance of a mighty power, which threatened all Europe
and Asia, bursting in upon them from the Atlantic ocean. For at that time the
Atlantic was navigable; and beyond the straits which you in your legends call
the Pillars of Hercules there was an island larger than Libya and Asia put
together. Seafaring men at that time could pass from it to the other islands,
and from them to the opposite continent, which extended along that ocean
properly so-called. For the sea which is inside the straits of which we have
just spoken seems to have a narrow entrance, but the other is properly termed an
ocean, and the land abutting on it a continent. Now on this great island in the
Atlantic there was a vast and wonderful kingdom, which extended over the whole
island and many other islands and parts of the continent. Besides this, it
extended on our side over Libya as far as Egypt, and over Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. Now this whole united empire attempted at that time to subjugate your
country and ours, and all the regions inside the straits, at one swoop. Then,
Solon, the power of your country surpassed all the rest of the world by its
bravery and its strength. Outstripping them all in courage and military skill,
whether as the leader of the Greeks, or where compelled to act single-handed on
being deserted by the others, they were exposed to the greatest dangers, but
drove back the aggressors and erected columns to commemorate their victory. They
also prevented the other countries which had not been subjugated from being
enthralled, and to those inside the Pillars of Hercules they gave entire
freedom. But at a later period extraordinary earthquakes and floods took place,
and in one fatal day and night the whole of your fighting men there collected
together were swept off from the face of the earth, and at the same moment the
Atlantic island sunk into the ocean. This is the reason why that sea is now
inaccessible and the navigation difficult, owing to the depth of the sand which
accumulated when the island disappeared.'"
Now in regard to the purport of this story, this enigma, the solution of which
has occupied the attention of the first thinkers and mathematicians, of
ingenious scholars and students of history in all times from Cicero to Humboldt,
I think our Egyptian researches will enable us to form a somewhat better
conclusion as to certain points under discussion, on one side or the other, than
has hitherto been possible.
There is nothing improbable in itself in reminiscences and records of great
events in Egypt 9000 years B.C., if we consider them as even isolated
recollections of a time not strictly chronological. For, as we have seen, the origines of the two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt go back to the ninth
millennium, or at all events there were distinct unions and a common government.
There w r ere therefore reminiscences also of great natural and historical
events which affected Egypt. That here alluded to must be one of them. It is
true that Egypt is not considered exactly as having been subjugated by the
Atlantic conqueror, but it is said that Africa (Libya), "as far as Egypt,"
belonged to his kingdom. Asia is clearly the seat of this advanced empire, and
the conflict extended, either by sea, or by way of Spain and Gaul, as far as
Etruria.
There never was but one such conqueror, as we established when examining
critically the early Hebrew times: Nimrod the Kushite, or Kossian, whose date
cannot be later than the beginning of the sixth or the end of the seventh
millennium B.C. It would be more natural to identify him with the conquest
alluded to by the priests of Sais: for, if he was an Ethiopian, he must have
passed through Egypt on his way to Asia and Europe. Now if (as we decidedly
think is the original meaning of the Biblical account) he came from the land of
the Kossians he was a Turanian; but the Iberians are Turanians, and may have
come to Egypt from Spain across the Cyrenaica. Atlantis recalls Atlas,
consequently may point to Northern Africa. That the first conqueror in history
was a Scythian is reported by Justin, on the authority of Pompeius Trogus, who
had access to Asiatic source?
This is what may be said in regard to the historical foundation of the Egyptian
story about that conquest. As to the island of Atlantis, which is stated to have
disappeared, I look upon it as a pure fiction, the origin of which was the
notion of a violent separation between the two continents at Gibraltar, which
was taken for granted as an event of early times. This ancient story may very
well have grown, at Sais, sooner or later, into the above fabulous form.
Now if the priests of Sais did say anything about a primeval Athens, and made
Kekrops contemporary with it, they either imposed upon Solon or Plato, or them
both. But the whole, or the greater part, of this story bears upon it so
palpably the Platonic stamp, as fore-shadowing the position of Athens in the
Persian war, and as the model of an aristocratical reforming constitution to be
re-established, that we need only read his Kritias to be satisfied on that head.
What is there but lightly touched upon is here embellished almost like a
Cyropaedia, and is obviously treated as a philosophical myth.'
Ibid., vol. 4, p. 559. 'No reminiscence of this Flood exists in Egypt, although
her oldest traditions would seem here and there to retain the echoes of a
knowledge of some violent convulsions of nature, the traces of which man had
tried to efface.']
[17] [See above note.]
[18] [Source. Unable to trace.]
[19] [Fresh Light
from the Monuments, p. 56. 'The history now turns to Egypt; and it is,
therefore, from the monuments of Egypt, and not from those of Babylonia and
Assyria, that we henceforth have to look for light and information.
No traditions of a deluge had been preserved among the
Egyptians. They believed, however, that there was a time when the greater part
of mankind had been destroyed by the angry gods. A myth told how men had once
uttered hostile words against their creator Ra, the Sun-God, who accordingly
sent the goddess Hathor to slay them, so that the earth was covered with their
blood as far as the town of Herakleopolis. Then Ra drank 7,000 cups of wine,
made from the fruits of Egypt and mingled with the blood of the slain ; his
heart rejoiced, and he made an oath that he would not destroy mankind again.
Rain filled the wells, and Ra went forth to fight against his human foes. Their
bows were broken and themselves slaughtered, and the god returned victorious to
heaven, where he created Paradise and the people of the stars. This myth agrees
with another, according to which mankind had emanated from the eyes of Ra,
though there was a different legend of the creation, which asserted that all
men, with the exception of the negroes, had sprung from the tears of the two
deities Horus and Sekhet.']
[21] [Baldwin,
Ancient America, p. 179. 'An extract preserved in Proclus, taken from a
work now lost, which is quoted by Boeckh in his commentary on Plato, mentions
islands in the exterior sea beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and says it was
known that in one of these islands "the inhabitants preserved from their
ancestors a remembrance of Atlantis, an extremely large island, which for a long
time held dominion over all the islands of the Atlantic Ocean."
Brasseur de Bourbourg claims that these traditions, on both sides of the
Atlantic, mean the same thing. The "island of Atlantis," larger than Libya and
Asia Minor together, was the extended portion of the American continent. These
concurring traditions can not be devoid of historical significance. The constant
references by ancient Greek writers to the Atlantes, who are always placed at
the extremity of Europe and Africa, on the ocean which bears their name, may
reasonably be regarded as vague and faded recollections of such a history
connected with that ocean as that implied by what was said of their island in
the annals of Egypt. In sup port of his view of what is meant by the traditions,
he adds this philological argument:
"The words Atlas and Atlantic have no satisfactory etymology in
any language known to Europe. They are not Greek, and cannot be referred to any
known language of the Old World. But in the Nahuatl language we find immediately
the radical, atl, which signifies water, war, and the top of the head.
(Molina, Vocab. en lengua mexicana y castellana, etc.) From this comes a
series of words, such as atlan, on the border of or amid the water, from
which we have the adjective Atlantic. We have also atlaca, to combat or
be in agony; it means likewise to hurl or dart from the water, and in the
preterit makes atlaz. A city named Atlan existed when the continent was
discovered by Columbus, at the entrance of the Gulf of Uraba, in Darien, with a
good harbor; it is now reduced to an unimportant pueblo named Ada?']
[25] [Maspero, Egyptian Archaeology, p. 120. 'The master is of superhuman proportions, and towers above his people and his cattle. Some prophetic tableaux show him in his funeral bark, speeding before the wind with all sail set, having started on his way to the next world the very day that he takes possession of his new abode.']
[41] [Mapsero, Les Inscriptions des Pyramides de Saqqarah, Teta, 274.]
[42] [Rit. ch. 64, lines 5-8.]
[48] [Chabas, 'Magic Papyrus,' RP, 10, 79. See p. 137.]
[49] [Rev. 5:1. 'And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.']
[50] [Chabas, 'Magic Papyrus,' RP, 10, 79. See p. 155.]
[52] [Naville, 'Inscription of the Destruction of Mankind by Ra,' RP, 6, 103.]
[53] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103. See p. 106.]
[54] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103. See p. 107.]
[55] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103. See p. 105.]
[56] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103. See p. 105.]
[57] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103. See p. 109.]
[59] [Not in Renouf.]
[60] [Not in Renouf or Birch.]
[64] [Budge, Papyrus of Anhai, pl. 8.]
[65] [Gen. 6:5-8. 'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.']
[66] [Naville, 'Inscription of the Destruction of Mankind by Ra,' RP, 6, 103.]
[67] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103. See p. 106.]
[68] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103. See p. 107.]
[69] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103.]
[72] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103. See p. 111.]
[73] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103. See p. 105.]
[74] [Book of Atum-Ra, i.e., 'Inscription of the Destruction of Mankind by Ra,' RP, 6, 103. See p. 110.]
[75] [Source.]
[76] [Gen. 9:25. 'And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.']
[77] [Naville, 'Inscription of the Destruction of Mankind by Ra,' RP, 6, 103. See p. 110.]
[79] [Source. Unable to trace.]
[80] [Naville, 'Inscription of the Destruction of Mankind by Ra,' RP, 6, 103. See pp. 107-8.]
[81] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103. See p. 107.]
[82] [Ibid., RP, 6, 103. See p. 108, line 25.]
[83] [PSBA, 6, 131. Massey errs here. No such sentence in this vol. or TSBA.]
[85] [Horrack, 'Lament of Isis and Nephthys,' RP, 2, 119.]
[86] [Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 75.]
[87] [Naville, 'Inscription of the Destruction of Mankind by Ra,' RP, 6, 103. See p. 111.]
[88] [Smith, 'Eleventh Tablet of the Izdubar Legends,' RP, 7, 133. See p. 140.]
[90] [Papyrus of Ani, ch. 86, pl. 25.]
[93] [The Present State of the Cape of
Good Hope.
See also Grant,
Nightside of Eden, who quotes this passage and suggests it represents a
portal for entering the other side of the Tree of Life.]
[94] [Fornander, Account of the Polynesian Race, and Ellis, Polynesian Researches.]
[95] [Fornander, Account of the Polynesian Race, vol. 1, p. 42. 'In the Hawaiian legend of "Kumuhonua," it is said "that when, after the flood ('Kai a Kahinalii'), Nun left his vessel in the evening of the day, he took with him a pig, cocoa-nuts, and awa (piper methyst) as an offering to his god Kane. As he looked up he saw the moon in the sky, and he thought that that was the god, saying to himself: 'You are Kane, no doubt, though you have transformed yourself to my sight.' So he worshipped the moon, and offered his offerings. Then Kane descended on the rainbow and spoke reprovingly to Nuu, but on account of the mistake Nuu escaped punishment, having asked pardon of Kane. Then Kane ascended to heaven and left the rainbow as a token of his forgiveness."']
[96]
[Gen. 7:6-11. 'And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of
waters was upon the earth.
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into
the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every
thing that creepeth upon the earth,
There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as
God had commanded Noah.
And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the
earth.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth
day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken
up, and the windows of heaven were opened.']
[97] [Cook, 'Hymn to the Nile,' RP, 4, 108.]
[98]
[Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs, (single ed.), pp. 178-9. 'A remarkable
inscription, the contents of which throw from all sides an unsuspected light on
Tehuti-mes and his solitary youth. He had been banished to the almost
inaccessible marsh-country of Buto, in order to remove him from the sight of his
subjects, and to destroy all remembrance of him.
The date of the laying of the foundation-stone of a temple is given as follows:
According to the express order of the king himself, this was set down in
writing, concerning the communication orally carried on as to the erection of a
memorial-building, on the three sides which bend toward the canal, .... for I
(the king) wished to raise a memorial to my father Amen-Ra in Apet, to erect
(his) dwelling, which glorifies the horizon, to restore (the temple territory
of) Kheft-her-neb-s, the favourite abode of my father from the beginning. I
wished to execute this for him, the Theban Amen-Ra, on this territory, of hard
stone, and of a gigantic size. But because [the canal was there, which conducts]
the water to the shrine of the god Nun, on the arrival of his season, I built
him another temple, with a loving heart, and caused him to be brought in
thither. What I did for him happened for the first time (i.e. had never been
done before). The shrine stands ready in the east of that temple. Then I found
that the circuit wall was built of brick, and that the ground was [deeply
hollowed out, so that the ground sank in] give more room for the water to this
temple. It had to be cleaned out.
I had the dirt removed and the dams pulled down which were near it .Thus the
space was now clear. I caused this site to be built upon, on which the
surrounding wall stood, in order to erect on it this memorial-building, desiring
to found a splendid temple to [the god Amen of] Apet. It was to be constructed
anew. The (official) drawing of (the architect) made the beginning. Never have I
placed the like on the monument of any other. I say this in all truth, for I
know every one who knows nothing about me, and speaks lies. But that which has
happened is no feigned invention in place of the truth, nor an intentional
deception calculated to bear the appearance of truth. He knows me, whoever
agrees with me about this. I gave the order to place cord and pegs in readiness
(for laying the foundation-stone) in my presence. The beginning of the day of
the new moon was fixed for the festival of the laying of the foundation-stone of
this memorial.
In the year 24, on the last day of the month Mekhir, on the festival of the 10th
day of Amen's [festival on his splendid feast of southern Apet ....] there was a
sacrifice offered to the god (at) his great place. After this I wont in, to
accompany the father Amen. The god went thither on his feet, to celebrate his
beautiful festival. And the Holiness of this god was wonderful to behold. [Then
drew near the form] of this god. The cord and the pegs were ready. Then his
Holiness placed me before him, towards this memorial. And I began. Then was the
Holiness of this god was full of joy at this memorial, on account of my love for
him. Then [the Holiness] of this god went further, and the beautiful feast was
celebrated to my lord. Then I came forward, yes I, to complete the business of
the laying of the foundation stone, because .... ... [before] him. He went out,
and the work of the first
stroke of the hammer for the laying of the foundation stone was to be performed.
Then the Holiness of this divine one wished himself to give the first stroke of
the hammer .... [to keep out the water] of the inundations of the fields .... of
the pickaxe. The lines of the fields were drawn all that he had done. Then was I
full of joy, when I saw the great wonder, which my father had done for me ... My
heart was in a joyful humour at that beautiful procession, to make a beginning
of this memorial. There was laid in the foundation-stone a document with all the
names of the great circle of the gods of Thebes, the gods and the goddesses ....
and all men rejoiced. After this .... of copper was prepared for him.']
[99] [See above note.]
[100] [Massy errs here as no such quote exists in this work. See note 98 above.]
[101] [Ditto. See above note.]
[102] [Rit. ch. 58. See also pl. 16 in Papyrus of Ani.]
[103] [Papyrus of Nefer-uben-f.]
[106] [The Egyptian History?]
[108] [Cheyne, EBB,
cols. 1296-7. 'ENOS, or rather (so RV) Enosh = man;
enws [BADEL]). Son of Seth, and grandson of Adam (Gen. 4:26, 5:7, 9-11, 1
Ch. 1, 1). It was he who began to call on the name of Yahwe (Vg., B. Jub.; so
We.,) i.e., Enos introduced forms of worship. He is thus represented as the
first and greatest of founders, worthy to be the father of a city-builder (see
CAINITES, 3). This tradition cannot, however, be very ancient. Early myths
always ascribe forms of worship to the teaching of a god; cp. the statement (see
CAINITES, 3) that Marduk erected the temples, and the epithet given to the
Moon-god, mukin nindabe, appointer of sacrifices (4 R. 9 33; see Del.
Ass. HIVB). Enos, therefore (a name that is merely a synonym of Adam, man ),
which Hommel traces to the Amelon ( = Bab. amil, man ) of Berossus, must have
been substituted for some other name. On the original position of Gen. 4:25, see
CAINITES, 12.
The MT reading is possibly (Di,), if not certainly, to be rendered 'Then was
profaned,' the object being to avoid contradiction of the statement in Ex. 6:3
(P). Such a phrase, however, is unparalleled in the Genesis narratives. 'Began,'
occurs again in 9:20, 10:8, where, it is true, according to R. Simon (Ber. robba
23), it has the sense of profanation. The alteration of involved a disparagement
of Enos similar to that inflicted upon ENOCH (1, end) and NOAH (1, end) in
certain circles. According to an Aggada, in the time of this patriarch, and in
that of Cain, the sea flooded a great tract of land (Ber. rabbet, as
above). The same extra ordinary view is implied in Tg. Onk. and Jon. and is
adopted by Rashi.']
[109] [Vendidad, fargard, 2, 1. 99. 'After that made Yima the enclosure of the length of a riding-ground to all four corners as a dwelling-place for men.' In Bleeck, Avesta.]
[110] [Gen. 6:16. 'A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.']
[112] [Naville, 'Inscription of the Destruction of Mankind by Ra,' RP 6, 103.]
[113] [Horapollo, Hieroglyphica, bk. 1. 21. 'To signify the rising of the Nile, which they call in the Egyptian language NOUN, and which, when interpreted, signifies New, they sometimes pourtray a LION, and sometimes THREE LARGE WATERPOTS, and at other times HEAVEN AND EARTH GUSHING FORTH WITH WATER. And they depict a LION, because when the sun is in Leo it augments the rising of the Nile, so that oftentimes while the sun remains in that sign of the zodiac, half of the new water [Noun, the entire inundation?] is supplied; and hence it is, that those who anciently presided over the sacred works, have made the spouts [?] and passages of the sacred fountains in the form of lions. Wherefore, even to this day in prayer for an abundant inundation ... And they depict THREE WATERPOTS, or HEAVEN AND EARTH GUSHING FORTH WITH WATER, because they make a waterpot like a heart having a tongue,—like a heart, because in their opinion the heart is the ruling member of the body, as the Nile is the ruler of Egypt, and like [a heart with?] a tongue, because it is always in a state of humidity, and they call it the producer of existence. And they depict three waterpots, and neither more nor less, because according to them there is a triple cause of the inundation. And they depict one for the Egyptian soil, as being of itself productive of water; and another for the ocean, for at the period of the inundation, water flows up from it into Egypt; and the third to symbolise the rains which prevail in the southern parts of Ethiopia at the time of the rising of the Nile. Now that Egypt generates the water, we may deduce from this, that in the rest of the earth the inundations of the rivers take place in the winter, and are caused by frequent rains; but the country of the Egyptians alone, inasmuch as it is situated in the middle of the habitable world, like that part of the eye, which is called the pupil, of itself causes the rising of the Nile in summer.' See also BB 1:32 for other refs to this chapter.]
[114] [Book of Enoch, bk. 5, 7. 'And the ark floated forty days. And altogether they were in the ark 120 days.' Laurence's tr.]
[115] [In the 7th book of Genesis. See note below.]
[116] [Gen. 7:20. 'Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.']
[117] [Gen. 7:19. 'And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.']
[118] [Gen. 9:20-24. ' And Noah
began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two
brethren without.
And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and
went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were
backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.']
[121] [Smith, 'Eleventh Tablet of the Izdubar Legends,' RP, 7, 133. See p. 140, col. 3.]
[122] [Naville, 'Inscription of the Destruction of Mankind by Ra,' RP, 6, 103. See p. 107..]
[123] [As above note.]
[124] [See note below.]
[125] [SAFJ, 2:5, 95. 'The myths of the Ovaherero, a tribe dwelling in a part of Hereraland "which had not yet been under the influence of civilisation and Christianity," have been studied by the Rev. H. Reiderbecke, missionary at Otyozondyupa. The Ovaherero, he says, have a kind of tree Ygdrasil, a tree out of which men are born, and this plays a great part in their myth of creation. The tree, which still exists, though at a great age, is called the Omumborombonga tree. Out of it came, in the beginning, the first man and woman. Oxen stepped forth from it too, but baboons, as Caliban says of the stars, "came otherwise," and sheep and goats sprang from a flat rock. Black people are so coloured, according to the Ovaherero, because when the first parents emerged from the tree and slew an ox, the ancestress of the blacks appropriated the black liver of the victim. The Ovakuru Meyuru or "old ones in heaven," once let the skies down with a run, but drew them up again (as the gods of the Satapatha Brahmana drew the sun) when most of mankind had been drowned.' From Lang, Myth, Ritual & Religion, vol. 1, p. 171.]
[126] [Gen. 8:20. 'And Noah builded
an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl,
and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not
again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing
living, as I have done.']
[127] [See note below.]
[128] [Kennedy,
Hindu Mythology, p. 228. 'Now, the very legend of Vishnu, that pretends
to make him no mere creature, but the supreme and "eternal god," shows that this
interpretation of the name is no mere unfounded imagination. Thus is he
celebrated in the "Matsya Puran." "The sun, the wind, the ether, all things
incorporeal, were absorbed into his Divine essence; and the universe being
consumed, the eternal and omnipotent god, having assumed an ancient form,
REPOSED mysteriously upon the surface of that (universal) ocean. But no one is
capable of knowing whether that being was then risible or invisible, or what the
holy name of that person was, or what the cause of his mysterious SLUMBER. Nor
can any one tell how long he thus REPOSED until he conceived the thought of
acting; for no one saw him, no one approached him, and none can penetrate the
mystery of his real essence." In conformity with this ancient legend, Vishnu is
still represented as sleeping four months every year.' From Hislop's
Two Babylons, p. 135.
Moor's
Hindu Pantheon, p. 22. 'Considering VISHNU as TIME, he
corresponds with the HORUS of Egypt. There are legends of his sleeping, awaking,
and turning on his side, evidently alluding to the Sun at the solstices; also to
the phenomena of the overflow and receding of the Ganges, so similar to that of
the Nile in Egypt. On the 11th day, (sometimes on the 14th, which is the day of
the full moon,) of the bright half of the lunar month Cartica, VISHNU is
fabled to rise from his slumber of four months. A festival is held in honour of
this day, and at an auspicious moment, astrologically determined, the Deity is
awakened by this incantation, (or mantra).']
[129] [Some parts have been pub. by Budge in his The Book of the Dead, 1898.]
[131]
[Smith, 'The Chaldean Account of the Deluge,' TSBA
2 (1873): 213-34. See full text.
See also RP, 7,
133.]
[132] [Ibid., lines 106-8. 'Brother saw not his brother, it did not spare the people. In heaven the gods feared the tempest, and sought refuge; they ascended to the heaven of Anu.']
[134] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the
Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, pp. 87-8.
'We pass now to a train of myths in which the Coyote again appears, figuring in
many important and somewhat mystical roles. Somebody of many tribes. To him,
though involuntarily as it appears, are owing the fish to be found in Clear
Lake. The story runs that one summer long ago there was a terrible drought in
that region, followed by a plague of grasshoppers. The Coyote ate a great
quantity of these grasshoppers, and drank up the whole lake to quench his
thirst. After this he lay down to sleep off the effects of his extraordinary
repast, and while lie slept a man came up from the south country and thrust him
through with a spear. Then all the water he had drunk flowed back through his
wound into the lake, and with the water the grass-hoppers he had eaten; and
these insects became fishes, the same that still swim in Clear Lake.
The Californians in most cases describe themselves as originating from the
Coyote, and more remotely, from the very soil they tread. In the language of Mr
Powers whose extended personal investigations give him the right to speak with
authority "All the aboriginal inhabitants of California, without exception,
believe that their first ancestors were created directly from the earth of their
respective present dwelling-places, and, in very many cases, that these
ancestors were coyotes." "The Potoyantes give an ingenious account of the
transformation of the first coyotes into men: There was an age in which no men
existed, nothing but coyotes. When one of these animals died, his body used to
breed a multitude of little animals, much as the carcass of the huge Ymir,
rotting in Ginnungagap, bred the maggots that turned to dwarfs. The little
animals of our story were in reality spirits, which, after crawling about for a
time on the dead coyote, and taking all kinds of shapes, ended by spreading
wings and floating off to the moon. This evidently would not do: the earth was
in danger of becoming depopulated; so the old coyotes took counsel together if
perchance they might devise a remedy. The result was a general order, that, for
the time to come, all bodies should be incinerated immediately after death. Thus
originated the custom of burning the dead, a custom still kept up among these
people. We next learn what indeed might have been expected of animals of such
wisdom and parts that these primeval coyotes began by degrees to assume the
shape of men. At first, it is true, with many imperfections; but, a toe, an ear,
a hand, bit by bit, they were gradually builded up into the perfect form of man
looking upward. For one thing they still grieve, however, of all their lost
estate their tails are gone. An acquired habit of sitting upright has utterly
erased and destroyed that beautiful member. Lost is indeed lost, and gone is
gone for ever; yet still when in dance and festival, the Potoyante throws off
the weary burden of hard and utilitarian care, he attaches to him self, as
nearly as may be in the ancient place, an artificial tail, and forgets for a
happy hour the degeneracy of the present in simulating the glory of the past.
The Californians tell of a great flood, or at least of a time when the whole
country, with the exception of Mount Diablo and Reed Peak, was covered with
water. There was a Coyote on the peak, the only living thing the wide world
over, and there was a single feather tossing about on the rippled water, The
Coyote was looking at the feather, and even as he looked, flesh and bones, and
other feathers, came and joined themselves to the first, and became an Eagle.
There was a stir on the water, a rush of
broad pinions, and before the widening circles reached the island-hill, the bird
stood beside the astonished Coyote, The two came soon to be acquainted arid to
be good friends, and they made occasional excursions together to the other hill,
the Eagle flying leisurely overhead while the Coyote swam.']
[135] [Matthews, 'A Part of the Navajo Mythology,' AA, 5, 208. See full text.]
[138] [CR, 8, 517. Wrong vol. no. Unable to trace.]
[139] [Brett, Indian Tribes of Guiana,
p. 399. '"When the great waters were about to be sent, a chief of distinguished
piety and wisdom, named Marerewana, was informed of the coming flood, and saved
himself and his family in a large canoe. Being desirous not to drift over the
ocean, or far from the home of his fathers, he had prepared a cable of
'bush-rope' of great length, and with it he tied his bark to the trunk of a
large tree. When the waters subsided, he found himself not far from his former
abode."
A comparison of this last tradition with those of the other
tribes on the same subject shows us a belief, among all, in the main fact that a
great flood of waters once overspread the earth. Of that general belief there
can be no dispute.']
[140] [Source.]
[141] [NG 2:253. Unable to trace in Barddas. But see note 2349.1 in relation to a flood/ark.]
[142] [NG.]
[143] [Rit. ch. ?]
[144] [Source.]
[146] [Source.]
[147] [Lefebure, 'Book of Hades.' RP, 12, 1. See p. 16.]
[149] [Bhagavata Purana, 1, 3, 15.]
[150] [Unable to trace in Barddas.]
[151] [Chabas, 'The Magic Papyrus,' RP, 10, 135.]
[152] [Smith, 'Eleventh Tablet of the Izdubar Legends,' RP, 7, 133. See p. 147.]
[153] [Ibid., 133. See p. 148.]
[154] [Ibid., 133. See pp. 148-49.]
[155] [Lockyer, Dawn of Astronomy, p. 348, note 3. 'On this point I am permitted to print the following extract from a letter received from my friend Sir John Kirk, K.C.B.: "I send you a photo, taken in 1858, in the delta of the Zambezi, of a house built on high poles. The people there live in such houses. There is a ladder by which they mount, and all their belongings are kept above. Such houses I have since seen at the mouth of the River Rufiji, opposite the island of Monfia, to the south of Zanzibar. The reason in both cases for such a type of house is that the country at one time is flooded, and also to avoid mosquitoes. Similar structures are used, I am told, in Madagascar. At Lake Nyassa I believe there are village communities living in the lake, on artificial islands of piles."']
[158] [Diodorus, The Library of History,
bk. 1, 49. 'At the top of the
ascent there is a circular border of gold crowning the monument, three hundred
and sixty five cubits in circumference and one cubit thick; upon this the days
of the year are inscribed, one in each cubit of length, and by each day the
risings and settings of the stars as nature ordains them and the signs
indicating the effects which the Egyptian astrologers hold they produce.' Oldfather's tr., vol. 1, p. 175.
'There, they say, are the wonderful sepulchres of the antient kings, which, for
state and grandeur, far exceed all that posterity can attain unto at this day.
The Egyptian priests say that, in their sacred registers, there are entered
seven-and-forty of these sepulchres; but in the reign of Ptolemy Lagus, there
remained only seventeen, many of which were ruined and destroyed when I myself
came into those parts, which was in the hundred-and-eightieth olympiad. And
these things are not only reported by the Egyptian priests, out of their sacred
records but many of the Grecians, who travelled to Thebes in the time of Ptolemy
Lagus, and wrote histories of Egypt, (among whom was Hecateus), agree with what
we have related. Of the first sepulchres, (wherein they say the women of Jupiter
were buried), that of king Osymandyas was ten furlongs in circuit at the
entrance of which they say, was a portico of various coloured marble, in length
two hundred feet; and in height, five-and-forty cubits: thence going forward,
you come into a four-square stone gallery, every square being four hundred feet,
supported, instead of pillars, with beasts, each of one entire stone, sixteen
cubits high, carved after the antique manner. The roof was entirely of stone;
each stone eight cubits broad, with an azure sky, bespangled with stars. Passing
out of this peristylion, you enter into another portico, much like the former,
but more curiously carved, and with more variety. At the entrance stand three
statues, each of one entire stone, the workmanship of Memnon of Sienitaa. One of
these, made in a sitting posture, is the greatest in all Egypt, the measure of
his foot exceeding seven cubits; the other two, much less than the former,
reaching but to his knees; the one standing on the right, and the other on the
left, being his daughter and mother. This piece is not only commendable for its
greatness, but admirable for
its cut and workmanship, and the excellency of the stone. In so great a work
there is not to be discerned the least flaw, or any other blemish.
Upon it there is this inscription: "I am Osymandyas, king of kings; if any would
know how great I am, and where I lie, let him excel me in any of my
works."' Booth's tr., vol. 1, p. 53.]
[162] [The Bible and its Monuments,
p. 117. 'COLUMN II.
2. On the fifth day two sides were raised
3. In its enclosure (hull) fourteen ribs
4. Also fourteen they numbered above
5. I placed its roof and enclosed it
6. Sixthly I made it firm, seventhly I its passages.']
[163] [Later version by Professors Haupt and Sayce.]
[164] [Col. 2. See note 162 above.]
[165] [Muhammad ibn Khavand, The Rauzat-us-Safa: or, Garden of Purity, quoted in O'Neill. See note below.]
[166] [O'Neill, The Night of the Gods, vol. 1, p. 173. 'In the Persian Rausat-us-Safa, Nah and his followers amount to 80 souls when they enter the Ark. When they come out, they "build a village at the foot of the mountain," and call it the "Forum-of-80." Other accounts say 8, but 80 is the most correct opinion. This is an indication of the cosmic figurativeness of this Ark, which is still further confirmed by another passage saying that "the Almighty fixed two luminous discs, one like the sun and the other like the moon, on the wall of the Ark (read the firmament of the heavens) and thus the hours of the day and night, and of prayers, were ascertained. Ebrahim was circumcised with a (stone) hatchet when he was 80 years old. (Remember the 8th day of this ritual)."']
[167] [Gen. 6:16. 'A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.']
[169] [Phainomena, lines 342-48. 'Sternforward
Argo by the Great Dog's tail
Is drawn; for hers is not a usual course,
But backward turned she comes, as vessels do
When sailors have transposed the crooked stern
On entering harbour; all the ship reverse,
And gliding backward on the beach it grounds,
Sternforward, thus is Jason's Argo drawn.' Brown's tr.]
[170] [Shelley, Hellas, a Lyrical
Romance, p. 52 of London, 1886 ed. 'The world's great age begins anew,
The golden years return,
The earth doth like a snake renew
Her winter weeds outworn.
Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam,
Like wrecks of a dissolving dream.']
[171] [Lewis, Astronomy of the Ancients, p. 264.]
[172] [Histories, bk. 2. 145 'Thus far I have spoken on the
authority of the Egyptians and their priests. They declare that from their first
king to this last-mentioned monarch, the priest of Vulcan, was a period of three
hundred and forty-one generations; such, at least, they say, was the number both
of their kings, and of their high-priests, during this interval. Now three
hundred generations of men make ten thousand years, three generations filling up
the century; and the remaining forty-one generations make thirteen hundred and
forty years. Thus the whole number of years is eleven thousand, three hundred
and forty; in which entire space, they said, no god had ever appeared in a human
form; nothing of this kind had happened either under the former or under the
later Egyptian kings. The sun, however, had within this period of time, on four
several occasions, moved from his wonted course, twice rising where he now sets,
and twice setting where he now rises. Egypt was in no degree
affected by these changes; the productions of the land, and of the river,
remained the same; nor was there anything unusual either in the diseases or the
deaths.' Tr., Rawlinson.
'So far in the story the Egyptians and the priests were they who made the
report, declaring that from the first king down to this priest of Hephaistos who
reigned last, there had been three hundred and forty-one generations of men, and
that in them there had been the same number of chief-priests and of kings: but
three hundred generations of men are equal to ten thousand years, for a hundred
years is three generations of men; and in the one-and-forty generations which
remain, those I mean which were added to the three hundred, there are one
thousand three hundred and forty years. Thus in the period of eleven thousand
three hundred and forty years they said that there had arisen no god in human
form; nor even before that time or afterwards among the remaining kings who
arose in Egypt, did they report that anything of that kind had come to pass. In
this time they said that the sun had moved four times from his accustomed place
of rising, and where he now sets he had thence twice had his rising, and in the
place from whence he now rises he had twice had his setting; and in the meantime
nothing in Egypt had been changed from its usual state, neither that which comes
from the earth nor that which comes to them from the river nor that which
concerns diseases or deaths.' Tr., Macauley.
Ibid, bk. 2.142.
'The Greeks regard Hercules, Bacchus, and Pan as the youngest of the gods. With
the Egyptians, contrariwise, Pan is exceedingly ancient, and belongs to those
whom they call "the eight gods," who existed before the rest. Hercules is one of
the gods of the second order, who are known as " the twelve;" and Bacchus
belongs to the gods of the third order, whom the twelve produced. I have already
mentioned how many years intervened according to the Egyptians between the birth
of Hercules and the reign of Amasis. From Pan to this period they count a still
longer time; and even from Bacchus, who is the youngest of the three, they
reckon fifteen thousand years to the reign of that king. In these matters they
say they cannot be mistaken, as they have always kept count of the years, and
noted them in their registers. But from the present day to the time of Bacchus,
the reputed son of Semelé, daughter of Cadmus, is a period of not more than
sixteen hundred years; to that of Hercules, son of Alcmêna, is about nine
hundred; while to the time of Pan, son of Penelopé (Pan, according to the
Greeks, was her child by Mercury), is a shorter space than to the Trojan war,
eight hundred years or thereabouts.' Tr., Rawlinson.
'Among the Hellenes Heracles and Dionysos and Pan are accounted the latest-born
of the gods; but with the Egyptians Pan is a very ancient god, and he is one of
those which are called the eight gods, while Heracles is of the second rank, who
are called the twelve gods, and Dionysos is of the third rank, namely of those
who were born of the twelve gods. Now as to Heracles I have shown already how
many years old he is according to the Egyptians themselves, reckoning down to
the reign of Amasis, and Pan is said to have existed for yet more years than
these, and Dionysos for the smallest number of years as compared with the
others; and even for this last they reckon down to the reign of Amasis fifteen
thousand years. This the Egyptians say that they know for a certainty, since
they always kept a reckoning and wrote down the years as they came. Now the
Dionysos who is said to have been born of Semele the daughter of Cadmos, was
born about sixteen hundred years before my time, and Heracles who was the son of
Alcmene, about nine hundred years, and that Pan who was born of Penelope, for of
her and of Hermes Pan is said by the Hellenes to have been born, came into being
later than the wars of Troy, about eight hundred years before my time.' Tr.,
Macauley.]
[173] [Rit. chs. 114 and 123.]
[178] [Plutarch, Of Isis and Osiris, ch. 47.]
[179] [That is, precession of the equinoxes takes approx. 3, 714 years, according to Theopompus. But astronomers differ widely on the exact number of years. See alternatives in Andrew Collins, Gods of Eden, Hancock and Bauval, Orion Mystery, etc., for other calculations.]
[180] [Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica, bk. 2, 291-300. 'With these words she took an oath by the waters of Styx, which to all the gods is most dread and most awful, that the Harpies would never thereafter again approach the home of Phineus, son of Agenor, for so it was fated. And the heroes yielding to the oath, turned back their flight to the ship. And on account of this men call them the Islands of Turning though aforetime they called them the Floating Islands. And the Harpies and Iris parted. They entered their den in Minoan Crete; but she sped up to Olympus, soaring aloft on her swift wings.' Tr., R. C. Seaton.]
[181] [Floating Isles = Pilotes.]
[182] [Histories, bk. 2. 156. 'This, as I have said, was what
astonished me the most, of all the things that were actually to be seen about
the temple. The next greatest marvel was the island called Chemmis. This island
lies in the middle of a broad and deep lake close by the temple, and the natives
declare that it floats. For my own part I did not see it float, or even move;
and I wondered greatly, when they told me concerning it, whether there be really
such a thing as a floating island. It has a grand temple of Apollo built upon
it, in which are three distinct altars. Palm-trees grow on it in great
abundance, and many other trees, some of which bear fruit, while others are
barren. The Egyptians tell the following story in connection with this island,
to explain the way in which it first came to float: "In former times, when the
isle was still fixed and motionless, Latona, one of the eight gods of the first
order, who dwelt in the city of Buto, where now she has her oracle, received
Apollo as a sacred charge from Isis, and saved him by hiding him in what is now
called the floating island. Typhon meanwhile was searching everywhere in hopes
of finding the child of Osiris." (According to the Egyptians, Apollo and Diana
are the children of Bacchus and Isis; while Latona is their nurse and their
preserver. They call Apollo, in their language, Horus; Ceres they call Isis;
Diana, Bubastis. From this Egyptian tradition, and from no other, it must have
been that Æschylus, the son of Euphorion, took the idea, which is found in none
of the earlier poets, of making Diana the daughter of Ceres.) The island,
therefore, in consequence of this event, was first made to float. Such at least
is the account which the Egyptians give.' Tr., Rawlinson.
'This house then of all the things that were to be seen by me in that temple is
the most marvellous, and among those which come next is the island called
Chemmis. This is situated in a deep and broad lake by the side of the temple at
Buto, and it is said by the Egyptians that this island is a floating island. I
myself did not see it either floating about or moved from its place, and I feel
surprise at hearing of it, wondering if it be indeed a floating island. In this
island of which I speak there is a great temple-house of Apollo, and three
several altars are set up within, and there are planted in the island many
palm-trees and other trees, both bearing fruit and not bearing fruit. And the
Egyptians, when they say that it is floating, add this story, namely that in
this island, which formerly was not floating, Leto, being one of the eight gods
who came into existence first, and dwelling in the city of Buto where she has
this Oracle, received Apollo from Isis as a charge and preserved him, concealing
him in the island which is said now to be a floating island, at that time when
Typhon came after him seeking everywhere and desiring to find the son of Osiris.
Now they say that Apollo and Artemis are children of Dionysos and of Isis, and
that Leto became their nurse and preserver; and in the Egyptian tongue Apollo is
Oros, Demeter is Isis, and Artemis is Bubastis. From this story and from no
other Æschylus the son of Euphorion took this which I shall say, wherein he
differs from all the preceding poets; he represented namely that Artemis was the
daughter of Demeter. For this reason then, they say, it became a floating
island.' Tr., Macauley.]
[183] [Chamberlain,
Kojiki, vol. 1, sect. 3, pp. 18-19. 'Hereupon all the Heavenly Deities
commanded the two Deities His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites and Her
Augustness the Female-Who-Invites, ordering them to "make, consolidate, and give
birth to this drifting land." Granting to them an heavenly jewelled spear, they
[thus] deigned to charge them. So the two Deities, standing upon the Floating
Bridge of Heaven, pushed down the jewelled spear and stirred with it, whereupon,
when they had stiffed the brine till it went curdle-curdle, and drew [the spear]
up, the brine that dripped down from the end of the spear was piled up and
became an island. This is the Island of Onogoro.'
Note: '"Self-Curdling," "Self-Condensed." It is supposed to have been one of the
islets off the coast of the larger island of Ahaji.']
[184] [Satow, Pure Shinto, p. 68.]
[185] [Moor, Hindu Pantheon.]
[186] [See note 183 above.]
[187] [Garcilaso de la Vega, Royal Commentaries of the Incas and General History of Peru. '"Our father the Sun, seeing men in the state I have mentioned, took pity and was sorry for them, and sent from heaven to earth a son and a daughter of his to indoctrinate them in the knowledge of our father the sun that they might worship him and adopt him as their god, and to give them their precepts and laws by which they would live as reasonable and civilized men, and dwell in houses and settled towns, and learn to till the soil, and grow plants and crops, and breed flocks, and use the fruits of the earth like rational beings and not like beasts. With this order and mandate our father the Sun set these two children of his in Lake Titicaca, eighty leagues from here, and bade them go where they would, and wherever they stopped to eat or sleep to try to thrust into the ground a golden wand half a yard long and two fingers in thickness which he gave them as a sign and a token: when this wand should shrink into the ground at a single thrust, there out father wished them to stop and set up their court."' Livermore's tr., vol. 1, p. 42. Quoted in New Iberian World, I. 136.]
[188] [Natural History, 6, 26 (30). 'Babylon, which is the capital of the Chaldaean races, long held an outstanding celebrity among the cities in the whole of the world, and in consequence of this the remaining part of Mesopotamia and Assyria has received the name of Babylonia. It has two walls with a circuit of 60 miles, each wall being 200 ft. high and 50 ft. wide (the Assyrian foot measures 3 inches more than ours). The Euphrates flows through the city, with marvellous embankments on either side. The temple of Jupiter Belus in Babylon is still standing—Belus was the discoverer of the science of astronomy; but in all other respects the place has gone back to a desert, having been drained of its population by the proximity of Seleucia, founded for that purpose by Nicator not quite 90 miles away, at the point where the canalised Euphrates joins the Tigris. However, Seleucia is still described as being in the territory of Babylon, although at the present day it is a free and independent city and retains the Macedoman manners. It is said that the population of the city numbers 600,000; that the plan of the walls resembles the shape of an eagle spreading its wings; and that its territory is the most fertile in the whole of the east. For the purpose of drawing away the population of Seleucia in its turn, the Parthians founded Ctesiphon, which is about three miles from Seleucia in the Chalonitis district, and is now the capital of the kingdoms of Parthia. And after it was found that the intended purpose was not being achieved, another town was recently founded in the neighbourhood by King Vologesus, named Vologesocerta. There are in addition the following towns in Mesopotamia: Hippareni—this also a school of Chaldaean learning like Babylon—situated on a tributary of the river Narraga, from which the city-state takes its name (the walls of Hippareni were demolished by the Persians); also Orcheni, a third seat of Chaldaean learning, is situated in the same neighbourhood towards the south; and next Notitae and Orothophanitae and Gnesiochartae.' Bostock's tr.]
[189] [Diodorus, The Library of History, I. 28-29. 'They report, that afterwards many colonies out of Egypt were dispersed over all parts of the world: that Belus (who was taken be the son of Neptune and Lyhra) led a colony into the province of Babylon, and fixing his seat at the river Euphrates, consecrated priestly and, according to the custom of the Egyptians, freed them from all public taxes and impositions. These priests the Babylonians calChaldeans, who observe the motions of the stars, in imitation of the priests, naturalists and astrologers of Egypt. That Danaus likewise took from thence another colony, and planted them in Argos, the most antient city almost of all Greece.' Booth's tr., vol. 1, p. 33 of 1804 ed.]
[190] [Enoch, ch. 64. 'In those days
Noah saw that the earth became inclined, and that destruction approached.
Then he lifted up his feet, and went to the ends of the earth, to the
dwelling of his great-grandfather Enoch.
And Noah cried with a bitter voice, Hear me; hear me; hear me: three
times. And he said, Tell me what is transacting upon the earth; for the earth
labours, and is violently shaken. Surely I shall perish with it.
After this there was a great perturbation on earth, and a voice was heard
from heaven. I fell down on my face, when my great-grandfather Enoch came and
stood by me.
He said to me, Why have you cried out to me with a bitter cry and
lamentation?
A commandment has gone forth from the Lord against those who dwell on the
earth, that they may be destroyed; for they know every secret of the angels,
every oppressive and secret power of the devils, and every power of those who
commit sorcery, as well as of those who make molten images in the whole
earth.
They know how silver is produced from the dust of the earth, and how on the
earth the metallic drop exists; for lead and tin are not produced from
earth, as the primary fountain of their production.
There is an angel standing upon it, and that angel struggles to prevail.
Afterwards my great-grandfather Enoch seized me with his hand, raising me
up, and saying to me, Go, for I have asked the Lord of spirits respecting this
perturbation of the earth; who replied, On account of their impiety have their
innumerable judgments been consummated before me. Respecting the moons have they
inquired, and they have known that the earth will perish with those who dwell
upon it, and that to these there will be no place of refuge for ever.
They have discovered secrets, and they are those who have been judged;
but not you my son. The Lord of spirits knows that you are pure and good,
free from the reproach of discovering secrets.
He, the holy One, will establish your name in the midst of the saints, and
will preserve you from those who dwell upon the earth. He will establish your
seed in righteousness, with dominion and great glory; and from your seed shall
spring forth righteousness and holy men without number for ever.' Laurence's tr.]
[191] [Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. 1, p. 353. 'The Muyscas of the high plains of Bogota were once, they said, savages without agriculture, religion, or law; but there came to them from the East an old and bearded man, Bochica, the child of the Sun, and he taught them to till the fields, to clothe themselves, to worship the gods, to become a nation. But Bochica had a wicked, beautiful wife, Huythaca, who loved to spite and spoil her husband's work; and she it was who made the river swell till the land was covered by a flood, and but a few of mankind escaped to the mountain-tops. Then Bochica was wroth, and he drove the wicked Huythaca from the earth, and made her the Moon, for there had been no moon before; and he cleft the rocks and made the mighty cataract of Tequendama, to let the deluge flow away. Then, when the land was dry, he gave to the remnant of mankind the year and its periodic sacrifices, and the worship of the Sun. Now the people who told this myth had not forgotten, what indeed we might guess without their help, that Bochica was himself Zuhe, the Sun, and Huythaca the Sun's wife, the Moon.']
[192] [Rit. ch. 175. ''Hail, Thoth! What is it that hath happened to the divine children of Nut? They have done battle, they have upheld strife, they have done evil, they have created the fiends, they have made slaughter, they have caused trouble; in truth, in all their doings the mighty have worked against the weak. Grant, O might of Thoth, that that which the god Tem hath decreed [may be done]! And thou regardest not evil, nor art thou provoked to anger when they bring their years to confusion, and throng in and disturb their months; for in all that they have done unto thee they have worked iniquity in secret.' Budge's tr., 3 vols. in one ed., p. 596.]
[193] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the
Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, pp. 71-3. 'In the year and in the day of obscurity
and darkness, yea, even before the days or the years were, when the world was in
a great darkness and chaos, when the earth was covered with water, and there was
nothing but mud and slime on all the face of the earth behold a god became
visible, and his name was the Deer, and his surname was the Lion-Snake. There
appeared also a very beautiful goddess called the Deer, and surnamed the
Tiger-Snake. These two gods were the origin and beginning of all the gods.
Now, when these two gods became visible in the world, they made, in their
knowledge and omnipotence, a great rock, upon which they built a very sumptuous
palace, a masterpiece of skill, in which they made their abode upon earth. On
the highest part of this building there was an axe of copper, the edge being
uppermost, and on this axe the heavens rested.
This rock and the palace of the gods were on a mountain in the neighborhood of
the town of Apoala in the province of Mizteca Alta. The rock was called The
Place of Heaven; there the gods first abode on earth, living many years in great
rest and content, as in a happy and delicious land, though the world still lay
in obscurity and darkness.
The father and mother of all the gods being here in their place, two sons were
born to them, very hand some and very learned in all wisdom and arts. The first
was called the Wind of Nine Snakes, after the name of the day on which he was
born; and the second was called, in like manner, the Wind of Nine Caves. Very
daintily indeed were these youths brought up. When the elder wished to amuse
himself, he took the form of an eagle, flying thus far and wide; the younger
turned himself into a small beast of a serpent shape, having wings that he used
with such agility and sleight that he became invisible, and flew through rocks
and walls even as through the air. As they went, the din and clamor of these
brethren was heard by those over whom they passed. They took these figures to
manifest the power that was in them, both in transforming themselves and in
resuming again their original shape. And they abode in great peace in the
mansion of their parents, so they agreed to make a sacrifice and an offering to
these gods, to their father and to their mother. Then they took each a censer of
clay, and put fire therein, and poured in ground beleno for incense; and
this offering was the first that had ever been made in the world. Next the
brothers made to themselves a garden, in which they put many trees, and
fruit-trees, and flowers, and roses, and odorous herbs of different kinds.
Joined to this garden they laid out a very beautiful meadow, which they fitted
up with all things necessary for offering sacrifice to the gods. In this manner
the two brethren left their parents house, and fixed themselves in this garden
to dress it and to keep it, watering the trees and the plants and the odorous
herbs, multiplying them, and burning incense of powder of beleno in
censers of clay to the gods, their father and mother. They made also vows to
these gods, and promises, praying that it might seem good to them to shape the
firmament and lighten the darkness of the world, and to establish the foundation
of the earth, or rather to gather the waters together so that the earth might
appear as they had no place to rest in save only one little garden. And to make
their prayers more obligatory upon the gods, they pierced their ears and tongues
with flakes of flint, sprinkling the blood that dropped from the wounds over the
trees and plants of the garden with a willow branch, as a sacred and blessed
thing. After this sort they employed themselves, postponing pleasure till the
time of the granting of their desire, remaining always in subjection to the
gods, their father and mother, and attributing to them more power and divinity
than they really possessed. Fray Garcia here makes a break in the relation that
he may not weary his readers with so many .absurdities but it would appear that
the firmament was arranged and the earth made fit for mankind, who
about that time have made their appearance. For there came a great deluge
afterward, wherein perished many of the sons and daughters that had been born to
the gods; and it is said that when the deluge was passed the human race was
restored as at the first, and the Miztec kingdom populated, and the heavens and
the earth established.']
[194] [Book of Enoch, ch. 66. 'In
those days the word of God came to me, and said, Noah, behold, your lot has
ascended up to me, a lot void of crime, a lot beloved and upright.
Now then shall the angels labour at the trees; but when they proceed to
this, I will put my hand upon it, and preserve it.
The seed of life shall arise from it, and a change shall take place, that
the dry land shall not be left empty. I will establish your seed before me for
ever and ever, and the seed of those who dwell with you on the surface of the
earth. It shall be blessed and multiplied in the presence of the earth, in the
name of the Lord.
And they shall confine those angels who disclosed impiety. In that burning
valley it is, that they shall be confined, which at first my
great-grandfather Enoch showed me in the west, where there were mountains of
gold and silver, of iron, of fluid metal, and of tin.
I beheld that valley in which there was great perturbation, and where the
waters were troubled.
And when all this was effected, from the fluid mass of fire, and the
perturbation which prevailed in that place, there arose a strong smell of
sulphur, which became mixed with the waters; and the valley of the angels, who
had been guilty of seduction, burned underneath its soil.
Through that valley also rivers of fire were flowing, to which those angels
shall be condemned, who seduced the inhabitants of the earth.
And in those days shall these waters be to kings, to princes, to the
exalted, and to the inhabitants of the earth, for the healing of the soul and
body, and for the judgment of the spirit.
Their spirits shall be full of revelry, that they may be judged in their
bodies; because they have denied the Lord of spirits, and although they
perceive their condemnation day by day, they believe not in his name.
And as the inflammation of their bodies shall be great, so shall their
spirits undergo a change for ever.
For no word which is uttered before the Lord of spirits shall be in vain.
Judgment has come upon them, because they trusted in their carnal revelry,
and denied the Lord of spirits.
In those days shall the waters of that valley be changed; for when the angels
shall be judged, then shall the heat of those springs of water experience an
alteration.
And when the angels shall ascend, the water of the springs shall again
undergo a change, and be frozen. Then I heard holy Michael answering and saying,
This judgment, with which the angels shall be judged, shall bear testimony
against the kings, the princes, and those who possess the earth.
For these waters of judgment shall be for their healing, and for the death of
their bodies. But they shall not perceive and believe that the waters will be
changed, and become a fire, which shall blaze for ever.' Laurence's tr.]
[195] [Smith, 'Eleventh Tablet of the Izdubar Legends,' RP, 7, 133. See p. 135.]
[196] [Ibid., 133. See p. 140.]
[197] [Ibid., 133. See p. 148.]
[198] [Gen. 8:20. 'And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.']
[199] [Gen. 10:32, 11:1-2. 'These are the
families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by
these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain
in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.']
[200] [Boscawen, 'Legend of the Tower of Babel,' RP, 7, 129. See p. 130.]
[201] [Ibid., 129. See p. 132.]
[202] [Job 40:19. 'He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.']
[203] [Pioneer, Allahabad, October 22nd, 1897.]
[205] [How an Eagle and a Snake both wished to Marry the same Woman.]
[206] [Samoa, pp. 330-31. 'The spirits of the dead were supposed to go eastward but they did not know where. Spirits were also thought to roam the bush. Nohi was the name which they gave to their great god. They say that after creating the human race at Eromanga, he went away to another land. When they first saw white men they concluded that they were made by the same great spirit, and to this day call foreigners, whether white or black, by the name of Nobu. They say that "once upon a time" men walked like pigs, and the pigs walked erect! The birds and some reptiles had a meeting about it. The lizard said he thought the pig should go all fours, and the men walk erect. The "water-wagtai " disputed this. It ended in the lizard going up a cocoa-nut tree, falling on the back of the pig, and making it stoop, and creep as it now does, and ever since pigs creep, and men walk erect! The first of the human race, they say, was a woman, then her son, and from them sprung the race of men. They have many tales about the doings of that woman and her son.']
[207] [O'Neill, Night of the Gods,
vol. 1. pp. 513-7. 'The body of evidence which comes immediately under the above
heading has gravitated to the end of this Section, and the Reader will perhaps
find that it furnishes by no means the least important of the facts set out or
deduced in this Volume of the Inquiry, It will especially be found that we are
here at length focussing the tenets, legends, and speculations of Chinese
philosophy and religion as to their supreme gods and principles, as to Shang-Ti,
Tai-Ki, Tai-Yi and the Polestar, which have from time to time been mentioned or
referred to, as we have got along.
Our present Polestar, a in the Little Bear, is worshipped in
China as T'ien-hwang, Ta-Ti, 'the heavens-king who is the Great Ruler.' So said
20 centuries ago the T'ien Kwan Shu section of the Shi-Ke, the
very earliest Chinese historical record, stretching from B.C. 122 back into
remote antiquity, and compiled by the Chinese Herodotus Szema-ts'ien (died circa
B.C. 85). [Chinese] (koshab) of the same constellation is called
T'ien-Tising, 'the heavens-Ruler star.' It is also the seat of Tai Yih or the
'Great One' or 'the Arch-First,' and presides over the sun, says the
Sing-King (star-book), of the Tang dynasty, A.D. 618 to 905. Among all the
Spirits (Shin, the Chinese word which the Japanese use for their kami,
their gods) of the heavens, the highest dwells in the star Tai-Yih in Draco; and
in accordance with ancient custom the Chinese emperor [Chinese] (circa B.C. 99)
sacrificed to Tai-Yih. Here we doubtless have a survival from a former position
of the Pole. Dr. Edkins once asked a schoolmaster at Chapak who was the Lord of
heavens and earth, and the reply was that he knew of none but the Polestar,
T'ien-hwang Ta-Ti. Another name for a in Ursa Minor is T'ien-Ki'sing
or of the heavens-Extreme, and it was said 2,000 years ago that Tai-Yih had
always dwelt there also. But no doubt all these supreme titles would have
changed their celestial loci with the changes of the Pole. Another name for the
polestar is Tien-chung-kung, 'Heavens-centre-palace' must be classed with the
Palace built by the Japanese pair of creator-deities round their spear-pillar-
Axis.
But this polestar belongs of course to relatively quite
modern times ; and the names of many other Chinese constellations still preserve
a record, not easily set aside, of the existence of an astronomical nomenclature
when the Pole was in Cygnus, say 18,500 years ago, and in Draco, some 5,000
years ago. That there is no similar record of the intermediate 13,000 or 14,000
years is, no doubt, somewhat embarrassing for those who uphold the extreme
antiquity of the Chinese sphere.
For example the above title of Tai-Yih, Great-First, is also
given to another polar star near a of Draco; and k of Draco also
has the name of Tien Yih, heavens-First. Gaubil (who died in 1759 at Peking)
conjectured no doubt correctly that these must have been former polestars. The
T'un-kung hwuy Yung says this Tai-Yih presides over the revolutions of the
heavens; and the Shi-Ke Ching says that Tai-Yih is another name for Tien-Ti, the
heavens-Ruler, the most venerated of all the celestial divinities. "In fact,"
adds Prof. G. Schlegel, "the polestar, round which the entire firmament appears
to turn, ought to be considered as the Sovereign of the heavens, as the most
venerated divinity." Again, Prof. Schlegel, in treating of the division of the
Milky Way or heavens-River "into two arms near the N. pole, and its going thence
to the S. pole," as stated by Ko-hung in our 4th century, supposes the pole to
have been then, that is 18,500 years ago, near the star below a of
Cygnus; but we shall discuss this under "The Heavens- River" in Vol. II. "The
North Ki, that is the North Extreme (peh-King)" says the commentary on
the classic Urh-Ya (or Literary Expositor, attributed to Tsze-hea, the disciple
and contemporary of Confucius, circa 507 B.C.) "is in the centre of the heavens,
and serves to determine the four she; that is why it is called the North
shin." Shin means division of time, and therefore of the heavens; and as
there are four she they must be the 'quarters' of the heavens. The Tien-Ki,
heavens-Extreme, already mentioned, is also called the peh-Ki in the
Kao-Yao. Its place is central, and it determines the four points, fang,
of the heavens. It is for that reason it is called the Chung-kung (as
above) central-palace and peh-shin. It must thus be obvious that all the
names or titles in the following list are interchangeable, and each indicates
the Polar deity or his position; and it is essential to dwell here upon the
Chinese and Japanese honorific custom of distant references to, instead of any
actual direct mention of, their terrestrial Rulers:
T'ien-hwang .
Peh-Ki (= T'ien Ki)
Tai-Ki .
Pien-Ki (= Poh-Ki)
Peh-Shin (= Poh-Ki)
Shang-Ti
Ta-Ti .
Tien-Ti (= Tai-Yih)
Tai-Yih (=Tien-Ti)
Tien-Yih
The insertion in this list of the two titles put in italics
will be justified lower down, and it will be seen that other titles will
gradually be added, until a sort of litany, as it were, is arrived at.
Yu-hwang Shang-Ti is incarnate in the chief priest of the
Taoists. The first of these, Chang Tao Ling, was born (A.D. 34) of a
virgin-mother who dreamt that the Polestar descended and offered her a
sweet-smelling herb; on waking a divine odour filled the room, and she was
with-child; she was delivered of him on the heavens-Eye-mountain, T'ien-muh shan.
The title of Chang Tao Ling was heavens-Lord, T'ien-she; he eventually ascended
alive into the heavens at the age of 123; and a follower of his, K'ow K'ien-che,
was directed to assume his succession (in A.D. 423?) by Lao-tsze himself, who
miraculously appeared for the purpose, and his family continue to this day to
hold the headship of the great Taoist religion. Chu-Hi, the famous 12th century
philosopher, historian, and critic, recorded a divine command given to this K'ow
K'ien che "to co-operate in the execution of the Laws of the silent Wheels of
the heavens-Palace, which the divine prince of the great Northern equilibrium
had promulgated." On this Dr. J. J. M de Groot remarks: This Northern prince can
be none other than the god of the Polar star, of the centre round which turn the
heavens and all they contain; the god who maintains the grand equilibrium of the
Universe. The silent Wheels are probably the orbits of [not the "orbits of," but
the apparent celestial circles described by] the stars, of which wheels the Pole
is as it were the Nave. There could not well be anything much stronger, in
confirmation of the theories of this Inquiry even if I had had the passage
written to order; and it was pleasant to come across it, when much of this first
volume was already printed. "The supreme god of Nature," goes on Dr. de Groot,
"sits at the centre of the heavens, at the Pole; this is why K'ow K'ien-che
affirmed that his mission had thence been revealed to him."
K'ow K'ien-che eventually dwelt on Mount Sung (Mayers called
it Ho) the highest and central of the five holy mountains; which is
merely another name for the N. height of heaven. The earthly Vatican of this
Taoist Pope and his hereditary successors has, by Imperial decree, been given
the title of Palace of Supreme Purity Shang-ts'ing kung, which is in the Taoist
mythology, says Dr. de Groot, the quarter of the heavens where the heavens-god
dwells—that is of course, in view of the T'ien chung kung just twice mentioned
above, the N. Pole. This is the wheel-symbolism which will be identified, under
"The Wheel" section in Vol. II, with the Universe-wheel (and wheels), and with
the Buddhic Wheel of the Law, which Law (Dharma) of the Universe I equate
with Tao. Buddha alone makes the Wheel turn, that none coming after him, neither
god demon Sramana nor Brahmana, has been able to make turn. It is the (cosmic)
Wheel which cannot turn backwards, the Wheel which cannot be laid hold of, nor
thrown; the Wheel without a second, without a place that stops it; composed of a
thousand spokes, launching a thousand rays which penetrate everywhere.
Dharma, writes Mr. Rhys Davids, is that which
underlies and includes the Law, and we shall see in Japan "the Polestar
worshipped in the form of a Buddha with a Wheel, the emblem of the revolving
World." Chakra-devindra (= deva-Indra), the Wheel-god Indra, is
rendered into Chinese as T'ien- Ti-shih, and Chakra-varti-raja, is
rendered word for word as Chwan-lun wang, wheel-turner king.
TAI'YIH, (Great-First) I must now address myself to a dry and
ungrateful task, the expounding of the terms or titles Tai-Yih, Tai-Ki, and
Shang-Ti; and as we have already identified the first of these, the Great-First,
Tai-Yih, with the N. Pole, it will be convenient to begin with Him or It.
Dr. Legge has adopted, from Gallery's French, 'Grand Unity'
as an English equivalent; Medhurst said 'Supreme One,' and came to the
conclusion that Tai-Yih was an immaterial Being acting with wisdom intention and
goodness, the almighty One who rules over all things; and he quoted the Chinese
critical commentary as saying that this Supreme One is the source of all others,
and that he existed before the powers of Nature were divided, and before the
myriad things were produced, the One only Being. The Li Ki itself, the
Confucian compilation on Ritual, says "Tai-Yih separated and became heavens and
Earth; Tai-Yih revolved and became (the dual force of) the Yin and Yang." Dr.
Legge cites K'ung Ying-Ta (A.D. 574 to 648) as saying that Tai-Yih was "the
original vapoury matter of chaos," which may be good philosophy and physics, but
is not theology or mythology. Of course the words tai and yih (=
great and one) convey no information whatever on the subject. The term as used
in the Li Ki is of unknown age; the Li Ki itself being some 24
centuries in existence. All I now want the Reader to do is to ear-mark the facts
that Tai-Yih is the Polar deity, and that He or It divided into the yin and the
yang.']
[208] [Gen. 4:26. 'And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.']
[209] [Irenaeus, Against Heresies, bk 1, ch. 30:10. 'Ialdabaoth, again, being incensed with men, because they did not worship or honour him as father and God, sent forth a deluge upon them, that he might at once destroy them all. But Sophia opposed him in this point also, and Noah and his family were saved in the ark by means of the besprinkling of that light which proceeded from her, and through it the world was again filled with mankind. Ialdabaoth himself chose a certain man named Abraham from among these, and made a covenant with him, to the effect that, if his seed continued to serve him, he would give to them the earth for an inheritance. Afterwards, by means of Moses, he brought forth Abraham's descendants from Egypt, and gave them the law, and made them the Jews. Among that people he chose seven days/ which they also call the holy Hebdomad. Each of these receives his own herald for the purpose of glorifying and proclaiming God; so that, when the rest hear these praises, they too may serve those who are announced as gods by the prophets.' ANCL, 5, 109-10.]
[210] [Shaitan—see Grant, Nightside of Eden, and my essay 4.]
[212] [Tablet S. 954, British Museum. Budge, On Some Recently Acquired Babylonian Tablets (in the British Museum).?]
[213] [Sayce,
HL, p. 511. 'Hymn to Nergal.
"2. (In the ....) may it be, in thy
heart may it be, in thy liver may it be!
3. (In the ....) may it be, in thy liver may it be, in thy heart may it be!
4. Among the fat oxen thou enterest not on this side.
5. thou bringest not out.
6. Among the sheep the .... thou enterest not on this side.
7. To the sheep the strong sheep thou bringest not out.
8. lord, thou enterest not the temple of beer.
9. The clothing (bursumtu) of the place of the oracle thou gatherest not
together.
10. lord, the place of sovereignty (situlti) thou enterest not.
11. Her, even the servant who knows the word of the oracle, thou seatest not.
12. lord, the park of Istar thou establishest not.
13. The little ones thou leadest not out of the park of Istar.
14. The place where the bond (enu) is fixed thou enterest not.
15. The small child (mar a) who knows the bond thou bringest not out.
16. The .... thou dost not remove, its cow (lati) thou dost not destroy.
17. reclining with evil intent, the offering (kurbanna) thou dost not kiss.
18. in the place of his lord (?) thou dost not smite."']
[214] [Sayce, HL, p. 454. 'Gis Zida, "the eternal wood." In W.A.I. iv. 25, 12, it seems to mean "a mast." The Lady of the Magic Wand was Allat, the queen of Hades.']
[216] [Gen. 3:2-7. 'And the woman
said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said,
Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.']
[217] [Source. unable to trace. See also AE 1:546, and note 7 above.]
[218] [Taylor, 'Collection of Chaldean Oracles,' CLJ, no. 22. ''The Chaldeans call the god (Dionysus or Bacchus) Iao in the Phoenician tongue (instead of the intelligible light), and he is often called Sabaoth, signifying that he is above the seven poles, that is the Demiurgus. Lyd. de. Mens. 83—Tay.' See Cory's Ancient Fragments, p. 241 of 1832 ed.]
[220] [Source.]
[221] [Book of Enoch, ch. 24. 'I
went from there to another place, and saw a mountain of fire flashing both by
day and night. I proceeded towards it; and perceived seven splendid mountains,
which were all different from each other.
Their stones were brilliant and beautiful; all were brilliant and splendid
to behold; and beautiful was their surface. Three mountains were towards
the east, and strengthened by being placed one upon another; and three were
towards the south, strengthened in a similar manner. There were likewise deep
valleys, which did not approach each other. And the seventh mountain was in the
midst of them. In length they all resembled the seat of a throne, and
odoriferous trees surrounded them.
Among these there was a tree of an unceasing smell; nor of
those which were in Eden was there one of all the fragrant trees which smelt
like this. Its leaf, its flower, and its bark never withered, and its fruit was
beautiful.
Its fruit resembled the cluster of the palm. I exclaimed, Behold! This
tree is goodly in aspect, pleasing in its leaf, and the sight of its fruit is
delightful to the eye. Then Michael, one of the holy and glorious angels who
were with me, and one who presided over them, answered,
And said: Enoch, why do you inquire respecting the odour of
this tree?
Why are you inquisitive to know it?
Then I, Enoch, replied to him, and said, Concerning everything I am desirous of
instruction, but particularly concerning this tree.
He answered me, saying, That mountain which you behold, the extent of
whose head resembles the seat of the Lord, will be the seat on which shall sit
the holy and great Lord of glory, the everlasting King, when he shall come and
descend to visit the earth with goodness.
And that tree of an agreeable smell, not one of carnal odor, there
shall be no power to touch, until the period of the great judgment. When all
shall be punished and consumed for ever, this shall be bestowed on the righteous
and humble. The fruit of the tree shall be given to the elect. For
towards the north life shall be planted in the holy place, towards the
habitation of the everlasting King.
Then shall they greatly rejoice and exult in the Holy One. The sweet odor
shall enter into their bones; and they shall live a long life on the earth as
your forefathers have lived; neither in their days shall sorrow, distress,
trouble, and punishment afflict them.
And I blessed the Lord of glory, the everlasting King, because He has
prepared this tree for the saints, formed it, and declared that He would
give it to them.']
[223] [Rhys, Studies in the Arthurian
Legend, pp. 96-7. 'Single incidents in the Peredur have been identified with
single incidents in the story of Owein, and it now remains to be shown that we
were warranted in so doing, by further showing that the principal sequence in
the one corresponds to that in the other. This applies to the story of Peredur
from his setting out for the Avanc's cave to his reigning with the Empress; but
to make the parallelism clear, it will be necessary to give here an abstract of
the passages in question in the Owein story. The latter hero, then, after
wandering on desert mountains in the furthermost parts of the earth, comes to a
valley where he finds a castle, in which he is hospitably received for the
night. He asks how he should find the Black Knight of the Fountain, whom he
desires to encounter. His host, pitying him, is reluctant to answer his
question, but consents to do so in the morning; so Owein, put on the right way
and informed where to make further enquiries, journeys through a wood until he
comes to a large open field with a mound in the middle of it. On the mound sits
a black giant whose peculiarity is his having only one foot to walk with, and
only one eye in the middle of his forehead. Around him a thousand wild beasts
graze; he is their shepherd, and they obey him through the medium of a stag who
plays the part, so to say, of bell-wether among them.
The black giant told Owein the way to take and how to
challenge the Knight of the Fountain; he directed him to a spacious valley in
the middle of which stood a remarkable tree, beneath which there was a well. By
the well he would find a marble slab with a silver tankard attached to it; he
was to fill the tankard with water and to throw it on the slab. This would bring
on a fearful thunder followed by a destructive hailstorm, which would be
followed by a marvellous warbling of birds; and then at last the Knight of the
Fountain, arrayed in black satin, and with a black fly streaming from his spear,
would himself arrive on a black horse, charging at full speed. Owein did as he
was told, and fought with the sable knight, until the latter, feeling that he
had been mortally wounded, took to flight. Owein pursued so hotly that he
followed him into his city, when the portcullis was so let down that it cut off
the part of his horse behind his saddle, while the inner door was shut in front
of him: thus was he left in a perilous position.']
[225] [See following note.]
[226] [Eusebius, Praeparatio
Evangelica, bk. 1. ch.1. 'Of these men, he says, were
begotten (through intercourse), with their mothers, Memrumus and Hypsuranius; the women of
those times without shame having intercourse with any man they might chance to
meet. Then, says he, Hypsuranius dwelt in Tyre, and he invented huts constructed
of reeds and rushes, and (found out the use of) papyrus. And he fell into enmity
with his brother Usous, who first invented a covering for the body, of the skins
of wild beasts which he could catch.' From Cory,
Ancient Fragments,
p. 6.
See also NG 1:479.]
[227] [Gen. 6:1-2. 'And it came to
pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were
born unto them,
That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair;
and they took them wives of all which they chose.'
Book of Enoch., ch. 7:10-11. 'Then they took wives, each choosing for
himself; whom they began to approach, and with whom they cohabited; teaching
them sorcery, incantations, and the dividing of roots and trees.
And the women conceiving brought forth giants.' Laurence's tr.]
[229] [Vayu Purana.]
[230] [Gen. 5:32. 'And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.']
[231] [Gen. 6:4. 'There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.']
[232] [Gen. 6:3. 'And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.']
[234] [Cory, Ancient Fragments, p. 52. '(All these, says Apollodorus, related particularly and circumstantially whatever Oannes had informed them of. Concerning these appearances Abydenus has made no mention.)']
[235] [2 Esdras 7:28-30. 'Everyone
who has been delivered from the evils I have foretold shall see for himself my
marvellous acts. My son the Messiah shall appear with his companions and bring
four hundred years of happiness to all who survive. At the end of that time, my
son the Messiah shall die, and so shall all mankind who draw breath.'
Ibid.,
13:25-35. '"This
is what the vision means: The man you saw rising from the depths of the sea is
he whom the Most High has held in readiness through many ages; he will himself
deliver the world he has made, and determine the lot of those who survive. As
for the breath, fire, and storm which you saw pouring from the mouth of the man,
so that without a spear or any weapon in his hand he destroyed the hordes
advancing to wage war against him, this is the meaning: The day is near when the
Most High will begin to bring deliverance to those on earth. Then men will all
be filled with great alarm; they will plot to make war on one another, city on
city, region on region, nation on nation, kingdom on kingdom. When this happens,
and all the signs that I have shown you come to pass, then my son will be
revealed, whom you saw as a man rising from the sea. On hearing his voice, all
the nations will leave their own territories and their separate wars, and unite
in a countless host, as you saw in your vision, with a common intent to go and
wage war against him.' NEB
version.]
[236] [The Yi King, I Ching or
Book of Changes. 'The Chinese say that the 8 fang are on the back
of the divine Tortoise; and these of course correspond again to the 8 trigrams
of the map on the back of the horse sent forth by the Ho (Yellow) River; and to
the 8 pairs of elephants that uphold
the Hinda Earth.' From O'Neill, Night of the Gods, vol. 1, p. 169. See
also note below.]
[237] [Mayers, The Chinese
Reader's Manual, 366, 44, 56. 'The view I here suggest about the pair
of mountains seems to be supported by the title Chow Yi of another of
these three divining-books; where chow is usually held to mean the Chow dynasty
alone. But M. P. L. F. Philastre points out in his version of the Yi King that
chow here meant circular movement, revolution embracing the whole
universe; and it was also the name of the fief of which the feudatory ruler
founded the Chow dynasty. This "revolution" I would suggest is that of the
heavens round its axis, inclusive of that of the zodiac; and Chow Yi
would thus mean the Revolving Changes. One might even be induced to theorise
that this was the true origin and real significance of the name of the Chow
dynasty of the Sons-of-heaven.
This interpretation, as regards the Chow Yi (and
therefore as regards the Chow Li also) seems extremely well to fit the
fact that the diagrams of the "changes" in this Changes-Book the
Yi-King are attributed to the thumbs of the compass and also, radically,
designate the yin and yang, the male and female principles into
which the primeval central power divided, together with all their combinations
in different proportions.
Furthermore, the titles of two out of these three
divining-books, Li'en-Shan and Kwei-Tsang, are also names of
Yen Ti and Hwang Ti, the immediate imperial successors of Tai Hao or
Fuh-hi Shi, the very first mythic ruler; that is, of course, the primeval power.
The name of Tai Hao, the "Great Celestial" was also said to have been Feng,
"wind"; that is, as I should suggest, the Ether. With him the mystic diagrams,
the Yi, the Changes, commence; and they were revealed to him by a
supernatural dragon-horse which issued from the Yellow River, which is the Milky
Way. From these diagrams, and from the movements of the heavenly bodies, he
deciphered the system of written characters, invented the horary and cyclical
notation, and regulated the seasons. He is therefore clearly a primeval heavenly
central deity. The diagrams of Tai Hao were but eight, answering to the four
cardinal and four half-cardinal points of the Universe. It was Yen Ti his
successor who increased them to 64. Yen Ti, Fire Ruler, is obviously the Firegod,
and he lived on the mountain Lieh or Lien; whence one of his
names, which is also the name, as above, of one of the three divining-books (Li'en-SJian)
Another of these three divining-books was the Kwei-Chang,
"Return-Concealment," which is a name of Hwang Ti, the next in succession to Yen
Ti; and I have already shown that Hwang Ti must be taken to be a primeval
central heavens-god. If now the Chow Yi, or Revolving Changes, could be
connected with Tai Hao, we should have the triad of three books assigned to the
triad of the three first mythic rulers of the Universe; two of whom clearly
"invented" the mystic diagrams of which those books treat.' From O'Neill,
Night of the Gods, vol. 2, pp. 893-4.]
[238] [Yi King, p. 3. As above note.]
[239] [The Dream of Scipio. See verse 7.]
[240] [Theogony, lines 30-5. 'So said the ready-voiced daughters of great Zeus, and they plucked and gave me a rod, a shoot of sturdy laurel, a marvellous thing, and breathed into me a divine voice to celebrate things that shall be and things there were aforetime; and they bade me sing of the race of the blessed gods that are eternally, but ever to sing of themselves both first and last. But why all this about oak or stone?' Tr,. White.]
[241] [Odyssey, XIX, 142-69. 'But even so tell me of thine own stock, whence thou art, for thou art not sprung of oak or rock, whereof old tales tell.' Butcher's and Lang's tr.]
[242] [Folkard, Plant Lore, p. 117. 'According to a legend that Hamilton found current in Central India, the Khatties had this strange origin. When the five sons of Pandu (the heroes whose exploits are told in the Mahabharata) had become simple tenders of flocks, Karna, their illegitimate brother, wishing to deprive them of these their last resource, prayed the gods to assist him: then he struck the earth with his staff, which was fashioned from the branch of a tree. The staff opened instantly, and out of it sprang a man, who said that his name was Khat, a word which signifies "begotten of wood." Karna employed this tree-man to steal the coveted cattle, and the Khatties claim to be descended from this rather strange forefather.']
[243] [Source.]
[244] [Moor, Hindu Pantheon, plate 88.]
[245] [Quoted in Lewis, A Historical Survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients.]
[246] [Smith, 'Eleventh Tablet of the Izdubar Legends,' RP, 7, 133. See p. 143.]
[247] [Sayce, 'Ancient Babylonian Legend of the Creation,' RP, 11, 107. See p. 109.]
[248] [Source.]
[250] [Rit. chs. 17, 83-107, and 144.]
[251] [Life and Work at the Great Pyramid. From Lockyer, Dawn of Astronomy, p. 127.]
[255] [Ginsburg, The Kabbalah, p. 21.]
[256] [Renouf, 'Calendar of Astronomical Observations.' TSBA, 3, 400-21. See full text.]
[257] [Auswahl, p. 23.]
[258] [From Erman, Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 519.]
[259] [Satow and Hawes, Handbook for Travellers in Central and Northern Japan. 'We have the island turning up later in Japano-Buddhic myth when an Apsaras appears in the clouds over the spot inhabited by a dragon. An island suddenly rises up out of the sea, she descends upon it and there espouses the dragon who is thus becalmed.' From O'Neill, Night of the Gods, vol. 1, p. 34.]
[261] [Renouf, 'Tale of the Two Brothers,' RP, 2, 137.]
[262] [2 Esdras 2:18. 'I will send my servants Isaiah and Jeremiah to help you. As they prophesied, I have set you apart to be my people. I have made ready for you twelve trees laden with different kinds of fruit, twelve fountains flowing with milk and honey, and seven great mountains covered with roses and lilies.' NEB version.]
[263] [Lacouperie, 'The Tree of Life
and the Calendar Plant of Babylonia and China,' BOR,
2, 153. 'It is in the descriptions of the Elysian residence of Si Wang Mu in the
Kuenlun that the sacred trees are mentioned. There are seven of them. Four on
the west; the tree of pearls, tchu shu, the tree of jade, yu thu,
the gemmy tree, suen shu, and the tree of immortality, puh se shu.
One on the south, the red tree, Kiang shu; and on the north the
green-jade tree, pih shu, and the green jasper tree, yao shu. The
tree of immortality, puh se shu, is also called the K'iung tree, and is
fully described as composed of the finest sort of jade, red or white; its
blossom, if eaten, conferred the gift of immortality.
The characteristic of all these seven trees (the number of
the week) is their connection with the jade in the various sorts of which six of
them were made. And so they were in this mythological account, because jade was
the most precious and highest-valued stone with which the Chinese became
acquainted in olden times.']
[264] [Goblet, Migration of Symbols, figs. 63, 64, 79, etc. Or in the French ed. figs. 54, 62, 65.]
[266] [Rev. 1:12. 'And I turned to see the voice that
spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed
with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.']
[267] [Brugsch. Unable to trace.]
[268] [The Odyssey. Unable to trace.]
[269] [Sayce, HL, p. 82. 'The deluge was said to have lasted seven days; three groups of stars the tikpi or "circles"(?), the masi or "double stars," and the lu-masi or "sheep of the hero," were each seven in number; the gates which led to Hades were also seven; Erech is called the city of "the seven zones" or "stones" (W. A. I. ii. 50, 55 57); and, as Lotz reminds us, seven fish-like men ascended out of the Persian Gulf, according to Berossus, in order to teach the antediluvian Babylonians the arts of life.']
[270] [Conder,
Heth and Moab, pp. 216-17. 'The oiled stones worshipped by Arnobius have
already been mentioned. At Tyre two stones called ambrosial were believed to
exist under the sea: they are mentioned by Pausanias, and represented on Tyrian
coins. Sanchoniathon, the Phoenician, speaks of the Baetuli, which were stones
believed to be Bethels, or houses of God, inhabited by a divine soul, and at
Seleucia were the lapides qui divi dicuntur. The famous black conical
stone of Emesa was carried in procession by Elagabalus at Rome, as an emblem of
the Sun-god; and the conical stone was sacred to Venus in Cyprus. At Pharai, in
Achaia, were thirty stones which represented Hermes, and among the Greeks long
stones appear to have been sacred to this ancient Moon-god, and cubical stones
to the mother Goddess, Cybele. Yet earlier at Uruk the seven black stones
typified the seven chief gods the mystic planetary Cabiri or great ones.
Yet more important to our present inquiry is the stone-worship of the Arabs in
the times of ignorance, before the preaching of Islam. Thus, at Mecca we have
the famous shrine which Muhammed only half abolished, leaving the holy stone,
but removing the wooden dove and other images. The black stone is about seven
inches by four inches in measurement, and the surface is covered with
depressions, said to be due to the kisses of the devout.']
[271] [Histories, bk. 3.8. 'Now the Arabians have respect for pledges of friendship as much as those men in all the world who regard them most; and they give them in the following manner: A man different from those who desire to give the pledges to one another, standing in the midst between the two, cuts with a sharp stone the inner parts of the hands, along by the thumbs, of those who are giving the pledges to one another, and then he takes a thread from the cloak of each one and smears with the blood seven stones laid in the midst between them; and as he does this he calls upon Dionysos and Urania. When the man has completed these ceremonies, he who has given the pledges commends to the care of his friends the stranger (or the fellow-tribesman, if he is giving the pledges to one who is a member of his tribe), and the friends think it right that they also should have regard for the pledges given. Of gods they believe in Dionysos and Urania alone: moreover they say that the cutting of their hair is done after the same fashion as that of Dionysos himself; and they cut their hair in a circle round, shaving away the hair of the temples. Now they call Dionysos Orotalt and Urania they call Alilat.' Tr., Macauley.]
[273] [Frazer, Golden Bough, vol. 1, p. 230. 'During this time the temporary king stands leaning against a tree with his right foot resting on his left knee. From standing thus on one foot he is popularly known as King Hop ; but his official title is Phaya-Phollathep, "Lord of the Heavenly Hosts." He is a sort of Minister of Agriculture; all disputes about fields, rice, and so on, are referred to him. There is moreover another ceremony in which he personates the king. It takes place in the second month (which falls in the cold season) and lasts three days. He is conducted in procession to an open place opposite the Temple of the Brahmans, where there are a number of poles dressed like May-poles, upon which the Brahmans swing. All the while that they swing and dance, the Lord of the Heavenly Hosts has to stand on one foot upon a seat which is made of bricks plastered over, covered with a white cloth, and hung with tapestry. He is supported by a wooden frame with a gilt canopy, and two Brahmans stand one on each side of him. The dancing Brahmans carry buffalo horns with which they draw water from a large copper caldron and sprinkle it on the people; this is supposed to bring good luck, causing the people to dwell in peace and quiet, health and prosperity. The time during which the Lord of the Heavenly Hosts has to stand on one foot is about three hours. This is thought "to prove the dispositions of the Devattas and spirits." If he lets his foot down "he is liable to forfeit his property and have his family enslaved by the king; as it is believed to be a bad omen, portending destruction to the state, and instability to the throne. But if he stand firm he is believed to have gained a victory over evil spirits, and he has moreover the privilege, ostensibly at least, of seizing any ship which may enter the harbour during these three days, and taking its contents, and also of entering any open shop in the town and carrying away what he chooses."']
[274] [Crombie, 'History of the Game of Hop-Scotch,' JAI, 15, 1886. See full text.]
[275] [Bhagavata-Purana, ch. 8.]
[276] ['Diary of a Journey Through Syria and Palestine,' PPTS, 4, 47. 'The Rock itself rises out of the floor to the height of a man, and a balustrade of marble goes round about it in order that none may lay his hand thereon. The Rock inclines on the side that is towards the Kiblah (or south), and there is an appearance as though a person had walked heavily on the stone when it was soft like clay, whereby the imprint of his toes had remained thereon. There are on the rock seven such footmarks, and I heard it stated that Abraham—peace be upon him;—was once here with Isaac—upon him be peace!—when he was a boy, and that he walked over this place, and that the footmarks were his.']
[277] [Zech. 3:9. 'For behold
the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes:
behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will
remove the iniquity of that land in one day.'
Zech. 4:1-12. 'And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked
me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep,
And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a
candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps
thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other
upon the left side thereof.
I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these,
my lord?
Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not
what these be? And I said, No, my lord.
Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto
Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD
of hosts.
Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and
he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace
unto it.
Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall
also finish it; and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto
you.
For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall
see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of
the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the
right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?
And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which
through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?']
[278] [Rev. 4:5. 'And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.']
[279] [Rit., chs. 140 and 144.]
[280] [Rev. 16:20-21. 'And
every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight
of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the
plague thereof was exceeding great.']
[281] [RP. Unable to trace.]
[282] [Chamberlain, Kojiki, 1, 7, 8. 'The first Japanese god of mountains was Great-Mountain, Oho-Yama, born of Izanagi and Izanami. There were then produced the Metal-mountain Prince and Princess Kanayama no Hiko and Hime. Then after an interval there were born from the cut-off head of the Fire-god the Tree-Mountain god, Ma-saka Yama (the Ma-saka being the True Saka (Cleyera) tree of heaven). Next was an Odo-Yama (the sense of Odo being unknown), an Oku (secret) "S'ama, a Kura (Dark) Yama (perhaps the mountain which is the lower hemisphere?), a shigi (Luxuriant) Mountain. Then Ha (Extreme? or Feather?) Yama, Hara (Plain) Yama (a reference doubtless to the plain, the expanse of the heavens) and To (gate? or Utter?) Yama. All these seem to be alternative mythical names for the heavens-vault mountain.' From O'Neill, Night of the Gods, vol. 2. p. 892.]
[283] [Colquhoun, Across Chrysê, vol. 1, p. 37. 'Close, at the back of Shau-hing lie seven isolated limestone peaks, which we saw from the back of the town, rising abruptly out of the low, green plain. These are called the "Seven Stars," and were once a favourite resort for pious people who went to worship at the temples and caves. They are not much visited now. In one of the larger temples there are, I was told, several images of bronze, seven feet in height. I regret that we were unable to inspect the caves.']
[284] [Frazer,
Golden Bough,
vol. 1, pp. 54-6. 'The tribe amongst whom the Kings
of Fire and Water reside is the Chreais or Jaray, a race with European features
but a sallow complexion, inhabiting the forest-clad mountains and high plateaux
which separate Cambodia from Annam. Their royal functions are of a purely mystic
or spiritual order; they have no political authority; they are simple peasants,
living by the sweat of their brow and the offerings of the faithful. According
to one account they live in absolute solitude, never meeting each other and
never seeing a human face. They inhabit successively seven towers perched upon
seven mountains, and every year they pass from one tower to another. People come
furtively and cast within their reach what is needful for their subsistence. The
kingship lasts seven years, the time necessary to inhabit all the towers
successively; but many die before their time is out. The offices are hereditary
in one or (according to others) two royal families, who enjoy high
consideration, have revenues assigned to them, and are exempt from the necessity
of tilling the ground. But naturally the dignity is not coveted, and when a
vacancy occurs, all eligible men (they must be strong and have children) flee
and hide themselves. Another account, admitting the reluctance of the hereditary
candidates to accept the crown, does not countenance the report of their
hermit-like seclusion in the seven towers. For it represents the people as
prostrating themselves before the mystic kings whenever they appear in public,
it being thought that a terrible hurricane would burst over the country if this
mark of homage were omitted.
The same report says that the Fire King, the more important of the two, and
whose supernatural powers have never been questioned, officiates at marriages,
festivals, and sacrifices in honour of the Yan. On these occasions a special
place is set apart for him; and the path by which he approaches is spread with
white cotton cloths. A reason for confining the royal dignity to the same family
is that this family is in possession of certain famous talismans which would
lose their virtue or disappear if they passed out of the family. These talismans
are three: the fruit of a creeper called Cui, gathered ages ago but still
fresh and green; a rattan, also very old and still not dry; lastly a sword
containing a Yan or spirit, who guards it constantly and works miracles with it.
To this wondrous brand sacrifices of buffaloes, pigs, fowls, and ducks are
offered for rain. It is kept swathed in cotton and silk; and amongst the annual
presents sent by the King of Cambodia were rich stuffs to wrap the sacred sword.
In return the Kings of Fire and Water sent him a huge wax candle and two
calabashes, one full of rice and the other of sesame. The candle bore the
impress of the Fire King's middle finger. Probably the candle was thought to
contain the seed of fire, which the Cambodian monarch thus received once a year
fresh from the Fire King himself The holy candle was kept for sacred uses. On
reaching the capital of Cambodia it was entrusted to the Brahmans, who laid it
up beside the regaha, and with the wax made tapers which were burned on the
altars on solemn days. As the candle was the special gift of the Fire King, we
may conjecture that the rice and sesame were the special gift of the Water King.
The latter was doubtless king of rain as well as of water, and the fruits of the
earth were boons conferred by him on men. In times of calamity, as during
plague, floods, and war, a little of this sacred rice and sesame was scattered
on the ground "to appease the wrath of the maleficent spirits."
J. Moura, Le Royaume du Cambodge, 1. 432-436; Aymonier, "Notes sur les
coutumes et croyances superstitieuses des Cambodgiens," in Cochin-chine
Fraiifaise, Excursions et Reconnaissances. No. 16, p. 172 sq.; id., Notes
sur le Laos, p. 60.']
[285] [Cory, Ancient Fragments, p, 43.]
[286] [Gill, Myths and Songs of the Pacific.]
[287] [Book of Enoch, ch. 24, 2. 'Their stones were brilliant and beautiful; all were brilliant and splendid to behold; and beautiful was their surface. Three mountains were towards the east, and strengthened by being placed one upon another; and three were towards the south, strengthened in a similar manner. There were likewise deep valleys, which did not approach each other. And the seventh mountain was in the midst of them. In length they all resembled the seat of a throne, and odoriferous trees surrounded them.' Laurence's tr.]
[288] [Ex. 25:37. 'And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.']
[289] [Chamberlain, MLC, 1, 32.
'I here insert a curious little Ainu legend from Mr. B. H. Chamberlain's
translation, which may disclose to us the Mountain-Palace, the heavens-deities
and their head the wheel (and fire) god.
"Suddenly there was a Large House on the top of a hill
[Mountain-palace of heaven?] wherein were Six persons beautifully arrayed, but
constantly quarrelling [the 'war in heaven' of all mythologies]. Thereupon
Okikurumi [which is as near as may be to the Japanese for Big-Wheel] came and
said: 'Oh! you bad hares! you wicked hares! Who should know your origin? The
children in the sky [?sons of the gods] were pelting each other with snowballs;
and the snowballs fell into this world of men. As it would have been a pity to
waste heaven's snow, the snowballs were turned into hares; and those hares are
you. You who live in this world of mine, this world of human beings, must be
quiet. What is it that you are brawling about?' With these words Okikurumi
seized a fire-brand [which makes a fire-god as well as a wheel-god of him?] and
beat each of the Six with it in turn. Thereupon all the hares ran away." This is
the origin of the Hare-god; and for this reason the body of the hare is white,
because made of snow; while its ears, which are the part where it was charred by
the fire-brand, are black.' From O'Neill, The Night of the Gods,
vol. 2, p. 604.]
[290] [See note below.]
[291] [O'Neill, The Night of the Gods, vol. 2, p. 892.]
[294] [Gen. 10:2. 'The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.']
[295] [From the Temple of Hathor. See fig.]
[297a] [Sale, 'Preliminary Discourse,'
in The Koran, p. 5. 'Before the Adites were thus severely punished,
GOD, to humble them, and incline them to hearken to the preaching of his
prophet, afflicted them with a drought for four years, so that all their cattle
perished, and themselves were very near it; upon which they sent Lokmân
(different from one of the same name who lived in David's time) with sixty
others to Mecca to beg rain, which they not obtaining, Lokmân with some of his
company stayed at Mecca, and thereby escaped destruction, giving rise to a tribe
called the latter Ad, who were afterward changed into monkeys.
Some commentators on the Korân tell us these old Adites were of prodigious
stature, the largest being 100 cubits high, and the least 60; which
extraordinary size they pretend to prove by the testimony of the Korân.'
See
also NG 2:246.]
[298] [Bancroft, The Native
Races of the Pacific States of North America,
vol. 3, pp. 64-5. 'I follow most closely
the version of the Tezcucan historian Ixtlilxochitl, as being one of the
earliest accounts, as prima facie, from its origin, one of the most authentic,
and as being supported by a majority of respectable historians up to the time of
Humboldt.
Of the creation which ushered in the first age we know nothing; we are only told
by Boturini that giants then began to appear on the earth. This First Age, or
sun, was called the Sun of the Water, and it was ended by a tremendous flood, in
which every living thing perished, or was transformed, except, following some
accounts, one man and one woman of the giant race, of whose escape more
hereafter. The Second Age, called the Sun of the Earth, was closed with
earthquakes, yawnings of the earth, and the overthrow of the highest mountains.
Giants, or Quinames, a powerful and haughty race, still appear to be the only
inhabitants of the world. The Third Age was the Sun of the Air. It was ended by
tempests and hurricanes, so destructive that few indeed of the inhabitants of
the earth were left; and those that were saved lost, according to the Tlascaltec
account, their reason and speech, becoming monkeys.']
[303] [Higgins, Stars and
Constellations, pp. 22-23. 'Lyra = The lyre, lute, or harp.
Another name is = Fides in Cicero's Aratus = a Lute.
Also called Vultur cadens = The falling Vulture.
The Arabic name is Annas'r al waki = The falling eagle.
The Greek name is, Lura = The lyre — which the Arabs corrupted into allore and
alohore and aliore
al = The, and Lora (or lura) = Lyre.
Alpha Name on charts, Vega
Arabic, and Wega
Meaning, The eagle.
(full name) an nas'r al waki = The falling.
That is Vega, or Wega = Waki = The falling.
Persian, Beta Sheliak = Shelyak The lyre.
Persian, Shelyak = is the Persian representation of the Greek, Chelus = The
Tortoise
Through the Arabic, Al Selibak = The Tortoise according to Ulugh Beigh.
Arabic, Gamma Sulaphat from sulahf a = a tortoise.
suhl'af at = shell of a tortoise.']
[305] [Catlin, Letters and
Notes on the Manners, Customs and Condition of the North American Indians,
vol. 1, pp. 180-1. 'I am not yet able to learn from these people whether they
have any distinct theory of the creation; as they seem to date nothing further
back than their own existence as a people; saying (as I have before mentioned),
that they were the first people created; involving the glaring absurdities that
they were the only people on earth before the Flood, and the only one saved was
a white man; or that they were created inside of the earth, as their tradition
says; and that they did not make their appearance on its outer surface until
after the Deluge. When an Indian story is told, it is like all other gifts, "to
be taken for what it is worth," and for any seeming inconsistency in their
traditions there is no remedy; for as far as I have tried to reconcile them by
reasoning with, or questioning them, I have been entirely defeated; and more
than that, have generally incurred their distrust and ill-will. One of the
Mandan doctors told me very gravely a few days since, that the earth was a large
tortoise, that it carried the dirt on its back—that
a tribe of people, who are now dead, and whose faces were white, used to dig
down very deep in this ground to catch badgers; and that one day they stuck a
knife through the tortoise-shell, and it sunk down so that the water ran over
its back, and drowned all but one man. And on the next day while 1 was painting
his portrait, he told me there were four tortoises—one
in the North—one in the East—one
in the South, and one in the West; that each one of these rained ten days, and
the water covered over the earth.'
See also Tylor, Researches into the Early History of Mankind, p. 344.
'Among the Mandans, Catlin found a legend which brings in the same notion of the
World-tortoise, but shows by the difference of the accessory circumstances that
it was not in America a mere part of a particular story, but a mythological
conception which might be worked into an unlimited variety of myths. The tale
that the Mandan doctor told Catlin, was that the earth was a large tortoise,
that it carried dirt upon its back, and that a tribe of people who are now dead,
and whose faces were white, used to dig down very deep in this ground to catch
badgers. One day they stuck a knife through the shell of the tortoise, and it
sank and sank till the water ran over its back, and they were all drowned but
one man.']
[306] [Turner, Samoa, p. 108. 'A story is told of a woman and her child, who in a time of great scarcity were neglected by the family. One day they cooked some wild yams, but never offered her a share. She was vexed, asked the child to follow her, and when they reached a precipice on the rocky coast, seized the child and jumped over. It is said they were changed into turtles, and afterwards came in that form at the call of the people of the village.']
[307] [Moor, Hindu Pantheon, pl. 49.]
[308] [There is a tortoise god in the Ritual—Apesh—see chs. 83 & 161.]
[309] [Mithra, pl. 56, 3.]
[310] [Jude 1:6. 'And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.']
[311] [Enoch, chs., 18, 21, 22.]
[312] [Unable to trace.]
[313] [Sayce, 'Babylonian Story of
Creation,' RPNS, 1, 147.
Sayce, 'Ancient Babylonian Legend of the Creation,' RP, 11,
107. See p. 109.]
[314] [Unable to trace.]
[315] [Plato, Philebus, 66. 'Socrates: But at the sixth class (as Orpheus says) bring to a close the order in the song. And in fact, our argument, too, seems to be closed with the determining of the sixth place.' Paley's tr. Page 116 of the 1873 ed.]
[318] [Bancroft, The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America, vol. 3, p. 57. 'From the fragments of the Chimalpopoca manuscript given by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg we learn that the Creator whoever he may have been produced his work in successive epochs. In the sign Tochtli, the earth was created; in the sign Acatl was made the firmament, and in the sign Tecpatl the animals. Man, it is added, was made and animated out of ashes or dust by God on the seventh day, Ehecatl, but finished and perfected by that mysterious personage Quetzalcoatl. However this account may be reconciled with itself or with others, it further appears that man was four times made and four times destroyed. This may perhaps be looked upon as proceeding from what I have called for convenience the Toltecan school, though this particular fragment shows traces of Christian influence.']
[319] [Book of Enoch, ch. 18.]
[321] [In Plato's Timaeus. See note 16 above.]
[322] [Boscawen, 'Notes on Assyrian Religion and Mythology,' TSBA, 6, 535. See full text.]
[325] [Poss. in Boturini's Idea de una Nueva Historia General de la America Septentrional and Gemelli-Careri's Giro del Mondo.]
[326] [Matthews, 'The Navajo Mythology,' AA, 1883. See full text.]
[327] [Brooke, Ten Years in Sarawak, vol. 1. p. 189. 'I asked the poor fellow (who gloried in the title of "The bear of heaven") in what direction his house was situated. Looking out, he said, "There. Ah! those are the flames of it just rising." I promised him his safe conduct, and that of his family if he could find them. With the guidance and assistance of Sandom, they were rescued from their hiding-place—a mother and four children—and all returned with us. I had been expecting an attack this afternoon, as I thought the enemy would have recovered, and organised themselves sufficiently to offer resistance; but no, there was not a breath of hostility, and I ate my dinner off a tough fighting-cock, scorched, feathers and all, over a fire, and some old and dried Indian corn, which is kept for medicinal purposes, particularly for the cure of snake bites; each man carries a small quantity in jungle travelling.']
[328] [Homer gives his portrayal of Hades or the underworld in his Odyssey with Odysseus's descent.]
[329] [Theogony, lines 116-21. 'Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether and Day, whom she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus.' Tr. White.]
[330] [Odyssey, e.g., bk. 11. 'There is the land and the city of the Cimmerians, shrouded in mist and cloud, and never does the shining sun look down on them with his rays, neither when he climbs up the starry heavens, nor when again he turns earth-ward from the firmament, but deadly night is outspread over miserable mortals.' Tr., Butcher and Lang.]
[331] [Ibid., books 11 and 12. See note above.]