THE HUMAN SPECIES. 423 



an oasis of bliss, with its four rivers, equally mystified 

 and distorted, from the Brahmaputra to Ireland, and a 

 succession of Ararats, from the Himalaya chain to 

 Snowdon.* From India to the German Ocean, there 

 are at least eleven, with a series of subordinate locali- 

 ties, more or less complete, assimilated to the narra- 

 tive of the Pentateuch, in proportion as the Hebrew 

 Scriptures had been accessible, and in particular 

 among the Arab nations, rekindled by the spreading 

 of the Koran. In point of date, it is known, that both 

 in Italy and Britain, the Celts were possessed of the 

 soil before their husbandry was acquainted with either 

 barley or wheat corn ; acorns were the sole farinaceous 

 food then known. Greek and Latin classics relate the 

 travels of Ceres, and lessons of Triptolemus, as well 

 as Welsh poets the first introduction of cerealia in 

 Britain. 



* Pagan tradition scarcely separates the creation from 

 the diluvian legends; paradise from their cities of the 

 gods and primaeval abode of man; their umbilicus, or 

 navel of the world, from the mountains of God, of the de- 

 scent, of the deluge and the ship ; a locality usually made 

 the centre of the world, according to the position of each 

 nation asserting that doctrine, and accordingly by each 

 surrounded with sacred rivers and hallowed localities, 

 without therefore being in the least scrupulous about geo- 

 graphical truth or much coincidence of opinion. Scriptu- 

 ral commentators on the geographical relations of Assyria 

 and Persia, with the high lands of Asia, have generally 

 sought the easternmost in Armenia, instead of Bactria, 

 though profane history and research agree in the fact, 

 that these two regions have been in constant relations of 

 war, trade, migration, and conquest. 



