178 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



version of its inhabitants to Christianity ; and the 

 city, which, according to Josephus, was called the 

 Place of the Descent, still exists at the foot of 

 Mount Ararat, and bears the name of Nachid- 

 chevan, which, in fact, has the same significa- 

 tion. * 



Along with the Armenians, we include the 

 Arabians, Persians, Turks, Mongolians, and 

 Abyssinians, of the present day. Their ancient 

 books, if they ever had any, no longer exist. 

 They have no ancient history, but that which 

 they have recently made up, and which they have 

 modelled after the Bible ; hence, what they say 

 of the deluge is borrowed from Genesis, and adds 

 nothing to the authority of that book. 



It were curious to inquire what had been the 

 opinion of the ancient Persians upon this subject, 

 before it was modified by the Christian and Ma- 

 homedan creeds. We find it deposited in their 

 Boundehesh, or Cosmogony, a work of the time 

 of Sassanides, (but evidently extracted or transla- 

 ted from more ancient works), and which was dis- 

 covered by Anquetil du Perron, among the 

 Parsis of India. According to it, the total du- 

 ration of the world could only be 12,000 years; 

 hence it cannot still be very old. The appear- 



* See the Preface of the Brothers Whiston, regarding 

 Moses of Chorene, p. 4. 



