j.56 THEORY OP THE EARTH. 



It were quite in yain to attempt looking for any 

 indications of these great events among the people 

 of more southern regions, such as the Arabians or 

 Abyssinians, as their ancient books are no longer 

 existing; and the only histories they possess rela- 

 tive to remote antiquity are of recent compilation, 

 and have been modelled after our Bible: hence 

 all that their books contain respecting the de- 

 luge is borrowed from Genesis, and does not con- 

 tribute any support to its authority. The Gue- 

 bres, however, or Parsis, who are now the sole 

 depositories of the doctrines of Zoroaster and the 

 ancient Persians, speaks also of an universal de- 

 luge as having happened before the reign ofCayou- 

 niarats, their first king. 



In order to recover some truly historical traces 

 of the last grand cataclysma, or universal deluge, we 

 must go beyond the vast deserts of Tartary, where? 

 in the north-east of our ancient continent, we meet 

 with a race of men differing entirely from us, as 

 much in their manners and customs, as they do in 

 their form and constitution. Their oral language 

 is entirely monosyllabic, and they use arbitrary 

 hieroglyphics instead of writing. They only pos- 

 sess a system of political morals, without any es- 

 tablished religion ; as the superstitions of the sect 

 of Fo have been imported by them from India. 

 Their yellow skins, high cheek-bones, narrow and 

 oblique eyes, and thinly scattered beards, give 

 them an appearance so entirely different from us. 



