308 GOSSIP THE AFFINITY OF RACES. 



which SO infatuated the nations among whom they were introduced. 

 These appear to have been observed more or less among all the 

 American tribes. Other worship or mysteries they had, analogous 

 to those of Cybele. Both Bacchus and Cybele I take to be of pre- 

 Noachian age and corruption. The Guanches of the Canary Isles 

 appear to have had much skill in architecture, of which remains 

 (which are noticed by Pliny) exist to attest to their material 

 progress. 



Tradition has been busy in all ages with this region and the 

 surrounding ocean, and its influence upon the human mind is as 

 powerful as ever, now that the investigations of ethnologists 

 :liave shown the possibility that it may be well founded. The 

 Fortunate Isles (the Canaries) were supposed to be a portion of 

 the lost continent long previous to the discovery by Columbus 

 west of the same parellels. They are not more than twenty days 

 sail of the Antilles. The Elysian Plains had become the Isles of 

 the Blessed, in the Western Ocean, in the time of Hesiod. Plato, 

 who obtained his information from the priests of Egypt, gives a 

 description of the island of Atlantis, supposed to have existed at 

 a very early period in the Atlantic Ocean. He relates as follows: 

 "In the Atlantic Ocean over against the Pillars of Hercules, lay 

 an island larger than Asia and Africa taken together, and in its 

 vicinity were other islands and a large continent beyond. The 

 Mediterranean compared with the Ocean in which these lands were 

 situated, resembled a mere harbour with a narrow entrance. Nine 

 thousand years ago, before the time of Plato, this island of Atlantis 

 was both thickly settled and very powerful. Its sway extended 

 over Africa as far as Egypt, and over Europe as far as the Tyr- 

 rhenian Sea. The tradition of an ancient Athenian State, anterior 

 to the deluge of Deucalion is also related, which was governed by 

 laws not unlike those of Egypt. The Athenians (said this tradi- 

 tion) made war at this remote period against the inhabitants of 

 Atlantis, and defeated them. After this a violent earthquake, 

 which lasted for the space of a day and a night, and was accom- 

 panied with inundations of the sea, caused the islands to sink, and 

 for a long period subsequently the sea in this quarter was impas- 

 sable by reason of the slime and shoals. A certain Marcellus 



