THE HUMAN SPECIES. 399 



for those of America, of the South Seas, of Tahtary, and 

 of the north and west of the old continent, are all cognizant 

 of the Dragon formula, the Dragon fish, the serpent devour- 

 ing the sun, the moon, and the woman, type of reproductive 

 animal nature, by which the mysterious doctrine is con- 

 veyed. 



We find the legends of an Eden, a city of the gods, an 

 oasis of bliss, with its four rivers, equally mystified and dis- 

 torted, 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 localities, more or less complete, assimilated to 

 the narrative 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. 



Enough has been said in former pages respecting the move- 

 ments of the most eastern branch of these colonists; their wars, 



* Pagan tradition scarcely separates the creation from the diluvian 

 legends ; paradise from their cities of the gods and primeval ahode of 

 man ; their umbilicus, or navel of the world, from the mountains of God, 

 of the descent, 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 hal- 

 lowed localities, without therefore being in the least scrupulous about 

 Geographical truth or much coincidence of opinion. Scriptural commen- 

 tators on the geographical relations of Assyria and Persia with the tiigh 

 lands of Asia, have generally sought the easternmost in Armenia instead 

 of Bacti ia, though profane history and research agree in the fact, that 

 these two regions have been in constant relations of war, trade, migration, 

 and conquest. 



