DELUGE. 



601 



Deluge. 



Bryant'* 

 rys.em. 



almost every quarter of the world, to bear upon the re- 

 ' ality of this event, is of the most conclusive and ir- 

 resistible kind ; and every investigation, whether ety- 

 mological or historical, which has been made concerning 

 heathen rites and traditions, has constantly added to its 

 force, no less than to its extent. 



And here, it were injustice to the memory of inge- 

 nuity and erudition, almost unexampled in modern 

 times, were we not to mention the labours of Bryant, 

 the learned annalist of Ancient Mythology, whose pa- 

 tience and profoundness of research have thrown such 

 new and convincing light on this subject. Nor must 

 we forget his ardent and successful disciple Mr Faber, 

 who, in his Dissertation on the Mysteries of the Cabiri, 

 has, in travelling over similar ground with his illustrious 

 master, at once corrected some of his statements, and 

 greatly strengthened his general conclusions. As the 

 basis of their system, however, rests on a most extensive 

 etymological examination of the names of the deities and 

 other mythological personages Avorshipped and cele- 

 brated by the Heathen, compared with the varied tra- 

 ditions respecting their histories, and the nature of the 

 rites and names of the places that were sacred to them, 

 we cannot do more, in the present article, than shortly 

 state the result of their investigations, referring for the 

 particular details, to the highly original treatises already 

 mentioned. According to them, the memory of the 

 deluge was incorporated with almost every part of the 

 Gentile mythology and worship : Noah, under a vast 

 multitude of characters, being one of their first deities, 

 to whom all the nations of the Heathen world looked 

 up as their founder ; and to some circumstance or 

 other in whose history, and that of his sons and the first 

 patriarchs, most, if not all, of their religious ceremonies 

 may be considered as not indistinctly referring. Traces 

 of these, neither vague nor obscure, they conceive to be 

 found in the history and character, not only of Deucalion, 

 but of Atlas, Cronus, or Saturn, Dionusos, Inachus, 

 Janus, Minos, Zeus, and others among the Greeks ; of 

 Isis, Osiris, Sesostris, Oannes, Typhon, &c. among the 

 Egyptians ; of Dagon, Agruerus, Sydyk, &c. among the 

 Phoenicians ; of Astarte, Derceto, &c. among the Assyri- 

 ans ; of Buddha, Menu, Vishnu, &c. among the Hindus ; 

 of Fohi, and a deity represented as " sitting upon the 

 lotos in the midst of waters," among the Chinese ; of 

 Budo and Iakusi among the Japanese, &c. &c. They 

 discover allusions to the ark, in many of the ancient 

 mysteries, and traditions with respect to the dove and 

 the rainbow, by which several of these allegorical per- 

 sonages were attended, which are not easily explicable, 

 unless they be supposed to relate to the history of the 

 deluge. By the celebrated Ogdoas of the Egyptians, 

 consisting of eight persons sailing together in the sacred 

 bar is or ark, they imagine the family of Noah, which 

 was precisely eight in number, to have been designated ; 

 and in the rites of Adonis or Thammuz, in particular, 

 they point out many circumstances which seem to pos- 

 sess a distinct reference to the events recorded in the 

 sixth and seventh chapters of Genesis. With regard 

 to this system, we shall only further observe, that, after 

 every reasonable deduction is made from it, which the 

 exuberant indulgence of fancy occasionally exhibited 

 by its authors appears to render necessary, it contains 

 so much that is relevant and conclusive, that we cannot 

 but express our conviction, that it has a solid foundation 

 in truth and fact ; it being scarcely possible to conceive, 

 that a mere hypothesis could be supported by evidence 

 so varied, so extensive, and in many particulars so de- 

 monstrative as that which its framers have produced. 



VOL. VII. PART II. 



Besides, however, the allusions to the deluge in the Delude, 

 mythology and religious ceremonies of the Heathen, to 

 which we have thus concisely adverted, there is a variety 

 of traditions concerning it still more direct and circum- 

 stantial, the coincidence of which, with the narrative of 

 Moses, it will require no common degree of sceptical 

 hardihood to deny. These we shall now shortly ad- 

 duce ; beginning with those which are more distant and 

 obscure, and then stating those which are more remark- 

 ably and circumstantially coincident with the Mosaic 

 record. 



We are informed by one of the circumnavigators of InOiahoit*, 

 the world, who visited the remote island of Otaheite, 

 that some of the inhabitants being asked concerning 

 their origin, answered, that their supreme God hav- 

 ing, along time ago, been angry, dragged the earth 

 through the sea, when their island was broken off and 

 preserved. 



In the island of Cuba, the people are said to believe, Cuba, 

 that " the world was once destroyed by water, by three 

 persons," evidently alluding to the three sons of Noah. 

 It is even related, that they have a tradition among 

 them, that an old man knowing that the deluge was ap- 

 proaching, built a large ship, and went into it with a 

 great number of animals j and that he sent out from the 

 ship a crow, which did not immediately come back, 

 staying to feed on the carcases of dead animals, but 

 afterwards returned with a green branch in its mouth. 



The author who gives the above account, likewise Terra 

 affirms, that it was reported by the inhabitants of Cas- Firma, 

 tella del Oro, in Terra Firma, that during a universal 

 deluge, one man, with his children, were the only per- 

 sons who escaped, by means of a canoe, and that from 

 them the world was afterwards peopled. 



According to the Peruvians, in consequence of a Peru, 

 general inundation, occasioned by violent and continu- 

 ed rains, a universal destruction of the human species 

 took place, a few persons only excepted, who escaped 

 into caves on the tops of the mountains, into which they 

 had previously conveyed a stock of provisions, and a 

 number of live animals, lest when the waters abated, 

 the whole race should have become extinct. Others of 

 them affirm, that only six persons were saved, by means 

 of a float or raft, and that from them all the inhabitants 

 of the country are descended. They farther believe, 

 that this event took place before there were any incas 

 or kings among them, and when the country was ex- 

 tremely populous. 



The Brazilians not only preserve the tradition of a de- 3razil, 

 luge, but believe that the whole race of mankind perish- 

 ed in it, except one man and his sister ; or, according 

 to others, two brothers with then wives, Avho were pre- 

 served by climbing the highest trees on their loftiest 

 mountains ; and who afterwards became the heads of 

 two different nations. The memory of this event they 

 are even said to celebrate in some of their religious an- 

 thems or songs. 



Acosta, in his history of the Indies, says,, that the Mexico, 

 Mexicans speak of a deluge in their country, by which 

 all men were drowned; and that it was afterwards 

 peopled by Viracocha, who came out of the lake Titi- 

 caca : and, according to Herrera, the Mechoachans, a 

 people comparatively in the neighbourhood of Mexico, . 

 had a tradition, that a single family was formerly pre- 

 served in an ark amid a deluge of waters ; and that 

 along with them, a sufficient number of animals were 

 saved to stock the new world. During the time that 

 they were shut up in the ark, several ravens were sent 

 out, one of which brought back the branch of a tree. 



4 Or 



