THE BIBLE NARRATIVE AND HEATHEN TRADITIONS. 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



THE BIBLE NARRATIVE AND HEATHEN TRADITIONS. 



Traces of the Facts mentioned in Genesis found in the Traditions of all Nations. 

 BY REV. STEPHEN D. PEET, EDITOR AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN. 



One of the most interesting subjects of modern study is the traditionary lore 

 of the various races of earth. 



There is a wonderful charm in these written and unwritten tales. They are 

 not only poetical and beautiful but often very suggestive. In fact there is a 

 depth of philosophy in them which has made them the subject of study to the 

 most intelligent and thoughtful. 



In the three-fold division of mythology, tradition and Folk-Lore, no depart- 

 ment of literature is more important. It is, in fact, a department of science as 

 well as of literature, and in its bearings on ethnology and the more general sub- 

 ject of anthropology, it is worthy of profound attention. 



It is, however, almost a new and unknown department. Comparative 

 mythology has, it is true, in times past, assumed considerable importance. Not 

 only was this the case in the early days of the Christian era, when the mysteries 

 of the cabiri were the subject of study among the learned, but even after the 

 reformation, when Joseph Scaliger and other writers revived the occult subject. 



Later, too, than this, the comparison of the classic mythology with the 

 sacred narrative became a subject of study, and the Abbe Bannier, Jacob Bryant, 

 the Abbe Pluche and others wrote at length upon the topic. Still later, Sir 

 William Jones, in his extensive travels and by his familiarity with so many 

 languages, became acquainted with the mythology and the traditionary lore of 

 Arabia and the East Indies ; and still later, the studies of Champollion and Sir 

 J. G. Wilkinson, brought to light the ancient but long buried literature and 

 mythology of Egypt and the regions on the Nile ; and the translation of the 

 Edda, and the publication of that charming book, Mallett's Northern Antiquities, 

 also disclosed many delightful pictures, and wonderful myths among the Ice- 

 landic Sagas. 



The Scandinavian mythology was found to be as poetical and as interesting 

 as the classic, and, in fact, it was discovered that there was a wonderful simi- 

 liarity between the mythologies of the distant East and the distant West, and that 

 the same stories which had charmed the ears of the Orientalists in their warm 

 sunny homes, were only repeated in the frost-regions of the distant North. If 

 the language was different, the drapery of thought having been borrowed from 

 the different surroundings, yet there seemed to be the same basis of fact. 



