HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



white gold, which is Enoch's; (5) of silver, which is Aaron's; (6) of 

 ruby and garnet, which is Moses' ; (7) which is Abraham's. The seven 

 earths are occupied (1) by men, genii, and animals; (2) by the suffocat- 

 ing wind; (3) by the stones of hell; (4) by the sulphur of hell; (5) by 

 the serpents of hell; (6) by the scorpions of hell, and (7) by the devil 

 and his angels. The distance between, and the diameter or thickness 

 of each heaven and each earth respectively, is five hundred years' 

 journey. 1 



IV. THE CREATION OF MAN 



Nearly all popular traditions consider mankind as a product of 

 the gods. 



In the first Biblical account the creation of man is summarily 

 stated as having been "made in the image of God" (Genesis, I, 27). 

 In the second account (Genesis, II, 7), the creation of man is more 

 particularly described. After the soil had been prepared by moisture, 

 "God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nos- 

 trils the breath of life, and man became a living being [or living soul]." 



A similar view is found in the Babylonian account of Berosus 2 

 — the clay was mixed with the blood flowing from the severed head of 

 the dragon Tiamat. 



On some of the Egyptian monuments, Khnum, the tutelary deity 

 of Elephantine, is represented molding clay wherewith to form man 

 upon the potter's wheel. 



In the Mohammedan tradition God had some difficulty in the 

 creation of man: the angels objected, and the earth refused to supply 

 the necessary clay. Finally the Angel of Death succeeded in bringing 

 earth of various colors, hence the varying colors among men. 



An almost exact parallel to the description of the creation of man 

 in Genesis, 11, 7, is, according to Muller, found in the myths of the 

 Onondaga Iroquois: "The Great Spirit made two images of clay and 

 enlivened them by the breath of his mouth. The first received the name 

 of first man, the second, of helpmeet" (Gefdhrtin; cf. Genesis, II, 20). 3 



The molding of man from clay is held also by Muskhogean Indians, 

 while according to the ancient Quiche man had to be made over three 

 times. First man was created of clay which dissolved in the water. 

 Then he was made of the wood of one tree, and woman from the sap 

 of another; but they lacked intelligence and lived like brutes; showers 



1 Thomas Patrick Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, pp. 102, 170; cf. Jewish Encyclopedia, IV, 340. 



2 Berosus was a Babylonian priest who lived under Alexander the Great. He wrote, in Greek, 

 three books of Babylonian history, entitled Chaldaika or Babyloniaka, of which only some extracts, 

 preserved principally in the writings of Josephus, Clement the Alexandrian, Eusebius, and Syncel- 

 lus Gorgios, have come to us. 



3 Gesch. d. Amer. Urr., p. no. 



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