THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE. lO^ 



ance of the Cayoumortz (the bull-man, the first man,) is preceded by 

 the creation of a great water *. 



For the rest, it would be useless to ask from the Parsees a serious 

 history, as from the other oriental nations. The Magi have left no 

 more than the Brahmins or Chaldeans, I ask no other proof than the 

 uncertainties concerning the epoch of Zoroaster. It is even pretended 

 that the little history that they might have had which related to 

 the Achemenides, the successors of Cyrus to the time of Alexander 

 has been expressly altered, and by the official command of one of the 

 kings Sossanides f. 



To discover the authentic dates of the commencement of empires, 

 and traces of the universal deluge (grand cataclisme) we must go be- 

 yond the vast deserts of Tartary. Towards the east and north is another 

 race, whose institutions and modes of life differ from ours as much as 

 their formation and temperament. Their language is monosyllable, — 

 their writing is arbitrary hierogljrphics, — they have only a political 

 morality, without religion, for the superstitions of Fo were brought to 

 them from the Indians. Their yellow complexion, projecting cheek- 

 bones, their narrow and oblique eyes, and scanty beard, render them 

 so different from us, that we are tempted to believe that their ancestors 

 and ours escaped at the great catastrophe by different sides ; but, how- 

 ever that may be, they date their deluge from nearly the same epoch 

 as our own. 



The most ancient book of the Chinese, is called the Chou-king J, 

 which is said to have been compiled by Confucius, from the fragments 

 of former works, about 2255 years ago. Two centuries later, they say, 

 was the persecution of letters, and the destruction of the books, under 

 the emperor Chi-Hoangti, who wanted to destroy the traces of the 

 feudal government, established under a dynasty previous to his own. 

 Forty years afterwards, under the dynasty which had overthrown that 

 to which Chi-Hoangti belonged, a part of the Chou-king was restored 

 from memory by an old sage, and another was found in a tomb ; but 

 nearly half of it was utterly lost. But this book, the most authentic 

 of China, begins the history of this country vvdth Yao, an emperor so 

 named, who it represents to us as occupied in making the waters pass 

 away, which being raised as high as heaven, were still laving the feet of 

 the loftiest mountains, covering the hills that were less elevated, and ren- 



* Zendavesta d'Anquetil, v. 2, p. 354. 



t Mazoudi ap. Sacy. Manuscripts of the king's library, vol. viii, p. 161. 



+ See the preface of the edition of Chou-king, by M: de Guignes. 



