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deluge would be to wellnigh fill a volume. Some of these, no 
doubt, refer only to local inundations. Others bear evidence, 
however, by their striking analogies with the Hebrew tradition, 
that they were derived in some way or other from that source. 
It is not that any single tradition carries with it all the 
singular features found in the history of Noah's ark, but that 
one feature of the history is found in one tradition, and one in 
another ; so that, like the fossil bones of some extinct mastodon 
discovered in different parts of the same mountain, we can 
put them all together and reconstruct the original skeleton. 
Among the Old World traditions, for example, those of Greece, 
Scandinavia, India, and China preserve the distinct recollec- 
tion of a general deluge on account of the world's wickedness, 
and of a new stock springing from the number saved. In the 
Greek story of Deucalion, and the Hindu Matsya Avatar 
of Yishnu, as well as in the bardic verses of the British 
Druids, the fact of remarkable piety in the saved family is 
preserved. Among the Hindus and Fiji islanders, the iden- 
tical number of eight saved persons is chronicled. Lucian * * * § 
relates of Deucalion's deluge that the vessel which saved him 
took in by couples all kinds of living creatures. Plutarch,f 
in relating the story, adds that Deucalion sent a dove out of the 
vessel. Abydenus,J when relating the Chaldean tradition 
of Xisithrus, says, “ On the third day after the waters abated, 
he sent out birds , to try if the water was gone off, but they, 
having nowhere to rest, returned to Xisithrus. In the same 
manner did others. And again the third time, when their 
wings were daubed with mud.”§ The story of Satyaurata, 
in Matsya Avatar, says that he entered a large vessel, ac- 
companied by seven saints, and encircled by pairs of brute 
animals, with seeds and medicinal herbs. 
Now the argument I urge is that America supplies us with 
exactly the same sort of traditions respecting a universal 
deluge. In Peru, the tradition is that the saved persons 
found shelter, not in a ship, but on the top of a mountain ; 
a tact which, if it stood alone, would simply indicate the 
recollection of some local flood. This is rendered very im- 
probable, however, by the circumstance of other details being 
mingled with the story, which are plainly corrupted from the 
Hebrew tradition. For it is said, “ As soon as the rain ceased, 
they sent out two dogs, which returned to them smeared with 
mud and slime. Hence they concluded that the flood had not 
* Lucian : De Dea Syria. 
t Plutarch: De Solertid Animalicum. 
I Preserved in Eusebius, De Prcep. Evang. Lib. IX, c. 12. 
§ From Sir R. W. Jones’s Asiatic Researches. 
