235 
under modified forms, through the islands of the Pacific to 
the New World, I will first take you to 
(1.) The Nations of America. 
8 . When the Spaniards discovered Mexico, we are told that 
they amused themselves by endeavouring to trace all sorts of 
fanciful proofs of a traditional connection between the in- 
habitants of that country and those of the Old World, and 
especially of their connection with the Scripture records. 
Many of these were ridiculous. Some, however, are too 
striking and important to be overlooked. 
9. They found (e.g.) in the midst of the Mexican Pantheon, 
a goddess whom the Aztecs venerated with the greatest devo- 
tion, and whose personal identity with the Mosaic Eve seems 
beyond dispute. This goddess was described as “ the first 
brought forth," who u bequeathed the sufferings of childbirth 
to women," and “ by whom sin came into the world." More- 
over, she was usually represented with a serpent near her ; and 
her very name (Cioactl) signified “ serpent woman." * Hum- 
boldt, too, in his Researches, describes an Aztec hieroglyphic 
painting of this goddess still preserved in the Vatican, which 
represents her in actual conversation with a serpent; that 
serpent, moreover, being drawn erect , as if in its state before 
the curse.f 
10. This recollection of the Fall of man seems to have been 
universally stamped upon the human mind. It meets us 
everywhere. So does the recollection of Noah's Deluge. I 
am quite aware of the possibility of the occurrence of great 
° C jj Charles Lyell gives accounts of such,J 
and snows how frequent they are in countries subject to the 
incursions of great earthquake waves. Recollections of these 
locax floods, however, by no means invalidate that older tradi- 
tion of a more general deluge of which I am going to speak,™ 
a tradition which is based upon minute details so exactly cor- 
responding with those presented to us in the first part of the 
-Pentateuch, that it is next to impossible not to identify it with 
them. For example, on the discovery of the island of Cuba, 
when the natives were questioned as to their origin, they 
replied, among other things, that they had heard from their 
ancestors how ^ an old man having foreseen a deluge with 
winch Hod designed to chastise the sins of men, built a large 
* Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico, Appendix I, 
T Humboldt’s Researches, vol. i. p. 195 . 
X Principles of Geology, book ii. chap. 29. 
u 2 
