257 
universal deluge in these Triads; one of which speaks of 
“ the bursting of the lake of waters, and the overwhelming 
all lands; so that all mankind were drowned, excepting 
Dwyvan and Dwyvach, who escaped in a naked vessel with- 
out sails ; and of them the island of Britain was repeopled .” 
In another of these Triads, on the three chief master-works 
of Britain, we have first on the list, u the ship which carried 
in it a male and female of all living, when the lake of waters 
burst forth.” . 
58. Davies, in his Mythology of the British Druids ,* gives 
the whole legend as follows : — ■“ The profligacy of mankind 
provoked the Great Supreme to send a pestilential wind upon 
the earth [Gen. vi. 5]* At this time the patriarch, distin- 
guished for his integrity [Gen. vi. 8, 9], was shut up together 
with his select company in the enclosure with the strong door 
[Gen. vii. 16]. Here the just ones were safe from injury. 
Presently a tempest of fire arose. It split the earth asunder to 
the great deep. The lake Llion burst its bounds [Gen. viii. 2] ; 
the waves of the sea lifted themselves on high ; the rain 
\ poured down from heaven and the water covered the whole 
earth [Gen. viii. 2]. This flood, which swept away from the 
earth the expiring remains of the patriarch's contemporaries, 
raised his vessel from the ground, bore it safe on the summit 
of the waves, and proved to him and his associates as the 
water of life and renovation.” 
59. I could, of course, on a theme so vast as this, have 
easily amplified the treatment of it. I have purposely omitted 
much : such as the existence of analogues to the Hebrew 
“ cities of refuge ” (Deut. iv. 41-43) among the Affghans, and 
some of the North-west American Indians ; the very common 
practice of “ circumcision ” in different parts of the globe 
(Gen. xvii. 10); and the custom of “ divination by rods” 
(Exod. vii. 20-22, Numb. xvii. 1-10, &c.), as found in usage 
by the Greeks and Scandinavians. I should like also to have 
adduced evidences of a great underlying principle of primi- 
tive monotheism which pervades almost every nation, ancient 
and modern, however sunk in idolatry ; but that being too im- 
portant to be hurried over, I must leave as a totally distinct 
branch of evidence upon the subject, and take it up, if spared, 
on some other occasion. 
60. For the present I must cease. All these ethnic testi- 
monies, when accumulated, form, in my judgment, a strong 
and powerful argument. They are like the fossil bones of 
some old ichthyosaurus, many of which may be broken and 
* P. 226. 
