394 POLYNESIA> RESEARCHES. 
their religious system has descended from the 
Arkite idolatry, the basis of the mythology of the 
gentile nations. The mundane egg is conspicuous 
in the cosmogony of some of the most ancient 
nations. One of the traditions of the Hawaiians 
states, that a bird deposited an egg (containing 
the world in embryo) upon the surface of the 
primeval waters. If the symbol of the egg be 
supposed to refer to the creation, and the bird be 
considered a corrupted memorial of the event re¬ 
corded in the sacred writings, in which it is said, 
“ The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the 
waters,” the coincidence is striking. It is no less 
so, if it be referred to the ark, floating on the 
waters of the deluge. The sleep of Ruahatu 
accords with the slumber of Bramah, which was the 
occasion of the crime that brought on the Hindoo 
deluge. The warning to flee, and the means of 
safety, resemble a tradition recorded by Koempfer, 
as existing among the Chinese. The canoe of the 
Polynesian Noah has its counterpart in the tradi¬ 
tions of their antipodes, the Druids, whose memo¬ 
rial states the bursting of the waters of the lake 
Lleon, and the overwhelming of the face of all 
lands, and drowning all mankind excepting two 
individuals, w T ho escaped in a naked vessel, (a 
vessel without sails,) by whom the island of Britain 
was re-peopled. The safety which the progenitors 
of the Peruvian race are said to have found in 
caves, or the summits of the mountains, when the 
waters overflowed the land, bears a resemblance to 
the Hawaiian ; and that of the Mexican, in which 
Coxcox, or Tezpi, and his wife, were preserved in 
a bark, corresponds with the Tahitian tradition. 
Other points of resemblance between the Polyne¬ 
sian account, and the memorial of the deluge, pre- 
