no more.

"After the flood had been long upon the earth, and had somewhat abated, Xisuthrus sent out certain birds, which, not finding any food, or place whereon to rest their feet, returned to the vessel. After some days, he sent forth birds a second time. These returned with their feet smeared with mud. He sent them forth a third time, and they returned From this Xisuthrus knew that the earth had appeared above the waters, and, making an opening in the sides of the vessel, he perceived that it was stranded upon a mountain. He then left the vessel, with his wife, and daughter, and the pilot, and, having worshiped the earth, he built an altar, and offered sacrifice to the gods. Then, with those who had come out of the vessel with him, he disappeared.

"Those that remained in the vessel, finding that Xisuthrus and his company did not return, went out to seek him, calling him loudly by name. They saw him no more, but they heard his voice in the air commanding them to pay proper regard to religion, for he, on account of his piety, had gone to dwell with the gods, and his wife, his daughter, and the pilot, had been made partakers of the same honor. He further directed them to repair to Babylon, and, as had been commanded, search for the books he had buried at Sippara, and give them to

mankind. They were then in the country of Armenia. Having heard these words, they, too, sacrificed to the gods, and proceeded to Babylon.

"Of this vessel, thus stranded in Armenia, it is said that a part still remains in the Corcyræan mountains of Armenia, and that the people, scraping off the bitumen with which it was coated, carry it away to keep it for charms and amulets. The comrades of Xisuthrus, having arrived at Babylon, dug up the writings buried at Sippara; they also built cities and temples, and Babylon was again inhabited." *

It

The resemblance between this account and that given in the Hebrew Scriptures is very striking. has been suggested † that Berosus was acquainted with the latter, and drew his statement from them. There is no evidence, however, of this fact. On the contrary, while his narrative in general so much resembles that of Moses, there is sufficient discrepancy in details to show that he could not have borrowed it from him. It is much more probable that he derived the incidents of his story from traditions, either oral or written, preserved at Babylon, which embodied the memory of an event common to the history of all nations.

The Chinese preserve a striking tradition of the

* Cory's Ancient Fragments.

† Smith's Dict. Gr. and Rom. Biog., art. Berosus.

place in the reign of He, his wife, three

alone escaped, and

flood, which they say took Fuh-hi, 4000 years B. C. sons, and three daughters, from these the whole circle of the universe was repeopled. Dr. Gutzlaff relates that he saw in one of the Buddhist temples, "in beautiful stucco, the scene where Kwan-Yin, the goddess of mercy, looks down from heaven upon the lonely Noah in his ark, amidst the raging waves of the deluge, with the dolphins swimming round, as his last means of safety, and the dove, with an olive branch in its beak, flying toward the vessel. Nothing could have exceeded the beauty of the execution.'

It has been frequently said (by Lepsius and others) that there was no trace of the tradition of a deluge among the ancient Egyptians, the only flood of which they knew anything being the harbinger of fertility and plenty. This statement, however, is fully refuted by Osburn. He says, as to there being "no trace of Noah or the deluge in the hieroglyphic legends, we have no hesitation whatever in stating our conviction that Lepsius is mistaken. Our proof is a very direct and plain appeal to the senses. It is to be found in the name of one of the most ancient gods * Smith's Bib. Dict., art. Noah.

of Egypt, who was entitled 'the father of the gods,' the giver of mythic life to all beneath him.' Birch has truly identified this god with water. He was in reality the mythic impersonation of the annual overflow of the Nile. His name is written

Champollion and Birch identified the name

nou or nh, which

of this god with the word signifies the primordial water,' 'the abyss.' How it is possible not to recognize in this idol the apotheosis of the patriarch Noah (Hebrew, N-h or Nuh), we must confess ourselves unable to understand, especially when we call to mind that so indissolubly was the name of Noah linked with the remembrance of the general deluge, that it was afterward called by the Hebrews' the waters of Noah.' (Isa. iv. 9.)”

Nowhere, however, is the tradition of the flood more remarkable for its conformity to the Mosaic narrative than in the Hindu Vedas, which relate the Avataras, or incarnations of Vishnu. It is generally agreed that the first three of these owe their origin to that tradition. The first is called the Matsya, or Fish-Avatara. The legend is found in the Mahabharata, one of the great epic poems of the Sanskrit. It is likewise repeated in several of the Puranas, with slight variations. The substance of

* Monum. Hist. of Egypt, vol. i. pp. 239, 240.

it is, that Brahma, in the Puranas, Vishnu, assuming the form of a fish, informs Manu, a holy sage, that the earth is to be overwhelmed by a flood of waters, and directs him to build a ship, in which himself and seven other holy sages, with the living seeds of all things, will be preserved. When well secured in the great ship, the deity would appear in the form of a fish. The holy sage was to fasten the vessel to the fish's horn, and it would then ride safe over the turbulent waters. All this took place as predicted, and the ship, with its precious freight, rested at last on the loftiest peak of the Himalaya Mountains.

But the points of resemblance between the Hindu legend and the Mosaic account will best be seen from an extract. It is taken from the poetic version of Milman, late professor of poetry in Oxford University. Though clothed in poetic language, it appears to be a correct version of the original, preserving at the same time, in good degree, its measure and form of verse.

Passing over the introduction, which contains some unimportant particulars respecting the manner in which the fish-form deity was introduced to Manu,*

* The name Manuja, Manu-born, as the appellative of the human race (in Sanskrit books) is from Manu; from thence the Gothic Manu, which we have preserved. Manu is the representative of man. - Milman's Version, p. II.