THE DELUGE : ITS TRADITIONS IN ANCIENT NATIONS. OF F all traditions relating to the history of primitive humanity, by far the most universal is that of the Deluge. Our present purpose is to pass under review the principal versions of it extant among the leading races of men. The concordance of these with the Biblical narrative will bring out their primary unity, and we shall thus be able to recognize the fact of this tradition being one of those which date before the dispersion of peoples, go back to the very dawn of the civilized world, and can only refer to a real and definite event. But we have previously to get rid of certain legendary recollections erroneously associated with the Biblical Deluge, their essential features forbidding sound criticism to assimilate them therewith. We allude to such as refer to local phenomena, and are of historic and comparatively recent date. Doubtless the tradition of the great primitive cataclysm may have been confused with these, and thus have led to an exaggeration of their importance; but the characteristic points of the narrative admitted into the Book of Genesis are wanting, and even under the legendary form it has assumed these events retain a decidedly special and restricted character. To group recollections of this nature with those that really relate to the Deluge would be to invalidate, rather than confirm, the consequences we are entitled to draw from the latter. Take, for instance, the great inundation placed by the historic books of China in the reign of Yao. This has no real relation, or even resemblance, to the Biblical Deluge; it is a purely local event, the date of which, spite of the uncertainty of Chinese chronology previous to the eighth century B.C., we may yet determine as long subsequent to the fully historic periods of Egypt and Babylon.* Chinese authors * The date of the termination of the works undertaken by Yu, in order to repair the damage done by this flood, lies between 2278 and 2062 B.C. according to the chronological system adopted. describe Yu, minister and engineer of the day, as restoring the course of rivers, raising dykes, digging canals, and regulating the taxation of every province throughout China. A learned Sinologist, Edouard Biot, has proved, in a treatise on the changes of the lower course of the Hoang-ho, that it was to one of its frequent inundations the above catastrophe was due, and that the early Chinese settlements on its banks had had much to suffer from this cause. These works of Yu were but the beginning of embankments necessary to contain its waters, carried on further in following ages. A celebrated inscription graven on the rocky face of one of the mountain peaks of Ho-nan passes for contemporaneous with these works, and is consequently the most ancient specimen of Chinese epigraphy extant. This inscription appears to present an intrinsically authentic character, sufficient to dispel the doubts suggested by Mr. Legge, although there is this rather suspicious fact connected with it, that we are only acquainted with it through ancient copies, and that for many centuries past the minutest research has failed to re-discover the original. Nor is the character of a mere local event less conspicuous in the legend of Botchica, such as we have it reported by the Muyscas, the ancient inhabitants of the province of Cundinamarca, in South America, although here mythological fable is mingled much more largely with the fundamental historic element. Huythaca, the wife of a divine man, or rather a god, called Botchica, having practised abominable witchcraft in order to make the river Funzha leave its bed, the whole plain of Bogota is devastated by its waters; men and beasts perish in the inundation, and only a few escape by flight to the loftiest mountains. The tradition adds that Botchica broke asunder the rocks inclosing the valley of Canoas and Tequendama, in order to facilitate the escape of the waters, next reassembled the dispersed remnant of the Muyscas, taught them Sunworship, and went up to heaven, after having lived 500 years in Cundinamarca. I. Chaldean and Biblical Narratives. Of the traditions relating to the great cataclysm the most curious, no doubt, is that of the Chaldeans. Its influence has stamped itself in an unmistakable manner on the tradition of India; and, of all the accounts of the Deluge, it comes nearest to that in Genesis. To whoever compares the two it becomes evident that they must have been one and the same up to the time when Terah and his family left Ur of the Chaldees to go into Palestine. We have two versions of the Chaldean story-unequally developed indeed, but exhibiting a remarkable agreement. The one most anciently known, and also the shorter, is that which Berosus took from the sacred books of Babylon and introduced into the history that he wrote for the use of the Greeks.* After speaking of the last nine ante. diluvian kings, the Chaldean priest continues thus: "Obartès Elbaratutu being dead, his son Xisuthros (Khasisatra) reigned eighteen sares (64,800 years). It was under him that the Great Deluge took place, the history of which is told in the sacred documents as follows:-Cronos (Ea) appeared to him in his sleep, and announced that on the fifteenth of the month of Daisios (the Assyrian month Sivan-a little before the summer solstice), all men should perish by a flood. He therefore commanded him to take the beginning, the middle, and the end of whatever was consigned to writing, and to bury it in the City of the Sun, at Sippara; then to build a vessel, and to enter into it with his family and dearest friends; to place in this vessel provisions to eat and drink, and to cause animals, birds, and quadrupeds to enter it; lastly, to prepare everything for navigation. And when Xisuthros inquired in what direction he should steer his bark, he was answered, 'towards the gods,' and enjoined to pray that good might come of it for men. "Xisuthros obeyed, and constructed a vessel five stadia long and five broad; he collected all that had been prescribed to him, and embarked his wife, his children, and his intimate friends. "The Deluge having come, and soon going down, Xisuthros loosed some of the birds. These finding no food nor place to alight on returned to the ship. A few days later Xisuthros again let them free, but they returned again to the vessel, their feet full of mud. Finally, loosed the third time the birds came no more back. Then Xisuthros understood that the earth was bare. He made an opening in the roof of the ship, and saw that it had grounded on the top of a mountain. He then descended with his wife, his daughter, and his pilot, worshipped the earth, raised an altar, and there sacrificed to the gods; at the same moment he vanished with those who accompanied him. "Meanwhile those who had remained in the vessel not seeing Xisuthros return, descended too and began to seek him, calling him by his name. They saw Xisuthros no more; but a voice from heaven was heard commanding them piety towards the gods; that he, indeed, was receiving the reward of his piety in being carried away to dwell thenceforth in the midst of the gods, and that his wife, his daughter, and the pilot of the ship shared the same honour. The voice further said that they were to return to Babylon, and conformably to the decrees of fate, disinter the writings buried at Sippara in order to transmit them to men. It added that the country in which they found themselves was Armenia. These, then, having heard the voice, sacrificed to the gods and returned on foot to Babylon. Of the vessel of Xisuthros, which had finally landed in Armenia, a portion is still to be found in the Gordyan Mountains in Armenia, and pilgrims bring thence asphalte that they have scraped from its fragments. It is used to keep off the influence of witchcraft. As to the companions of Xisuthros, they came to Babylon, disinterred the writings left at Sippara, founded numerous cities, built temples, and restored Babylon." By the side of this version, which, interesting though it be, is, after all, second hand, we are now able to place an original Chaldeo-Babylonian edition, which the lamented George Smith was the first to decipher on the cuneiform tablets exhumed at Nineveh and now in the British Museum. Here the narrative of the Deluge appears as an episode in the eleventh tablet, or eleventh chaunt of the great epic of the town of Uruk. The hero of this poem, a kind of Hercules, whose name has not as This work of Berosus was already out of existence in the fourth century of our era, when Eusebius of Cesarea, to whom we owe such fragments as we possess, wrote. Only two abridgments remained, due to later polygraphers, Abydenus and Alexander Polybistor. Eusebius gives the version of each editor, the one I quote is that of Alexander. + Abydenus says, "all that composed the scriptures." и н 2 yet been made out with certainty,* being attacked by disease (a kind of leprosy), goes, with a view to its cure, to consult the patriarch saved from the Deluge, Khasisatra, in the distant land to which the gods have transported him, there to enjoy eternal felicity. He asks Khasisatra to reveal the secret of the events which led to his obtaining the privilege of immortality, and thus the patriarch is induced to relate the cataclysm. By a comparison of the three copies of the poem that the library of the palace of Nineveh contained, it has been possible to restore the narrative with hardly any breaks.† These three copies were, by order of the King of Assyria, Asshurbanabal, made in the eighth century B.C., from a very ancient specimen in the sacerdotal library of the town of Uruk, founded by the monarchs of the first Chaldean empire. It is difficult precisely to fix the date of the original, copied by Assyrian scribes, but it certainly goes back to the ancient empire, seventeen centuries, at least, before our era, and even probably beyond; it was therefore much anterior to Moses, and nearly contemporaneous with Abraham. The variations presented by the three existing copies prove that the original was in the primitive mode of writing called the hieratic, a character which must have already become difficult to decipher in the eighth century B.C., as the copyists have differed as to the interpretation to be given to certain signs, and in other cases have simply reproduced exactly the forms of such as they did not understand. Finally, it results from a comparison of these variations, that the original, transcribed by order of Asshurbanabal, must itself have been a copy of some still more ancient manuscript, in which the original text had already received interlinear comments. Some of the copyists have introduced these into their text, others have omitted them. With these preliminary observations I proceed to give integrally the narrative ascribed in the poem to Khasisatra :: "I will reveal to thee, O Izdhubar, the history of my preservation-and tell to thee the decision of the gods. "The town of Shurippak, a town which thou knowest, is situated on the Euphrates-it was ancient and in it [men did not honour] the gods. [I alone, I was] their servant, to the great gods-[The gods took counsel on the appeal of] Anu-[a deluge was proposed by] Bel-[and approved by Nabon, Nergal and] Adar. "And the god [Êa] the immutable lord,-repeated this command in a dream. I listened to the decree of fate that he announced, and he said to me :'Man of Shiruppak, son of Ubaratutu-thou, build a vessel and finish it [quickly]-[By a deluge] I will destroy substance and life.-Cause thou to go up into the vessel the substance of all that has life.-The vessel thou shall *He is provisionally called Izdhubar or Ghirdhubar, transcribing for want of a more certain method, according to their phonetic value, the characters composing the ideographic spelling of his name. The text is published in "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," vol. iv. pp. 50 and 51. The two principal translations hitherto given are those of George Smith and M. Oppert. The one we now offer contains a large share of personal work. We avail ourselves of the labours of our illustrious precursors, but believe that we have also added some important steps towards a precise understanding of the text. like to caverns build-600 cubits shall be the measure of its length-and 60 cubits the amount of its breadth and of its height.-[Launch it] thus on the ocean and cover it with a roof.'-I understood, and I said to Ea, my lord:-'[The vessel] that thou commandest me to build thus-[when] I shall do it,-young and old [shall laugh at me.]-[Êa opened his mouth and] spoke. He said to me, his servant:- [If they laugh at thee] thou shalt say to them: [shall be punished? he who has insulted me, [for the protection of the gods] is over me.. . . I will exercise my judgment on that which is on high and that which is below. Close the vessel At a given moment that I shall cause thee to know,-enter into it and draw the door of the ship towards thee.-Within it, thy grains, thy furniture, thy provisions,-thy riches, thy men-servants, and thy maid-servants, and thy young people-the cattle of the field and the wild beasts of the plain that I will assemble-and that I will send thee, shall be kept behind thy door.'Khasisatra opened his mouth and spoke; he said to Êa, his lord:-'No one has made [such a] ship.-On the prow I will fix. --I shall see and the vessel ..the vessel thou commandest me to build [thus]—which in ... "On the fifth day [the two sides of the bark] were raised. In its covering fourteen in all were its rafters-fourteen in all did it count above.-I placed its roof and I covered it.-I embarked in it on the sixth day; I divided its floors on the seventh;-I divided the interior compartments on the eighth. I stopped up the chinks through which the water entered in;-I visited the chinks and added what was wanting.-I poured on the exterior three times 3,600 measures of asphalte,—and three times 3,600 measures of asphalte within.-Three times 3,600 men, porters, brought on their heads the chests of provisions.-I kept 3,600 chests for the nourishment of my family,-and the mariners divided among themselves twice 3,600 chests.-For [provisioning] I had oxen slain ;-I instituted [rations] for each day.-In [anticipation of the need of] drinks, of barrels and of wine-[I collected in quantity] like to the waters of a river, [of provisions] in quantity like to the dust of the earth.-[To arrange them in] the chests I set my hand to.- . . . of the sun the vessel was completed.strong and I had carried above and below the furniture of the ship.-[This lading filled the two-thirds.] ... · "All that I possessed I gathered together; all I possessed of silver I gathered together; all that I possessed of gold I gathered-all that I possessed of the substance of life of every kind I gathered together.-I made all ascend into the vessel; my servants male and female,-the cattle of the fields, the wild beasts of the plains, and the sons of the people, I made them all ascend." "Shamash (the sun) made the moment determined and- -he announced it in these terms: In the evening I will cause it to rain abundantly from heaven; enter into the vessel and close the door.'-The fixed moment had arrived, which he announced in these terms: 'In the evening I will cause it to rain abundantly from heaven.'- -When the evening of that day arrived, I was afraid, I entered into the vessel and shut my door. In shutting the vessel, to Buzur-shadi-rabi, the pilot—I confided this dwelling, with all that it contained. "Mu-sheri-ina-namarit-rose from the foundations of heaven in a black cloud;-Rammant thundered in the midst of the cloud-and Nabon and Sharru marched before;-they marched, devastating the mountain and the plain;Nergals the powerful, dragged chastisements after him;-Adar|| advanced, overthrowing before him;-the Archangels of the abyss brought destructionin their terrors they agitated the earth.-The inundation of Ramman swelled * Here several verses are wanting. 66 The water of the twilight at break of day," one of the personifications of rain. The Chaldeo-Assyrian Hercules. |