with them into Finland, Media, Chaldea, Persia, the south of India, Mongolia, China, and Japan, their common worship of ancestral and nature-spirits, together with a shadowy belief in a Supreme Power, arising out of that mental faculty of perceiving unity in variety without which no intellectual progress is possible. Next came the great migrations of the Semitic and Aryan races, all of which were completed long before the dawn of history. From the evidence of language, the primitive Semitic religion was polytheistic, and the national religions which grew out of it, except the Jewish, appear to have continued to be more or less so. Each of the Semitic nations adopted a particular god as its peculiar national deity, adding to him many subordinate and ministering gods. Among the Jews alone was the monotheistic influence strong enough to finally triumph, though after many relapses. The primitive Aryan religion was a worship of the many manifestations of Deity in the various influences of Nature, also with a dim perception of a Supreme Divine Being, a God above all gods."* The Western branch of the Aryans sent wave after wave of population into Europe, and founded the European systems of mythology, all of which have very striking resemblances to each other and to Eastern beliefs, the differences being in many cases due probably to influences of climate and temperament. The Eastern branch separated into the respective colonizers of Bactria and India, and the quarrels between these two divisions caused the gods (devas) of the Indians to become the demons of the Iranians, and vice-versa. This is the earliest known religious struggle. To the epoch we have been considering belongs the Age of Hymns to the Gods in India and Chaldea, ending in the latter country about 2300 B.C.

*He Who alone is God above all gods.' Rig-Veda, x., hymn 121.

CREATION LEGENDS.

To this Pre-literary period also belongs the first growth of that remarkable series of Legends of Creation and of the early abode of man which appear to have been common to the Aryan and Semitic races, and which are shown in the accompanying diagram. We may divide them into four principal groups: legends of Chaos, legends of Eden or the primæval abode of man, legends of the Origin of Evil, and legends of the Flood.

(1) The origin of all things from a dark Chaos is com-
mon to the Jewish, Babylonian, Greek, and
Hindu traditions. In three of them, viz., the
first of the two accounts of Creation in the book
of Genesis, in one of the recently discovered
Babylonian legends, and the Hindu account, it
was a watery chaos,-an ocean without light.
(2) The Garden of Eden, too, or primal abode of
man, is a legend common to many nations. The
Babylonian account was probably similar to the
Jewish, but it has not yet been recovered. In the
Aryan accounts, namely, the Hindu and the Per-
sian, the garden was situated on a high mountain,
and though this is not stated in Genesis, the fact
is expressly mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel in
his description of Eden (Ezekiel xxviii. 13, 14).
It is curious that the four rivers and the sacred
trees in the midst of the garden are found in the
Persian and Hindu accounts.*

(3) The Babylonian account of the Origin of Evil intro-
duces us to the earliest trace of a belief in a
mighty sea-dragon or sea-serpent, the personifica-
tion of evil, which was fought with and defeated

* See an article by Fr. Lenormant in the Contemporary Review for September, 1881.

by Merodach, the god of light. In the Persian account it is a "dev," or evil spirit, which tempts

Meshia and Meshiana, the first man and woman.

The Eden legend is probably a reminiscence of the early homes of the great races, to the east of the Sea of Aral, for it is noteworthy that the Semites placed the 'garden' in the east and the Hindus to the north.

(4) The fourth legend, the most widely spread and perhaps the most interesting of all, is that of the Deluge. The discovery of the Babylonian version in 1872 caused intense public interest and curiosity, especially as the resemblances to the Jewish story are very striking. But we miss in the Babylonian account the beautiful and poetical ending of the rainbow, which is peculiar to the book of Genesis.* At present we are unable to account satisfactorily for the origin of this legend. It has been doubted whether the Persian story of Yima is in reality a Deluge tradition. Yima, the King of the Golden Age, forms, by the direction of Ahuramazda, a square garden or fenced estate, whereby to preserve mankind and their flocks and herds from the floods and frosts of winter. He is commanded to bring into this district the seeds of all forms of life, both animal and vegetable. (Vendidad, ch. ii.) If this is indeed a story of the Flood, it presents a remarkable variation from the other accounts; but it corresponds to a certain degree with the Babylonian version, which is found in the eleventh book of the great national astronomical epic, this book corresponding to the

* See G. Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, 2nd edit., 1880; Records of the Past, vol. vii.