2. A seeond cycle of traditions is that of Eastern isia. To this belong the Persian, Indian, and Chi- lese. The Persian is mixed up with its cosmogony, ind hence loses everything like a historical aspect * The world having been corrupted by Ahriman, it iras necessary to bring over it a universal flood of wa- ter,-that all impuri^ might be washed away. The rain came down in ^hops as large as the head of a bull; the earth was under water to the height of a man, and the creatures of Aliriman were destroyed." The Chinese story is, in many respects, singularly like the Biblical, according to the Jesuit M. Martinius, who says that the Chinese computed it to have taken place 4000 years before the Christian era. F4h-he, the reputed author of Chinese civilization, is said to have escaped from the waters of the Deluge. He re- appears as the first man at the production of a renova- ted world, attended by seven companions — ^his wife, his three sons, and three daughters, by whoee inter- niarriage the whc^e circle of the universe is finally completed (Ebrdwiok, Chritt and other Masterij iii, 16). Dr. Gutzlaff, in a paper '* On Buddhism in Chi- na," communicated to the Boyal Asiatic Society (Jottt' f)a/,XTi, 79), says 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 anmnd as his last means of safety, and the dove with an olive-branch in its beak flying towards the vessel. Nothfaig could have exceeded the beauty of the execu- tion."
The Indian tradition appears in various forms. Of these, the one which most remarkably agrees with the Biblical account is that contained in the Mah&bhirata. We are there told that Brahma, having taken the fotm
of a fish, appeared to the pious Manu (Satjra, L e. the righteous, as Noah is also called) on the banks of the river Wirini. Thence, at his request, Manm transferred him when he grew bigger to the Ganges, and finally, when he was too large even for the Ganges, to the ocean. Brahma now announces to Manu the approach of the Deluge, and bids him build a ship and put in it all kinds of seeds, together with the seven Rishis or holy beings. The Flood begins and covers the whole earth. Brahma himself appears in the form of a hom-^ ed fish, and, the vessel being made &st to him, he draws it for many years, and finally lands on the loftiest summit of Mount Himarat (L e. the Hhooalaya). Then, by the command of God, the ship is made fast, and in memory of the event the mountaiB called Nauband- hana (i. e. sh^^hbrndinff). By the &vor of Brahma, Manu, after the Flood, creates the new race of man- kind, which are hence termed Manudsha, L e. bom of Manu (Bopp, Die B&ndflulK), The Pur4nic or popular version is of much later date, and is, '* according to its own admission, colored and disguised by allegoricat imagery." Another, and perhaps the most anden- version of all, is that contained in the ^atapat'ha-Br&b- m&na. The peculiarity of this is that its locality is manifestly nirth of the Himalaya range, over which Manu is supposed to have crossed into India. Both versions will be found at length in Hardwick's Christ and other Matters, li, 14&-162.
8. A third cycle of traditions is to be found among the American nations. These, as might be expected, show occasionally some marks of resemblance to the Asiatic legends. The one in existence ^mong the Cherokees reminds us of the story in the Mah&bh&rata, except that a dog here renders the same service to his master as the fish there does to Manu. " This dog was very pertinacious in visiting the banks of a river for several days, where he stood gazing at the water and howling piteously. Being ^arply spoken to by his master and ordered home, he revealed the coming eviL He concluded his prediction by saying that the escape of his master and fomily from drowning de- pended upon their throwing him mto the water; that, to escape drowning himself, he must take a boat and put in it all he wished to save ; that it would then rain hard a long time, and a great overflowing of the land would take place. By obeying this prediction the man and his family were saved, and from them the earth was again peopled" (Schoolcraft, Notet on the Iroquois, p. S^ 859).
''Of the difl'erent nations that faihabit Mexico," says A. von Humboldt, "the following had paintings resembling the deluge of Coxcox, viz. the Aztecs, the Mixtecs, ^e Zapotecs, the Tlascaltecs, and the Mecho- acans. The Noah, Xisuthrus, or Manu of these na- tions is termed Coxcox, Teo-Cipactli, or Tezpi. He saved himself, with his wife Xochiquetzatl, in a bark, or, according to other traditions, on a raft. The paint- ing represents Coxcox in the midst of the^water wait- ing for a bark. The mountain, the summit of which rises above the waters, is the peak of Colhuacan, the Ararat of the Mexicans. At the foot of the mountain are the heads of Coxcox and his wife. The latter is known by two tresses in the form of horns, denoting the female sex. The men bom after the Deluge were dumb: the dove fiY)m the top of a tree distributed among them tongues, represented under the form of small commas." Of the Mechoacan tradition he writes, that ** Coxcox, whom they called Tezpi, em- barked in a spacious acedH with his wife, his children, several animals, and grain. When the Great Spirit ordered the waters to withdraw, Tezpi sent out from his bark a vulture, the zopilote, or mdtur aura. This bird did not return on account of the carcases with which the earth was strewed. Tezpi sent out other birds, one of which, the hnmmin{;-bird, alone returned, holding in its beak a branch clad wfth leaves. Tezpi, seeing that fresh verdure covered the soil, quitted his