DELUGE
736
DELUGE
bark near the mountain of Colbuacan" {Vues de» CoT' dUleres et Monumens de VAmiriqu6j p. 226, 227). A pecoliarity of many of these American Indian tradi- tions most be noted, and that is, that the Flood, ac- cording to them, nsually took place in the time of the First Man, who, together with his family, escape. But Mailer (JLtnericamtchm UrrtUgicmm) goes too fur when he draws from this the conelosion that these tra- ditions are consequently cosmogonic, and have no his- torical Talne. The fiict seems rather to be that all memory of the age between the Creation and the Flood had perished, and that hence these two great events were brought into close juxtaposition. This is the less unlikely when we see how very meagre even the Biblical history of that age is.
It may not be amiss here to mention the legend still preserved among the inhabitants of the Fyi Isl- ands, although not belonging to this group. They say that *' after the islands had been peopled by the first man and woman, a great rain took place by which they were finally submerged; but, before the highest places were covered by the waters, two large double canoes made their appearance. In one of these was Rokora, the god of carpenters ; in the other, Rokola,his head workman, who picked np some of the people, and kept them on board until tiie waters had subsided, after which they were again landed on the island. It is reported that in former times canoes were always kept in readiness against another inundation. The persons thus saved, eight in number, were landed at Mbenga, where the highest of their gods is said to have made his first appearance. By virtue of this tra- dition, the chiefij of Mbenga take rank before all oth- ers, and have always acted a conspicuous part among the Fijis. They style themselves NgaJi-diivcMJaingi — subject to Heaven alone" (Wilkes, Easplormg Eape- dkiorC).
In the wild Scandinavian Edda the earth is allegor- ized as the great giant Tmir, whose bones and flesh are represented by the rocks and soQ. This giant was killed by the gods, and his blood (the ocean) poured forth in such a flood that it drowned all the lesser gi- ants— his offspring — except one, who saved himself and his wife by escaping in time to his ship.
4. Greece has two versions of a flood, one associated with Ogyges (Jul. Afric. as quoted by Euseb. Ptc^. Ev, X, 10), and the other, in a fiur more elaborate form, with Deucalion. Both, however, are of late origin — they were unknown to Homer and Hesiod. Herodo- tus, though he mentions Deucalion as one of the first kings of the Hellenes, says not a word about the Flood (i, 56). Pindar is the first writer who mentions it (Oij/mp. ix, 87 sq.). In ApoUodorus (Biblio, i, 7) and Ovid (Metam, i, 260) the story appears in a much more definite shape. Finally, Ludan gives a narra- tive (De Ded Syr, c. 12, 13), not very different from that of Ovid, except that he makes provision for the safety of the animals, which Ovid does not. He at- tributes the Necessity for the Deluge to the exceeding wickedness of the existing race of men, and declares that the earth opened and sent forth waters to swallow them up, as well as that heavy rain fell upon them. Deucalion, as the one righteous man, escaped with his wives and children, and the animals he had put into the chest (Xopvojca), and landed, after nine days and nine nights, on the top of Parnassus, while the chief part of Hellas was under water, and nearly all men perished, except a few who reached the tops of the highest mountains. Plutarch (de JSoUeri. Anim, § 18) mentions the dove which Deucalion made use of to as- certain whether the flood was abated. Most of these accounts, it must be observed, localize the Flood, and confine it to Greece, or some part of Greece. Aristotle speaks of a local inundation near Dodona only (Met^ oroL i, 14). It must also be confessed that the later the narrative the more definite the form it assumes, and the more nearly it resembles the Mosaic account.
This old Greek legend of DencalioB aal VjrAti the best known of all the traditinpi next t» the a tive of the Bible. (See Jackson, " Koah't sail calion's Flood," Works, i, 103 ; « Tb« Dehp i Ogyges and Dencalion,*' Bibliotikeca Sacra, ^& i 75.) According to this versioo, numkmd, fv M impiety, were doomed to destmetioiL. The vttei ■ oordlngly broke from the earth, acoompasied \k » lent rains from heaven. In a abort tiine tbs m was whelmed in the floods, and every fanmtt )m perished save Deucalion and his wift, with \a» m and their wives. They escaped in a laxgt w, in which they had previously placed pairs of eir kind of animial. Whfle in the ark Deoca&e a forth a dove, which in a little time retomed. Oe^ ing let free a second time it came noi beck, cr,»fr other version has it, it alighted again on the sd la mud-stained claws, whence Deucalion infenei iK the subsidence of the waters had beigim. It scrk mentioned, in reference to this txaditkni, as i (^ singular coinddeye, that just asi, according fea («ri the earth was ripeopled by Deucalion aad Pte^ throwing the bones of their mother Q, e. $tmet} > hind their backs, so among the Tamanaki, a Cci tribe on the Orjnoko, the stoiy goes that a niia ai his wife, escaping from the flood to the top of tteki mountain Tapanacn, threw over their heads the krt of the Mauritia-palm, whence sprang a new nee d men and women. Tliis corioos ooiucideatr betna Hellenic and American traditicoiB seems expfe^k only on the hypothesis of some oommoa oe^re dia- dition.