The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-08

and the cat. Concerning the latter we
have this interesting piece of information:
When the rats began TO make trouble. the
voyagers complained to Noah. Where
upon the patriarch passed his hand down
the back of the lion, who sneezed. and the
cat leaped out of its nose. And the cat
ate the rats"
According to the Talmud Noah and his
family and one pair of each kind of beast
were to be saved in the ark, but Of every
clean beast seven were to enter in. The
rhinoceros, however, had TO be left out,
Tor the simple but sufficient reason that
its neck alone was miles long. Neverthe-
less all the Rabbinic writer's agree that the
rhinoceros survived the flood; hence it is
reasonable TO suppose that the huge
beast was taken in tow by a rope at
tached to its horn. Some authorities like
wise declare that Noah extended his hos
pitality to another outsider in the shape
of Og, the giant, who climbed on the roof
of the ark and received his daily food
through hole bored in the side of the
vessel.
Ararat has been known under this name
for 5000 years. and an Armenian writer
declares that an entire country was so
called after Arai the Fair, an ancient Ar
menian king, who lived about 100 3. c.
He fell in a bloody battle with the Baby
lonians, and the scene of his death was
thenceforth known, as Arai-Arat. or the
Fall of Arai. Josephus refers to the noun
tain as Naxuana, and declares that the
remains of the ark were there to be seen
| carefully preserved.
Almost all the Asiatic traditions closely
resemble the biblical account Berosus in
his Chaldee history (B. c. 26O speaks of
ten kings, who appear to correspond TO
the ten patriarchs in Genesis before the
flood. The last of these kings was called
Xisuthrus. Berosus relates that "Kro-
nos appeared to Xisuthrus in
I dream al mo
would be destroyed by a deluge on the
Is of the month Daesios, and commanded
him to write down all the learning and
/ science of men and to hide ii in the sun
| city Siparis, and then to build a ship and
| enter ii along with his family and relatives
and nearest friends. and to take into n
with him food and drink. and beasts and
| winged fowl. When he was asked with
er he was about to sail, he was hidden
| to reply: To the gods, to pray them
| that men may prosper Xisuthrus did
| as he was commanded and when the
flood showed signs of abating he sent
out three birds in succession; the
| first and second came back, the latter
with mud on it's feet, but the third re-
turned not. Soon after this the ship was
stranded on a mountain, and Xisuthrus
/ disembarked with his family, offered
thanks to the gods, and vanished. Sub
scquently the remaining survivors heard
his voice in the heavens, bidding them
fear God and to take his writings out of
Siparis, and from them instruct men.
The ancient Persian account is very
brief "Taschter (the spirit ruling the
waters) found water for thirty days and
thirty nights upon the earth. Every water
drop was big as a bowl. The earth
| was covered with water the hight of
man. All idolaters on earth died through
the rain; it penetrated all openings. At
| terward a wind from heaven divided the
/ id In 0In dc 10
| souls bear bodies; then Orzmud collected
all the water together an placed it as
boundary to the earth, and thus was the
| great ocean formed"
The Brahminical legend is both inter
esting and picturesque. The general pra-
| laya or destruction is the subject of the
| first Purana or sacred poem, which is
4 found in the eighth book of the Bhagav-
alta. From this we learn that the demon Ha-
yagriva having purloined the Vedas from
| Brahma while he was reposing, the whole
/ race of man became corrupt, except the
| seven Rishis and the sun-born monarch
| Satyavrata. One day while the pious
prince was performing his additions in
| the river Critamala, Vishnu appeared to
him in the shape of small
fish and thus spoke: "In seven days
all creatures who have offended me shall
be destroyed by deluge; but thou shalt
be secured in capacious vessel miracu-
lously formed. Take, therefore, all kinds
of medicinal herbs and esculent grain for
food, and together with the seven holy
men, your respective wives, and pairs of
all animals, enter the ark without fear;
then shalt thou know God face to face,
and all thy questions shall be answered"
| Satyavrata did as he was commanded and
was saved, and when the deluge had
| ceased, Vishnu slew the demon and re-
covered the Vedas. (See 'Asiatic Re
Searches by Sir w. Jones.)
The Chinese have several traditions re-
| lating to the flood. One tells how Kung-
| Kung bad spirit, enraged at having
| been overcome in war; gave such a blow
| with his head against one of the pillars
| of the sky that the vault of heaven fell in
and tremendous flood overwhelmed the
| earth. But Niu-Noa made boat of wood
wherewith he saved himself.
! In the Hellenic tradition, according to
Lucian, the Biblical account is closely fol-
lowed. Deucalion. the Scythian, is men
| toned as the progentor of the second
race of men, the earlier generation hav-
| ing been drowned, because of their wick
| edness. Ovid gives a slightly different
version of the catastrophe, in which he as
serts that Deucalion and his wife sought
refuge in a small boat, and were finally
stranded on the summit of Mount Parnas-
sus.
When we come to study the lore of the
primitive tribes of Northern Europe, the
ScandlnaVlanS ana the CeltS, we ma Gu
rious and highly colored versions of the
flood legend, which are still not unlike
the myths of the more cultivated nations
of the Orient.
But it is in America, strangely enough,
that we discover the most abundant crop
of traditions. Referring to the ancient
tribes of Mexico Alexander Won Hum
boldt says: 1.-The following had paintings
resembling the deluge of Coxcox CNoah),
namely, the Aztecs, Miztecs, Zapotecs,
| Tlascaltes. and Mechocans.'' These crude
representations were undoubtedly in
spired by the legend that has lived
through forty centuries, the substance of
which is that long ago when the wicked
people of the earth were destroyed by a
great flood, Coxcox, or Tezpi the good,
with his wife, xochiquetzatl, his imme-
date family, and pairs of every beast,
was saved in a bark or raft, which event
ually landed the survivors on the peak of
Colhuacan. Tezpi sent forth vulture first
which fell to eating carcasses and never
returned. Afterwards he sent out a hum
ming bird, which soon came back beering
a branch in its beak. The fantastic tales
enshrined in the lore of the aborigines of