Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-06-29
STORY OF THE FLOOD.

STORY OF THE FLOOD.
There Are Many and Varied Versions
of the Deluge.
One Of the most powerful and vivid
descriptive portions of the book Of
Genesis is that devoted to the wonder
full. story of the deluge. Together
with the accounts of Adams fall the
Staying of Abel and the turning Of
Lots wife into a pillar of. salt, every
one remembers from childhood how
Noah was warned of the doom impend-
ing over the children of men and how
he constructed huge ark in which he
did live, himself and his family and
two of every beast Of the field and
fowl of the air, for the space Of 100
days, or until the waters subsided and
the dry land appeared. But the Bib
lical recital Of this terrible visitation
Of divine wrath Is by no means the
only one. In fact, the most skeptically
inclined must believe that something
of the sort actually occurred long ago,
for 1t has been perpetuated not only in
the Talmud and Koran, but in the leg
ends of almost every nation and race
that ever lived on the face Of the
earth including the Chinese, the an
cient Aztecs of Mexico, the Indian
tribes of North and South America
and even the savages of Africa.
The story of course, varies material
ly in the multitudinous traditions but
tn gist of it remains substantially the
same-namely, that the earth was once
visited by a great flood In which near
ly every living thing was overwhelm-
ed and lost. Thus in the Koran we
read that Noah constructed the ark
with divine assistance and was rallied
at for his pains by the wicked. When
the time prescribed for the punish
seen to now from the burning oven of
Noahs wife, and Immediately all the
veins and arteries of the earth broke
and spurted out water.
words: Take and bring into the ark
two couples of every kind of animal,
male and female, with all your family,
except him who has been condemned
by your mouth, and receive the faith
full and even the unbelieving, but few
only will enter" The Koran also says
that the ark was built in two years
and that it contained three stories, the
upper one for the birds, the middle one
for the men and the provisions and the
hold for the beasts. Canaan, the son
of Ham, refused to be saved. There
fore Noah cursed him, and his posteri-
ty became black and were enslaved.
The Persians assert that Ham incurred
his fathers malediction as we'll When
six months had passed the ark rested
on the top of Mount Djondi (Ararato
after having made the circuit of the
world. Tabari says that two sorts Of
animals left the ark which had not en-
tered 1.-THE pig and the cat. Con-
cerning the latter we have this inter-
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 sneez-
ed, 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 We're to be saved in the ark,
but of every clean beast seven We're
to enter in. The rhinoceros, however,
had to be left out, for the simple but
sufficient reason that it's neck alone
was three miles long. Nevertheless
all the rabbinic writer's agree that the
rhinoceros survived the flood, hence 1t
is reasonable to suppose that the huge
beast was taken in tow by a rope at
tached to its horn. Some authorities
likewise declare that Noah extended
his hospitality to another outsider in
the shape of Og, the giant, who climb
ed on the roof Of the ark and received
his daily food through a 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 Armenian king, who lived
about 1850 B. C. He fell I'm a bloody
battle with the Babylonians, and the
scene of his death was thenceforth
known as Arai-Arat, or the Fall of
Arai. Josephus refers to the mountain
as Nazuana and declares that the re-
mains of the ark were there to be seen
carefully preserved.
Almost all the Asiatic traditions
closely resemble the Biblical account.
Berosus i'm his Chaldee history (B. c..
260) 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. Be-
rosus relates that "Kronos appeared to
XisuthruS i'm a dream and warned him
that all men would be destroyed by a
deluge on the 18th of the month Dae-
sios and commanded him to write
down all the learning and science Of
men and to hide it in the sun city
Siparis and then to build a ship and
enter it along with his family and rela-
tives and nearest friends and 10 take
into it with him food and drink and
beasts and winged fowl. When he was
asked whittier 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 sue
cession. The first and second came
back, the latter with mud on its feet,
but the third returned not. Soon after
this the ship was stranded on a noun
tain and XisuthruS diSembarked with
his family, offered thanks to the gods
and vanished. Subsequently the re-
manning survivors heard his voice in
the heavens. bidding them fear God
and to take his writings out of Siparis
and from them instruct men.