THE ADAMITES.
Much has from time to time been written as to the distinction between
the Adamites and the pre-Adamites, although little has been done to
identify the members of the two great divisions into which the human
race has been thus divided. Those who accept the Deluge of Noah as a
historical fact, stated however in terms too wide, may say generally
that all the descendants of this patriarch are, as such, Adamites,
while the pre-Adamites comprise the peoples of the primitive area
inhabited by the dark races, supposed by some writers to be referred
to in the Hebrew Scriptures under the term _ish_, “the sons of man,”
as distinguished from the sons of Adam. Little value, however, can
be attached to such a general statement as this. Supposing Noah to
have been a second common father of the race, we are still ignorant
as to what peoples are to be classed among his descendants. No doubt
the _Toldoth Beni Noah_ of Genesis throws considerable light on the
question. According to that genealogical table the whole earth was
divided after the Flood among the families of the three sons of
Noah—Shem, Ham, and Japheth. It is not necessary here to identify
the peoples described as the descendants of these patriarchs. It
will suffice to say that Professor Rawlinson, who differs only in
one or two particulars from other recent authorities, writes as to
the distribution of those peoples: “Whereas the Japhetic and Hamitic
races are geographically contiguous, the former spread over all the
northern regions known to the genealogist—Greece, Thrace, Scythia,
most of Asia Minor, Armenia, and Media; the latter over all the south
and the south-west, North Africa, Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, Southern and
Southeastern Arabia, and Babylonia—so the Semitic races are located in
what may be called one region, that region being the central one, lying
intermediate between the Japhetic region upon the north and the Hamitic
one upon the south.”
Supposing the Toldoth to give an exact statement of the descendants
of the three sons of Noah, it by no means follows that the peoples
there referred to are alone entitled to be classed as Adamites, and
I propose, therefore, to see whether the latter can be identified by
other evidence. Almost intuitively we turn, in the first place, to that
region known as Chaldea, which has furnished in our own days material
so important for the reconstruction of the annals of civilised man in
the earliest historical period. Professor Rawlinson, indeed, at the
Liverpool meeting of the British Association, held in 1870, sought to
establish that the Garden of Eden of the Hebrew writers was none other
than Babylonia; a hypothesis which certainly agrees with Sir Henry
Rawlinson’s statement that _Héa_, the third member of the primitive
Chaldean triad, may be connected with the Paradisaical traditions of
the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. This would point to Chaldea
as the original home of the Adamites, unless, indeed, the traditions
were derived from a still earlier centre, and it will be well to
ascertain whether there is anything in the history of Babylon which
directly connects its people with the Adamic stock.
If we were to accept with Chwolson the great antiquity of “The Book of
Nabathæan Agriculture,” there would be no difficulty in assigning such
a position to the Chaldeans. For this book not only expressly declares
that they were the descendants of Adam, but in it Adam appears as the
founder of agriculture in Babylon, acting the part of a civiliser, and
hence named “The Father of Mankind.” This agrees well with the Old
Testament account of Adam as the first cultivator of the ground. M.
Renan, however, would seem to have conclusively established the late
date of the so-called Nabathæan work, showing that it contains legends
as to Adam, Seth, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham, “analogous to those which
they have in the apocryphal writings of the Jews and Christians, and
subsequently in those of the Mussulmans,” Adam being known to all the
Moslem East as “The Father of Mankind.”
We must seek, therefore, for some more reliable record of early
Chaldean history; and this we have in the stone monuments on which its
annals were engraved. Sir Henry Rawlinson, on their authority, says
of the Chaldeans of Babylonia that they were “a branch of the great
Hamitic race of _Akkad_, which inhabited Babylonia from the earliest
times. With this race originated the art of writing, the building of
cities, the institution of a religious system, the cultivation of all
science, and of astronomy in particular.” The race affinity of the
_Akkad_ is hardly yet settled, but some information as to this point
may be gained from the name by which they were designated. This appears
to be composed of two words _Ak(k)-Ad_, the latter of which may be
identified with the first syllable of the name Adam. As to the word
_Ak_, some light may probably be thrown on its meaning by reference
to the Celtic languages. Baldwin, without seeing its full bearing,
makes the remark that the Dravidians of Southern India use _Mag_, as
the Berbers and Gaels use _Mac_ (_Mach_), the former word denoting
“kindred” in all the Teutonic languages. Now, it could be proved by
many examples that the letter _M_, which is found at the beginning of
certain words in various eastern languages, is often simply a prefix.
This is especially the case in Hebrew and Arabic, and, therefore,
probably in the more ancient languages with which they are allied.
Such, at least, must be the case with the initial letter of the word
_mach_, “son,” as in Erse the _m_ is wanting, and in Welsh the related
word, having the sense of “a root or stem, lineage,” is also simply
_ach_. Thus _Ak(k)-Ad_ may well be “the sons or lineage of Ad;” as
Mac-Adam in Gaelic is a son of Adam. That the first syllable of this
word had the signification here assigned to it is rendered extremely
probable by another circumstance. It is well known that the Welsh
equivalent for _Mach_, in the sense of “son,” is _Ap_; and so also we
find that in Hebrew “son” is rendered by _ben_ (the Assyrian _ban_),
while in Arabic it is _ibn_. In these words the _b_ is the root sound,
and if son was expressed by _ak_ in the old Akkad tongue, this would
bear the same relation to the Semitic languages as the Welsh does to
the Gaelic and Erse—_ak_ and _ben_ in the one class answering to _ach_
and _ap_ in the other. Nor is this view without positive support. The
Hebrew has a word _ach_ which expresses, not only the sense of “a
brother,” but also “one of the same kindred.” In Assyrian _uk_ means a
“people,” while _ak_ signifies a “Creator;” these words being connected
with the old Egyptian _uk_, and also _ahi_, “to live.”
Nor is the idea that the Chaldean _Akkad_ were literally “the sons
of _Ad_” without historical basis. According to Berosus, the first
Babylonian dynasty was Median. What people were referred to by this
name is still undecided. Professor Rawlinson supposes that they were
really the same as the so-called Aryan Medes of later history, while
Sir Henry Rawlinson, although treating the later Medes as Aryan,
yet considers those of Bersosus to have belonged to a Turanian, or
at least a mixed Scytho-Aryan, stock. Elsewhere Professor Rawlinson
seems inclined to identify the Chaldean _Akkad_ with these Medes, as
a Turanian people who at a very early date conquered the Babylonian
Kushites and mixed with them. This is, in fact, the conclusion which
appears to be required by other considerations. The name by which
the Medes are first noticed on the Assyrian monuments is _Mad_. But
if the initial labial is removed, this name is reduced to the more
simple form _Ad_; and, supposing the explanation given of the primitive
name of the Chaldean race to be correct, the _(M)ad_ who preceded
them would really be the parent stock from which the _Akkad_, or
Chaldeans, were derived. Confirmation of this notion may be supplied
from another source. Among their Aryan neighbours the later Medes had
the distinctive title of _Már_. This, Sir Henry Rawlinson supposes to
have given rise, “not only to the Persian traditions of Zohák and his
snakes, but to the Armenian traditions also of the dragon dynasty of
Media, the word _Már_ having in Persian the signification of a snake.”
But this must have been through ignorance of the real origin of the
title, which had reference rather to the lion than to the snake. The
Arab historian, Massoudi, in accounting for the application to the city
of Babylon of the name of _Iran-Sheher_, observes that, “according to
some, the true orthography should be _Arian-Sheher_,” which signifies
in Nabathæan, “the city of Lions,” and that “this name of Lion
designated the kings of Assyria, who bore the general title of Nimrud.”
Sir Henry Rawlinson thinks that the title _Már_ is Scythic, and, if so,
there can be little doubt of its signification. The primitive meaning
of _Ar_ was “fire,” from which the lion, as the symbol of the Sun-god
was called _ari_, the Sun-god himself having a name _Ra_. Strictly,
therefore, _Már_ would denote “fire-worshippers,” a title which, as
is well-known, was especially applicable to the ancient Medes. The
_Aryans_ generally appear to have been Sun-or Fire-worshippers, and
probably they received their name from this fact. This would seem to be
much more probable than the ordinary derivation of the name Aryan from
the root _ar_, “to plough;” and it would include the sense of “noble”
preferred by Mr. Peile, “children of the Sun” being usually a special
title of the priestly or royal caste.
Connected with this question is that of the origin of the name of the
Greek god _Ares_ (the Latin _Mars_). Among other grounds for inferring
the Asiatic origin of this deity is his connection with Herakles. The
Latin myth of Hercules and Cacus would seem, moreover, to require
the identification of the former with Mars. Such would appear to be
the case also in Chaldean mythology. The Babylonian Mars was called
_Nergal_, which is probably the same name as “Hercules,” and Sir Henry
Rawlinson suggests that the only distinction to be made between that
deity and _Nin_, or Hercules, as gods of war and hunting, is that the
former is more addicted to the chase of animals and the latter to that
of mankind. That Hercules, or Herakles, was of Phœnician or Assyrian
origin has been fully established by the learned researches of M.
Raoul-Rochette, who has shown, moreover, that the proper name of that
deity was _Sandan_ or _Adanos_ (_Adan_), a name which not only reminds
us of Aduni, supposed by Professor Rawlinson to be a primeval Chaldean
deity, but also recalls that of the Median _Ad_, and even of the Hebrew
_Adam_.
A remark made by Lajard strongly confirms the idea that the Latin
war-god was derived from a similar source. This learned French writer
accounts for the rapidity with which _Mazdëism_, better known as the
worship of Mithra, spread among the Romans, by supposing that it was in
some way connected with their national worship. Probably a key to this
connection may be found in the curious figures of Mithra which appear
to have been peculiar to the Roman phase of Mazdëism. These figures,
which are encircled by a serpent, unite to the human body and limbs,
the head of the lion, and they might well be taken to represent Mars
himself, since the title _Már_, which was distinctive of the Medes, not
only conveyed the idea of a serpent, but was also, and more intimately,
associated with the lion symbol of the Sun-god.
If the alliance thus sought to be established, through the title _Már_,
between the Medes or _Mad_, and the other peoples of the so-called
Aryan stock be correct, we may expect to find traces among some, at
least, of these peoples of the primeval _Ad_. Nor will such expectation
be disappointed. The Parsis of Bombay have a book called the “Desatir,”
the first part of which is entitled “the Book of the Great _Abad_,”
who is declared to have been the first ancestor of mankind. The
authenticity of this book has been denied, as Mr. Baldwin thinks,
however, on insufficient grounds. It is certainly strange, on the
assumption of its being apocryphal, that such a name as _Abad_ should
have been given to the mythical head of the race. The meaning of the
name is evidently “Father _Ad_” and there is nothing improbable in the
Persians preserving a tradition of the mythical ancestor, whose memory
was retained in the national name of the Medes, a people with whom they
were so closely connected. It simply confirms the conclusion before
arrived at, that they also must be classed among the Adamites.
The Hindus themselves would seem not to be without a remembrance
of the mythical ancestor of the Adamic stock. The Puranas, which,
notwithstanding their modern form, doubtless retain many old legends,
refers to the reign of King _It_ or _Ait_, as an avatar of Mahadeva
(_Siva_), who is a form of Saturn. Assuming that the information given
to Wilford as to the reign of this king in Egypt ought to be rejected;
yet, as _Aetus_ is mentioned by Greek writers as a Hindu, we must
suppose such information to have been founded on actual statements
contained in the Puranas. These certainly refer to the _Yáduvas_,
descendants of Yadu, supposed emigrants to Abyssinia, whose character,
as described in the Puranas, agrees well, says Wilford, with that
ascribed “by the ancients to the genuine Ethiopians, who are said by
Stephanus of Byzantium, by Eusebius, by Philostratus, by Eustathius,
and others, to have come originally from India under the guidance of
Aetus or Yátu,” whom they believed to be the same as King Ait.
Nor do the Celtic peoples appear to be without a traditional
remembrance of the mythical ancestor. The leading Celtic people of
Gaul, in the time of Cæsar, were the _Ædin_, and Davies thought that
their name was derived from _Aedd_ the Great, whom he finds referred
to in the Welsh triads, and whom he identifies with _Aides_ or _Dis_.
Cæsar, indeed, says that the god _Dis_ was the mythical ancestor of the
Gauls. The position occupied by this deity in the traditions of the
Celtic race is very remarkable, when we consider that a divine person
bearing the same name was known, not only to the Greeks, but apparently
also to the Babylonians. Sir Henry Rawlinson points out that _Dis_
should be one of the names of _Anu_, the first member of the leading
Chaldean triad, and the deity who answered to _Hades_ or _Pluto_.
_Warka_ or _Urka_, the great necropolis of Babylon, was especially
dedicated to _Anu_, and Sir Henry Rawlinson remarks on this: “Can
the coincidence then be merely accidental between _Dis_, the Lord of
_Urka_, the City of the Dead, and _Dis_, the King of Orcus or Hades?”
Most certainly not, as it is only one of many circumstances which prove
the close connection of the Greeks and other Aryan peoples with the
ancient Babylonians. The original character of _Dis_, “Lord of the
Dead,” was probably the same as that of the Gallic _Dis_, _i.e._, the
mythical ancestor of the race. A similar change of character has been
undergone by the Hindu _Yama_.
It is very probable that in the divine ancestor _Dis_, as in the
mythical King _It_ of the Hindus, we have reference to the primeval
_Ad_.[227] A common relationship as Adamites may be shown, as well
by association with the Medes, through their title _Már_, as by
preservation of a tradition of the common ancestor.
The result, so far, is that not only the Persians, Greeks, and Romans,
and probably the Hindus, but also the Celtic peoples, have been
connected with the Medes or _Mad_, and through them with the _Akkad_.
But among the peoples supposed to be still more nearly allied to the
Chaldeans, we may expect to find references to the mythical ancestor
of the Adamic division of mankind. According to old tradition, indeed,
_Ad_ himself was the primeval father of the original Arab stock.
Moreover, the dialect of Mahrah, where pure Arab blood is supposed
still to exist, is called the language of _Ad_. It can hardly be
doubted that a reference to the same mythical personage is also
contained in the name of the great deity of the Syrians, _Adad_, “King
of Kings,” whose title implies the idea of “fatherhood.” Nor are there
wanting traces of the primeval _Ad_ among the Egyptians. Mr. William
Osburn states that the name of the local god of On or Heliopolis “is
written on the monuments with the characters representing the sound
_a, t, m_.” This God was associated with the setting sun, and he was
placed with the gods of the other cities of the Delta, a distinction
he received, says Osburn, “for the triple reason, that he was the
local god of the capital city, that he was the father of mankind, and
that he was the ruler and guide of the sun, the common dispenser of
earthly blessings to all men.” _Atum_ thus becomes identified with the
Hebrew _Adam_, and although the description given by Osburn of the
Egyptian deity may require some qualification, yet that identification
is strengthened rather than weakened by other considerations. Bunsen
says that the office of _Atum_ in the lower world is that of a judge,
and he supposes from this that at one time he may have been a Dispater.
He does, indeed, bear much the same relation to man as _Dis_ himself.
In the Ritual of the Dead, the souls call him father, and he addresses
them as children. Sir Gardner Wilkinson says that _Atum_, or _Atmoo_,
is always figured with a human head and painted of a red colour. This
seems to confirm the idea derived from his name, that this deity was
related to the Hebrew Adam, with whom the idea of _ruddiness_ was
undoubtedly associated. The human form of the Egyptian Atum shows,
moreover, that he was considered as peculiarly connected with man.
It has now been shown that not only are the people mentioned in the
_Toldoth Beni Noah_ rightly classed as descendants of the mythical
_Ad_, but that the Asiatic Aryans, with the allied peoples of Europe
to the furthest limits of the Celtic area, may also well be thus
described. The ancient _Mad_ belonged, however, to the great Scythic
stock, and hence all the Turanian peoples, including the Chinese,
may doubtless be classed among the Adamites. There is some ground,
therefore, for asserting that the Adamites include all the so-called
Turanian and Aryan peoples of Asia and Europe, with the Hamitic and
Semitic peoples of Western Asia and Northern Africa—in fact, the
yellow, the red, and the white races, as distinguished from the darker
peoples of the tropics. But even these limits may perhaps be extended.
One of the solar heroes of the Volsung Tale is _Atli_, who becomes the
second husband of Gudrun, the widow of Sigurd, Sigurd himself being the
slayer of the dragon Fafnir, who symbolises the darkness or cold of a
northern winter—the Vritra of Hindu mythology. This dragon enemy of
Indra was also called _Ahi_, the strangling snake, who appears again
as _Atri_, and Mr. Cox supposes that the name _Atri_ may be the same
as the _Atli_ of the Volsung Tale. _Atli_, who in the Nibelung song is
called _Etzel_, overpowers the chieftains of Niflheim, who refused to
give up the golden treasures which Sigurd had won from the dragon, and
he throws them into a pit full of snakes.
The connection of the Teutonic hero with the serpent is remarkable;
for in the Mexican mythology we meet with a divinity having almost the
same name, and associated with the same animal. Humboldt tells us that
the Great Spirit of the Toltecks was called _Teotl_; and Hardwicke
says that _Teotl_ was the only God of Central America. If so, however,
he was a serpent deity, for the temples of Yucatan were undoubtedly
dedicated to a deity of that nature. It is not improbable, however,
that _Teotl_ was really a generic term, agreeing in this respect, as
curiously enough in its form, with the Phœnician _Taaut_ (_Thoth_).
The God to whom the temples of Yucatan were really dedicated appears
to be _Quetzalcoatl_, by some writers called the feathered serpent,
a title belonging rather to his serpent-father _Tonacatlcoatl_. This
_Quetzalcoatl_ was the mysterious stranger who, according to tradition,
founded the civilisation of Mexico, agreeing thus in his character
of a god of wisdom with the Egyptian _Thoth_; reminding us of the
resemblance of the name of this deity to that of the Toltecan _Teotl_.
But the first part of the name of the Mexican _Quetzalcoatl_ no less
resembles that borne by the Teutonic deity, _Etzel_. _Co-atl_ signifies
the “serpent,” while _quetzal_ would seem to have reference to the
male principle; and thus the idea expressed in the name of the Mexican
god is the male principle represented as a serpent. _Quetzalcoatl_,
moreover, is said to be an incarnation of _Tonacatlcoatl_, who is the
male-serpent, his wife being called _Cihua-coatl_, meaning, literally,
the “woman of the serpent,” or “female serpent.” In the identification,
then, of _Atli_ or _Etzel_, who consigns his enemies to the pit of
serpents, with the great serpent _Ahi_ himself, we have a ground of
identification of the Teutonic deity with the Mexican serpent-god
_Quetzalcoatl_. This view loses none of its probability if the latter
is, as Mr. Squire asserts, an incarnation of the serpent-sun, or
rather a serpent incarnation of the sun-god, since _Ahi_ himself is a
solar deity. In the religious symbols used by the Mexicans, we have
another point of contact with the Asiatic deities. The sacred _Tau_ of
antiquity has its counterpart on the Mexican monuments. The Mexican
symbol perfectly represents the cross form of the _Tau_, but it is
composed of two serpents entwined, somewhat as in the caduceus of
Mercury. That the _Tau_ itself had such an origin we can well believe,
seeing that the name of the letter _Tet_ (θετα) of the Phœnician
alphabet specially associated with _Thoth_, of whom the _Tau_ is a
symbol, is that of the God himself, as well as meaning “serpent.”
If the comparison thus made between the Mexican and Teutonic
mythologies is correct, the further analogies pointed out by M.
Brasseur de Bourbourg may be well founded. Thus the Mexican _Votan_ or
_Odon_, supposed to be the same as _Quetzalcoatl_, may be in reality
none other than the Scandinavian _Odin_, _Woden_, or _Wuotan_, who,
if not a sun-god, was the sky-god, whose eye was the sun (Grimm’s
“Teutonic Mythology,” translated by Stallybrass, p. 703). The snake is
intimately associated with Odin in Norse mythology (Grimm, p. 685) as
it is with Votan, and both these personages have been identified with
the Indian Buddha god.[228]
Nor is there wanting confirmative evidence of such an affinity between
the peoples of the Old and the New Worlds as that supposed. Mr. Tylor,
in his work on “Primitive Culture,” points out that the Roman game of
_bucca-bucca_, referred to in a passage of Petronius, is still retained
as the old nursery game, “Buck, buck, how many horns do I hold up?”
The meaning of this formula is not given, but, from the fact that the
witch’s devil of the middle ages was represented as a buck or goat,
we can hardly doubt that the buck or bucca of the game referred to
the evil spirit. The devil was, indeed, called by the Cornish Celts
_bucka_ (Welsh _bwg_), a hobgoblin, a name which is evidently connected
with the Russian _buka_, a sprite, and with the _Bog_ of Slavonic and
other allied languages. We have, no doubt, the same word in the name
of the Finnic sky-god _Ukko_. Of this again we seem to have traces,
not only in the Kalmuck _Búrkhan_ and the Mantchoo _Ab-ka_, but also
in the Hottentot _Teqoa_ (Kafir, _Tixo_), the Supreme God; and in the
word _yakko_, demon, the name given to the aborigines of Ceylon by
their Hindu conquerors. But the root of this word is met with again
among the American tribes. The Hurons believe the sky to be an _oki_,
or demon, this name being also that by which the natives of Virginia
knew their chief god. The same word appears to enter into the name of
the Algonquin god of the North Wind, _Kabibon-okka_, as also of the
Muyscan Moon goddess, _Huyth-aca_. Whether the Algonquin Great Spirit,
_Kitchi-Manitu_, has preserved the same word, is questionable; but it
is noticeable that in the mythology of Kamtschatka the first man is
called _Haetsh_, and he is the son of _Kutka_, the Creator, whose name,
by the allowable change of _t_ for _k_, becomes almost the same as the
Finnic _Ukko_. The word _oki_ may, moreover, be found, with merely the
vowel change, among the Islanders of the Pacific. Thus the Polynesian
fire-god is _Mahu-ika_, the last syllable of which is doubtless
connected with _akua_, meaning, like the American _oki_, spirit, or
demon. The same root is met with again in _Tiki_, the Rarotongan form
of _Maui_, the divine ancestor of the New Zealanders, and the _Tii_ of
the Society Islands; also in _Akea_, the name of the mythical first
king of Hawaii. _Tiki_ is probably only another form of _Ta-ata_,
with the change of _k_ for _t_ (as in _akua_ for _atua_); and it is
remarkable that this name of the Polynesian First Man is really that of
the mythical ancestor of the Adamites, reversed, however, and with the
addition of the word _ata_ (_aka_), spirit, which we have shown to be
connected with the name for God among so many independent races. Mr.
Fornander identifies the Polynesian word _aitu_ or _iku_, spirit, with
the name of the great “Kushite” king It or Ait, and he states that the
idea of royalty or sovereignty attached to that word is observed in
old Hawaiian tradition.—“The Polynesian Race,” 1878, vol. i., pp. 44,
54.
These mythological coincidences are, indeed, so strongly supported by
similarity of customs and linguistic affinities, that there can be
no difficulty in classing the Mexicans and kindred American peoples,
and even the lighter Polynesians, with the Adamites. This being so,
a still broader generalisation than any yet attempted may be made as
to the peoples to be included in the Adamic division of the human
race. The simplest classification of mankind, according to cranial
conformation, is that of Retzius into dolichocephali, or long heads,
and brachycephali, or short heads. The Mexicans, and other peoples
of the western part of the American Continent, belong to the latter
category, as do also the inhabitants of the greater part of the area of
Asia and Europe. In China, and in the southern part of Asia as well as
of Europe, the various peoples are chiefly long-headed, and this is the
case with the Hamitic population of Northern Africa. The latter are,
however, certainly much mixed with the native African element, which
is purely dolichocephalic, exhibiting traces of its prognathism; and
it is far from improbable that originally they were brachycephalic,
like the allied peoples of Western Asia. Such also may have been the
case with the Chinese and the lighter Polynesians, who are now nearly
dolichocephalic.[229] Throughout all the regions where these peoples
are found there would appear to have been an indigenous long-headed
stock, which has more or less nearly absorbed the brachycephalic
element, which was introduced long ages ago from the vast regions of
Central Asia, and which, for want of a better term, may be called
Scythic. Subject to this qualification, it may probably be said that
Adamic and short-headed are synonymous terms, and that among the
descendants of Father _Ad_ may, therefore, be classed all the peoples
who are embraced in the great brachycephalic division of mankind, or
who would have belonged to it, if they had not been physically modified
by contact with peoples of the more primitive dolichocephalic area.
How far the Adamites have trespassed on this area it is difficult
to determine. That they have become mixed with the peoples of the
African Continent to a much larger extent than is usually supposed may
be believed. The Hottentots, at its extremest limit, are no doubt a
residual deposit of such intermixture; while the great family to which
the Kafirs belong furnish evidence of it in various particulars. The
Adamites appear also to have spread throughout the archipelagos of the
Pacific, furnishing an explanation of the many customs and myths in
which the Polynesian Islanders agree with Asiatic peoples. Nor are the
Adamites much less widely spread throughout the American Continent.
Apart from what Professor Busk affirms, that a broad type of head is
to be met with on the coast all round South America, peoples allied to
those of Mexico and Central America would seem to have occupied many
of the West Indian Islands, and to have penetrated through the central
portion of North America to the Great Lakes. Wherever the Adamites
have come into contact with the long-headed pre-Adamitic stock, they
have either made these to disappear, or, while having their physical
structure somewhat modified by intermixture, they have established
a supremacy due to their greater vigour and mental energy. It is
difficult, indeed, to say where the descendants of _Ad_ are not now to
be met with, or where the pre-Adamite is to be found uninfluenced by
contact with them.
In conclusion, it will be well to endeavour to ascertain the origin
of the tradition as to _Adam_ or father _Ad_. According to usually
received teaching, Adam and Eve were the actual first parents of the
human race, or, at all events, of the Adamic portion of it. Whether
or not this idea is correct need not be further considered here,
beyond stating that if, as Bunsen suggests, the existence of other
antediluvian patriarchs be mythical, so also must be that of Adam from
whom they are said to have sprung.
The Semitic word ADaM conveys several ideas. In the form _Adamah_ or
_Adami_ it has reference to the _earth_ or _soil_, but its primary
sense was either “red” or “man.” Probably a double meaning was conveyed
in the name of the Egyptian god Atum, whose representation was that of
a red man. It must be noted, however, that the traditional ancestor is
usually styled, not _Adam_ but simply _Ad_; and this primitive root
may have had some other signification, analogous perhaps to that of
_Eve_ (_Hhavváh_), “the mother of all living.” This word, which denotes
“life,” is from _hhayáh_, to live, to give life—the allied word in
Arabic being _haywān_, and the Arabic name for Eve becoming _hawwa_.
Now, in the Celtic dialects _ad_ forms the root of words denoting
vegetable vitality. In Welsh, moreover, _tad_ is a father; the base,
_ta_, denoting, among allied senses, “a supreme one,” reminding us of
the Chinese _ta_, great; and connected with it being _tras_, kindred,
affinity. Turning, however, to Eastern languages, we find that the
old Egyptian had a word _ti_, with a sense analogous to that of the
Welsh _ta_, and also a verb _ta_, to give, which is found in Hebrew,
as _’athah_, to come, and in Arabic as _ata_, to give, or to bring
forth. It is evident that the primitive root, consisting of the dental
_t_ or _d_, preceded or followed by a vowel sound, had associated
with it the idea of activity, and probably of paternity. In the old
Akkad speech, indeed, _ad_ itself signifies a “father,” and we are
justified, therefore, in supposing that when this word was used as
the name of the mythical common ancestor, it had a sense analogous to
that which “Eve” expressed, _i.e._, “the _father_ of life, or of all
living.” In Adam and Eve, therefore, we may have a reference to the
male and female principles which, in the philosophy of the ancients,
as in that of the Chinese and some other Eastern peoples, pervade all
nature, and originate all things, applied particularly, however, to the
human race. But Adam was not the name given at first to this mystical
father of the race. The Egyptian _Atum_ was originally a cosmogonic
deity. Bunsen states that the name of this god may be resolved into
_At-Mu_, meaning “Creator of the mother or night.” The sense of this,
however, is not very apparent, and it may be suggested that the term
_Adam_ (in Egyptian _Atum_) was formed by the combination of the
primitive _akkad_ words _Ad_, father, and _Dam_, mother. It would thus
originally express a dual idea, agreeably to the statement in Gen. v.
2, that male and female were called “Adam.” This agrees perfectly with
the Persian tradition which made the first human being androgynous.
When the dual idea expressed in the name was forgotten, Adam became the
Great Father, the Great Mother receiving the name of Eve (Hhavváh),
_i.e._, living or life, although _Adam_ in the generic sense of
“Mankind,” denoted both male and female.
* * * * *
_Note._—The Turanian or rather Altaic affinity of the Akkad, referred
to at page 109 above, appears to have been established by M. Lenormant,
who states that their name means “Mountaineers,” from _Akkad_, a
mountain. It is possible, however, that the word may have had a
more primitive signification. As the name of a country and not of a
people, Akkad did not come into use until the Assyrian epoch, “When
the Accadian had become a dead language, and the tradition of the real
meaning of the word was consequently quite lost.” (_Chaldean Magic and
Sorcery_, p. 404.) As to the aboriginal Arab people referred to at page
117, it may be mentioned that M. Lenormant (_Hist. Anc. de l’Orient_,
9th Ed. I. t. prem. p. 313), points out that the name, Adah, of the
mother of the two sons of Lameckh, who were chiefs of pastoral races,
is only the feminine form of that of the people of Ad.
FOOTNOTES:
[227] _Adonai_, “Our Lord,” was converted by the Greeks into
_Adoneus_, as a synomym of Pluto, _i.e._, _Dis_. (King’s “Gnostics,”
p. 101). Through his name, _Sandan_ or _Adanos_, these deities are
connected with _Hercules_, and hence with _Ares_ (Mars).
[228] _Le Mythe de Votan_, by H. de Charencey, 1871, pp. 95, 103.
Gautama was only the last of the Boudhas, and the identification of
Woden is therefore not necessarily with Gautama. Dr. Brinton, “in
order to put a stop to such visionary etymologies” as those which
connect Votan with Wodan and Buddha, derives Votan from a Maya radical
(_American Hero-Myths_, 1882, p. 217). It must be noted, however, that
the Maya meaning of Votan (heart _fig._ spirit) closely agrees with
that of Wodan (mind) and Buddha (knowledge).
[229] M. de Ujfalvy has found that even the purest Iranian type of
Central Asia is brachycephalic.