[31] The date of the termination of the works undertaken by Yu, in order
to repair the damage done by this flood, lies between 2278 and 2062 B.C.
according to the chronological system adopted.
[32] This work of Berosus was already out of existence in the fourth
century of our era, when Eusebius of Cesarea, to whom we owe such
fragments as we possess, wrote. Only two abridgments remained, due to
later polygraphers, Abydenus and Alexander Polybistor. Eusebius gives
the version of each editor, the one I quote is that of Alexander.
[33] Abydenus says, "all that composed the scriptures."
[34] He is provisionally called Izdhubar or Ghirdhubar, transcribing for
want of a more certain method, according to their phonetic value, the
characters composing the ideographic spelling of his name.
[35] The text is published in "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia,"
vol. iv. pp. 50 and 51. The two principal translations hitherto given
are those of George Smith and M. Oppert. The one we now offer contains a
large share of personal work. We avail ourselves of the labours of our
illustrious precursors, but believe that we have also added some
important steps towards a precise understanding of the text.
[36] Here several verses are wanting.
[37] "The water of the twilight at break of day," one of the
personifications of rain.
[38] The god of thunder.
[39] The god of war and death.
[40] The Chaldeo-Assyrian Hercules.
[41] The superior heaven of the fixed stars.
[42] Vases of the measure called in Hebrew _Seah_. This relates to a
detail of the ritualistic prescriptions for sacrifice.
[43] These metaphorical expressions appear to designate the rainbow.
[44] The god of epidemics.
[45] _Studien zur Kritik und Erklarung der Biblischen Urgeschichte_, p.
150.
[46] Oannes and Euahanes belong to an Accadian form: Ea-Khan, "Ea the
fish;" Oes to the simple Ea, as the Aos of Damascus.
[47] _Vendidad_, ii. 46.
[48] Chapter vii.
[49] See especially _Yesht_ viii., 13 _Vendidad_, xix. 135.
[50] It is in virtue of this assimilation that Plutarch (De Solert anim.
13) speaks of the dove sent out by Deucalion to see if the Deluge had
ceased, a circumstance mentioned by no other Greek mythographer.
[51] "Myvyrian Archaeology of Wales," vol. ii. p. 50, triad 13.
[52] _Ibid._ p. 71, triad 97.
[53] Vafthrudnismal, st. 29.
[54] Hanwsch, _Slawischer Mythus_, p. 234.
[55] "Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology," vol. iv. pp.
1-19.
[56] Personification of the primordial abyss.
[57] Nevertheless, the Deluge holds an important place among the
cosmogonic traditions--decidedly original in character--which Reguly has
found among the Voguls. We also hear of a diluvian story among the
Eulets or Kalmuks, where it seems to have come in with Buddhism.
[58] We must, however, observe that Buddhist missionaries appear to have
introduced the diluvian tradition of Judea into China. Gutzlaff, "On
Buddhism in China," in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1st
series, vol. xii. p. 78), affirms that he saw its principal episode
represented in a very fine painting of a temple to the goddess
Kivan-yin.
[59] Recently published, not recently collected. The date of Pedro de
los Rios shows this.
[60] "The Native Races of the Pacific States," vol. iii. p. 68.
[61] By a singular alteration of the text it is said that the jaguars
"were devoured," instead of "they devoured."
[62] From the day of the year when the final cataclysm was supposed to
have occurred.
[63] This designation of the year accords with the system of Mexican
cycles, containing four groups of years, each named after some object or
animal.
[64] "Essai de commentaire des fragments de Berose," p. 283.
[65] This name looks like a corruption of that of the Indian Manu
Vaivasvata.
[66] Except in the Fiji Islands, where the Polynesians have been for
some time settled among the Melanians, and have only been destroyed by
these after having infused into the population an element sufficiently
marked to render the Fijis a mixed rather than a purely black race.
[67] Gaussin: "Du Dialecte de Tahiti et de la Langue polynesienne," p.
235. See also Ellis's "Polynesian Researches."
[68] We may, however, observe that in the Iranian myth of Yima, which we
have reported above, a square enclosure (_vara_) miraculously preserved
from the deluge, holds the place of the Biblical Ark and of the vessel
of Chaldean tradition.
[69] The date of the first establishment of Indian Brahmanists in Java
remains uncertain, but from the end of the second century B.C. the Greek
Iambulos (Diod. Sicul. ii. 57) very exactly described as the way of
writing in this island the syllabic system Kavi, borrowed from India.