drink of men. There they built a golden temple, and lived in supreme
happiness till the desire came on Osiris to discover the water of
Immortality, in seeking which he left Nysa, and was in the end slain by
Typhon.[72]
The following is a very curious negro tradition, taken down by Dr.
Tutschek from a native in Tumale, near the centre of Africa.
Til (God) made men and bade them live together in peace and happiness,
labour five days, and keep the sixth as a festival. They were forbidden
to hurt the beasts or reptiles. They themselves were deathless, but the
animals suffered death. The frog was accursed by God, because when He
was making the animals it hopped over His foot. Then God ordered the men
to build mountains: they did so, but they soon forgot God’s commands,
killed the beasts and quarrelled with one another. Wherefore Til (God)
sent fire and destroyed them, but saved one of the race, named
Musikdegen, alive. Then Til began to re-create beings. He stood before a
wood and called, Ombo Abnatum Dgu! and there came out a gazelle and
licked His feet. So He said, Stand up, Gazelle! and when it stood up,
its beast-form disappeared, and it was a beautiful maiden, and He called
her Mariam. He blessed her, and she bore four children, a white pair and
a black pair. When they were grown up, God ordered them to marry, the
white together, and the black together. In Dai, the story goes that Til
cut out both Mariam’s knee-caps, and of each He made a pair of children.
Those which were white He sent north; those which were black He gave
possession of the land where they were born.
God then made the animals subject to death, but the men He made were
immortal. But the new created men became disobedient, as had the first
creatures; and the frog complained to Him of His injustice in having
made the harmless animals subject to death, but guilty man deathless.
“Thou art right,” answered Til, and He cast on the men He had made, old
age, sickness, and death.[73]
The Fantis relate that they are not in the same condition as that in
which they were made, for their first parents had been placed in a lofty
and more suitable country, but God drave them into an inferior
habitation, that they might learn humility. On the Gold Coast the reason
of the Fall is said to have been that the first men were offered the
choice of gold or of wisdom, and they chose the former.[74]
In Ashantee the story is thus told. In the beginning, God created three
white and three black men and women, and gave them the choice between
good and evil. A great calabash was placed on the earth, as also a
sealed paper, and God gave the black men the first choice. They took the
calabash, thinking it contained everything, and in it were only a lump
of gold, a bar of iron, and some other metals. The white men took the
sealed paper, in which they learned everything. So God left the black
men in the bush and took the white men to the sea, and He taught them
how to build ships and go into another land. This fall from God caused
the black men to worship the subsidiary Fetishes instead of Him.[75]
In Greenland “the first man is said to have been Kallak. He came out of
the earth, but his wife issued from his thumb, and from them all
generations of men have sprung. To him many attribute the origin of all
things. The woman brought death into the world, in that she said, Let us
die to make room for our successors.”[76]
The tradition of the Dog-rib Indians near the Polar Sea, as related by
Sir J. Franklin in his account of his expedition of 1825-27, is that the
first man was called Tschäpiwih. He found the earth filled with
abundance of all good things. He begat children and he gave to them two
sorts of fruit, one white and the other black, and he bade them eat the
white, but eschew the black. And having given them this command, he left
them and went a long journey to fetch the sun to enlighten the world.
During his absence they ate only of the white fruit, and then the father
made a second journey to fetch the moon, leaving them well provided with
fruit. But after a while they forgot his command, and consumed the black
fruit. On his return he was angry, and cursed the ground that it should
thenceforth produce only the black fruit, and that with it should come
in sickness and death.
Dr. Hunter, in his “Memoirs of Captivity amongst the Indians,” says that
the Delawares believe that in the beginning the Red men had short tails,
but they blasphemed the Great Spirit, and in punishment for their sin
their tails were cut off and transformed into women, to be their
perpetual worry. The same story is told by Mr. Atherne Jones, as heard
by him among the Kikapoos.
The ancient Mexicans had a myth of Xolotl, making out of a man’s bone
the primeval mother in the heavenly Paradise; and he called the woman he
had made Cihuacouhatl, which means “The woman with the serpent,” or
Quilatzli, which means “The woman of our flesh.” She was the mother of
twins, and is represented in a Mexican hieroglyph as speaking with the
serpent, whilst behind her stand the twins, whose different characters
are represented by different colours, one of whom is represented slaying
the other.[77] Xolotl, who made her out of a bone, was cast out of
heaven and became the first man. That the Mexicans had other traditions,
now lost, touching this matter is probable, for they had a form of
baptism for children in which they prayed that those baptized might be
washed from “the original sin committed before the founding of the
world.” And this had to do, in all probability, with a legend akin to
that of the Iroquois, who told of the primeval mother falling, and then
of the earth being built up to receive her, when precipitated out of
heaven.
The Caribs of South America relate that Luoguo, the first man and god,
created the earth and the sea, and made the earth as fair as the
beautiful garden in the heaven where dwell the gods. Luoguo dwelt among
the men he had made for some while. He drew the men out of his navel and
out of his thigh which he cut open. One of the first men was Racumon,
who was transformed into a great serpent with a human head, and he lived
twined round a great Cabatas tree and ate of its fruit, and gave to
those who passed by. Then the Caribs lived to a great age, and never
waxed old or died. Afterwards they found a garden planted with manioc,
and on that they fed. But they became wicked, and a flood came and swept
them away.[78]
In the South Sea Islands we find other traditions of the Fall. In Alea,
one of the Caroline Islands, the tale runs thus:—
“The sister of Eliulap the first man, who was also a god, felt herself
in labour, so she descended to earth and there brought forth three
children. To her astonishment she found the earth barren; therefore, by
her mighty word, she clothed it with herbage and peopled it with beasts
and birds. And the world became very beautiful, and her sons were happy
and did not feel sickness or death, but at the close of every month fell
into a slumber from which they awoke renewed in strength and beauty. But
Erigeres, the bad spirit, envied this happiness, so he came to the world
and introduced into it pain, age, and death.”[79]
With the Jewish additions to the story given in Genesis, we shall
conclude.
The godless Sammael had made an alliance with all the chiefs of his host
against the Lord, because that the holy and ever blessed Lord had said
to Adam and Eve, “_Have dominion over the fish of the sea_,” &c.; and he
said, “How can I make man to sin and drive him out?” Then he went down
to earth with all his host, and he sought for a companion like to
himself; he chose the serpent, which was in size like a camel, and he
seated himself on its back and rode up to the woman, and said to her,
“_Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?_” And he
thought, “I will ask more presently.” Then she answered, “He has only
forbidden me the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge which is in the midst of
the garden. And He said, ‘In the day thou touchest it thou shalt die.’”
She added two words; God did not say anything to her about touching it,
and she spoke of the fruit, whereas God said the Tree.
Then the godless one, Sammael, went up to the tree and touched it. But
the tree cried out, “_Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let
not the hand of the ungodly cast me down!_ Touch me not, thou godless
one!” Then Sammael called to the woman, and said, “See, I have touched
the tree and am not dead. Do you also touch it and try.” But when Eve
drew near to the tree she saw the Angel of Death waiting sword in hand,
and she said in her heart, “Perhaps I am to die, and then God will
create another wife for Adam; that shall not be, he must die too.” So
she gave him of the fruit. And when he took it and bit, his teeth were
blunted, and thus it is that the back teeth of men are no longer
sharp.[80]
Footnote 63:
Lafitau, Mœurs des Sauvages Amériquaines, i. p. 93.
Footnote 64:
Pallas, Reise, i. p. 334.
Footnote 65:
Hodgson, Buddhism, p. 63.
Footnote 66:
Upham, Sacred Books of Ceylon, iii. 156.
Footnote 67:
Mémoires Chinois, i. p. 107.
Footnote 68:
Bundehesh in Windischmann: Zoroastrische Studien. Berlin, 1863, p. 82;
and tr. A. du Perron, ii. pp. 77-80.
Footnote 69:
So also Abulfeda, Hist. Ante-Islamica, p. 13.
Footnote 70:
Weil, pp. 19-28.
Footnote 71:
Tabari, i. p. 80.
Footnote 72:
Diod. Sicul., i. 14 et seq.
Footnote 73:
Ausland für Nov. 4, 1847.
Footnote 74:
W. Smith, Nouveau Voyage de Guinée. Paris, 1751, ii. p. 176.
Footnote 75:
Bowdler, Mission from Cape Coast to Ashantee. London, 1819, p. 344.
Footnote 76:
Cranz, Historie von Grönland. Leipzig, 1770, i. p. 262.
Footnote 77:
Humboldt, Pittoreske Ansichten d. Cordilleren; Plate xiii. and
explanation, ii. pp. 41, 42.
Footnote 78:
De la Borde, Reise zu den Caraiben. Nürnb. 1782, i. pp. 380-5.
Footnote 79:
Allg. Hist. der Reisen, xviii. p. 395.
Footnote 80:
Eisenmenger, i. pp. 827-9.
V.
ADAM AND EVE AFTER THE FALL.
When Adam reached the earth, the Eagle said to the Whale, with whom it
had hitherto lived in the closest intimacy, “Now we must part, for there
is no safety for us animals since man has come amongst us. The deepest
abysses of ocean must be thy refuge, and thou must protect thyself with
cunning from the great foe who has entered the earth. I must soar high
above the clouds, and there find a place of escape from him who is
destined to be my pursuer till death.”[81]
According to certain cabbalistic Rabbis, Adam, when cast out of Eden,
was precipitated into Gehenna, but he escaped therefrom to earth, by
repeating and pronouncing properly the mystic word Laverererareri.[82]
In the Talmud it is related that when Adam heard the words of God,
“_Thou shalt eat the herb of the field_” (Gen. iii. 18), he trembled in
all his limbs, and exclaimed, “O Lord of all the world! I and my beast,
the Ass, shall have to eat out of the same manger!” But God said to him,
because he trembled, “Thou shalt eat bread in the sweat of thy
brow.”[83]
Learned Rabbis assert that the angel Raphael had instructed Adam in all
kinds of knowledge out of a book, and this book contained mighty
mysteries which the highest angels could not fathom, and knew not; and
before the Fall the angels used to assemble in crowds, and listen to
Adam instructing them in hidden wisdom. In that book were seventy-two
parts and six hundred and seventy writings, and all this was known; but
from the middle of the book to the end were the one thousand five
hundred hidden secrets of Wisdom, and these Adam began to reveal to the
angels till he was arrested by the angel Haddarniel. This book Adam
preserved and read in daily; but when he had sinned, it fled out of his
hands and flew away, and he went into the river Gihon up to his neck,
and the water washed the glory wherewith he had shone in Paradise from
off his body. But God was merciful, and He restored to him the book by
the hands of Raphael, and he left it to his son Seth, and Enoch and
Abraham read in this book.[84]
Along with the book Adam retained the rod which God had created at the
close of the Sabbath, between sun and sun; _i.e._ between nightfall and
daybreak, so says the Rabbi Levi. Adam left it to Enoch, and Enoch gave
it to Noah, and Noah gave it to Shem, and Shem to Abraham, and Abraham
delivered it to Isaac, and Isaac gave it to Jacob; Jacob brought the
staff with him to Egypt, and gave it to his son Joseph. Now when Joseph
died, his house was plundered by the Egyptians, and all his effects were
taken into Pharaoh’s house. Jethro was a mighty magician, and when he
saw the staff of Adam and read the writing thereon, he went forth into
Edom and planted it in his garden. And Jethro would allow none to touch
it; but when he saw Moses he said, “This is he who will deliver Israel
out of Egypt.” Wherefore he gave him his daughter Zipporah and the
staff. But the book Midrash Vajoscha relates this rather differently, in
the words of Moses himself: “After I had become great I went out, and
seeing an Egyptian illtreat a Hebrew man of my brethren, I slew him and
buried him in the sand. But when Pharaoh heard this he sought to slay
me, and brought a sharp sword the like of which was not in the world;
and therewith I was ten times smitten on my neck. But the Holy God
wrought a miracle, for my neck became as hard as a marble pillar, so
that the sword had no power over me. And I was forty years old when I
fled out of Egypt; and I came to Jethro’s house and stood by the well
and found Zipporah his daughter; and when I saw her, I was pleased with
her, and asked her to marry me. Then she related to me her father’s
custom, and it was this. ‘My father proves every suitor for my hand by a
tree which is in his garden; and when he comes to the tree, the tree
clasps him in its branches.’ Then I asked her where such a tree was, and
she answered me, ‘This is the staff which God created on the eve of the
Sabbath, which was handed down from Adam to Joseph; but Jethro saw the
staff at the plundering of Joseph’s house, and he took it away with him
from Pharaoh’s palace and brought it here. This is the staff on which is
cut the Schem hammphorasch and the ten plagues that are in store for
Egypt, and these are indicated by ten letters on the staff, and they
stand thus: _dam_, blood; _zephardeim_, frogs; _kinnim_, lice; _arof_,
various insects; _defer_, murrain; _schechim_, blain; _barad_, hail;
_arbeh_, locusts; _choschech_, darkness; and _bechor_, first born:—these
will be the plagues of Egypt. This staff was for many days and years in
my father’s house, till he one day took it in his hand and stuck it into
the earth in the garden; and then it sprouted and bloomed and brought
forth almonds, and when he saw that, he proved every one who sought one
of his daughters by that tree.’” These are the words of the Book Midrash
Vajoscha, and thereby may be seen that the staff of Adam was of almond
wood; but Yalkut Chadasch, under the title “Adam,” says that the staff
was of the wood of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.[85]
When Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden, says the Talmud, they
wandered disconsolate over the face of the earth. And the sun began to
decline, and they looked with fear at the diminution of the light, and
felt a horror like death steal over their hearts.
And the light of heaven grew paler, and the wretched ones clasped one
another in an agony of despair.
Then all grew dark.
And the luckless ones fell on the earth, silent, and thought that God
had withdrawn from them the light for ever; and they spent the night in
tears.
But a beam of light began to rise over the eastern hills, after many
hours of darkness, and the clouds blushed crimson, and the golden sun
came back, and dried the tears of Adam and Eve; and then they greeted it
with cries of gladness, and said, “_Heaviness may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning_; this is a law that God has laid upon
nature.”[86]
Among the Manichean myths prevalent among the Albigenses, was one
preserved to us by the troubadour Pierre de Saint-Cloud. When Adam was
driven out of Paradise, God in mercy gave him a miraculous rod, which
possessed creative powers, so that he had only to strike the sea with it
and it would forthwith produce the beast he might require.
Adam struck the sea, and there rose from it the sheep; then Eve took the
staff and smote the water, and from it sprang the wolf, which fell on
the sheep and carried it off into the wood. Then Adam took back the
staff, and with it called forth the dog to hunt the wolf and recover the
sheep.
According to the Mussulman tradition, Adam’s beard grew after he had
fallen, and it was the result of his excessive grief and penitence: how
this affected his chin is not explained, the fact only is thus boldly
stated. He was sorely abashed at his beard, but a voice from heaven
called to him, saying, “The beard is man’s ornament on earth; it
distinguishes him from the feeble woman.” Adam shed so many tears that
all birds and beasts drank of them, and flowing into the earth they
produced the fragrant plants and gum-bearing trees, for they were still
endued with the strength and virtue of the food of Paradise.
But the tears of Eve were transformed into pearls where they dribbled
into the sea, and into beautiful flowers where they sank into the soil.
Both wailed so loud that Eve’s cry reached Adam on the West wind, and
Adam’s cry was borne to Eve on the wings of the East wind. And when Eve
heard the well-known voice she clasped her hands above her head, and
women to this day thus testify their sorrow; and Adam, when the voice of
the weeping of Eve sounded in his ears, put his right hand beneath his
beard,—thus do men to this day give evidence of their mourning. And the
tears pouring out of Adam’s eyes formed the two rivers Tigris and
Euphrates. All nature wept with him; every bird and beast hastened to
him to mingle their tears with his, but the locust was the first to
arrive, for it was made of the superfluous earth which had been gathered
for the creation of Adam. There are seven thousand kinds of locusts or
grasshoppers, of all colours and sizes, up to the dimensions of an
eagle; and they have a king to whom God addresses His commands when He
would punish a rebellious nation such as that of Egypt. The black
character imprinted on the locust’s wing is Hebrew, and it signifies,
“God is One; He overcometh the mighty; the locusts are a portion of His
army which He sends against the wicked.” As all nature thus wailed and
lamented, from the invisible insect to the angel who upholds the world,
God sent Gabriel with the words which were in after-time to save Jonah
in the whale’s belly, “There is no God but Thou; pardon me for
Mohammed’s sake, that great and last prophet, whose name is engraved on
Thy throne.”
When Adam had uttered these words with penitent heart, the gates of
heaven opened, and Gabriel cried out, “God has accepted thy penitence,
Adam! pray to Him alone, He will give thee what thou desirest, even the
return to Paradise, after a certain time.”
Adam prayed, “Lord, protect me from the further malice of my enemy
Eblis.”
“Speak the word, There is no God but God; that wounds him like a
poisoned arrow.”
“Lord, will not the meat and drink provided by this earth lead me into
sin?”
“Drink water, and eat only clean beasts which have been slain in the
name of Allah, and build mosques where you dwell, so will Eblis have no
power over you.”
“But if he torment me at night with evil thoughts and dreams?”
“Then rise from thy couch and pray.”
“Lord, how shall I be able to distinguish between good and evil?”
“My guidance will be with thee; and two angels will dwell in thy heart,
who shall warn thee against evil and encourage thee to good.”
“Lord, assure me Thy grace against sin.”
“That can only be obtained by good works. But this I promise thee, evil
shall be punished one-fold, good shall be rewarded tenfold.”
In the meanwhile the angel Michael had been sent to Eve to announce to
her God’s mercy. When Eve saw him, she exclaimed, “O great and almighty
Archangel of God, with what weapon shall I, poor frail creature, fight
against sin?”
“God,” answered the Angel, “has given me for thee, the most potent
weapon of modesty; that, as man is armed with faith, so mayest thou be
armed with shamefacedness, therewith to conquer thy passions.”
“And what will protect me against the strength of man, so much more
robust and vigorous than I, in mind and in body?”
“Love and compassion,” answered Michael. “I have placed these in the
deepest recesses of his heart, as mighty advocates within him to plead
for thee.”
“And will God give me no further gift?”
“For the pangs of maternity thou shalt feel, this shall be thine, death
in child-bearing shall be reckoned in heaven as a death of
martyrdom.”[87]
Eblis, seeing the mercy shown to Adam and Eve, ventured to entreat God’s
grace for himself, and obtained that he should not be enchained in the
place of torment till the day of the general Resurrection, and that he
should exercise sovereignty over the wicked and all those who should
reject God’s Word in this life.
“And where shall I dwell till the consummation of all things?” he asked
of Allah.
“In ruined buildings, and in tombs, and in dens and caves of the
mountains.”
“And what shall be my nourishment?”
“All beasts slain in the name of false gods and idols.”
“And how shall I slake my thirst?”
“In wine and other spirituous liquors.”
“And how shall I occupy myself in hours of idleness?”
“In music, dancing, and song.”
“What is the word of my sentence?”
“The curse of God till the Judgment-day.”
“And how shall I fight against those men who have received Thy
revelation, and are protected by the two angels?”
“Thy offspring shall be more numerous than theirs: to every man born
into this world, there will be born seven evil spirits, who, however,
will be powerless to injure true Believers.”
God then made a covenant with Adam’s successors; He rubbed Adam’s back,
and lo! from out of his back crawled all generations of men that were to
be born, about the size of ants, and they ranged themselves on the left
and on the right. At the head of those on the right stood Mohammed, then
the other prophets and the faithful, distinguished from those on the
left by their white and dazzling splendour. Those on the left were
headed by Kabil (Cain).
God then acquainted Adam with the names and fate of all his posterity;
and when the recital arrived at David, to whom God had allotted only
thirty years, Adam asked God, “How many years are accorded to me?”
Allah replied, “One thousand.”
Then said Adam, “I make a present to David of seventy years out of my
life.” God consented; and knowing the shortness of Adam’s memory, at all
events in matters concerning himself inconveniently, He made the angels
bring a formal document of resignation engrossed on parchment, and
required Adam to subscribe thereto his name, and Michael and Gabriel to
countersign it as witnesses.
A very similar tradition was held by the Jews, for in Midrash Jalkut
(fol. 12) it is said: God showed Adam all future generations of men,
with their captains, learned and literary men. Then he saw that David
was provided with only three hours of life, and he said, “Lord and
Creator of the world, is this unalterable?” “Such was my first
intention,” was the reply.
“How many years have I to live?”
“A thousand.”
“And is there such a thing known in heaven as making presents?”
“Most certainly.”
“Then I present seventy years of my life to David.”
And what did Adam next perform? He drew up a legal document of transfer,
and sealed it with his own seal, and God and Metatron did likewise.
To return to the Mussulman legend.
When all the posterity of Adam were assembled, God exclaimed to them,
“Acknowledge that I am the only God, and that Mohammed is my prophet.”
The company on the right eagerly made this acknowledgment; those,
however, on the left long hesitated,—some said only the former portion
of the sentence, and others did not open their mouths.
“The disobedient,” said Allah to Adam, “shall, if they remain obstinate,
be cast into hell, but the true believers shall be received into
Paradise.”
“So be it,” replied Adam. And thus shall it be at the end of the world.
After the covenant, Allah rubbed Adam’s back once more, and all his
little posterity retreated into it again.