Buttmann, Ueber der Mythus d. Sündfluth, Berlin, 1819; Lüken, Die
Traditionen des Menschengeschlechts, Münster, 1856; Bryant, Of the
Deluge, in Ancient Mythology, London, 1775, &c.
Footnote 206:
Parrot, Journey to Ararat, English Trans. Lond. 1845.
Footnote 207:
Joseph. Antiq., i. 3; see also Ptolem. Geogr. vi. 2.
Footnote 208:
Joseph. Antiq., i. 4.
Footnote 209:
Euseb. Præp. Evang. ix. 19.
Footnote 210:
Lucian, De Dea Syra, c. 12, 13.
Footnote 211:
Georg. Syncellus, Chronographia, p. 29, B., ed. Bonn; or Cory’s
Ancient Fragments, p. 26 et seq.
Footnote 212:
Præp. Evang. ix. 12; see also S. Cyril contra Julian, i.
Footnote 213:
Bochart, Geogr. Sacra, p. 231.
Footnote 214:
Ekhel, Doctrina Numm. Vet. iii. p. 132 et seq.; see also Bryant’s New
System of Ancient Mythology, Lond. 1775, i. note 3.
Footnote 215:
Orac. Sibyll, i. v. 260, 265-7. Ed. Fiedlieb.
Footnote 216:
Bundehesch, 7.
Footnote 217:
On the Chronology of the Hindus, by Sir W. Jones; Asiatic Researches,
ii. pp. 116-7.
Footnote 218:
Bopp, Die Sündfluth; Berlin, 1829, p. 9.
Footnote 219:
Ovid. Metam. i. 240 et seq.
Footnote 220:
Steph. Byzant., s. voce Ικονιον.
Footnote 221:
Diod. Sicul. lib. i.
Footnote 222:
Mém. concernant les Chinois, i. p. 157.
Footnote 223:
Klaproth, Inschrift. des Yu; Halle, 1811, p. 29.
Footnote 224:
Mém. concernant les Chinois, ix. p. 383.
Footnote 225:
Mart. Martinii, Hist. Sin. p. 26.
Footnote 226:
Steller, Beschreibung v. Kamschatka; Frankf. 1774, p. 273.
Footnote 227:
Serres, Kosmoganie des Moses, übersetzt von F. X. Stech, p. 149.
Footnote 228:
Davies, Mythology of the British Druids, London, 1809; and Celtic
Researches, London, 1844: curious works on the Arkite worship and
traditions of the Kelts.
Footnote 229:
The prose Edda; Mallet, Northern Antiq., ed. Bohn, p. 404.
Footnote 230:
Grimm, Deutsche Mythol.; Göttingen, 1854, p. 545.
Footnote 231:
The same story precisely is told by the closely allied race of the
Chippewas: Atherne Jones, Traditions of the North American Indians,
London, 1830, ii. p. 9 et seq.
Footnote 232:
Lütke, Voyage autour du Monde, i. p. 189.
Footnote 233:
Braunschweig, Die alten amerik. Denkmäler; Berlin, 1840, p. 18.
Footnote 234:
Atherne Jones, Traditions of the N. American Indians, ii. 21-33.
Footnote 235:
Catlin, Letters and Notes on the Manners, &c., of the N. American
Indians; London, 1841.
Footnote 236:
Mayer, Mytholog. Taschenbuch; Weimar, 1811, p. 245.
Footnote 237:
Schoolcraft, Notes on the Iroquois; New York, 1847, p. 358.
Footnote 238:
Müller, Geschichte des amerikanischen Urreligionen, Basle, 1855, p.
515; Lüken, Die Traditionen des Menschengeschlechts, p. 223.
Footnote 239:
Humboldt, Anh. des Cordilleren, i. p. 42.
Footnote 240:
Antonio de Herrera, Hist. general de los Hechos, &c.; Madrid, 1601,
iii. c. 10.
Footnote 241:
Compare Lüken and Müller.
Footnote 242:
Humboldt, Reise in die Aequinoctial Gegenden, iii. pp. 406-7.
Footnote 243:
Nachrichten aus dem Lande Guiana, v. Salvator Gili; Hamb., 1785, pp.
440-1, quoted by Lüken.
Footnote 244:
Garcilasso de la Vega, Hist. des Yncas; Amst., i. pp. 73 and 326.
Footnote 245:
Ausland, Jan. 1845, No. 1.
XVI.
THE PLANTING OF THE VINE.
Bowed under his toil, dripping with perspiration, stood the patriarch
Noah, labouring to break the hard clods. All at once Satan appeared and
said to him,—
“What new undertaking have you in hand? What new fruit do you expect to
extract from these clods?”
“I plant the grape,” answered the patriarch.
“The grape! proud plant, most precious fruit! joy and delight to men!
Your labour is great; will you allow me to assist you? Let us share the
labour of producing the vine.”
The patriarch in a fit of exhaustion consented.
Satan hastened, got a lamb, slaughtered it, and poured its blood over
the clods of earth. “Thence shall it come,” said Satan, “that those who
taste of the juice of the grape, shall be soft-spirited and gentle as
this lamb.”
But Noah sighed; Satan continued his work; he caught a lion, slew that,
and poured the blood upon the soil prepared for the plant. “Thence shall
it come,” said he, “that those who taste the juice of the grape shall be
strong and courageous as the lion.”
Noah shuddered. Satan continued his work; he seized a pig and
slaughtered it, and drenched the soil with its blood. “Thence shall it
come,” said he, “that those who drink of the juice of the grape in
excess, shall be filthy, degraded, and bestial as the swine.”[246]
The Mussulman tradition is somewhat similar.
“When Ham had planted the vine, Satan watered it with the blood of a
peacock. When it thrust forth leaves, he sprinkled it with the blood of
an ape; when it formed grapes, he drenched it with the blood of a lion;
when the grapes were ripe, he watered it with the blood of a swine.
“The vine, watered by the blood of these four animals, has assumed these
characters. The first glass of wine makes a man animated, his vivacity
great, his colour is heightened. In this condition he is like the
peacock. When the fumes of the liquor rise into his head, he is gay,
leaps and gambols as an ape. Drunkenness takes possession of him, he is
like a furious lion. When it is at its height, he is like the swine: he
falls and grovels on the ground, stretches himself out, and goes to
sleep.”[247]
Mohammed, to justify his forbidding his disciples to drink wine, cites
the history of the two angels, Arot and Harot.
“God,” says he, “charged them with a commission on the earth. A young
lady invited them to dinner, and they found the wine so good that they
got drunk. They then remarked that their hostess was beautiful, and they
were filled with love which they declared to her. This lady, who was
prudent, replied that she would only listen to their protestations when
she knew the words by which they were enabled to ascend to heaven. When
she had learned these words, she mounted to the throne of God, who, as a
reward for her virtue, transformed her into a shining star (the Morning
Star), and condemned the two drunken angels to await the day of
judgment, suspended by their heels in the well of Babel, near Bagdad,
which Mussulman pilgrims visit.”
According to Tabari,[248] Ham, for having laughed at his father’s
drunkenness, was cursed by Noah, that his skin should become black, as
well as all the fruits which were to grow in the land he should inhabit,
and thus the purple grape arose. It was the white grape that Ham
transplanted, but it blackened in his hands.
Abulfaraj relates that after the Deluge, Noah divided the habitable
world between his sons. He gave to Ham the country of the Black, to Shem
that of the Brown, and to Japheth that of the Red.[249] Noah also, he
continues, said to his son Shem, “When I am dead, take the bier of our
father Adam from the ark, and, together with your son Melchizedek, who
is a priest of the Most High, go with the body of Adam whither an angel
shall guide you.”
This they did; and an angel directed them to mount Breitalmakdes
(Jerusalem), where they deposited the bier on a certain hill, and
instantly it sank out of their sight into the ground. Then Shem returned
to his home, but not so Melchizedek, who remained to guard the body of
Adam: and he built there a city called Jerusalem, and he was called
Melek Salim, the King of Peace, and there he spent the rest of his life
in the worship of God; he touched not women, nor shed blood, but offered
to God oblations of bread and wine.[250]
Eutychius, the Egyptian patriarch of Alexandria, in his Annals, which
are rife with Oriental traditions, gives a fuller account of the same
incident.
When Noah was near his death, he bade Shem take the body of Adam, and go
with Melchizedek, son of Peleg, whither the angel of the Lord should
lead. “And,” said he, “thou shalt enjoin on Melchizedek to fix his
habitation there, to take to him no wife, and to spend his life in acts
of devotion, for God has chosen him to preserve His true worship. He
shall build himself no house, nor shall he shed blood of beast, or bird,
or any animal; nor shall he offer there any oblation save bread and
wine; and let the skins of lions be his only vesture; he shall remain
alone there; he shall not clip his hair, or pare his nails; for he is a
priest of the Most High. The angel of God shall go before you, till ye
come to the place where ye shall bury the body of Adam, and know that
that place is the middle of the world.” Now Noah died on Wednesday, at
the second hour, in the second month of Ayar, which is the same as
Bashnes, in the nine hundred and fiftieth year of his age. And this year
Shem was aged forty-five. The sons of Noah buried him, and bewailed him
forty days.[251]
The wife of Noah is said by some to have been called Bath-Enos, or the
daughter of Enos; but the Rabbi Gedaliah says her name was Noema; others
say it was Tethiri, or Tithœa, the nurse of men, as Eve was the mother
of men. The Gnostics called her Noria. She is, however, generally
supposed by the Rabbis to have been Naamah, the sister of
Tubal-cain.[252] But Eutychius, of Alexandria, says she was called
Haical, and was the daughter of Namus, son of Enoch; and that the wives
of Shem, Ham, and Japheth were the three daughters of Methuselah. Shem’s
wife was named Salith; the wife of Ham, Nahlath; and the wife of
Japheth, Arisivah.[253]
The nurse of Noah was an important personage, and must not be forgotten.
She was named Sambethe, and was the first Sibyl. Suidas, the grammarian,
says, “The Chaldee Sibyl, named Sambethi by the Hebrews, and identified
with the Persian Sibyl, was of the race of Noah. She foretold those
things which were to befall Alexander of Macedon. She also predicted the
coming of the Lord Christ, and many other things, through divine
inspiration.”[254]
Footnote 246:
Jalkut Genesis, fol. 16 a.
Footnote 247:
Colin de Plancy, p. 121.
Footnote 248:
Tabari, i. c. xli.
Footnote 249:
Hist. Dynastiarum, ed. Pocock; Oxon., 1663, p. 9.
Footnote 250:
Ibid., p. 10.
Footnote 251:
Eutychius, Patr. Alex., Annal., t. i. p. 44.
Footnote 252:
Bereschith Rabba, fol. 22, col. 4.
Footnote 253:
Eutych. Annal., ed. Selden, i. p. 35.
Footnote 254:
Suidas, Lexic. s. v. Σίβυλλα.
XVII.
THE SONS OF NOAH.
Ham, the accursed, the third son of Noah, was the inventor or the
preserver of magic. As we have already seen, he buried the books of
magic which existed in the world, before the Deluge swept over the
globe; and when it abated he exhumed them. Cerco d’Ascoli, in the fourth
chapter of his “Commentary on the Sphere of Sacrabosco,” declares that
he had seen a book of magic which had been composed by Ham, “which
contained the elements and practice of necromancy.” Certain it is that
apocryphal books of alchemy and conjuration of spirits existed in the
Middle Ages, which purported to have been composed by Ham.
Ham was turned black, according to the Talmud, because he did not
maintain himself in perfect continence whilst in the ark;[255] other
authorities say his skin became sooty in consequence of his scoffing at
his father’s drunkenness; and Japheth, for having smiled, says the
Mussulman lost the gift of prophecy from his family.[256]
Berosus supposed that Ham was the same as Zoroaster.
Japheth, according to Khondemir, was given by his father all the land to
the east and north of Ararat; he was the progenitor of the Turks, the
Sclaves, of Gog and Magog, says Tabari. Before he started with his
family to people these countries, Noah gave him a stone, on which was
written the great name of God. The Turks say that, by means of this
stone, Noah was able to guide the course of the ark without sail or
oars. The Turks have similar stones, which, they pretend, came by a
process of generation from the parental stone given to Japheth.[257] He
is said by the Mussulmans to have had eleven male children: Sin or
Tchin, the father of the Chinese; Scklab, the ancestor of the Sclavonian
races; Manschug or Magog, the parent of the Scythians and Kalmuks;
Gomari, the father of the Franks; Turk and Khalos, the ancestors of the
Turks; Khozaz, from whom the Khozarans trace their pedigree; Rus, father
of the Russians; Souffan, Ghoy, and Tarag, from whom the Turcomans
derive.
Ilak, son of Turk, discovered the use of salt by having let fall a piece
of meat he was eating on the ground covered with saline deposit.
Of Shem the Rabbis have somewhat to say. “I have found in the Midrash
that the Rabbi Johanan, son of Nuri, said: ‘The holy, ever-blessed God
took Shem, son of Noah, and consecrated him priest of the Most High,
that he should minister before Him; and He let his Majesty dwell with
Him, and He gave him the name Melchizedek, a priest of the Most High
God, king of Salem. His brother Japheth learnt the law of him in his
school, till Abraham came, who learnt it in the school of Shem. For this
Abraham obtained, praying to God that his Majesty should remain and
dwell in the house of Shem, wherefore it was said of him, _Thou art a
priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek_.’”[258]
Shem learned his knowledge from the Book of Wisdom which Raphael, the
holy angel, gave to Adam; but Shem’s instructor was the angel
Jophiel.[259]
The Rabbi Gerson writes in his book called “Sepher geliloth erez
Israel,” that having travelled through the lands of Og, king of Bashan,
he saw there a grave which measured eighty ells, and it was indicated to
him as the sepulchre of Shem.[260] A curious tradition that Shem, Ham,
and Japheth fell asleep in a cave, and woke up at the Nativity of
Christ, and that they were themselves the three wise men who came to
adore Him, shall be mentioned more fully when we treat of the legends
connected with the New Testament characters.
Shem is said to have received the priesthood instead of Noah, because
Noah was bitten by the lion as he was leaving the ark, and, being
suffused with blood, became incapable of receiving the priesthood.
Shem is believed to have written many books, and apocryphal writings of
his exist.
Footnote 255:
Tract. Sanhedrin, fol. 108, col. 2.
Footnote 256:
Tabari, i. p. 115.
Footnote 257:
Colin de Plancy, p. 124.
Footnote 258:
Eisenmenger, i. pp. 318-9.
Footnote 259:
Ibid., p. 376.
Footnote 260:
Ibid., p. 395.
XVIII.
RELICS OF THE ARK.
We have already seen that Berosus relates how in his time portions of
the ark were removed, and used as amulets. Josephus says that remains of
the ark were to be seen at his day upon Ararat; and Nicolas of Damascus
reports the same. S. Epiphanius writes: “The wood of the ark of Noah is
shown to this day in the Kardæan (Koord) country.”[261] And he is
followed by a host of fathers. El Macin, in his History of the Saracens,
relates that the Emperor Heraclius visited the relics after he had
conquered the Persians, in the city of Thenia, at the roots of Ararat.
Haithon, the Armenian, declares that upon the snows of Ararat a black
speck is visible at all times: this is Noah’s ark.[262] Benjamin of
Tudela, in his Itinerary, says that all the wood was carried away by the
Caliph Omar, in A.D. 640, and was placed by him in a temple or mosque he
erected in an island formed by the Tigris. One of the beams is shown in
the Lateran at Rome. In 1670, Johann Jansenius Strauss ascended to a
hermit’s cell on the side of Ararat, to bind up the cœnobite’s leg which
was broken. The hermit’s cell, said Strauss, was five days’ journey up
the mountain, athwart three clouds, and above a region of intolerable
cold, in a calm warm atmosphere. From the account of the hermit, Herr
Strauss learnt that the old man had dwelt there twenty-five years, and
that he had felt there neither rain nor winds. On the top of the
mountain, fifteen Italian miles from the cell, through the clear air,
was distinguishable the great vessel grounded in the snow. The hermit
had reached it, and of one of its planks had cut a cross, which he
exhibited to the German traveller.
In the town of Chenna, in Arabia Felix, says the traveller Prévoux, is a
large building, said to have been erected by Noah; and a large piece of
wood is exhibited through an iron grating, which is said to have formed
a portion of his ark. There is also to be seen at Chenna a well, said to
have been dug by the patriarch Jacob, of which the water is icy cold.
The Armenians say that a certain monk, Jacob, once ascended Ararat, and
carried off a fragment of the ark, which he made afterwards into a
cross, and this is preserved amongst the sacred relics of Etchmiadzin.
When the Persian king, Abassus the Great, sent to inquire about the ark,
the monks replied that it was in vain for him to attempt to reach it, on
account of the precipices and glaciers, and innumerable difficulties of
the way.[263]
Footnote 261:
Adv. Hæres., lib. i.
Footnote 262:
De Tartaris, c. 9.
Footnote 263:
Reliquiæ Arcæ Noæ, in Fabricius, i. art. 33.
XIX.
CERTAIN DESCENDANTS OF HAM.
We shall follow certain Mussulman traditions for what follows. Ad, son
of Amalek, therefore grandson of Ham, established himself in Arabia,
where he became chief of the tribe of the Adites. He fell into idolatry.
He had two sons named Schedad and Schedéd, who reigned over numerous
subjects—one for two hundred and fifty, the other for three hundred
years. They built a superb city, where houses were of sumptuous
magnificence; the like of this city was never seen before, nor will be
seen again. This city vanished when the tribe of the Adites was
exterminated; as we shall relate when we give the legends attaching to
Heber. The commentators of the Koran tell marvels of this wondrous city.
Under the Khalifate of Moawiyah, first of the Ommiades, an Arab of the
desert, named Kolabah, going in quest of his camel in the plain of Aden,
lighted on the gate of a beautiful city. He went in, but, being filled
with fear, he did not remain there more time than sufficed for him to
collect some of the stones of the street, and then he returned.
His neighbours, to whom he relates his adventure, repeated it to the
Khalif, who ordered Kolabah to be brought before him. The Arab related
frankly what he had seen, but Moawiyah would not give credence to the
marvellous tale, till he had consulted his learned men, and especially
the illustrious Al-Akhbar, who assured him that the story of the poor
Arab was worthy of all trust, for the city he had seen was none other
than that built by Schedad, son of Ad, in the land of the Adites in
which Aden is situated; and that, as the pride of this prince knew no
bounds, God had sent His angel to destroy all the inhabitants, and
conceal their splendid city from the eyes of men, to be revealed only at
intervals, that the memory of God’s judgment might not fade out of men’s
minds.
Schedad had a son named Dhohak, of whom strange tales are told. He knew
magic, and gained the sovereignty over the entire universe; and he kept
his subjects in terror by excessive cruelty. In the Caherman-Nâmeh it is
related that the Devil, satisfied with his proceedings, offered him his
services gratuitously, and they were cheerfully accepted. The ferocity
of the tyrant increased, he skinned men alive, impaled and crucified
them on the slightest charges.
After having served him five years, the Evil One thus addressed him:
“Sire! for many years I have been thy faithful attendant, neither have I
received of thee any recompense. Now I beseech of thee one favour—that I
may kiss thy shoulders.”
This favour was readily granted. Dhohak himself plucked off his mantle
to facilitate the kiss.
But no sooner had the Devil applied his lips to the two shoulders of the
tyrant, than two serpents, which could not be plucked off, fastened
there and began to gnaw his flesh.
Tabari says that the king bore on his shoulders two frightful ulcers or
cancers, resembling serpents’ heads, sent him by God as a punishment for
his crimes. These cancers caused him such acute agony, that he shrieked
night and day. No one was able to provide a remedy or to abate the
torment.
One night when he was asleep, some one appeared to him in a dream, and
said, “If you desire your ulcers to give less pain, apply to them human
brains.”
Next day, Dhohak awoke and ordered two men to be brought before him; he
slew them, cut open their skulls, extracted the brains and applied them
to his cancers. The relief was instantaneous, and Dhohak felt, for the
first time for many days, some hours of repose.
After this, every day two men were killed to form poultices for his
ulcers. During the two hundred latter years of the life of Dhohak, the
prisons were emptied to satisfy his requirement for fresh brains; and
when no more criminals could be procured, it was made a tribute for his
kingdom to render to him two men, each day, to be immolated to soothe
his pain.
Now there was at Ispahan a blacksmith, named Kaveh, who had two
beautiful sons, whom he loved more dearly than his own life. One day
they were seized, carried before the king, and his shoulders were
poulticed with their brains.
Kaveh was at work at his anvil when the news of the slaying of his sons
reached him. He deserted his anvil; and uttering a piercing cry, he
rushed into the streets, with his leathern apron before him, bitterly
lamenting his loss, and calling for vengeance on the monarch. The people
crowded about him, they plucked off his leather apron, and converted it
into a standard.
The crowd gathered as it advanced. From every street men flowed to join
the army, and shortly the blacksmith found himself at the head of a
hundred thousand men.
They marched to Demavend, where was the palace of the tyrant. And Kaveh,
before attacking it, thus addressed his soldiers, “I am not one to lead
you against a king; you need a king to make war against a king.”
“Well,” said his followers, “we elect you to be our king.”
“I am but a simple blacksmith, and am not fit to rule,” answered Kaveh,
“but there is a royal prince named Afridoun, the son of Djemschid, who
has fled from the cruelty of Dhohak: choose him.”
They agreed. The prince was found and invested with the sovereignty;
then a battle was fought, and Dhohak’s army was routed, and the tyrant
was slain.
When Afridoun mounted the throne, he named Kaveh governor of Ispahan.
And when Kaveh was dead, the king asked his children to give him their
father’s leathern apron. Then, having obtained it, he placed it among
his treasures, and whenever he went to battle he attached the smith’s
apron to a tall staff, and marched under that banner against his
enemies.
In after years, this leathern apron was studded with precious stones,
till Omar, despising it, ordered the old piece of leather to be burnt;
but Yezdeguerd had already robbed it of its gems.[264]
Afridoun exercised the sovereignty during two hundred years. He was the
first to study astronomy, and he founded the science of medicine. He was
the first king to ride on an elephant. He had three sons, Tur, Salm, and
Irad. He loved the third son, Irad, more than the two elder, and he gave
him the sovereignty over Irad, Mosul, Koufa, and Bagdad.
After the death of Afridoun, Tur and Salm marched against Irad, defeated
him and killed him, saying: “Our father has divided his inheritance
unjustly. He has given to Irad the best portion, the centre of the
world; as for us, we are cast out to its extremities.”
On the death of Tur and Salm, the crown left this family, and passed to
a king named Cush, who was of the sons of Ham, the son of Noah. Cush
reigned forty years. After him Canaan ascended the throne. Cush and
Canaan worshipped idols. It is said that Nimrod was the son of Canaan.
When Canaan died, Nimrod succeeded him. Nimrod had a vizir named Azar
(Terah), son of Nahor, son of Sarough (Serug), who was sixth in
generation from Noah. This Azar was the father of Abraham, the friend of
God.
From the time of the Deluge to the time of Abraham was three thousand
years. During that period, there was no prophet save Hud (Eber), who was
sent to the Adites, and Saleh, who was sent to the Thamudites.
We shall relate the history of Hud and of Saleh, and then return to that
of Nimrod.[265]
Footnote 264:
Tabari, i. c. xlii. xliii.
Footnote 265:
Tabari, i. c. xliii.
XX.
SERUG.
“_And Eber lived four and thirty years, and begat Peleg._
“_And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat Reu. And Reu lived two and
thirty years, and begat Serug. And Serug lived thirty years, and begat
Nahor._”[266]