7^ ro ■JO sM:.: CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A COLLECTION MADE BY BENNO LOEWY I854-I9I9 AND BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY ATE DUE Cornell University Library BF753 .A79 Tradition, pr ncipally with reference to olin 3 1924 029 118 994 BF 153 sA/me^ Sm: /S/^ , Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924029118994 RADITION ILLY WITH REFERENCE TO ND THE LAW OF NATIONS, PRINTED BY BALLANTVNE'AND COMPANY EDINBURGH AND LONDON TRADITION PEINOIPALLT WITH EBFBRBNCB TO MYTHOLOGY AND THE LAW OF NATIONS. BT LOED AEUNDELL OF WAKDOUR. LONDON: BURNS, GATES, & COMPANY, 17 & 18 POETMAN STREET, AND 63 PATEENOSTEE ROW. 1872. 45 I l:'(2l;K'KLL UWlVlTlvl!:t'l Y lAli U /; Ix Y >-^-e^~t- /\i^is'S'Z3 iak iMlJ CONTENTS. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. vn. vin. IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. XV. PEEFAOE, • • . . , MEMOIK OF COLONEL GEOEGE MAODONELL, C.B,, THE LAW 0¥ NATIONS, .... THE LAW OF NATDEE, .... PKIMITIVE LIFE, ..... OHEONOLOGT FEOM THE POINT OF VIEW OF TEADITION, CHRONOLOGY FEOM THE POINT OF VIEW OF SCIENCE PALMBE ON EGYPTIAN CHEONOLOGY, THE TEADITION OF THE HUMAN EACE, . MYTHOLOGY, .... ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY, . THE TEADITION OF NOAH AND THE DELUGE, DILUVIAN TEADITIONS IN AFEIOA AND AMERICA, SIE JOHN LUBBOCK ON TEADITION, NOAH AND THE GOLDEN AGE, SIE H. MAINE ON THE LAW OF NATIONS, THE DECLAEATION OF WAE, PREFACE. I SHALL have no hope of conveying to the reader, within the narrow limits of a preface, any fuller idea of the purport of this work than its title expresses; and as the chapters are necessarily interdependent, I can indi- cate no short-cut in the perusal by which this information can be obtained. I venture to think that those who are interested in the special matters referred to will find something in these pages which may attract on account of its novelty — and some other things, new at least in their application — e.g. the comparison of Boulanger's theory with the narra- tiyes of Captain E. Burton and Catlin. The frequent introduction and the length of the notes, must, I am aware, give to these pages a repellent aspect, but the necessity of bringing various points under com- parison has compelled this arrangement ; and I regret to say that the argument runs through the whole, and that almost as much matter requiring consideration will be found in the notes and appendices as in the text. I trust that these imperfections may not be so great as X PREFACE. to estrange the few, among whom only I can hope to find much sympathy, who wish to see the true foundations of peace and order re-established in the world, and who may therefore to some extent be indulgent towards efforts which have for their aim and motive the attempt to erect barriers which would render the recurrence of the evils which have lately deluged mankind difficult, if not impossible. There are others whom the recent scenes of horror have inspired with a love of peace and order, or of whom it would be more true to say, that the horrors of the late war and revolution have deepened iii them the sentiment of peace and order which they have always entertained, but who still do not desire these things on the conditions upon which alone they can be secured. From them I can only ask such passing examination as may be de- manded for the conscientious rejection of the evidence I have collected, or for its adjustment with more accepted theories. There will remain for me much ground in common with all who retain their faith in the inspiration of Holy Writ, and who wish to see its authority sustained against the aggressive infidelity of the day; and even among those who reject the authority of divine revelation, there may be still some who are wearied in the arid wastes, and who would gladly retrace their steps to the green pastures and the abundant streams. Among such I may perhaps expect to find friendly criticism. PREFACE. xi At the same time, I do not disguise from myself that, in its present mood, the world is much more anxious to be cut adrift from tradition than to be held to its moor- ings ; and that it will impatiently learn that fresh facts have to be considered before its emancipation can be declared, or before it can be let loose without the evident certainty of shipwreck. Although the exigencies of the argument have compelled research over a somewhat extended field of inquiry, the exploration has no preten- sions to being exhaustive, but at most suggestive ; not attempting to work the mine, or, except incidentally, to produce the ore, but only indicating the positions in which it is likely to be found. In the main position of the mythological chapters, that the heroes of mythological legend embody the re- miniscences of the characters and incidents of the biblical narrative, I do nothing more than carry on a tradition, as the reader will see in my references to Calmet, Bryant, Palmer, and others.^ I should add, that I limit ^ It has curiously happened that I have never seen the work which, after Bryant, would probably have afforded the largest repertory of facts — G. Stanley Faber's " Dissertation on the Mysteries of the Cabiri ; " and it is only recently, since these pages were in print, that I have become acquainted with Davies' " Celtic Researches " and " The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids." The Celtic traditions respecting their god Hu, are so important from more than one point of view, that I cannot forbear mating the following extracts from the latter author, which I trust the reader will refer back to and compare in chap. is., with the Babylonian Hoa, at p. 66 with the Chinese Tu, and at p. 262 with the African Hu. Davies' " Celtic Researches," p. 184, says, " Though Hu Gadam primarily denoted the Supreme Being [compare chap, ix.], I think his actions have a xii PREFACE. the full application of De Maistre's theory to the times preceding the coming of our Lord. My attention was first drawn to the coincidences of mythology with scriptural history hy the late Colonel Gr. Macdonell.^ Colonel Macdonell's coincidences were founded upon a peculiar theory of his own, and must necessarily have been exclusively upon the lines of Hebrew derivation. There is nothing, however, in these pages drawn from that source. I may add, for the satisfaction of Colonel Macdonell's friends, that as Colonel Macdonell's MSS. exist, and are in the posses- sion of Colonel I. J. Macdonell, I have (except at p. 243, when quoting from Boulanger,) expressly excluded the consideration of the influence of the Hebrew upon secondary reference to the history of Noah. The following particulars are told of him in the above-cited selection : — (1. ) His branching or elevated oxen [compare p. 205 and chap, xi.] .... at the Deluge, drew the de- stroyer out of the water, so that the lake burst forth no more [compare chap, iv.] (2.) He instructed the primitive race in the cultivation of the earth [2ompare p. 239]. (3.) He first collected and disposed them into various tribes [compare p. 239]. (4.) He first gave laws, traditions, &c., and adapted verse to memorials [compare p. 239]. (5.) He first brought the Cymry into Britain and Gaul [compare p. 66], because he would not have them possess lands by war and contention, but of right and peace " [compare chaps, xiii. and xv.] It is true that these traditions come to us in ballads attributed to Welsh bards of the 13th and 14th centuries A.D. ; but, as the Kev. Mr Davies said, " that such a superstition should have been fabricated by the bards in the middle ages of Christianity, ia a sup- position utterly irreooncileable with probability." And I think the im- probability will be widely extended if the readers will take the trouble, after perusal, to make the references as above. ^ I have appended a short biographical notice of Colonel 6. Macdonell, which I venture to think may contain matter of public interest. PREFACE. xiii general tradition, which, however, will be necessary for the full discussion of the question. Whatever, therefore, Colonel Macdonell may have written will remain over and above in illustration of the tradition. But whether on the lines of Hebrew or primeval tradition, these views will inevitably run counter to the mythological theories now in the ascendant. These views, indeed, have been so long relegated to darkness, and per- haps appropriately, on account of their opposition to the prevalent solar theories, "flouted like owls and bats" whenever they have ventured into the daylight, that it will be with something amounting to absolute astonish- ment that the learned will hear that there are people who still entertain them: " itaque ea nolui scribere, qu^ nee indocti intelligere possent, nee docti legere cura- rent " (Oic. Acad. Quaas., 1. i. § 2). I can sincerely say, however, that although my theories place me in a position of antagonism to modern science, yet that I have written in no spirit of hostility to science or the cause of science. I have throughout excluded the geological argument, for the first and sujfficient reason that I am not a geo- logist ; and secondly, by the same right and title, that geologists, e.g. Sir C. Lyell, in his " Antiquity of Man," ignores the arguments and facts to which I have directed special attention. Nevertheless, I find that competent witnesses have come to conclusions not materially different from those xiv PREFACE. Whicli have been arrived at, on the ground of history, within their own department of geology. I have more especially in my mind the following passage from a series of papers, " On Some Evidences of the Antiquity of Man," by the Eev. A. Weld, in the Month (] 871), written with full knowledge and in a spirit of careful and fair appre- ciation of the evidence. He says : — " These evidences, such, as they are, are fuHy treated in the work of Sir C. Lyell, entitled ' Antiquity of Man,' which exhausted the whole question as it stood, when the last edition was published in the year 1863. It is worthy of note that though the conclusion at which the geologist arrives is hesitating and suggestive, rather than decisive, and though nothing of importance, as far as we are aware, has been added to the geological aspect of the question since that time — except that the reality of the discovery of human remains has been verified, and many additional discoveries of a similar character have been made — siill the opinion, which was then new and startling, has gradually gained grovnd, until we find writers assuming as a thing that needs no further proof, that the period of man's habitation on the earth is to be reckoned in tens of thousands of years." — The Month (May and June 1871), p. 437. Among various works, bearing on matters contained in these pages, which have come to hand during the course of publication, I may mention — " The Mythology of the Aryan Nations," by the Kev. Gr. W. Cox, referred to in notes at pp. 158, 165, 396. The third edition of Sir John Lubbock's *' Pre-historic Times." Mr E. B, Tylor's <' Primitive Culture," referred to in notes at pp. 41, 136, 300. PREJp-ACE. XV Mr St G-eorge Mivart's " Genesis- of Species." Mr F. Seebohm on " International Reform." Sir H. S. Maine's "Village Communities." The Archbishop of Westminster's paper, read before the Royal Institution, " On the Dsemon of Socrates." " Orsini's Life of the Blessed Virgin," translated by the Very Rey. Dr Husenbeth. " Hints and Facts on the Origin of Man," by the Very Rev. Dr P. Melia, 1872, who says (p. 59), " Con- sidering the great length of life of the first, patriarchs, Moses must have had every information through non- interrupted tradition. If we reflect that Shem for many years saw Methuselah, a contemporary of Adam, and that Shem himself lived to the time of Abraham, .... that Abraham died after the birth of Jacob, and that Jacob saw many who were alive when Moses was born, we see that a few generations connect Moses not only with Noah, but also with Adam." I quote this passage as it is important to place in the foreground of this inquiry the unassailable truth that (apart from revelation) the historical account of the origin of the human race, to which all others converge, is con- sistent with itself, and bears intrinsic evidence of credibility. An analogous argument with reference to Christian tradition was sketched in a lecture by Mr Edward Lucas, and published in 1862, "On the First Two Centuries of Christianity." XVI PREFACE. With reference to other parts of these pages, much supplemental matter will be found in — " Historical Illustrations of the Old Testament," by the Rev. G. Rawlinson, M.A., Camden Prof, where, at pp. 19, 20, will be found direct testimony to what I had conjectured from indirect evidence at pp. 270, 271 — viz., that the Polynesian islanders " have a clear and dis- tinct tradition of a Deluge, from which one family only, eight in number, was saved in a canoe." Also, but from a different point of view, in " Legends of Old Testament Characters," by Eev. S. Baring Gould, M.A. The articles in the Tablet " On Arbitration instead of War," to which I have referred in chap. xiv. at p. 380, have recently been collected and reprinted by Lord Robert Montagu, M.P. If I have exceeded in quotation, I must direct my readers, for the defence of this mode of composition, from the point of view of tradition, to a work which I trust some in this busy age still find leisure to read, Mr Kenelm Digby's " Mores Catholici," i. 40. I must, moreover, add a passage from the general pre- face to the recent republication of Mr Disraeli's works, which I came upon too late to introduce into the body of this book, but which I feel sure the reader, even if he has met with it before, will not be reluctant to reperuse : — " The sceptical effects of the discoveries of science, and the uneasy feeling that they cannot co-exist with our old religious convictions PREFACE. xvii have their origin in the circumstance that the general body who have suddenly become conscious of these physical truths are not so well acquainted as is desirable with the past history of man. Astonished by their unprepared emergence from ignorance to a cer- tain degree of information, their amazed intelligence takes refuge in the theory of what is conveniently called progress, and every step in scientific discovery seems further to remove them from the path of primaeval inspiration. But there is no fallacy so flagrant as to suppose that the modern ages have the peculiar privilege of scien- tific discovery, or that they are distinguished as the epochs of the most illustrious inventions. On the contrary, scientific invention has always gone on simultaneously with the revelation of spiritual truths ; and more, the greatest discoveries are not those of modern ages. No one for a moment can pretend that printing is so great a discovery as writing, or algebra as laiiguage. What are the most brilliant of our chemical discoveries compared with the invention of fire and the metals 1 It is a vulgar belief that our astronomical knowledge dates only from the recent century, when it was rescued from the monks who imprisoned Galileo ; but Hipparchus, who lived before our Divine Master, and who, among other sublime achieve- ments, discovered the precession of the equinoxes, ranks with the Newtons and the Keplers ; and Copernicus, the modern father of our celestial science, avows himself, in his famous work, as only the champion of Pythagoras, whose system he enforces and illustrates. Even the most modish schemes of the day on the origin of things, which captivate as much by their novelty as their truth, may find their precursors in ancient sages ; and after a careful analysis of the blended elements of imagination and induction which characterise the new theories, they will be found mainly to rest on the atom of Epicurus and the monad of Thales. Scientific, like spiritual truth, . has ever from the beginning been descending from Heaven to man. He is a being who organically demands direct relations with his Creator, and he would not have been so organised if his requirements could not be satisfied. We may analyse the sun and penetrate the stars ; but man is conscious that he is made in God's own image, and in his perplexity he will ever appeal to our Father which art in Heaven." b MEMOIR COLONEL GEOEGE MACDONELL, C.B. The foUowing notice appeared in the Times, May 23, 1870 — "In our obituary column of Saturday we announced the death of Colonel George Macdonell, C.B., at the advanced age of ninety. This officer, who was a cadet of the ancient and loyal Scottish house of MacdoneU of Glengarry, was the son of an officer who served under the flag, and who, as we have been told, was on the staff, of Prince Charles Edward Stuart at the battle of Culloden, where he was severely wounded. His son, the Colonel now deceased, was bom in 1779, or early in the foUowing year ; obtained his first commission in 1796, and was nominated a Companion of the Bath in 1817. He saw active service in the war in North America with the 79 th Foot, and received the gold medal for the action at Chateaugay ; and had he not accepted the retirement a few years since, he would have been, at his death, almost the senior officer in the army holding Her Majesty's conimisdon. The late Colonel Macdonell, who adhered to the Eoman Catholic religion professed by his ancestors, and for which they fought so gallantly under the Stuart banners, married, in 1820, the Hon. Laura AximdeU, sister of the Lord Arundell of XX MEMOIR OF Wardour, but was left a widower in May 1854." His son, Colonel I. J. Macdonell, now commands the 71st HigHanders. I take this opportunity of adding a few facts, not without interest, to the above brief summary of a not uneventful life, as they might otherwise pass unrecorded. In the sentiment of the Gaelic saying — " Ourri mi qlaoh er do cuim" (Wilson, " Archeeol. Scot.," p. 59) — " I will add a stone to your cairn." Colonel Macdonell's father, as stated in. the above account, was wounded at Oulloden in the thigh, but was able to crawl on all- fours, after the battle, eighteen miles, to a bam belonging to a mem- ber of the Grant family. He there remained in concealment for six months, leaving nature to heal the wound ; but the search in the neighbourhood in time becoming too hot, he had to decamp, and walked with a stick all the way to Newcastle, where he was not greatly re-assured by meeting a soldier who had just been drummed out of his regiment as a CathoUe, with the word " Papist " placarded on his back. He, however, escaped all dangers, and reached Hull, and subsequently Versailles or St Germains, where he remained three years, or at least till the events following the Peace of Aii-la-Chapelle dispersed the Prince's adherents. He then returned to England under the Act of Indemnity, entered the royal army, and was pre- sent with General Wolfe at the taking of Quebec. If I remember rightly, he had the good fortune to take an aide-de-camp of Mont- calm's prisoner, with important dispatches. Colonel Macdonell's maternal uncle. Major Macdonald (Keppoch) was taken prisoner at the battle of Falkirk. He was said to have been the first man who drew blood in the war. By a curious revenge of fortune, he was carried back into the enemy's ranks by the horse of a trooper whom he had captured. He was executed at Carlisle and the circumstances of his execution supplied Sir Walter Scott I believe, with the incidents which he worked up into the narrative of COLONEL GEORGE MACDONELL, C.B. xxi Maclvor's execution va "Waverley." His sword is in the possession of Mr P. Howard of Corby Castle, near Carlisle. Fortune, however, had in store another revenge ; for the Duke of Cumberland being present, many years afterwards, at a ball at Bath, by a most unhappy selection indicated as the person with whom he wished to dance a beautiful girl who turned out to be no other than the daughter of Major Maodonald (afterwards married to Mr Chi- chester of Calverley) the circumstances of whose execution have just been'referred to. She rose in deference to royalty, but replied, in a tone which utterly d&comfited, and put his Royal Highness to flight — " No, I will never dance with the murderer of my father ! " With these antecedents, it is needless to add that Colonel G. Mac- donell was a warm admirer of the Stuarts, and not unnaturally ex- tended his sympathy and adhesion to the kindred cause of legitimacy in France ; and the one event to which he always looked forward, and confidently predicted— the restoration of the monarchy in the person of Henri V. — is now, if not imminent, at least " the more probable of possible events." There was, however, a belief which somewhat conflicted in his mind with the above anticipation — namely, his unshaken conviction that the Dauphin did not die in the Temple. He was frecLuently at Holyrood when the palace was occupied by Charles X., and he accompanied the Duchess de Berri to the place of embarkation for her unfortunate expedition to France. Colonel Macdonell also acted as the medium of communication be- tween the French Royalists and the English Government j and on one important occasion conveyed intelligence to Lord Bathurst or Lord Sidmouth respecting the movements of the secret societies in Spain in 1823 some hours before it reached them by the ordinary channel. Part of the communication was made on information sup- plied by the Abb6 Barruel ; and in reply. Lord Sidmouth said— "Well, I remember Edmund Burke telling me that he believed xxii MEMOIR OF every word that Barruel had written, and I fully accept the authority." Colonel Macdonell was under the impression that he was unwittingly and remotely the cause of the break up of the Ministry of " all the talents." As this is an obscure point in history, it may be worth while to give the following facts. The impression produced by Marengo and Austerlitz had led to the Army Eeform Bill of 1806, in which the points discussed were almost identical with those which lately excited the public mind. The disasters which accom- panied our descent on Egypt in 1807, and the consequent evacuation of Alexandria, created considerable discontent and re-opened the question, and as further reforms on minor points were contemplated, saggestions from officers in the army were iuvited. Colonel Macdonell (then only lieutenant), wrote to Mr Windham, the Secretary at War, to point out that any broken attorney might create considerable embarrassment at any critical moment, seeing that, as the law then stood (an Act of George I. had extended the obli- gation of taking the sacrament to privates), any soldier could obtain, if not his own, his comrade's discharge by pointing him out as a Papist. The danger was recognised, and Mr Windham brought in a bill directed to meet the case, but its introduction revived the larger question of the repeal of the Tests' Acts and of the Catholic claims ; and the discussion eventuated in Lord Howick's bill, which was met by the King's refusal, and the consequent resignation of the Ministry. This may explain the statement (mentioned in the obituary notice in the Times of the Marquis of Lansdowne), that he (Lord Lansdowne) could never understand how the Ministry came to be dissolved. " He had heard instances of men running their heads against a wall, but never of men building up a wall against which to run their heads." ^ ^ Sir H. Lytton Bulwer, in hia " Life of Lord Palmerston,'' aays, i. p. 62, COLONEL GEORGE MACDONELL, C.B. xxiii It has been mentioned that Colonel MacdoneU entered the army ■when quite a boy ; and there were few men, I fancy, living, when he died last year, who could boast, as he could, of having served in the Duke of York's campaign in the last century, but I am not able to state in what regiment. He was for some time previously in Lord Darlington's regiment of Fencibles. He was at one period in the 8th, and at another in the 50th regiment, in which latter, I think, he went out to the West Indies and Canada. It was in Canada, however, that his principal services were ren- dered, which indeed were considerable, and have never been adequately acknowledged. When the Americans invaded Canada upon the declaration of war in 1812, it is hardly necessary to remind the reader that almost all our available troops were engaged in the Peninsula, and that Canada was pretty well left to its own resources. Under these circumstances it will be recognised as of some import- ance that Colonel MacdoneU was able to raise a regiment among the Macdonells of his clan who had settled there. But the conditions mad e with him were not fulfilled, and the command of the regiment, almost immediately after it was raised, was transferred to the com- mand of a Protestant and an Orangeman, which caused a mutiny which was with difficulty suppressed. Now, it must be borne in mind that the regiment was only raised through his personal influ- ence with the clan, and through that of its pastor. Bishop MacdoneU, and that the adhesion of the CathoUc MacdoneUs went far to deter- mine the attitude of the French Canadians also. There were not more than 1200 regular troops in Upper Canada during the war.^ " There has seldom happened in this country so sudden and unexpected a change of Ministers as that which took place in March 1807." ■^ W.James, "Military Occurrences of Late War," i. 66, says, 1450 regular troops ; Murray, " History of British America," i. 189, says, 2100 troops. xxiv MEMOIR OF Before referring to tlie actions in wMcli Colonel Macdonell was en- gaged, I will add the following particulars as to tlie Highland settlement which Colonel Macdonell gave me. In 1798, the submission of the Highland chiefs to the House of Hanover having heen of some stand- ing, and their adhesion heing, moreover, cemented in a common senti- ment of abhorrence of the French Revolution, they were willingly induced to raise regiments among their clans. This was done by Glen- garry, Macleod, and others. At the peace these regiments were dis- ( banded, but finding that complications of various sorts had necessarily arisen during their absence respecting their lands and holdings at home, and, in point of fact, that they had no homes to return to, the greater part remained temporarily domiciled at Glasgow, the place of their disbandment. I infer that they remained imder the charge and direction of Bishop Macdonell, who had accompanied them in their campaigns as chaplain, and was the first Catholic priest officially recognised in the capacity of regimental chaplain. At Glasgow (previously only served as a flying mission), he hired a storehouse, which he opened as a chapel, but stealthily only, as two of the con- gregation were always posted as a guard at the entrance on Sunday. He found only eighteen Catholics at Glasgow at that time, i.e., I sup- pose, previously to the disbandment of the Highlanders. Through Bishop Macdonell's influence with Lord Sidmouth— who, although a strong opponent of the Catholic claims, always acted in his relations with him, he said, in the most honourable and straightforward way — the emigration of the Highlanders to Canada was shortly after- wards arranged. Colonel Macdonell was subsequently partially reinstated in his command of the Glengarry regiment. The important services ren- dered by Colonel Macdonell in Canada, to which I have alluded, were — 1. The taking of Ogdensburg at a critical moment, on his own responsibility, and contrary to orders, which had the effect of COLONEL GEORGE MACDONELL, C.B. xxv diverting the American attack from Upper Canada at a moment ■when it was entirely undefended ; and, 2. Bringing the regiment of French Canadian militia, then temporarily nnder his command, from Kingston, by a forced run down the rapids of the St Lawrence with- out pilots (passing the point where Lord Amherst lost eighty men), in time enough (he arrived the day before, unknown to the Americans) to support De Saluberry at the decisive action at Chateaugay. De Saluberry indeed had only 300 French Canadians under his com- mand, which, with the 600 brought up by Colonel MacdoheU, only made up a force of 900 (with about 100 Indians), with which to check General Hampton's advance with some 7000 (the Americans stated the force at 5520 infantry and 180 cavalry, James, i. 305) in his advance on Montreal. In point of fact. Colonel MacdoneU must be considered, on any impartial review of the facts, to have won the day (mc?e infra), yet he was not even mentioned in Sir G. Prevost's dispatch. Colonel MacdoneU received the Companionship of the Bath for the taking of Ogdensburg, and the gold medal for his conduct in the action at Chateaugay. I append the following accounts of the aflfairs at Ogdensburg and Chateaugay, adding a few particulars in correction and explanation — Alison, " History of Europe," xix. 121 (Zth ed.), says — " Shortly after Colonel M'Donnell (MacdoneU), with two companies of the Glengarry Fencibles, and two of the 8th, converted s. feigned attack which he was ordered to make on Fort Ogdensburg into a real one. The assault was made under circumstances of the utmost difficulty ; deep snow impeded the assailants at every step, and the American marksmen, from behind their defences, kept up a very heavy fire ; but the gaUantry of the British overcame every obstacle, and the fort was carried, with eleven gvms, all its stores, and two armed ' schooners in the harbour." The difficulties, as I have understood xxvi MEMOIR OF from Colonel Macdonell, were not so much from the impediments of the snoTv, as from the dangerous state of the St Lawrence at the time, the ice literally waving under the tramp of his men as he passed them over (ten paces apart). The stroke of the axe, by which they judged, told it indeed to be only barely safe, and it had never been crosse'd by troops before at that point, as it was deemed insecure, being within three miles of the GaUops Eapids. (Among the guns were some taken from General Burgoyne.) A fuller account of the taking of Ogdensburg may be read in Mr W. James' " FuU and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of the late "War between Great Britain and the United States of America," vol. i. p. 135-141 : London, 1818; he adds, "Previously to dismissing the affair at Ogdensburg it may be right to mention that Sir G. Prevost's secretary, or some person who had the tran- scribing of Major (Colonel) MacdonmeU's (MacdoneE's) ofScial letter, must have inserted by mistake the words ' In consequence of the commands of his Excellency.' Of this there needs no stronger proof than that Major (Colonel) MacdonneU (Macdonell) while he was in the heat of the battle, received a private note from Sir G. dated from ' Flint's Inn at 9 o'clock,' repeating his orders not.to make the attack ; and even in the first private letter which Sir G. wrote to Major MacdonneU (Colonel Macdonell) after being informed of his success, he could not help qualifying his admiration of the exploit with a remark that the latter had rather exceeded his instructions — (Note. — ^Both of these letters the author has seen "), vol. i. 140. Colonel Macdonell's explanation to me of his taking this responsibility on himself was simply that he saw that the fate of the whole of Upper Canada depended upon it. Colonel Macdonell had received infor- mation that 5000 American troops were moving up in the direction of Ogdensburg, and they, in fact, came up a week after it was taken, under General Pike ; but seeing the altered aspect of affairs, they COLONEL GEORGE MACDONELL, C.B. xxvii moved off, and fell back upon Sackett's Harbour, anticipating a similar attack at that point. Colonel Macdonell always spoke witb mucb emotion of the gallant conduct of a Captain Jenkins, a young officer under his command, who, although he had both arms shattered by two successive shots, struggled on at the head of his men until he swooned. He survived some years, but died of the overcharge of blood to the head conse- quent on the loss of his limbs. As Ogdensburg was a frontier town on the American side of the St Lawrence, Sir G. Prevost authorised payment for any plunder by the troops, but Colonel Macdonell received a certificate from the inhabitants that they had not lost a single shilling — which must be recorded to the credit of the Glengarry Highlanders xmder his command. As I have abeady said, although Colonel Macdonell commanded the larger force, and by an independent command, at the action of Chateau- gay, his name is not mentioned in Sir G. Prevost's dispatch, nor in Alison, who apparently follows the official account (xix. 131, 7th ed.) In Alison, De Saluberry is called, by a clerical error, De Salavary — such, after all, is fame ! saith Hyperion. Although his troops, raw levies, broke, and Colonel De Saluberry was virtually a prisoner when Colonel Macdonell came up to the support, it was through no fault of his disposition of his men — (Colonel Macdonell always spoke of him as an excellent officer, who behaved on the occasion in the most noble and intrepid manner). The American troops at Chateaugay are variously stated at 7000 to 5700 (Alison says, " 4000 effective infantry and 2000 militia, and 10 guns," xix. 131). The British, 300 French Canadian militia, under De Saluberry ; 600 under Colonel Macdonell, and some Indians, vidthout artillery. A full, but, Colonel Macdonell said, inaccurate account (from im- xxvui MEMOIR OF perfect information) will be found in Mr W. James' " Military Occurrences," above referred to. I extract the following passages, i. 307 :— " The British advanced corps, stationed near the frontiers, was commanded by Lieutenant- Colonel De Saluberry of the Canadian Fencibles, and consisted of the two flank companies of that corps and four companies of voltigeurs, and six flank companies of embodied militia and Chateaugay chasseurs, placed under the immediate orders of Lieutenant-Colonel MaodoneU, late of the Glengarrys, who so distinguished himself at Ogdensburg. The whole of this force did not exceed 800 rank and file. There were also at the post 172 Indians under Captain Lamotte." Colonel MacdoneU's account differed substantially. It has been already mentioned that he had brought up his troops by a forced march the night before, and held them under a separate command. I conclude with the following passage as bearing out Colonel Mac- doneU's version : — "The Americans, although they did not occcupyone foot of the ' abatis,' nor Lieutenant-Colonel De Saluberry retire one inch from the ground on which he had been standing, celebrated this partial retiring as a retreat. ... By way of animating his little band when thus momentarily ^ressecJ" [Colonel MacdoneU's version was, that although the troops were driven back. Colonel De Saluberry UteraUy " refused to retire one inch himself," and virtuaUy remained a prisoner until — '\ Colonel De Saluberry ordered the bugleman to sound " the advance. This was heard by Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonell, who thinking the Colonel was in want of support, caused his own bugles to answer, and immediately advanced with two [' six ' ] of his com- panies. He at the same time sent ten or twelve buglemen into the adjoining woods with orders to separate ['widely'], and blow with aU their might. This Uttle ' ruse de guerre ' led the Americans to believe that they had more thousands than hundreds to contend with, and deterred them from even attempting to penetrate the ' abatis.'" COLONEL GEORGE MACDONELL, C.B. xxix For the rest of tlie account I must refer my. readers to Mr W. James' " History," as above ; though, if a complete and accurate account of an engagement which probably saved British Canada -were ever thought desirable, Colonel MacdoneU's commentaries (MS.) on the above and the official accounts, would afford valuable supple- mentary information.* ' The following oorreotiona have been supplied to me by the Hon. L. D. : — " Lieut-Colonel George Macdonell was born on the 12th August 1780, at St Johns, Newfoundland, where his father. Captain Macdonell, was stationed. He was the second son of Captain Macdonell (who had Ijeen one of the body-guard of Prince Charles), by his wife, Miss Leslie of Fetternear, Aberdeenshire. George was rated on the nary by the Admiral of the station, who was a personal friend of Captain Macdonell, and his name accordingly remained on the list for years, but he never joined. I believe he entered in 1795 the regiment raised by Lord Darlington, and afterwards served with the Duke of York in the war in HoUand. He was, I know, at one time in the 8th infantry, for I remember Sir Greathed Harris saying that he was always a well-remembered and honoured officer in that regiment. He ultimately bad the post of Inspecting Field-Officer in Canada." TRADITION PRINCIPALLY WITH RBPERBNCB TO MYTHOLOGY AND THE LAW OF NATIONS. TRADITION PBINCIPALLT WITH EEFEKENCE TO MYTHOLOGY AND THE LAW OF MTIOM CHAPTER I. THE LAW OF NATIONS. The increasing number of essays, pampUets, works, an reviews of works on speculative subjects, with which tb literature of England at present teems, compels tb conclusion that the public mind has been greatly ue settled or strangely transformed since the days whe John Bull was the plain matter-of-fact old gentlema that Washington Irving pleasantly described him. Remembering the many sterling and noble qualitie whimsically associated with this practical turn of mind it will be felt by many to be a change for the worse But if old English convictions, maxims, and ways c thought have lost their meaning ; if in fine it is true tha the mind of England has become unsettled, it says mud for the practical good sense of Englishmen that the; should have overcome then- natural repugnances, an( should so earnestly turn to the discussion of these ques tions, not indeed with the true zest for speculation, bu A 3 THE LA W OF NA TIONS. in the practical conviction that _it is in this arena that the battle of the Constitution must be fought. There is, as it has been truly observed,^ "an. instinctive feeling that any speculation which affects this " (the speculation in question being the effect of the Darwinian theory on conscience), " must also affect, sooner or later, the practical principles and conduct of men in their daily lives. This naturally comes much closer to us than any question as to the comparative nearness of our kinship to the gorUla or the orang can be expected to do. No great modifioation of opinion takes place with respect to the moral faculties, which does not ultimately and in some degree modify the ethical practice and political working of the society in which it comes to prevail." There is perhaps no question which lies more at the root of political constitutions, and which must more directly determine the conduct of states in their rela- tions to each other, than the question whether or not, <3r in what sense, there was such a thing as natural law, i.e. a law antecedent to the formation of individual political societies, and which is common to and binding on them all. It may be worth while, therefore, to examine whether a stricter discrimination may not be made between things which are sometimes confounded, viz. : — The Law of Nations and International Law, natural law and the state of nature ; and even if the attempt at discrimina- tion should fail in exactitude, it may yet, by opening out fresh views, contribute light to minds of greater precision, who may thus be enabled to hit upon the exact truth. This view was partially exposed in an article which was inserted in the Tablet,, September 28, 1861,^ en- ^ Pall Mall Gazette, April 12, 1871 ; article, "Mr Darwin on Conscience.'' ^ This article, and perhaps four or five others on miscellaneous subjects, written within a few weeks of the above date, were my only contributions to the Tablet, at that time owned and edited by my friend Mr J. E. Wallis, who, during some ten or twelve eventful years, continued to uphold the standard of Tradition, with singular ability and at great personal sacrifice. THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 3 titled " International Law and the Law of Nations," and, all things considered, I do not think that I can better consult the interests of my readers, than by repro- ducing an extract from it here, as a convenient basis of operation from which to advance into a somewhat unexplored country : — " It has been the fashion since Bentham's ^ time, to substitute tha phrase ' International Law ' for the ' Law of Nations,' as if they were convertible terms. The substitution, however, covers a dis- tinction sufl&ciently important. "The 'Law of Nations' is an obligation which binds the consciences of nations to respect the eternal principle of justice in their relations with each other. ' International law ' is the system of rules, prece- dents, and maxims accumulated in recognition of the eternal law. But as men may build a theatre or a gambling-house upon the foun- dations constructed for a religious edifice, and upon a stone conse- crated for an altar, so has it been possible for diplomacy to substitute a system of chicanery for the simple laws which were intended to facilitate the intercourse of nations, and with such effect as in a great number of cases to place international law in contradiction with the law of nations — as, for instance, when in a certain case the law of nations says that it is wrong to invade a neighbour's territory, inter- national law is made to say that it is lawful to invade in such a case, because such-and-such monarchs in past history have done so. " Practically the effect of the substitution is, that the sentiment of justice disappears, that wars which formerly were called unjust, are now called inevitable, so that good men, disheartened at the conflict- ing evidence of precedents, yield their sense of right and wrong, and defer to the adjudication of diplomatists. This is particularly satisfactory to the modem spirit which will admit nothing to be law which is superior to, and distinct from, that which the human in- tellect has determined to be law. " But the sense of right and wrong in good men is that which gives ^ " All that Bentham wrote on this subject (" International Law ") is comprised within a comparatively small compass (Works, vol. ii. 535-560, iii. 200-611, ix. 58-382). But it would be unpardonable to omit all men- tion of a science which he was the means of revolutionising, and which, previously to his taking it in hand, had not even received a proper distinctive name. " — John Hill Burton, " Benthamiana," p. 396. From Bentham's point of view, " International Law " is the proper distinctive name. 4 THE LA W OF NA TIONS. its whole efficacy to the law of nations. There is nothing else in the last resort,, to restrain the ambition and passion of princes, but the reprobation of mankind — ^nothing but the fear of invading that "moral territory"* which even bad men find it necessary to conquer, ' dans I'ame des peuples ses voisms.' On the other hand, the whole niEiss of precedents to which diplomatists appeal, which are rarely carefully collated with those which legists have accumulated and digested, is nothing but a veil which thinly covers the supremacy of might and the right of force. " In fact, the conventional deference whidi is paid to them, is at best only the hypocritical homage which force is constrained to pay . to justice before it strikes its blow. " International law, therefore, as accumulated in the precedents of diplomatists, is a parasitical growth upon that tree which has its roots in the hearts of nations, and which may be compared to one of those old oaks under which kings used to sit and administer justice. It was a dream of Dodwell's that the 'law of nations was a divine revelation made to the family preserved in the aik.' In the gro- tesqueness and wUdness of this theory we detect a true idea. The law of nations is an unwritten law, tradited in the memories of the people, or, so far as it is written, to be found in the works of writers on public law, like Grotius, whose authorities, as Sir J. Mackintosh remarks, are in great part, and very properly, made up of the sayings of the poets and orators of the world, ' for they address themselves to the general feelings and sympathies of mankind.' It is in this that the Scriptural saying about the people is so true — ' But they will maintain the state of the world.' And it is a just observation, that ' the people are often wrong in their opinions, but in their senti- ments rarely.' You may produce state papers and manifestoes, written with all the dexterity of Talleyrand, and the lying tact of Foueh^, but you will not convince the people. You have your opportunity. The Liberal press of Europe, at this moment, may be said to be in possession of the whole field of political literature ; nevertheless, nothing wiU prevent its being recorded in history,* that * Montalembert, Correspondant, Aoi.it, 1861. ' C'est une des plus admirables ehoses de ce monde que jamais nul empire, et nul eucc^s n'ont pu s'assujetir I'histoire et en imposer par elle Si la posterity. Dee generations de roia issus du m6me sang se sont succ^d^ pendadt dix slides au gouvemement du mgme peuple, et malgr^ cette perpetuity d'int&et et de commandement, ils n'ont pu couvrir aux yeux du monde les fautes de leurs pferes et maintenir sur leur tombe le faux ^olat de leur vie. — Lacordaire : vid. Correspondant, Nov. 1866. THE LA W OF NA TIONS. ; Victor Emmanuel in seizing upon the patrimony of St Peter Tvas a robber, and Ms conq^uest an usurpation." I have observed that International Law is the more appropriate term from Bentham's point of view, and as Beutham is the most redoubtable opponent of natural right and the law of nations, I will quote him at some length : — " Another man says that there is an eternal and immutable rule of right, and that that rule of right dictates so-and-so. And then he begins giving you his sentiments upon anything that comes upper- most ; and these sentiments (yoii are to take it for granted) are so many branches of the eternal rule of right. ... A great multitude of people are continually talking of the law of nature ; and they go on giving you their sentiments about what is right and what is wrong, and these sentiments, you are to understand, are so many chapters and sections of the law of nature. Instead of the phrase, law of nature, you have sometimes law of reason, right reason, natural jus- tice, natural equity, good order. Any of them will do equally well. This latter is most used in poHtios. The three last are much more tolerable than the others, because they do not very explicitly claim to be anything more than, phrases. They insist, but feebly, upon the being looked upon as so many positive standards of themselves, and seem content to be taken, upon occasion, for phrases expressive of the conformity of the thing in question to the proper standard, whatever that may be. On most occasions, however, it will be better to say utility — utility is clearer, as referring more especially to pain and pleasure." In truth, although Mr Bentham indulges a pleasant ridicule, yet the ridicule and the thing ridiculed being eliminated, the fact that there is a belief in a law of nature remains untouched. It is probable, therefore, that appeals will be frequent to what is believed to be " the eternal and immutable rule of right," " to the law of nature," &c., i.e. each and every individual, all man- kind distributively, so appeal, because there is a deep conviction among mankind, severally and collectively, that there is this eternal and immutable rule of right. 6 THE LA W OF NA TIONS. blurred and obscured tbough it may be, or concealed behind a cloud of human passion and error : and most men, moreover, will have an instinct -which will tell them when an individual is substituting his own ideas for the eternal and immutable law, — as, for instance, when at the conclusion of the sentence quoted, Mr Bentham seeks to substitute his own peculiar crochet, as embodied in the word " utility " (which may be used indifferently in the sense of the absolute or relative, the supernatural or the natural, the immediate or the re- mote utility), as synonymous with " natural justice," " natural equity," and " good order." So, again, when Mr Bentham comes to the discussion of " International Law," after pointing out, very properly, that whereas internal laws have always a super-ordinate authority to enforce them, " that when nations fall into disputes there is no such super-ordinate impartial authority to bind them to conformity with any fixed rules," Mr Bentham goes on to say, " though there is no distinct official authority capable of enforcing right principles of international law, there is a power bearing with more or less influence on the conduct of all nations, as of all individuals, however transcendently potent they may be, this is the power of public opinion." Public opinion ! not then of public opinion threatening coercion, for in that case we should have " a super-ordinate impartial authority binding to conformity with fixed rules," but public opinion as a moral expression. If, however, yon take from it the expression of right and wrong, of natural justice, and of the eternal and immutable law ; if its expression is not reprobation, and, so to speak, a fore-judgment of the retribution of the Most High, but only dissatisfaction or the mere pronouncement of the inutility of the action, whatever it may be, what even with Benthamites can be its efficacy and worth ? The THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 7 vanquished say to their conqueror, the multitudes to their oppressor, this oppression is not according to _ utility. Utility ! he replies, useful to whom ? To you ! Fancy the look of Prince Bismarck as he would reply to such an address. What are men if you take away the notion of right and wrong but " the flies of a summer ? " How different was the expression of Napoleon after his ill-usage of Pius VII., " J'ai frisson^ les nations." Napoleon had a conscience,^ and in his moments of calm reflection felt in its full force the reprobation of mankind. When Bentham, still speaking of public opinion, adds : — " The power ia question hag, it is true, various degrees of influence. The strong are better able to put it at defiance than the weak. Countries which, being the most populous, are likely also to be the strongest, carry a certain support of public opinion with all their acts whatever they may le. But still it is the only power which can be moved to good purposes in this case ; and, however high some may appear to be above it, there are in reahty none who are not more or less subject to its influence." Here Bentham is again in imagination gathering men together like the flies of a summer, — the force of their opinion depending on their numbers. But what, again, is the force of all this buzzing if it is the mere expression of " pleasure," or " pain," of satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the masses? Conquerors may not always be relentless, they may at times exhibit some sympathy with their fellow men ; but as a rule they are so dominated by some one idea or passion, or at best are so absorbed in the interests of their own people, as to be deaf to such appeals. Prince Bismarck's sentiments ° Vide " Sentiment de Napoleon I. sur Le CLristianiame,'' d'apres dea temoignages recueillis par feu le Chevalier de Beauterne. NouveUe edi- tion, par M. ; Bray, Paris, 1860. 8 THE LA W OF NA TIONS. towards France during tlie late war are pretty well known; tut it is said that after the conflict was over, and when France was in the throes of its terrible inter- necine conflict, he was asked, " What is your Excellency's opinion of the present state of France?" he replied, " Das ist mit ganz wurst," which is equivalent to " I don't care two straws about it." ^ How are men of this stamp to be affected by any exclamations of pleasure or pain ? If on the contrary it is the voice of reprobation which they hear, and if in their case the saying " vox populi vox Dei " is felt to have its full application, there is then a public opinion expressed which is calculated to strike the conscience and inspire terror, and that is quite another matter. De Tocqueville, from his own point of view, puts the argument in favour of natural justice very forcibly, and in a certain construction would express the identical truth for which I contend. " I hold it to be an impious and an execrable maxim, that, politi- cally speaking, a people has a right to do whatever it pleases ; and yet I have asserted that all authority originates in the mil of the majority. Am I, then, in contradiction "with myself? A general law which bears the name of Justice has been made and sanctioned, not only by a majority of this or that people, but by a majority of mankind. The rights of every people are consequently confined within the limits of what is just. A nation may be considered in the light of a jury which is empowered to represent society at large, and to apply the great general law of justice. Ought such a jury, which represents society, to have more power than the society in which the laws it applies origuiate." — M. de TocqueviWs " Democracy in America," iL 151. Although M. de Tocqueville's view does not go to the full length of the argument, still, regarded in this light, the voice of the majority of mankind, or of any large ' Netie Freie Presse of Vienna. Pail Mall Gazette, May 4, 1871. THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 9 masses of mankind, has a very different significance from what it bears in the writings of Benthaip- Let us now consider the doctrines of Bentham in their more recent exposition. The Pall Mall Gazette, Oct. 6, 1870, says :— " Laws liave been described as definitions of pre-ejdsting rights, relations between man and man, reflections of divine ordinances, anything but what they really are, — forms of organised constraint. It says little for the assumed clear-headedness of Englishmen, that they have very generally preferred the ornate jargon of Hooker, to the accurate and intelligible account of law and government which forms the basis of Bentham's juridical system." It says much, however, for their strong political sense and sagacity. If this is the true and only description of law, it is tantamount to saying that law is force and force is law; in other words, that the commands of a legitimate goyernment need not be regarded when it is weak, but that the enactments of power must always be obeyed, however it is acquired, and whether its decrees are in accordance with right or contrary to justice. It is a ready justification for tyranny, equally sanctioning the " lettres de cachet" of the ancient regime, and the proscriptions of the Convention, equally at hand for the National Assembly at Versailles, or for the Commune at Paris. But however much it may be disguised, it is the only alternative definition of law, when once you say that law is not of divine ordinance and tradition. If no regard is to be had to the definition of right, but the term law is to be applied to any adequate act of repression, there is in truth nothing but force. Yet why should force adequate to its purpose seek to cloak itself in the forms of law ? I suppose the question must have been put and answered before ; but the answer can only be because law is felt to import a totally different set of ideas from force. 10 THE LAW OF NATIONS. It is necessary, more especially now that the utili- tarian theory is dominant, to enter a protest according to the turn the argument may take, but in the end nothing more can be said than was said by Cicero in the century before our Lord : — " Est enim unum jus, 0^110 devincta est hominum societaa, et quod lex constituit una ; quss lex est recta ratio imperandi atque proMbendi : quam qui ignorat is est injustus, sive est ilia scripta uspiam, sive nusquam. Quod si justitia est obtemperatio scriptis legibus institu- tisque populorum, et si, ut iidem. dicunt utilitate omnia metienda sunt, negHget leges, easque peirumpit, si poterit, is, qui sibi earn rem fructuosam putabit fore. Ita fit, ut nulla sit omnino justitia ; si ne- que naturS, est, eaque propter utilitatem constituitur, utilitate alia convelUtur." — Be, Legibus, i. 15. It is only upon this construction that the Law of Nations can be said to exist, as " there is no super- ordinate authority to enforce it." It is accordingly asserted that the law of nations is not really law. But is not this only when it is regarded from the poirSt of view of " organised constraint? "* If it is regarded as a divine ordinance, or even as under the divine sanction, then it is law in a much higher degree than simple internal or municipal law, for it more immediately and directly depends upon this sanction; and hence nations may more confidently appeal to heaven for the redress of wrong here helow than individuals — seeing that, as Bossuet somewhere says, God rewards and chastises nations in this world, since it is not according to His divine dispensation to reward them corporately in the next. 8 "Utiles esse autem opiuioues has quis neget, quum intelligat quam mulfca firmentur jure jurando, quantae salutis sint fcederum religiones? quam multos divinl supplicii metus a soelere revooaverit ? quamque sancta ait sooietas oivium inter ipsos diis immortalibus iuterpositis tum judiclbus turn testibus?" — Cicero, De Legibus, ii. 7. THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 1 1 More recently, however, the extraordinary successes and subversions which we have witnessed during this last year, have brought the Pall Mall Gazette face to face with problems pressing for immediate and anxious settlement ; and in a series of articles it has discussed the question of the law of nations with much depth and earnestness. I there observe phrases which I can hardly distinguish from those I have just employed. Combating Mr Mill's view, the writer says : — "Nobody knows better than he that International Law is not really law, and why it is not law ; but he seems to have jumped to the conclusion that it is therefore the same thing as morality. . . . There cannot, in truth, be any closer analogy than that which we drew the other day between the law of nations and the law of honour, and between public war and private duelling." [This is upon an assump- tion that there is nothing " essentially immoral in the code of honour," as " to a great extent it coincided with morality."]' " But it differed from simple morality in that its precepts were enforced, not by general disapprobation, but by a challenge to the offender by anybody who supposed himself to be aggrieved by the offence. The possible result always was, that the champion of the law might him- self be shot, and this was the weakness of the system. But this is exactly the weakness of international law, and the original idea at the basis both of pvilic war and of private duelling was precisely the same, — that God Almighty somehow interposed in favour of the com- batant who had the juster cause. There is clear historical evidence that the feuds which became duels were supposed to ba fought out under divine supervision, just as battles were believed to be decided by the God of battles." I believe that if history could be re-written from this point of view that many startling revelations would be brought to light. It is with reluctance that I turn from the points upon which I approach to agreement with the writer, to those upon which we fundamentally differ. And here I must remark, that " (he accurate and in- telligible account of law and government which forms 12 THE LAW OF NATIONS. the basis of Bentham's juridical system " ^ {supra, p. 9), is not distinguishable from, and in any case ultimately depends upon, his theory of utility as a foundation, or, as his later disciples say, a "standard" of morals. Such a standard is the negation of all morality ; and if it ever came to stand alone every notion of morals would be obliterated, because, being open to every interpreta- tion, and incapable of supplying any definite rule itself, it would abrogate every other, and under a plausible form abandon mankind to its lusts and passions. In the Pall Mall Gazette, April 12, 1871, an article entitled " Mr Darwin on Conscience," discusses Ben- thamism with reference to Darwinism. There is a fitness in this which does not immediately appear. The writer says : — " What is called the question of the moral sense is really two : how the moral faculty is acquired, and how it is regulated. Why do we obey conscience or feel pain in disobeying it ? And why does conscience prescribe oni hind of actions and condemn another kind ? To put it more technically, there is the question of the subjective existence of conscience, and there is the question of its objective pre- scriptions." I will avail myself of this distinction, and, setting aside the questions referring to the " subjective exist- ence of conscience," I will ask attention only to " its objective prescriptions." Assuming, then, the opera- tions of conscience in the individual man, there will necessarily also have been in the course of history some ' " From utility, then, we may denominate a principle that may serve to preside over and govern, as it were, such arrangements as shall be made of the several institutions, or combinations of institutions, that compose the matter of this science," Bentham's " Fragment on Government," xliii., and at p. 45, the principle of utility is declared " all-sufficient," . . . that " principle which furnishes us with that reason, which alone depends not upon any higher reason, but which is itself the sole and all-sufficient reason for every point of practice whatsoever." THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 13 outward expression of this inward feeling in maxims, precepts, and laws, if not also reminiscences of primeval revelations and divine commands. It will be true, therefore, to say, without touching the deeper question of the foundation of morals, that there has been a tradition of morals which cannot but have had its influence in all ages upon the " social feelings" in which, according to the Poll Mall Gazette, " it will always be necessary to lay the basis of conscience." Now is this tradition of morals identical with utilitarian precept? If the tradition of morals is identical with " the greatest happiness principle," then that principle was no discovery of Bentham's,^" neither can Benthamism be regarded as " the new application of an old principle." Bentham in that case simply informed mankind that they had been talking prose all their lives without know- ing it ! Benthamism, however, in point of fact, is felt as a new principle precisely in so far as it discards the old morality. The question which I ask is, how does it account for these old notions of morality obtaining among ^ Bentham speaks of his enunciation of' " the greatest happiness prin- ciple" in the following terms: — "Throughout the whole horizon of morals and of politics, the consequences were glorious and vast. It might be said without danger of exaggeration, that they who sat in darkness had Been a great light." With reference to this Lord Macaulay says, " We blamed the utilitarians for claiming the credit of a discovery, when they had merely stolen that morality (the morality of the gospel) and spoiled it in the stealing. They have taken the precept of Christ and left the motive, and they demand the praise of a most wonderful and beneficial invention, when all they have done has been to make a most useful maxim useless hy separating it from its sanction. On religious principles it is true that every individual will best promote his own happiness by promoting the happiness of others. Sut if religious considerations he left out of the question it is not true. If we do not reason on the supposition of a future state, where is the motive ? If we do reason on that supposi- tion, where is the discovery ? " — Vide Lord Macaulay' s Essays on " West- minster Reviewer's Defence of Mill," and " The Utilitarian Theory of Government " in Lord Macaulay's " Miscellomeous Writings." 14 THE LA W OF NA TIONS. mankind? How is it that mankind has so long and so persistently, both in their notion of what was good and their sense of what was evil, departed from the line of their true interests, as disclosed in the utilitarian philo- sophy ? If the history of man is what the Scriptures tell us it was, the manner in which this has come about is sufficiently explained ; and there is no mystery as to the notion of sin, the necessity of expiation, the re- straints and limitations of natural desires, the excellence of contemplation, and the obligation of sacrifices and prayers. Now, if the history of mankind is not to be invoked in explanation, it is difficult to see how these notions should not conflict with any theory and plan of life based on a principle of utility.^^ It is not unnatural, " There was a way in which the argument was formerly stated by utilitarians which was much more plausible, but which I observe is now seldom if ever resorted to by the modern exponents of this theory. The Pall Mall Oasette, April 12, 1871, says : " The now prevailing doctrine " that there is no absolute standard of right and wrong, but " that the right and VTrong of an action or a motive depend upon the influence of the action, or the motive upon the general good." The argument to which I refer is thus stated by Mr W. 0. Manning in his " Commentaries on the Law of Nations," 1839 : — " Everything around us proves that God de- signed the happiness of His creatures. It is the will of God that man should be happy. To ascertain the will of God regarding any action, we have, therefore, to consider the tendency of that action to promote or diminish human happiness," p. 59. It is perfectly true that man was created by God for happiness, and that ultimate happiness, if he does not forfeit it, is the end to which he is still destined. It is moreover true that even in this world he may enjoy a conditional and comparative happiness. How it is that this happiness cannot be complete and perfect here below is precisely the secret which tradition reveals to him. It is important, from the point of view of happiness, both for individuals and nations, that the truth of this revelation should be ascertained, and that the conditions and limitations within which happiness is possible should be known, other- wise life will be consumed in chimerical pursuits of the unattainable, and in the case of nations will be certain to end, at some time or another, in catastrophes such as we have recently witnessed in Paris. In an enlarged sense it is therefore true to say that the divine will has regard to utility ; but the view has this implied condition, that what we regard as utility THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 1 5 therefore, that the utilitarians should turn to Darwinism and other such kindred systems for the solution of their difficulties. The Pall Mall Gazette, April 12, 1871, says : — " Between Mr Darwin and utilitarians, as utilitarians, there is no such quarrel as he would appear to suppose. The narrowest utili- tarian could say little more than Mr Darwin says (ii. 393) : — ' As aU men desire their own happiaess, praise or blame is bestowed on actions and motives according as they tend to this end ; and as happiaess is an essential part of the general good, the greatest happi- ness principle indirectl/ serves as a nearly safe standard of right and wrong.' " Now, there is nothing in this reiteration of Benthamism which has not been thrice refuted by Lord Macaulay in the Essays above referred to. I append an extract more exactly to the point. ^^ should in the first place be conformable to what is directly or indirectly known to be the divine precept and command ; and, on the other hand, if no advertence is made to revelation or the tradition of the human race, what is called utility, however large and disinterested the speculation may be, it can never be more than the view of an individual or of a section of mankind, which it is highly probable that other individuals and sections of mankind, looking at the same facts, from a different point of view, will see reason to contradict. 12 If " the magnificent principle " is thus stated, " mankind ought to pursue their greatest happiness," it must be borne in mind that there are persons whose interests are opposed to the greatest happiness of man- kind. Lord Macaulay's opponent repKes, "ought is not predioable of such persons ; for the word ought has no meaning unless it be used in reference to some interest." Lord Macaulay replied, " that interest was synonymous with greatest happiness ; and that, therefore, if the word'* ought has no meaning unless used with reference to interest, then, to say that mankind ought to pursue their greatest happiness, is simply to say that the greatest happiness is the greatest happiness ; that every individual pursues his own happiness ; that either what he thinks his happiness must coincide with the greatest happiness of society or not ; that if what he thinks his happiness coincides with the greatest happiness of society, he will attempt to promote the greatest happiness of society whether he ever heard of the " greatest happiness principle " or not ; and that, by the ad- 1 6 THE LA W OF NA TIONS. I refer to it because it will be interesting to see bow the argument looks in its application to Darwinism. It will be seen that if the conditions of unlimited enjoyment anywhere existed, Lord Macaulay's strictures would lose something of their force. If, indeed, there was superabundance and superfluity of everything for all in this life, then anything which conduces to the satisfaction of the individual would add to, or at least would not detract from, the sum of happiness of all mankind. But unless you can show this — if even the reverse of this is the truth — then " the greatest happi- ness " will be in proportion to the self-abnegation of those who possess more, or have the greatest faculties or facilities of producing more. Now, if there is one view more prominent than an- other in Mr Darwin's work, it is embodied in the phrase to which he has given a new sense and significance, "the struggle for existence." In the midst of this struggle for existence, what is there in the greatest happiness principle to bind the individual to abnega- tion ? "Why should he postpone his certain and imme- diate gratification to the remote advantage of others, or of distant and contingent advantage to himself? If, on the other hand, he regards the transitoriness of the enjoyment, and balances it against the fixity and eter- nity of the consequences, the argument takes altogether diff'erent proportions, and the temptation to enjoyment misBion of the Westminster Reviewer, if his happiness is inconsistent with the greatest happiness of society, there is no reason why he should promote the greatest happiness of society. Now, that there are individuals who think that for their happiness which is not for the greatest happiness of society, is evident. . . . The question is not whether men have some motives for promoting the greatest happiness, but whether the stronger motives be those which impel them to promote the greatest happiness." — Lord Macaulay's " Miscellaneous Writings," Utilitarian Theory of Govern- ment, pp. 177-9. THE LA W OF NATIONS. 17 is inversely to the intensity of the struggle for ex- istence. I will take another test of Benthamism by Darwinism, which will more exactly bring out the argument for which I contend. We have a traditional horror of in- fanticide which revolts all our best feelings and shocks our principles. But if Mr Darwin has demonstrated this struggle for existence existing from all time ; if also we are disembarrassed from all advertence to another world ; if, further, Mr Malthus, before Mr Darvdn, has shown reason to believe that over-population is the cause of half the evils of this life, what is there in Benthamite principles which should prevent our sacri- ficing these unconscious innocents to the greatest happi- ness of the greatest number? Nothing, except the horror we should excite among mankind still imbued with the old superstitions ! A person who did not hold to Mr Malthus' views might demur ; but a Malthusian, who was also a disciple of Mr Bentham, could only hold back because his feelings were better than his principles. A disciple of Mr Darwin's would probably stand aloof, and would merely s6e in our notions an artificial interference with the working of his theory, prevent- ing the struggle for existence going on according to natural laws. This seems to me to be almost said in the same article from the Pall Mall Gazette, from which I have quoted. Mr Darwin, in his " Origin of Species " (p. 249), has pointed out that " we ought to admire the savage instinct which leads the queen-bee to destroy her young daughters as soon as born, because this is for the good of the community." And in his new book he says, firmly and unmistakably (i. 73), that " if men were reared under precisely the same conditions as hive-bees, there can hardly be a doubt that our un- married females would, like the worker-bees, think it a B 1 3 THE LA W OF NA TIONS. sacred duty to kill their brothers, and mothers would strive to kill their fertile daughters, and no one would think of interfering." The Pall Mall continues — " If, from one point of view, this is apt to shock a timorous and unreflecting mind, by asserting that the most cherished of our aflfeo- tions might have been, under certain circumstances, a vicioiis piece of self-indulgence, and its place in the scale of morality taken by what is now the most atrocious kind of crime ; nevertheless, from another point of view, such an assertion is as reassuring as the most absolute of moralists could desire, for it is tantamount to saying that the foundations of morality, the distinctions of right and wrong, are deeply laid in the very conditions of social existence ; that there is, in the face of these conditions, a positive and definite difference between the moral and the immoral, the virtuous and the vicious, the right and the wrong, in the actions of individuals partaking of that social existence." This is very well. It is so now, because of the tradi- tional sentiments and principles which still retain their force — but how long will it continue ? I invite attention to the following passage from Mr Hepworth Dixon's " New America " (vol. i. p. 312, 6th edition), which I must say struck me very forcibly when I read it. He narrates a conversation which he had with Brigham Young on the subject of incest: — " Speaking for himself, not for the church, he (Brigham Young) said he saw none at all (i.e. no objection at all). He added, however, that he would not do it himself, — ' my prejudices prevent me.' " Upon which Mr Hepworth Dixon observes — " This remnant of an old feeling brought from the Gentile world, and this alone, would seem to prevent the saints (Mormons) from rushing into the higher forms of incest. How long will these Gentile sentiments remain in force ? ' You will find here,' said elder Sten-' house to me, talking on another subject, ' polygamists of the third generation. When these boys and girls grow up and marry, you will have in these valleys the true feeling of patriarchal life. The old world is about us yet, and we are always thinking of what people may say in the Scottish hills and the Midland shires.' " THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 19 Here, and in the previous extract, we seem to catch glimpses of what the morality of the future is likely to be, at any rate in such matters as infanticide and incest, if old notions are to be discarded, and men are left, in each generation, to no higher rule than their own indi- vidual calculation as to pleasure and pain, or to the prevailing sense or determination of the community as to what the conditions of utility may permit. The nineteenth century is now verging on its decline, and of it, too, may we say that it has been better than its principles. Yet, in spite of its philanthropy, and its aspirations for good, the destructive principles which it has nursed are rapidly gaining on its instincts : and if we may not truly at this moment paint its glories, as they have been depicted, I think by Alexandre Dumas, as " the livery of heroism, turned up with assassination and incest," is the time very remote when the description will apply ? CHAPTER II. THE LAW OP NATURE. But underlying the question of the law of nations, and determining it, is the question whether or not there is a law of nature — a rule of right and wrong, independent of, and anterior to, positive legislative or international enactment. To prevent misconception, however, as to the scope of the inquiry, it is as well that I should state that I am only regarding the law of nature as the law of conscience (by which the Gentiles " were a law unto themselves," Rom. ii. 14), in so far as it has manifested itself in laws and maxims ; and the question I am here concerned with is, whether in any sense which history can take cognizance of, there was a rule of right and wrong previous to legislative enactment ? At the first glance, the question would seem suffi- ciently disposed of by saying that men never were in a state of nature ; which is true in this sense, that mankind never formed a multitude of isolated individuals, or a promiscuous herd of men and women. A totally different solution supposes a state of nature ; but which, whether it depicts it as a golden age or an age of barbarism, still contemplates mankind in this state as a mere congeries of individuals, without law, or else without the necessity of law — in either case an aggregate of isolated indi- viduals, eventually to be brought into the state of civil society by a social compact. Now mv intention is not to combat this view — which THE LA W OF NA TURE. 2 1 at tlie present moment may be considered to be exploded — but to account for it. I think that I shall do something towards clearing up this mystery by pointing out that this latter solution, although in great vogue with the publicists of the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries, is traced beyond them to the classical times, and was derived by them through the tradition of the Roman law from Paganism. A theory of the lawyers, and a theory of the philosophers, concreted with a true but distorted fact in tradition in order to produce this belief, viz., that society was founded by a contract among men who were originally equal.^ I shall in a subsequent chapter state to what extent I believe it to be true that society was founded upon a contract, and also the way in which this impression was confirmed, from the actual circumstances of the formation of the early communities of Greece and Italy; and I shall then examine the true tradition, such as I believe it to be, of a state of nature associated with the remin- iscence of a golden age, as contrasted with the distinct yet parallel tradition of a state of nature identified with a state of barbarism {vide ch. vii. and ch. xiii.) This latter tradition I believe to have been a recollec- tion of that period of temporary privation after the Flood, when mankind clung to the caverns and the mountains {vide p. 137), until, incited by the example of Noah, they were brought into the plains, and in- structed in the arts of husbandry by the patriarch ; and the notion of the primitive equality^ of condition I believe ' It will be seen, later on, in what this view differs from Sir Henry Maine's. ^ In all the Diluvian commemorative festivals, to which I shall draw attention (ch. xi.), there is one day set apart for the commemoration of this primitive equality, accompanied with Bacchanalian festivities and ceremonials. 22 THE LA W OF NA TURE to have originated in the Bacchanalian traditions of the same patriarch.^ If we start with a belief in the primitive equality of conditions, the only way out of the mesh is apparently by a theory of a compact. " From the Eoman law downwards," says Sir G. 0. Lewis, " there has been a strong tendency among jurists to dedvice recognised rights and obligations from a supposed, but non-existing contract. When an express contract exists, the legal rights and duties which it creates are in general distinct and well-defined. Hence, in cases where it is wished that similar legal consequences should be drawn, which come within the spirit of the rules applicable to a contract, though they do not themselves involve any contract, the lawyer cuts the knot by saying that a contract is presumed, that there is a contract by intend- ment of law, that there are certain rights and obligations " quasi ex contractu." Thus the Eoman law held that a guardian was bound to his ward by a quasi contract." — Sir 0. G. Lewis, " On the Methods of Ohservation, die., in Politics," i. 423 ; " On the Social Compact," pp. 424-431. It is not difficult to see how such a fiction of the law would tend to give shape and system to the vague ti-a- dition as to the fact among the populace. The way in which the philosopher came to his conclu- sion was somewhat more complex. It will have been seen that the notion of the state of nature and the social compact was, among the ancients, in the main, a figment of the imagination, and not a tradition. But there was also a tradition of a law of nature which did not at all correspond to a state of license, of equality, and of bar- barism, such as the state of nature was conceived to be. ' Sir H. Maine ("Ancient Law," p. 95) says, " Like all other deductiona from the hypothesis of a law natural, and like the belief itself in a law of nature, it was languidly assented to, until it passed out of the possession of the lawyers into that of the literary men of the eighteenth century, and the public which sat at their feet. With them it became the most distinct tenet of their creed, and was even regarded as the summary of all the others." THE LA W OF NA TURE. 23 It was, on the contrary, a law of decorum and restraint. What, then, the Ronian probably meant by the law of nature was a reminiscence of a primitive revelation, or a tradition of the maxims of right and wrong by which men were guided in their relations to one another, when fresh from the hand of God — " a diis reeentes " — when family life still subsisted, and before men had settled down into states and communities. It was not a law of nature as nature then was, but an aspiration after a lost rule of life, as after a higher standard, and an attempt to trace it back, through the corruption of mankind. Dim and uncertain as these notions were, they were not without their influence. But their ideas as to the cosmogony were more shadowy still. When, then, in reasoning from a law of nature to a state of nature, mankind discovered that they knew or remembered nothing of their origin, or of the history of the human race, except indirectly through legendary lore, they then had recourse to the philo- sophers. These latter then did what philosophers in- cline to do in such cases of difficulty. They regarded the existing state of things, and finding it to be artificial, they, by a process of abstraction, resolved it into its elements, and, having thus reduced society into an assemblage of individuals, substituted their last analysis for the commencement of all things. In this analysis they found men, what historically and in fact they had never been, alike free, equal, and independent. The theory of the social compact among men indi- vidually free and equal was in the main a fiction, started a posteriori to account for relations otherwise obscure, or, as Sir Henry Maine explains, to facilitate modifi- cations which were felt to be desirable ; and we cannot be astonished that Paganism should take this view, unless we are prepared to believe that the traditions 24 THE LA W OF NA TURE. truly emliodying the history of the world were more direct, vivid, and potential than I suppose them to have been. It is at least remarkable, that in proportion as men lose their faith, they fall bact, as if by some necessary law, upon some theory which directly or in- directly contemplates mankind as a collection of atoms ; and if ever society should lose again the history of its origin, as would happen if ever infidelity were to gain complete ascendancy, it would return by the same pro- cesses to the same conclusion. But however sceptical individual minds may become, or however general may be the disposition to reject or ignore the scriptural narra- tive, the general framework of its statements is now too firmly embedded in the belief of mankind to be easily overthrown. The notion of a social compact, in more recent times, obtained a certain credence * so long as the dis- cussion was confined to Hobbes, Locke, and their disciples. And it must be borne in mind that this is a very taking theory, a ready and convenient start- ing point, and conformable to much that is true in history and politics. But it is long since exploded ; and even the fervid advocacy of Eousseau, in an age peculiarly predisposed for its reception, could not secure for it even temporary recognition among mankind ; and why ? Because, whenever the discussion cools, men will inevitably ask each other the question, If such a compact took place, where shall we locate it consist- ently with the evidence recorded in Genesis ? Remove the evidence in Genesis, and such a theory becomes at once a tenable and plausible conjecture. * " The earlier advocates of the doctrine o{ the social compact maintained it on the ground of its actual existence. They asserted that this account of the origin of political societies was historically true. Thus Locke, &c." — Sir 6. C, Lewis, " Meth. of Reasoning in Pol." i. p. 429. THE LA W OF NA TURE. 25 As I shall have occasion, later on, to come into collision with Sir Henry Maine upon some points, I have the greater satisfaction here in invoking his testimony. This acute and learned writer (" Ancient Law," p. 90) regrets that the Yoltairean prejudices of the last century prevented reference " to the only primitive records worth studying — the early history of the Jews ^ . . . . One of the few characteristics which the school of Rousseau had in common with the school of Voltaire was an utter disdain of all religious antiquities, and more than all of those of the Hebrew race; It is well known that it was a point of honour with the reasoners of that day to assume, not merely that the institutions called after Moses were not divinely dictated, .... but that they and the entire Pentateuch were a gratuitous forgery executed after the return from the Captivity. Debarred, therefore, from one chief security against speculative delusion, the philosophers of France, in their eagerness to escape from what they deemed a superstition of the priests, flung themselves headlong into a superstition of the lawyers." ' " The only reliable materials which we possess, besides the Pentateuch, for the history of the period which it embraces, consist of some fragments of Berosus and Mauetho, an epitome of the early Egyptian history of the latter, a certain number of Egyptian and Babylonian inscriptions, and two or three valuable papyri." — Eawlinson, Bampton Lectures. Oxford, 1859, ii, 55. CHAPTER III. PRIMITIVE LIFE. The scriptural narrative seems to establish : — (1.) That human society did not commence with the fortuitous concurrence of individuals, hut that, though originating with a single pair, for the purposes of practical inquiry- it commences with a group of families — the family of Noah and his sons, together with their families, and whose dispersion in other families is subsequently re- corded. (2.) That men were not primitively in a state of savagery, barbarism, and ignorance of civil life ; but that, on the contrary, it is presumable that Noah and his family brought with them out of the ark the tradi- tions and experiences of two thousand years, and, not to speak of special revelations, the arts of civil life and acquaintance with cities. (3.) That, although everything in the early state of mankind would have led to disper- sion, and although there is mention of one great and complete dispersion, yet this dispersion of mankind was a dispersion of fatailies and not of individuals. In all our speculations, therefore, as to society and government, it is the family and not the individual whom we must regard as the elementary constituent. Moreover, so long as family government sufficed, there was nothing but the family. The state would have ex- isted only in germ {vide infra, p. 341), and would have remained thus inchoate even during that subsequent PRIMITIVE LIFE. 27 period when families were affiliated in tribal connection, though not yet coalesced into tribal union. It is my im- pression, that the period during which family government sufficed, continued much longer than is generally sup- posed ; for, until the world became peopled and crowded, everything led to dispersion and the continuance of the pastoral state of life. From the necessities of pas- toral life, mankind in early times could not have been gregarious — -herds would have become intermixed, keep would have become short, the broad plains were spread out before them ; ^ e.g. Gen. chap. xiii. — " But Lot also, who was with Ahraham, had flocks of sheep, and herds and tents. 6. Neither was the land able to bear them, that they might dwell together. 7. Whereupon there arose a strife be- tween the herdsmen of Abraham and Lot ; and at that time the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelt in that country. 8. Abraham therefore said, Let there be no quarrel. 9. Behold the whole land is before thee." ^ • It is scarcely to be believed, that in such a state of society there would have been feuds, in the sense of inherited or hereditary quarrels, but at most conten- tions for particular localities ; in which case the weaker or the discomfited party would have pushed on to other ground. There was no long contest, because there was ^ I indicated this view in a pamphlet, "Inviolability of Property by the State, by an English Landlord." 1866. ^ Again Esau and Jacob separated, after the death of the patriarch Isaac, because their stock in herds and flocks had so increased that, accord- ing to the scriptural phrase, " it was more than they might dwell together," and further, "the land would not bear them because of their cattle." — Gen. chap, xxxvl ; Vide "Pinkerton, Voy." i. 528. Writing with reference to the Hamitio dynasty, founded at Babylon by Nimrod (vide, Rawlinson, Anc. Mon.), and the conquests of Kudur-Lagamer, identified by Rawlinsan as Chedor-Laomer, Mr Brace adds (" Ethnology," p. 28) : — " This at a period, as Professor Ptawlinsou remarks, when the kings of Egypt had never ventured beyond their borders, and when no monarch in Asia held dominion over more than a few petty tribes and a few hundred miles of territory." — Vidi ch. xiii. '' A Golden Age." 28 PRIMITIVE LIFE. nothing worth contesting. It has been noticed that only the highly civilised man, and the savage who has tasted blood, love fighting for the mere sake and ardour of the conflict. The simple barbarian does not fight until he is attacked, neither do the wild animals of the desert,; their ferocity is limited and regulated by the necessity and the provocation. It is the exception, rather than the rule, for animals to fight among themselves. It is not in the nature of man or beast to fight without a reason. Accordingly, there is no such fomeuter of war as war. Carver notices that the wars carried on between the Indian nations are principally on motives of revenge, and, when not on motives of revenge, their reasons for , going to war are " in general more rational and just than such as are fought by Europeans, &c." — Carver's " Travels in North America,'''' pp. 351, 297. ^ The same tendencies, under similar circumstances, ' Such seema, at a comparatively recent period (1762), to have been the state of things at a widely different point among the Samoides:— "The' real spot where the habitations of the Samoides begin, — if any case be pointed out among a people which is continually changing residence, — is in the district of Mozine, beyond the river of that name, three or four hundred wersts from Archangel. The colony, which is actually met with there, and which lives dispersed according to the usage of those people,' each family hy itself, without forming villages and communities, does' not consist of more than three hundred families, or thereabouts, which are all descended from two different tribes, the one called Laghe and the other yfsmonte— distinctions carefully rec/arded hy them." — Vide "Pinkerton,Voy." i. 524. It is also said (p. 682) of certain moral observances amongst them (vide infra, p. 155) : — " All these customs, religiously observed among them, are no other than the fruits of tradition, handed down, to them from their ancestors ; and this tradition, with some reason, may be looked upon as law." It is a common idea amongst us that the word home is a peculiarly English word, and, I confess, it was my own impression, but I am set musing by finding among these same Samoides the word "chome" as their word for their tents, to which they cling so closely.— Vide Pinker- ton, i. 63. "I visited four other villages or goungs, and there may be as many more in Assam, each containing about three or four hundred people. PRIMITIVE LIFE. 29 ■wtere tlie tribes were not crowded or in fear of warlike neighbours, was noticed among the Red Indians some forty years ago. Now, I suppose, instances would be rare. " When a nation of Indians becomes too numerous conveniently to procure subsistence from its own hunting-grounds, it is no un- common occurrence for it to send out a colony, or, in other words, to separate into tribes. . . . The tribe so separated maintains all its rela- tions independent of the parent nation, though the most friendly intercoiirse is commonly maintained, and they are almost uniformly allies. Separations sometimes take place from party dissensions, growing generally out of the jealousies of the priacipal chiefs, and, not unfrequently, out of petty quarrels. In such instances, in order to prevent the unnecessary and wanton effusion of blood, and conse- quent enfeebling of the nation, the weaker party moves off usually without the observance of much ceremony." * Every community is imder the patriarchal government of a chief, from whom the village takes its name. . . . The chiefs of villages would com- bine against a common enemy, but are as independent of each other as the old Highland heads of clans. ... I was curiously reminded of the clan distinctions, by observing that the home-grown cotton cloths differed in pattern in the different villages. In all cases chequered patterns were worn, presenting as various combinations of colours and stripes as our own tartans, and each village possessed a pattern peculiar to itself, gene- rally, though not universally, affected by the inhabitants." — Travels in Northern Assam, Field, i., 1870 ; vide also Hunter's "Sural Bengal," 1868, p. 217. * " Hunter's Memoir of his Captivity (from childhood to the age of nineteen) among the Indiansj" p. 180, 181. He also adds (p. 307): — " The Indians do not pretend to any correct knowledge of the tumuli or mounds that are occasionally met with in their country. . . . One tradition of the Quapaws states that a nation differing very much from themselves inhabited the country many hundred snows ago, when game was so plenty that it required only sliglit efforts to procure subsistence, and when there existed no hostile neighbours to render the pursuit oj war necessary." And Stephen's " Central America " (i. 1 42) notices the absence of all weapons of war from the representations in sculpture at Copan, and says : — " In other countries, battle scenes, warriors, and weapons of war, are among the most prominent subjects of sculpture ; and from the entire absence of them here, there is reason to believe that the people were not warlike, but peaceable, and easily subdued." 30 PRIMITIVE LIFE. Mr Grote in his " Plato " ^ says — "There existed," even "in his (Plato's) time, a great variety of distinct communities — some in the simplest, most patriarchal, cyclo- pian condition, nothing nwre. than families ; some highly advanced in civilisation, with its accompanying good and evil, some in each intermediate stage between these two extremes. Each little family or sept exists at first separately, with a patriarch whom all implicitly obey, and peculiar customs of its own. Several of these septs gradu- ally coalesce together into a community, choosing one or a few law- givers to adjust and modify their respective customs into harmonious order." ' In the situations, however, where the more powerful families had seized the vantage-ground, or established themselves in the richest and most coveted valleys, the tendency to consolidation and permanent settlement ' III., ch. xxxvii. Leges, 337. " I find incidental corroboration of this view in " The Archseology of Prehistoric Annals " of Scotland, by Dr Wilson — " The infancy of all written history is necessarily involved in fable. Long ere scattered famiLia had conjoined their patriarchal unions into tribes, and clans acknowledging some common chief, and submitting their differences to the rude legisla- tion of the arch-priest or civil head of the commonwealth, treacherous tradi- tion has converted the story of their birth into the wildest admixture of myth and legendary fable." — Introd., p. 12. Even in the plain of Sennaar (Shinar) we see something of this fusion of tribes — " Besides these two main constituents of the Chalda3an race there is reason to believe that both a Semitic and Aryan element existed. . . The subjects of the early kings are continually designated in the inscriptions by the title of ' Kiprat-arbat,' which is interpreted to mean 'the four nations ' or 'tongues'" (Rawlinson's "Ancient Monarchies," i. p. 69). Professor Rawlinson is also of opinion, that " the league of the four kings in Abra- ham's time seems correspondent to a four-fold ethnic division. Does not the above also correspond to the four-fold ethnic division of theVedas? -Vide infra, p. 39. Compare also the four-fold division of the world or of Peru, according to various Indian traditions, between Manco Capac and his brothers. — Vide Hakluyt Society's edition of Garci- lasso de la Vega, i. 71-75. If these are not traditions of fusions of races, they can only be diluvian traditions of the four couples who came out of the ark, which was the conjecture of the Spaniard?-in the case of Manco Capac. PRIMITIVE LIFE. 31 would have more rapidly manifested itself. As the ten- dency to family dispersion became restrained, and its scope restricted, disputes as to miewm and tuum would have become more frequent as between families, some more central authority than the family headship would have been demanded for the protection, discrimination, and regulation of property. In these instances the state may be said to have arisen out of the expansion of the family into the tribes — the families, probably, never having ceased to dwell together in semi-aggregation ; and, when greater concentration was required, they simply had to fall back upon the patriarchal chieftain. We seem to see a tradition of this in the Anax Andron. But equally as regards the rest there must inevitably have come a time when, as the world became crowded, the same necessity of defending then- possessions, would have caused families, among whom there was no affinity of race, to coalesce, intermix, succumb, and form com- munities and states. These two modes of settlement into communities and states were, however, essentially dissimilar, and the basis thus laid would have remained permanently dif- ferent. The one was the basis of custom, the other of contract ; the one the settlement of the East, the other of the West ; and it will be seen, I think, that whilst the one was more favourable to the conservation of tradi- tions of religion and history, the other would have better preserved the tradition of right. These are points to which I shall return in a subsequent chapter, when I shall avail myself of the investigations of Sir Henry Maine. This simple outline, however, of human history, con- formable, as I believe it to be, with the scriptural narrative, conflicts with at least three theories now much in vogue. The first, which is substantially that 32 PRIMITIVE LIFE. of Sir John Lutbock, Mr Mill/ and Mr B. Gould, is thus conveniently summarised by Mr Hepworth Dixon. 8 " Every one who has read the annals of our race — a page of nature with its counterfoil in the history of everything having life — is aware that, in our progress from the savage to the civilised state, man has had to pass through three grand stages, corresponding, as it were, to his childhood, to his youth, and to his manhood. In the first stage of his career he is a hunter, living mainly by the chase ; in the second, he is a herdsman ; ... in the third stage, he is a husbandman. . . . Then these conditions of human life may be con- sidered as finding their purest types iu such races as the Iroquois, the Arabian, the Gothic, in their present stage ; but each condition is, in itself and for itself, an affair of development and not of race. The Arab, who is now a shepherd, was once a hun.ter. The Saxon, who is now a cultivator of the soU, was first a hunter, then a herdsman, before he became a husbandman. Man's progress from stage to stage is continuous in its course, obeying the laws of physical and moral change. It is slow, it is uniform, it is silent, it is unseen. In one word, it is growth. . . . These three stages in our progress upward are strongly marked ; the interval dividing an Iroquois from an Arab being as wide as that which separates an Arab from a Saxon.'' Now, in the first place, I must remark that the ' This view will be found in the first chapter of Mr J. S. Mill's " Prin- ciples o£ Political Economy, "ch. i. p. 6. "There is perhaps no people or community now existing which subsist entirely on the spontaneovis produce of vegetation." [Whether mankind ever lived " entirely on," &c., may be questioned, but it is implied in Gen. ix. 3 that man did not subsist on animal food until after the Deluge, si, fact which lies at the foundation of Porphyry's work, "De Abstinentia."] "But many tribes still live exclusively, or almost exclusively, on wild animals, the produce of hunting or fishing. . . . The first great advance beyond this state cou- BJsta in the domestication of the more useful animals : giving rise to the the pastoral or nomad state. . . . From, this state of society to the agricvl- tural, the transition is not indeed easy (for no great change in the habits of mankind is otherwise than difficult, and in general either painful or very slow), but it lies in what may be called the spontaneous course of events." 8 Mr Hepworth Dixon's " New America," vol. i. p. 113. PRIMITIVE LIFE. 33 Iroquois and the Arab have never progressed ; ^ neither does the Arab at the present show any signs of a transi- tion to the third stage of necessary growth, nor does Mr Hepworth Dixon, although he gives some sound practical advice as to the best mode in which the red man is to be restrained, venture to suggest any mode by which he is to be reclaimed from the first to the third stage, either with or without a transition through the second stage of development. The conclusion therefore, one would think, would be inevitable that it is an affair of race and not of development. The Arab and the Iroquois, after the lapse of so many centuries, are still found with the evidences of primitive life strong upon them; and so, I imagine, we shall find it wherever we come upon a pure race of homogeneous origin. On the contrary, we shall find that mixed races, by the very law and reason of their admixture, have shown the greatest adaptibility, and, whenever circumstances were favourable, very rapid growth. Again, I very much question whether the three stages, or rather three phases of life were ever, as a rule, progressive ; and whether, in the cases in which they might chance to have been successive, anything occurred in the transition at all resembling an uniform law of growth. It is very much more probable that the three were from the earliest period contempo- raneous^*^ — " and Abel was a shepherd, and Cain an husbandman" (G-en. iv.) — the determination of the sons to the avocations of shepherd, husbandman, and hunter respectively (the latter most probably being the last • Yiie Sir S. Baker ; vidt note, oh. xiii., Noah. '^'^ The following passage, inter alia, from Herodotus seems to sustain this — " To the eastward of those Scythians, who apply themselves to the culimre of the land, and on the other side of the river Pantioapes, the country is inhabited by Scythians who neither plough nor sow, but are employed in keeping cattle,"— Herod., iv., Mel. C 34 * PRIMITIVE LIFE. selected), being influenced by taste, character, and the division of the inheritance, the authority of the father, the geographical conditions of the route, and chance circumstances. And this is the more confirmed when we consider that when once the hunter started on his career, he would have determined their avocation also for his posterity. At his death he would not have had herds of cattle to apportion to any one of his sons, and thus the taste for wild life, necessarily perpetuated, would be bred in the bone, as an indomitable characteristic of race, and the first hunter by choice would inevitably come to be the progenitor of generations of hunters by instinct and necessity. The second theory depicts the opening scene of human existence as a state of conflict, which, it must be allowed, is perfectly consistent with the theory that it was one of savagery. The theory I am now combating was originally the theory of Hobbes ; and I might have regarded it as now obsolete, were it not that it has cropped up quite recently in a most respectable quarter. Mr Hunter, in his charming work, " The Annals of Rural Bengal," has a passage which, as I think, has been taken for more than it intends, though not for more than it expresses. Mr Hunter says, p. 89 — " The inquiry leads us back to that far-off time which we love to associate with patriarchal stillness. Yet the echoes of ancient life in India little resemble a Sicilian idyl or the strains of Pan's pipe, but strike the ear rather as the cries of oppressed and wandering nations, of people in constant motion and pain. Early Indian re- searches, however, while they make havoc of the pastoral landscapes of Genesis and Job, have a consolation pecxiliarly suited to this age. They plainly tell us, that as in Europe so in Asia, the primitive state of mankind was a state of unrest ; and that civilisation, despite its exactions and nervous city life, is a state of repose." It is plain that there is here question of restlessness PRIMITIVE LIFE. 35 rather tlian of violence; but grant that there was viol- ence too, the account of Mr Hunter when examined, so far from conflicting with, appears to me to fall exactly into, the- lines I have indicated. Is not the scene, from before which Mr Hunter lifts the curtain, the scene of that age following -the dispersion (of which, p. 452, there is such distinct tradition in his pages), which is tradi- tionally known to us as the iron age ? The error, then, of Mr Hunter is to confound, the patriarchal with the iron age. It need not therefore c.ause surprise that in early Indian history we should hear of conflict, for it is just at the period and under the circumstances when we should consider the collision probable. Mr Hunter, indeed, speaks of the aboriginal races as mysterious in their origin. But from the point of view of Genesis, there seems to be no greater mystery about them than about their conquerors the Aryans. One representative, at least, of the aboriginal race, the Santals, retain to this day the most vivid traditions of the Flood and the Dispersion ^^ (pp. 151, 452). Now, if there had existed any race anterior to the Santals, I think we should have heard of them. On this point we may consider Mr Hunter's negative tes- timony as conclusive, both on account of his exten- sive knowledge of the subject, and his evident predis- position (p. 109) to have discovered a prior race, if it had existed ; and there is nothing to show that the same line of argument would not have applied to it if its existence had been demonstrated., It must be men- tioned that besides their tradition of the dispersion, the Santals retain dim recollections — borne out by compara- tive evidence — of having travelled to their present homes '^ These legends, shown to be aboriginal, are very curious. They are, however, too long to be extracted here. They would repay perusal. 36 PRIMITIVE LIFE. from the north-east, whereas the Aryans came nnmis- takeably from the north-west. Here, then, just as might have been predicted a priori, these rival cm-rents of the dispersion met from opposite points, and ran into a cul de sac, from which, as there was no egress, there necessarily ensued a struggle for mastery. Let us now regard the two people more closely. " Our earliest glimpses of the human family in India, disclose two tribes of widely different origin, struggling for the mastery. In the primitive time, which lies on the horizon even of inductive history, a tall, fair-complexioned race passed the Himalaya. They came of a conquering stock. They had hnovm the safety and the plenty which can only be enjoyed in regular communities.^^ They hrcmght with them a store of legends and devotional strains ; and chief of all they were at the time of their migration southward through Bengal, if not at their first arrival in India, imbued with that high sense of nation- ality, which bums in the heart of a people who believe themselves the depositary of a divine revelation. There is no record of the new- comers' first struggle for life with the people of the land." — Hunter's Annals, p. 90. Here we see the more intellectual, the more spiri- tual (p. 116), monotheistic (p. 115) Aryan race over- powering the black race which had earliest pre-occupied the ground, and which was already tainted with demon worship. This contrast invites fm?ther inquiry; but first let me clear up and direct the immediate drift of my argument. ^ Mr Max Miiller also says (" Chips," ii. p. 41)—" It should be observed that most of the terms connected with the chase and warfare differ in each of the Aryan dialects, while words connected with more peaceful occupations beloi^g, generally, to tlie common heirloom of the Aryan language," wbioli proves "that all the Aryan nations had led a long life of peace before they separated, and that their language acquired individuality and nationality, as each colony started in search of new homes, — new generations forming new terms connected with the warlike and adventurous life of their onward migrations. Hence it is that not onlyHreeh and Latin, Tmt all Aryan languages have their peaceful words in common." Also vide p. 28, 29. PRIMITIVE LIFE. 37 If we estimate — taking tlie minimum or the maxi- mum either according to the Hebrew or Septuagint version — the time it would have taken these populations, according to the slow progress of the dispersion, to have arrived at their destinations from the plain of Sennaar (Mesopotamia), the period may be equally conjectured to correspond with that which tradition marks as the commencement of the iron age, when the world was becoming overcrowded, and the increasing populations came into collision. Neither is it a difficulty,^^ it rather appears to me in accordance with tradition, that if this surmise be correct, the earliest arrival in the Indian Peninsula should have been of those who took the longest route. For it is natu- ral to suppose that the proscribed and weakest races, e.g. the Canaanitish, would have been the first to depart, and to depart by the north-east and west, the more power- ful families having passed down and closed the south- east exit by way of the lower valleys of the Euphrates. These latter would have spread themselves out in the 13 I find this conjecture confirmed in the pages of the most recent authority on the subject, Mr Brace, " Ethnology," p. 13, 14 — " On the continent of Asia the Turanians were probably the first who figured as nations in the ante-historical period. Their emigrations began long before the wanderings of the Aryans and Semites, who, wherever they went, always discovered a previous population, apparently of Turanian origin, which they either expelled or subdued." According to Max Miiller's hypothesis there were two migrations, one northern and one southern [corresponding to the migration as above], "the latter settling on the rivers Meikong, Meinam, IrravMddy, and Bramapootra," ..." a third to the south [probably an advance of the previous one], is believed to tend toward Thibet and India, and in later times pours its hordes through the Himalaya, and forms the original population of India." Analogy may be discovered in "the two streams or lines of Celtic migration," which, says Bunsen ("Philosophy of Univ. Hist." i. 148) " we may distinguish by the names of the Western and Eastern stream, the former, although the less direct, seems to be historically the more ancient, and to have reached this country (Britain) several centuries before the other." 38 PRIMITIVE LIFE. direction of India leisurely and at a subsequent period. Following these lines of migration, the Aryan at some period came upon the black Turanian race (vide infra, Chap, v.); and Mr Hunter (p. 110) records the embittered feelings with which the recollection of the strife remained in tradition. Why should this have been? It might suffice to say, in consistency with what has already been advanced, that this was their first encounter, the first check in their advance. Another solution seems to me equally ready to hand, and to solve so much more. But first, how does Mr Hunter account for this bitter feeling? He suggests contempt for their " uncouth talk," " their gross habits of eating," and, what comes near to the truth, as I apprehend it, their blackness and their paganism. Suppose, then, we go a step further, and say that the highly intellectual Japhetic race met thus suddenly and unexpectedly the outcast Canaanitish race, with the curse upon them, recognisable in their colour and deficiencies, and of whom they would have remembered that it had been said, " that they should be the servants of their brethren " — will not this explain something of their animosity ? I must here remark that although scientific inquiry takes designations of its own, in order the more con- veniently to express its distinctions, yet whether we accept the ethnological or philological demarcations of mankind, it is curious how inevitably, as I think De Maistre remarked, we are led back to Shem, Ham, and Japhet. And this is as true now after a half century of scientific progress, as it was when De Maistre wrote. Without asserting that the divisions may ever be dis- tinctly traced with the minuteness of Bochart in his " Geog. Sacra," I still say, that the broad lines of PRIMITIVE LIFE. 39 the traditional apportionment of the world, and the three-fold or four-fold division of the race indicated in Scripture, is seen behind the ultimate divisions into "which science is brought to separate mankind, whether into Caucasian, Ethiopian, Mongol, with two inter- mediate varieties, as by Blumenbach; or into Aus- tralioid, Negroid, Mongoloid, and Xanthochroic, as by- Huxley ; or into Brace's division into Aryan, Semitic, Turanian, and Hamitic. Behind these various systems, as behind a grill, we seem to see the forms and faces of the progenitors of the human race discernible, but their existence not capable of contact and actual demonstra- tion, because of the intercepting bars and lattice work.^* I have spoken above of a three-fold and four-fold division as equally indicated in Scripture, and I think, from non-observance of this, the close approximation of these systems to Genesis is not sufficiently recognised. I refer to the three progenital races, and the Canaanite marked off and distinguished from the rest by a curse. I shall enlarge upon this point in another chapter (Chap. v). I will only observe now that I do not venture to say that the Canaanite is co-extensive with the Turanian, which is more a philological than an ethnological division of mankind, or that their characteristics in all respects correspond.-^* I limit my argument now to indicating the ^■^ I am throughout assuming acquaintance, on the part of my readers, with the third and fourth of Cardinal Wiseman's " Lectures on Science and Revealed Religion ; " for although my argument is distinct from that of the Cardinal, yet I everywhere regard his argument as the background and support of my position ; and it is, moreover, part of the aim and intention of this work to show that the general ground and framework (this is, in fact, understating the truth) ol Cardinal Wiseman's argument remains intact. There is, I think, somewhere in the Cardinal's works, a passage to the above effect, but I have not been able to recover it. ^^ If space allowed, I think the traditional lines might be indicated as plainly from the philological as from the ethnological point of view. 40 PRIMITIVE LIFE. correspondence between the Canaanite and tlie abori- ginal tribes in India. This correspondence I find not only in the features already noted — their blackness and their intellectual inferiority — but in their enslavement to the superior races of mankind whenever they came into contact and collision with them. Is not this everywhere also the mark of the Turanian race ? are not these conflicts in primitive life always with the Turanian race ? and are they not in Asia, as in Africa, in a state of subjugation or dependence ? At any rate, this is the condition in which we find the Turanian in India, so fully expressed in their name of " Sudras."i« Against this literal fulfilment of Gen. ix. 25 — " Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren" — as regards the Indian Sudra, the text in Gen. X. 19 — "And the limits of Chanaan were from Sidon ... to Gaza . . . even to Sesa" — may be objected. But I construe this text only to refer to Chanaan proper, and to be spoken rather with reference to the limits of the Promised Land and the Hebrews, than to the allocation of the tribes of Chanaan ; for the text immediately preceding seems to me to have its signifi- cance — viz. Gen. x. 18," where it is said in a marked ^' " According to the sacred law-book, entitled the Ordinances of Menu, the Creator, that the human race might be multiplied, caused the Brahmin, Cshatriya, the Vaiaya, and the Sudra (so named from Scripture, protection, wealth, and labour), to proceed from his mouth, arm, thigh, and foot." — Brit. Ency. The " Fatimala," a Sanskrit work on Hindu castes, says, "the other, i.e., the Sudra, should voluntarily serve the three other tribes, and therefore he became a Sudra ; he should humble himself at their feet." '' Homer's expression (Od. i. 23, 24), that the Ethiopians divided in twain, were the most remote of men — "'Adioiras, Tol Sixdd. Sedatarat ^iTxaroi AvSpiov, 01 fiev SvtTo/j.4voi 'Tirepiovos ol 5' dviojfros,'^ approximates to the scriptural phrase, and seems to imply a wider disper- sion than is suggested by Professor Bawlinson, i. S9. PRIMITIVE LIFE. 41 manner, and of the descendants of Chanaan alone, " The families of the Canaanites were spread abroad." But if we are to suppose the whole descent of Chanaan to have been confined between the limits of Sidon and Sesa, it could hardly have been said to have had the diffusion of the other Hamitic races, and the families of the Cha- naanites will not have been "spread abroad" in any noticeable or striking manner. It appears to me, also, that it may be proved in another way. St Paul, Acts xiii. 19, says that God destroyed seven nations in the land of Chanaan, whereas Gen. x. enumerates eleven. Again, Kalisch (" Hist, and Crit. Com. on Old Testa- ment," trans. 1868) makes it a difficulty against Gen. ix. that " Canaan should not only fall into the hands of Shem, i.e. the people of Israel, but also oi Japhet" (i. 226). A remote fulfilment of the prediction may be seen in the Median conquest of Phoenicia, and the Roman de- struction of Carthage ; but if I have truly indicated the order of events, it will be seen that it had already come about in the earliest times. The text, indeed, of Gen. ix. 27 — " May God enlarge Japhet, and may he dwell in the tents of 'Shem, and Canaan be his servant " — ^is so clear as almost to require some such fulfilment. But the fulfilment is seen, not only in the degrada- tion of Chanaan, but in the prosperity of Japhet ;^* and ■'^TylorC Primitive Culture," i. p. 44) says, "The Semitic family, which represents one of the oldest known civilizations of the world, includes Arabs, Jews, Phoenicians (?), Syrians, &c., and may have an older as well as a newer connection in K"orth Africa. This family takes in some rude tribes, but none which would he classed as savages. The Aryan family has existed in Asia and Europe certainly for several thousand years, and there are well known and marked traces of early barbaric condition, which has perhaps survived with least change among secluded tribes in the valleys of the Hindu Kush and Himalaya." [Query, What is the nature of the evidence that they have survived, and have not degenerated ?] Mr Tylor continues, "There seems, again, nohnown case of any full Aryan tribe having iecome savage. The gipsies and other outcasts are, no doubt, 4-2 PRIMITIVE LIFE. this is SO correlative, that I shall still be enforcing the argument whilst connecting a link which may appear to be wanting, viz. the identity of Japhet with the more favoured nations of the world. The identity of the Indo- Germanic races with the descendants of Japhet may almost be said to be a truth " qui saute aux yeuxj''' but it may still be worth while to collect the links of tradi- tion which establish it. In truth, it appears to us a self-e-s supposed by any school of ethnologists that 'time' alone, without a change of external conditions, will pro- duce an alteration of type." " Let us," he continues, " turn now to the instances relied on by Mr Crawford. The millions, he says, of African negroes that have, during three centuries, been transported to the New World and its islands, are the same in colour as the present inhabitants of the parent country of their fore- fathers. The Creole Spaniards . . . are as fair as the people of Arragon and Andalusia. The pure Dutch Creole colonists of the Cape of Grood Hope, after dwell- ing two centuries among black Caffres and yellow Hottentots, do not differ in colour from the people of Holland." [The strongest case is, perhaps, that of the American Indians, who do not vary from a uniform copper colour in north or south — in Canada or on the line.]^ In these instances. Sir J. Lubbock says: — " We have great change of circumstances, but a very insufficient lapse of time, and, in fact, there is no well authenticated case [he does not, however, advert to the case of the Indians, which seems to satisfy both con- ditions] in which these two requisites are united," . . . and adds, " there is already a marked difference between the English of Europe and the English of America ; " but is full allowance made here for admixture of race ? and, also, is his instance to the point? Is not the difficulty rather that, whereas climate, food, change of It has almost passed into a proverb, says Morton — who is among those who know the Americans best — that he who has seen one Indian tribe has seen them all, so closely do the individuals of this race resemble each other, whatever may be the variety or the extent of the countries they inhabit." Keusch's " La Bible et la Nature," vide also Card. Wiseman's " Leet. on Science and Rev. Rel." lect. iv., vide, however, Reusch, p. 498, where "a remarkable difference in the cranium" is noticed, "sometimes approaching the Malay, sometimes the Mongol shape." 78 CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. circumstances have (for, I think, the balance of the argument is on that side), in many ways, modified other races (though whether to the extent of destroying the characteristic type, may be open to question), the negro has resisted these influences, and has remained the same negro that we find him 2400 B.C. ? Consider that it is only a question of degree, and that it is merely true that the negro has resisted these infiuences more persistently than other races.^ Still the contrast is not the less startling when we find the negro in the same relative position, and with the same stamp of inferiority, that we find indelibly impressed upon him four thousand years ago? It is a case which neither the theory of progress, nor the theory of degeneracy, seems to touch. But it is a case which De Maistre's view exactly solves. Now, however much we may rebel against De Maistre's theory, that the early races of mankind were endowed with higher and more intuitive moral faculties than ours, and, whether or not, we accept his dictum that great punishments pre-suppose great knowledge, and reversely, that higher knowledge implies the liability to great punishments, I do not see how we can refuse to consider the matter, so far as to see whether the view solves all the difiiculties of the question. It is not the ° That the negro has undergone modifications, seems established by the fact that we nowhere find all the characteristics of the negro united in any one case — ^unless, perhaps, in the case of the negroes of Guinea, to which I have alluded. Yet, in the people who border them, there has been noticed " un retour vers des formes superieures." The Yoloss, " ont le front ^lev^, des machoires peu saillantes, leurs dents sont droites, et ils sont en g^ndral bein constituds, mais vis sont tout a fail noirs. Leurs voisins, les Mandingues, tiennent beaucoup plus du type n^gre . . . raais leur taint est beaucoup moins noir." — De Bur. ap. Beusch, p. 505. But under no influences of climate haa the negro ever become white like the European, or the European black like the inhabitant of Guinea ; if they become darker, " c'est simplement la teint particulier k leur race qui gagne en intensity."— Burminster, ap. Reusch, p. 509. CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. 79 first time that the blackness of the African race has been connected in theory with a curse ; but De Maistre's theory throws a new light on the malediction — whether it be the curse of Cham or of Chanaan, or whether both were smitten, according to different different degrees of culpability : and I maintain, further, that it is adequate to the explanation of the phenomena, that it does not clash with history, and that it is sustained by tradition. Nevertheless, I apprehend that this view will be as much combated from the point of view of scriptural exegesis, as of scientific speculation. Yet the curse of Cham, or of Chanaan, affecting all their posterity, ought not in reason to be more revolting even to those who have never realised what sin is, than the narrative of the fall of Adam and Eve with its dire- ful consequences. The theory seems perfectly conform- able to Scripture, and to what we know of the secrets of the Divine judgments. The picture of Cham, or Chanaan, stricken with blackness, does not present a more sudden or more terrible retribution to the mind than the Fall of the Angels. How many thousand years did it take to transform Lucifer into Satan ? or the primitive Adam into the Adam feeling shame, and con- scious of decay, want, and the doom of death ? On the other hand, blackness, from the commence- ment, has been associated with evil. To this it may be replied that this is the sentiment merely of the white races — a natural prejudice of colour, an ex parte deduc- tion ; and to this argument, if such is the view really taken by the black races, and if no consciousness can be detected of their degradation amongst themselves, I see no other reply than this, That since, ex hypothesi, they are black because they are cursed, the tradition of this curse would be more naturally preserved by the white races than by the black. But is there no consciousness So CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. of this inferiority in the true negro ? Without looking at the matter from the same point of view, I may appeal to Captain Burton's statements on this point as to a fully competent, if not the highest, authority that can he quoted on points of African travel. In the first place, he notices " the confusion of the mixed and the mulatto with the full-blooded negro. By the latter word I understand the various tribes of intertropical Africa, unmixed with European or Asiatic blood" (" Dahome," ii. 187j ; and p. 193, " I have elsewhere given reasons for suspecting, in the great Kafir family, a considerable mixture of Arab, Persian, and other Asiatic blood : " and as to the particular point in question, he says (p. 200), " The negro will obey a white man more readily than a mulatto, and a mulatto rather than one of his own colour. He never thinks of claiming equality with the Aryan race except when taught. At Whydat, the French missionaries remark that their scholars always translate ' white and black by master and slave.' " P. 189, " One of Mr Prichard's few good generalisations is, that as a rule the darker and dingier the African tribe, the more degraded is its organisation."' I find a very similar testimony in Crawford's " Hist, of the Indian Archipelago," i. 18. He says, " The brown and negro races of the Archipelago may be considered to ' Captain Burton (ii. 165) also quotes a Catholic and a Protestant mis- sionary as to this point. M. Wallou says, " Avee leur tendance k nous consid^rer comnie r^ellement sup^rieurs k eux, et leur croyance que cette Bupdriorit^ nous est acquise par celle de notre Dieu, ils renonceraient bientot aux leurs idoles pour adorer celui qui nous leur prions de connaitre." Mr Dawson says, " Fetish has been strengthened by the white man, whom the ignorant blacks would not scruple to call a god if he could avoid death." Assuming the identity of Bacchus and Noah, it is a striking circum- stance, from this point of view, that the name of Bacchus, among the Phoenicians, was a synonymous term for mourning. — Vide Hesychius in Bryant's " Mythology," ii 335 ; vide also the verses of Theocritus. Comp. p. 247, note (Boulanger). CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. 8i present, in their physical and moral characters, a com- plete parallel with the white and negro races in the western world. The first has always displayed as great a relative superiority over the second, as the race of white men have done over the negroes of the west." Yet at p. 20 he says, " The Javanese, who live most eomfortably, are among the darkest people in the Archi- pelago, the wretched Dyaks, or cannibals of Borneo, among the fairest." It must be noted, however, that the Javanese have also preserved something of primi- tive tradition — e.g. their marriage ceremony. And, moreover, it is not at all essential to the argument to prove that the negroes are the most degraded race. Let it be said that they have had their curse, and that the sign of the curse is in their blackness — this is merely equivalent to saying that they are cursed pro tanto ; but it by no means follows that other races have not fallen to lower depths, and incurred a deeper reprobation.^ Among the Sioux Indians, and in the isle of Tonga (Oceanica), I find trace of the tradition of blackness as a curse, and I should think it likely that other instances might be discovered. The former (the Sioux), in their reminiscences of the Deluge, relate, " The water re- mained on the earth only two days (for the two months during which the Scripture says it was at its height), at the expiration of which the Master of Life, seeing that they had need of fire, sent it them by a white crow, which, stopping to devour carrion, allowed the fire to be extinguished. He returned to heaven to seek it. The Great Spirit drove it away, and punished it by striking ' Perhaps Captain Burton's phrase (ii. 178), " the arreted, physical de- velopment of the negro," may, if eitended to his mental development, exactly hit the truth, the standard being fixed by the age at which we conceive the boy Chanaan's development to have been arrested. — Comp. Wallace, infra, p. 91 ; comp. 217. r 82 CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. it blMk." — " Annales de la Prop, de la Foi,"' 1. iv. 537 ; Gainet, i. 211. In Tonga, the tradition is connected with this history of Cain : — " The god Tangaloa,' wlio first inliabited this earth, is this Adam. He had two sona, who went to live at Boloton. . . . The younger was very clever. Tonbo (the eldest) was very different ; he did nothing hut walk about, sleep, and covet the works of his brother. One day he met his brother out walking, and knocked him down. Then their father arrived at Boloton, and in great anger said, ' Why has thou killed thy brother. Fly, wretched man ; fly. Your race shall be Hack, and your soul depraved ; you shall labour without success. Begone ; you shall not go to the land of your brother, but your brother shall come sometimes to trade with you.' And he said to the family of the victim, ' Go towards the great land ; your skin shall be white ; you shall excel in all good things.' " — Gainet, i. 93. ^^ Cardinal Wiseman (in his " Science and Revealed Eeligion," lect. iii.), says, with reference to Aristotle's distribution of mankind into races by colour : — " There ia a passage in Julius Pirmicus, overlooked by the com- mentators of Aristotle, which gives us the same ternary division, with the colours of each race. ' In the first place,' he writes, ' speak- ing of the characters and colours of men, they agree in saying, — if by the mixed influence of the stars, the characters and complexions of men are distributed ; and if the course of the heavenly bodies, by a certa,in kind of artful painting, form the lineaments of mortal bodies ; that is, if the moon makes men white, Mars red, and Saturn hlacJc, how comes it that in Ethiopia all are born black, in Germany white, and in Thrace red ] ' " — Astronomicon, Ub. i., e. i, ed. Basil. 1551, p. 3. Now this passage seems to me to have a still further significance in the words I have italicised, with refer- ' " Annales de Philos. Chret.," t. xiii. p. 235. i» The expressions in the latter part of this narration recall the blessing of Jacob, and suggests the possibility of the tradition having come through descendants of Ksau. CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. ii ence to the argument I have in hand. It transpires, therefore, that the ancients had the notion that Saturn made men black, which provoked the natural query, ■why then are only the Ethiopians black ? That it should ever have been supposed that the distant Saturn, astronomically regarded, should have had such an influ- ence is preposterous, but if the mythological personage, Saturn, ch. x., has been sufficiently identified with Noah, and the deification of the hero in the planet (comp. pp. 159, 161) probable, the notion that he made men black, must be the tradition of the event we are con- sidering. •I have elsewhere traced the fulfilment of the text which says that Canaan shall be the " servant of ser- vants to his brethren;" but as the following extract from Klaproth, in evidence of the same, has also its significance with reference to the point I am now con- sidering — ^viz. the curse of blackness — I prefer to give it a place here : — " Sakhalian oudehounga est explique en Chinois par ' Khian cheon,' et par ' li chu,' ce qui signifie les ' Utes noires ' et le ' peuple noir^ expression par laquelle on designe la ' bas peuple ' ou les ' paysans.' Cette une expression usitee dans plusieures pays Asia- tiques ainsi qu'en Russie." — Klaproth, ^^ Mem. Relatif a I'Asie; " vide strictures on Fere Amyofs " Mandchou Diet." In the oldest books of the Zendavasta, virtue and vice are personified as white and black. " The contrast between good and evil is strongly and sharply marked in the G-athas. . . . They go a step further and personify the two parties to the struggle. One is a ' white,' or holy spirit {spento mmnyus), and the other, a ' dark spirit {angro mainyus). But this personification is merely poetical or metaphysical, not real." — Rawlinson^s ^^ Ancient Monarchies " in. p. 106. The contrast, how- 84 CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. ever, between good and evil, as white and black was the genuine expression of their idea or tradition. (Hung, ap. Bunsen, iii. p. 476, admits, at least in one instance in the Gathas, " an angra (' black') is put in opposition to the white, or more holy spirit.") Mr Hunter ("Rural Bengal," p. 114) says of the primitive Aryans in India — " The ancient singer praises the god who ' destroyed the Dasyans and protected the Aryan colour'''' (Rig. Veda., iii. pp. 34-39), and "the thunderer, who bestowed on his white friends the fields," &c. Whatever obscurity may attach to the latter passage, there can be no doubt of the abhorrence with which the singers speak, again and again, of " the black skin" . . . e.g. " the sacrificer poured out thanks to his god for ' scattering the slave bands of black descent.^ " Although I believe the idea was traditional and had reference to the curse, I will concede that it might have arisen primarily in the contrast of night and day, light and darkness. But does this settle the question ? On the contrary, fortified with this explanation, I return to my argument with those, who say that blackness is a mere prejudice of race, and that it is not demonstrable that it is the sign of a curse, or the mark of inferiority. Does not Nature herself proclaim it, in her contrast of light and darkness ? Day and night, I imagine, would be recognised as apt symbols of error and evil as opposed to truth and goodness, even among the black races, irrespective of any consciousness or reminiscence of their degradation. Accordingly, the deeds of evil in Scripture are spoken of as the " works of darkness." It may be, therefore, that the idea of blackness as a curse is derived primitively from its association with the darkness of night ; but the fact remains that blackness is connected in our minds with a curse,^' and there is 11 This is so much in tradition as to be a matter of common parlance — CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. 85 the further fact that a hlack race exists, and has existed daring four thousand years, with this mark of inferiority upon it (compare sup. eh. iii. ix.) But a point of some difficulty remains to be deter- mined — Tiz, what precisely was the race which came under this ban. Was it the whole descent of Ham, or only the posterity of Chanaan ? Hales, in his learned work on chronology (i. p. 344), discusses this question. He says that, whereas — " Even tlie most learned expositors (Bochart and Mede) have im- plicitly adopted the appropriation of the curse of servitude to Ham and his posterity." Yet " the integrity of the received text of pro- phecy, limiting the curse to 'Canaan' singly, is fully supported by the concurrence of the Massorite and Samaritan Hebrew texts, with ail the other ancient versions except the Arabian ; and is acknowledged, we see, by Josephus and Abulfaragi (swp.), who evidently confine the curse to Canaan — though they inconsistently consider Ham as the offender, and are not a little embarrassed to exempt him and the rest of his children'-^ from the operation of the curse — an exemption, indeed, attested by sacred and profane history ; for Ham himself had his full share of earthly blessings, his son Misr colonised Egypt, thence styled the land of Ham (Ps. cv. 23), which soon became one of the earliest, most civilised, and flourishing kingdoms of antiquity, and was established before Abraham's days (Gen. xii. 14-20), and in the glorious reign of Sesostris .... while Ham's posterity, in the line of Cush, not only founded the first Assyrian empire, iinder Nimrod, but also the Persian (?), the Grecian (i), and the Roman (?) empires, in direct contradiction to the unguarded assertion of Mede [that ' there hath never yet been a son of Ham that hath shaken a sceptre over the head of Japheth.'] How, then, is the propriety of tlie curse ex- clusively to Canaan to be vindicated 1 — evidently by considering him as the only guilty person .... upon the very ingenious conjecture of for instance, when the late Emperor of the French is depicted, this is the language which, upon a certain construction, appears most natural — " On the other side stands a phalanx of satirists, represented by Victor Hugo. The only colour on the palette of those artists is lamp black. Morally they paint the ex-Emperor as dari: as a negro, array him in the livery of the devil, and then invoke the eicecration of history," — Spectator, Sept. 17th, 1870. ^ The italics are mine. 86 CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. Falser, that the 'youngest son' who offended was not Ham, hut Canaan — not the son, but the grandson of Noah. For the original, * his little son,' according to the latitude of the Hebrew idiom, may- denote a grandson, by the same analogy that Nimrod .... this (the former) interpretation is supported by ancient Jewish tradition, ' Boresith Eabba,' sec. 37, recorded also by Theodoret . . . the tradi- tion, indeed, also adds that Ham joined in the mockery, but for this addition there seems no sufficient grounds." There is, howerer, the tradition, and, moreoyer, a distinct tradition that Ham was black. Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, in his " Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians," i., says — " The Hebrew word Ham is identical with the Egyptian Khem, being properly written Khm, Kham, or Khem, and is the same which the Egyptians themselves gave to their country in the sculp- tures of the earliest and latest periods " (261). Egypt was denomi- nated Chemi (Khemi), or the land of Ham, " as we find in the hiero- glyphic legends ; arid the city of Khem, or Panopolis, was called ia Egyptian Chemmo, of which evident traces are preserved in that of the modem town E'Khmim" (260). "Besides the hieroglyphic group, composed of the two above alluded to (260), indicating Egypt, was one consisting of an eye, and the sign land, which lore the same signification ; and since the pupil, or black of the eye, was called Chemi, we may conclude this to be a phonetic mode of writing the name of Egypt, which Plutarch pretends was called Chemmia, from the blackness of its soil " (263). " Ohame is black in. Coptic, Egypt is Chemi, and it is remarkable that khom or c/iom is used in Hebrew for black or brown, as in Gen. xxx. 32-40." — Id. Here then, at any rate, the name of Ham or Cham is curiously associated with blackness, and must have been so associated from the commencement of Egyptian his- tory. I leave it to the Egyptologist to decide whether the presumption is stronger that the name of Egypt, identical with that of Ham, was originally derived from the blackness of its soil, or from the blackness of him whose nfime was identical with it (" the land of Ham" being both the scriptural and Egyptian appellation), more especially when " the eye" (apparently a personal CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. 87 or historical, not certainly a geographical allusion) was used as an equivalent hieroglyphic symbol for land.^^ Here, as in other instances, if we follow the strict lines o:^ tradition, it seems to me that we shall escape all the difficulties which are usually alleged against it. It will result then that, although according to the text of Scripture, the curse of servitude was limited to the posterity of Chanaan ; yet, seeing that the criminality was common to Ham and Chanaan, according to the tradition referred to, and as is, moreover, implied in the marked manner in which Scripture (Gren. xviii. 22) in- dicates Cham as " the father of Chanaan," it is pre- sumable that, if blackness was the concomitant of the curse, it extended to both Ham and Chanaan, and, by implication, to their posterity, but then after the curse. As Chanaan, according to the tradition, was then a boy, all his children would have been affected by the curse ; but does it follow that all Ham's descent was involved in the malediction ? This would be to suppose a retro- spective curse, for which the only analogy would be the hypothesis that if Adam had sinned after the birth of Cain and Abel, they and their posterity would also have incurred the guilt of original sin. Now the sons of Ham were (Gen. x. 6) " Chus and Mesram and Phuth and Chanaan," i.e., Chus and Mesram and Phuth were the elder brothers of Chanaan, and therefore not the children of Ham after the pronouncement of the curse. If, then, we find the children of Mesram dark, but without the ^ The eye would be the very most apjjosite symbol for blackness, if we consider that blackness lingers there after the skin has become white, and, in the case of half-breeds, is the test of descent in gradations even beyond, I believe, the octoroon. Captain King ("Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia," ii. Append.) says, " That although there is the greatest diversity of words among the Australian tribes, the equivalent for ' eye ' is common to them all." 88 CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. negro features or the blackness of Canaan ; if " Sesostris, his descendant, was a great conqueror;" if Nimrod, the son of Chus, was a powerful chieftain, and the founder of the Assyrian empire; if nothing is known of the posterity of Phuth beyond the conjecture that they were the Lybians — in a word, if the descent from these three sons does not bear out the evidence of the curse, can it be said to militate at all against the hypothesis of the curse of Ham as well as of Canaan ? Moreover, if there are differences among the black races whidh may present difificulties, would not the knowledge that there may have been a posterity of Ham, born after the curse,^* go far to remove them? Hales, indeed, assumes that " Ham himself had his full share of earthly blessings ; his son Misr colonised Egypt," &c. (as sup.) ; but this prosperity, as he indicates it, is only seen in the prosperity of his three sons, whom I assume to have been exempt from the curse. It must be remembered, however, that the occult science of the Cainites was said to have been preserved by the family of Ham, and, as we have seen, the taint was in the race.^* " LenormEint, " Manuel d'Histoire Anoienne," i. 23, makes a similar suggestion as to this point — " La texte de la Bible n'a rien qui s'oppose formellemeut k I'hypothfese que TSoh aurait eu, poat^rieurement au deluge, d'autres enfants que Sem, Cham, et Japhet, d'oti seraient sorties les races qui ne figurent pas dans la g^n^alogie de ces trois personnages." But two objections seem to me to be fatal to this view. The races about whom this difficulty would be raised would be the red and black races : why should it be surmised that the supposed posterity of Noah, after the Deluge, should have this mark of inferiority ? In the second place, it does seem to be formally opposed to Gen. x. 32 — " These are the families of Not, according to their peoples and nations. By these were the nations divided on the earth after the flood." The red races might perhaps be accounted for by Gen. xxv. 23-25. ■'* There appears to me, however, a text to which attention might be directed. We know that the Ethiopians were black, but in Amos ix. 7. CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. 89 I am very far from claiming for these theories any special ecclesiastical countenance and authority. I have already intimated my opinion that, on the whole, they would be as much opposed from the point of view of scriptural exegesis as from that of unbelief. It will be said, for instance, that there is evidence in Scripture of the curse of Canaan, but no proof that blackness was the concomitant effect of the curse ; and certainly it is not Scripture which affirms this, but only tradition. To those who admit the curse, but deny the conse- quences which tradition attributes to it, I would oppose an almost identical argument with that which accounts for all difi'erences in the human race by geographical location. I do not know where this argument is more forcibly put than in Latham's " Ethnology." There it is seemingly demonstrated that certain conditions, not merely of colour, but moral and intellectual, are the inseparable accompaniments of geographical location. Grant it, pro argumento, but I am arguing now upon the scriptural evidence, and with one with whom I assume I have a common belief in its inspiration. It is true, then, that the curse of blackness is not recorded, but the distribution of the races is at least implied: Deut. xxxii. 8, " When the Most High divided the nations, when He separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the bounds of people according to the number of the children of Israel;" and Acts xvii. 26, "And hath made of one all mankind, to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, determining appointed times, and the limits oi their habitation.'''' (The Prot. version translates, " Having appointed \he predetermined seasons and ioun- where God is expressing His anger against His people, He says, "Are you not as the children of the Ethiopians unto me, children of Israel, saith the Lord." go CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. daries o/" their dwellings." Vide Hales's Chron., i. 351, who adds that this was conformable to their own allegory " that Chronos, the god of time, or Saturn, divided the universe among his three sons.") ^* If, then, the different races of mankind, according to their merits or demerits, were apportioned to, or miracu- lously directed or impelled to, respective portions of the earth, which necessarily superinduced certain effects, is not the curse as apparent in its indirect operation as it would have been in its suddenness and directness ? This consideration must, I think, bring those who raise scriptural difficulties against the theory to the admission that blackness was a sign of inferiority, and that certain races were either smitten with, or were predestined to, in consequence of culpability, this de- gradation. This, I admit, is no reply to those who argue from the evidence of the Egyptian monuments. But the evidence from the monuments, so far from embarrassing my con- clusion, seems absolutely to enforce it. If, indeed, the evidence from the monuments did not stare one in the face, we might fall back upon the line of argument which I have just indicated, and whilst recognising in their blackness the operation of a curse, trace it in the lapse of centuries and the influences of the torrid zone. But they are recorded as being black on the earliest monuments known to us, and within a few centuries of the Deluge. The conclusion, therefore, seems inevitable, that they were so from the commencement, which exactly hits in with the tradition of the curse of Canaan. Such, from his own point of view, is the conclusion of Sir J. Lubbock (" Prehistoric Times," p. 478)— 1* Vide also eh. x., p. 239. The tradition that Phoroneus, "the father of mankind," distributed the nations over the earth, idem nationes distribuit. CHRONOLOGY FROM SCIENCE. 91 "If there is any trutli in tlds view of the subject (p. 478), it will necessarily follow that the principal varieties of man are of great antiquity, and, in fact, go back almost to the very origin of the human race. "We may then cease to wonder that the earliest paint- ings on Egyptian tombs represent so accurately several various varie- ties still existing in those regions, and that the Engis skull, probably the most ancient yet found in Europe, so closely resembles many that may be seen even at the present day." The following conclusion of Mr Wallace also exactly coincides with De Maistre's view. Lyell, in his " Principles of Geology" (ii. 471) says — "Wallace suggests that at some former period man's corporeal frame must have been mon pliant and variable than it is now ; for, according to the observed rate of fluctuation in modern times, scarcely any conceivable lapse of ages would suffice to give rise to such an amount of differentiation. He therefore concludes, that when first the mental and moral qualities of man acquired predomi- nance, his bodily frame ceased to vary.'' But, although science in its own way may arrive at approximations to the truth, yet, if the traditional solu- tion be true, assui'edly it is not a solution which will be reached by any merely scientific process ; and therefore, if it should be the truth, the ethnological difiiculty will remain an enigma and embarrassment to the learned in all time to come. CHAPTER YL PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. Having probed the chronologies of India, Babylonia, Phoenicia,^ China, &c., and having found that one and all, when touched with the talisman of history, shrink within the limits of the Septuagint, and even of the Hebrew text, we come, perforce, to the conclusion, that there is one nation, and one only, which presents a primd facie antiquity irreconcileable with Holy Writ — viz. Egypt. This impression is sustained by the knowledge, some- what indefinite and in something disturbed, that the Egyptian tradition had always attributed a fabulous antiquity to the dynasties of its kings, and that these dynasties have been marvellously resuscitated through the discovery which has enabled us to decipher the inscriptions on their tombs and monuments. My reader need not fear, however, lest I should plunge him into the chaos of hieroglyphics ; not, indeed, that much has not been rescued from the abj'^ss, and that there is not good expectation of more to come, but when once it is established, as we may now consider to be the case, that many of these dynasties were cotempo- raneous, and not successive, an uncertainty is introduced which again reduces the chronology to primitive chaos, ' Vide ante ch. iv. ; and also vide Palmer, i. 49. PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. 93 although floating objects in it, the dihris of tombs and dynasties, remain clearly distinguishable, and, in point of fact, have been perfectly identified. If we had no other evidence, I should feel irresistibly drawn to the dictum of M. Mariette (ap. Mgr. Meignan, " L'Homme Primitif," p. 391), " Le plus grand de tous les obstacles a I'etablissement d'une chronologic egyptienne regu- iiere, c'est que les Egyptians eux-memes n'ont jamais eu de chronologic." I shall, on the contrary, from another point of view, attempt to show, not only that they had a chronology, but that this chronology has actually been re-discovered and re-constituted. In the conviction that this is the case, and that it is not sufficiently known that it is so, I shall devote some space to an abstract of Mr William Palmer's " Egyptian Chronicles " (1861), in which it appears to me that this exposition and solution is to be found. Mr Palmer at least has brought the Egyptian chro- nology (upon the system of the Old Chronicle) to so close a reconciliation with Scripture (upon the basis of a collation of the Septuagint and Josephus), that we have a right to compare any Egyptologist making an attempt to advance into the interior to the monuments, whilst disregarding it, to a commander leaving an important fortress in his rear.^ As Mr Palmer takes his stand upon the Old Chronicle, and as the Old Chronicle has been in considerable disrepute with Egyptologists (Bun- ^ And yet, with the exception of Professor Rawlinsou's " Manual of Ancient History," where mention is made of Mr Palmer's work as among eight principal works to be referred to on the subject of Egyptian chro- nology, and of a series of articles in the Month on the same subject, I do not recollect to have seen allusion made to it. A previous perusal of the articles in the Month above referred to wiU greatly facilitate the study of this question. 94 PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. sen, i. 216), I do not see that I can adopt a better plan of bringing the whole subject before the reader, than by- confronting Mr W. Palmer's discovery and exposition with Baron Bunsen's strictures on the Old Chronicle. Bunsen (i. 214-217) says (the italics are mine) — " 'The Egyptians,' says Synoellus, ' boast of a certain Old Cliromcle, by -wMoh also, in my opinion, Manetho (the impostor) was led astray.' . . . The origin of this fiction is obvious. Its object, as well as that of the pseudo-Manetho, is to represent the great year of the world of 36,525 years, or twenty-five Sothic cycles. The timeless space of the book of Sothis becomes the rule of Vulcan. . . . The number fixed for the other gods, 3984, is quite original ; perhaps it may not be mere accident that it agrees with the computation of some chronographers for the period from the Creation to B.C. The dynasty of the demigods reflects the same judicious moderation as in the scheme of the pseudo-Manetho (2144). Then comes a series of corruptions of the genuine Manetho, i.e., of the Manetho of the thirty historical Egyptian dynasties. He is, however, confounded with the Manetho of the Dog-star, and hence it is that the fifteen dynasties of Manetho are called the fifteen dynasties of the Sothiac cycle. But how is the number 443 to be ex- plained ? Is this entry to be understood in the same sense as the similar one in Clemens, namely, that the first fifteen dynasties com- prehended the 443 years prior to the beginning of the last cycle, con- sequently prior to 13221 or is it simply taken, with a slight alteration by Eusebius, to the fourteenth and fifteenth dynasties (435) ? The following dates for the length of reigns 'are in the gross evidently bor- rowed from Eusebius. ... In the sequel, there is no more reckoning by dynasties, but seventy-five generations are numbered, in order to make up the 113 of Manetho. So palpable is that, . . . Lastly, the dates and numbers . . . are brought into shape by various arbitrary expedients ; but Eusebius on all occasions appears as the authority. ... As the dates of the individual dynasties now run, 184 years are wanting to make up the promised 36,525 years. It is scarcely worth while to inquire where the mistake lies." He finally pronounces the Old Chronicle to be- the compilation of a Jewish or Christian im- postor of the third century, or later. As Mr Palmer has not directly adverted to this pas- sage from Bunsen in his " Egyptian Chronicles," I will give an extract from a letter which I have received from PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. 95 Mr Palmer on the subject, which will clear off some of the tissues of confusion into which the strictures of Baron Eunsen have got entangled. " I assert, in the first instance (there heing nothing whatever to the contrary), that we have the Old Chronicle in a, perfectly genuine form, i.e. in the text of Syneelius and Afrioanus, but hy no means in Bunsen ; and further, that it really is, and they from whom we have it tell us it was, the oldest Greco-Egyptian writing of the kind current in the time of Africanus. . . . Bunsen pronounces the Old Chronicle to be the compilation of a Jewish or Christian impostor of the third century (' Eusebiiis appearing on all occasions as the authority,' &c.) In the Old Chronicle, as given by Syneelius and Africanus, there is nothing whatever borrowed from Eusebius ; but Eusebius has borrowed from and altered the Old Chronicle, so as to suit his own sacred chronology. The ' Book of Sothis,' too, has worked up and altered the Old Chronicle, with which it is by no means to be identified. . . . But I deal with three so-called Manethos — viz. (1.) the original Manetho of Josephus and Eratosthenes, who had only twenty-three historical dynasties of his total of thirty dynasties (the Old Chronicle, from which he took the number of thirty, having twenty-nine his- torical and one [that of the sun god] unhistorical) ; (2.) the Manetho of Ptolemy of Mendes, which is the Manetho of Africanus, who has thirty-one dynasties, all pretending to be historical ; and, lastly, the Manetho of the ' Book of Sothis,' used by Anianus and Panadorus (to which last alone Bunsen's . . . mention of ' fifteen dynasties of the Dog-star' refers). . . . If any figures in the Manetho of the 'Book of Sothis ' of the fifth century A.D., are borrowed from Eusebius, there is nothing in this, Eusebius himself having used and altered the Old Chronicle before, just as the author of the Book of Sothis or Anianus may have used Eusebius and the old chronicle. But I am not now dealing with the c[uestion of fact, whether Eusebius' figures were so followed or not. . . . When Bunsen says, ' Perhaps it may not be mere accident that the figures 3984 agrees,' &c. ; he should have said rather that some 'chronographers' 'agree' 'with it,' and perhaps so agree not by accident. I do not remember whether any one, or who in particular, of modem chronographers agree with it ; but certainly if any do, it is quite by accident. The number 3984, as given by the Old Chronicle to Chronos and the other twelve gods, has no relation whatever to any reckoning of the year of the world to Christ ; and a chronologer might as well adapt his sum of years from the Creation to Christ, or to any other fanciful number, as 95 PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. to this. The truth, is, that with the shorter numbers of the Vulgate, many chronologers haye made out sums of about four thousand years, some rather more, some less." In the somewhat lengthened extract which I have made {sup. p. 94) from Bunsen, four figures (3984, 217, 443, and 184) will have struck the eye, which baffle even Bunsen's penetration, and only make twice con- founded what was confused before. But what if these four figures should all be accounted for? and, when accounted for, fitted into the chronology so as to be in keeping, not only with the other figures of the Chronicle, but also with the systems of Manetho and Eratosthenes, as exactly as " the key fits the wards of the lock?" {vide infra, p. 332), will not the matter begin to wear a different aspect? When the figures are shown to be imbedded in all the diff'erent systems which have been transmitted to us, will it then be said that the figures "are evidently borrowed from Eusebius?" But, in fact, it is also demonstrated by internal evidence that the Chronicle, as we have it, must be referred to the date 305 B.C. This, then, is how the argument stands ; but it is a matter of some difficulty to compass Mr Palmer's elabor- ate argument, and I cannot attempt to do more than to indicate its most salient points. Premising that the Sothic cycle (a period of 1461 vague, or 1460 fixed sidereal years) was connected by the Egyptians with their recurring periods of transfor- mation and renovation (" common to the mythologies of Egypt and India "), and also that two such periods (1461 + 2) = 2922 corresponded with the antediluvian period, or rather with the sum of the lives or reigns of the antediluvian patriarchs, inclusive of survivors of the Deluge, with something added in order to throw the whole into cyclical form, all which is shown in detail in PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. 97 " Egyptian Clironicles," i. 23-37, I may now proceed to Mr Palmer's analysis of the scheme of the Old Chronicle, which is thus given by Syncellus, " probably from the Manetho of Africanus " (Palmer's " Egypt. Chron.,"i. 7):— " There is extant among the Egyptians a certain Old Chronicle, the source, I suppose, -which led Manetho astray, exhibiting ixx dynasties and again cxiii generations, with an infinite space of time (not the same either as that of Manetho), viz. three myriads, six thousand five hundred and twenty-five years — 1st, Of the Aeritse ; 2dly, Of the Mestrseans ; and, 3dly, Of the Egyptians, — being word for word as follows : — [Dynasty I. to XV. inclusive of the chronicle of the gods] : — Time of Phtha there is none, as he shines equally by night and by day [but all generations being from him] [First dynasty] 'HXios [i.e. Ea, the sun-god], son of Phtha, reigned three myriads of years, . . . 30,000 Then [Dynasty II. to XIV. inclusive, and generations II. to XIV. inclusive] Kporas [or Xpovos, i.e. Seb], and all the other xii gods [who are the Aeritoe perhaps of Eusebius and Africanus], reigned years . . 3984 Then [Dynasty XV.] viii demigod kings [the Mestrseans of Eusebius and Africanus] reigned [as viii generations but one dynasty], years . . . .217 And after them xv generations of the Cynic cycle were regis- tered in years . . . 443 Then Dynasty XVI. of Tanites, generations viii, years . 190 Then Dynasty XVII. of Memphites, generations iv, years of the same generations . . 103 After whom there followed — Dynasty XVIII. of Memphites, generations xiv, years of the same generations ..... 348 Then Dynasty XIX. of Diospolites, generations v, years . 194 Then Dynasty XX. of Diospolites, generations viii, years of the same generations ..... 228 Then Dynasty XXI. of Tanites, generations vi, years . 121 Then Dynasty XXII. of Tanites, generations iii, years . 48 Then Dynasty XXIII. of Diospolites, generations ii, years of the same generations . . . .19 6 9S PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. Then Dynasty XXIV. of Saites, generations iii, years . 44 Besides whom is to be reckoned — Dynasty XXY. of Ethiopians, generations iii, years of the same generations ..... 44 After whom again there followed — Dynasty XXVI. of Memphites, generations vii, years of the same generations . . . • .177 And then after — Dynasty XXVII. [Here the designation, generations, and years are pur- posely omitted ; but the years are implied by the sum total, which follows below, to be certainly . .184] Dynasty XXVIII. of Persians, generations v, years of the same generations ..... 124 Then Dynasty XXIX. of Tanites, generations , years . 39 And, lastly, after all the above — Dynasty XXX. of one Tanite king, years . . .18 Generations cxiii, years 36,525 Sum of all the years of the XXX. Dynasties, three myriads, six thousand five hundred and twenty-five (Kings 1881 years)." These 36,525 years, -when divided by 1461, tlie Sotliic cycle (as noted by Syncellus), give the quotient xxv. We need not digress into the conjectural reasons why twenty-five such periods were taken, rather than any other number. We will be content at starting to see in its relation to the cycle evidence of the purely fictitious character of its myriads of years, and a clue to the sig- nificance of the indication, " after them xv generations of the Cynic cycle," &c. Mr Palmer (i. xxiii.) says, that the question which first suggested itself to him was — " To what Sothic cycle are these 443 years or xv generations said to belong ? " [for there was the doubt whether there was any real Sothic cycle at all.] " For a Sothic cycle is not merely a space of 1461 Egyptian years, but it is that particular space of 1461 such years, and that only, which begins from the conjunction of the movable new year or Thoth, with the heliacal rising of Sirius, fbced to 20th July of our Gregorian calendar for that part of Egypt PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. 99 which is just above Memphis. . . . For the author of a chronicle ending with Nectaneho, or at any date between the Sothio epochs, 20th July B.C. 1322 (the known commencement of a cycle), and 20th July A.D. 139, ' the Sothic cycle,' could only mean the cycle actually current" {U. B.C. 1322 to-A.D. 139 = 1461]! . . . "After this dis- covery, if the perception of a truism can be called a discovery, it followed naturally to observe further that in constructing a fanciful scheme . . . ending at any other date than a true- cyclical epoch, the first operation . . . must be to ev,t off all those years of the true current cycle ■which were yet to run out, below the date fixed upon, and to throw them back so that they might be reckoned as past instead of being looked forward to as future. This, then, was what the author of the Old Chronicle had done ; and, with an ironical humour common among the Egyptians, he had told his readers to their faces the nature of his trick, ticketing and labelling the key to it (the 443 years) and tying it in the lock, or rather leaving it in the lock itself." Counting, then, back 139 years of the 443 " from the 20th July a.d. 139 to 20th July B.C. 1, and 304 more from 20th July B.C. 1, we come to 20th July in 305 B.C. (if the years be fixed, sidereal, or solar years), or to 8th November 305, if they he (as they really are) vague Egyptian years" (305 B.C. being the year in which Ptolemy Lagi assumed the crown). [For the discrepancy between this date and the con- quest of Ochus, " at which the series of the Chronicle ostensibly ends," vide " Egypt. Chron.," p. xxiv.] Let the reader now return to the scheme of the chronicle {sup. p. 97). The analysis of the whole sum, 36,525 years, gives 30,000 years (to the sun), + 3984 (to xiii gods), + 217 (to viii demigods), + 443 (to the Sothic cycle), + 1881 to kings from Menes to Nectanebo (the last native sovereign). So far we have only 1881 years, corresponding to an historical period, + 443 of the cycle thrown up. It has been previously noted, however, that 2922 (two Sothic cycles) correspond to the antediluvian and patriarchal period (i. 37). The intricate part of the scrutiny will be found in the discrimination of the 2922 years (which, with 217 + 1881, make up the sequence of human time, 100 PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. A.M., to Nectanebo) from the figures 3984 years in the analysis above. For the full and scientific discrimination, I must refer the reader to "Egyptian Chronicles," i. 17; but for a simple demonstration, we may tate the historical figures as above— viz. 2922 + 217 + 1881, added to the figures thrown in to complete the cycle {vide infra), viz. 341 + 483, all which figures = 5844, and deduct them from the whole cyclical number thus — 36,625 5,844 30,681 Now, reverting to the scheme of the Chronicle, we shall see the round number 30,000 years (being as it were an Egyptian month, in thousands of years instead of days) apportioned ofi" to the sun-god. To obtain this round number, the fractional number 681 would have to be detached, and there being at hand the cyclical number 2922 years (two perfect Sothic cycles), any number in reason of fractional remainders might be added to it, since with the symmetrical nucleus, the agglomeration would always be recognisable by the initiated, i.e. by the priests. The 681 years were there- fore added to 2922, and also the 341 fictitious years (" to make time from the beginning to run in the form of Sothic cycles ") were added, because there they would cause no confusion; ''whereas if they had been added to the 217 years of the demigods, no one could any longer have distinguished the original fraction." We thus collect, therefore, those various figures into the sum which was the figure of difficulty — viz. 3984 (681 + 2922 + 341 + 40), the forty years included having merely reference to the point at which the current PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. loi Sothic cycle was thrown up — Leing the years intervening between the flight of Nectanebo in b.c. 345, and the coronation of Ptolemy Lagi in b.c. 305. Upon his own method, based upon Josephus, who follows in the main the Septuagint ("on a prin- ciple of compromise such as all readers, rchatever may be their system, may agree in accepting provisionally, and as an approximation"), Mr Palmer (i. 22-29) brings the Scripture a.m. to b.c. 1, to a synchronism of "five years four months" and some days, with the Egyptian computation. But the same key is made to unlock all the systems of Egyptian chronology, and in the course of his two volumes of close and learned investigation, Mr Palmer demonstrates that " Manetho, Eratosthenes, Ptolemy of Mendes, Diodorus, Josephus, Africanus, Eusebius, Anianus, Panodorus, and Syncellus, ■ have, either of themselves or by following others, transferred dynasties, generations, and years of the gods and demigods of the Chronicle, and even fifteen generations of Ptolemies and Caesars, as yet unborn at the date of the Chronicle, to kings after Menes." Let the above scheme of the Chronicle be compared, for instance, with the scheme of Diogenes Laertius (which Mr Palmer conjectures, upon intrinsic evidence, to have been transmitted through Aristotle). Diogenes Laertius' whole figure is 48,863 years, which contains for its fictitious part thirty times 1461 = 43,830, which, being deducted from 48,863, 43,830 5,033 leaves 5033 for "true human time." Now 5033 years are equal to those 2922 years + 217 years + 1881 years, which alone in the Chronicle belong properly and origin- 102 PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. ally to the xiii gods and viii demigods and the last xv dynasties of the kings from Menes to Nectanebo, with only thirteen surplus years, i.e. from the conquest of Darius Ochus to Alexander; " seemingly to the autumn of B.C. 332, when he first entered Egypt." Here I might conclude my outline of Mr Palmer's scheme, so far as is necessary to the vindication of the Chronicle as against Bunsen, were it not for the remain- ing figure (all the others, if the reader will refer back, have been accounted for) — viz. 184, to which Bunsen refers. This figure is shown to correspond with the 184 years of the Hyksos or Shepherds (i. 134, 135, etseq., 155, 285, 299). Dynasty XXVIL, to which the 184 years in the Chronicle are attributed, has been displaced from be- tween Dynasties XVII. and XVIII. of the Chronicle, and its 184 years are " restored to their true place and to the Shepherds by Manetho," and are given " by the Theban priests, i.e. by Eratosthenes, suppressing the Shepherds, to the kings of Upper Egypt." As regards Manetho (i. 284) " having, besides the 1881 years of the Chronicle, 1674 additional years of kings, of which (22 + 217 =) 239 only are in them- selves, though not in their attributions, chronological, and having given of these 1491 (which are thrice 477 and 60 over) to his six early dynasties of Lower Egypt (and sixteen inconvenient years he isolated between his Dynasties XIV. and XV. , so as to include them in his Book i.), he gave to the three early dynasties of Upper Egypt no other unchronological years than two complementary sums, the one of 43 (to the first), and the other, of 124 years, to the second of the three dynasties, that these same sums might both coalesce with the remainder of sixty years belonging to the sum of the six dynasties of Lower Egj'pt, so as to make with it, or rather to indi- PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. 03 cate, the one of them the sum of 103, the other the sum of 184." Vide table, p. 285. . . . Sam of six dynasties of Lower Egypt, 1491. But this sum 1491 is equivalent to 190+103 + 184 = 477 190 + 103 + 184 = 477 190 + 103 + 184 = 477 But 60 (1431 + 60) = 1491 _43 (1431 + 60)+ 43= 103 (43 of Dyn. XIV. of Upper Egypt.) (1431 + 60) 124 184 (124 of Dyn. XV. of Upper Egypt in Book ii.) The place of the 184 years of the Shepherd Dynasty will he seen as clearly in the analysis of Eratosthenes' scheme F. in " Egyptian Chronicles " (i. 299), and if I had space I should like to give it in extenso, because it is upon his 1076 from Menes to XVIII. Dynasty, that Bunsen mainly relies for his fundamental theory (Bun- sen's " Egypt," ii. xvi.) As the confutation of Bunsen does not enter into Mr Palmer's plan, I think it worth while to add, that these 1076 years are thus made up 477, the true historical length of the epoch (from Menes to XVIII. Dynasty), as we know from the chronicle {vide Palmer's supra), hence the significance of this figure in table above, + 443 of the cycle added, + 156 of Dyn. XVIII. encroached upon ^ for the symmetrical purpose displayed in scheme F, in which scheme it will ' It will be understood that, in the above scheme and throughout, Mr Palmer assumes the existence of cotemporaneous dynasties elsewhere demonstrated. It is admitted, on all hands, that cotemporary dynasties ceased with the XVIII. Dynasty; and, in the other direction, all schemes 104 PALMER ON EGYPTIAN CHRONOLOGY. be seen that the 184 years of the Shepherds again enter as a constituent part. But as I am merely indicating the scheme, and not elaborating the argument, I must here part company with Mr Palmer. If, however, any one wishes to examine the question more in detail, and seeks to know in what manner the years in the above scheme are apportioned among the different generations and dynas- ties, he must take up with Mr Palmer at i. p. 300. My purpose is sufficiently answered by establishing that a scheme exists, if not irrefutable, at least up to this unconfuted, which perfectly harmonises the scriptural with the Egyptian chronology. commence with Menes. If, then, this interval of time is known or deter- mined by one part of a scheme (as it is known from the chronicle to be 477 years), and at the same time, the exigences of the case (owing to fictitious additions) require the location of other figures within the inter- val, then the super-additions must overlap (apparently to those who know 477 years to be the true historical figure) at one end or the other. One hundred and fifty-six years (as above) is the extent of the overlapping (the 443 years of the cycle standing apart) in the scheme of Eratosthenes. CHAPTER VII. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. " Tradition reveals the past to us, and consequently it reveals to us also the future. It is the tie which binds the past, the present, and the future together, and is the science of them all. If we possessed the memory of maniiud, as we do that of our personal existence, we should know all. But if we have not the memory of mankind, does not mankind possess it? Is manldnd without memory, without tradition ? . . . There is no nation which does not exist through tradition, not only historical traditions relative to its earthly exist- ence, but through religious traditions relative to its eternal destiny. To despise this treasure, what is it but to despise life, and that which constitutes its connection, its unity, its light, as we have just seen ? . . . When God spoke to men His Word passed into time. . . . Happily tradition seized upon it as soon as it left the threshold of eternity ; and tradition is neither an ear, nor a mouth, nor an isolated memory, but the ear, the mouth, and the memory of generations united together by tradition itself, and imparting to it an existence superior to the caprices and weakness of individuals. Nevertheless, God wotdd not trust to oral tradition alone . . . Symbolical tradi- tion was to add itseK to oral tradition by sustaining and confirming it. . . . The five terms constituting the mystery of good and evil : the existence of God, the creation of the world and of man by God, the fall of man, his restoration by a great act of divine mercy, and, lastly,thefinal judgment of mankind . . . and that which oral tradi- tion declared, symbolical tradition should repeat at all times and in all places, in order that the obscured or deceived memory of man might be brought back again to truth by an external, a public, an universal, all-powerful spectacle. [Lacordaire is speaking principally with reference to sacrifice and the sacrifice of Mount Calvary.] . . . Each time that oral tradition underwent a movement of renovation by the breath of God, symbolical tradition felt the effects of it. The sacrifice of Abel marks the era of patriarchal tradition ; the sacrifice io6 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. of Abraham marks the era of Hebre-w tradition ; the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the final and consvimmating sacrifice, marks the era of Christian tradition. . . . Such is the nature of tradition, and such its history. Tradition is the connection of the present with the past, of the past with the future ; it is the principle of identity and con- tinuity which forms persons, families, nations, and mankind. It flows in the human race by three great streams which are clearly peroeptible^the Christian, the Hebrew, and the patriarchal or primi- tive ; in all these three it is oral and symbolical, and whether as oral or symbolical it speaks of God, the creation, the fall, reparation and judgment. . . . Without occupying ourselves with the question as to whether Scripture was a gift from above or an invention of men, we see that there exists two kinds of it — ^human and sacred scripture. I understand by human scripture, that which is consi- dered by men as the expression of the ideas of a man ; I understand by sacred scripture that which is venerated by nations as containing something more than the ideas of a man. . . . There are in the world an innumerable quantity of books, nevertheless there are but six of them which have been venerated by nations as sacred. These are the ' Kings' of China, the Vedas of India, the Zend-Avesta of the Persians, the Koran of the Arabs, the Law of the Jews, and the GospeL And at first sight I am struck with this rarity of sacred writings. So many legislators have founded cities, so many men of genius have governed the human understanding, and yet all these legislators, all these men of genius, have not been able to cause the existence of more than six sacred books upon earth! . . . Every sacred book is a traditional book, it was venerated before it existed, it existed before it appeared. The Koran, which is the last of the sacred writings in the order of time, ofi'ers to us a proof of this worthy of our thoughtful attention. Without doubt, Mahommed relied upon pretended revelations ; however, it is clear to all those who read the Koran, that the Abrahamic tradition was the true source of its power. . . . The same traditional character shines upon each page of the Christian and Hebrew books ; we find it also in the Zend-Avesta, the Vedas, and the Kings of the Chinese. Tradi- tion is everywhere the mother of religion ; it precedes and engenders sacred books, as language precedes and engenders scripture ; its existence is rendered immovable in the sacred books ... a sacred book is a religious tradition which has had strength enough to sign its name. . . . The sacred writings are, then, traditional ; it is their first character. I add that they are constituent, that is to say, they possess a marvellous power for giving vitality and duration to THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. lo; empires. Strange to say, tlie most magnificent books of philoso- phers have not been able to found, I do not say a people, but a small philosophical society ; and the sacred ■writings, without excep- tion, have founded very great and lasting nations. Thus the Kings founded China, the Vedas India, &c. . . . Look at Plato . . . how is it that Plato has not been able to constitute, I do not say a nation, but simply a permanent school ? How is it that communities totter when thinkers meddle with them, and that the precise moment of their fall is that when men announce to them that mind is emanci- pated, that the old forms which bound together human activity are broken, that the altar is undermined and reason is all-powerful ? Philosophers ! if you speak the truth, how is it that the moment when all the elements of society become more refined and develop themselves, is the moment of its dissolution?" — From Fhe Lacor- daires " Conferences!' Conf. 9 and 10. (Tran. H. Langdon ; Eichardson, 1852.) I should also wish M. Auguste Nicolas' " Etudes Philosophiques suT le Christianisme " — particularly lib. I. chap, v., " Necessite d'une revelation Primitive ; " and lib. II. chap, iv., " Traditions univer- selles" — to be read in connection with the following chapter. I did not become acc[uainted with M. Nicolas until after the chapter was concluded. I have, however, fulfilled my obligations in the above extract from L'Abbe Lacordaire, which lies more an fond of my view than the chapters referred to in M. Nicolas. I also wish to direct attention to a remarkable article in the Home and Foreign Review, Jan. 1864, entitled " Classical Myths in relation to the Antiq^uity of Man," signed P. A. P, Tradition, in the sense in which we have just seen it used hy Lacordaire, in what we may call its widest sig- nification, is not limited to oral tradition, but may be termed the connection of evidence which establishes the unity of the human race ; and, with this evidence, estab- lishes the identity and continuity of its belief, laws, institutions, customs, and manners (Manners, vide Goguet's " Origin of Laws," i. 327-329). The more closely the tradition is investigated, the more thoroughly will it be found to attest a common origin, and the more fully will its conformity with the scriptural narrative be made apparent. loS THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. Now, althougli in all ages there have been men of great intellect who have held to tradition, it may be stated as one of those truths, qui saute aux yeux, and which will not be gainsaid, that the human intellect has been throughout opposed to tradition, has been its most constant adversary, equally when it was the tradition of a corrupt polytheism, as when it was the tradition of uncontested truth; and so active has been this antagonism, that the marvel is that anything of primitive tradition should have remained. Hence arose the divergence between religion and philosophy — a divergence which, as it seems to me, is inexplicable from the point of view of those who believe that, in the centuries which preceded the coming of our Lord,^ religion simply was not, had ceased to be ; unless we suppose that a tradition of the antagonism had sur- ' Such appears to me to be the conclusion of Mr Allies in his learned work ("The Formation of Christendom," ii. chap. vlii. 67), "Univer- sality of false worship in the most diverse nations the summing up of man's whole history." I request attention, however, to the following passage, at page 382, which has an especial bearing upon my argum.ent : — " No doubt the Greek mind had lived and brooded for ages upon the remains of original revelation, nor can any learning now completely unravel the interwoven threads of tradition and reason so as to distinguish their separate work. However, it is certain that in the sixth century B.C., the Greeks were without a hierarchy, and without a definite theology: not indeed without individual priesthoods, traditionary rites, and an existing worship, as well as certain mysteries which professed to communicate a higher and more recondite doctrine than that exposed to the public gaze. But in the absence of any hierarchy ... a very large range indeed was given to the mind, acting upon this shadowy religious belief, and re-acted upon by it, to form their philosophy. The Greeks did not, any more than antiquity in general, use the acts of religious service for instruction by religious discourse. In other words, there was no such thing as preaching among them. A domain, therefore, was open to the philosopher, on which he might stand without directly impeaching the ancestral worship, while he examined its grounds, and perhaps sapped its foundations. He was therein taking up a position which these priests, the civil functionaries of religious rites, scarcely any longer retaining a spiritual meaning or a moral cogency, had not occupied." THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 109 vived, which would still partially disclose how it came about that when religion had ceased to be (^pro argu- mento), or had become corrupt, philosophy, which then {ex hypothesi) alone soared above the intellect of the crowd, did not, and could not become a religion to them, infra, pp. 142, 145, 146. And the history of this antagonism seems to be, that the human intellect has ever had, and now more con- fidently than ever, the aim and ambition to substitute something better than the revelation of primitive tradi- tion, and the experiences of the human race. It is quite conceivable that human life and human institutions might have been arranged upon some scheme different from that of the divine appointment; and although we may believe that any such scheme would result in ultimate confusion and the final extinction of the human race, it is still theoretically possible that the experiment might have been made.* Here comes in, with its full significance, the great ^ Take for instance Mr J. S. Mill's peculiar views as to the status of women, " The law of servitude in marriage " [" Wives be obedient to your husbands," St Paul], he says, " is in monstrous contradiction to all the principles of the modern world" (p. 147). "Marriage is the only actual bondage known to our law," id. But at p. 49, Mr Mill says, " The general opinion of men is supposed to be, that the natural vocation of a woman is that of a wife and mother." But he then adds (p. 37), " It will not do to assert in general terms that the experience of mankind has pro- nounced in favonr of the existing system. Experience cannot possibly have decided between two courses, so long as there has only been experience of one. If it be said that the doctrine of the equality of the sexes rests only on theory, it must be remembered that the contrary doctrine also has only theory to rest upon. All that is proved in its favour by direct experience, is that mankind have been able to exist under it, and to attain the degree of improvement and prosperity which we now see ; but whether that prosperity has been attained sooner, or is now greater than it would have been under the other system, experience does not say." Take in illustration, again, the communistic schemes as against the institution of property. Novf, although Christianity has realised all that no THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. saying of Lacordaire's — " Order I compare to a pyramid reaching from heaven to earth. Men cannot overthrow its base, because the finger of God rests upon its apex." If the finger of Grod did not so rest, there is no assign- able reason vs^hy this pyramid — this incubus, as some would call it — which goes back, stone upon stone, to the primitive ages, should not have been overturned, and some system purely atheistical, purely material, purely communistic, substituted for it. But I believe that no democratic organisation, however extended among the masses, will overthrow the established order of things, so long as the possessors of property, the upper classes, are true to the objects for which property was instituted. will ever be possible in the way of communism in its religious orders, the communistic sects have always instinctively directed their first efforts against religion as against the basis of the social order of things which they attacked. This was forcibly brought out in certain letters on " European Radicalism," in the Pall Mall Gazette, October and November 1869, e.g. " all the contests on the three capital questions (' government, property, religion ') which we are now engaged in, are but continuations of the original divergence of opinion (before settled government), considerably modified, of course, under the influence of time, the various Vraditional notions mankind preserves under the naTrie of beliefs, and the whole stock of experience it has accumulated under the name of knowledge. So like, indeed, are the ancient and modern contests on these matters," &c. . . . (Letter I.) Again (Letter V.), speaking of our English socialist discussing "the necessity of building social edifices upon material, not religious grounds," the writer adds, that among continental socialists "no one thinks there of the possibility of matters standing otherwise ; " and that in the socialist workshops of France and Germany it is well known " that the very basis of social radicalism requires the abandonment of all kinds of religious discussion, as matter of purely personal inclination, and the abolition of all kinds of privileges as incompatible with equality." [All this has been put out of date by the deeds of the Commune and the pro- gramme of the "International Society" — viz. "The burning of Paris we accept the responsibility of. The old society must and will perish."] The Spectator, December 1869, speaks still more explicitly : — " Infirm and crippled though she be, the Roman Church is still the only one who has the courage to be cosmopolitan, and claim the right to link nation with nation, and literature with literature. Such an assembly as the Council THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. iii Considering how much man has effected in the material order, and considering also the varied intellectual facul- ties with which he is endowed, it strikes one as strange, as something which has to be acccounted for, that he has been able to effect so little in the moral order. It is the same whether we regard the action of the intellect upon the individual man, or upon society. And from this latter point of view it is so true, that it is more than doubtful whether those epochs in which man has attained the highest point of intellectual and material civilisation, are not those also in which he has reached the lowest depths of immorality ; * and in which — having touched is, at least, an extraordinary testimony to the eomopolitanism of tlie great Church which seems trembling to its fall ; and who can doubt that thiit fall, whenever it comes, will be followed by a great temporary loosening of the faith in human unity — in spite of the electric telegraph — by a deepening of the chasm between nation and nation, by the loss of at least a most potent spell over the imagination of the world, by a contraction of the spiritual ideal of every church ? This ideal, even Protestants, even Sceptics, even Positivists have owed, and have owned that they owed, to the Bomau Church, the only Church which has really succeeded in uniting the bond between anyone ecclesiastical centre and' the distant circum- ference of human intelligence and energy. But if the consequence of the collapse of Eomanism would be in this way a loss of power to the human race, think only of the gain of power which would result from the final death of sacerdotal ideas, from the final blow to the system of arbitrary authority exercised over the intellect and the conscience, from the new life which would flow into a faith and science resting on the steady accumulation of moral and intellectual facts and the personal life of the conscience in Christ — from the final triumph of moral and intellectual order and freedom. It would doubtless be a, new life, subject to great anarchy at first ; but the old authoritative systems have themselves been of late little more than anarchy just kept under by the authority of pre- scription and tradition ; and one can only hope for the new order from the complete recognition that it is to have no arbitrary or capricious founda- tion." ^ "It is, upon the whole, extremely doubtful whether those periods which are the richest in literature, possess the greatest shares, either of moral excellence or of political happiness. We are well aware that the true and happy ages of Roman greatness long preceded that of Roman 112 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. the lowest point of corruption — tlie human intellect is unable to devise any better plan for the government of mankind, than the repression of despotism.* But if the human intellect cannot prevent or control corruption, cannot it disenchant vice of its evil, and so counteract its effects ? Is there no new conception of virtue with which to allure mankind ? No second decalogue which will attract by its novelty, or convince by logical cogency and force ? The Comtists, I believe, have a scheme for setting all these things right. But what portion of mankind do they influence ? They are at present formidable only as may be the cloud on the horizon, nor have they found sympathy even where they might have had some expectation of iinding it. If there was any separate section of mankind which might have given them countenance, it would, one would think, be the rationalist section, whose principles would disincline them to regard old modes of thought with undue par- tiality. It is from this quarter, if I mistake not, that the unkindest cut has come, and that it has been said that "the latter half of Comte's career and writings is the despair and bewilderment of those M'ho admire the refinement and Roman authors ; and, I fear, there is but too much reason to suppose that in the history o£ the modem nations we may find many examples of the same kind " (F. Sohlegel's " History of Literature," i. 373). See also the account of the corruption of morals in Rome iu the Augustan period (Allies' "Form, of Christendom," I. Leot. I.) "It is curious to observe that the more eloquent, polite, and learned the Greeks became, in the same proportion they became the more degraded and corrupt iu their national religion " (Godfrey Higgins' " Celtic Druids," 1829, p. 207). * " II n'y a. Messieurs, que deux sortes de repression possibles : I'une int&ieure, I'autre ext^rieure. . . . EUes sont de telle nature que quand le thermomfetre politique est ^leviS, le thermomfetre de la religion est bas, et quand le thermomfetre religieux est baa, le thermomfetre politique, la repression politique, la tyrannie s'fleve. Ceci est une loi de I'humanit^, une loi de I'hiatoire." Vide Disc, de Donoso Cortes (Marq. de Valdegamas), 4th January 1849; in which he pursues this remarkable parallelism throughout history. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 113 preceding half;" yet in this latter half he only aimed at converting rationalism from a negative to a positive system. But, allowing that a system of some sort might thus be constructed, can positivism he defined as more than the system of those who are positive by mutual consent and agreement without faith or cer- tainty, and who are the more positive in propor- tion as they recede from Catholic truth and tradition. We, however, who believe in the identity of Catholicism and Christianity, may still appreciate Professor Huxley's definition of positivism, viz. — " Catholicism minus Chris- tianity." 5 Can any one adduce a more typical representative of the clear, powerful, penetrating intellect of man than Voltaire ! Voltaire, moreover, had the aim and ambi- tion (" ecraser I'infame ") to obliterate the tradition ' Montalembert (" Disc, de Reception," 1852, Diaoours iii. pp. 614, 615, 621, 622) says of the Constituent Assembly of 1789 — "It was the Assembly of 1789 which made the word revolution the synonyme of methodical destruction, of permanent war against all order and all authority. ... It had that mania for uniformity which is the parody of unity, and which Montesquieu called the passion of mediocre minds. . . . In a word, the Constituent Assembly was wanting not only in justice, courage, and humanity, but it was also deficient in good sense. The evil which it created has survived it. It has made us believe that it is possible to destroy everything and to reconstruct everything in a day. . . . God has chastised it, above all, by the sterility of its work. It had had the pretence of laying the foundations of liberty for ever, and it had for its successors the most sanguinary tyrants who ever dishonoured any nation. Its mission was to re-establish the finances, the empire of the law, and it has bequeathed to France bankruptcy, anarchy, and despotism — despotism without even the repose which they have wrongly taken as the compensation of servitude. It has done more : it has left pretexts for every abuse of force, and precedents for any excess of future anarchy. [Montalembert could hardly have foreseen the last application of its prin- ciples which we have recently witnessed in Paris by the Commune, which, too, forsooth, was to have inaugurated a new era for humanity.] But it (this Constituent Assembly) founded nothing — Nothing ! The ancient so- ciety which it reversed had lasted, in spite of its abuses, a thousand years." H 114 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. of the past ; yet can there be a better example of the impotence of the intellect in the moral order ? Does it not seem startling that, when the human intellect, as in the case of Voltaire, should be able to detect with so much acumen, so much wit, what is wrong, that it should be wholly struck with sterility when it attempts to tell us what is right, to reveal to man any truth in the moral order not traditionally known to them. And if the disciples of Voltaire have occasionally, in spas- modic efforts, attempted this, it has hot been in the manner of Voltaire ; it has been in the spirit of eclecti- cism, of reconstruction out of the elements of the past — that is to say (with pardon, if the phrase has been used before), an attempt to create, out of the elements he would have spurned, edifices which he would have derided. Now, the pretension of the human intellect is quite contrary to this experience. It claims to have pro- gressively elevated mankind out of a state of primi- tive barbarism, to have indoctrinated them with the ideas of morality which they possess, to have humanised them, and thus affirms the converse of the theory of tradition which it pursues with much unreasoning and implacable animosity. The Saturday Review (July 24, 1869), in reviewing Mr Gladstone's " Juventus Mundi," says— " Mr Glad- stone is doubtless well aware that there was no portion of his Homeric studies which was received with more surprise, or with more unfavourable comment, than his speculations on what he described as the traditive and the inventive elements in the Homeric mythology." ^ In consequence, Mr Gladstone says he has endeavoured ° Fiom a purely phUoBophical point o£ view, why should these specula- tions of Mr Gladstone have been received " with more surprise and un- favourable comment" than any other "portions of his Homeric studies ?" THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 115 to avoid in his more recent work " a certain crudity of expression." The Saturday Review, however, says — " That 'the crudity of expression ' here referred to seems to have heen corrected and modified to some extent by disguising the process of argument by which it was sus- tained, and by the adoption of a lighter touch and slighter treatment of the subject than in the former book. But the theory itself, we believe, remains the same." I may assume, then, that the passage which I have elsewhere quoted from Mr Gladstone, and laid as the basis of my argument, still has his countenance and sup- port, in spite of the manifest antagonism it has provoked. And this passage, I venture to think, acquires fresh light and an accession of force when placed in juxta- position with the parallel passages from De Maistre and Dr Newman. These passages will present no difficulties to the believer in the Bible. How far the view is sus- tainable, with reference to the more recent conclusions in chronology, I shall consider in another chapter ; but, assuming that it is not chronologically disproved, there is no intrinsic impossibility which will debar belief. The general probability of tradition being thus avouched,'^ I proceed to examine certain statements that ' In one way, nothing is so uncertain as tradition, and, moreover, tradi- tion is rarely positive and direct, but, on the contrary, prone to concrete into strange, fragmentary, and distorted shapes. As an instance, we may take the tradition which Genesis attests, — ^When Abraham's hand had been stayed by the angel from the sacrifice of Isaac, ..." He called the name of that place ' The Lord seeth.' VPhereupon, even to this day it is said, ' In the mountain the Lord will see." — Gen. xxii. 14. In illustration of the mode and manner of tradition, is the anecdote of Mr Hookham Frere, who states; that when the Maltese talk without reserve upon religious subjects, they say, " Everybody knows that Adam was the first man, but we alone know that he possessed fishing-boats ; " which Bunsen says " Can be nothing but a Phoenician reminiscence." — "Egypt," iv. 21.5, the reminiscence of the legend of the Fisherman. Com- pare the Fisherman and his wife in Grimm's " Popular Stories from Oral Tradition." ii6 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. . have been made as to its necessary variability, and as to the uncertainty and indefiniteness of its utterances. In tbe first place, as to its variability, it is true that tested by the experience which we possess of the per- sistency and exactness of family and local traditions, tradition in the broader sense which I have indicated may appear to be of little value. I have elsewhere attempted a closer argument on this point in reply to Sir John Lubbock (ch. xii.), but I may also make what appears to me, as regards this matter, a sufficiently im- portant distinction. Family tradition is so confused, because at each re- move in each generation, it is necessarily crossed through marriage with the traditions of another family. These may be either rival or irreconcileable. But this remark will apply with much less force, it will only secondarily and accidentally apply at all to the common traditions, the inheritance of all families starting from a common origin. If these traditions acquired some dross through the intermarriage of families, they will, on the other hand, through the very action of intermarriages, have been more frequently compared, more vividly, therefore, kept in. remembrance, and more recognisable in their distortiou, because the distortion is more likely to have been in the way of super-addition of what was thought congruous and supplemental. And this seems to me to meet Mr Max Miiller's objection in the Contemporary Review for April 1870. " Comparative philology," he says, " has taught again and again, that when we find exactly the same name in Greek and Sanscrit, we may be certain that it cannot be the same word ; " for we here see reason why and how these traditions have been specially protected against the natural action and law which it is the peculiar province ©f philology to trace. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 117 I say this more especially with reference to the ety- mology in Bryant's and other kindred works, which it is now the fashion to set aside with much hauteur ; and I assert it without impugning in any way the results of modern philological inquiry, extending, of course, over a much wider field than the writers of the last century could embrace. But I do contend, that when the dis- cussion has reference to the common progenitors of the human race, or the incidents of primitive life — for in- stance, the names .of the ark, and what I may call its accessories, the dove and the rainbow * — a certain proba- bility of identity may be presumed in such sort that it may chance that the probabilities of tradition must be held to override the conjectures, and in some cases even the conclusions of philology.® I incline, moreover, to the belief that the fidelity and persistency of local tradition is greater than is generally supposed. Sir H, Maine ^^ says — "The truth is, that the stable part of our mental, moral, and physical con- stitution is the largest part of it, and the resistance it opposes to change is such that, though the variations of • ride " Bryant's Mythology," ii. ' After the exposition of his own theory, Mr Grote says — " It is in this point of view that the myths are important for any one who would correctly appreciate the general tone of Grecian thought and feeling, for they were the universal mental stock of the Hellenic world, common to men and women, rkh and poor, ignorant and instructed, they were in every one's memory and in every one's mouth, while science and history were confined to comparatively few. We know from Thucydides how erroneously and carelessly the Athenian public of his day retained the history of Pisis- tratus, only one century past ; but the adventures of the gods and heroes the numberless explanatory legends attached to visible objects andpm- odical ceremonies, were the theme of general talk, and every man un- acquainted with them would have found himself partially excluded from the sympathies of his neighbours." — Sist. Greece, i. p. 608 ; eomp. infra, ch. xi. »" "Ancient Law," p. 117. Ii8 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. human society in a portion of the world are plain enough, they are neither so rapid nor so extensive that their amount of character and general direction cannot be ascertained." This establishes a presumption, at any rate, in favour of tradition, although I admit that the quotation from Sir H. Maine does not go further than point to a tradition of usages ; but I contend that a tradition of usage would enable us, after the manner of Boulanger,^* to disclose " L'antiquite devoilee par ses usages," and to establish the main points and basis of the history of the human race, e.g. the Fall, the Deluge, the Dispersion, the early knowledge and civilisation of mankind, the primitive monotheism, the confusion of tongues, the family system, marriages, the institution of property, the tradition of a common morality ,^^ and of the law of nations. This inquiry might no doubt form a department either of scriptural exegesis, universal history, or of ethno- logical research ; but, in point of fact, its scope is too large practically to fall within such limits ; whereas, if it were recognised as a separate branch of study, it would, I venture to think, in the progress of its investi- gation, bring all these different branches of inquiry into harmony and completeness. And I further contend, that the conclusions thus attained are as well-deserving of consideration as the conclusions of science from the im- '^ " Pour trouver le veritable objet de ces derni&res solemnit^s, dont lea motifs Bont compliqu^a, nous nous attaohons & analyser leur c^r^moniel et i. chercher I'esprit de leurs usages ; et oet esprit aohfeve de nous faire reconuaitre Tobjet que nous n'avions d'abord qu'entrevu ou soupyonn^, quelquef ois mSme il nous ddveloppe encore la nature dea motifs strangers et mythologiques, et ces motifs se trouvent pour la plApart n'dtre que dea tra- ditions du m^me fait qui ont ^t^ ou corrompu& par le temps, ou traveaties par dea allegories." — Boulanger, "Z'Antiquite devoiUepar ses Usages,!. 31. '" Vide other lines of tradition indicated in B. iii., C. iii., of De Maiatre, "DuPape." THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 119 plenients of the drift, or as the evidence of " some bones, from the pliocene beds of St Prest, which appear to show the marks of knives ;" ■'' which are adduced in evidence of a Paleeolithic age. So that, when on one side it is said that science (meaning the science of geology or philology, &c.) has proved this or that fact apparently contrary to the scriptural narrative, it can, on the other hand, be asserted that the facts, or the inferences from them, are incompatible with the testimony of the science of tradi- tion. The defenders of Scripture will thus secure foot- hold on the ground of science, which, when properly entrenched, will stand good against the most formidable recognizances or assaults of the enemy. I cannot help thinking that some such thought lurks in the following passage of Cardinal Wiseman's Second Lecture on " Science and Eevealed Eeligion" (5th Edi- tion, p. 73) — " Here again I cannot but regret our inability to comprehend in one glance the bearings and connections of different sciences ; for, if it appears that ages must have been required to l?ring languages to the state wherein we first find them, other researches would show us that these ages never existed ; and we should thus be driven to dis- cover some shaping power, some ever-Tubag influence, which could do at once what nature would take centuries to effect ; and the Book of Genesis hath alone solved this problem." No doubt a greater general acquaintance and power to grasp — or better still, an intuitive glance — with which to comprehend "the bearings and connections of diffe- rent sciences," would tend to circumscribe the aber- rations of any particular science; but the special intervention which appears to me destined to bring the various sciences into harmony, will be the elevation of the particular department of history or archteology which has to do with the traditions of the human race as to its ^ Sir J. Lubbock, Intro, to Nillson's "Stone Age," xii. 120 THE TRADITION OF THE HUNAN RACE. origin into a separate and recognised branch of inquiry ; and I am satisfied that if any portion of that intellect, which is cunning in the reconstruction of the mastodon from its vertebral bone, had been directed to the great lines of human tradition, that enough of the "reliquiae" and vestiges of the past remain to establish their con- formity with that "which alone has solved this problem — the Book of Genesis ; " and which, apart from the consideration of its inspiration, will ever remain the most venerable and best attested of human records.^* It is much too readily assumed that traditions must be worthless where no records are kept. Gibbon,^* I think, was the first who took this position. To this I reply, that although records are valuable for the attesta- tion, they are not guarantees for the fidelity of tradition. ^° " E.g., Mr Grote says, in his IntroduotioD, that through the combination and illustration of scanty facts, " the general picture of the Grecian world may now be conceived with a degree of fidelity which, considering our im- perfect materials, it is curious to contemplate." The Duke of Argyll ("Primeval Man," p. 24) says — "Within certain limits it is not open to dispute that the early condition of mankind is ac- cessible to research. Contemporary history reaches back a certain way. Existing monuments afford their evidence for a considerable distance far- ther. Tradition has its own province still more remote; and latterly geology and archaeology have met upon common ground — ground in which man and the mammoth have been found together." " Gibbon (" Decline and Fall," i. 353) says, " But all this well-laboured system of German antiquities is annihilated by a single fact, too well at- tested to admit of any doubt, and of too decisive a nature to leave room for any reply. The Germans, in the days of Tacitus, were unacquainted with the use of letters, and the use of letters is the principal circumstance which distinguishes a civilised people from a herd of savages, incapable of knowledge or reflection. Without that artificial help, the human memory ever dissipates or corrupts the ideas intrusted to her charge.'' Compare with Coleridge, infra, p. 122 ; Ozanam, infra, ch. xiii. 18 Eusebius ("Ecclesiastical' Hist.," ch. xxxvi.) says, speaking of St Ignatius — " He exhorted them to adhere firmly to the tradition of the apostles ; which, for the sake of greater security, he deemed it necessary to attest by commiHting it to writing." I do not remember to have seen this quoted in testimony and proof of ecclesiastical tradition. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 121 I do not assert that the tradition is more trustworthy than the record ; but that, when mankind trust mainly to tradition, the faculties by which it is sustained will be more strongly developed, and the adaptation of societj'' for its transmission more exactly conformed. In other words, -tradition in ancient times seemed to flow as from a fountain-head, and the world was everywhere grooved for its reception. We may take in evidence the strange resemblances in mythological tradition in various parts of the world on the one hand, and on the other the oral tradition of the Homeric verses ; the frequent concourse of citizens, and at recurring festivals of the surrounding populations, to listen to their recital. And not only was there oral tradition in verse, but all public events were recorded in the attestations of the market-place. When a treaty was ratified it was commonly before some temple, or in some place of public resort, and its terms were com- mitted to memory by some hundred witnesses ; and in like manner was the recollection of other public events and memorable facts preserved.-" ( Vide Pastoret's "Hist. " Goguet (" Origin of Laws," i. 29) says — " The first laws of all nations were composed in verse, and sung. Apollo, according to a very ancient tradition, was one of the first legislators. The same tradition says that he published his laws to the sound of his lyre ; that is to say, that he had set them to music. We have certain proof that the first laws of Greece were a kind of song. The laws of the ancient inhabitants of Spain were verses, which they sung. Tuiston was regarded by the Germans as their first lawgiver. They said he put his laws into verses and songs. This ancient custom was long kept up by several nations.'' E. Warbiirton ("Conquest oiE Canada," i. 214) says — "The want of any written or hieroglyphic records of the past among the Northern Indians was to some extent supplied by the accurate memories of their old men • they were able to repeat speeches of four or five hours' duration, and de- livered many years before, without error, or even hesitation ; and to hand them down from generation to generation with equal accuracy. . . . On great and solemn occasions belts of wampum were used as aids to recollec- tion . . when a treaty or compact was negotiated. " 123 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. de la Legislation," i. 71 ; also, account of " Annales Maximi" in Dyer's "Eome," xvii.) Yet, although during long periods oral transmission was for mankind the main channel of tradition, it must not necessarily be concluded that writing was unknown, and was not employed for monumental and other purposes. What strikes one most forcibly in contemplating these ages, is the contrast between their intellectual knowledge and their mechanical and material contrivances for its application. During these centuries in which the 30,000 hexameters of the " Iliad " and " Odyssey " were trans- mitted in memory, by repetition, at public festivals, oral tradition was doubtless employed, because during this period " paper, parchment, or even the smoothed hides, as adapted for the purposes of writing, were unknown."^' This, whilst it certainly is in evidence of the paucity of their available resources, at the same time establishes the retentive strength of their memory ,^^ and their intel- lectual familiarity with great truths. '8 Vide. H. N. Coleridge (" Greek Classic Poets," p. 38-42), in speaking of the "Dionysiacs, the Thebaids, the Epigoniads, Naupactica, genealogies, and the other works of that sort," p. 44, he adds — " Just as in the Indian and Persian epics, in the Northern Eddas, in the poem of the ' Cid,' in the early chronicles of every nation with which we are acquainted, one story follows another story in the order of mere history ; and the skill and fire of the poet are shown, not in the artifice of grouping a hundred figures into one picture, but in raising admiration by the separate beauty of each successive picture. Thxy tell the tale as the tale liad been told to them, and leave out nothing." 18 According to the account which the Chinese themselves give of their annals, the works of Confucius were proscribed, after his death, by the Emperor Chi-Hoangti, and all the copies, including the Chu-King, were recovered from the dictation of an old man who had retained them in memory. " The great moralist of the East " himself, Confucius, asserted — " that he only wrought on materials already existing." Vide Klaproth ap.. Cardinal Wiseman, " Science and Rev. Religion," ii. p. 49. In the article in the Cornhill Magazine, Nov. 1871, containing the THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 123 And this seems to me the sufficient reply to Sir Charles Lyell's somewhat captious ohjection, that if the intellec- tual knowledge of the primitive age was so great, we ought now to he digging up steam engines instead of flint implements. Every age has its own peculiar superiority, as hath each individual mind — non omnia possumus omnes — and it is as reasonahle to object to an age of philosophic thought, or of intuitive perception, that it was not rich in the wealth of material civilisation, as it would he to object to Plato or Shakspeare, that they did not acquire dominion over mankind ; or to Alexander, that he did not excel Aristotle ; or to Sir C. Lyell, supposing geology to be certain, that he did not anticipate Darwin, suppos- ing Darwinism to be true. And if it should be more precisely objected that, if in those ages there was the knowledge of writing for monumental purposes, we ought at least to find monuments,^" I say that the onus probandi lies with the objector to prove the invention or introduction of writing in the interval between the age of Homer and the age of Pericles, as against us who be- lieve in its primeval transmission; or to show that its introduction was more probable at this latter period than at the former. ^^ valuable collection of Dravidian (South Indian) folk-songs, it is said, p. 677, that " they are handed down from generation to generation, entirely vivd voce, and from the minstrels have passed into public use." 2» The Duke of Argyll ("Primeval Man," p. 30) says— " Knowledge, for example, or ignorance of the use of metals are, as we shall see, character- istics on which great stress is laid " (by the advocates of the " savage theory"). "Now, as regards this point, as Whately truly says, the narra- tive of Genesis distinctly states that this kind of knowledge did not belong to mankind at first. ... It is assumed in the savage theory that the pre- sence or absence of this knowledge stands in close and natural connection with the presence pr absence of other and higher kinds of knowledge, of which an acquaintance with metals is but a symbol and a type. Within certain limits this is true." '' Presuming total ignorance of writing — its invention at any period 124 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE, Sclilegel says^^— " I have laid it down as an invariable maxim to follow historical tradition, and to hold fast by that oliie, even when many things in the testimony and declarations of tradition appear strange and almost inexplicable ; or, at least, enigmatical ; for so soon as, in the investi- gations of ancient history, we let slip that thread of Ariadne, we can find no outlet from the labyrinth of fanciful theories and the chaos of clashing opinion." I propose to give a few instances of tradition, casually selected, which appear to me to be in illustration of this dictum of Schlegel's. Take, in illustration, the question whether mankind commenced with the state of monogamy. Not that there is any obscurity on this point in the Book of Genesis. It is indeed sometimes loosely said that we find instances of polygamy in patriarchal times ; but, as our Lord said, it was not so in the beginning ; and the Book of G-enesis exhibits mankind as commencing with a single pair, and subsequently as re-propagated through a group of families, all represented to us at their commencement as mono- gamous. But if this highest testimony is discarded, and men gravely discuss whether or not they commenced with a state of promiscuity, the argument from tradition will go for as much as the argument from the analogy of circumstances and conditions as inferred from the existing state of savages, since this state, from our point of view, must have been the result of degeneracy.^ I must, moreover, contend that the practice of mono- seems to me much more marvellous than the discovery of printing after the invention of writing. For the rest we have seen that writing was known at an early period to the Chaldseans and Egyptians, and probably to vhe Chinese and Japanese, and to the Medians (ch. xii.) Plutarch tells us that a law of Theseus, written on a column of stone, remained even to the time of Demosthenes. =2 Phil. Hist. ''^ Burke ("Regicide Peace,") says — "The practice of divorce, though in some countries permitted, has been discouraged in all. In the East polygamy and divorce are in discredit, and the manners correct the laws." THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 125 gamy, in any one case, must weigh for very mucli more than the practice of polygamy in ten parallel instances ; because the natural degeneracy and proclivity of man in his fallen state is in this direction. And also, polygamy is much more naturally regarded as the departure from monogamy, than the latter as the restraint of, or advance out of, a state of promiscuity. It may further, I think, be maintained that monogamy — in the way of separation with a single woman by rea- son of strong love or preference — would be the more probable escape from the state of promiscuity than through the intermediary and progressive stage of poly- gamy.^ Now, I need scarcely say, that the opponents of mono- gamy can show no instance of an advance out of the state of promiscuity either to monogamy or polygamy. But they can point to certain communities in ancient and modern times in a state of polygamy. Either, then, they must have degenerated into this state from the primitive monogamous family system, or they must have arrived at the stage in growth and pro- gress out of a state of promiscuity. Does tradition give any clue out of this labyrinth? To simplify the question, I will consent to appeal to the identical tradition to which the advocates of an original promiscuity direct our attention. Mr J. F. M'Lennan,who, in his "Primitive Marriage," 1865 (vide supra), apparently describes mankind as origi- nally in a state of promiscuity, subsequently limited by customs of tribal exogamy and endogamy, in a recent article in the Fortnightly Review (Oct. 1869), " Totems ^ This waa written before the appearance of Sir J. Lubbock's chapter on " Marriage," in his " Origin of Civilization," to which reference is made at pp. 51, 52. 126 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. and Totemism," sees further evidence of his theory in the following traditions from Sanchoniathon : — " Few traditions respecting the primitive condition of mankind are more remarkable, and perhaps none are more ancient, than those that have been preserved by Sanchoniatho ; or rather, we should say, that are to be found in the fragments ascribed to that writer by Eusebius. They present ns with an outline of the earlier stages of human pro- gress in religious speculation, which is shown hy the results of modern inquiry to he wonderfully correct. They tell us for instance that ' the first men consecrated the plants shooting out of the earth, and judged them gods, and worshipped them upon whom they themselves lived, and all their posterity, and all before them, and to these they made their meat and drink offerings.' ^ They further tell us that the first men believed the heavenly bodies to be animals, only differently shaped and circumstanced from any on the earth. 'There were certain animals which had no sense, out of which were begotten in- telligent animals .... and they were formed alike in the shape of an egg. Thus shone out Mot [the luminous vault of heaven ?], the sun and the moon, and the less and the greater stars.' Next they relate, in an account of the successive generations of men, that in the first generation the way was found out of talcing food from trees; that, in the second, men, having suffered from droughts, began to worship the sun — ^the Lord of heaven ; that in the third. Light, Fire, and Flame [conceived as persons], were begotten ; that in the fourth giants appeared ; while in the fifth, ' men were named from their mothers ' because of the uncertainty of male parentage, this genera- tion being distinguished also by the introduction of ' pillax' worship. It was not till the twelfth generation that the gods appeared that figure most in the old mythologies, such as Kronos, Dagon, Zeus, Belus, Apollo, and Typhon ; and then the queen of them aU was the Bull-heaAei Astarte. The sum of the statements is, that men first worshipped plants ; next the heavenly bodies, supposed to be animals; then 'pillars;' and, last of all, the anthropo- morphic gods. Not the least remarkable statement is, that in primitive times there was kinship through mothers only, owing to 'the uncertainty of fatherhood." ^ P' A tradition of the constellations, a proof from tradition that they were 60 named in the ante-diluvian period.] ^ Sanchoniatho's "Phoenician History," by the Eight Rev. R. Cumber- land. London, 1720, pp. 2, 3, 23, et seq. Eusebius, Prsepar. Evangel, lib. i. cap. 10. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 127 The fragments of Sanclioinathon here referred to are found at earlier date than Eusebius, having been copi- ously extracted by Philo {vide Bunsen's " Egypt "). Sanchoniathon was to Phoenicia what Berosus was to Assyria ; that is to say, the earliest post-diluvian com- pilers of history when tradition was becoming obscure. Let us scrutinise his testimony. We are here told " that the first men consecrated the plants shooting out of the earth, aTid judged t/iem ffods.'^ . . . " Next they relate, in an account of the successive generations of men, that in the first generation the may mas found out of taking food from trees." Here, I submit, that we have plainly and unmistakably a tradition of that first commence- ment of evil, the first man and woman plucking the apple from the tree, thinking they would become as gods (Gen. iii. 4, 5), . . . " and the serpent said ... for God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof . . . and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Then follows the succession of ages {vide infra, ch. xiii. ) , of which there is a curious parallel tradition in Hesiod and ApoUodorus, and partial correspondences in the tra- ditions of India, China, and Mexico {infra, ch. xiii.).^^ It will be noted, however, that whilst running into the tradition of Hesiod on the one side (in Hesiod and in the Chinese tradition there is trace of a double tradi- tion, ante and post-diluvian), Sanchoniathon still more closely runs in with the narrative of Genesis on the other, thus connecting the links of the chain of tra- dition.2' "' Vide Grote, i. "^ This chapter was written before I became acquainted with Mr Palmer's "Chronicles of Egypt" (vide ch. vi.) If the reader will refer to chap, i., he will there find a learned and exhaustive exposition of the ages of Sancho- niathon, identifying them with Scripture on the one side, and Egyptian tradition on the other. 128 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. In the succession of ages we have in outline the history of mankind in the ante-diluvian period — the Fall, supra — ^followed in the succeeding age by a great drought — [compare this tradition with the following passage in Fran. Lenormant's " Histoire Ancienne," i. p. 5, 2d ed., Paris 1868 — " and when geology shows us the first ante-diluvian men who came into our part of the world, living in the midst of ice, under conditions of climate analogous to those under which the Esquimaux live at the present day . . . one is naturally brought to the recollection oithat ancient tradition of the Persians, fully conformable to the information which the Bible supplies on the subject of the fall of man, . . . which ranks among the first of the chastisements which fol- lowed the fall, along with death and other calamities, the advent of an intense and permanent cold which man could scarcely endure, and which rendered the earth almost unin- habitable."^'] It is to this period, and the short period immediately following the Deluge (vide ch. ii. p. 21, and infra, pp. 136, 137), that I am inclined to trace the notions of a primitive barbarism — compare, for instance, the facts which Goguet, in his " Origin of Laws," i. p. 72, adduces in proof of his progress from barbarism, with the above tradition of the Persians recorded by Lenormant. Groguet says — " The Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians, Greeks, and several other nations {vide his references, p. 72), acknowledged that their ancestors were once "' Is not thia the meaning of the cxlvii. psalm, in the expression, " ante faciem frigoris ejus quis sustinebit " ? Does not the psalm recount to the Jewish people, in rapid allusions, all that God had done for them, in con- trd.8t to the chastisements that had befallen other nations ; and if it is objected that there is no allusion to the Deluge, unless in its indirect and beneficial influences, in the words, " flavit spiritua ejus et fluent aquse," I reply that to the survivors, the Deluge, regarded largely, and in its per- manent effects, was no calamity, but the commencement of a new and more favoured era. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 129 without the use of fire. The Chinese confess the same of their progenitors. . . . Pomponius, Mela, Pliny, Plutarch, and other ancient authors speak of nations, who, at the time they wrote, knew not the use of fire, or had only just learned it. Facts of the same kind are attested by several modern relations." Let this latter statement be compared with infra, pp. 136, 137. In the third age we are told — " Light, Fire, and Flame (conceived as persons) were begotten," which looks like a traditioa of Vulcan, Tubalcain, &c. (vide ch. xii. infra) ; and " in the fourth, giants appeared ; " while in the fifth, the corruption of mankind is indicated, as is declared in Genesis vi. 4 : " Now giants were upon the earth in those days. For after the sons of God went in to the daughters of men and brought forth children," &c., ver. 12, " and when God had seen that the earth was corrupted (for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth), ver. 13, He said to Noe," &c. " It was not till the twelfth generation that the gods appeared that figured most in the old mythologies," says Mr M'Lennan, quoting Sanchoniathon, or what is believed to be his testimony. I trust that this fragment of tradition may be remembered in connection with what I have written in chapters viii., ix., x.^" ^" Compare oh. xiii. The successive ages of Hesiod, more especially the lines describing the iron age, parallel to the tradition, swpra, " that in the fifth age men wen named from their mothers.'' " No fathers in their sons their features trace, The sons reflect no more their father's face ; The host with kindness greets his guest no more. And friends and brethren love not as of yore." — Hesiod. President Goguet (" Origin of Laws," i. 21,) had noticed the ancient allu- sions to "kinship through mothers," and his etatement that "women belonged to the man who seized them first. . . . The children who sprang from this irregular intercourse scarce ever knew who were their fathers. They knew only their mothers, for which reason they always bore their name." For this statement he also quotes Sanchoniathon, ap. Eus. p. Si, I 130 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. " The sum of the statements " then, so regarded, is to confirm the tradition of the human race as recorded in Genesis, that they sprang from three brothers and their three wives, forming three monogamous pairs who ac- companied their father Noah into the ark, with his wife ; and who again were more remotely descended from a single pair. If, then, in the two most ancient traditions of which we have any record, we find concordance on sorne points and divergence on others, the circumstance of identity at all is so much more startling than the occurrence of discrepancy, that it will fairly be taken to warrant the presumption of a common origin ; and this conformity will also be naturally claimed in support of our narrative as against the other on the points of disagreement, which will then be set down to the corruption of that which is deemed the most ancient and authentic. For those, therefore, who believe the Bible to be the revealed "Word of God, and even for those who regard it as the most ancient record, the coincidences with Sanchoniathon will afford a striking testimony ; whereas the coincidence of the fifth age of Sanchoniathon with Genesis (chap. vi. 1, 2, 4) and the tradition of Hesiod, must be an em- barrassment to those who seek in this tradition evidence as his principal authority. But Sanohoniathon'a statement, as we have seen, refers to the ante-diluvian period, in which it is borne out by Genesis vi. 4. There is one fact adduced by Goguet (i. 43), viz. that the ^ ssj/rions had an analogous ceremony which must be decisive for us, though not, perhaps, for Mr M'Lennan, that the custom of seizure was ante-diluvian, since the commencement of the Assyrian monarchy in the times immediately fol- lowing the flood, is one of the best established foundations of history. Yidt Genesis and Rawlinson. " This race of many languaged man." To any one who rightly grasps the bearing of the argument, the appositeness of this quotation will, I think, be rather strengthened than diminished' by the evidence that the lines of Hesiod plainly refer to post-diluvian times (vide ch. xiii.) THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 131 that what was characteristic of the fifth age, was true of the preceding and pristine ages. To take a second instance, more exactly in illustration of the quotation from F. Schlegel, supra, p. 124, there is no such barrier to tradition (regarded retrospectively) as the notion, if we accept it, which crept over many nations, that they were " autochthones." Like the sand-drifts known to geologists as dunes, such notions, if they had heen received absolutely, would have involved all tradi- tion in a general extinction. But as the dunes, when minutely measured and submitted to calculation, have afforded the best evidence in favour of what may be called the diluvian chronology, so will this notion that men sprang out of the soil in which they dwelt, when analysed, contribute fresh evidence to the truth and persistence of tradition. But first of all, will any one start with the theory — that any nation that had this notion about itself — the Greeks, for instance, were really autochthones? There is, then, simply a confusion of ideas, a difi&culty which has to be unravelled ; but seeing that the Greeks notoriously believed themselves to be autochthones, it becomes an obstruction in the main channel of tradition, and it is especially incumbent upon us to consider the facts. In the " Supplicants " of ^schylus — and I am not aware that the notion crops up at earlier date — Pelasgus is introduced as saying — " Pelasgus bids you, sovereign of the land, My sire, Palsecthon, of high ancestry, Original with this earth ; from me, their king. The people take their name, and boast themselves —V. 275. Here the high descent, and the origin from the soil, the ancestry referred to in the same breath with the allusion to his sire, " original with this earth," strikes 132 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. one as incongruous. And the incongruity appears still greater when we recollect that Pelasgus is the person whom all historical evidence proves to have been the first settler in the country ; it being also borne in mind that the term " autochthones," whether in a primary or a secondary sense, is always applied to the supposed aboriginals of the country, and therefore excludes the hypothesis of any more primitive colonisation. '^ But if we regard it as a corruption of the tradition that man was created out of the earth (" for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return," Genesis iii. 19), does not this solve all difficulties ? The extension of the knowledge that they were created out of the earth, to the notion that they were created out of this or that particular clay, is not violent. Is it not this same 21 The Phoenioiau cosmogony seems to me to clinch the argument. There (tiicJe Bunsen, Egypt, jv. 234), " The son of Eliun is called by Philo, Epigeios or autohhthon, ' the earth-born,' primeval inhabitant. By the latter of these expressions we have no doubt that Adam-Tadmon ('the Kadmos of the Greeks,' p. 195), the first man, the man of God, is implied" ("Eliun, i.e. Helyun, God the Most High," p. 232). There is an analogy in their confused tradition of the creation. " Eude- mus says, according to the Phoenician mythology, which was invented by Mdkhos, the first principle was aether and air ; from these two beginnings sprang U16moa (the eternal), the rational (conscious) God " (Bunsen, iv. 179). Bunsen, (178) adds, " as regards Mdkhos the thing is clear enough ; the old materialistic philosopher is matter, and that in the sense of primeval slime." [Whence it has been suggested that we derive our word Muck, Mdkh, or Mokhos.] This beginning Bunsen considers (p. 179) " a philosophising amplification of the simply sublime words of Genesis: ■ ' The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was over the face of the waters.' " Here we see the human reason hampered by the tradition that confused matter or chaos was somehow at the commencement, and with the conflicting tradition and conclusion of the intellect that it was, and must have been, created by a power superior to matter (" In the beginning God created heaven and earth "), emancipating itself, so far as to identify the Creator with the aether and air, as nearer the conception of a pure Spirit, and personifying matter, and so shunting it aside as the " inventor of the mythology." THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 133 ^sdiylus *^ who has the allusion "to the earth drink- ing the blood of the two rival brothers, the one slain by the other." It will be seen at p. 175, that the Mexicans believed that the first race of men were created " out of the earth," and " the third out of a tree," a reminiscence of the creation, and of the fall, the intermediate event being probably the creation of Eve. In like manner, the Red Indians have a tradition that they were created out of the red clay by the Great Spirit ; and to go to another part of the world, the supposed aboriginal tribes of China were called Miautze, or " soil children." ** This testimony must be connected with the phrase so startling in the seventh ode of the fourth book of Horace, ^^ pulvis et umbra sumus," and with the text in Genesis iii. 19, " for dust thou art."** It may possibly be said that this is merely matter of every day's experi- ence. But it is precisely at this point that we must ask those who dispute tradition to discard tradition. Do bodieS' — so far as the exterior senses tell us — return to dust, or to other forms of life ? If it is true that we return to dust — Scripture apart — it is tradition and not experience which attests it, and yet so common is the belief, that it might readily pass as the result of common observation. "^ Tide De Maistre (ch. xii.) ^ Max MuUer, " Chips," &c., ii. 274. The Titans were also said to be " earth-bom." Bryant (iii. 445) says Berosus gives the following tradition of the Creation. Belus after deification being confounded with the Creator, as we have seen Prometheus, id. 104 — "Belus, the deity above mentioned, cut off his own head, upon which the other gods mixed the blood as it gushed out with the earth, and from thence men were formed. On this account it is that they are rational and partake of divine knowledge. This Belus, whom men called Dis, divided the darJcness and separated the heavens from the earth," &c. ^ Compare Cicero, De Legibus, 1. 8 : " Est igitur homini cum deo simili- tudo;" and with Gen. ii. 26, 27: "and God created man in his own like- 134 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. So general a tradition that man was created, and created out of the ground,^* is so completely in accord- ance with the text of Genesis, that one can hardly see what more can be demanded ; yet Catlin says '^ — " Though there is not a tribe in America but what has some theory of man's creation, there is not one amongst them all that bears the slightest resemblance to the Mosaic account." Catlin instances the traditions of the Man- dans, Choctaws, and the Sioux — Ist, The Mandans (who have the ceremony commemorative of the Deluge re- ferred to, ch. xi.), believe that they were created " under the ground." 2d, The Choctaws assert that they "were created crawfish, living alternately under the ground and above it as they chose ; and, creeping out at their little holes in the earth to get the warmth of the sun one sunny day, a portion of the tribe was driven away and ^ " The Chinese cosmogony speaks as follows of the creation of man — ' God took some yellow earth, and He made man en deux sexes.' " This is the true origin of the human race. A Hebrew tradition saya that it was o£ the red earth, which is the same idea. The Hebrew word " Adam " expresses this idea. This correspondence as to the manner in which the body of the first man was formed, between two people who have never had relations, is very remarkable. Indian and African cosmogonies relate that the name of the first man was ' Adimo,' that of his wife ' Hava,' and that they were the last work of the Creator. " — Gainet, La Bible sans la Bible, i. p. 74. I must note, too, the identity of the American Indian {supra) and the Hebrew tradition, which is curious, as it might naturally be supposed that the tradition of the Red Indian took its colour from his own com- plexion. Max Muller (" Lect. on the Science of Language," 1st series, p. 867) says of "man" — "The Latin word Aomo, the French Vhomme, . . . is derived from the same root, which we have in humus, soil, humilis, humble. Homo, therefore, would express the idea of being made out of tlie dust of tJie ea/rth." Bunsen also ("Phil. Univ. Hist." i. 78) says — •" The common word for man in all German dialects is ' manna,' containing the same root as Sanscrit ' manusha ' and ' manueshya.' The Latin ' homo ' is intimately connected with 'humus' and -xanal, and means earth-born; dvBpdirui' xmaiyeveuv, says Pindar. But what is dirBpuTos ?" »» "Last Rambles, "p. 324. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 135 could not return ; they built the Choctaw village, and the remainder of the tribe are still living under the ground. The Iroquois, however, believe that they " came out of the ground," which is identical with the Greek notion of their being "autochthones " {vide Golden, ii. 103), where one of their chiefs speaks thus — " For" we must tell you that long before one hundred years our ancestors came out of this very ground. . . . You came out of the ground in a country that lies beyond the seas." Now, even if we consent to detach the Iroquois tradition, there is still in both the Mandan and Choc- taw tradition, a common idea of their having come from " under the ground," which seems to me the tradition that they were created out of the ground at one re- move. To this it would seem the Choctaws have super- added their recollection of some incident of their tribe, possibly that they were an offshoot of the Esquimaux, or were at one period in their latitude and lived their life, which would be in accordance with the theory of their migrations from Asia by Behring's Straits. 3«?, About the Sioux, the third instance of contrariety ad- duced by Catlin, it seems to me that there is no room for argument, the Sioux having the tradition referred to above, that the Great Spirit told them that " The red stone was their flesh." To these three instances Mr Catlin adds — " Other tribes were created under the water, and at least one half of the tribes in America represent that man was created under the ground or in the rocky caverns of the mountains. Why this diversity of theories of the Creation if these people brought their traditions of the Deluge from the land of inspira- tion ? " " ^ The following tradition of the Tartar tribes seems to supply a link. In their tradition of the Deluge (vide Gainet, i. 209) it is said, "that those who saved themselves from the Deluge shut themselves up with their 136 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. Now, just as the tribes who said they were created " under the ground " implied the same tradition as those who said they were created out of the ground, so, provisions in the crevices of mountains, and that after the scourge had passed they came out of their caverns." And compare, again, with the tradition of Kronos (Noah, mAe Bryant's " Mythology," iii. 503) — "He is said to have had three sons (Sanch. ap. Euseb. P. E., lib. i. u. 10, 37), and in a time of danger he formed a la/rge cavern in the ocean, and in this he shut himself up, together m*A these sons, and thus escaped the danger." — Porph. de Nymphar. Antra., p. 109. Bryant ("Mythology," iii. 405) says — " I have shown that Gaia, in its original sense, signified a sacred cavern, a hollow in the earth, which, from its gloom, was looked upon as an emblem of the ark. Hence Gaia, hke Hasta Rhoia Cybele, is often represented as the mother of mankind." The following is very important with reference to my argument above : — The Scholiast upon Euripides says — "Mera tox KaraKKvaiuai ev opefftv OiKovvTWV Tit)V ApyeMV Trporros avrovs avvi)3K^ffev Ifaxos. When the Argivi or Arkites, after the Deluge, lived dispersed on the mountains, Inachus first brought them together and formed them into communities." — Comp. infra, p. 157, 168, 1S3, 332. The instances adduced of myths connecting man with the monkey are, as a rule, traditions of degeneracy, i.e. of men turned into monkeys (vule Tylor's "Primitive Culture,"!. 340), and to which I would add the rabbin- ical tradition of men turned into monkeys at the Tower of Babel (De Quincey, Works, siii. 235), and the classical epic of the Ceropes, " founded on the transformation of a set of Jugglers into monkeys." But if com- pared with the above tradition, I think that the only two instances (Tylor, i. 341) which seem to bear out the opposite theory will wear a different aspect. I quote from Tylor as above — " Wild tribes of the Malay penin- sula, looked down upon as lower animals by the more warlike and civilised Malays, have among them traditions of their own descent from a pair of the " unka-putch " or white monkeys, who reared their young ones and sent them into the plains, and there they perfected so well that they and their descendants became men, but those who returned to the mountains still remained apes. The Buddhist legend relates the origin of the flat- nosed uncouth tribes of Tibet, offspring of two miraculous apes, trans- formed to peo])le the snow-kingdom. Taught to till the ground, when they had grown corn and eaten it, their tails and hair gradually disap- peared, they began to speak, became men, and clothed themselves with leaves. The population grew closer, the land was more and more culti- vated, and at last a prince of the race of Sakya, driven from his home in India, united their isolated tribes into a single kingdom." — Comp. Cecrops, &c., p. 332, infra. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 137 too, the tribes who said they were created "under the water " probably held the tradition that the creation of the race preceded the Deluge. The tradition which connects the creation with " the rocky caverns of the mountains " is more recondite — may it possibly be a recollection of the commenoement of civil life after the Deluge, when Noah led them, ac- cording to tradition, from the mountains to the plains ? M. L'Abbe G-ainet says (i. 176) — "The Lord re- peated four times the promise that He would not send another deluge. . . . The children of Noah were long scared by the, recollection of the dreadful calamity. . . . It is probable that they did not decide upon leaving the ' plateaux ' of the mountains till quite late. Moreover, caverns have been found in the mountains of the Hima- laya, and in many other elevated regions of Asia, which they suppose to have been formed by the first genera- tions of man after the Deluge. The works of the learned M. de Paravey make frequent mention of them." This tradition is supported by the lines of Virgil referring to Saturn {vide infra, p. 210). " Is genus indocile, ac dispersiun montibus altis Composuit ; legesque dedit." — Mn. viii. 315. I give these suggestions for what they may be worthf ^ It occurs to me as possible that these various traditions may have had their foundation in the recollection of hardship, at some early period of their subsequent migration, which were transferred back and connected with their tradition of the altered state of things after the Deluge, arising out of the substitution of animal for vegetable food — of which the notion that man once lived on acorns may have been only an extreme form of expression. The following tradition of Saturn (pide infra, Saturn, p. 210), seems to tend in this direction : "Diodorns Siculus gives the same history of Saturn as is by Plutarch above given of Janus — ^| iypiov dlaenjs els ijlispov Biov /leraprjira ivSpairovs. — Diodorus, 1. 5, p. 334. He brought mankind from their foul and savage way of feeding to a more mild and rational diet." — Bryant, ii. 261, 138 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. Truly, where some see nothing but harmony, others see nothing but diversity. Only to put it to a fair test, I should like to see Mr Catlin or some one else group these various traditions round any one tradition which they believe to be at variance with the revelation of Genesis, and which, at the same time, they happen to consider to be the true one. It must be conceded that in one way the facts accord with Mr Catlin's theory — con- tradicted, however, by other evidence {infra, ch. xi.) — that the Indians were created on the American continent. But upon any theory that they were not created at all, but existed always in pantheistic transformation, or had progressed from the monkey, or had been developed in evolution from some protoplasm, is not the tradition incongruous and inexplicable ? To take another instance. -The Hindoos had a fanci- ful notion that the world was supported by an ele- phant, and the elephant by a tortoise. Nothing can be imagined more incongruous and grotesque. Yet Dr Falconer has recently discovered, in his explorations in India, a fossil tortoise adequate to the support of an elephant. The incongruity then of the tradition disap- pears ; its grotesqueness remains. I cannot help think- ing, however, that it may have been the embodiment in symbol, or else the systematisation of the confused med- ley of their tradition of the order, i.e. of the sequence of days of the creation {vide Appendix to this chapter).'' I have alluded, p. 199, to the tradition preserved by '^ This fable of the tortoise is also among the Mandans, whom, Catlin {supra, 135) says, had no other tradition of the Creation than that they were created under the ground. Their tradition is confused with the Deluge, which dominates in their tradition. " The Mandans believed that the earth rests on four tortoises. They say that " each tortoise rained ten days, making forty days in all, and the waters covered the earth " i^iiide " 0-kea-pa," p. 39, infra, ch. xi.) Does THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. J39 Berosus, that Cannes, whom I identify with Noah, left writings upon the origin of the world, in which he says, "that there was a time when all was darkness and water, and that this darkness and water contained monstrous animals.^'' Here, perhaps, two distinct tradi- tions are confused ; but is not the tradition of animals so much out of the ordinary nature of things as to be called monstrous sufficiently marked to make us ask if the discovery of the skeleton of the "megatherium" ought to have come upon the scientific world as a sur- prise ? Might they not have anticipated the discovery if they had duly trusted tradition ? Other instances might doubtless be adduced. My present object is merely to suggest that there may be truths in tradition not dreamt of by modern philosophy. If the human intellect were as capacious as it is acute, we might then listen with greater submission to its strictures upon tradition; because then we might at least believe that its vision extended to all the facts. But in truth, no intellect, however encyclopaedic, can grasp them all. Indeed, knowledge in many depart- ments is becoming more and more the tradition of experts, and must be taken by the outside world on faith. How many facts, again, once in tradition, but at some period put on record, lie as deeply shrouded in the dust of libraries as they had previously lain hidden not this tradition of the tortoise decide the Oriental origin of the North American Mandans ? Falconer's " Palseontological Mem.," 1868, i. 297, ii. 377-573, &o., "Aa the pterodaotyle more than realised the most extravagant idea of the winged dragon, so does this huge tortoise come up to the lofty conceptions of Hindoo mythology ; and could we but recall the monsters to life, it were not difficult to imagine an elephant supported on its back " (i. 27). The New Zealanders have a curious tradition of their ancestors having encountered a, gigantic saurian species of reptile, which must have been before they arrived in New Zealand. Vide Shortland's "Traditions of the New Zealanders," p. 73. 140 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. in the depths of ages ? Who will say what facts are tra- ditional in different localities ? Karely do we move from place to place without eliciting some information strange and new. Who again will say what ideas are tradi- tional in different minds ? Earely is there a discussion which provokes traditional lore or traditional sentiment which does not bring to light some such thought or experience, re-appearing, like the lines in family feature, after the lapse of several generations. Whenever, then, mankind is called upon to discard its traditions at the voice of any intellect, however powerful, is it unreasonable to demand that some cog- nizance should be taken of these facts.*" Let us now, returning to the tradition we have more especially in view, ask this further question, — What could the human intellect have done towards the regen- eration of the race if there had been no revelation and no tradition ? It is not often that unbelief is constructive and sup- plies us with the necessary data with which to furnish the answer. But recently a work which is said to embody considerable learning has appeared, entitled, " The Origin and Development of Religious Belief," which is written " from a philosophic and not from a religious point of view; " in which " the existence of a God is not assumed, the truth of revelation is not assumed," and " the Bible is quoted not as an authori- tative, but as an historical record open to criticism." — Mr Baring Gould, " Origin and Development of Eeli- gious Belief," preface, 1869. Here then, if anywhere, we are likely to get the solu- tion from the point of view of unbelief. " I have elsewhere {vide ch. iv., et aeq., x., xi.) traced the tradition of the Deluge, of the chronology of the world, &e., &c. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 141 At p. 119, Mr B. Gould thus summarises his views : — " Eeligion, as has been already shown, is the synthesis of thought and sentiment. It is the representation of a philosophic idea. It always reposes on some hypothesis. At first it is full of vigour, constantly on the alert to win converts. Then the hypothesis is acquiesced in, it ia received as final, its significance evaporates. The priests of ancient times were also philosophers, but not being able always to preserve their intellectual superiority, their doctrines became void of meaning, hieroglyphs of which they had lost the key ; and then speculation ate its way out of religion, and left it an empty shell of ritual observance, void of vital principle. Philosophy alone is not religion, nor is sentiment alone religion ; but religion is that which, based on an intelligent principle, teaches that principle as dogma, exhibits it in worship, and applies it in discipline. Dogma worship and discipline are the constituents, so to speak, the mind spirit, and body of religion." — " Origin and Development of Religi/ms Belief." By S. Baring Gould, M.A. Kivingtons, 1869. Part i., p. 119. Here it is said that "religion is the representative of a philosophic idea. It always reposes on some hypo- thesis." This philosophic idea may be that there must necessarily be a Creator. But also it may not be, for "the existence of God is not assumed" {vide preface). If it is not, then, according to this definition, religion may be the representative of any philosophic idea {i.e. any idea of any philosopher), even that which may be diametrically opposed to the existence and goodness of God.*' But if, on the other hand, the existence of God is this primary philosophic idea, then all other philosor phic ideas must succumb to it. It is a point which you must settle at starting in your definition of religion. " Devil-worship is based upon the hypothesis that the evil spirit exists, and is the influence from which man has most to dread. Prudence sug- gests that it is wise to propitiate evil when it is powerful ; and if " the ex- istence of God isnot assumed," or the conception of God not yet developed, it is hard to see how the conclusion can be impugned ; and (vide next page) Mr Baring Gould endorses Grimm's opinion that man's first "idea of God is the idea of a devil." 142 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. What follows seems to assume that some individual, or some set of individuals, at a period more or less remote, evolved the idea of God and religion out of their own consciousness ; but that, as the descendants of these individuals had not the same intellectual vigour, the conception lapsed, — " their doctrines became hiero- glyphs of which they had lost the key." Nothing can be more conformable to the theory of tradition ; *^ but from the point of view of Mr Baring Gould, what was to forbid other individuals broaching fresh conceptions ? Is there, however, any instance known to us ? Is there any instance of a religion not eclectic or pantheistic (the one being the mere revivalism or reconstruction of the elements of former beliefs, and the other their absorp- tion), any religion " based on an intelligible principle," heretofore unknown to mankind, rising up and obtain- ing even a temporary ascendancy among mankind? No ; mankind, even in the darkness of Paganism, per- sistently distinguished between religion and philosophy, priests and sophists — though intellectually so much alike — and this I consider to be a master-key to the history of the past {ante, p. 109). *'^ The most favourable review of Mr B. Gould's work which I have seen says: — "In tracing the origin and development of religious belief, the object of Mr Baring Gould is to establish the foundation of Christian doctrine on the nature, the intuitions, and the reason of man, rather than upon traditionary dogmas, historical documents, or written inspirations. He is of opinion that the elements of true religion are to be found in a revelation naturally impressed upon the soul of man, and that the investi- gation of man's moral nature will be found to disclose the surest proois of his religious wants and destination. The author holds that if theologi- cal doctrines can be inculcated by demonstrative evidence of their harmony with man's intellectual and moral constitution, they will be received with more perfect acquiescence and conviction than when appeals are made simply to man's veneration for antiquity and authority." I think I am, at any rate, right in taking Mr B. G.'s aa the view post directly opposed to tradition, and it is from this point of view that I am brought into collision with him. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 143 There is a further point which Mr Baring Gould must settle. Religion may be theoretically regarded as an affair of growth, progressive, or as an affair of revelation, or something so nearly counterfeiting revelation as to arise spontaneously ; hut it cannot well be both. Now, in the pages of Mr Baring Gould it appears at one time " springing into life " (p. 109), and, as in the passage above, analogously to a conception in the mind: — '■'■At first it is full of vigour, constantly on the alert to win converts;" at another, *'as a conception slowly evolved;" then all at once " a living belief, vividly luminous " (p. 109). Again (p. 110), " lieligion does not reach per- fection of development at a bound ; generations pass away, before," &c. ; and (p. 329) we find that in alJ primitive religions the idea of God is the idea of a devil, or (jo?.) "that the first stage in the - conception of a devil is the attribution of evil to God," which is different, inasmuch as it supposes man to start with the knowledge of God, and is, moreover, inconsistent with what is said at page 113: — "The shapeless religion of a primitive people gradually assumes a definite form. It is that of nature worship. It progresses through polytheism and idolatry, and emerges into monotheism or pantheism." Of course this is said upon the assumption that the primitive man was barbarous. But however remote from the fact, it is theoretically as conceivable that man should worship nature as an ideal of beauty and power, as that he should regard it from the first as an appari- tion of terror ; or, in other words, that taking nature- worship for granted, Mr Max Miiller's view of it, viz. : — " He begins to lift up his eyes, he stares at the tent of heaven, and asks who supports it ? He opens his ey€s to the winds, and asks them whence and whither ? He is awakened from darkness and slumber by the light of the sun, and Him whom his eyes cannot behold, and 144 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. who seems to grant him the daily pittance of his exist- ence, he calls ' his life, his breath, his brilliant Lord and Protector' " (Chips, i. 69, apud B. Gr., 139), — is as likely to be the true one as Mr Baring G-ould's,*^ viz. : — "At' first man is . . . antitheist; but presently he feels resistances. . . . The convulsions of nature, the storm, the thunder, the exploding volcano, the raging seas, fill him with a sense of there being a power superior to his own, before which he must bow. His religious thought, vague and undetermined, is roused by the opposition of nature to his will" (p. 137). Mr Baring Gould postulates, I am aware, the lapse of several generations for the evolution of these ideas. But there is nothing in Mr Baring Gould's statement of the progression or development of the conception of the Deity among mankind which might not pass in rapid sequence through the mind of the primitive man, — call him " Areios," if you shrink from close contact with history, and refuse to call him Adam. Why then the indefinite lapse of time ? why the progressive advance of the idea through successive generations of mankind ? Why, except that the primitive barbarism must be as- sumed; and because (p. 239), "in the examination of the springs of religious thought, we have to return again and again to the wild bog of savageism in which they bubble up." But if the savagery was so great, the per- pltexity how man ever came to make the first step in the induction is much greater than that, having made it, he should proceed on to make the last. It is certain that reason can prove the existence of God and His goodness, and this knowledge evokes the instincts of love and worship. It is true also that man has a conscience of right and wrong, and that among its *^ Fide, however, Dr Newman's " Grammar of Assent," p. 386, et seq. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 145 dictates is a sense of the obligation of love and worship. Still this will not account for the existence of religion in the world. Much less will Mr Baring Gould's theory of an induction by mankind collectively, spread over several centuries, account either for the notion or for the institution. Neither, apart from direct or indirect revelation, would it prove more than that man was religious, though with- out religion ; capable of arriving at the knowledge of God's existence, but without any knowledge how to pro- pitiate him ; seeking God, but not able to find Him. Therefore, Mr Baring Gould truly says — " Philosophy alone is not religion." Philosophy, as we have seen, may prove the existence of God. But religion, from the commencement of the world, has conveyed the idea that there is a particular mode in which God must be wor- shipped. Here philosophy is entirely at fault. Mr Baring Gould again truly says that "dogma, worship, and discipline are the constituents, so to speak, the mind, spirit, and body of religion" (p. 119). But he goes no further, and does not explain how it came about that mankind in all ages have adhered with singular pertinacity to the notion that religion could teach that on which philosophy must perforce be silent. Has not the greater intellect ever been on the side of philosophy ? Nay,** in the epochs in which intellectual superiority " " The lively Grecian, in a land of hills, Rivers, and fertile plains, and sounding shores, In despite Of the gross fictions chanted in the streets By wandering rhapsodista, and in contempt Of doubt and hold denial hourly urged Amid the wrangling schools, a Spirit hung. Beautiful region ! o'er thy towns and farms. Statues and temples, and memorial tombs ; And emanations were perceived, and acts K 146 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. was undeniably on the side of philosophy, did the populace go to the academy or to the oracles ? If the human intellect had originally framed the ritualistic observances, which bore so strange a resemblance in different parts of the world; if human sagacity had originated the idea of sacrifice (and wherefore sacrifice from the point of view of human sagacity ?) ; if philo- sophy had revealed to them the religious conceptions which they retained, and had been able to define the relation of man to the Divinity — would not mankind, in all ages, have had recourse to its greatest intellects for the solution of its doubts, rather than to the guardians of an obscure and corrupt tradition ? The question no doubt is complicated with the evidence as to demonolatry; but the extent to which this prevailed only enforces the argument against Mr Baring Gould, to whom, appai-ently, the demon (p. 135) is not a real existence, but only the embodiment of a phase of thought, and must seriously embarrass those who attribute the regeneration of man from savagery to intellectual growth and natural pro- gress. But demonology apart, what would have counter- vailed against the superiority of reason and the intel- lectual prestige of the world except a belief in a tradi- tion of primitive revelation? What else will account for the different recognitions of philosophy and religion — priests and sophists? What else would have pre- vented mankind from resorting in their difficulties to where the greatest intellect was found ? Of immortality, in nature's course, Exemplified by mysteries that were felt As bonds, on gram philosopher imposed, And armed warrior ; and in every grove A gay or pensive tenderness prevailed. When piety more awful had relaxed " — WoKDSWOETH, Excursion, B. iv. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 147 At page 134, this truth seems to gain partial recog- nition in tlie pages of Mr Baring Gould : — " In conclusion, it seems certain tliat for man's spiritual well-being, these forces ('the tendency to crystallise, and the tendency to dissolve') need co-ordination. Under an infallible guide, regulating every moral and theological item of his spirituaLbeing, his mental faculties are given him that they may be atrophied, like the eyes of the oyster, which, being useless in the sludge of its bed, are re-absorbed. Under a perpetual modification of religious belief, his convictions become weak and watery, without force, and destitute of purpose. In the barren wilderness of Sinai there are here and there green and pleasant oases. How come they there ? By basaltic dykes arresting the rapid drainage which leaves the major part of that land bald and waste. So in the region of religion, revelations and theocratic systema have been the dyhes saving it from barrenness, and encouraging mental and sentimental fertility" (p. 134). It is impossible that vre should quarrel with this illus- tration, it is so exactly to our point. Is it not another way of affirming the position which I maintain against Sir John Lubbock? (ch. xii.) May not we, too, take our stand upon these " oases " of tradition, which "revela- tions " and " theocratic systems " have formed, and ask what the human intellect has been able to achieve for the spiritual cravings of man in the waste around ? Mr Baring Gould, indeed, says (p. 61) : — " A power of free volition within or outside aU matter in motion was a rational solution to the problems of effects of which man could not account himself the cause. Such is the origin of the idea of God — of God whether many, inhabiting each brook and plant, and breeze and planet, or as being a world-soul, or as a supreme cause, the Creator and sustainer of the universe. The common consent of man- kind has been adduced as a proof of a tradition of a revelation in past times ; but the fact that most races of men believe in one or more deities proves nothing more than that all men have drawn the same inference from the same premises. It is idle to speak of a ' Sensus Numinis ' as existing as a primary conviction in man, when the con- ception may be reduced to more rudimentary ideas. The revelation hS the tradition of the human race. is ia man's being, in his conviction of the truth of the principle of causation, and thus it is a revelation made to every rational being." Grant that it is so, there is nothing here which militates against our position, which is this, — not certainly that there is not a revelation of God in man's being, made to every rational creature, hut that there has been an express revelation superadded to it ; and that it is not true that "the common consent of mankind to the exist- ence of God has been adduced as a proof of a tradition of a revelation in past times," but that the mode and manner of the consent attests the fact of tradition and the fact of revelation. But what have we just heard ? That there is a revelation of God's existence in man's nature, i.e. in each man's nature — " it is a revelation made to every man's nature." Then the indefinite lapse of time demanded for the evolution of the ideas, which we have just been combating, is not after all necessary. " Habemus reum confitentum.'''' But inasmuch as the consent of mankind is only " to one or more deities," it is only so far a testimony to the existence of God as it is shown that polytheism arose out of the corruption of this belief; and, moreover, by no means proves " that all men have drawn the same inference from the same premises," even if it were pos- sible to reconcile this statement with what is said at page 113 — " The shapeless religion of a primitive people gradually assumes a definite form. It is that of nature- worship. It progresses through polytheism and idolatry, and emerges into monotheism or pantheism " {vide infra). At this point I should wish to put in the accumulation of evidence which L'Abbe Gainet has collected to prove that monotheism was the primitive belief.*^ When this " " Monotheisme des Peuplea Primitifs," in vol. iii. of " La Bible sans la Bible." THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 149 evidence is dispersed, it will be time enough to return to the subject. In any case, we may, fall back upon the following testimony in Mr Baring Grould : — " It is tlie glory of the Semitic race to have given to the world, in a compact and luminous form, that monotheism which the philo- sophers of Greece and Eome only vaguely apprehended, and which has become the heritage of the Christian and Mohammedan alike. Of the Semitic race, however, one small branch, Jewdom, preserved and communicated 'the idea. Every other branch of that race sank into polytheism (vide supra) It is at first sight inexpUoable that Jewish monotheism, which was in time to exercise such a pro- digious influence over men's minds, should have so long remained the peculiar property of an insignificant people. But every religious idea has its season, and the thoughts of men have their avatars. . . . It was apparently necessary that mankind should be given full scope for unfettered development, that they should feel in all directions after God, if haply they might find Him, in order that the f oimdations of inductive philosophy rwight he laid, that the religious idea might run itself out through polytheistic channels for the development of art. Certainly Jewish monotheism remained in a state of congelation till the religious thought of antiquity had exhaiLsted its own vitality, and had worked out every other prollem of theodicy; then suddenly thaw- ing; it poured over the world its fertilising streams " (p. 259).*° From all this it results that, so far as the testimony of the Semitic race is concerned (which, by the by, a concurrence of tradition points to as the oldest), the human race did not " emerge into monotheism," but "sank into polytheism;" that monotheism was their *^ Mr B. Gould also says, p. 104 — " The Semitic divine names bear indelibly on their front the stamp of their origin, and the language iteelf testifies against the insulation and abstraction of these names from poly- theism. The Aryan's tongue bore no such testimony to him. The spirit of his language led him away from monotheism, whilst that of the Shemite was an ever-present monitor, directing him to a God, sole and undivided. ' The glory of the Semitic race is this,' says M. Renan, ' that from its earliest days it grasped that notion of the Deity which all other people have had to adopt from its example, and on the faith of its declaration. ' " ISO THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. belief from " their earliest days," and their language bearing testimony to the same, shows also that it was primitively so. It moreover results, that although man- kind may have been allowed to sink into polytheism, as a warning or a chastisement, it certainly could not have been " in order that the foundations of inductive philo- sophy might be laid ; " for it is quite apparent from this extract that the induction was neoer made that man did not "emerge into monotheism;" but that having " exhaustediis vitality " and " worked out every problem of theodicy " in the way of corruption, it received mono- theism back again from the only people who had pre- served it intact. At any rate, monotheism came to it ab extra, and before polytheism had attained the " full scope of that development" which was necessary for the perfection of art ! But Mr Baring Gould having a perception that this admission (although he has not apparently seen its full significance) is fatal to his theory, hastens to unsay it at page 261, " Whence did the Jews derive their mono- theism ? Monotheism is not a feature of any primitive religion ; but that which is a feature of secondary reli- gions is the appropriation to a tribe of a particular god, which that tribe exalts above all other gods." In support of this view, Mr Baring Gould quotes certain texts of Scripture — Isa. xxxvi. 19, 20 {j..e. words spoken by Eabsaces the Assyrian), and Jos. xxiv. 15, " But if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord, you have your choice : choose this day that which pleaseth you, whom you would rather serve, whether the gods which your fathers served in Mesopotamia [query, an allusion to the idolatry in the patriarchal households ? Gen. xxxv. 2, " the gods " being of the same kind with " the gods of the Amorites "], or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 151 you dwell ; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." One would have thought this text too plain to be cavilled at. Is not the Lord whom Josue invokes the same Lord who (Gen. i. 1) " in the beginning created heaven and earth," and who said to Noah (Gren. vi. 7), "I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth ; " and who (Exod. iii. 2) appeared to Moses in a flame of fire in the bush which was not consumed ; and to whom Moses said, " Lo, I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to them, The God oiyour fathers hath sent me to you; if they should say to me, What is His name ? what shall I say to them ? (ver. 14), God said to Moses, I am who am: He said thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, He who is hath sent me to you." When or where has monotheism been more explicitly declared? Is there any phrase which the human mind could invent in which it could be more adequately defined? And when God speaks as "the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob," is it not as if He would say, I am not only the God who speaks to the individual heart, but who is also traditionally known to you all collectively through my manifestations and revelations to your forefathers ? Compare Matt. xxii. 32. Inter alia, Mr B. Gould also instances such unmis- takable orientalisms as '" Among the gods there is none like unto Thee, Lord,' says David, and he exalts Jehovah above the others as a ' King above all gods.' " Where, then, may we ask, is the monotheism, " the glory of the Semitic race," to be found, if not in the time of David? The proof which follows is more clinching still — " Jacob seems to have made a sort of bargain with Jehovah that he would serve Him. instead of other gods, on condition that He took care of him dming his exile from home. The next stage in popular Jewish theology was a denial of the power of the Gentile 152 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. gods, and tlie treatment of them as 'idols. Tradition and Mstoiy point to Abraham as the first on whom the idea of the impotence of the deities of his father's house first broke. He is said to have smashed the images in Nahor's oratory, and to have put a hammer into the hands of one idol which he left standing, as a sign to Nahor that that one had destroyed all the rest." Unfortunately for tMs view — according to the only authentic narrative we have of the facts, Gen. xii. — Abraham must have preceded Jacob by at least two generations ! I think that, after this, we may fairly ask Mr Baring Gould, who is learned in medieval myths, to trace for us more distinctly the notion of the chronicler who had a theory that Henry II. lived before Henry I. With this passage I shall conclude this chapter, merely observing, that if any department of study existed which had for its special object the investigation of tradition,*'^ it is simply impossible that a work (clever in many re- " I append, however, the following passage from Mr Baring Gould, as it may be serviceable in tracing tradition, and to which I may have occa- sion to recur (p. 161) : — " Among the American Indians an object of wor- ship, and the centre of a cycle of legend, is Michabo, the great hare or rabbit. From the remotest wilds of the north-west to the coast of the Atlantic, from the southern boundaries of Carolina to the cheerless swamps of Hudson's Bay, the Algonquins are never tired of gathering round the winter fire, and repeating the story of Manibozho or Michabo, the Great Hare. With entire unanimity, their various branches, the Powhatans, &c., . . . and the western tribes, perhaps without exception, spoke of this ' chimerical beast,' as one of the old missionaries called it, as their common ancestor (Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 162). Michabo is described as having been four-legged, monstrous, crouching on the face of the prime- val waste of waters, with all his court, composed of four-footed creatures, around him. He formed the earth out of a grain of sand taken from the bottom of the ocean. It is strange that such an insignificant creature as a hare should have received this apotheosis, and it has been generally regarded as an instance of the senseless brute-worship of savages. But its prevalence leads the mythologist to suspect that some confusion of words has led to a confusioU of. ideas, a suspicion which becomes a certainty when the name is analysed, for it is then found to be The Great White THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 153 spects) such as that of Mr Baring Grould should ever have been written. One, or Great Light, and to be in reality the sun, a fact of which the modern Indians are utterly unaware." If Mr Baring Gould finds that the word Miohabo also signifies " The Great Light," or " The Great White One," it goes far to identify the wor- ship of the hare with the worship of the sun, more especially when it is noted {vide Presoott's "Conquest of Mexico," i. 103) that the hare was one of the four hieroglyphics of the year among the ancient Mexicans.* Animal worship seems here plainly connected with sun-worship. But above and beyond it, do we not here also get a glimpse of more celestial light ? " The Great Light " is also " The Great White One." He is described as " crouch- ing on the face of the primeval waste of waters." In these phrases we seem almost to read the text of Gen. i. 3, "And God said. Be light, and light was made ; " ver. 2, " Darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the waters." The Indians also say that he " formed the earth out of » grain of sand taken from the bottom of the ocean." Does not this not only embody the tradition that God created the world out of nothing,' but also the mode of the creation by the separation of the water from the land ; ver. 9, " God also said, Let the waters that are under the heavens be gathered together in one place ; and let the dry land appear. . . . And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called seas." • These hieroglyphics were symbolical of the four elements. Prescott adds— "It is not easy to see the connection between the terms 'rabbit' and *air,' which lead the respective series." Possibly he may not have been aware of the tradition of the Algon- quius as above. IS4 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII. Cardinal Wiseman (" Lectures on Science and Religion," ii. 228- 232), in speaking of wliat was characteristic of most Oriental religions — a belief "in the existence of emanated influences intermediate be- tween the divine and earthly natures," is led on to give an account of the curious Gnostic sect, the Nazarians — " The first of these errors was common, perhaps, to other Gnostic sects ; but in the Codex Nasareeus we have the two especially distinguished as different beings— light and life. In it the first emanation from God is the king of light ; the second, fire ; the third, water ; the fourth, life." I wish to note that, whether or not their notions as to emanations originally meant more than the act of creation, a tradition as to the successive order of the creation seems clearly embodied ia the text. God created first of all light ; them the sun (the firmament) is fire (the distinct creation of the light and the sun in Genesis is so marked as to create a special difficulty in the cosmogony) ; then water ; then life, in beasts, birds, reptiles, &c. ; lastly, man. Comp. with swpra, p. 138, and with the above legend of Michabo. " A Slavonian account of Cke^tion. — The current issue of the Literary Society of Prague includes a volume of popular tales col- lected in all the Slavonian countries, and translated by M. Erben into Czech. We extract the shortest — 'In the beginning there was only God, and He lay asleep and, dreamed. At last it was time for Him to wake and look at the world. Wherever He looked through the sky, a star came out. He wondered what it was, and got up and began to walk. At last He came to our earth ; He was very tired ; the sweat ran down His forehead, and a drop fell on the ground. We'are all made of this drop, and that is why we are the sons of God. Man was not made for pleasure ; he was bom of the sweat of God's face, and now he must live by the sweat of his own : that is why men have no rest.'" — The Academy, Feb. 12, 1870. I wish also to examine, in greater detail than I should have had space for in a note, how far the case of the Samoyeds bears out Mr Baring Gould's theory of the development of idolatry from its grosser to its more refined manifestations, or of the progress of the human race from barbarism to the Hght of religion and of civilisa- tion. THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 155 Mr Baring Gould says, p. 136 — " ' When a Scliaman is aware that I have no household god,' said a Samoyed to M. Castren, the linguist, ' he comes to me, and I give him a squirrel, or an ermine skin.' This skin he brings back moulded ' into a human shape.' . . . ' This Los is a fetish ; it is not altogether an idol ; it is a spirit entangled in a material object. What that object is matters little ; a stump of a tree, a stone, a rag, or an animal, serves the purpose of condensing the impalpable deity into a tangible reality.' Through this coarse superstition glimmers an intelligent conception. It is that of an all-pervading Deity, who is focussed, so to speak, in the fetish. This deity is called Num. ' I have heard some Samoyeds declare that the earth, the sea— all nature, in short — are Num.' ' Where is Num V asked Castren of a Samoyed, and the man pointed to the blue sea : but an old woman told him that the sun was Num. The Siethas, worshipped by the Lapps, had no certain figure or shape formed by nature or art ; they were either trees or rough stones, much worn by water. Tomseus says they were often mere tree stumps with tlie roots upwards."^ It is curious to contrast this recent account of the Samoides with an account, apparently well informed and discriminating, in 1762. Pinkerton, i. 522 — " The religion of the Samoides is very simple. . . . They admit the existence of a Supreme Being, Creator of all things, eminently good and beneficent ; a quality which, according to their mode of thinking, dispenses them from any adoration of Him, or addressing their prayers to Him, because they suppose this Being takes no interest in mundane afiairs ; and consequently, does not exact nor need the worship of man. They join to this idea that of a being eternal and invisible, very powerful, though subordinate to the first, and disposed to evil. It is to this being that they ascribe all the misfortunes which befall them in this life. Nevertheless, they do not worship, although much in fear of him. If they place any ^8 Is not "Num" cognate to "Numen ?" and their worship of trees and worn stones worship of memorials of the Deluge ? Compare Boulanger, infra, oh. xi., and on the regard for boulders in India {vide Gainet, vol. i. ) Bryant ("Mythology," iii. 632) says, speaking of the Egyptians — "I have mentioned that they showed a reverential regard to fragments of rook which were particularly uncouth and horrid ; and this practice seems to have prevailed in many other countries." Probably for the same reason the Lapps worshipped their lakes and rivers, as is known from the names annexed to them — "Ailekes Jauvre," that is, sacred lake, &c. Vide Pinkerton, i. 468. (Leenis.) IS6 THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. reliance in the counsels of Koedesnicts or Tadebes (the ' Scliamans ' referred to above), it is only on account of the connection which they esteem these people to have with this evil being ; otherwise they submit themselves with perfect apathy to all the misfortunes which can befall them." " The sun and moon, as well, hold the place of subaltern deities. It is by their intervention, they imagine, that the Supreme Being dispenses His favours ; but they worship them as little as the idols or fitches (fetishes) which they carry about them according to the recommendation of their Koedesnicks." Without pursuing the investigation further, it seems plain that the Samoides, from being (at least) Deists in the last century (Dr Hooker, " Hima- layan Journal," gives a similar account of the Lepchas), have lapsed, apparently through sun-worship, to a state of Pantheism, if not Fetishism. Of the Tongusy, a people who, if not kin to the Samoides, have an analogous worship — (" They are altogether unacquainted with any kind of literature, and worship the sun and moon. They have many Shamans among them, who differ little from those 1 formerly de- scribed." — Bell's "Travels in Asia, Siberia") — Bell, traveEing in Siberia, 1720, says — " Although I have observed that the Tongusy in general worship the sun and moon, there a/re many exceptions to this observation. I have found intelligent people among them who be- lieved there was a Being superior to both sun and moon, and who created them and all the world." If, then, we may connect the Ton- gusy with the Samoides, it would appear that whereas Mr Baring Gould [i.e., Castren) finds the latter sunk in Fetishism, they were, the one in 1762, the other in 1720, the worshippers of the sun and moon, joined with the knowledge and tradition of the true God still subsisting amongst them. F. Schlegel (" Phil, of History," p. 1.38) says—" The Greeks, who described India in the time of Alexander the Great, divided the Indian religious sects into Brachmans and Samaneans. . . . But by the Greek denomination of Samaneans we must certainly understand the Buddhists, as among the rude nations of Central Asia, as in other countries, the priests of the religion of Fo bear at this day the name of Schamans." Compare Professor Eawlinson, "Ancient Monarchies," i. 139, 172. (Vide infra, p. 163, 164, 205.) CHAPTER VIII. MYTHOLOGY. Since all antediluvian traditions meet in Noah, and are transmitted through him, there is an a priori probability that we shall find all the antediluvian traditions con- fused in Noah. I shall discuss this further when I come to regard him under the aspect of Saturn. As a consequence, we must not expect to find (the process of corruption having commenced in the race of Ham, almost contemporaneously with Noah) a pure and unadulterated tradition anywhere ; and I allege more specifically, that whenever we find a tradition of Noah and the Deluge, we shall find it complicated and con- fused with previous communications with the Almighty, and also with traditions of Adam and Paradise. But inasmuch as the tradition is necessarily through Noah, and in any case applies to him at one remove, it does not greatly affect the argument I have in hand. There is a further probability which confronts us on the outset, that in every tradition, with the lapse of time, though the events themselves are likely to be substan- tially transmitted, they may become transposed in their order of succession. We shall see this in the case of Noah and his posterity. The principal cause being, that the immediate founder of the race is, as a rule, among all the nations of antiquity, deified and placed at the head of every genealogy and history. " Joves 158 MYTHOLOGY. omnes reges vocarunt antiqui." Thus Belus, whom modern discovery seems certainly to have identified with Nimrod, in the Chaldean mythology appears as Jupiter, and even as the creator separating light from darkness (Eawlinson, " Ancient Monarchies," i. 181 ; G-ainet, " Hist, de TAnc. et Nouv. Test.," i. 120). But Nimrod is also mixed up with Jupiter in the god Bel-Merodach. In more natural connection Nimrod — (" who may have been worshipped in different parts of Chaldea under different titles," Rawlinson, i. 172) — Nimrod appears as ^li, father of Hurki the moon-god, whose worship he probably introduced ; and, what is much more to the point, he appears as the father of Nin (whom I shall presently identify with Noah) ; whilst in one instance, at least, the genealogy is inverted, and he appears as the son of Nin. Thus, too, Hercules and Saturn are con- founded, just as we find Adam and Noah confounded (" many classical traditions, we must remember, identi- fied Hercules with Saturn," vide Rawlinson, i. 166). Also in Grecian mythology Prometheus (Adam) figures as the son of Deucalion (Noah), and also of Japetus ( Japhet) ; and so, too, Adam and Noah, in the Mahab- harata, are equally in tradition in the person of Manou {vide G-ainet, i. 199), and in Mexico in the person of the god Quetzalcoatl (vide infra, p. 326). Before, however, pursuing the special subject of this inquiry further, it appears to me impossible to avoid an argument on a subject long debated, temporarily aban- doned through the exhaustion of the combatants, and now again recently brought into prominence through the writings of Mr Gladstone, Dr DoUinger, Mr Max Miiller, and others — the source and origin of mythology.^ ^ This chapter was written before the publication of Mr Cox's " Mytho- logy of the Aryan Nations." It will be seen, however, that I indulge the hope that much that is seductive, and much even that is systematic, in MYTHOLOGY. 159 Now, here, I am quite ready to adopt, in the first place, the opinion of L'Abbe Gainet, that every exclusive system must come to naught, " que toutes les tentatives qu'on ai faites pour expliquer le polytheisme par un systeme exclusif tombent a faux et n'expliquent rien." Yet, whilst fully admitting an early and perhaps con- current admixture of Sabaism,^ I consider that the facts and evidence contained in the pages of Rawlinson will enable us to arrive at the history of idolatry by a mode much more direct than conjecture. The pages of Raw- linson prove the identity of Nimrod and Belus, and his worship in the earliest times. On the other hand, there has been a pretty constant tradition* that Nimrod first Mr Cox's view, will be found to be compatible with the line I have indi- cated. ^ Philo. wpvd Eusebius, who has transmitted the Phoenician tradition {vide, Bunsen's "Egypt," iv. 281), seems to me to indicate the mode in which it came about in the following wordsi — " Now Chronos, whose Phoenician epithet was El, a ruler of the land, and subsequently after his death, deified in the constellation of Kronos (Saturn)," &o. As to Saturn, vide ch. x. In the cosmical theory there is analogy as to the process of deification — " In the Phoenician cosmogonies, the connection between the highest God and a subordinate male and female demiurgic principle is of frequent oc- currence " (Bunsen, iv. 447). It would seemingly be more in fitness with a cosmical theory to find direct adoration of the principle, without evi- dence of any previous or concurrent process of deification. Mr W. Palmer ("Egyptian Chronicles," i. 37) says — "But when we find the rulers of the first two periods in the Chronicle, its xiii. gods and viii. demigods, answering closely to the two generations of the antedilu- vian and post-diluvian patriarchs in number, and therefore also in the average length of the reigns and generations ; and when we know, be- sides, as we do, that the Pantheon of the Egyptians and other nations, which they said had all borrowed from them, was peopled, in part at least, with deified ancestors — for even the heavenly luminaries, and the elenmnts, and powers of nature, and notions of the true God still remaining, or of angels and demons, so far as they were invested with humanity and sex, were identified with human ancestors; we cannot doubt that Kronos," &c. ^ "Venator contra Dominum," St Augustine; "Cit^ de Dieu," xvi. ch. iv. ; Pastoret, " Hist, de la Legislation." i6o MYTHOLOGY. raised the standard of revolt against the Lord ; and the erection of the tower of Babel seems to show a state of things ripe for idolatry. Here recent discovery and ancient tradition concur in establishing hero-worship as among the earliest forms of idolatry. But further, the Arab tradition of Nimrod's apotheosis, analogous to the mysterious and miraculous disappearance of Enoch . {vide infra, p. 192), suggests how hero-worship might become almost identical with the worship of spirits, which L'Abbe Gainet inclines to think the first and most natural mode. If there was a tradition among them that ' one of their ancestors was raised up to heaven,* why may they not have argued, when their minds had become thoroughly corrupted, that their immediate ancestor, the mighty Nimrod, had been so raised? and when one ancestor was deified the rest would have been deified in sequence, or according to their relationship to him. What, again, more likely than that, when through the corruptions of mankind the communications of the Most High ceased, they should turn to those to whom the communications had been made, at first perhaps innocently in intercession, and, as corruption deepened, in worship ? ® * Gen. V. 24, says only — " And he walked with God, and was seen no more: because God took him." (Fwie also John iii. 13.) There might still have been the belief and tradition (according to appearances) that he was so raised. (Compare 4 Kings ii. 11, and Ecclesiasticus, xliv. 16.) ^ I believe, however, that the apostasy in the Hamitic race generally was much more direct; and I entirely agree with Bryant that it must have resulted at an early period in a systematic scheme of mixed solar and an- cestral worship. Therefore, in any Hamitic tradition, we shall not be startled at finding (even in the commemorative ceremonies of the Deluge) evidence of solar mythology inextricably blended with ancestral traditions. We, however, are only concerned with the ancestral traditions, and in so far as we can discriminate th^m, Mr Cox's evidence of solar mythology will form no barrier to our inquiry. In the preceding page I have quoted a passage from Sanchoniathon, MYTHOLOGY. i6i L'Abbe G-ainet, in another part of his work, draws attention to the worship of ancestors in China, and asks whether the idols of Laban had reference to more than some such secondary objects? It will be recollected that it was precisely the extent to which this veneration was to be considered culpable which was the subject-matter of the unfortunate disputes between certain religious orders in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries {vide Hue's " Chinese Empire," and Oretineau Joly's " Hist, de la Com. de Jesus," vol. iii. chap, iii., and vol. v. chap, i.) Indeed, among the Semitic races it may never have degenerated into idolatry. Still it appears to me that weight should be attached to this tendency, more especially in primitive times, when the recollection of aneestors who had been driven out of Paradise, to whom direct revelations had been made, and who were naturally reputed to have been " nearer to the gods " (Plato, Cicero"), would have been all in all to their descendants. Then, again, as we have just seen, there was the tradition among them of one man who had been carried up into heaven, and accord- ingly, when hero-worship culminated in the deification of man, we are not surprised to find it taking the form of this apotheosis as in the identification of Nimrod and Enoch. This tendency to idolatry through hero-worship seems to me so natural and direct, that I think, apart from the facts d priori, I should have been led to the conclusion that it was the actual manner in which it was brought which seems to indicate the mode in which the mixed system arose ; but there " Cronos " (Noah) is deified in the planet Saturn. As a rule, how- ever, we find him deified in the sun (Bryant, ii. 60, 200, 220). Ham, how- ever, is sometimes also deified in the sun ; and in cases where Ham is so deified, it is not unlikely that we shall find the patriarch relegated to Saturn. ^ " Quoniam antiquitas proxime accedit ad decs." — De Legihus, ii. 11. L i63 MYTHOLOGY. about.^ It is not denied, on the other hand, that there always has been a tendency to nature-worship also ; and, indeed, there is probably a stage during which every mythology will be found to have come under its influ- ence. But the inclination at the present moment is unmistakably to an exclusive astral or solar system. The point of interest which excites me to this inquiry is simply to determine the value of the historical traditions which may lie embedded in these systems ; and I shall be content to find them, whether or not they form the primary nucleus, or whether only subsequently imported into, and blended with, solar mythology. It is easy to conceive how a mythology embodying historical tradi- tions could pass into an astral system. In this case incongruity would not startle; but it is difficult to imagine a pure astral system which would not be too harmonious and symmetrical to admit of the grossness, inconsistency, and incongruity to which the process of adaptation would inevitably give rise, and to which hero-worship 'is inherently prone. As Mr Gladstone says (Homer, ii. 12) : — ■ " There ia mueh. in tlie theo-myttology of Homer whicli, if it had been a system founded on fable, could not have appeared there. It stands before ns like one of our old churches, having different parts of its fabric in the different styles of architecture, each of which speaks for itself, and which we know to belong to the several epochs in the history of the art when their characteristic combinations were respectively in vogue." ' The adverse decision, in the matter of the ceremonies, did not, I apprehend, touch the question we are now considering, albeit the cere- monies had reference to deceased ancestors. This will be apparent, I think, from consideration of the grounds upon which the question was debated. The Jesuits relied upon the sense in which the ceremonieB were regarded by the Mandarins and hterary men whom they consulted, whilst their opponents supported their arguments by reference to the popular notions and the superstitious practices introduced by the Bonzes. ( Vide Cretineau Joly's " Hist, de la Com. de Jesus," vol. v. chap, i.) MYTHOLOGY. 163 Mr Gladstone (passim) victoriously combats the theory of nature-worship as applied to Grecian mythology ; but it appears to me that his argument and mode of reason- ing would apply with tenfold effect to the Chaldean mythology, where there is a likelihood at least that we shall view idolatry in its early commencements. I con- sider that this view is borne out by the following pas- sage from Professor Eawlinson's " Ancient Monarchies," i. 139:— " In tlie first place, it must be noticed that tlie religion was to a certain extent astral. The heaven itself, the sun, the moon, and the five planets, have each their representative in the Chaldean Pantheon among the chief objects of worship. At the same time it is to be observed, that the astral element is not universal, but partial ; and that even where it has place, it is but one aspect of the mythology, not by any means its full and complete exposition. The Chaldean religion even here is far from being mere Sabeanism — the simple worship of the ' host of heaven.' The ether, the sun, the moon, and still more the five planetary gods, are something above and be3'ond those parts of nature. Like the classical Apollo and Diana, Mars and Venus, they are real persons, with a life and a history, a power and an influence, which no ingenuity can translate into a meta- phorical representation of phenomena attaching to the air and to the heavenly bodies. It is doubtful, indeed, whether this class of gods are really of astronomical origin, and not rather primitive deities, whose characters, and attributes were, to a great extent, fixed and settled before the notion arose of connecting them with certain parts of nature. Occasionally they seem to represent heroes rather than celestial bodies ; and they have all attributes quite distinct from their physical and astronomical character. " Secondly, the striking resemblance of the Chaldean system to that of the classical mythology, seems worthy of particular attention. This resemblance is too general and too close in some respects to allow of the supposition that mere accident has produced the coin- cidence." The evidence in the " Ancient Monarchies " seems to me to decide the point, not only for perhaps the earliest mythology with which we are acquainted, but also for i64 MYTHOLOGY. the G-recian mythology, which has generally been the ground of dispute. It is curiously in illustration, how- ever, of the common origin of mythology, that the mythology of Grreece should be equally well traced to Assyria and Egypt. As evidence of the theory accord- ing to the Assyrian origin, let us turn, for instance, to Professor Eawlinson's identification of Nergal with Mars. It is true he appears as the planet Mars under the form of " Nerig," and he also figures as the storm- ruler ; but can anything well be more human than the rest of his titles ? " His name is evidently compounded of the two Hamitic roots ' nir' = a man, and ' gula' = great ; so that lie is ' tlie great man' or ' the great hero.' His titles are ' the king of battle,' ' the champion of the gods,' ' the strong begetter,' ' the tutelar god of Babylonia,' and ' the god of the ehase.' . . . We have no evidence that Nergal was worshipped in the primitive times. He is just mentioned by some of the early Assyrian kings, who regard him as their ancestor. . . . It is conjectured that, like Bil-Nipru, he represents the deified hero Nimrod, who may have been worshipped in different parts of Chaldea under different titles. ... It is probable that Nergal's symbol was the man-lion. Nir is sometimes used in the inscriptions in the meaning of lion, and the Semitic name for the god hitnself is ' aria,' the ordinary term for the king of beasts both in Hebrew and Syriac. Perhaps we have here the true derivation of the Greek name for the god of war ' Aies ' CApijs), which has long puzzled classical scholars. The lion would symbolise both the hunting and the fighting propensities of the god, for he not only engages in com- bats, but often chases his prey and runs it down Kke a hunter. Again, if Nergal is the man-Uon, his association in the buildings with the man-bull would be exactly parallel with the conjunction which we so constantly find between him and Nim in the inscriptions." ^ — Bawlinson, L Vli-Vl'k. I must draw attention also to the remarkable absence ^ " ITotwithBtanding his stature, beauty, hand, and voice, which con- stitute, taken together, a proud appearance, it seems as if Mars had stood lower in the mind of Homer than any Olympian deity who takes part in the Trojan war, exfeept Venus only." — Gladstone's " Homer," ii. 225. MYTHOLOGY. 165 here of all the monotheistic epithets we shall find attached to Ana, Enii, and Hoa.® Let us now turn to the theory which is most in the ascendant, and which professes to see in the old mytho- logical legends only the thoughts and metaphors of a mythic period. This theory, which was Mr Max Miiller's in the first instance, heing not only exclusively drawn from the con- clusions of philology, but also exclusive in itself, cannot he anywhere stronger than its weakest point. If it is shown in the instance of one primary myth, that it was the embodiment of an historical legend, or theological belief, the whole ideal structure of a mythic period must collapse ; for the rejection of eclecticism in any form, which would embrace a Biblical or euhemer- istic interpretation of the myths, is at the foundation of Mr Max Miiller's idea, and, indeed, would be incom- patible with the theory of a mythic period such as he conceives it. The connection of Nimrod with Nergal in the Assyrian mythology, of Nergal with their planet Nerig, and of the Semitic name of the god " Aria " with the Greek 'Afyq'i and the Latin Mars, must, I think, form a chain of evi- dence destined to embarass Mr Max Miiller and Mr Cox : for, apart from the numerous points of contact of the Assyrian and Egj'ptian with the Greek mythologies, it can hardly be contended that there was a mythic period for the Aryan which was not common to the whole human race. It would be natural to suppose, that a mythology which was generated in a mythic period — which was the invention of mankind in a peculiar state of the imagina- tion — would have been developed in its fulness and ^ Vide infra, next chap. ix. i66 MYTHOLOGY. completeness, like Minerva starting from the brain of Jupiter, and would have borne the evidence of its origin in the symmetry of its form. Mr Max Miiller, on the contrary, seems to yield the whole position, in what, from his point of view, looks like an inadvertent phrase, that " there were myths before there was a mythology." It is not that the view is not true, or that it is inconsist- ent with his analysis of the myths, but that it is so per- fectly consistent with ours ! Incongruity, such as would come from the confusion of separate myths, would be no difficulty for us ; but it is hard to understand how mere fragmentary legends — sometimes attractive, but more frequently repulsive and revolting^ having no hold on what is nearest the heart of a people, the traditions of its past — should have been so tenaciously preserved for so long a time under such different conditions in various countries. Solar legends, spun out of confused metaphors, seem an inadequate explanation, unless we also suppose idolatry of the sun. In that case, the mythology, in so far as it was solar, would precede the myths ; in other words, the myths would be radiations from a central idea. That in the day when mankind prevaricated after this fashion, and committed the act of idolatry in their hearts, everything, from the phenomena of nature to the remote events of their history, would come under the influence of a new set of ideas may be easily conceived. At such a period — and the commencement of these things at least was not impossible in the days when, in the spirit of mistrust or defiance, men drew together to build the city and tower in the plain of Sennaar (Shinar) — much of what Mr Cox supposes to have been the com- mon parlance of mankind becomes natural, and a mythic period within these limits conceivable. MYTHOLOGY. 167 But sucli a theory would not necessarily be exclusive of other forms of idolatry — as, for instance, the worship of ancestors — whilst it might clear up obscure points in the evidence which tends to establish the latter. The theory, however, must embrace many shades and gradations — from the Hamitic extreme to the proto- myths, which in time obscured the monotheism of the Aryan of ancient Greece, and of the Peruvian Incas. (p. 304.) This would seem, unless they ignore all difficulties, a better standpoint for those who think, through the appli- cation of the solar legends, " to unlock almost all the secrets of mythologies ; " and any theory connected with the sun and sun-worship has this advantage, that it can be extended to everything undgr the sun ! It is sufficiently obvious that no system can be held to have settled these questions, which, if there were myths before there was a mythology, does not appro- priate these antecedent myths, or exclude counter expla- nations ; and it is equally clear that there can have been no mythology of which the solar legends were the off- spring, if the legends embody thoughts which transcend the mythology; and no mythic period if they testify to facts and ideas incompatible with its existence. Allowing for a certain confusion arising out of " poly- onomy," this sort of confusion, if there were nothing else, ought not to baffle the ingenuity of experts like Mr Max Miiller and Mr Cox. Such complications should be as easily disentangled as the superadded figures in Egyptian chronology {vide chapter vi.) when the key has been found. But does Mr Max Miiller profess to have brought the various legends into harmony? On the contrary (ii. 142), he frankly admits — " Much, no doubt, remains to be done, and even with the assistance of the Veda, the i68 MYTHOLOGY. ■whole of Greek mythology will never be deciphered and translated." I have no wish to push an admission unfairly, but this appears to me fatal as regards the argument with which I am dealing.^" If there are myths which never will be deciphered, this must be because they have had some non-astral or non-solar origin, which I consider . to be almost equivalent to saying that they must have had some pre-astral origin. What that precise origin was I think I have been able sufficiently to indicate in itali- cising the subjoined sentences from Mr Max Miiller. If these enigmas can be shown to be strictly local and Grecian, cadit qucestio; but if they are common to other mythologies, and these the oldest, 1 must say they have the look of antecedent existence. At any rate, like those inconvenient boulders in the sand and gravel strata, they require the intervention of some glacial period to account for them.^^ '"Mr Cox ("Mythology/' p. xiv.) says — "Mythology, as we call it now, is simply a collection of the sayings by which men, once upon a time, described whatever they saw or heard in the countries where they lived. This key, which has unlocked almost all the secrets of mythology, was placed in our hands by Professor Max Miiller, who has done more than all other writers to bring out the exquisite and touching poetry which under- lies those ancient legends. He has shown us that in this, their first shape, these sayings were all perfectly natural, and marvellously beautiful and true. We see the lovely evening twilight 3ie out, &o. . . . They said that the beautiful Eurydice," &e. (vide infra, p. 173). It would appear, however, from Mr Cox's more extended work, " The Mythology of the Aryan Nations," that the sayings of mankind in the mythic i)eriod did not extend to speculations as to their origin and destiny, or embrace the facts of their history, or the deeds of their ancestors, but that their whole con- verse was upon the sun and moon, and the phenomena of the outward world. '^ Mr Max Miiller makes the distinction between " primitive or organic legends" (and it is to these I wish to limit the discussion) "and the second, those which were imported in later times from one literature to another, . . . The former represents one common ancient stratum of Ian- mythology: 169 I have already hinted that a further consideration appears to me to incapacitate the theory, of nature- worship, in any of its disguises, from being taken as the exclusive, or even the primitive form of idolatry, or of per- verted tradition ; and it is this, — that all the explana- tions, even the most ingenious, even those which would he accounted "primitive and organic," have their counter explanations, traceable in the corruptions of truth and the perversions of hero-worship. Take, for instance, the name Zeus, which is in evidence of the primitive mono- theism, and which stood in Greece, as II or Ea in Assyria, for the true Lord and God, and which has its equivalents in Dyaus (" from the Sanscrit word which means ' to shine'") ; Dyaus-pater (Zeus-pater), Jupiter ; Tiu (Anglo-Saxon, whence Tuesday) ; and Zia (High Ger- man) — vide Cox's "Mythology." What more natural than to associate the Almighty with the heaven where He dwelt? Mr Max Miiller (" Comparative Myth.," " Chips," ii. 72) says—" Thus Ziv- n, i. p. 143. If in the II or Ra of the Chaldseans the primitive monotheism is not revealed, I do not see how it can be discerned in the Zeus of the Greeks. We have the same god in the same relation in the Scandinavian, or at any rate in the Lapland mythology. Leems ("Account of 1 86 MYTHOLOGY. Danish Lapland," Pinkerton, i. 458) says — " Of the Gods inhabiting the starry mansions the greatest is Radien, yet it is uncertain whether he is over every part of the sidereal sky, or whether he governs only some part of it. Be this as it may, I shall be bold to affirm that the Laplanders never comprehended, under the name of this false god, the true God ; which is oboious from this, that some have not scrupled to put the image or likeness of the true God by the side of their Eadien, on Runic boxes." ^ If, however, of their gods "the greatest was Radien," they would not have placed the true God by his side until they had become acquainted with the true God, or until they had come to commingle Christianity and Paganism ; but then would they not have placed " Ra " by the side of the true God as His counterpart? I am assuming that "Radien" means simply the god Ra, as I suppose Mr Max Miiller would recognise " dien " as cognate to " Dyaus "... " Dieu." Yet it has been opposed, in limine, to M. L'Abbe Gainet's valuable chapter on the " Monotheisme des Peuples primitifs,," " that he does not meet the specific assertions of historians such as Rawlinson, who finds idolatry prevalent among the Chaldaeans on their first appearance on the stage of history." I must submit, however, that although the discovery of idolatry at this early period may appear to disturb the particular theory, yet on closer examination it will be ^ In like manner, the Peruvians recognised " Facbacamac " {vide infra, p. 304), in the description which the Spaniards gave of the true God ; and in so far as they had retained the monotheistic belief, this was true. GaroilaSBO de la Vega, a most competent witness who testifies to this, adds — " If any one shall now ask me, who am a Catholic Christian Indian, by the infinite mercy, what name was given to God in my language, I should say Pachacamao." — Hakluyt Society, ed. of Garoil. de la Vega, i. 107. ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 187 found to sustain L'Abbe Gainet's argument, on the whole, by sustaining the truth of tradition upon which his main argument reposes ; for the idolatry which we find is intimately bound up with the worship of Belus, identified with Nimrod, whose rebellion against the Lord has always been in tradition, and is according to the more accepted interpretation of the sacred text. The discovery of idolatry, therefore, under the particular cir- cumstances, is exactly what we should expect, and affords a remarkable confirmation of the fidelity of tra- dition. Moreover, there are Chaldseans and Chaldseans, as we have just seen in Rawlinson {sup. p. 184), and as will be made more evident in the following passage from Gainet's " Monotheisme," &c. " It is sufficiently agreed, says Lebatteux (Mem. Acad. t. xxvii. p. 172), that tlie BaTjylonians recognised a supreme being, tlie Father and Lord of all (Diod. Sic. 1. ii.) St Justin Cohortat. ad gent. Eusebi. Prep. Evan., 1. iii. Porphyry (Life of Pythagoras) cites an oracle of Zoroaster, in which the Chaldseans are coupled ia encomium with the, Hebrews for the sanctity of the worship which they paid to the Eternal King. These are the words of the oracles — The Chaldeans alone with the Hebrews have wisdom for their share, rendering a pure worship to God, who is the Eternal King." — Gainet, iii. 408. The pure monotheism here alluded to may have been preserved in Chaldsean families of Semitic origin, but the extract I have just given from Rawlinson seems to prove that the knowledge was preserved also, dimly and obscurely, among the predominant Chaldeans of Ham- itic descent. This will be more apparent from the monotheistic epithets attached to the three next deities. ANA. " Ana is the head of the first triad which follows im- mediately after the obscure god Ea." "Ana, like II and Ea, is thought to have been a word originally signifying 188 ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. God in the highest sense." " He corresponds in many respects to the classical Hades, who, like him, heads^ the triad to which he belongs." In so far he is undistin- guishable from H or Ea, and may only transmit the monotheistic tradition through a different channel. But Ana has human epithets applied to him very suggestive of hero-worship. '' His epithets are chiefly such as mark priority and antiquity." "He is the Old Ana," "the original chief," "the father of the gods" [inter alia, of Bil Nipru, i.e. Nimrod]. He is also called — which imports another association of ideas — "the lord of spirits and demons," " the king of the lower world," * " the lord of darkness or death," "the ruler of the far-off city." Setting aside such titles as belong exclusively to the Deity, but assuming hero-worship — supposing man dei- fied — ^who more appropriately placed in these primitive times at the head of the list, than their original pro- " "This is not a mere arbitrary supposition, for it is expressly said in Holy Writ, that the first man, ordained to be ' the father of the whole earth ' (as he is then called), became, on his reconciliation with his Maker, the wisest of all men, and, according to tradition, the greatest of prophets, who in his far-reaching ken, foresaw the destinies of all mankind in all suc- cessive ages down to the end of the world. All this must be taken in a strict historical sense, for the moral interpretation we abandon to others. The pre-eminence of the Sethites chosen by God, and entirely devoted to His service, must be received as an undoubted historical fact, to which we find many pointed allusions even in the traditions of the other Asiatic nations. Nay, the hostility between the Sethites and Cainites, and the mutual relations of these two races, form the chief clue to the history of the primitive world, and even of many particular nations of antiquity." — Fred. Von Schlegel's " Philosophy of Hist.," Robertson's trans., p. 152. ' Compare these epithets, and what was said above, of resemblance " to classical Hades," with the following verses from the " Oracula Sybillina," lib. i. 80— " Orcus eos cepit grseoo qui nomine dictus Est Ades, quod primus eo descenderit Adam, Expertus mortis legem," &c. ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 189 genitor Adam.* To whom would these titles, " the old Ana," s "the original chief," "the lord of darkness and death," he who introduced death into the world, more exactly apply? Rawlinson also says — " His posi- tion is well marked hy Damascius^ who gives the three gods Anus, minus, and Aiis, as next in succession to the primeval pair, Assorus and Missara," i. 145. Now, it ^ OBlris also is " the judge of the soul, or the god of the world of spirits." " Osiris is never represented in an animal form, but is called the Bull" (infra pp. 203, 204), vide Bunsen's " Egypt," iv. 332. Bunsen's own view is, that " the history of Osiris is the history of the cycle of the year, of the sun dying away and resuscitating himself again." Mr Palmer ("Egyptian Chronicles," i. p. 3) says — (and I think it as well that I should state that I had come to an almost identical conclusion, and had written this and the following chapter before I became acquainted with Mr Palmer's profound and yet still neglected work, vide oh. vi.) — " The first human (' Osiris = Adam and Isis = Etc ') having been thrown back into pairs of anthropomorphous deities (p. 2), the original Osiris and Isis, formed by the divine potter as parents of all, disappear in name, and are represented by Seb and Nutpe, while Osiris, Typhon, and Horus, the progeny of Seb and Nutpe, answers rather to Cain, Abel, and Seth, in the old world, and to the three sons of Noah in the new. . . . From Osiris-Seb (whether he be viewed as Adam or Noah) are derived downwards all the successive generations of Egyptian gods and demigods, patriarchs, kings, and other men " [and for a parallel exposition of the Phoenician myth, vide Palmer, p. 53 and seq.], " each dynast in turn, in the early generations, being identifiable at once with Seb and Osiris, as father of those following, with Osiris again by sharing the same mortality, and with Horus as renewing hia father's life and being the hope of the coming world. So each ancestor in turn went, it was said, to the original Odris as patriarch of the dead, and to hia intermediate Osirified fathers, and was himself Osirified like them, all making one col- lective Osiris." [I have not space to discuss the question at what stage the mythology became pantheistic] "Waiting for that reunion and restoration which was to come through successive generations by the great expected Horus, who was to take up into himself the old, and to be him- self the new Osiris." ' In a note to Cardinal Wiseman's " Science and Eevealed Religion " on Conformity between Semitic and Indo-Europ. grammatical forms, it will be seen that Ana in Chaldaio Is the pronoun of the first person singular, and corresponds with the revealed appellation of the Deity, " I Am who Am " (Exod. iii. 14) = the t4 "Byw, igo ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. will not be contested, I think, that Assorus is the same as Alorus, the first of the ten antediluvian (deluge' of Xisuthrus) Assyrian kings enumerated by Berosus, and which correspond to the ten antediluvian patriarchs. Consequently Assorus = Alorus = Adam,^ Here, then, we have a reduplication, or else what I have above referred to, the tendency to place the head of the dynasty at the top of the list superior to gods and men. In any case, granting this juxtaposition, would there not have been the proximate risk and probability of the two running into one another and becoming con- founded, on the supposition that Ana and Alorus were not originally identical ? This will become more evident when we have con- sidered the next in the triad — BIL OB ENU. But the evidence, though it will more clearly establish the fact of hero-worship, will perhaps raise a doubt whether we have rightly regarded Adam as the object of hero-worship in Ana, a point which we will then con- sider, Rawlinson says of this god — " He is the Illinus (Il-Enu) of Damascius." " His name, which seems to mean merely lord" (again the primitive monotheistic 6 Max Miiller, Chips i. 15?, refers to Dr Windischmann's (" Zoroastrian Studies") discovery that there are ten generations between Adam and Noah, as there are ten generations in the Zendavesta between Yima (Adam) and ThrS,stouna (Noah), and without controverting the point. Mr Palmer ("Egypt. Chron.," i. 45) says — "And though the fancy of making the ten kings to begin only after 1058 years, and to be not all named from the same city, seems to distinguish them from Adam and the nine patriarchs his descendants, still Xisuthrus, the tenth, being clearly identified with Noah, by the flood and the ark, the very number ten, and the relation of the succession in which they stand one to the other, show that Alorus, the first of them, is no other than Adam." ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 191 appellation) " is usually followed by a qualificative ad- junct possessing great interest. It is proposed to read this term as Nipru, or in the feminine Niprut, a word which cannot fail to recall the scriptural Nimrod, who is in the Septuagint Nebroth. The term nipru seems to be formed from the root napar, which is the Syriac " to pursue," to " make to flee," and which has in Assyrian nearly the same meaning. Thus Bil Nipru would be aptly translated as " the hunter lord " or the " god pre- siding over the chase," while at the same time it might combine the meaning of the "conquering lord" or " the great conqueror." Here, at any rate, it must be admitted that " we have, in this instance, an admixture of hero-worship in the Ohaldfean religion" (Rawlinson, i. 148). But if in one instance what a priori reason is there that it should not be so in others ? Let us, then, examine further. The name of this deity, as Bel Nipru or Nim- rod, has, I consider, been completely traced in the pages of Rawlinson (to which I must refer my readers). But what are we to say about the alternative name of Enu ? And why, although no great stress can be laid upon the location of a deity in a genealogy or a system, yet why is Nimrod thus placed intermediate between Adam and the third of the triad Hoa, whom, on grounds quite irre- spective of the similarity of name, I identify with Noah?' ' Gainet (i. 211) quotes as follows from "Ceremonies Relig." i. vii. : "The Mandans pretend that the Deluge was caused by the white men to destroy their ancestors. The whites caused the waters to rise to such a height that the world was submerged. Then the first man, whom they nga/rd as one of their divinities, inspired manJcind with the idea of construct- ing, upon an eminence, a tower and fortress of wood, 3,ii6i promised them that the water should not rise ieyond this point." Here seems a very analogous confused tradition of Adam and Nimrod, the Deluge and the Tower of Babel. Comp. with the distinct testimony to the Maudan tradition, infra, ch. xi. 192 ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. If Ana is Adam, and Hoa Noah, -why should not Enu, in another point of view, be Enoch ? There is, I admit, an absence of direct evidence, but I think I dis- cover a link of connection in a note in Rawlinson (i. p. 196). " Arab writers record a number of remarkable traditions, in which he (Nimrod) plays a conspicuous part." " Yacut declares that Niinrod attempted to mount to heaven on the wings of an eagle, and makes Niffers (Calneh) the scene of this occurrence (Lex. Geograph. in voc. Niffer). It is supposed that we have here an allusion to the building of the Tower of Babel." But I cannot help regarding it as much more certainly like an allusion to Enoch's disappearance from the earth. At p. 187, Prof. Eawlinson notices the confusion of Xisuthrus with Enoch, which proves that the tradition of Enoch was amongst them, and would have been com- mon also to the Hamitic Arabs.^ I will now return to my doubt as to Ana. For although I feel tolerably certain that Ana in his human attributes represents one or other of the antediluvian patriarchs, it may well be that he is only a reduplication of Enu = Enoch. If we are to seek in the translation of Enoch the clue to the origin of the deification of man, and its commencement in the person of Nimrod {vide supra, p. 160), it is likely, in the legend of the apotheosis of Nimrod, that all the analogies should have been sought for in the striking historical event which was in tradi- tion. There is, moreover, the analogy of name with ' I find that the Egyptians had the same confused tradition respecting Menes, who stood to them in the same relation as Nimrod to the Assyrians (vide Bunsen's Egypt, ii. p. 65). " The statement in Manetho's lists that Menes was torn to pieces by a hippopotamus, is probably an exaggeration of an early legend, that he was carried away by a hippopotamus, one of the symbols of the god of the lower world. The great ruler was snatched away from the earth, to distinguish him from other mortals, just as Romulus was," ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 193 Annacus, Hannachus = Enoch.® If he is Enoch, he naturally also falls into his place as second to Assorus. I retain, however, my original opinion, that Ana is Adam (though possibly with some confusion with Enoch), in addition to the arguments already urged, upon the following grounds : — Eawlinson mentions (i. 147) " Telane," or the " Mound of Ana," distinct from Kalneh or "Kalana." We know that there has been a constant tradition that the bones of Adam were preserved in the ark, and this name of the " Mound of Ana " may be connected with it. If so, it will also account for Ana (Dis = Orcus) being the patron deity of Erech, " the great city of the dead, the necropolis of Lower Babylonia " (Eawlinson i. 146). The son of Ana is Vul. If Vul could be identified with Vulcan, and Vulcan with Tubalcain, it would go far to decide the point that Ana was Adam. 9 " Etienne de Byzanoe dit qa'b, ' loone' (' de urbibus ' voce ' looniutn' ) TiUe de Lycaonie pr^s du Mont Taurus dans lea regions occupies par lea habitants antediluviens regnait Annacus dent la vie aUa au-d^la de trois cents ans. Tons les habitants d'alentour demandferent k un oracle jusqu'i quelle ^poque se prolongerait aa vie. L'oraole r^pondit que ce patriarchs ^tant mort, tout le monde devait s'attendre h, p&ir. Les Phrygiens h, oette menace jetferent les hauts oris, d'oii est venu le proverbe: 'Pleurersous Annacus, ce que I'ou dit de ceux qui se livrent h, des grands g^missements. Or le Deluge ^tant survfeu tous p^rirent. . . . Dans ces recits tout est conform^ h, la Bible. Annacus a v^ou trois cents ans avant le Dfluge. II a averti ses couoitoyens; il est entour^ du mSme respect quele patriarche Noe lui-meme. Annacus parait venir d'Enoch ; tout announce une identity de personnages." (Gainet, Hist, de L'Anc. et Nouv. Test. i. 94, 95.) The connection between the death of Enoch and the destruction of mankind may accord as well with the traditional belief in his reappearance at the end of the world. Compare the Grecian tradition of Inachus, sou of Ooeanus {vide Bryant, ii. 268), and with it, Hor., Od. 3, lib. ii. ; " Divesne, prisoo et natus ab Inacho, Nil interest, an pauper, et infimft De gente," &o. N 194 ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. But in the matter of etymology, I do not know that we can advance beyond the quaint phrase of old Sir Walter Ealeigh in his " History of the World," that " there is a certain likelihood of name between Tubal- ■cain and Vulcan." I rely more upon the wide-spread tradition of Tubalcain in the legends of Dffidalus, Vulcan, Weland, G-alant, Wielant, Wayland Smith, which ap- proaches very nearly an identification. Vide Wilson's " Archaeologia of Scotland," p. 210. Compare the Phoenician tradition, Bunsen's "Egypt," iv. 217, 219. It is to be noted, however, that although Ana {pide Rawlinson) " like Adam had several sons, he had only two of any celebrity" (we can suppose that Abel had died out of the Cainite tradition), " Vul and another whose name represents ' darkness ' or ' the west,^ " which might well be the view of Seth from a Cainite point of view (and it is traditional that the Cainite lore was preserved by Cham in the ark). Now it is remark- able that the Scripture (Gen. iv.) expressly says that Cain dwelt on the east side of Eden. I now come to HEA OK HOA. " The third god of the first triad was Hea or Hoa, the Ana of Damascius. This appellation is perhaps best rendered into Greek by the "il-q of Helladius, the name given to the mystic animal, half man half fish, which came up from the Persian Gulf to teach astro- nomy and letters to the first settlers on the Euphrates and Tigris. It is perhaps contained in the word by which Berosus designates this same creature — Cannes ('fiawijs), which may be explained as Hoa- ana, or the god Hoa. There are no means of strictly determining the precise meaning of the word in Babylonian, but it is perhaps allowable to connect it provisionally with the Arabic Hiya, which is at once life and ' a serpent,' since, according to the best authority, ' there are very strong grounds for connecting Hea or Hoa with the serpent of Scripture, and the paradisaical traditions of the tree of knowledge and the tree of life.' " Hoa occupies in the first triad the position which in the classical ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 195 mythology is filled by Poseidon, or Neptune, and in some respects he corresponds to him. He is ' the lord of the earth,' just as Neptuna is 701^0x05 ; he is the ' king of rivers,' and he comes from the sea to teach the Babylonians, but he is never called the ' lord of the sea.' That title belongs to Nia or Ninip. Hoa is the lord of the abyss or of ' the great deep,' -which does not seem to be the sea, but something distinct from it. His most important titles are those which invest him with the character so prominently brought out in Oe and Oannes, of the god of science and knowledge. He is 'the in.- telligent guide,' or, according to another interpretation, ' the intelli- gent fish,' ' the teacher of mankind,' ' the lord of imderstanding.' One of his emblems is the ' wedge ' or arrow-head,' the essential element of cuneiform writing, which seems to be assigned to him as the iuventor, or at least the patron, of the Chaldasan alphabet. An- other is the serpent, which occupies so conspicuous a place among the symbols of the gods on the black stones recording benefactions, and which sometimes appears upon the cylinders. This symbol here, as elsewhere, is emblematic of superhiunan knowledge — a re- cord of the primeval belief that ' the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field.' The steUar name of Hoa was Kimmut . . . The monuments do not contain much evidence of the early worship of Hoa. His name appears on a very ancient stone tablet brought from Mugheir (Ur), but otherwise his claim to be accounted one of the primeval gods must rest on the testimony of Berosus and Hel- ladius, who represent him. as known to the first settlers. ... As Kimmut, Hoa was also the father of Nebo, whose functions bear a general resemblance to his own." — Bawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, i. 152.10 ^^ Vide his other epithets, infra, p. 239 ; also Rawlinson (Herod, i. p. 600), says that " upon one of the tablets in the British Museum there is a list of thirty-six synonyms indicating this god (Hoa). The greater part of them relate either to "the abyss" or to "knowledge." Compare this with the following verses from the " Oracula Sybilliua,'' i. ver. 145 — ' ' Collige, Noe, tuas vires . . . ... Si scieris me Divinse te nulla rei secreta latebunt." Now, without entering into the question of the authenticity of the Sybil- line verses, I may at least quote them in evidence of the current tradition conceriiing Noah in the second century of the Christian era, supposing them to have been forged at that period. 196 ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. I have said that I shall not rely too much on the resemblance of name, Hoa ; but I must draw attention . to the curious resemblance which lurks in the name " Aiis" to the words upon which the Vicomte D'Anselme has founded an argument in the appended note.^^ In the above extract from Eawlinson, although Hoa '^ " Comment le nom du premier navigateur oonnu, tel qu'il se prononja en H^breu et qu'il nous est transmis par la G^nese, ' Noh, Naus, Noach,' serait — il devenu le nom d'une arche flottante, d'un navire, en Sanscrit et en Tingt autres langues ? Nau, Sanscrit ; Naw, armenien ; JVdus, grec ; {Navis, latin) ; Noi, hibernien ; Neau, bas breton ; Nef, nav. franc ; Nooih, irlandais ; N'aone, vanikoro ; NacJio, allemand vieux ; Naw, timer ; NacTien, allemand ; S'nechia, islandais ; S'naem ou Naca, anglo-sax. ; S'nace, an- cien anglais ; Sin-nau, cambodge, &o. "Enfiu nous demandons comment le nom H^breu de I'arche de Noe. Tobe, prononc^ comme on forivait g^n^ralement en Orient, en sens inverse, donne le nom d'un raisaeau dana vingt langues qui aont des dialectea du Sanscrit ? L'^criture boustrophedone, qui fait les lignes altemativement it droite et gauche sans interruption a pu donner naisaance b. cette mani^re de lire : — Soat, anglais ; ioite, frangaia ; hat, anglo-saxon ; boot, hoUandais ; hat, suedoia, iaa*, danois ; hatr, islandais; had, breton; hate, eapagnol; hoar, persan ; haiillo, italien; pota, Sanscrit." Vide other similar proofs from Vicomte d'Aueelme's " Monde PaSen," &c. In Gainet, i. 223, a curi- ous additional instance of the same word having connections with " boat" and arc (toie) might be discovered in Kibotos, the name of a mountain in Phrygia, where the ark is said to have rested (Gainet, i. 220). Also we have almost the same words — ark and arc — to express (though according to a different etymology) these dissimilar objects. " The words oar and rudder can be traced back to Sanskrit, and the the name of the ship is identically the same in Sanscrit (naus, n3,vaB), in Latin (navis), in Greek (naus), and in Teutonic, Old High Germ, (nachs), Anglo-Saxon (naca)." — Max MuUer, " Comp. Mythol.," p. 49. I may draw attention, as having reference to other branches of this in- quiry, to a possible affinity with the name of the patriarch, in the term Noaaids, applied by the Laplanders to their magicians (Pinkerton, i. 459, &c.); and to the term Koadernicis, applied by the Samoids to the same (id, 532). I own there might be danger in pushing the inquiry further, aa I might even bring the patriarch Noah into contact and connection with Old Nick ! I may also refer to the term " Janna" (Janus), as applied to the officer " who had the office of entertaining ambassadors " at the court of Kenghis Khan (id. v. 7, p. 40 ; Rubruquis's Embassy, a.d. 1253, also 56). ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 197 is said not to be " the true fish-god," yet he is called "the intelligent fish," and is associated with that mystic animal, half man half fish, which came up from the Per- sian Gulf to teach astronomy and letters to the first settlers on Euphrates and Tigris. Let us compare this information with the following " History of the Fish," which the Abbe Gainet, i. 199, has translated from the Mah^bharata. The same his- tory has been translated from the Bhagavad Pour ana by Sir W. Jones ("Asiatic Researches"). Indeed, as the Abbe Gainet argues, as this same history is found in all the religious poems of India, there is a certain security that it would not have been taken from the Hebrews. I shall merely attempt to give the drift of the legend from the Abbe Gainet's original translation of that por- tion of the Matysia Pourana which has reference to Noah : — - " The son of Vaivaswata (the sun) was a king, and a great sage, a prince of men, resembling Pradjapati in eclat. In Ma strength, splendour, prosperity, and above all, his penitence, Manou surpassed his father and his grandfather. -"^ . . . One day a small fish approached him, and begged him to remove him from the water where he was, ' because the great fish always eat the little fish — it is our eternal condition.' Manou complies, and the fish promises eternal gratitude. After several such migrations, through the intervention of Manou, the fish at each removal increasing in bulk, he is at length launched in the ocean. The fish then holds this discourse with Manou : — ' Soon, oh blessed Manou, everything that is by nature fixed and sta- tionary in the terrestrial world, will undergo a general immersion and a complete dissolution. This temporary immersion of the world is near at hand, and therefore it is that I announce to you to-day what you ought to do for your safety.' He instructs him to build a strong and solid ship, and to enter it with the seven richis or sages.^' 12 Comp. " Traditions of the New Zealanders." M Do not the seven riehis or sages correspond to the seven (or eight) (Phoenician) Kabiri. (There were seven or eight persons in the ark, ao- 198 ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. He instructs him also to take with.' Mm all sorts of seeds, according to certain Brahminical indications. ' And when you are in the ves- sel you will perceiye me coming towards you, oh well-beloved of the saints, I will approach you with a horn on my head, by which you will recognise me.' Manou did all that was prescribed to him by the fish, and the earth was submerged accordingly, as he had pre- cordingly as we take separate account or not of Noah. ) As regards the Kabiri, their number (seven or eight, accordingly as we include " .ffiscu- lapius") must be the clue to the solution of "the most obscure and mysterious question in mythology." Bunsen ("Egypt," iv. 229) says of an astral explanation : — "It does not enable us to explain the details of those representations which do not contain the number seven (or eight), and, in fact, seven brothers." It will suffice, from our point of view, if there are numerically seven persons. Bunsen (iv. p. 291) says — " It is quite clear that the fundamental number of the gods in the oldest mytho- logies of Phoenicia, and all Asia, as well as Egypt, was seven. There were seven Kabiri, with the seven Titans. There are also seven Titans men- tioned in other genealogies of the race of Kronos. Of the latter, one dies a virgin and disappears." But as with the Kabiri we have seen the num- ber seven, or eight, accordingly as ^sculapius is included or not, so {vide p. 314) we see the primitive gods of Egypt either seven or eight, accord- ingly as Thoth, "the eighth," or Horus, figure as the "last divine king" (p. 319). When Horus so figures, " he is frequently represented as the eighth, conducting the harJc of the gods, with the seven great gods," &c. Moreover, it is elsewhere (p. 347) said that "the Phoenicians, in their sacred books, stated that the Kabiri embarked in ships, and landed near Mount Kaison. This legend was corroborated by the existence of a shrine on that coast in historic times." [Qii£ry, The tradition of the Deluge localised, and the shrine commemorative of that catastrophe (vide Bou- langer, &o., infi-a, p. 244) ; and supposing that the tradition of the number saved in the Flood had been preserved down to a certain date, we should then expect that the number would become rigid and fixed. But that if the tradition of the actual survivors had become indistinct, what more natural than that the eight principal characters of ante-diluvian, or even post-diluvian, history should be substituted for them, and that the same confusion and agglomeration of legend should take place as we shall see occurring in the tradition of Noah ?] In the Persian or Iranian legend of Shah-n4meh, "the three sons of FerSdtln — Ireg, Tur, and Selm — are mentioned as their patriarchs, and among them the whole earth was dilAded." But in the more ancient GathAs there is mention of "the setJen-surfaoed or seiieTi-portioned earth." [Query — apportioned by the eighth I\ Vide Bunsen's " Egypt," ill. 478. For the Indian tradition compare the following from Hunter's "Bengal " ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 199 dieted. ' Neither the earth, nor the sky, nor the intermediate space, ■was visible ; all was water.' ' In the middle of the world thus sub- merged, Prince of Bharatidians, were seen the seven richis or sages, Manou, and the fish. Thus, King, did this fish cause the vessel to sail ' (with a rope tied to its horn), ' for many years, without weary- ing, in this immensity of water.' At length the ship was dragged by the fish on to the highest point of the Himalaya. ' That is why the highest summit of the Himaran (Himalaya) was called NaribxcaA- hanam, or the place to which the ship was attached, a name which it bears to this day — Sache cela, Prmce des Bharatidians.'' Then le gracieux, with placid gaze, thus addressed the richis — ' I am Brahma, the ancestor {I'ancestre) of all creatures. No one is greater than I. Under the form of a fish I came to save you from the ter- rors of death. From Manou, now, shall all creatures, with the gods, the demons (au souras), and mankind, be bom. . . . This is the an- cient and celebrated history which bears the name of the ' History ofthe J-isfe.'"" Here we seem to see what looks like the commence- ment of the legendary origin of the fish symhol ; and here also we see it nnmistakeahly in connection with Noah. "We have, moreover, seen the connection of Hoa with the fish.i^ (i. p. 151) — " Another coincidence — I do not venture to call it an analogy — ia to be found in the number of children born to the first pair. As the Santal legend immediately divides the human species into seven families, BO the Sanscrit tradition assigns the propagation of our race after the flood to seven rishis," I also find in F. Schlegel's "Philosophy of History" (p. 150, Robertson's trans.) — "The Indian traditions acknowledge and revere the succession of the first ancestors of mankind, or the holy patriarchs of the primitive world, under the name of the seven great rishis, or sages of hoary antiquity, though they invest their history with a cloud of fic- tions." '* Syncellus, quoting Berosus {vide Abb^ de Tressan, " Mythology," p. 10), says that Cannes (the mysterious fish, mde ante) left some writings upon the origin of the world. These, no doubt, correspond to the "Liber Noachi." I do not disguise that this statement is probably derived from what is called the false Berosus. The reference, however, which I have made to these writings at p. 139 may raise doubt whether they did not embody true traditions. 1' I fancy it might be traced also in the Phoenician fish-god, Dagon. 200 ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. Let us uow turn to his reduplication, as I conceive, in Nin, or Mnip, who is said to he "the true fish god." " His names. Bar and Nin, are respectively a Semitic The Saturday Review (June 4, 1870) in its review of Cox's " Mythology," says — " Dagon cannot be divided Dag-on, the fish ' On,' for a Semitic syllable cannot begin with a vowel ; and if the necessary breathing ' aleph ' were inserted (which it is very unsafe to do), it would then mean ' the fish of On,' which is not the signification required." But it is the signification which would fit in here; moreover, might not the terminal "aon," or " ham," suggested, have been originally, i.e. before displacement by " bou- Btrophedou " — Noa or NoaA ? I give this suggestion with all proper diflS- denoe, and with some genuine misgiving as to the " breathing aleph. " I find that Bryant (" Mythology," iii. p. 116) makes a similar suggestion. Bunsen (" Egypt," iv. 243) says — "Dagon is Dagan, i.e. corn. This is also implied by the Greek form of it — Sit6n, wheat-field (comp. p. 219). We have in the Bible, Dagon, a god of the Philistines, a name usually supposed to be derived from ' dag,' fish ; the god has a human form ending in a fish, like the fish-shaped goddess, Derketo-Atergatis. It is clear, from Philo's own account, that the Phoenician Poseidon was a god of this kind, and it is difficult to find any other name for him. Yet we cannot say that Dagon is very clearly explained. Here is a god of agriculture, well authenticated, both linguistically and dooumentally, Dagan, i.e. wheat, and he is the Zeus of agriculture." Vide p. 219. P. 261 says Dagon must not be confounded with " Dagan," but without reconciling it with the above at p. 243, on the contrary, we find "Dagon, Dagan = com (the fish-man)." At p. 241, quoting from the text of PhUo, it is said still more pointedly — "Dagon, after he had discovered corn and the plough, was called Zeus Arotnios." Comp. p. 204. Believing (vide ch. xii.) in the tradition of mythology, even among savages, I could not but be much struck on coming upon the following passage in Eoggeveen's voyage, to find — in his account of the Eastern Islanders — the same conjunction of the bull and fish implied in the traditional names of their idols : — "The name of the largest idol was called Taurico, and the other Dago ; at least, these were the words they called to them by, and wherewith they worshipped them. These savages had great respect for the two idols, Taurico and Dago, and approached them with great rever- ence .... and to supplicate for help against us, and to call upon with a frightful shout and howling of Dago! Dago!" ("Historical Account of Voyages Round the World," 1774, i. 469, 470.) After showing the resemblance of a feast at Argos to other commemo- rative feasts of the Deluge, Boulanger {vide vnfra, i. 83) says — " Les Argiens avoient encore une autre ffite pendant laquelle ils pr^oipitoent dans un ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 201 and a Hamitic term, signifying ' Lord,' or '■ Master,' " (p. 166). Astronomically Nin " should be Saturn." However, a set of epithets whicli &eem to point to his stellar character are very difficult to reconcile with the notion that, as a celestial luminary, he was (the dark and distant) Saturn. We find him called, "the light of heaven and earth," "he who, like the sun, the light of the gods, irradiates the natiofisP All this is very difficult to reconcile with legends arising out of the simple worship of a celestial luminary, but perfectly consistent with the supposition of the patriarch Noah, after deification, being located in the planetary system. The phrase, " he who, like the sun, the light of the gods, irradiates the nations," is perfectly applicable to him who, as Cannes, we have ever regarded as " the god of science and of knowledge ; " and who " taught astro- nomy and letters to the first settlers on the Euphrates and Tigris." Let us glance at the other epithets ap- plied to Nin in the inscriptions. He is the "lord of the brave," " the champion," " the warrior who subdues foes," " he mho strengthens the hearts of his followers^ [The Scripture mentions the repeated assurances of the Almighty to Noah, that there should not be another Deluge ; and the above is in keeping with the tra- dition that the early inhabitants long hesitated to quit the mountains for the plains, and only did so incited by the example of the patriarch.] " The de- abime un agneau . . . . ils ^toient arm^s de javelines, ils appelloient Bacchus au son des trompettes et I'invitoieut d, se morttrer hors de I'eau; cette apparition n'arrivoit pas f r^quemment sans doute" (comp, supra, 197, and 237). " Plutarque remarque que lora qu' ils pr&ipitoient I'agneau, ils avoient soiu de cacher leurs trompettes et leurs javelines. N^oua ne pr^tendons point expliquer tous ces mystferes." Is it that they feared, with armed weapons in their hands, to evoke the apparition of the old man " whose conquests were all peaceful" (p. 216), and who, as Manco Capac (p. 326), "shut his ears when they spoke to him of war." 202 ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. stroyer of enemies," " the reducer of the disobedient," " the exterminator of rebels," " he whose sword is good." Like Nergal, or Mars, he is a god of battle and the chase. (I shall refer later on to these warlike epithets as applied to Noah.) At the same time he has qualities which seem wholly unconnected with any that have been hitherto mentioned. He is the true " fish-god " of Berosus, and is figured as such in , the Scriptures. (I hope I may persuade some reader, who may be interested in this inquiry, to compare the figure of Nin, in Eawlinson, i. 167, with figure 23, Dupaix's " New Spain " in Lord Kingsborough's " Mexico," representing an emblematic figure with fistf* (as in the representation of Nin) over a human head, which also has inverted tusks. Compare also with re- presentations of Neph, associated with snake and ram's head, and also with " History of the Fish," supra, p. 197.) To continue — in this point of view he (Nin) is called the " god of the sea," " he who dwells in the deep ; " and again, somewhat curiously, "the opener of the aqueducts." Now, as applied to Noah, this is not at all strange, and, corresponds to the Scriptural phrase, "He opened the fountains of the deeps." Subsequently to deification we cannot be surprised to find all that was done by the Almighty attributed to the individual to whom it was done ; as in Prometheus we have a double legend of the Creator, who created man with the vital spark, and of Prometheus, the man who was so created. " Besides these epithets he has many of a more general character, as ' the powerful chief,' ' the supreme,' ' the ^' This closely corresponds to the description of Oannes given by Sanohoniathon, "Ap. Euseb." (Bryant, ii. 301), i.e. with two heads (oomp. infra, p. 220), the human head being placed below the head of a fish : — "dXXijK KetpaX-qv iroKaTU ti;s toO Ix^vos /ce^oXTjs." ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 203 favourite of the gods,^ ' the chief of the spirits, and the like." I must, moreover, request attention to the following from Rawlinson, i. 168, — "Nin's emblem in Assyriais the man-bull, the impersonation of strength and power. He guards the palaces of the Assyrian kings, who reckon him their tutelary god, and gives his name to their capital city. We may conjecture that in Babylonia his emblem was the sacred fish, which is often seen in dif- ferent forms upon the cylinders." ^'' I turn to Gainet, i. 198, and I find this legend con- cerning the man-bull from Bertrand's " Diet, des Eeligions," 38, i. ii. ^^ " D'apres les livres Parsis, le souverain Createur sut ^' Vide similar traditions of the man-tull in India and Japan. Bryant, iii. 689, who adds, " We shall find hereafter that in this (Parsee) myth- ology there were two ancient personages represented under the same character, and named L' Homme Taureau; each of whom was looked upon as the father of mankind." Compare pp. 158, 189, the two Menus and the two Osiris. 18 The prayer used in the worship of Dionysos at Elis, preserved by Plutarch, ended with ""AJie 'Savpe — ^Afie Tau/ie," worthy bull! (vide Bunsen's " Egypt," iv. 446.) Compare p. 215 with Dionysius = Bacchus = Noah ; also of the three Samothracian names of the Kabiri — viz., Axieros, Axiokerse, Axiokersos. Bunsen says, " the syllable Axi or Axie which is found in all three, cannot be anything but the Greek word ' Axios,' which was used in the worship of Dionysos at Elis " (id., vide infra). On this symbol of the bull in connection with Noah and the Ark vide Bryant (ii. 416, et seq. 439). He says, " Every personage that had any con- nection with the history of the Ark was described with some reference to this hieroglyphic . . . that the Apis and Mnenis (Menes) were both representa- tions of an ancient personage is certain ; and who that personage was may be known from the account given of him by Diodorus. He speaks of him by the name of Mnenes, but confines his history to Egypt, as the history of Saturn was limited to Italy ; Inaohus and Phoroneus to Argos ; Deucalion to Thessaly . . . the same person who in Crete was styled Minos, Min- nous, and whose city was Min-Noa ; the same who was represented under the emblem of Men-taur, or Mino-taurus {Minotaur). Diodorus speaks of Mnenes as the first lawgiver," kc, &c. . . . [Mnenes or Menes may embody 204 ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. que le mauvais genie se disposait k tenter I'homme. II ne jugea pas a propos de TempScher par lui-raeme ; il se contenta d'envoyer des anges pour veiller sur rhomme. Cependant le mal augmenta ; rhomme se perdit ; Dieu envoya un Deluge, qui dura dix jours et dix nuits et detruisit le genre humain. L'apparition de Kaioumons (Jkomme-taureau), le premier homme, y est aussi precedee de la creation d'une grande eau." Here, in a confused tradition, with Adam — just as Nin is confused with Hercules and Saturn — the man -bull is apparently associated with a great flood. In the curious Etruscan monument commemorative of the Deluge — discovered in 1696 — and to which Car- traditions of Noah and Misraim, as Osiris does of Adam and Noah.] At p. 422-435 [plate], we find Menes represented as a bull vyith the sacred dove. . . . Plutarch (Isis and Osiris) says the bulls, Apia and Mnenes, were sacred to Osiris . . . and Eustath. (in Dion. v. 308) says of the Taurio Chersonese, " that the Tauric nation was so named from the animal Taurus or bull, which was looked upon as a memorial of the great husband- man Osiris, who first taught agriculture, and to whom was ascribed the invention oi the plough." . . . Lycophron {v. 209 and scholia) says, Tavpos, Aiomcros. Plutarch says Dionusus (vide supra, p. 203^ was styled Bovyei^s, or the offspring of a bull, by the people of Argos, who used to invoke him as a resident of the sea, and entreat him to come out of the waters. The author of the Orphic hymns calls him " Taurogenes." lavpoyevrji Aioyuffos ev(j>po(Tvvriv irope QvijTots. Tavpoyevtjs, is precisely of the same purport as QTI^aiyev^s [ark-born], and the words of this passage certainly mean "that the ark-born deity Dionusus restored peace and happiness to mortals." [Noah's name in Scripture signifies " peace and consolation" — Nwe i^paXfftavairavffts (rest), Hesy chins.] . . . The title given to Diana — via. Taurione, is remarkable, for " Taurus was an emblem of the Ark, and by Taurione was signified the arkite dove." Taurus, and ione from Oikos of the Greeks, and lonas of the eastern nations = dove, and curiously in an inscription in Gruter, Diana is at the same time called " Regina undarum," and " decus nemorum " (Bryant, ii. 434). The connection of Diana, Juno, and Venus with the dove and rainhow is very striking, but would lead to too long a digression. So, too, would a discussion as to how Noah or the Ark (secondarily) came to be associated with the bull, as a hieroglyphic. Compare the above with the ox-heads and bull dance in the Mandan com- memoration of the Deluge, infra, ch. xi. ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 205 dinal Wiseman draws attention in his " Conferences " {vide Gainet, i. 190), being a vase supposed to represent the ark, and containing figures of twenty couples of (12) animals, (6) birds, (2) serpents, &c., and several human figures represented in the act of escaping from an inun- dation, there were also discovered certain signets and amulets. These consisted of hands joined, heads of oxen, and olives. Now the olive in connection with the Deluge will speak for itself, — the hands joined are the symbol of Janus (vide next chapter), and heads of oxen — here unmistakably connected with the Deluge— may also be conjectured to have allusion to the man-bull above referred to. Thus Nin, through both his emblems (bull and fish), is brought into contact with the Noachic tradition. -^^ It ^' Since writing the above I have found the following note in Rawlin- Eon's " Herodotus," i. 623, on Ninip : — " There is, however, another explanation of the name Bar-sam or Bur-shem, of which some notice must be taken. It has been already stated that if the Noachid triad be com- pared with the Assyrian, Ana will correspond with Ham, Bel-Nimrod with Shem, and Hoa with Japhet." The following passage, also from Rawlinson's "Herodotus," i. 609, appears to me valuable in proof of the transition from ancestral to solar worship, or at least of their interfusion : — ' ' The sun was probably named in Babylonia both San and Sanei, before his title took the definite Semitic form of Shamas, by which he is known in Assyrian and in all the lan- guages of that family." Now, standing by itself, this might not appear very significant ; but compare it with the following passages connecting Ham with the sun : — " By the Syrians the sun and heat were called . . . . Chamba ; by the Persians, Hama ; and the temple of the sun, the temple of Amvaon or gammon." Mr Bryant shows that Ham was esteemed the Zeus of Greece and the Jupiter of Latium. Mr G. Higgins' " Anacalypsis, ' p. 45. Bryant says, "the worship of Ham, or the sun, as it was the most ancient, so it was the most universal of any in the world." These passages may possibly be so interpreted as to support a solar theory, but is it not at least suspicious to see the name of the central luminary so apparently identified with historical characters whose memory is distinctly preserved aliunde in the traditions of their descendants ? Compare Nimrod, ch. viii. 164, ei seq. 2o5 ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. is also said (Rawlinson, i. 174) of Nergal, vide supra., who is clearly identified with Mmrod, — " Again, if Nergal is the man-lion, his association in the buildings with the man-bull would be exactly parallel with the conjunction which we so constantly find between him and Nin in the inscriptions." It is true that the majority of the inscriptions, p. 169, assert that Nin was the son of Bel-Nimrod. This may be referred to that tendency, previously noted in ancient nations, to place the ancestor with whom they were themselves identified at the head of every genealogy. One inscription, however, " makes Bel-Nimrod the son of Nin instead of his father." Nin, in any case, is unquestionably brought into close historical relationship with Bel-Nimrod, an historical character, and we must, in fine, choose whether we shall admit him to be Noah — to whom all the epithets would apply — or whether, upon the more literal construction of the inscriptions, we shall believe him to be some nameless son or successor of Nimrod. There is one god more in whom I fancy I see a counter- part of Noah, or at least a counterpart of Hoa and Nin — viz. NEBO. I base my conclusion upon the epithets applied to him in common with Hoa and Nin, and inconsistently applied if, according to the evidence, p. 177, " mytho- logically he was a deity of no very great eminence," but in no way conflicting with the supposition that he represented the tradition of Noah, the counterpart to the tradition of Hoa and Nin, among some subordinate nationality, and such appears to be the fact. " When Nebo first appears in Assyria, it is as a foreign god, whose worship is brought thither from Babylonia," p. 178. ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 207 Of Nebo it is said, "his name is the same or nearly so, both in Bahylonian and Assyrian, and we may per- haps assign it a Semitic derivation, from the root ' nihhaJi^ to prophesy. It is his special function to preside over knowledge and learning. He is called ' the god who possesses intelligence ' — ' he who hears from afar ' — ' he who teaches^ or ' he who teaches and in- structs.' In this point of view he of course approxi- mates to Hoa, whose son he is called in some inscriptions, and to whom he bears a general resemblance. Like Hoa, he is symbolised by the simple wedge or arrow- head, the primary and essential element of cuneiform writing, to mark his joint presidency with that god over writing and literature. At the same time Nebo has, like so many of the Chaldsean gods, a number of general titles, implying divine powers, which, if they had belonged to hitn only, would have seemed to prove him the supreme deity. He is ' the lord of lords, who has no equal in power,' ' the supreme chief, ^ ' the sustainer,^ ' the supporter,' the ' ever ready,' ' the guardian over the heavens and the earth,' ' the lord of the constella- tions,' ' the holder of the sceptre of power,' ' he who grants to kings the sceptre of royalty for the governance of their people' " (Rawlinson, i. 177). There is just a possibility, however, that Nebo may be Sem or Shem. He would be the son of Hoa as Nebo was stated to be. I think, moreover, a striking resemblance will be seen between the above epithets and the traditions concerning Shem, collected by Calmet (Diet. " Sem.") " The Jews attribute to Sem the theological tradition of the things which Noah taught to the first men. . . . They say that he is the same as Melchisedek. ... In fine, the Hebrews believe that he taught men the law of justice, the manner of counting the months and years, and the intercalations of the months. They pretend that God gave him the spirit of prophecy one hundred years after ,the Deluge, and 208 ASS YRIAN M YTHOLOG Y. that lie continued to prophesy during four hundred years, witli little fruit among mankind, who had become very corrupt. Methodius says that he remained in the isle of the sun, that he invented astronomy, and that he was the first hing who ruled over the earth." ^° The difficulty, however, is in understanding how the worship of Shem came to Assyria from Babylonia. I can only reconcile it upon a theory that all idolatry came from Babylonia, i.e. from the Hamitic race. There remains a difficulty which will doubtless occur to every one who has read the chapter in Eawlinson to which I must acknowledge myself so much indebted, and it is a difficulty which I ought, perhaps, to have dealt with before ; and that is, that there is in the pages of Eawlinson (I. vii. 184) the most distinct identifi- cation of Noah with Xisuthrus. Of this there can be no doubt, from his direct connection with the Deluge, the circumstances of which are perfectly recorded in the Babylonian tradition. ^^ This establishes the fact that the tradition of Noah and the Deluge was still among them when Berosus wrote. But if Xisuthrus is Noah, then it may be said Hoa, Cannes, and Nin cannot be ^ Bawlinson says that there is no doubt that Nebo represents the planet Mercury, and between the attributes of Mercury or Hermes, the epithets of Nebo, and the traditions concerning Shem, there is something in common. He is the god of eloquence and persuasion — the god of alliances and peace. " He contributed to civilise the manners and culti- vate the minds of the people." " He united them by commerce and good laws." The Egyptian Mercury or Thaut first invented landmarks. Finally, " He was consulted by the Titans, his relations, as an OMgur, which gave occasion to the poets to describe him as interpreter of the will of the gods." — L'Ahhe de Tressan, "Mythology." 21 " Notwithstanding the difficulty of ascending to so distant a period, there will always be found some traces by which truth may be discovered. .... The historian Josephus relates that the Chaldseans from the earliest times carefully presened the remembrance of past events by public inscrip- tions on their monuments. He says they caused these annals to be writ- ten by the wisest men of their nation." — L'Ahbe de Tressan, "Hist, of Heathen Mythology." London, 1806. ASSYRIAN MYTHOLOGY. 209 Noah. It is a non sequitur, but will still, I fear, be very influential with many. It is diflScult to understand the tendency to reduplication, and still more difficult to realise how a tradition so clear and decided could be contemporaneous with other identical traditions so en- tangled and confused. I believe this explanation to be that the account of Xisuthrus was part of the esoteric tradition to which Eawlinson refers, and which was also the tradition of their learned men — " Vixere fortes ante Agamemnon"; — and we cannot suppose that Berosus (of whom we should have known nothing if his works had not been preserved to us at third or fourth hand) was the first chronicler of his nation. ^^ I shall pursue this inquiry into the classical mytho- logy in the next chapter, and then recapitulate the results as regards this inquiry. '^ I had come to the atove conclusion upon the perusal of Rawlinson, and before I had read Bryant, *ho, I find, had already come to this iden. tical conclusion. ("Mythology," iii. 109.) Speaking of Berosus' account of Cannes and Xisuthrus, he says, " The latter was undoubtedly taken from the archives of the Chaldseans. The former is allegorioal and obscure, and was copied from hieroglyphical representations which could not he pre- cisely deciphered In consequence of his borrowing from records so very different, we find him, without his being apprized of it, giving two histories of the same person. Under the character of tJie man of the sea, whose name was Cannes, we have an allegorical representation of the great patria/rck; whom in his other history he calls Siauthrus." CHAPTEE X. THE TRADITION OF NOAH AND THE DELUGE. I NOW come to a different set of illustrations still more germane to my subject. Calmet says : — " Plusieurs scavans ont remarque que les pagans ont confondu Saturne, Deucalion, Ogyges, le Dieu Coelus ou Ouranus, Janus, Prothee, Promethee, Virtumnus, Bacchus, Osiris, Vadimon, Nisuthrus avec Noe." I must add that this enumeration by no means exhausts the list. It is not my purpose, however, to pursue the subject in all its ramifications. I shall limit myself to the examination of one or two of these counterparts of Noah. I. And in the first place, " Him of mazy counsel, Saturn," the expression of Hesiod (t laireTovre the Kpovov dyKvXofiriTrjv), Hesiod. Theog. v. 19, which so well befits the intermediary between God and the survivors of the Deluge. " Under Saturn," as Plutarch tells us, "was the golden age." Calmet says (Diet. "Saturne"), "Quant aux traits de ressemblance qui se trouvent entre Noe et Saturne, ils ne peuvent 6tre plus sensibles.'^ II (Saturne) est represente avec une faulx comme inventeur de I'agriculture^ : Noe est nomm6 ' vir agricola ' (Gen. ix. ^ Bochart also says (Geog. Sacra, lib. i.) "Noam esse Saturnum tarn multa decent, ut vix sit dubitandi locus." ^ " Cum falce, messis Insigne," — Macroiius, " Saturn." NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 211 20) et il est dit qu'il coniinen9a k cultiver la terre. Lea Saturnales, qu'on celebrait dans le vin et dans la licence et 02^ les servifeurs s' egaloient d leurs maitres — marquent I'ivresse de Noe et sa malediction qui assujettit Chanaan k ses freres tout 6gal qn'il leur etoit par sa naissance." [I have little doubt that this Bacchanalian recollection originated the tradition of the equality of conditions in the golden age, contrary to the facts of Scripture and history.] " On disoit que Noe avait devore tous ses enfans k I'exception de Jupiter, de Neptune, et de Pluton. Noe vit perir dans les eaux du deluge tous les hommes de son temps dont plusieurs etoient ses parents et plus jeunes que lui. Dans la stile de I'ecriture on dit souvent que Ton fait ce qu'on n'empeche pas, ou meme ce que I'on predit." Further resemblances are traced in Calmet. Now, I find in Sanchoniathon,^ i.e. in the most ancient Phoenician historian, a tradition running exactly parallel with this Greek tradition as interpreted by Oalmet : — " Ces genies, ces sages, ces dieux, nous expliquent les autres dieux qui, d'aprds Berose, ferment I'homme du sang de Belus, et tous les dieux que Sanchoniaton nous represente saisis d'.epouvante d la vue de Saturne,faisant perir par le deluge son jils Sadid." — (Le Peuple Primi- tif; Rougemont, i. 303, quoted by Gainet, iii. 661, with reference to the worship of spirits.) I adduce it in evidence of the connection in tradition between Saturn and the Deluge, and in corroboration of Oalmet's inter- pretation, which clears the Greek myth of what is grotesque and repulsive in it. K I have sufficiently identified Saturn with Noah and the period of the Deluge, the lines of Virgil (iEneid, 8th Book, 315), besides bearing testimony in the same direc- ° Sanchoniathon, vide wpra M'Leunan (ch. vii.) 212 THE TRADITION OF tion, appear to me to acquire a new meaning and signi- ficance : — " Primias ab aetlierio venit Satwrnus Olympo, Arma Jovis fugiens, et regnis exul ademptis, Is genus indocile, ao dispersmn montibus altis Composuit ; legesque dedit ; Latiumque vocari Maltiit." " Aurea, quae perhibent, illo sub rege fuerunt Scecula ; sed plaoidS, populos in pace regebat, Deterior donee paulatim. ac discolor setas Et belli rabies et amor successit habendi." * Allowing for the confusion incidental to the deification of Noah in the person of Saturn, which necessitates his descent from heaven, the rest of the verses seem merely to describe what is recorded in tradition, if not implied in the scriptural narrative, that Noah, a voyager and exile, his possessions having been lost in the Flood, flying the wrath — not indeed as directed against himself, hut the consequences of the wrath of the Almighty^ — persuaded the survivors of the Flood to abandon the mountains, to which they clung in fear of a second Deluge, and brought them into the plains, incited and encouraged by his example, — ^he who, if he be the same (vide supra, 208, 209) with Mn and Nebo, we have seen called " the sustainer," " the supporter," " he who strengthens the hearts of his followers," who taught them the cultivation of the soil, and of whom it is now * Bryant (Mythology, ii. 261) says : — " He is by Luoiau made to say of himself oi55«s iit' i/jioO doiXos ijv. The Latins in great measure confine his history to their own country, where, like Janus, he is represented as re- fining and modelling mankind, and giving them laws. At other times he is introduced as prior to law ; which are seeming contrarieties very easy to be reconciled." There were traditions also of Saturn in' Crete and Sparta. — Bryant, iii. 414. " Vide supra, p. 211. NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 213 said more distinctly than we have seen it heretofore stated, legesqv^ dedit.^ There is no doubt much that is monstrous and gro- tesque in the classical conception of Saturn, but I must again suggest that as all traditions met in JSToah, and were tradited through him, we must not be surprised to find all antediluvian traditions confused in Noah. Thus even the tradition of Lamech, which we have seen {vide supra, 178) variously distorted in the legends of Perseus and Oedipus, are again repeated in the legends of Saturn. ' An indirect argument in proof of the identity of Saturn and Noah might be adduced if I had space to incorporate Boulanger's evidence of the ceremonies among the ancients' commemoration of the Deluge, ("Yestiges d'usages hydrophoriques dans plusieurs fetes anciennes at modernes"). This being assumed, is it not of some significance that when the Roman pontiffs proceeded to the banks of the Tiber to perform their annual (commemorative) ceremonial, that they should make their expiatory sacrifices to Saturn ? The points that Bryant takes (ii. 262) are very striking :-—" He was looked upon as the author of time, ' Ipse qui auctor temporum ' (Macrob. i. 214). [His medals had on the reverse the figure of a sAJp.] They represented him as of an uncommon age, with hair white as snow ; they had a notion' that he would return to second childhood. ' Ipsius autem canities primosis nivibus candicabat ; licet etiam, iUe puer posse fieri crederetur.' — Martianus Capella. Martial's ad- dress to him, though short, has in it something remarkable, for he speaks of him as a native of the former tmrld — ' Antiqui rex mague poll, mundique prioris, Sub quo prima quies, nee labor uUus erat.' — 1. 12, E. 63. I have mentioned that he was supposed, /carairtveip, to have sivallowed up his children ; he was also said to have ruined all things ; which, however, were restored with a vast increase." — Orphic Hymn, 12, v. 3. Compare Calmet, supra, pp. 211 and 212. Martianus CapeUa and Varro de Ling, Lat. lib. i. 18, call him Sator, a sower, " Saturnus Sator." Now it is curious that the ancient Germans had a god "of the name of Sator." He is described by Verstegan as " standing upon a fish, with a wheel in one hand, and in the other a vessel ot water filled with fruits and flowers." N.B. — I was surprised to find in Carver's " Travels in North America " (p. 282) the phrase among the North American Indians, of things being done at the instigatfon " of the Grand Sautor." 214 THE TRADITION OF There are, no doubt, also divers astral complications arising out of Saturn's place in the planetary system. When, however, we are told that Saturn was son of Coelus and Tellus or Ccelus and Vesta,^ the same as Terra (MontfauQon), it seems to occur to us, as a thing " qui saute aux yeux," that this was only a mode of expressing a truth, applicable to all men in general, and Saturn as a primal progenitor in particular, and having reference to the composite nature of man; in other words, that this was simply the tradition which Noah would have handed down that he was created,* as were all other men, out of the earth, yet with something ethereal in his composition which came direct from the Deity. What the astral explanation may be I am at a loss to imagine. It cannot by any possibility be sup- posed to have reference to their relative positions in the heavens. I shall return to Saturn, under the representation of Oceanus, when I come to speak of Janus. II. Bacchus. — The Saturnalia may be taken as the connecting link between Saturn and Bacchus, and I think that it is sufficiently remarkable that there should be this link of connection. But as the legends of Saturn are not all derived from Noah, so neither do all the traditions concerning Bacchus appertain to Saturn. I shall simply separate and note such as appear to me to be in common, e.g. " that Bacchus found out the making of wine, the art of planting trees, and many things else commodious for mankind." [" And Noah, a husbandman, began to till the ground, and planted a vineyard, and drinking the ' " Saturn is by Plato supposed to have been the sou of Oceanus."' — Bryant, ii. 261. ' Vide Autochthones, oh. vii. NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 215 wine was made drunk," Gen. ix. 20.]* It is said there ■were several Bacchuses. This may be only a reduplica- tion, such as we have seen in the case of Oannes, Nin, and Nebo, or as in the multiplications of Jupiter. " Joves omnes reges vocarunt antiqui." ^^ On this subject MontfauQon says (i. 155)^^ apropos of a point to which I shall again refer, viz. that Bacchus was TauricGtms,. " Diodorus Siculus says that the horns are only ascribed to the second Bacchus, the son of Jupiter and Proserpine ; but these dis- tinctions of various Bacchus were minded only in the more ancient times, hardly known in their worship. . . . This will also hold good of most of the other gods who were multiplied in the same manner.'' Vicomte d'Anselme (Grainet, i. 224), asks with refer- ence to his Greek name of Dionysius, " Pourquoi les Grecs donnaient-ils le nom de Dionysos ou de divin Noush (dios nous ou Noe) a I'inventeur du vin?" — Vide supra, ch. ix. ; vide also Gainet, i. 225. ' " The Scriptures tell us that Noah cultivated the vine ; and all pro- fane historians agree in placing Bacchus iu the first ages of the world " (in proof of early cultivation of the vine). — Goguet, " Origin of Laws," i. 1] 6. Compare mpra, p. 213, " Saturnus Sator." Bryant says, " The history of Dionusus is closely connected with that of Bacchus, though they are two distinct persons." He supposes Dionusus to be Noah, and Bacchus Ham. But he may very well have embodied the traditions of both. Pausanius (lib. iii. 272) says Dionusus was exposed in an ark and wonderfully preserved. He was also said to have been twice born, and to have had two fathers and two mothers, in allusion to the two periods of his existence separated by the Deluge. Dionusus (Orphic Hymn, 44, 1) is addressed as i\8e, /iCKap Aiomre, irvpiaTTope TavpofieToyire. '" The phrase "Father Bacchus,'" current among the ancients {vide Hor. Odes. i. xviii.) has always struck me as singular. It is perfectly con- gruous with the tradition of Noah; but who will tell us its appropriate solar or astral apphoation ? 1' Montfau^on, from whom I have quoted, was simply an antiquarian — a very erudite and laborious antiquarian, but one whose sole concern was to discriminate facts without reference to their bearings, and who would 2i6 THE TRADITION OF Bacchus is by some called " Taz^ncornis " (compare supra, p. 203, Nin) " or Bucornis, and moreover he is frequently so represented," {i.e. not only with the horn in hand, a " hulVs horn," as he is sometimes, which might be a drinking horn or cornucopia, in its way. emblematical of the vir agricola"), "but ako with horns on the head. Horace calls him " Bicorniger," Orpheus, ^ovKepcc; ; Nicander, TavpoKepa';." — Mont- faugon, i. 147, 155 ; comp. p. 204, note to " Mn." One Bacchus, Cicero tells us, "was King of ^sta and author of the iaws called Subazian." — Montfaugon,i. 144. It is, moreover, said that Bacchus travelled through all nations as far as India,^^ doing good in all places, and teaching many things profitable to the life of man. His conquests are said to have been easy and without bloodshed. But it is also noted that amidst his bene- volence to mankind, he was relentless in punishing all want of respect for his divinity, and indeed the con- duct and punishment of Chanaan may be said to be have had, I have little doubt, a supreme contempt for the speoulations in which I have indulged. He says in his preface—" I have a due regard for those great men who have excelled in this sort of learning, but must own at the same time I have no taste for it. . . . It signifies very little to us to know whether they who teU us Vulcan was the same with Tubal- cain, or they who say he was the same with Moses, make the best guess in the matter." Though the general opinion may not incline any more now than then to the biblical interpretation, yet I think a great change has taken place in public opinion as to the importance of the inquiry. Triptolemus was also said to have been "the inventor of the plough and of agriculture, and of civilisation, which is the result of it," and to have instituted the Elusinian mysteries. Like Bacchus he is also said to have " ridden all over the earth, making men acquainted with the blessings of agriculture." — Smith, Myth. Diet. ; vide also infra, p. 224 : " Deucalion." '* Dionusus like Bacchus came to India from the west. — Philostratus, lib. ii. 64 ; Bp'ant, ii. 78. The Indian Bacchus "appears in the character of a wise and distinguished oriental monarch ; his features an expression of sublime tranquillity and mildness." — Smith, Myth. Bic. NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 217 narrated in the history of Pentheus. — Vide Montf. i. 161." III. Janus. — Janus represented the most ancient tra- dition of Noah in Italy ; subsequent migrations brought in the legend of Saturn, and thus we find them variously confounded — Saturn sometimes figuring as his guest, sometimes as his son, sometimes as his colleague on the throne. Like Saturn he appears as double-headed or bifrons, he is said to have introduced civilisation among the wild tribes of Italy, and under him, as under Saturn, there appears to have been a golden age. I have made reference to Saturn as Oceanus (vide Montf augon, i. 6), and as Oceanus his representations '' This appears to me still more apparent in the 26th Idyll of Theooritue, where, when the Bacchanals were at their revels, " Perched on the sheer cliff Pentheus would espy All. . . . (For profaning thus " these mysteries weird that must not be profaned by vulgar eyes," Pentheus is torn to pieces by the Bacchanals). . . . " Warned by this tale, let no man dare defy Great Bacchus ; lest a death more awful should he die. And when he counts nine years or scarcely ten Rush to his ruin. May I pass my days Uprightly, and be loved by upright men. And take this motto, all who covet praise ('Twas aegis-bearing Jove that spoke it first). The godly seed f aires well, the viicked is accurst." — Caverley's Theocritus, xxvi. This seems to bear out what is perhaps only vaguely implied in the sacred text that the curse was on Chanaan — ^the boy and his posterity — and not on the whole race of Cham. — Vide ante : also compare ,the "Bacchse" of EurijSdes, in the following passage from Grote's "Plato" (iii. 333) ; — " So in the ' Bacchse ' of Euripides, the two old men, Kadmus and Teiresias, after vainly attempting to inculcate upon Pentheus the belief in and the worship of Dionysus, at last appeal to his prudence and admonish him of the danger of unbelief ; " which, if it be tradition, would look as if Chanaau's offence was only the final and overt expression of pre- vious unbelief. 21 8 THE TRADITION OF are very remarkable. In one lie appears as an old man sitting on the waves of the sea, with a sea monster on one side of him, and his spear or rod in his hand. In another as sitting on the waves of the sea with ships about him ; he is " holding an urn and pours out water, the symbol of the sea, and also of rivers and fountains.'''' But Janus is also represented in his medals " with a prow of a ship on the reverse," and he is said to have first invented crowns, ships, and boats, and to have coined the first money. " According to the accounts of mythologists," says Macrobius, '^ all families in the time of Janus were full of religion and holinesrsy " Xenon says he was the first that built temples and instituted sacred rites," and was therefore always mentioned at the beginning of sacrifices. With reference to his description as "bifrons," Mac- robius says (some say) he was so called " because he knew the past and future things. . . . Some pretend to prove that Janus is the Sun, and that he is represented with two faces, because he is master of the two doors ^* of heaven, and opens the day at his rising and shuts it at his setting." A good secondary explanation is,^^ that " as Janus always began the year" (whence January) "the two ■* Vide Dr Smith's " Myth. Diet." art. Janus : — "Whereas the worship of Janus was introduced at Rome by Eomulus, that of Sol was instituted by Titus Tatius." ^' If Janus is allowed to have been identified with Saturn {supra) we may see through the analogy of Saturn how these secondary functions canie to be attributed to him — Saturn was also Chronos [that Chronos=Noah, vide Palmer's Egypt. Ckron., i. p. 60] ; "but," as Dr Smith says, "there is no resemblance between the deities, except that both were regarded as the most ancient deities in their respective countries." As Chronos simply personifies antiquity itself, this only means that Saturn was the most ancient deity. When subsequently he became merged in " Chronos," his ancient sickle became converted into a scythe. Dr Smith (" Diet. Myth.") says, " He held in his hand a crooked pruning knife, and his feet were NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 219 heads do look on and import the old and new year ; " but then occurs the question — and this is why I submit that it is only a secondary explanation — how came Janus to commence the year ? In the nomenclature of the calendar connected with any system of hero worship, worship of ancestors, or even spirit worship, who more fitly chosen to commence the year than Janus, supposing him to be Noah? There are, however, two what we may call primary explanations, and we must take our choice. The epithet is either applied to him, as exactly according with the reminiscence of Noah, who was pre-eminently acquainted with the past and the future ; or we can take the astral explanation that Janus was called Bifrons,^" because he opened the sun at his rising and shut it at his setting. surrounded with a woollen riband ;" and Goguet (" Origin of Laws," i. 94) says, " All old traditions speak of the siclde of Saturn, who is said to have taught the people of his time to cultivate the earth." — Plut. i. p. 2, 275 ; Macroh. Sat., lib. i. 217. Goguet (" Origin of Laws," i. 283) says, "Several critics are of opinion that the Janus of the ancients is the same with Javan the son of Japhet, Gen. X. 3." It may afford a clue if I advert to the circumstance that whilst in the Phoenician alphabet {vide Bunsen's Egypt, iv. 290, 293, 297), Dagon, Dagau=Corn (the Fish-man, vide siipra, p. 200), stands for the letter D. "The door" is its hieroglyphic equivalent. Thus we get in strange juxtaposition what we may call symbols, connecting Janus with the Fish- god and with the god of agriculture. — Vide supra, p. 200, and infra. '* Bryant ("Mythology," ii. 254) says, "Many persons of great learning have not scrupled to determine that Noah and Janus were the same. By Plubarch he is called Iai';'os, and represented as an ancient prince who reigned in the infancy of the world. . . . He was represented with two faces, with which he looked both forwards and backwards ; and from hence he had the name of Janus Bifrons. One of these faces was that of an aged man ; but iu the other was often to be seen the countenance of a young and beautiful personage. About him . . . many emblems. . . . There was particularly a staff in one hand, with which he pointed to a rock, from whence issued a profusion of water. In the other hand he held a key. ... He had generally near him some resemblance of " ship. . . . 220 THE TRADITION OF As a symbol of Noah this double head appears to me very simple and natural, Noah forming the connecting link between the antediluvian and modern worlds ; but as applied to the Sun or to Janus as in relation to the Sun, even allowing for personification, this twofold head of man strikes me as incongruous in the extreme. Be- sides, if it be allowed that it might apply to Saturn and Janus through the connecting idea of Chronos, how does it apply to Bacchus? Let us press this argument further. Here is a symbol common to Bacchus, Saturn, and Janus, and combining harmoniously in each in- stance with the representation of Noah. Can this symbol, common to these three, combine even congruously with any solar or astral legend ? I have somewhere seen it noted as suspicious and as tending to confirm the solar theory that these mythological personages all "journey from east to west, and meet their fate in the evening." But is this so ? Have we not just seen that Bacchus, according to mythology, travelled from the west into India? But not only were Saturn, Janus, and Bacchus repre- sented as " bifrons," but so also was Cecrops. Cecrops will present a difficulty the more in the way of any solar theory; but Cecrops,^^ like all founders or supposed Plutarch does not accede to the common notion " (that it was the ship that brought Saturn to Italy), " but still makes it a question why the coins of this personage bore on one side the resemblance of Janus Bifrons, and on the other the representation of either the hind part or the fore part of a ship. . . . He is said to have first composed a chaplet, and to him they attributed the invention of a ship. Upon the Sicilian coins (at the temple) of Eryx his figure often occurs with a twofold countenance, and on the reverse is a dove encircled with a crown, which seems to ie of olive. He is represented as a just man and a prophet (comp. pp. 207-208), and had the remarkable characteristics of being in a manner the author of time and the god of the year." 1' " Megasthenes stated that the first king (of India) was Dionysus. He found a rude population in a savage state, clothed in skins, unacquainted NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 221 founders of states, has something in common with Noah, Like Saturn and Janus in Italy, Cecrops was said to have brought the population of Attica into cities, to have given them laws, taught them the worship of the idols, planted the olive, and finally, was represented as half man, half serpent.^* To return to Janus. Before concluding I must note that Janus is called Eanus by Cicero, which may per- haps have analogy with " Hea and Hoa" (ch. ix.), and with Eannes and " Cannes," although Cicero derives it from " eundo." Janus was also called " consivius a conserendo," because he presided over generation, a title singularly appropriate to Noah as the second founder of the race, and through whom the injunction was given "to in- crease and multiply." ^^ He is moreover called " Quir- with agriculture, and without fixed habitations. The length of his reign is not given. The introduction of civilization and agriculture is a natural allusion to the immigration of the Aryans into a country in- habited by Turanian races. . . . Fifteen generations after Dionysus, Hercules reigned. . . . Now all this is obviously pure Indian tradition. Dionysus is the elder Manu, the divine primeval man, son of the Sun (Vivasvat). He holds the same position in the primeval history of India as does Jima or Gemshid, another name of the primeval man in the Iranian world. . , . The first era, then, is represented by Megasthenes as having fourteen generations of human kings, with a god as the founder and a god as the destroyer of the dynasty, in all fifteen or sixteen genera- tions."— 5«?sse»'s Egypt, iii. 528. Compare those fifteen generations with Palmer. Compare the confusion of Dionysus and Hercules with Deucalion and Prometheus, &c., p. 232. Pelasgus among the Arcadians passed for the first man and the first legislator (Boulanger, i. 133). Of Cadmus, too, it is said — " Greece is indebted to him for alphabetical writing, the art of cultivating the vine, tad the forging and working of metals." — Goguet, ii. 41. J8 Yide supra, Cannes, ch. ix. ; vide Smith, " Myth. Diet. " w " All nations have given the honour of the discovery of agriculture to their first sovereigns. The Egyptians said that Osiris {vide s-upra, p. 204) made men desist from eating each other, by teaching them to cultivate the earth. The Chinese annals relate that Gin-Hoang, one of the first kings of 222 THE TRADITION OF inus or Martlalis," "because he presided over war," •which is precisely the aspect tiiider which it is the ori- ginal and main purpose of this dissertation to consider Noah ; and here I think I am entitled to urge, that if I have succeeded on other grounds in showing that Nin, Hoa, Janus, &c., represented Noah, then that these epithets, " Quirinus," "Martialis," " King of Battle," &c., can only he applied to him whose conquests were bloodless in the sense of controlling and regulating war.*" In connection with this title of " Martialis," as applied to Janus — and, by the by, all the traditions concerning him are altogether peaceful and bloodless — it will be remembered that his temple was open in war and shut in peace, and closed for the third and last time at the moment of the birth of our Lord. His name was also invoked first in religious cere- monies, "because, as presiding over armies," &c., through him only could prayers reach the immortal gods. Is not this a reminiscence of the communications of the Almighty to man through Noah ? IV. Ogyges and Deucalion. — I might pass over these traditions of Noah, since, having reference only to the fact of the Deluge and the personality of Noah, they will not furnish matter for the special purpose of this inquiry ; but on these grounds the investigation may be justified, and moreover seems necessary, for the com- pletion of this chapter, and to indicate the independent source and derivation of the classical tradition. It appears to me manifest that the deluges of Ogyges that country, invented agriculture, and by that means collected men into society, who before had wandered in the fields and woods like brute beasts." (Goguet, " Origin of Laws.") I need not remind the reader that Qoguet'a learned work is not written from our point of view. Compare infra, p. 240. °° Vide, chap. xiii. Golden age, Mexican tradition. NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 223 and Deucalion were neither locally historical nor partial deluges, but merely the reminiscences of the universal Deluge. Of the universal Deluge, whether we call it the Mosaic Deluge or not, there is evidence and tradi- tion in all parts of the world ; though in every instance it is localised in its details and its history of -the sur- vivors.^^ Since, however, there is nothing to be said against ^' Although the greater number of these traditions have been localised, yet in almost every case we shall find embodied in them some one inci- dent or other of the universal Deluge, as recorded by Moses. Kalisch (" Hist, and Crit. Commentary on the Old Testament") says: — " It is un- necessary to observe that there is scarcely a single feature in the biblical account which is not discovered in one or several of the heathen traditions; and the coincidences are not limited to desultory details, they extend to the whole outlines, and the very tenor and spirit of the narrative ; . . . . and it is certain that none of these accounts are derived from the pages of the Bible — they are independent of each other. .... There must in- disputably have been a common basis, a universal source, and this source is the general tradition of primitive generations." It is not, I think, generally known how widespread these traditions are. L'Abb^ Gainet has collected some thirty-five ("La Bible sans la Bible ") ; but Mr Catliu (tjfde infra, p. 245) says he found the tradition of a deluge among one hundred and twenty tribes which he visited in North, South, and Central America. This accords with Humboldt's testimony (Kalisch, i. 204), who " found the tradition of a general deluge vividly entertained among the wild tribes peopling the regions of Orinoco." To these I must add the evidence of the indirect testimony of the commemorative cere- monies which I have collected in another chapter (wde p. 242). It has been said that the Chinese tradition is too obsciire to be adduced, but wo shall see (p. 6S) whether, when in contact vrith other traditions, it cannot be made to give light ; and I shall refer my readers to the pages of Mr Palmer (supra, p. 71) for evidence of the tradition in Egypt, where it had heretofore been believed that no such evidence was to be found. In India {vide ch. ix.) the tradition is embodied in the history of Manu and the fish ; and Bunsen (" Egypt," iii. 470) admits " that there is evidence in the Vedas, however slight, that the flood does form a part of the remiui- Bcenoes of Iran." Vide also p. 68, evidence of the tradition in Cashmere. I wish also to direct attention here to two recent and important testi- monies to the existence of the tradition in India and the Himalayan range. At pp. 161 and 450 of Hunter's "Bengal," it will be seen that the Santals 224 THE TRADITION OF the possibility of subsequent partial inundations, there ■will, I suppose, always be found persons ready to main- tain that the deluges of Ogyges and Deucalion were partial and historical ; although I submit that the argu- ments which were formerly used to prove the priority of Ogyges to Deucalion, and the posteriority of both to the general Deluge, turned upon points of chronology which will hardly be sustained at the present day. If, however, I can succeed in showing that the deluge of Deucalion is identical with the deluge of Noah, I shall consider that I shall have also proved the point for the deluge of Ogyges, which all agree to have been much older ! The following is Mr Grrote's narrative collating the dif- ferent traditions respecting the deluge of Deucalion : — " Deiikalion is impoitant in Grecian mythical narration under two points of view. First, lie is tlie person specially saved at the time of the general deluge ; next, he is the father of Hellen, the great eponym of the Hellenic race ; at least that was the more current have a distinct tradition of the Creation, flood, intoxication of Noah, and the dispersion ; and of the Vedio evidence, which Bunsen (supra, 223) calls slight, Mr Hunter says : — " On the other hand, the Sanscrit story of the Deluge, like that in the Pentateuch, makes no mystery of the matter. A ship is built, seeds are taken on board, the ship is pulled about for some time by a fish, and at last gets on shore upon a peak of the Himalayas." Dr Hooker ("Himalayan Journal," ii. 3) says: — "The Lepchas have a curious legend of a man and woman having saved themselves on the summit of Tendong (a very fine mountain, 8613 feet) during a flood which once deluged Sikhwn," which he authenticates on the spot. Here, as in many of Mr Catlin's instances of local tradition, I may observe that the event as recorded proves the universality of the Deluge for the rest of the world, or at least all the world below the level of Tendong. In speaking, how- ever, of the universal Deluge (universal as far as the human race are con- cerned), I do not enter into the geological argument, or exclude the view (permissible I believe, vide Eeusch, p. 368, and note to Rev. H. J. Cole- ridge's fourth sermon on " The Latter Days") that it was not geographi- cally universal. I merely adhere to the testimony of tradition, and from this point of view it would sufiSoe {vide Eeusch) that it was universal so far as the horizon of the survivors extended. NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 225 story, though there were other statementa which made HellSn the son of Zeus." [This was merely the incipient process of the apothe- osis of their more immediate founder.] "The enormous iniquity with which the earth was contaminated, as Apollodorus says, by the then existing brazen race, or, as others say, by the fifty monstrous sons of Sykoron, provoked Zeus to send a general deluge." " The latter account is given by Dionys. HaUc. i. 17 ; the former seems to have been given by Hellenikus, who affirmed that the ark after the Deluge stopped upon Mount Othrys, and not upon Mount Parnassus (Schol. Find, ut sup-a), the former being suitable for a settlement in Thessaly.'' [I have already pointed out how the general tradition is everywhere locaKsed.] " An unremitting and terrible rain laid the whole of Greece under water except the highest mountain-tops, where a few stragglers found refuge. Deukalion was saved in a chest or ark, which he had been forewarned by his father Prometheus to con- struct. After he had floated for nine days on the water, he at length landed on the summit of Mount Parnassus. Zeus hearing, sent Hermes to him, promising to grant whatever he asked. He prayed that men and companions might be sent him in his solitude : accord- ingly Zeus directed both him and Pyrrha to cast stones over their heads, those oast by Pyrrha became women, those by Deukalion men. And thus the ' stony race of men ' (if we may be allowed to trans- late an etymology which the Greek language presents exactly, and which has not been disdained by Hesiod, by Piudar, by Epicharmes, and by Virgil), came to tenant the soil of Greece. Deukalion on landing from the ark sacrificed a grateful offering to Zeus Phyxios, or the God of Escape ; he also erected altars in Thessaly to the twelve great gods of Olympus. The reality of this deluge was firmly be- lieved throughout the historical ages of Greece (localising it, how- ever, and post-dating it to 1528 B.C.) Statements founded upon this event were in circulation throughout Greece even to a very late date. The Magarians .... and in the magnificent temple of the Olympian Zeus at Athens, a cavity in the earth was shown, through which it was affirmed that the water of the Deluge had retired. • Even in the time of Pausaniaa the priests poured into this cavity holy offerings of meal and honey. In this, as in other parts of Greece, the idea of the Deukalionian deluge was blended with the religious impres- sions of the people, and commemorated by their most sacred ceremonies." — Gratis "History of Gh'eece," vol. i. ch. v. 132, 133, " The Deluge:'^ ^^ Mr Grote certainly says — " Apollodorus connects this deluge with the wickedness of the brazen race in Hesiod, according to the practice general P 226 THE TRADITION OF Mr Max Miiller (comp. " Myth.," " Chips,," ii. 12), incidentally speaking of the legend of Deucalion, treats it with great contempt. " What is more ridiculous," he says, " than the mythological account of the creation of the human race by Deucalion and Pyrrha throwing stones behind them (a myth which owes it origin to a mere pun on Xao's and \aa?)." And ridiculous it cer- tainly is from any point of view from which Mr Max Miiller could regard it, i.e.' either as the invention of a mythic period, or as a fugitive allegory arising out of some astral or solar legend : per contra, I shall submit that there is nothing forced in supposing that this legend arose out of some one of the processes of corruption to which all tradition is prone, of the known fact that the human race was re-propagated by Deucalion or Noah.^* If I am asked to explain how it came about that there should have been this identity between the word for a "man " and a " stone," I must simply confess my ignor- ance. Perhaps if Mr Max Miiller could be brought to look at things more from the point of view of biblical traditions, he might be enabled to see it. All that I can suggest is, that perhaps it may have a common origin with that Homeric expression quoted by Mr Max Miiller at p. 175 {vide supra), " Thou art not sprung from the olden tree or from the rock." I consider that I shall ■with the logographers of stringing together a sequence out of legends totally unconnected with each other." One would have thought in one's simpli- city that if any two legends linked well together, uniting in common agreement with the scriptural account, it would be the legends of the Deluge and the brazen age. '^ Let the significance of the following coincidence be considered in con- nection with the evidence at p. 24i, Boulanger, "Ces fdtes (Atheniasmes, 'Anthisteries') avoient pour objet une commemoration (of the Deluge) et I'on en attribtwit la Jundation d, Deucalion ; elles dtoient auaii consacr^es ^ Bacchus, ce qui les a fait nomm^s les ancktines ou les grandes Bacchetr males." — Comp. ch. xi. p. 2ii, also supra, 213. NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 227 definitely establish, however, that it originates in a tradition and not " a mere pun," and at any rate that it is not local, it is not Greek. It is no doubt singular that the word for man, Xao?, populus, should so closely resemble the word for a stone, Xaas; but not only is this coincidence found in the Greek, but we shall see that it is widely spread in all parts of the world. In proof, I adduce the following extract from Dr Hooker's inaugural lecture at Norwich in 1868, (since the publi- cation of Mr Max Miiller's work) : — " It is a curious fact that the Khasiau word for a stone, ' man,' as commonly occurs in the names of their viUageB and places as that of man, maen, and men does in those of Brittany, Wales, Cornwall, &c. ; thus Mansmai signifies in KhSsia the Stone of Oath ; Manloo, the Stone of Salt ; Manflong, the Grassy Stone ; and just as in Wales Pen msen maur signifies the HUl of the Big Stone ; and in Britanny a Menhir is a standing stone, and a Dolmen a table stone," &c.^ Here it is seen that the word for stone in these respec- tive places is the same with our word " man ; " it is not specifically said that the word would carry this sense also in the places indicated, but I infer it from the analogy which runs through homo, homme, and by a connection of ideas through the Greek a/io? to the San- scrit — thus "4ma-ad" (^aiiio<;-eZai), are names applied " in the Sanscrit " to " barbarians " who are cannibals. (Max MuUer, ii. p. 44.) And I am not sure that M-r Max Miiller does not say so directly, in reference to the word " Brahman," for although the word originally is said to mean power (i. 363), yet "another word with ^ It is the fashion to deride Bryant's etymology, and no doubt he did not write in the light of modern science ; but I find (" Mythology," iii. 634) that he had already given this information. "Main, from whence mania, signified in the primitive language a stone, or stones, and also a building." 228 THE TRADITION OF the accent on the last syllable, is Brahman, the man who prays."— ifoa; Miiller, i. 72.^* Also Kenrick (" Essay on Primaeval History," p. 59), " Thus the Hindus attribute the origin of their institu- tions and race to Manu, whose name is equivalent to man. The Germans made Tuisto (Teutsch) and his son Mannus to be the origin and founder of their nation. " Also Sir W. Jones' "Asiat. lies." i. 230; Eawlinson's "Bamp. Lect." lect. ii. 67 : — " From Manu the earth was re-peopled, and from him »ia??kind received their name Manudsha." G-ainet (i. 170) says : — " The stones changed then into men by Deucalion and Pyrrha, are they not their children according to nature? In Syriac the word ' Eben ' signifies equally a child and a stone. In spite of these confusions their accounts of the Deluge are striking as well on account of their resemblance, as on account of their universality, as the reader will soon be able to convince himself." — Vide Gainet, i. 167.^* '' Mr Max Muller, in his " Lectures on the Science of Language," first series, says of "Man": — "The Latin word 'homo,' the French 'rhomme' . . . . ia derived from the same root, which we have in ''humus,' soil, 'humilis,' humble. Homo, therefore, would express the idea of being made of the dust of the earth. . . . There is a third name for man. . . . ' Ma,' in the Sanscrit, means to measure. . . . ' Man,' a deri- vative root, means to think. From this we have the Sanscrit 'Manu,' originally thinker, then man. In the later Sanscrit we find derivations such as ' M&nava, Kd.nasha, Manushya,' all expressing man. In Gothic we find both 'rtum,' and 'Maunisk,' the modern German 'maun,' and ' mensch.' There were many more names for man, as there were many names for all things in ancient language." As an instance of the corres- pondence of Old Egyptian and Welsh, Bunsen's " Philosophy of TJniv. Hist.," i. 169, gives "Egyptian, 'man' = rockstone ; Welsh, 'maen;' Irish, 'main' (coll. Latin, 'moenia;' Hebrew, 'e-ben')." And (p. 78) Bunsen says — " The divine Mannus, the ancestor of the Germans, is absolutely identical with Majius, who, according to ancient Indian mytho- logy, is the God who created man anew after the Deluge, just as De%u:alion did." ^ The Saturday Seview, Nov. 14, 1868 (reviewing " The Indian Tribes of Guiana," by the Rev. W. Brett), says of the Indian traditions : — "The NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 229 But if the whole human race were re-propagated by- Deucalion and Pyrrha, how are we to locate the anterior legend of Ogyges, occurring among the same people ? It is barely possible that the memory of a long- antecedent and partial deluge may have remained in the memories of the survivors of the subsequent and universal calamity, but the much more reasonable conjecture seems to be that it was by a different channel the reminiscence of the same event. It must be remembered that it was the Ogygian deluge which was said to have been partial and to have inundated Attica. The deluge of Deucalion by all accounts, except by Pindar, was considered to have been universal, and corresponds in its details with Mosaic accounts, e.g. it was universal, covering the tops of the highest mountains; it was caused by the depravity of mankind ; the single pair who were saved, were saved in a ship or an ark, and floated many days on the waters. In the end, they settled on the top of a mountain, went to consult the oracle (as Noah is said to have sacrificed and to have had communications with God), and re-peopled the earth. The version of Lucian gives particulars which brings the tradition to almost exact correspondence. Deucalion and his wife were saved (on account of their rectitude and piety) together with his sons and their wives. He was accompanied into the ark by the pigs, ■ old people's stories ' of the creation and the deluge are highly character- istic. . . . Under the rule of Sign, son of Maikonaima, the tree of life was planted, in whose stem were pent up the whole of the waters which were to be let forth by measure to stock every river and lake with fish. Twar- rika, the michievous monkey, forced open the magic cover which kept down the waters, and the next minute was swept away with all things living by the bursting flood. The re-peopling of the world, as described by the Tamanacs of the Orinoco recalls the legend of Deucalion. One man and one woman took refuge on the mountain Tamanacw. They then threw over their lieads the fruits of the Mauritia (or Ita) palm, from the Jcemel of which sprang men and women who once more peopled the earth." 230 THE TRADITION OF horses, lions, and serpents, who came to him in pairs. If the account of Lucian is somewhat recent, on the other hand it is the account of a professed scoffer, and moreover, shows what I do not remember to have seen noted from this point of view that the tradition was com- mon to Syria as well as Greece. This brings us to the contrary, but, as it appears to me, much less formidable objection — ^bearing in mind that the tradition of the Deluge is common to Mexico, India, China, the islands of the Pacific, &c. &c. — viz. that the tradition came to Greece from Asia. This is Mr Kenrick's objection ^^ {^de Preface to Grote's " History of Greece," 2d ed.) The most direct, and, as it appears to me, sufficient answer, seems to be that it was necessarily so; since, ex hypothesis the population itself came to Greece from Asia. Mr Kenrick says, " It is doubtful whether the tradition of Deucalion's flood is older than the time when the intercourse with Greece began to be frequent," i.e. about the fifth cen- tury B.C. (p. 31.) But as the Septuagint, according to Mr Kenrick himself, could not have influenced Greece till the third century, this tradition can only have been the primeval tradition. Mr Kenrick is a fair opponent, and I must do him the justice to add that he repudiates the Voltairean suggestion that this tradition originated in a Hebrew invention. If then the inhabitants of Greece, who came originally from Asia, had not the tradition, or had it imperfectly, when they arrived, it can only have been because they had lost it ; but as ad- mittedly they recovered it at a later period, the pre- sumption, even on this showing, is, at least for those who can realise how difficult it would be to make a pure fiction, as distinguished from a corrupt tradition, run ^ " Essay on Primseval History." NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 231 current, more especially among different nationalities and during a lengthened period, — that when circum- stances brought them again into contact with Asia, they added fresh incidents, only because they found the tra- dition fresher there than among themselves. Voila tout ! for Mr Kenrick's whole argument depends entirely upon this — that " as we reach the time when the Greeks en- joyed more extensive and leisurely communication with Asia, through the conquests of Alexander ... we find new circumstances introduced into the story which assimilates it more closely to the Asiatic tradition." It has been allowed {vide supra) that the tradition of Deucalion is as old as the fifth century B.C., and, not to speak of the deluge of Ogyges, connected with what was earliest in Grecian history, the following passage from Kenrick seems to me in evidence of long antecedent traditions among the Greeks themselves, which they must have brought with them originally from Asia.^' Mr Kenrick says (p. 31) : — " "According to the calculations of Varro, the deluge of Ogyges occurred 400 years before Inachus, i.e. 1600 years before the first Olympiad, which would bring it to 2376 years before the Christian era ; now, according to the Hebrew text, the Deluge of Noah took place 2-349 B.C., which makes only a difference of 27 years. It is true that many other authors have reconciled these epochs." Hesiod and Homer are silent on the subject of both Deucalion and Ogyges. ..." It results from these considerations that the traditions of the ancient nations of the world confirm the narra- tive of Genesis, not only as to the existence, but even as to the epoch, of this catastrophe as fixed by Moses. Mersius (apud Gronovium, iv. 1023) cites more than twenty ancient authors who speak of Ogyges as appertain- ing in their eyes to what was most primitive in Greece. He is son of Nep- tune. He is the first founder of the kingdom of Thebes. Servius repre- sents him as coming im/mediatdy after Satmrn and the golden age [which directly connects Noah with Saturn, and the golden age with Noah]. Hesychius says of Ogyges that he represented all that was most ancient in Greece. That, indeed, passed into a proverb ; they said, 'old as Ogyges,' aa if they said, ' old as Adam ' " (Gainet, i. 229). 232 THE TRADITION OF " The account of Deucalion, given by Apollodorus (i. 7, 2), bears evident marks of being compounded of two fables originally distinct, in one of which, and probably the older, the descent of the Hellenes was traced through Deucalion to Prometheus and Pandora, without mention of a deluge. In the other, the destruction pf the brazen lace by a flood, the re-peopling the earth by the casting of stones, is ■ related in the common way. That these two narratives cannot ori- ginally have belonged to the same myths is evident from their incon- gruity ; for as mankind were created by Prometheus, the father of Deucalion, there was no time for them to have passed through those stages of degeneracy by which they reached the depravity of the brazen age.'' Here are evidently two early traditions, ostensibly Greek, distinct, it is true, yet perfectly compatible. The one tbe tradition of Grecian descent through Noah to Adam and Eve, the other the tradition of the Deluge. But after what we have already seen {vide supra, pp. 157, 158) of reduplications and inversions, can a serious argu- ment be based upon the expression that Deucalion (Noah) was the son of Prometheus (Adam) ? '^^ Is it not a most natural and inevitable faqon-de-pwrler to connect the descendant directly and immediately with his remote ancestor, e.g. " Fils de St Louis — fils de Louis Capet — montez au ciel ! " i do not of course attempt, within this narrow com- pass, to grasp Mr Kenrick's entire view. I am merely ''' In the same way we find " Mentuhotep,'' or " Sesortasen I." named, " when all other ancestors are omitted, as the sole connecting link between Amosis (xviii. dynasty) and Menes." Vide Palmer's "Egyptian Chro- nicles," i. 385. So, too, are Pohi (whom I believe to be Adam) and Shin-nong (Noah) eonnooted and Unked together in Chinese chronology. " I. Fohi the great Brilliant (Tai-hao), cultivation of astronomy and religion as well as wnting. He reigned 110 years. Then came fifteen reigns. II. Shin-nong (divine httsbandmari). Institution of agriculture [compare ante, ch. x.] The knowledge of simples applied as the art of medicine."— Bunsen's " Egypt," jii. 383, chap, on Chinese Chronology. Vide ante, 61 ; chap, on Tradition, p. 129; Prometheus. NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 233 dealing witli the special argument ; but it is curious to note liow the line of reasoning adopted by Mr Kenrick, whUst it sustains the Greek traditions, as traditions (though not Greek), unconsciously neutralises the argu- ments which would dispose of the testimonies derived from them, by saying that they were not traditions of a general, but of a local and a partial deluge. These latter arguments appear to have had weight with one against whom I hardly venture to run counter, Frederick Schlegel (" Phil, of Hist." p. 79)—" The irruption of the Black Sea into the Thracian Bosphorus is regarded by very competent judges in such matters as an event perfectly historical, or at least, from its proxi- mity to the historical times, as not comparatively of so primitive a date." Compare with passage from Mr Kenrick.^" Schlegel adds : — " All these great physical '" Kenrick (p. 37) says : — " The fact of traces of the action of water at a higher level in ancient times on these shores is unquestionable ; under the name of raised beacJies such phenomena are familiar to geologists on many coasts ; but that the tradition (in Samothrace) was produced by specvlation on its cause, not by an obscure recollection of its occurrence, is also clear ; for it has been shown by physical proofs that a discharge of the waters of the Euxine (Black Sea) would not cause such a deluge as the tradition supposed" (Cuvier, Disc, sur les Revolutions du Globe, ed. 1826). If these speculations were made at the commencement of Grecian his- tory, and the speculations had reference to evidence of diluvian disruption along the highway by which they passed into Greece, should we not ex- pect that theories of the violent rather than the gentler and gradual action of water would dominate in their geological tradition ? Colonel George Greenwood, in "Rain and Rivers," p. 2, says on the contrary — ("with re- ference to the theory that valleys are formed by ' rain and rivers ' ") — " There is, perhaps, no creed of man which, like this, can be traced up to the most remote antiquity, and traced down from the most remote anti- quity to the present day. Lyell has himself quoted Pythagoras for it, through the medium of Ovid : — ' Eluvie mons est deductus in sequor Quodquc fuit campus vaUem decursus aguarum Fecit.' But Pythagoras only enunciates the doctrine of Eastern antiquity ; that is. 234 THE TRADITION OF changes are not necessarily and exclusively to be as- cribed to the last general Deluge. The presumed irrup- tion of the Mediterranean into the ocean, as well as many other mere partial, revolutions in the earth and sea, may have occurred much later, and quite apart from this great event " (p. 79). But it may also have occurred much earlier, as is clear from the following passage from Schlegel, to which I wish to direct the attention of geologists, and in which Schlegel speaks according to the original insight of his own mind, and not in deference to the opinions of others : — " These words (' the earth was without form and void, and dark- ness was upon the face of the deep ; but the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,' Gen. x.), which announce the presage of a new morn of Creation, not only represent a darker and wilder state of the glohe, but very clearly show the element of water to be stiU in predominant force. Even the division of the elements, of the waters above the firmament, and of the waters below it, on the second day of creation, the permanent limitation of the sea for the formation and visible appearance of the dry land, necessarily imply a mighty revolution in the earth, and afford additional proof that the Mosaic history speaks not only of one but of many catastrophes of nature, a circumstance that has not been near enough attended to in the geolo- gical interpretation and illustration of the Bihle." — Schlegel, p. 82. The point that is material to this discussion is to decide whether or not those disruptions in Thrace are historical and subsequent to the Deluge. Now, here Mr Keijrick's main theory, that " speculation is the source of tradition," comes in with fatal effect to dispose of the arguments I am combating, and yet in no way of the Egyptians, the Chaldseans, and the Hindoos. But since Pythagoras introduced this doctrine in the West, if it has ever slumbered, it has perpetually re-originated. Lyell shows that among the Greeks it was taught by Aristotle ; among the Eomans by Strabo ; among the Saracens by Avioenna ; in Italy by Moro, Geneselli, and Targioni ; and in England by Eay, Hutton, and Playfair." — Rain and Miners, by Col. George Green- wood. Longmans, 1866. 2d edit. NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 235 at this point militates against the view I am urging, that these supposed inundations were localisations of the tradition of the general Deluge which the Pelasgi brought with them from Asia. Mr Kenrick says (p. 36) : — " It was a Xoyor, a popular legend, among the Greeks, that Thessaly had once been a lake, and that Neptune had opened a passage for the ■waters through the vale of Tempe (Herod. 7, 129). The occupation of the banks of the rivers of this district by the Pelasgi tribes, which must have been svhseqmnt to the opening of the gorge, is the earliest fact in Greek history, and the ' logos' itself no doubt originated in a very simple speculation. The sight of a narrow gorge, the sole out- let of the waters of a whole district, naturally suggests the idea of its having once been closed, and, as the necessary consequence, the in- undation of the whole region which it now serves to drain." Now, if this reasoning is just, it seems to establish two things pretty conclusively : First, That the current legend among the Greeks was not the tradition of a local deluge ; but, if not a reminiscence, was at any rate the observation of the evidences of a deluge previous to their arrival. Moreover, the deluge of their tradition exceed- ing the actual facts is in evidence of their recollection of an event adequate to such effects. Second, That the tradition, if it arose out of a speculation, must have arisen out of a speculation made in the earliest com- mencement of Greek history. It is diificult to reconcile the latter conclusion with Mr Kenrick' s view that the tradition was imported from Asia in the fifth century B.C. It is impossible to reconcile the former with the ac- ceptation of a local and historical inundation in the time of the Ogyges and Deucalion of popular history. This digression on the legend of Deucalion has led me away from what is properly the subject-matter of this inquiry ; and I therefore propose now to summarise the 236 THE TRADITION OF results of the last two chapters. To pursue the tradition of Noah in all its ramifications would extend the inquiry beyond the scope which is necessary for the purposes of my argument. It will have been seen, I think, that my object has not been merely antiquarian research. I have sought to bring into prominence the reminiscences of Noah, which recall him at any rate as the depository of the traditions, if not the expositor of the science of man- kind, as the channel, if not the fountain-head, of law, which thus became the law of nations — as the interme- diary through whom the communications of the Most High passed to mankind, and under whose authority mankind held together during some three hundred years.'^ Let me collect more directly and more fully the epithets in this sense which are dispersed in the above traditions. We have seen that Calmet properly identifies Saturn with Noah; that according to Virgil and Plutarch "under Saturn was the golden age; " Saturn of whom Hesiod says : — " Him of mazy counsel, Saturn ; " that in the tradition, as we see it in Virgil, he is described as bringing his scattered people into social life, and the noticeable phrase is used legesqtie dedit;^"^ that in ^^ Gen. vi. 18; viii. 15; vi. 13; ix. 8; viii. 20; ix. 20; and Ecclesiasti- cus xliv. 1, 3, 4, 19, "The covenants of the world were made with Him." '' I feel justified in bringing in attestation also the following verses of the "Oraoula Sybillina," for, as I have already said, even if they be forgeries of the second century A.D., they at any rate represent the tradi- tion at that date (i. v. 270) : — " Noe fidelis amans aequi servata periolis Egredere audenter, simul et cum conjuge nati Tresque nurus : et vos terrse loca vasta replete, Creseite multiplice numero, sacrataque jura Tradite natorum natis .... Hino nova progenies hinc cetaa aurea prima NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 237 Bacclius, directly connected ■with Saturn through the Saturnalia, we also see much in his characteristics in common with Saturn, all which equally identifies him with Noah ; and Bacchus, as we are told hy Cicero, was the author of the " laws called Suhazian." '* In Janus, too, we find great resemblances to Saturn, and in the very respects which would identify him with Noah. Under Janus as under Saturn was the golden age, and it is added that in the time of Janus, " all families were full of religion and holiness," and although his rule is described as singularly peaceful, he is called Quirinus and Martialis, as presiding over war. The closing and opening of his temple, too, had a conspicuous and direct connection with peace and war. If we turn back to the mythological prototypes in Assyria we find him as Hoa in connection with " the mystic animal, half-man half-fish, which came up from the Persian Gulf to teach astronomy and letters to the Bxorta est hominum .... .... ast illo se tempore regia primum Imperia ostendent terris quum ftxdere facto Tres justi reges, divisis partitas aequis, Sceptra diu populis impouent sanctaque tradent Jura viris." . . . Compare also the following verses (Orac. Sybil, i. 145) with the Vedio tradition {infra, p. 238) of the promise made to Satiavrata, and the Babylonian tradition respecting Hoa (imfra) : " . . . . Collige, Noe, tuas rires . . . < .... Si Bcieris me Divinse te nulla rei seoreta latebunt." ^' I only instance this as evidence that laws of some sort were attributed to Bacchus, whom the. traditions also speak of as King of Asia ; to judge of these laws by what we know of the Subazian mysteries, would be as if we were to form our opinion of the Maudan ceremonies {vide infra, ch. xi.) by the last day's orgies only. In this matter we may say with Cicero. Dt Legihin, ii. 17 — " Omnia tum perditorum civium soelere .... religio- num jura poUuta sunt." 238 THE TRADITION 01'* first settlers on the Euphrates and Tigris," himself " known to the first settlers;" he is called " the intelli- gent guide, or, according to another interpretation, the intelligent fish," " the teacher of mankind," " the lord of understanding ; " "one of his emblems is the wedge or arrow-head, the essential emblem of cuneiform writing, which seems to be assigned to him as the inventor, or at least the patron of the Chaldaean alphabet." In the Vedic tradition as Satiavrata (mcfe Eawlinson's " Bamp- ton Lect.," lect. ii. 67), having been saved " from the destroying waves " in " a large vessel " sent from heaven for his use — ^which he entered accompanied " by pairs of all brute animals " — he is thus addressed, " Then shalt thou know my true greatness, rightly named the Supreme Grodhead ; by my favour all thy questions shall be an- swered and thy mind abundantly instructed ; " and it is added that " after the deluge had abated," Satiavrata was " instructed in all human and divine knowledge." In fine, if we recognise him as Hoa, we shall find his benefactions to mankind thus summed up in Berosus. ( Vide the original in Rawlinson's "Ancient Monarchies," i. 164.) »* ^ Layard (" Nineveh and Babylon," p. 343)^ eays, " We can scarcely hesitate to identify this mythic form (at Kosyundik) with the Oannes or sacred man-fish, who, according to the traditions preserved by Berosus, issued from the Erethrcean sea, instructed the Chaldceansiu all wisdom, in the sciences and the fine arts, and was afieripards worshipped as a god in the temples of Babylonia. . . . Five such monsters rose from the Persian Gulf at fabulous intervals of time (Cory's " Fragments," p. 30). It has been conjectured that this myth denotes the conquest of Chaldsea at some remote and pre-historic period by a comparatively civilised nation coming in ships to the mouth of the Euphrates. . . . The Dagon of the Philistines and of the inhabitants of the Phoenician coast was worshipped, according to the united opinion of the Hebrew commentators on the Bible, under the same form," The five apparitions at long intervals may have been the confusion of the previous revelations to the patriarchs with those made to Noah — or they may be reduplications (vide supra, p, 157). NOAH AND THE DELUGE, 239 " He is said to have transmitted to mankind the knowledge of grammar and mathematics, and of all the arts, of the polity of cities, the construction and dedication of temples, t}ie introduction of laws (xal vo/iuy eiffj;77Jo-6ts) ; to have tailght them geometry, and to have shown them by excmiple the modes of sowing the seed and gathering the fruits of the earth," [the " vir agricola" of Genesis], and along with them to have tradited all the secrets which tend to humanise life. And no one else at that time was found more super-eminent than he." — Vide Bawlinson, i. 155. We have seen that he was known to " the first settlers on the Euphrates and Tigris." The Abh6 de Tressan says, Berosus begins his history with these words : — " In the first year appeared this extraordinary man " (Oannes). Now, with "the early settlers" on the Euphrates and Tigris the commencement of all things would have heen naturally dated from the Deluge. It appears to me worth while, in conclnsion, to place more succinctly before the reader the identical terms in which the ancients (various authors) spoke of the first founders of states or their earliest progenitor — com- pelling the conclusion that allusion was made to one and the same individual and epoch. Bryant(" Myth."ii. 253)says that Noah was represented as Thoth, Hermes, Menes, Osiris, Zeuth, Atlas, Phor- oneus, and Prometheus, &c. &c. " There are none wherein his history is delineated more plainly, than in those of Saturn and Janus." These I will now omit, as we have just seen them to be identical — and so too Bacchus, who equally with them plants the vine, teaches them to sow, and gives them laws. Phoroneus, " an ancient poet quoted by Clemens Alex. (i. 380) calls him the first of mortals, ipvpovev^ varrip Ovrirav auBpuirwv." The first deluge took place under Phoroneus : " He was also the first who lywilt an altar. He first collected men together and formed them into petty communities." — Pausanias, lib. 2, 145. He first gave laws and dis- tributed justice. — SynceUus, 67, 125. They ascribed to him the dis- 240 THE TRADITION OF tribution of mankind, "idem nationes distribuit" (Hyginus' Fab. 143), " whicb is a circumstance very remarkable." Fosddoris epithets connected with the ark are very striking (Bryant, ii. 269, DemaUon, vide ante, p. 232) ; bnt lie is also said (ApoUon. Rhod. lib. 3, v. 1085) to have been " the first man through whom religious rites were renewed, cities built, and civil polity established in the world." Gecrops (vide ante, p. 220), the identical terms are used. Myrmidon, " a person of great justice." " He is said to have col- lected people together, humanised mankind, enacted laws, and first established civil polity." — Scholia in Pindar, Ode 3, v. 21. Cadmus, vide ante, p. 221. Pelasgus also is described as equally a benefactor to mankind, and instructed them in many arts. — Pausanias, 8, 599. He is said to have built the first temple to the deity " sedem Jovi Olympis primum fecit Pelasgus." — Hyginus' Fab. 225, 346. Bryant says, " I have taken notice that as Noah was said to have been i,vdpu>To% 71s," a man of the earth— this characteristic is observable in every history of the primitive persons ; and they are represented as ' voixioi' ' ayptoi', and ' ynyei/eis.' Pelasgus accordingly had this title (jEschy. " Suppli- cants," V. 250), and it is particularly mentioned of him that he was the first husbandman. Pelasgus first found out all that is necessary for the cultivation of the ground." — Schol. in Eurip. " Orestes," v. 930. Osiris. — The account of Osiris in Diodorus Siculus is exactly similar. He travels into aU countries like Bacchus. He builds cities ; and although represented as at the head of an army, is described with the muses, and sciences in his retinue. In every region he in- structed the people in planting, sowing, and other useful acts. — Tibullus, i. E. 8, v. 29. He particularly introduced the vine, and when that was not adapted to the soil, the use of ferment and wine of barley. He first built temples, and was a lawgiver and king (Diod. Sic). — Bryant, ii. 60. Chin-nong {vide also Bunsen, supra, p. 63) " was a husbandman, and taught the Chinese agriculture, &o., discovered the virtues of many plants. He was represented with the liead of an ox, and sometimes only with two horns. — Comp. Bryant, iii. 584. Manco Gapac. — Peru, vide infra, ch. xiii. ; very curious. Strabo, 3, 204, says of the Turditani in Spaia (Iberia), " They are well acquainted with granmiar, and have many written records of high antiquity. They have also large collections of poetry (comp. ch. vii.), and even their laws are described in verse, which they say is of six thousand years standing." NOAH AND THE DELUGE. 241 Deucalion, according to Lucian, was saved from the Deluge on account of Ms wisdom and piety — " cipov\nis re km eicrepms elvcKa." [eipov\ia — ^literally, " good coTinsel."] Mircwry gave Egypt its laws — "Atque Egyptiis leges et literas tradidisse." — Cicero, " De Natura Deorum," iii. 22. Apollo. — Cicero says the fourth Apollo gave laws to the Arcadians (comp. infra, p. 331 ) : " Quern Arcades JSo/uov appellant, quod ab eo se leges ferunt accepisse," id. iii. 23 ; vide also Plato, "Leges," i. 1. CHAPTEE XL . DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN AFRICA AND AMERICA. BouLANGEE (1722-59), a freethinker, and the friend and correspondent of Voltaire, was so dominated by his belief in the universal Deluge as a fact, that he made its consequences the foundation of all his theories. Writing in the midst of a scepticism very much resem- bling that of the present day, he says, "What! you believe in the Deluge ? " Such will be the exclamation of a certain school of opinion, and this school a very large one. Nevertheless, this profound writer, by the exigencies of his theory, was irresistibly brought to the recognition of the fact. " We must take," he continues, " a fact in the traditions of mankind, the truth of which shall be universally recognised. What is it? I do not see any, of which the evidence is more generally attested, than those which have transmitted to us that famous physical revolution which, they tell us, has altered the face of our globe, and which has occasioned a total reno- vation of human society : in a word, the Deluge appears to me the true starting-point (Za veritable epoque) in the history of nations. Not only is the tradition which has transmitted this fact the most ancient of all, but it is moreover clear and intelligible ; it presents a fact which can be justified and confirmed." He proceeds, and the drift and animus of the writer will be sufficiently apparent in the passage — " It is then by the Deluge that DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN AFRICA, ETC. 243 tlie history of the existing nations and societies has commenced. If there have been false and pernicious religions in the world it is to the Deluge that I trace them back as to their source; if doctrines inimical to society have been broached, I see their principles in the consequences of the Deluge ; if there have existed vicious legislations and innumerable bad governments, it will be upon the Deluge that I lay the charge." It is, then, only in attestation of the fact that I adduce this author; and in his proof he has accumulated a large mass of indirect evidence, which a certain school of opinion find it convenient altogether to ignore in refer- ence to this subject. In this class are the various insti- tutions among different nations to preserve the memory of the Deluge, as for instance, the " Hydrophories ou la fete du Deluge k Athenes," and at -ffigina, the feast of the goddess of Syria at Hierapolis, both having strange resemblances with the Jewish feasts of " Nisue ha Maim, or the effusion of waters," and the tabernacles, in their traditional aspects, i.e. in their observances not com- manded by Moses ; the " effusion des eaux a Ithome . . . et de Siloe;" the feast of the Deluge (of Inachus) at Argos ; a feast, the effusion of water, in Persia, anterior to its Mahometanism ; similar festivals in Pegu, China, and Japan ; in the mysteries of Eleusis ; in the ' ' peloria," *' anthisteria," and ^' Saturnalia;''^ and finally in the pilgrimages to rivers in India -^ and other parts of the ^ Dionyeius Periegesia says the women of the British Anmitse celebrated the ritea of Dionysoa : — " As the Bistonians on Apsinthua banks Shout to the clamorous Eiraphiates ; Or as the Indians on dark-rolling Ganges Hold revels to Dionysoa the noisy, So do the British women shout Evoe." (v. 375.) {Qy. Enoe.) Tide " The Bhilaa Topea," by Major A. Cunningham, p. 6. 244 DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN world; " of the multitude of traditions preserved in the diluvian festivals and commemorative usages of the ghlphs, apertures, and abysses which have at one time or another vomited forth or absorbed waters " (i. 84) ; again, the pilgrimages to the summits of mountains in India, China, Tartary, the Caucasus,^ Peru, &c. " It is easy to see," he adds (p. 320), " that this veneration is based upon a corrupted tradition, which has taught these people that their fathers formerly took refuge on the top of this mountain at the time of the Deluge, and subse- quently descended from it to inhabit the plains." I shall have occasion to refer again more in detail to some of these customs* when drawing attention to the re- semblances which I shall presently point out ; but I wish previously to give, more in extenso, his description of the Hydrophoria at Athens : — " This name denoted the custom which the Athenians had on the day of this feast of carrying water in ewers and vases with great cere- mony ; in memory of the Deluge, they proceeded each year to pour this water into an opening or gulf, which was found near the temple of Jupiter Olympus, and on this occasion they recalled the sad memory of their ancestors having been submerged. This ceremony is simple and very suitable to its subject ; it was well calculated to perpetuate the memory of the catastrophe caused by the waters of the Deluge. Superstition added- some other customs They threw into the same gulf cakes of corn and honey ; it was an offering to appease the infernal deities The Greeks placed it in the rank of their un- lucky days (also ' un jour triste et lugubre ') ; and thus they remarked that Sylla had taken their city of Athens the very day that they had made this commemoration of the Deluge. Superstition observes everything, not to correct itself, but to confirm itself more and more, in its errors. It was, according to the fable, by the opening of this ^ I would Bpecially draw attention to the instances of temples con- structed upon the model of ships, concerning which vide Bryant's "Mythology," ii. 221, 226, 227, 240 ; and compare with Plate XVIII. in Hontfaucon, ii, ^ Compare Bryant. AFRICA AND AMERICA. 245 gulf that the waters which had covered Attica had disappeared ; it was also said that Deucalion had raised near to this place an altar which he had dedicated to Jove the Preserver. ' Tradition also attri- buted to Deucalion the temple of Jupiter Olympus,' in which these mournful ceremonies were performed. ' This temple was celebrated and respected by the pagan nations as far as we can trace history back.' It was reconstructed on a scale of magnificence by Pisistratus ; every town and prince in Greece contributed to its adornment ; it was completed by the Emperor Adrian in 126 of our era. The antiquity of this monument, the respect which all nations have shown it, and the character of the traditions which they have of its origin, ought to establish for the festival of the Hydrophoria a great anti- quity. The feasts, in general, are more ancient than the temples." — Boulanger, L 38-40. I will now ask the reader, if he has not read (and seen the illustrations in) Mr Catlin's " 0-tee-pa," * to com- pare the following extract with the preceding : — " The 0-kee-pa, an annual ceremony to the strict observance of which those ignorant and superstitious people attributed not only their enjoyment in life but their very existence ; for traditions, their only history, instructed them in the belief that the singular forms of this ceremony produced the buflfaloes for their supply of food, and that the omission of this annual ceremony, mith its sacrifices to the waters, would bring upon them a repetition of the calcmdty which their traditions say once befell them, destroying the whole human race ex- cepting one man, who landed from his canoe on a high mountain in the west. 5 This tradition, however, was not peculiar to the Mandan tribe, for among one hundred and twenty different tribes that I have * " 0-kee-pa, a Religious Ceremony, and other Customs of the Mandans,'' Triibner & Co. London, 1867. Mr Catlin's statements are attested by the certificates of three educated and intelligent men who witnessed the ceremonies with him, and is further corroborated by a letter addressed to Mr Catlin hy Prince Maximilian of Neuwied, the celebrated traveller among the North American Indians, who had previously referred to them (he spent a winter among the Mandans). 5 I read in the Times, March 6, 1871, that " The American papers state that workmen in Iowa, excavating for the projected Dubuque and Minne- sota railroad, in the limestone at the foot of a bluiF, discovered recently some caves and roch chambers, and, on raising a foot slab, a vault filled with human skeletons of unusual size, the largest being seven feet eight inches 246 DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN visited in North, South, and Central America, not a trihe exists that has not related to me distinct or vague traditions of such a calamity in which one or three or eight persons were saved above the waters on the top of a high mountain. Some of them, at the base of the Rooky Mountains, and in the plains ofVenezuela and the Pampa del Sacramento in South America, make cmnwal pilgrimages to the fancied mmmits where the antediluvian species were saved in canoes or otherwise, and under the mysterious regulations of their medicine (mystery) men tender their prayers and sacrifices to the Great Spirit to ensure their exemption from a similar catastrophe." — P. 2. Yet, strange to say, this is no proof to Mr Catlin of the universal Deluge recorded in Scripture. " K," he says, " it were shown that inspired history of the Deluge and of the Creation restricted those events to one continent alone, then it might he that the American races came from the Eastern continent, bringing these traditions with them, for until that is proved, the American tra- ditions of the Deluge are no evidence whatever of an eastern origin. If it were so, and the aborigines of America brought their traditions of the Deluge from the East, why did they not bring inspired history of the Creation ?" «— P. 3. ( Vide pp. 134, 135.) The " 0-kee-pa," Mr Catlin says, *' was a strictly religious ceremony, . . . with the solemnity of religious worship, with abstinence, with sacrifices, with prayer ; whilst there were three other distinct and ostensible high. A figured sun on the walls is taken as indicating that the skeletons belonged to a people who worshipped that luminary [compare supra, p. 152], and the representation of a man with a dove stepping out of a boat, as an allusion to a tradition of the Deluge. The fingers of the largest skeleton plasped a pearl ornament, and traces of cloth were found crumbled at the feet of the remains. Many copper implements were found, and it is thought that the Lake Superior mines may have been worked at an early period. The remains were to be removed to the Iowa Institute of Arts and Sciences at Dubuque." ^ Compare account of Mandan tradition of the Creation, from " Hist, des Ceremonies Religieuses," supra, p. 191. AFRICA AND AMERICA. 247 objects for whicli it was held, — 1. As an annual cele- bration of the ' subsiding of the waters ' of the Delugt, 2. For the purpose of dancing what they call the Bull- dance, to the strict performance of which they attributed the coming of buffaloes. 3. For purpose of conducting the young men through an ordeal of privation and bodily torture, which, while it was supposed to harden their muscles and prepare them for extreme endurance, enabled their chiefs ... to decide upon their compara- tive bodily strength, endurance," &c. — P. 9. The torture no doubt subserved this subsidiary pur- pose, but it appears to me that the original intention and idea was torture for the purpose of expiation, as in •the ceremonies in ancient Greece.' Sundry incidents narrated by Catlin seem to establish this. They prepare themselves by fasting (p. 25) ; after having sunk under the infliction of these horrible tortures (and from every point of view they are truly horrible), "no one was allowed to offer them aid when they lay in this condi- tion. They were here enjoying their inestimable privi- lege of voluntarily intrusting their lives to the keeping of the Grreat Spirit, and chose to remain there until the Great Spirit gave them strength to get up and walk away" (p. 28) ; and when so far recovered, " in each ^ Supra, p. 35. These tortures have their exact counterpart in India, e.g. the ceremony of the Pota (compare Sanscrit, " pota " = boat), thus described by Hunter ("Rural Bengal," 1868, p. 463):— "Pota (hook- swinging), now stopped by Government, but still practised (1866). among the Northern Santals [who have the distinct tradition of the Deluge and dispersion referred to, supra] in April or May. Lasted about one month. Young men used to swing with hooks through their back [as seen in Catlin's illustrations], as in the Charak Puja of the Hin- dus. The swingers used to fast the day preceding and the day following the operation, and to sleep the intermediate night on thorns." " On pleuroit et I'on s'attristoit dans les fetes les plus gayes et plus dis- solues ; les cultes d'Isis et d'Osiris, ainsl que ceux de Bacchus, de C&es, d' Adonis, d'Atys, &o., dtoient accompagnis de macerations et de larmes." — Boulanger, iii. 355. 248 DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN instance" they presented the little finger of the left hand, and some also the forefinger of the same hand and the little finger of the right hand (all tending to make them pro tanto inefficient warriors) " as an offering to the Great Spirit, as a sacrifice for having listened to their prayers, and protected their lives in what they had just gone through " (p. 28). For the description of the buU-Aa.TLce,^ and for the subsequent history and final extinction of the Mandans, I must refer my readers to Mr Catlin's valuable testi- mony to the truth of Scripture, and important contribu- tions to ethnological science. I shall now proceed to show analogies in what will be admitted to be most unlikely ground — in the King of Dahome's celebrated " So-sin customs," described by Captain Richard Burton. Before, however, proceeding further, I must point out the following features in the ceremonies or custonls as common to Grecian and antique pagan ; to the Mandan (Indian of North America), and to the tropical African.® * Bryant ("Myth." ii. 432) eays, "There were many arkite" {i.e. com- memorative of ark) " ceremonies in different parts of the world, which were generally styled Taurica sacra" (from taurua = hull). These mys- teries were of old attended with acts of great cruelty. Of these " I have given instances, taken from different parts of the world; from Egypt, Syria, Cyprus, Crete, and Sicily." ' Let the following points of resemblance be noted also in the " Pana- thensea. The lesser, and it is supposed the annual festival, was celebrated on the 20th of Thargelion, corresponding to the 5th May (compare Catlin). Every citizen contributed olive branches and an ox (vide Catlin) at the greater festival. " In the ceremonies without the city there was an engine built in thefonn of a ship, on purpose for this solemnity ;" upon this the sacred garment of Minerva " was hung in the manner of a sail," " the whole conveyed to the temple of Ceres Eluainia." " This procession was led by old men, together, as some say, with old women carrying olive iranches in their hands." "After them came the men of full age with shields and spears, being attended by the Meroirai, or sojourners, who carried little boats as a token of their being foreigners, and were called on that account AFRICA AND AMERICA. 249 In the first place they are cyclical ; they are all of a mournful character; all are interrupted a,t intervals hy processions, dances, and songs of a traditional character; they all close in scenes of rejoicing or rather in Bac- chanalian (yet still traditionally [vide page 247, note Boulanger] Bacchanalian) scenes of riot and debauchery. The duration of the festivals varies from three and four to five days ; the days have fantastic names, which, although difi'erent, still in their very peculiarity, and also in the drift and meaning of the names so far as it can be gathered, are suggestive of a common origin, e.gi. the, first ioat-bearers ; then followed the women attended by the Bojonrner's wives, who were named vSpiacpopoi, from iearing water pots." — Compare Burton, Catlin. Then followed select virgins, covered with millet, " called hasixt-hearers," the baskets containing necessaries for the celebration. " These virgins were attended by the sojourner's daughters, who carried umhrellas (vide Pongol Festival, appendix), lUtle seals, whence they were called seat-carriers." — Compare Burton (vide Potter's "Antiquities," i. 419.) Compare also the following in the " Dionysia " or festivals in honour of Bacchus (ante, p. 215) with Catlin. "They carried thyrsi, drums, pipes, flutes, and rattles, and crowned themselves with garlands of trees sacred to Bacchus, ivy, vine, &c. Some imitated Silenus, Pan, and the Satyrs, ex- posing themselves in comical dresses and antic motions ; " and in this manner ran about the hiUs " invoking Bacchus." " At Athens this frantic rout was followed by persons carrying certain sacred vessels, the first of which wa.a filled with water." Bryant ("Mythology," ii. 219) speaking of Egypt ("the priests of Ammon who at particular seasons used to carry in procession a boat," concerning which refer to page 254), says — "Part of the ceremony in most of the ancient mysteries consisted in carrying about a kind of ship or boat, which custom upon due examination will be found to relate to nothing else but Noah and the Deluge." He adds that the name of "the navicular shrines was Baris, which is very remarkable ; for it is the very name of the mountain, according to Nicolaus Damasoenus, on which the ark of Noah rested, the same as Ararat in Armenia." Herodotus speaks of " J3aris" as the Egyptian name of a ship, 1. 2, 96 ; Eurip. "Iphig. in Aulis.," V. 297 ; ^schylus, Persse, 151 ; Lycophron, v. 747, refer to names of ships in connection with Noah. Sup,, t^, 1S6. Query — is our word barge a corruption of baris? or perhaps of baris in connection with "argus," also a term for the ark. (With reference to this etymology vide my remark, p. 116, and d'Anselme, p. 196, and Bryant, ii. 251.) 250 DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN day of the Anthesteria, at Athens was called " JJiOoiyia, a-jro Tov -iTiBoxxi otyeiv," "because they tapped their casks.*' The fourth day of the King of Dahome's customs is named " So (horse) nan-wen (will break) kan (rope) 'gbe (to- day). — Burton, ii. 8. One part of the Mandan ceremony is called " Mee-ne-ro-ka-Ha-sha," or " the settling doronof the waters" which name again closely corresponds to the ceremonies at Athens and at Hierapolis in Syria {ante), where water was poured into the opening where the waters of the Deluge were supposed to have disappeared. The fifth day of the Dahome customs is named " Minai afunfun khi Uhun-jro men Dadda Gezo" = "we go to the small mat tent under which the king sits." — Burton, ii. 27. This approximates to the scene described by Catlin (p. 20) at the close of the bull-dance (fourth day), when " the master of ceremonies (corresponding to the king at Dahome) cried out for all the dancers, musicians," and " the representatives of animals and birds" " to gather again around him." He is described as coming out of the mystery lodge and collecting them round " the big canoe." But the closest connection is in the nature and order of the ceremonies on the fourth day at Dahome and among the Mandans. Among the latter, interrupting the bull-dance on that day, there is an apparition of " the evil spirit,"" graphically described by Mr Catlin (p. 22), and at Dahome (Burton, ii. 18), there intervenes between the fourth and fifth days' ceremonies what is called " the evil night" (there are two " evil nights ") which is the night of the horrible massacre. But on this night also, at the close of the fourth day's ceremonies among the Mandans, the inflictioH of tortures (very horrible, but w Compare the " Bhain-sasur " or Imffalo-Aeiaon at Usayagiri, oarryiug a trident. Vide " The Bhilaa Tope," Major Alex. Cunningham, 1854. AFRICA AND AMERICA. 251 mild in comparison witli the African butchery) com- mence. Now, I have already ventured the opinion that these tortures were originally of an expiatory character, and this gains confirmation by the assurance made to Captain E. Burton that the victims on " the evil night" were only " criminals " and prisoners of war, the people of Dahome, on all occasions {vide infra), preferring a vicarious mode of expiation. Captain E. Burton (li. 19) says of these massacres : — " The king takes no pleasure in the tortures and death or in the sight of blood, as will presently appear. The 2000 killed in one day, the canoe^^ paddled in a pool of gore, and other grisly nursery tales, must be derived from Whydah, where the slave- traders invented them, probably to deter Englishmen from visiting the king. It is useless to go over the ground of human sacrifice from the days of the wild Hindu's Naramadha to the burnings of the Druids, and to the awful massacres of Peru and Mexico. In Europe the extinction of the custom began from the time of the polite Augustus," i.e. commenced with the advent of our Lord. [ Vide a reference to MS. of Sir J. Acton in Mr Gladstone's address to the University of Edinburgh, 1865, from which it would appear that the final extinc- tion was not until the triumph of Christianity.] Without carrying rashness to the excess of disputing the interpretation of Dahoman words with Captain Burton, I may yet demur to abcepting his explanation of the term " So-sin " (the " So-sin customs ") absolute et simpliciter. He says (i. 315), "The Sogan ('So' = horse, 'gan' captain) opens the customs by taking all the chargers from their owners and by tying them up, whence the word So-sin. The animals must be 11 It is as well to note, however, that the Dahomans have recently altered their customa. The one Captain Burton witnessed (ii, 34) was a " mixed custom," and elsewhere allusion is made to " the new " ceremony. 252 DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN redeemed in a few days with a bag of cowries. "^^ This is certainly a very likely definition, and although second- ^^ Analogies may perhaps be diaoovered in the representations of the procession escorting a relic casket on the architraves of the western gate at Sanchi. (Yide " The Bhilsa Tope," by Major Alex. Cunningham, p. 227.) "Street of a city on the left, houses on each side filled with spec- tators, .... It. few horsemen heading a procession, .... immediately outside the gate are four persons bearing either trophies or some peculiar instruments of office. Then follows a led horse, .... a soldier with a bell-shaped shield, two fifers, three drummers, and two men blowing conches, Next comes the king on an elephant, carrying the holy relic casket on his head and supporting it with liia right hand. Then follows two peculiarly dressed men on horseback, perhaps prisoners. They wear a kind of cap (now only known in Barmawar, on the upper course of the Eavi) and boots or leggings. The procession is closed by two horsemen (one either the minister or a member of the royal family) and by an elephant with two riders." It may have had connection with the 4«warnedha or horse sacrifice (Cunningham, p. 363.) Boulanger (i. 109) says, " That after the winter solstice the ancient inhabitants of India descended with their king to the banks of the Indus ; they there sacrificed horses and ilach bulls, signs of a funeral ceremony; they then threw a bushel measui'e into the water with- out their assigning any reason for it." Compare the throwing the cakes into the gulf at Athens, and the hatchets into the water at the Mandan custom. Could it be that at the Dahoman ceremony the horses were re- deemed because the wretched victims were substituted, carrying out the idea of vicarious sacrifice and expiation ? Sir John Lubbock (" Origin of Civilization," p. 199) says, speaking of vmter worship, " The kelpie or spirit of the waters assumed various forms, those of a man, woman, horse, or bull being the most common. Compare supra, pp. 196, 202, 204, Manou, Bacchus. Homer (Hom. II., Heynii, xxi. 130, Lord Derby, 145), says — " Shall aught avail ye, though to him (the river Scamander) In sacrifice, tlia blood of countless bulls you pay. And living horses in his waters sink ;" and (210) .isteropceus is called " river-born," because the son of Pelegon, who "to broadly flowing Axius owed his birth." Remembering the belief of certain tribes of Indians {supra, p. 137) that they were " created under the water," which I have construed to mean, that they were created on the other side of the Deluge, so we may take in a similar sense the traditions of these Homeric heroes that they were " river-born ;" and does the expression, son of Pelegon (compare " son of Prometheus," supra, AFRICA -AND AMERICA. 253 ary, is no doubt the explanation current among the present generation of Dahomans. All I shall venture to do is to supplement it. But may not the old and primi- tive idea still lurk in the name ? At i. 242, I perceive Captain Burton says ''so" and "sin" mean roater/^ and p. 232), imply more than that he waa the deecendant of Phaleg, or, if not in the line of descent, the descendant of progenitors who had retained the tradition that Phaleg was 30 called, "because in hia days the earth was divided"? — Gen. ch. 2. 25. Compare ancient Welsh ballad (Davies' " Mythology of British Druids," p. 100)— ' ' Truly I was in the ship With Dylan (Deucalion), son of the sea. . . . When .... the floods came forth From heaven to the great deep." '' The name for river, in the Chitral or Little Kashghar vocabulary (Vigne, "Travels in Kashmir") isriver=si»j" also in the Dangon, on the Indus, voc. (id.) river =«'»/ in the Afighan (Kalproth) the sea = sired. Sindhu is the Sanscrit name for river (Mas Muller, "Science of Lang.," 1st series, 215) ; and has also its equivalent in ancient Persian. In Danish, river or lake = so; in Icelandic, sjor (sjo) ; in Bultistan, touh ; German, see; English, sea ; in Kashmir, sar=marBe ; Icelandic, saus. Compare Rivers Saar, Soane, Seine, Irish Suir ; perhaps also Esk and Usk (Vigne, " Trav. inKashmir"). Horse=shtah, in Bultistan. Has not so analogy with eau,augr (Chittral), water ? Sara = water in Sanscrit (Max Muller, " Chips," ii. 47) ; Sanscrit, vari, more generic term for water ; Latin, mare ; Gothic, marie ; Slavonic, more; Irish and Scotch, muir (M.) Compare Chinese "ma"=horse; Mongol, "mou"= horse; German, machre ; English, Tnare. Conclusion, either there is the same word for horse and water in certain languages, which may have occurred in the way of secondary derivation from these " mysteries," or if so means water, then " So-sin " may only be a redupli- cation, as in the names of some of our rivers — eg. Dwfr-Dwy = water, of Deva= Dee-river {Archceol. Joumai, xvii. 98). Bryant (" Myth." ii. 408) says "The iTTTTos, hippus (horse), alluded to in the early mythology was cer- tainly a float or ship, the same as the ceto.'' There is, moreover, the analogy in the Latin of aqva and equus. Another Sanscrit word for water, "ap" (Max Miiller, Sc. of L., 103) has analogy with the Greek Z7r7ros= horse. It appears (Sc. of L., 2nd series, p. 36), that the Tahi- tians have substituted the word "pape" for "vai"= water; but both words " pape," to ap, " vai," to vam, seem to have analogies to Sanscrit as above. Plato (" Cratylus," c. 36, Sc. of L., 1st series, p. 116) mentions that the name for water was the same in Phrygian and Greek. At p. 235, 254 DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN the compound word " amma-sin " means " medicine " = "leaf-water," and again at 244 the same word " Sin" is twice used to signify liquid. If so, in the very name of the feast we find the word mater, which links it into connection with " the Mandan custom " and the festivals of ancient G-reece. The word, " So " = horse, will therefore still remain, and may perhaps stand in the same relation to the " water " celebration, that the " bull" does to the Mandan cele- bration of the Deluge. Captain Burton, for instance, tells us (ii. 15), a " So" was brought up to us (on the fourth day of the So-sin custom, and on the fourth day of the Mandan custom " the bull-dance " was performed sixteen times round " the big canoe ") ; but I will place the two descriptions side by side. Captain Burton, ii 15. " A ' So ' was brought up to us. a hull-faci mash of natural size, painted black, mth. glaring eyes and peep-holes, the horns were hung with red and white rag strips, and beneath was a dress of bamboo fibre covering the feet, and ruddy at the ends. It danced with head on one side and swayed itself about, to the great amusement of the people." Vide also p. 93, " Four taU men singularly dressed, and with bul- locks' tails," &o. Mr Catlin, p. 16. "The chief actors in these strange scenes (buU-dance) were eight men, with the entire skins of buffaloes thrown over them, enabling them closely to imitate the appearance and motions of those animals, as the bodies were kept in as horizontal a position, the horns and tails of the animals remaining on the skins, and the skins of the animals' heads served as masks through the eyes of which the dangers were loohing." The legs of the dancers were painted red and white " (plate 6.) 1st series, Mr Max MuUer says that Persian Har6ya is the same as Sanscrit Saroya ; which latter " is derived from a root ' sar ' or ' sri,' to go, to run ; from which 'saras,' water, 'sarit,' river, and 'Sarayu,' the proper name of the river near Oude." Here at any rate in the Sanskrit "sar," to run, we may, if the above conjecture is rejected, start the words "horse" and "water" from a common root. AFRICA AND AMERICA. 255 If we might (on the strength of so many words of primary necessity being in common) connect "So" = horse, with the Saxon " soc " or plough (as in the soc and service tenure), we could then see a way in which the same word might apply indififerently to ox or horse ; and we would, moreoYer, see through the common re- lation to Noah how the water ceremony came to be associ- ated with the worship of Ceres in the mysteries of Eleusis. Vide Boulanger, i. 70-107.^* The above enumeration does not exhaust the points of resemblance. Compare the following : — BuETON, ii. 23. "Conspicuous objects on the left of the pavilion were two Ajalela or fetish, pots made by the present king (according to Catlin, p. 8. " In an open area in the centre of the village stands the ark or ' big canoe,' around which a great proportion of the ceremonies were '* Compare (Klaproth, " Mem. Asiat." ii. 12) — ^Eng. ox ; Mongol, char ; Hebrew, chor ; French, charrue (plough.) Klaproth, ii. 405, " Les cheveux en Thou Khin (whom he identifies with the Turks) portaieut le nom de 8o%Q ou soke ; cest le m€me nom que le Turc sS.tch ou eadg." Can it have affinity with Chinese sa (Chinese szu=bceuf sauvage); German, saen; Swedish, s&; French, semer; English = to sort; Peruvian, sara= maize ; also French, coudre, to sow with English corn ; Sanscrit, go ; High German, chus; Sclavonic, gows (Max Miiller, "Chips," ii. 27); and Kashmir and Dongan, gau; Icelandic, ku ? In Affghan a bull'=saihendar and sou^han- dar. In the extinct Tartar Coman {vide Klaproth) ox = ogus or seger — Turkish, okus ; Sanscrit, oukcha ; German, ochse. Plough = Sanscrit, sinam ; Irish, serak; Persian, siar. Horse=osp, Persian; ess, Sclavonic = English ass ; and in Chittral on Indus {vide horse or bull used in cere- monies on banks of Indus, infra) horse= asior. (Has not tor here affinity with taureaxiL.) Corn=.4slek (Kirghish) and Ashlyk (?) Turkish. Max Miiller (Science of Language, p. 231), says — " Aspa was the Persian name for horse, and in the Scythian names, Aspabota, Aspakara, and Asparatha, we can hardly fail to recognise the same element." Also, p. 242, " The comparison of ploughing and sowing is of frequent occurrence in ancient language." Eng., plough ; Sclav., ploug = Sanscrit, plava, ship = Gk. irXoioK, ship. " In English dialects, plough is used as a waggon or convey- ance. In the Vale of Blackmore, a waggon is called a plough, or plow, and Zull (A.-S., syl) is used for aratrum," — Barnes, "Dorset Dialect," p. 369, ap. Max Miiller. 2s6 DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN tlie customs.) Vide, note 16. Both are lamp black, shaped like am- phojEe (amphorae, for holding ■wine) about 4 feet high, and planted on tripods. The larger was solid, the smaller caUendered ■with many small holes, and both were decorated -with brass and silver crescents, stars, and sumlar ornaments. The second, when filled vnth water and medicine allows none to escape, so great is its fetish power ; an army guarded by it can never be de- feated, and it will lead the way to Absokuta." Compare Pongol ceremony, p. 275. Burton. In the opening procession of the third day's customs, Captaia Burton teUs us (iL 2), "First came a procession of eighteen Tansi-no or fetish women, who have charge of the last monarch's grave. . . . They were preceded by bundles of matting, eight large stools, cala- bashes, pipes, baskets of water, grog, and meat with segments of gov/rd above and below, tobacco bags, and other commissariat articles ; and they were followed by a band of horns and rattles."'^^ In another procession (ii. 47), " The party was brought up by slave girls carrying baskets and calabashes. (Query, of water 1) These, preceded by six bellowing horns, stalked in slowly, and with measured gait the eight Tansi-no, performed. This rude symbol, of 8 or 10 feet in height, was constructed of planks and hoops, having somewhat the appearance of a large hogshead standing on its end, and containing some mysterious things, which none but the medicine (mystery) men were allowed to examine." This must be considered in connection with the follo'sving. CATLIlSr. In Captain Burton's account of the articles paraded in the procession, the pipes (to which great mystery is attached), the horns and rattles (vide pi), and the haskets of water are common to the Mandan ceremony. May not the eight stools be represen- tative of the eight dilu-vian sur- vivors. Vide supra, 197, Cabiri ? Let us, however, confine our at- tention to the "baskets of water." Compare ■with the following ac- count in Catlin. "In the medicine (mystery) lodge .... there were also fcmr articles of veneration and import- ance lying on the ground, which were sacks containing each some three or four gallons of water. These seemed to be objects of ' Compare the procession in the PanathenseaandDionysiajSMpra, p. 248. AFRICA AND AMERICA. 357 who serve and pray for tlie ghosts of dead kings. (Query, eight dead kings?) In front went their ensign, a copper measuring rod 15 feet long and tapering to a very fine end ; behind it were two chauris and seven mysterious pots and calabashes wrapped in •white and red checks," and pre- sently " three brass, four copper, and six iron pots, curiosities on account of their great size. . . . Eight images, of which three were apparently ship's figure- heads whitewashed, and the rest very hideous efforts of native art." " great superstitious regard, and had been made with much labour and ingenuity, being constructed of the skins of the buffaloes' neck, and sewed together in the forms of large tortoises lying on their backs (comp. p. 138 ; also p. 269), each having a sort of tail made of raven's quills and a stick like a drumstick lying on it, with which, as will be seen in a sub- sequent part of the ceremony, the musicians beat upon the sachs as instruments of music for their strange dances. By the sides of these sacks, which they called Ech-tee-ka (drums), there were two other articles of equal im- portance which they called Ech- na-da (rattles) made of undressed skins shaped into the form of gourd shells," &c. (Note the seg- ments of gourd accompanying the water baskets in the Dahome procession, supra.) Catlin adds — " The sacks of water had the appearance of great antiquity, and the Mandaris pretended that the water had been contained in them ever since the Deluge." — pp. 15, 16." 16 " Eight men representing eiglit buffalo bulls," in Mandan celebration, " took their positions on the four sides of the ark or ' big canoe.' " — Catlin, p. 17. " The chief actors in these strange scenes were eight men with skins of buffaloes," &c. p. 16. Four images were suspended on poles above the mystery lodge, p. 8. 1' In the Japanese {vide p. 269) version of the legend of the hull break- ing the mundane egg {vide p. 306), a gourd or pumpkin is also broken which contained the first man. — Vide Bryant's " Mythology," iii. 679. " I have mentioned that the ark was looked upon as the mother of mankind, and styled Da-Mater, and it was on this account figured under the sem- blance of a pomegranate," "as it abounds with seed " — Bryant, ii. 380. B 2s8 DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN Bdrton, ii 35. It must be remembered that at Dahome, royalty as tbere repre- sented has absorbed and mono- polised the most important parts of the ceremonial : it is natural, therefore, to expect that the con- spicuous figures in the original (or in the Mandan), which con- flicted or would not consort with royalty, would be thrown into the background. Accordingly I am only able to get a glimpse of the conspicuous figures oppgsite in the following passage : — " The jesters were followed by a dozen purswivants armed with gong- gongs, who advanced bending towards the throne, and shouted the ' strong names ' or titles. Conspicuous amongst them was an oldster in a crimson sleeveless tunic and yellow shorts : his head was red with dust, he car- ried a large hill-hook^ and he went about attended by , four drwms and one cymbal." It wUl be remembered (if my readers have read Mr Catlin, p. 11, 12) that the first thing "the aged white man" does on enter- ing the mystery lodge is to call on the chiefs "to furnish him with four men," and the next is to "receive at the door of every Mandan's wigwam some edged tool to be given to the water as a Catlin, p. 10. The opening scene in the Man- dan customs, effectively described by Mr Catlin, begins with " a solitary human figure descending the prairie hills and approaching the village," "in appearance a very aged man," " a centenarian white man," dressed in a robe of four white wolves' skins." He was met by the head chief and the council of chiefs, and ad- dressed by them as " Nu-mohk- muck-a-nah" (the first and only man.) " He then harangued them for a few minutes, remind- ing them that every human being on the surface of the earth had been destroyed by the water ex- ceptiag himself, who had landed on a high mountain in the west in his canoe, where he stiU re- sided, and from whence he had come to open the medicine (mys- tery) lodge, that the Mandans might celebrate the subsiding of the waters, and make the proper sacrifices to the water, lest the same calamity should again hap- pen to them." Vide also plate (Bryant, ii. 410), where Juno {vide, p. 395) holds a dove in one hand and a pomegranate in the other. 18 Compare also sup., p. 210, with Saturn. " Ipsius autem canities," &o., and " cum falce messis iusigne." AFRICA AND AMERICA. sacrifice, as it was with such tools that the "big canoe" was built." 259 Burton, ii. 38. " The ministers .... they were conducted by a 'Lali' or half- head, with right side of his peri- cranium clean shaven, and the left in a casing of silver that looked like a cast or a half melon." Catlin, p. 30. Compare with the two athletic young men {vide Plate XIII.) as- signed to each of the young men who underwent the torture — " their bodies painted one half red and the other blue, and carrying a bunch of wiUow- boughs in one hand." Burton says (ii. &7), " One of the Dahoman monarch's peculi- arities is that he is double, not merely binonymous, nor dual, like the spiritual Mickado and temporal Tycoon of Japan, but two in one. Gelele, for instance, is king of the city and addo-kpon of the ' bush ' ; i.e. of the farmer folk and the country as opposed to the city. This country ruler has his official mother, the Dank- li-ke. . . . Thus Dahome has two points of interest to the ethnolo- gist — the distinct precedence of women and the double king." — Vide also p. 80. Here two or three questions suggest themselves. If this cere- mony is primitive, wiU not dual royalty give a clue to the duality we find so commonly in myth- ology, assuming the basis of mythology to be historical 1 2d, Is there no clue in the name, official name, of Dank-li-ke ? What does the reader guess the meaning to be? (p. 58.) Mr Burton tells us it means, " Dank (the rainbow), U (stand), and ke (the world)." Is it a forced para- phrase to construe this to mean — The rainbow is the sign that the world shall stand ? Upon the point of the precedence of woman, to which the Dahoman ceremony testifies, but to which it gives no clue, I shall, as it is so very important in more hear- ings than one, give at some length the following scene from Catlin : — ^ Compare again these two figures, one figuring in the Dahoman pro- ceBsion, the other in the Mandan buU dance. 25o DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN " When ' the evil spirit' enters the camp during the ceremony, he proceeds to make various attacks, vriiioh are defeated by the inter- vention of the master of the ceremonies. In several attempts of this kind the evil spirit was thus defeated, after which he came wander- ing back amongst the dancers, apparently much fatigued and dis- appointed. .... In this distressing dilemma he was approached by an old matron, who came up slyly behind him, with both hands full of yellow dirt, which (by reaching around him) she suddenly dashed in his face, covering bim from head to foot, and changing his colour, as the dirt adhered to the undried bear's grease on his skin ; ... at length another snatched his wcmd from his hand and broke it across her knee .... his power was thus gone .... bolting through the crowd, he made his way to the prairies." — P. 24. We shall not be surprised to learn, then, that when the " Feast of the Buffaloes " (distinct from the hull-dance) commences (p. 33), several old men perambulated the village in various directions, in the character of criers, with rattles in their hands, proclaiming that " the whole government of the Mandans was then in the hands of one woman — she who had disarmed the evil spirit . . . that the chiefs that night were old women; that they had nothing to say; that no one was allowed to he out of their wigwams excepting the favoured ones whom ' the governing woman" had invited," &c. Will not this give a clue to the precedence in Dahome, probandis prohatis, and is not the precedence in Dahome thus interpreted, and the interlude above described evidence of the tra- dition, that the woman should break the head of the serpent? (Gen. iii. 15). It is of great significance, and, if so many points of comparison had not occurred, ought to have, been stated at the outset, that at Dahome "the Sin-kwain (" sin," water — " kwain," sprinkling), or water-sprinkling custom follows closely upon the " So- sin or Horse-tie rites." — Vide Burton, ii. 167. Now, if the reader will turn to Boulanger, i. 90, 91, he will find this identical custom in Persia, Pegu, China, AFRICA AND AMERICA. 261 and Japan. But I relinquisli the details, as I fear I shall have exhausted the patience of the few readers I shall have carried with me to this point ; and because the King of Dahome has a custom perhaps still more demonstrably cognate to not only the ancient Grecian ceremonies on the shores of the ocean and on the banks of rivers, but with widely diffused tradition. 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I V ..Sag S » ^ a S ■S a o,§ £■ "- 1 3 .2 1 & """Tie ' ■S .- J" 'O a 3 I ill -^Jd S S g °5 is a S a E.S.2 §■2 a f S .2 le ■•^ V 0} V S a V gj ''^ ." .2 2 S CI i-tJ ^S 355^ ST.^ a >j g h Q eS o [Q a .a a .2 " -3 ■ ■S gd 5 3 jh 9 -B V ^ V c ■9 .•&'S £ ^ a a " *5 3 a .g a** ri ^ 9 <" ■» iig|o §■^-§3.2 . a .2 ** M S a S c s a i S 2 o « § a _: 2 a a S.a to O 1-1 of ft. 2 3 9 §* 3 frf S 2 d tn O 01 £3 -> S ing them from all maladies ; this done, each man separates his own cattle, and drives it to some distance, then returns for the pur- pose of assembling round the cacique, who, in a long and fervid address, advises them never to forget Houacouvou in their pray- ers, and to lose no time in pre- paring themselves to please him, by carrying desolation amongst the Christians, and increasing the number of their own flocks and herds." This festival, therefore, in its original conception would not ap- pear to be a worship of the evil spirit, but of him who curbs him ; the same idea of the subor- dination of the evU spirit will be seen in Catlin's account of the Mandans. AFRICA AND AMERICA. 279 to the peacock? Compare ch. XV.] Agni has also his special image, that of a stout man, red and hairy as Esau, riding on a goat [compare Bacchus, p. 214]. Surya is also a red man, sitting on a water lily. He has four arms and three eyes. But none of these (deities) are known at Pongol any more than they were at the time when the hymns of the Rig Veda were composed. . . . The gifts are laid out on trays, — a vase of sugar, or per- haps an idol, peacock or elephant, round which will be grouped smaller works in. sugar for the children. . . . One thing may not be forgotten, that is a lime [compare 'gourd,' p. 256]. This must be as large as money can buy, and then be carefully encased in gold leaf till it looks like one of the golden apples of antic[uity. The next day is MahS, (or great) Pongol. It is often called Sfirya Pongol. At noon the sun will cross the ec[uator, and bring the culminating glory of the feast. So great a day must commence with appropriate ceremonial, and m this instance it is bathing. In country places the women run early in the morning to the nearest tank and plunge hodily in without und/ress- iny." [This is alluded to by Mr Gover as " an innovation so un- comfortable and possibly danger- ous ;" but no evidence is adduced of its being an innovation, and its being the custom of the There is nothing certainly in this account which directly con- nects these Patagonian cere- monies with the diluvian com- memorations, unless, perhaps, the sacred drum ; but there is much in common with the Pongol and the Mandan which we have seen to have been commemorative. The prominence of sun wor- ship will not have escaped ob- servation ; but this discovery cannot militate against my posi- tion, for I have already shown (p. 160) that such admixture was probable, and also indicated how, it was likely to have come about. Any hostile argument which would seek to deprive those ceremonies of their significance must be directed to the extru- sion of the diluvian symbols. Further trace of these dilu- vian ceremonies might be traced in the Buddhist systems ; but it would open out too large a ques- tion for discussion here. 28o DILUVIAN TRADITIONS IN "country parts" would incline us to the contrary belief.] The men also bathe very carefully, as if the occasion were very solemn. Reference is made to the .Rig Veda, i. 23, 15-24 (Wilson, i. 57); but in these verses occur the words, "waters take away whatever sin has been found in me." "Dripping wet, the women proceed, without changing their clothes, to prepare the feast, . . . new chatties, or earthen vessels had been purchased for the occa- sion ; one of them is now taken and is filled with rice, milk, sugar, dholghee or clarified but- ter, grain, and other substances, calculated to produce a tasty dish. . . . The ingathering must be celebrated with things that havejust been garnered. Usually Hindoos will not eat new rice, as it is indigestible" (refer to Leviticus xxiii. 10-14). An- other iucident is that — " The head of the house approaches the image (of Ganesa), and performs pflja. Then follows a procession of the young married couples t-o propitiate their mothers-in-law. ... So a present, the best the house can provide, is carefully put together on a tray. It may be fruit, or brass pots, or ghee, or whatever else may be thought most acceptable. Then a small procession is formed. In front go three or four men, beat- ing on tom-toms and blowing pipes. Then follows the gift, - AFRICA AND AMERICA. 281 held aloft. Over it, if the family be respectable, is held an um- brella, carried by a servant who walks behind the bearer of the gift. . . . The nearest relative steps forward and asks that the daughter and her husband may come to the ' boiling,' to fill up the family circle. Then follows the boiling of the pot ; ' as the milk boils, so will the coming year be.' The Pongol is one long series of visits, entertainments, and social joys." (Oomp. Mandan Festival, supra.) " The third day of the feast is Mftttu Pongol, or the Pongol cf the cattle. It commences with a general wash. They betake them- selves to the nearest sacred tank, driving or dragging with them the whole bovine possessions of the village. They are then driven home, and adornment com- mences ; the horns are carefully painted red, hlue, green, or yellow, — if the owner be rich, gold leaf is employed, — heavy garlands of flowers placed on the horns. Meanwhile the women have pre- pared another new chatty, filling it with water, steeping within safiEron, cotton seeds, and mangora ' leaves. The master of the cere- monial, usually the head of the house, comes for it, and places himself at the head of a proces- sion of all the men — the women may not see the rite we now de- scribe. In solemn sUence they march round each animal four times, while the first man 282 DILUVIAN TRADITIONS. sprinkles the bitter -water upon it and the ground as often as they pass the four cardinal points of the compass. . . . This done, the women and children are again admitted. The patient cattle are led out one by one to receive their final adornment. . . . Then, at a given signal, every rope is untied, every tom-tom, pipe, and guitar is banged or blown to the extreme of its endurance, and in an instant the herd, hitherto so patient, is careering down the street in an extremity of terror. . . . Any one may pos- sess himself of whatever is carried by the cattle. No little skill and a vast amount of courage are shown by the ' timid' Hindoos in this dangerous and exciting pell- mell. The next day is Kanen Pongol, or Pongol of the calves. " On the evening of this day we find- the only token of cor- ruption in the ceremonial." . . . Then follows a dance, just as is described by Catlin as closing the Mandan ceremonial, in which very similar scenes occur. CHAPTEK XII. S/H JOHN LUBBOCK ON TRADITION. De Maistee's Vibw.^ " We have little knowledge of the times whicli preceded the Deluge. .... A single consideration interests us, and it must never be lost sight of, and that is, that chastisements are ever proportioned to crimes, and crimes always proportioned to the knowledge of the criminal ; in such sort that the Deluge supposes unheard-of crimes, and that these crimes suppose a knowledge infinitely transcending that which we possess This knowledge, freed from the evil which had rendered it so noxious, survived in the first family the destruction of the human race. We are blinded as to the nature and advance of science by a gross sophism which has fascinated every eye ; it is to judge of times when men saw effects in their causes by those ia which men paiufully ascend from effects to causes, in which they are only concerned with effects, iu which they say it is useless to occupy themselves with causes, and in which they do not know what constitutes a cause. They never cease repeating — 'Think of the time that has been required to know such and such a thing.' What inconceivable blindness ! A moment 'only was recLuiied. If man would know the cause of a single phenomenon of nature, he would probably comprehend all the rest. We are unwilling to see that truths, the most difficult to discover, are very easy to understand. . . . . ' These things,' as Plato says, 'are perfectly and easily learned if any one teaches them, ei Si64a iiro tup ttoWuv &ypaa vd/u/ia (Leg. yii. 793). Vide Sir G. C. Lewis, " Method of Rea. in Pol," ii. 27. [The " laws called unwritten by the multitude '' must evidently imply laws known to the multitude but in tradition.] Cicero, "De Natura Deorum," iii., says, "Habes, Balba, quid Cotta, quid ponti/ex sentiat. Fac nunc, ego iutelligam, quid tu sentias: a te enim philosopho rationem accipere debea religionis ; majoribus autem nostris etiam nulla ratione reddita credere." " Lex est cui homines obtemperare couvenit, cum ob alia multa, tum ab eo maxime quod lex omnia inventus quidem, ao dei munus est." " Lex est sanctio sanota, jubens honesta, pro- hibeus contraria." ^ This last sentence is only a gloss of Cicero's from the stoical point of view, since clearly the enunciation of the oracle would compel the conclu- sion, that what was most ancient and nearest the gods was the best, and not that the best, as abstractly conceived, was to be held the most ancient &o. A moment's consideration will suffice to show that in this substitution is involved the whole extent of the difference between the principle of con- servation and the principle of change. " Demosfchfene qui avait en faire tant de mauvaises lois, prouonjait que " toutes les lois sont I'ouvrage et le present des dieux " et c'etait h. ee titre qu'il r^clamit pour elles I'ob^issanos des hommes. Socrate professait la THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 371 blissements en Thrace, en Samothrace, k Dodone, et qui perp^tuera son autorite par I'mstitution des mysteres. On voit aussi la resist- ance d'une race belliqueuse." — Onanam, " Les Germains avant le Christianisme," vol. i. chap. " Les Lois." " Au premier abord rien ne semble plus contraire aux moeurs bar- bares que la loi romaine, si subtile, si precise, si Men obfiie. Cepen- dant si I'on en considfere les origines, on n'y trouve pas d'autres principes que ceux dont la trace subsistait dans les vieilles coutumes de la Qermanie. Le droit primitif du Eome, comme celui du Nord, est un droit sacrd." — lb. p. ] 48. " II existait chez les Germains une autoritd religieuse, depodtaire de la tradition, et qui y trouvait I'id^al et le priacipe de tout I'ordre civil. ~ Cette autorite avait cr66 la propri6t6 LmmobilifeTe en la ren- dant respectable par des rites et des symboles, . . . elle I'engageait dans les liens de la famille legitime, consaorde par la saintet^ du mariage, par le culte des ancStres, par la solidarity du sang : elle I'enveloppait dans le corps de la nation s^dentaire, ou elle avait itabli une hierarchic de caste et de pouvoir, k I'exemple de la hierarchie divine de la creation" (p. 147). "Dans cette suite de scenes dont se compose pour ainsi dire le drame judiciaire, on recon- natt un pouvoir religieux, qui cherche h sauver la paix, d dSsarmer la guerre et qui s'y prend de trois fagons diff&entes " (p. 142). Now, if we are agreed that fitting channels for the diffusion of the tradition existed ; if, further, we find that all law seems to trace itself back to a common source of m@me doctrine." — Ozanam, "Les Germains avant le Christianisme," i., 169. Again, " Quand on etudie les lois indiennes on y voit tout im grand peuple enchain^ par la terreur des dieux. Le livre de la loi s'annonce comme une revelation Les prescriptions du droit saor^ enveloppent pour ainsi dire toute la vie civile, et c'est ISi qu'ou deoouvre enfin la raison de tant de coutumes dont les Ocoidentaux avaient conserve la lettre, mats non I'esprit." /d. p.l61, " If the customs and institutions of barbarians have one characteristic more striking than another, it is their extreme uni- formity " (Maine's " Ancient Law," p. 366). " There are in nature certain fountains of justice whence all civil laws are derived but as streams ; and like as waters do take tinctures and tastes from the soils through which they run, so do civU laws vary according to the regions and governments where they are planted, though they proceed from the same fountains." (Bacon, "Advancement of Learning," B. ii. W. iii. 475, ap. ; D. Bowland, "On the Moral Commandments," p. 8.5.) 372 SIR H. MAINE ON supernatural revelation ; if tHe resemblances in the tra- ditions concerning the lawgivers of antiquity — and, with the exception of Lycurgus, the agreement in the funda- mentals of their codes — in the great lines of the family, property, and the external relations of life, seems to require the supposition of some common fountain-head at which they all filled the pitcher — we shall, I think, when we come to the question of public law, only require further some evidence of a tradition of maxims, rules, and precedents of procedure in war, founded on and appealing to natural right, and claiming the sanction of the gods, to establish the existence of a law common to all nations different from that which would have arisen from the judgment of the praetors, merely applying the rules and maxims common to the Eomans and the adjoining nations, in case of conflict where the luw of the State was not allowed to be applied {supra, Maine). I shall, doubtless, be reminded that this was only part of Sir H. Maine's argument, and that it was this, taken in connection with the influence of the Stoics on Roman law, and the stoical conception of nature,^^ which created the fiction of a law of nature, and of a law common to all nations. Let it then be granted that the theories and maxims of the Stoics had their influence on Roman society and Roman law. It was only part of the influence which stole over and everywhere impregnated the field of primi- tive tradition. Sir H. Maine shows us how it at once ^ " L'erreur a ^iA de croire q^u'il n'est rien de plus facile \ I'homme que de suivre la nature, tandis que o'est au coutraire le chef-d'oeuvre de I'arfc que de la contenir dans les bornes que la nature lui prescrit : o'est oil peu- vent k peine parvenir les legislateurs les plus sages. Que de pr^jug& b. ^teiudre ! que d'erreurs k combattre ! que d'habitudes k raincre ! toutes choses qui dans tous les temps commandent imp^rieusement au genre humain." — " L' AntiquAti dlaoilte par ses usages, i. 1. ii. ch. iii. par Bou- I anger. THE LA W OF NATIONS. 373 seized iipon the element of law, which, be it in fiction only, was said to be common to all nations. Would it the less have seized upon it if, instead of being a fiction, it had been a reality ? — a fortiori, it would have done so. Therefore Sir H. Maine leaves the question as to the belief among the ancients in a " law common to all nations" still open, or rather, so far as there is an argument, it is only with the previoiis part of his theory that it is necessary to deal ; for all that Sir H. Maine's finely-drawn reasoning and subtle detection of the influ- ence of Grrecian stoicism on Roman law accounts for — so far as the present argument is concerned — is the greater attention and respect which was henceforward paid to the fiction, supposing that it had not heretofore and always been paid to the fact, that there was a tra- ditional law common to all nations. I have previously (p. 3) pointed out the distinction between the law of nations and international law, and I am under the impression that I made the distinction before the publication of Sir H. Maine's work — certainly before I had become acquainted with it. The manner in which Sir H. Maine makes the distinction does not appear to me to be quite accurate. He says : — " It is almost unnecessary to add that the confusion between jus gentium, or law common to all nations, and inter- national law, is entirely modern. The classical expres- sion for international law is jus feciale, or the law of - negotiation and diplomacy " (p. 53). The Fecial College was very far from corresponding with our Corps Diplo- matique, neither was its law a law of negotiation and diplomacy; and the distinction between the law of nations and international law was made in modern times, precisely because in antiquity treaty law was subordinate to, and identified with, the traditional law. The Fecial College corresponded much more nearly to 374 S/Ji H. MAINE ON what our Heralds' College would be, supposing the Heralds' College invested with the authority of our Admiralty Courts, and also made the trustees cff the foundation for the study of international law, which Dr Whewell's hequest had the intention of instituting at Cambridge. We should then have, as in ancient times, a body of men who would be at once the depositaries, the interpreters, and the heralds of a tradition, though, to complete the picture, we should have to invest them with a sacred character, and in some way to give to their decisions the sanction of religion. Dionysius of Hali- carnassus tells us that they were priests chosen from the best families at Eome, and that their special intention was to see that the Eomans never made an unjust war. " The seventh part of the Sacred Laws was devoted to the college of the Fecials, whom the Greeks call ei^voZiKai?^ They are men selected from the most illustrious families, and are dedicated during their whole life to this priest- hood It would take long to enumerate all the various duties' of the Fecials, which were multifarious, . . . but in the main they are these, — to take heed lest the Eomans should ever undertake an unjust war with a city with which they were in league " (Lib. ii.) ; it was their duty to demand reparation, and, failing, to declare war; in case of differences with allies, they acted as mediators, and they adjudicated in case of disputes. It was for them to decide what constituted an injury to the person of an ambassador, and whether or not the generals had acted according to their oaths; to draw up the ''^ EipijvoSiTOi — " Feoiales quia interpretes et arbUn sunt paeis et belli." — liexicon, Ben-Hederio, Emesti. Vjde also Plutarch, " Numa ;" Livy, lib. i. e. 34. Vattel, iii. c. iv., says : — " It is surprising to find among the Romans such justice, such moderation and prudence, at a time too when apparently nothing but courage and ferocity was to be expected from them." THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 375 articles of treaties, truces, and the like ; and to decide as to their nullity and validity, and to communicate accord- ingly with the Senate, which deliberated upon their re- port. What Cicero tells us is not less to the point : — " There are certain peculiar laws of war also, whicli are of all tHngs most strictly to be observed As we are boimd to be merciful to those whom we have actually conquered, so should those also be received into favour who have laid down their arms Our good forefathers were most strictly just as to this particular, the custom of those times making him the patron of a conquered city or people who first received them into the faith and allegiance of the people of Bome. In short, the whole right and all the duties of war are most rigorously set down in the fecial laws, out of which it is manifest that no war can be justly undertaken unless satisfaction has heenfwst demanded, and proclamation of it made publicly beforehand." — Cicero, Offices, i. xi. ; again, also, vide iii. xxxi. Compare these passages with Mr Gladstone's account of the Homeric age : — " In that early age, despite the prevalence of piracy, even that idea of political justice and public right, which is the germ of the law of nations, was not unknown to the Greeks. It would appear that war could not be made without an appropriate cause, and that the offer of redress made it the duty of the injured to come to terms. Hence the offer of Paris in the third Iliad is at once readily accepted ; and hence, even after the breach of the act, arises Agamemnon's fear, at the moment when he anticipates the death of Menelaus, that by that event the claim to the restoration of Helen will be practically dis- posed of, and the Greeks will have to return home without reparation for a wrong, of which the corpus, as it were, will have disappeared." —Iliad, iv. 160-62.=" It is certainly not within the scope of this chapter to indicate the multiform applications of the law of nations, which it would require a legist's special know- ledge (to which the writer can lay no claim) to deter- *» Gladstone, "Homer and the Homeric Age," ill. 4. 376 SIM H. MAINE ON mine with any exactness. My object lias been merely to sustain the 'traditional belief against those who deny it. I shall indeed, for the purposes of illus- tration, go into detail on one point, viz. the declara- tion of war; but I may mention incidentally that the Fecial and Amphictyonic law presumably extended to many other points, such as treaties, trophies,^^ truces,^^ hostages, and the like. Moreover, the mari- time law of Rhodes and the islands of the ^gean, known to the Eomans long before it was embodied in their code (which was not probably until they had ex- tended maritime relations), presents, as Pastoret(ix. 118) informs us, " analogies et rapprochemens multiplies " with modern maritime legislation from the time of the Eomans to the " ordonnance de la marine " drawn up by order of Louis XIV. In an article on "Belligerent Eights at Sea" (in the Home and Foreign Review, July 1863), in which there will be found a nice discrimination of these questions, Mr E. Eyley says : — ^' "To demolish a, trophy was looked on as unlawful, and a kind of sacrilege, because they were all dedicated to some deity ; nor was it less a crime to pay divine adoration before them, or to repair them when decayed, as may be likewise observed of the Eoman triumphal arches. . . . For the Bsme reason, those Grecians who introduced the custom of erecting pillars for trophies incurred a severe censure from the ages they lived in." — Potters " Archwologia," ii. c. 12. " Before the Greeks engaged themselves in war it was usual to publish a declaration of the injuries they had re- ceived, and to demand satisfaction by ambassadors ; which custom was observed even in the most early ages. ... It is therefore no wonder what Polybius relates of the ^toliaus, that they were held for the common outlaws and robbers of Greece, it being their manner to strike without warning, and make war without any previous or public declaration," — Id. ii. c. vii. p. 64. (Compare infra, ch. xv.) 32 " Omnes portas concionabundus ipse imperator circumiit, et quibus- cumque irritamentis poterat, iras militum accuebat, nunc fraudem hostium incusans, qui, pace petita, induciis datis, per ipsum induoiarum tempus, contra jus gentium ad castra oppuguando venisset." — P. Livius, 1. xc. THE LA W OF NATIONS. 377 " The very largest rule of belligerent rights limits the voluntary destruction of life and property by the necessity of the occasion and the object of the war. Bynkershock and Wolf insist that everything done against the enemy is lawful, and admit fraud, poison, and the murder, as we should call it, of non-combatants, as permissible ex- pedients for attaining the object of the wax. But these are the writers who lay the foundations of the law of nations in reason and custom, and ignore that perception and judgment of right and wrong which God has communicated to man. It is true that for the most part, and practically, we know the law of nations by reason and usage ; but this law is founded not on that by which we know its decisions, but on justice ; and reason must admit, and usage must adopt, whatever is clearly shown to be just and right, however this may be against precedent, and what has hitherto been held to be sound reason. There is no law without justice, nor any justice with- out conscience, nor any conscience without God. Grotius thus ad- mirably expresses himself : — ' Jus naturale est dictatum rectae rationis, indicans actui aliqui, ex ejus convenientia aut disconvenientifi cum ipsa naturS, rationali, inesse moralem turpitudinem, aut necessitatem moralem, ac consequenter ab auctore natures, Deo, talem actum itetari aut prcedpi. Actus, de quibus tale extat dictatum, deiiti sunt aut illieiti per se, atque idea a Deo necessario prcecepti aut vetiti intelli- guntur.' "' And this principle obtains greater force from the objec- tions which have been made to it, and the efforts to establish another foundation for the law of nations. Thus the principle of utility is only a feeble attempt to give another name to the law of justice which God has implanted in His creatures ; and to pretend to found a law on general usage and tacit consent is to mistake the evidence of jus- tice for justice itself." At first siglit the passage quoted from Mr Eyley's article would seem to militate against my position ; in reality we merely take up different weapons against Bynkershock and Wolf. If custom means merely pre- cedent, it may or may not be in accordance with " that perception of right and wrong which God has communi- cated to man ; " but if there is a tradition of a law of nations, the fact creates so great a presumption in favour of its pronouncements, that what is of usage and custom '» « De Jure Belli ao Pacis," 1. i. c. 1. § x. n n, 1 et 2. 378 SIR H. MAINE ON will be the criterion of what is right until the human intellect has shown that what has hitherto been held to be permissible was founded in a precedent of iniquity. On the other hand, we are agreed that the law of nations must be such as to stand the test of the " perception and judgment of right and wrong." As this perception, however, has never wholly died out among mankind, whatever is of general acceptance carries with it an assurance that it has stood this test; and "general usage and the tacit consent " is so much " the evidence of justice," that it has practically been taken, or mis- taken by mankind " for justice itself," and the law of nations has always been discussed on the basis of usage. This, I contend, would not have been the case if there had not been behind usage the immemorial sanction and tradition, or if the tacit consent had been only acquies- cence in wrong. I am the more confirmed in this view on perceiving that Mr Ryley, after stating his own opinion as to the right o-f blockade, finds his conclusions, wben he has discriminated such precedents as were of an exceptional and retaliatory character, to be in conformity with usage and the decision of legists. From this point of view those who contend for the basis of tradition and those who contend for the basis of natural justice mean the. same thing. They both affirm that there are limitations to human passion even in war. They are both opposed to precedents based on force, and are equally hostile to " the principle of utility," for if, as Mr Rylej' puts it, "the principle of utility" is only " another name for the law of justice which God has implanted in His creatures," the phrase is an under- statement of the truth, liable to misconstruction, and tends to lower the standard of right; and if it means something different or distinct from this, it means that against which the tradition of mankind protests. THE LA W OF NATIONS. 379 I have already said that international law, as distin- guished from the law of nations, requires to be constantly discriminated by the intellect or the conscience of man- kind, and more especially now that diplomatists are no longer legists. There was a certain indirect and collateral influence arising out of the tradition of a law of nations from the fact that a body of men existing as its interpreters, or at least as its depositaries, which it appears to me was des- tined to operate powerfully in the interests of peace. The existence of such a body of men perpetuated a public opinion in these matters, they fostered an esprit de corps stronger even than the spirit of nationality which then reigned supreme and dominated society. When a violation of treaties or an unjust aggression took place there was thus found a body of men who would stigma- tise or at least recognise it as such. The sentiment thus sustained was not all-influential for the purposes of peace, but it was operative to the extent of arresting the attention and perturbing the consciences of mankind. In like manner I venture to say that the diplomatic body, although the depositaries only of a bastard tradi- tion, subserve this purpose also after a fashion, and I much doubt whether many well-intentioned men, in striving to compass its abolition would not, as matters stand, destroy the last breakwater which secures the peace of Europe. In ancient times the comity of nations was virtually restricted to groups of cities or nations of kindred de- scent, or which had become confederate by reason of contiguity. This circumstance has been adduced by Sir G-. C. Lewis to stop in limine the theory of a law of nations ;^ as if it was necessarily in denial of a tradition 2* Sir G. C. lewis ("Method, &o., of Reasoning in Politics," ii. 35), quotes Mr Ward, "History of Law of Nations" (i. 127), to the effect 38o SIR H. MAINE ON of morality common to all nations. Yet, I think tliat I shall be ahle to show instances of its recognition as be- tween the groups, but it is precisely in its restricted application within the groups, and in the channels thus provided, that I think we shall find common features, and dimly and obscurely, though certainly, catch glimpses of the tradition. If I may complete my thought, these confederations were so many types and anticipations of that Amphic- tyonic Council, which, if things had not persistently gone wrong in the world, might have been formed in mediffival times by Christendom under the presidency of the Popes,^' and which may yet be realised in the triumph of religion which seems to be signified in the motto lumen in ccelo, as attaching to the successor of the present Pope, whose pontificate has been so singularly prefigured in the indication crux de cruce.^^ In the Times, November 29, 1867, it was said, " If " That what is commonly called tlie law of nations, is not the law of all nations, but only of such sets or classes of them as are united together by similar religions and systems of morality." Sir G. C. Lewis' view is that "as there are no universal principles of civil jurisprudence which belongs to each community, so there are no universal principles of international law which are common to all communities." — Id. *' Since writing the above, I have read a series of papers (which commenced I think in August 1871) in the Tablet under the title of " Arbitration instead of War," and I perceive that the writer arrives by a different route at a similar conclusion. I should have had pleasure in incorporating the argument with this chapter, but I shall do better if I induce my readers to peruse and weigh it as it deserves. ^ I allude to the ancient prophecy of St Malaohy. Its authenticity as the prophecy of St Malachy may be questioned ; but the antiquity of the prediction, and its existence in print early in the sixteenth century is, I believe, fully established. The copy which lies before me will be found in Moreri's Dictionary of 1732, in the Pontificate of Innocent XIII. Twelve mottoes given in 'prediction from that date, fits the motto " crux de cruce" to the 12th successor of Innocent, viz. Pius IX. Ten other mottoes follow commencing with "lumen in coelo." THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 381 this theory [' the states of Christendom constituted as a species of commonwealth '] could be rendered effectual, international law woujld be furnished at once with its greatest need, a court to enforce its behests ; but nothing is plainer than that for such arbitration the arbitrators must be fetched from another planet.'" But, inasmuch as Abraham Lincoln practically re- marked, you cannot have " a cabinet of angels " in this world, the thing is to discover the arbitrator who is the furthest removed from sublunary influences. Now, how strong soever may be our national mistrusts and preju- dices, we cannot refuse to recognise that the Papacy ostensibly satisfies these conditions, and this irrespective of the belief of the preponderant section of the Christian world that he is the infallible guide, and the divinely appointed interpreter of the tradition of morals. Its representatives being always old men naturally inclined to peace,^^ the sovereign pf a small state which a general war would imperil — ^professing maxims and therefore pledged to a programme of peace — (so that any deviation from it, as in the case of Julius II., would render glaring and abnormal acts which would have been unnoticed in an ordinary sovereign), a sovereign without a family (and whatever may be said of nepotism, it must be conceded that a man who has only collateral relatives is less tempted to found a family than one who has sons), a sovereign, in fine, representing the oldest line of suc- cession in the world,'^ in the oldest city, in the centre of ^ " The pontifical power is, from its essential constitution, the least subject to the caprices of politics. He who wields it is, moreoTer, always aged, unmarried, and a priest ; all which circumstances exclude ninety- , nine hundredths of all the errors and passions which disturb states." — De Maistre, Du Pape, B. II. chap. iv. ^ " The history of that Church joins together the two great ages of human civilisation. 'So other institution is left standing which carries the mind back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from the 382 SIR H. MAINE ON tradition, and like Noah in the traditional symbols {ante, p. 220), linking the new world with the old. This, I find (I quote from a series of important papers on " English statesmen and the independence of Popes," Toilet, November 1870), was fully recognised by our greatest minister, Mr Pitt. In 1794, " Pitt sug- gested, through Fran9ois de Conzie, Bishop of Arras, that the Pope should put himself at the head of a European league." " On more than one occasion," he wrote, " I have seen the continental courts draw back before the divergences of opinion and of religion which separate us. I think that a common bond ought to unite us all. The Pope alone can be this centre We are too much divided by personal interests or by political views. Rome alone can raise an impartial voice, and one free from all exterior preoccupations. Rome, then, ought to speak according to the measure of her duties, and not merely of her good wishes, which no one doubts." There have been at different periods of the world various projects of universal pacification;^* but it is worthy of remark that they have almost all, from that of Henri IV. to the one recently broached by the Pro- fessor of Modern History at Cambridge, taken the tradi- Pantheon, and when the cameleopards and tigers bounded in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses are but of yesterday when com- pared with the line of the supreme Pontiffs. That line we trace back in an unbroken series, from the Pope who crowned Napoleon in the nineteenth century, to the Pope who crowned Pepin in the eighth ; and far beyond the time of Pepin the august dynasty extends, till it is lost in the twilight of fable The Catholic Church is still sending forth' to the farthest ends of the world missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustine, and stiU confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted AttUa." — Macaulay's Essays, " Seview of Manhe's Popes." <" Sir G. C. Lewis, " Method, See." ii. 285, enumerates several. THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 383 tional lines of a confederation of states more, or less circumscribed with an amphictyonic council. This has its significance from the point of view I am indicating, but I do not see that it is satisfactorily accounted for on any other view.*" It would seem, then, that there has always existed in *' In De Quinoey's Works, xii. 140, there is a disquisition on Kant's scheme " of a universal society founded on the empire of political justice, " where it is competent that as the result of wars man must be inevitably brought " to quit the barbarous condition of lawless power and to enter into a federal league of nations, in which even the weakest number looks for its rights and protection — not to its own power, or its own adjudication, but to this great confederation (fadua amphictyonmn), to the united power, and the adjudication of the collective will," and is said to be " the in- evitable resource and mode of escape under that pressure of evil which nations reciprocally inflict," and which seems to contemplate a situation like the present. " Finally war itself becomes gradually not only so arti- ficial a process, so uncertain in its issue, but also is the after-pains of inex- tinguishable national debts (a contrivance of modern times) so anxious and burdensome ; . . . . that at length those governments which have no im- mediate participation in the war, under a sense of their own danger, offer themselves as mediators, though as yet without any sanction of law, and thus prepare all things from afar for the formation of a great primary state-body or cosmopolitio Areopagus, such as is wholly unprecedented in all preceding ages." I am fully aware of the divergence of this view from that which I have indicated, but I wish to point out that it is only " un- precedented" in so far as it is cosmopolitio and extends to all humanity ; but so extending it ought not to include the traditional notions of an " Areopagus " — fcedus amphictyonum— or confederation of states. It ought rather to talk of an interfusion of states, the only condition upon which the cosmopolitio Areopagus would be possible ; yet it inevitably ^aUs into the traditionary lines. Moreover, before mankind can attain to this inter- fusion of states, one supreme difficulty, which seems always to be over- looked, must be overcome, we must bring mankind back to be " of one lip and one speech." The scheme, on the other hand, of a federation can- not be pronounced impracticable until it has been tried ; yet, although it lies latent in the idea of Christendom, and although it has had a sort of informal recognition in the theory and pohcy of the balance of power, there has never been any understanding from which we can gather what the results would be, if the bond of federation were ever cemented by any solemn pledge or sanction. 384 SIR H. MAINE ON the world the tradition, and since the triumph of Christianity, the conditions hy which, if it had so willed, it might have recovered the golden age of peace and happiness of which it has never entirely lost the tra- dition. Until this consummation we must fall back upon the law of nations,*^ though even here it must he borne in mind that Christianity has exercised an indirect influ- ence, and has raised the standard of morality for the world at large.*^ But when all is abated the law of nations "■ " Historious " (Letter in the Times, February 12, 1868) writes—" The system of international law professes to he a code of rules which ought to govern, and in fact in a great degree does govern, the conduct of indepen- dent nations in their dealings with one another. .... How can one doubt that in fact such a rule exists and does operate ? Let us test the matter by an example. When the news of the affair of the Trent reached England, what was the first question that every one asked ? Was it not this, ' Is this act conformable to the law of nations, or is it not?' Did not the English Cabinet summon all the most distinguished jurists to advise them what the law of nations was ? Was not the decision absolutely dependent on their advice The code of the law of nations^ based on all other laws, on morality, deduced by the reasoning of jurists from well established principles, illustrated by precedents, gathered from usage, confirmed by experience, has become from age to age more and more respected as the arbiter of the rights and duties of nations, .... and now, after this system has been elaborated with so much care, and has yielded results so bene- ficial to the human race, we are to be told that the only real question in differences between nations is, ' Whether, all things considered, it is or is not worth while to go to war ? ' not, be it observed, right or wrong to go to war. This is exactly the doctrine set forth in the celebrated Thelian controversy recorded in Thucydides." W. Oke Manning, " Commentaries on the Law of Nations" (p. 17), says, " Sir J. Mackintosh in his ' Hist, of the Progress of Ethical Philosophy ' (prefixed to the ' Encyclopaedia Britannioa,' p. 315), speaks of Suarez as the writer who first saw that international law was composed not only of the simple principles of justice applied to intercourse between states, but of those usages long observed in that intercourse by the European race which have since been more exactly distinguished as the consuetudinary law acknowledged by the Christian nations of Europe and America. But Suarez himself speaks of this distinction as already recog- nised by previous writers." *2 " La religion Chr^tienne/qui ne semble avoir d'objet que la fflicit^ THE LA W OF NA TIONS. 385 remains the lex legum, deeply founded in the maxims, sentiments, and usages of mankind. These maxims in their tradition have been concurrently interpreted, adapted, and in a certain sense moulded by the intellect of legists, whose discriminations or conclusions have received the tacit approbation of mankind. Rarely has the production of any profane writer received such an unanimous ratification as the great work of Hugo Grotius, mainly, as we have seen (ante, p. 4), based on tradition. Again, the agreement and correspondence among the legists of different nationalities is substantial, and is only to be accounted for upon the supposition that each in his own groove faithfully incorporated and elabo- rated a tradition ; and if you say that this was only an argument among the separate traditions of the Roman law, you only put back the argument one remove, as I have attempted to demonstrate. If conversely you say that the law of nations as we find it is purely the work and elaboration of legists, and the conclusions of ab- stract reason, put it to this test, bring all the legists of the world into a congress — such a congress is much needed just now — with instructions to create a new code on abstract principles, and upon the basis of the rejec- tion of what is of custom and tradition, and see what they will accomplish ! Do not all our difficulties begin exactly where, owing to the complications of modern civilisation, tradition ceases? For the rest we shall presently see what the Congress of Paris, in 1856, was able to effect in this kind. de I'atitre vie, fait encore notre bonheur dans celle-oi Que d'un c6t4 Ton se mette devant lea yeux lea massacres continuels des rois et des chefs grecs et remains, . . . . et nous verrons que nous derons au Christianisme, et dans le gouvemement un certain droit politique, et dans la guerre uu certain droit des gens, que la nature humaine ne saurait assez reconnaitre. — Montesquieu, "Esprit des Lois," i. xxiv. chap. 3. 2b CHAPTER XV. THE DECLARATION OF WAR. I THINK we have already distinct evidence that the Fecial Law was something more than our Treaty and Diplo- matic Law. Let us examine it more particularly in action. If the law of nations ever was appealed to, and, if over and above, there was a tradition of a Divine re- velation, or even of a prescriptive law founded on natural right, and having reference to war, which was ever invoked, it would have been in the first instance of aggression, supposing, as is implied in the term, that it was without fair cause and without fair warning. The declaration of war, therefore, is manifestly the hinge upon which the whole system of the law of nations turns. ^ Accordingly, the further we go back the more solemn and formal do we find the declaration of war to be. " In every instance the declaration of war was accompanied by n- ligious formalities. When the Senate believed that it had cause of ^ I must here do Mr Urquhart the justice to point out that he has been the principal advocate of this doctrine, that the declaration of war is the turning-point upon which everything depends, and more than any other man has laboured to enforce it. (Tide "Effects on the World of the Eestoratiou of Canon Law," by D. Urquhart, 1869.) At p. 61, Mr Urquhart refers to the action taken by the Fecials. I have the misfortune to differ with Mr Urquhart on many points, but I have pleasure in bearing testimony as above. THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 387 complaint against a nation, it sent a Fecial to his frontier. There the pontiff, his head bound with a woollen yeil,^ exposed the griefs of the Romans and demanded satisfaction. If it was not granted, he went back to render an account of his mission to the Senate, .... and after a delay of thirty or thirty-three days they voted a declara- tion of war. Then the Fecial returned to the frontier, and, casting a javelin into the enemy's country, he pronounced the following formula — ' Quod populus Hermundulus,' &c. . . . Every war which had not been declared in this manner was considered as unjust, and certain to incur the displeasure of the gods. In the course of time this solemn declaration was replaced by a vain formality."^ Montfau90ii (" L' Antiquity Expliquee," ii. l,p. iv., p. 35) says : — " Lorsqu'ils alloient parlementer, ils avoient sur la tete un voile tissu de laine,* et ils etoient couronnez de vervaine ; leur office etoit 2 The Very Rev. Dr Rock (" Textile Fabrics," p. xii.) says—" The ancient British speciality was wool, and the postulants asking admission to the different castes, the sacerdotal, bardic, and the leeches or natural philosophers, were distinguished by stripes of white [Cicero (De Legibua, ii. 18) says, " Color autem albus prsecipere decorusdeo est quum in cateris turn maxima in textili "], blue, and green severally on their mantles, al- though the bards themselves were distinguished by some one of the colours above-mentioned (vide infra). [The significance of this will be noted at p. 391.] I may further remark, parenthetically, that here is an instance of national civilisation being pari passu with religious traditions. The British speciality was wool — query, because " of the heavy stress laid upon the rule which taught that the of&oial colour in their dress," &c. {Id., vide ante, chap. xii. p. 292.) St Paul says (Heb. ix. 19), " For when every commandment of the Lord had been read by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and aU the people " (Goguet, " Origin of Laws," ii. p. 9). The Spaniards in 1643 made a treaty of peace with the Indians of Chili ; they have preserved the memory of the forms used at the ratification. It is said that the Indians killed many sheep, and stained in their blood a branch of the cane-tree, which the deputy of the Caciques put into the hands of the Spanish general in token of peace and alliance." Goguet also refers to Heb. ix. 19. ' De Fresquet, " Droit Remain, i. 48. * Compare with the description of Saturn, " Satumus, velato capite falcam gerens." — Pvlgent. Mythol. i. u. 2. 388 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. d'impecher que les Komains n'entrepiissent point de ffuerre injuste : d'aller conmie legats vers les nations qui violoient les traitez, etc. . . . ils prenoient aussi connaissance faits au legats de 'paft et d'autre. Quand la paix ne se trouvoit paa faite selon les loix, ils la declaroient nuUe. Si les commandanS avoient fait quelque chose contre la justice it contre le droit' des gens, ils reparoient leur faute et expioient leur crime, . . . . k cause du yiolement des traites faits devant Nu- manoe, dit Ciceron par un dteret du Senat le Patrapatratus livra, C. Mancinus aux Nuinantins."5 We must content ourselves, of course, witli what evidence we may get of similar institutions elsewhere ; but what strikes me as strange in the contrast of modern civilisation with barbarism, is, that whereas our advances, whether in the sense of peace and war (whenever they are formally made), are commonly un- derstood, the corresponding demonstrations on the side of barbarism are invariably misconstrued. When, for instance, Captain Cook approached the shores of Bolabola, he describes the following scene, which reads to me very like the account we have just been reading of the Eoman herald : — " Soon after a single man ran along the shore armed -with his lamce, and when he came ahreast of the boat he began to dance, brandish his weapon, and call out in a very shrill tone, which Tupia [a native of an adjacent island who was on board] said was a defiance from the people As the boat rowed slowly along the shore back again, another champion came down, shouting defiance, and brandishing his lance. His appearance was more formidable than that of the other, for he wore a large cap made of the tail feathers of the topia bird, and his body was covered viith stripes of different coloured cloth, " In the above extract from Moutfau9on it should have been added, that when the Romans sent one of their fecials to declare war he went in sacerdotal habit — "Arrivant an confins de la ville, il appelloit ^temoma Jupiter et les autres dieux comme il alloit demander reparation de I'injure au nom des Romains, il faisoit des imprScations sur lui et sur la ville de Rome, s'il disoit rien contre la v&ite, et oontinuoit son chemin s'il rencontroient quelque citoien quelque payisan (paysan) il repitoit toiijcmrs Bes impr&atious," &c. THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 389 yellow,, red, and brown Soon after a more grave and elderly man came down to the beach, and hailing the people in the boat, in- quired who they were, and from whence they came.« .... After a - short conference they all began to pray very loud. Tupia made his responses, but continued to tell us thfey were not our friends" (i. 119). Let this be taken in connection with the following narrative : — ^ " The large canoes came close round the ship, some of the Indians playing on a Mnd of flute, others singing, and the rest blowing on a sort of shells. Soon after, a large capoe advanced, in which was an awning, on the top of which sat one of the natives holding some yellow and red feathers in his hand. The captain having consented to his comiog alongside, he delivered the feathers, and while a pre- sent was preparing for him, he put back from the ship, and threw the branch of a cocoa- tree in the air. , This was doubtless the signal ^ A somewhat similar scene is also indistinctly traced in the following : — " Wood relates that on his visit to St Julian in 1670, ia walking inland he ' met seven savages, who came running down the hill to us, making several signs for tis to go back again, with much warning and noise, yet did not offer to draw their arrows. But one of them who was an old man came nearer to us than the rest,- and made also signs we should depart, to whom I threw a knife, a bottle of brandy, and a neckcloth, to pacify him ; but seeing him persist in the same signs as tefore, and that the savageness of the people seemed incorrigible, we returned on board again.' " Quoted by R. 0. Cunningham, "Natural History of the Straits of Magellan and West Coast of Patagonia," 1871, p. 143. A similar scene is described by Rog- gerwsen in his voyage, I think, to Easter Island. This, in connection with the scene at Bolabola, recalls the mode of pro- cedure in the Odyssey, ix. 95 (Pope), when Ulysses reaches " The land of Lotus and the flowering coast. We climbed the beach and springe of water found, Then spread our hasty banquet on the ground. Three men were sent deputed from the crew (A herald one) the dubious coast to' view. And learn what habitants possessed the place. T/hey went and found a hospitable rape. Not prone to ill, nor strange tp foreign guest : As our dire neighbours of Cyclopean birth." ' Vide Captain Wallis' Voyage, in " Hist. Account of all the Voyages round the World," 1773, iii. p. 79. 390 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. for an onset, for there was an instant shout from all the canoes, ■which, approaching the ship, threw voUeys of stones into every part of her." Here the question appears to me to te -wlietlier this . act of throwing the branch, so analogous to the throw- ing the javelin, which was the final act in the Koman declaration of war (and to which our throwing down the glove or the gauntlet has analogy), was merely the signal to themselves, or whether it was not also the notice of attack to the enemy. Upon this will depend whether we are to consider it a treacherous " ruse " (and the presentation of the feathers has that aspect), or whether it was their traditional mode of declaration of war, and construed to he a treacherous attack, because the gallant navigator belonged to a nation more ignorant of the laws of nations than the savages they en- countered. From the very fact of their having enacted this comedy or ceremonial, it must be inferred either that they at- tached some superstitious importance to its performance, and expected some good effects from it to themselves, or that they thought that it would be understood by their adversaries, in which case they must implicitly have believed it to be common to all nations. In either case it is just possible that after the manner of savages, they may have confused the symbols of peace and war, and ran into one what the Romans had care- fully distinguished — the " caduceatores,* who went to " Caduoeatores — compare sni/pra, p. 348. In connection with these latter, let us inquire more particularly as to their wand of office, the caAvxeuB. " In its oldest form " it " was merely a bough twined round with white wool; afterwards a white or gilded staff with imitations oi foliage and ribands was substituted for the old rude symbol. These were pro- bably not turned into snakes till a much later age, when that reptile had acquired a mystic character." MUller's explanation is that it was originally THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 391 demand peace, and the "fecials," •who were sent to denounce war. The red and yellow colours of the feathers in the above account may afford a clue, when it is remembered {vide note), that they coincide with the colour used by the Otaheitans to testify fidelity and friendliness ; but, the olive branch with the stemmata, which latter became developed into serpents. — Encyc. of Arts and Sciences. If, therefore, Miiller's explanation ia correct, the oldest form of the symbol of ofiBce of those who were the depositaries of laws of nations in the matter of peace and war, was a symbol which has a special history and significance in connection with the Deluge. Will this not tend to identify their institution with that epoch ? It will, perhaps, be said that the branch of a tree ia in any case a natural symbol of peace. But why a symbol or token at all ? Why more than a simple gesture of salutation? unless the symbol embodied some idea which conveyed a pledge over and above ? What, then, was this idea, unless the traditional idea ? It may appear to us a natural emblem, but it is not so from association of ideas with the scriptural dove and olive branch? and yet consider how universal it is. Captain Cook's Voyages (i. p. 38 ; London, 1846) says, "It is remarkable that the chief, Hke the people in the canoes, presented to us the same symbol of peace that is known to have been in use among the ancient and mighty nations of the northern hemi- sphere, the green branch of a tree.'' This occurred both in New Zealand and Otaheite. Wallis (" Voyages round the World," iii. 98) says that on an occasion when the Otaheitans wished to testify fidelity and friendliness, " the Indians cut branches from the trees and laid them in a ceremonious manner at the feet of the seamen ; they painted themselves red with the berries of a tree, and stained their garments yellow with the bark of another." We have, as we have just seen, found this symbol in the oaduceus, and it appears to me that the caduceus in its earUer form of a staff with foliage and ribands, is recognisable in the Gothic monuments as given in Stephens' " Central America." Vide also Cunningham's " Bhilaa Topes." Washington Irving ("Life of Columbus," iii. 214) speaks of the natives coming forward to meet them with white flags; and the same, if I remember rightly, is recorded in Cook's visit to the Sandwich Islanders. The white flag ia our own symbol ; but what is the white flag but the de- velopment and refinement of the staff and white wool? Again, why are stripes, in a variety of combination of colour, the characteristic symbol of flags ? The reader will find the answer on returning to the text, where he will also learn the significance of the red and yellow, in the above de- scriptions. 392 J HE DECLARATION OF WAR. to appreciate this in its full significance, it will be neces- sary to sliow how commonly the traditional symbols of peace among the ancients had reference to the dilnvian traditions, more especially the Dove and the Rainbow. Assuming for the moment that Bryant is right in his derivation of the names of Juno and Venus from Jonah (Hebrew), and Owa^; (Greek) =Dove,* I ask attention to the following, in connection with the red and yellow feathers of the Polynesians, and the tail feathers of the topia bird mentioned by Cook {supra, p. 388).-"' (Bryant, ii. 345), " As the peacock, in the full expansion of his plumes, displays all the beautiful colours of the Iris (the rainbow), it was probably for that reason made the bird of Juno, instead of the dove, which was ap- propriated to Venus. The same history was variously depicted in different places, and consequently as vari- ously interpreted." (Compare p. 279.) If this is true, if the rainbow is the symbol of peace, and the peacock is the symbol of the rainbow, will it absolutely surprise us to find feathers of various colours presented as tokens of peace!* I am prepared for the reply, that Bryant's etymology is now considered obso- lete; but I shall fall back upon the argument which I have urged elsewhere, that in cases where tradition renders the transmission of certain words probable, there is a presumption which overrides the ordinary canons of philological criticism. PhUologers very properly lay down, e.g. Mr Max Miiller's " Chapter of Accidents in 9 II. p. 317. ■■" FicJe also in Carver's "North America'' (p. 296), an engraving of the Indian "Calumet of Peace," — the stem is of a light vrood curiously painted with hieroglyphics in various colours, and adorned with the feathers of the most beautiful birds. It is not in my power to convey an idea of the various tints and pleasing ornaments of this much-esteemed Indian implement " (p. 359). THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 393 Comparative Theology," Contemp. Rep., April 1870, p. 8 :— " Comparative philology has taught us again and again that when we find a word exactly the same in Greek and Sanscrit, we may be certain that it cannot be the same word ; and the same applies to comparative mythology ... for the simple reason that Sanscrit and Greek have deviated from each other, have both followed their own way, have both suffered their own phonetic corruptions, and hence, if they do possess the same word, they can only possess it either in its Greek or in its Sanscrit disguise." This is of course only upon the assumption that the languages have gone their own way, have followed their own corruptions; hut if it can be shown that certain words, &c. Ac, were preserved in tradition, and so guarded as not to come under the laws of deviation which philo- logy traces out, or to come under them on different con- ditions, then, on the contrary, it is exceedingly probable that we should find them identical, or at least recog- nisable; in any case, this is a point which must be decided according to the evidences of tradition, and not according to the laws of philology. This will be better understood from a case in point. I append the evidence respecting the traditions of the Dove and the Eain- bow — which are just the incidents which are likely to have impressed the imagination and memory of man- kind." '1 It will hardly be denied that the tradition of the rainbow as a sign imd pledge to man existed among the ancients. Vide Bryant, ii. 348. [The goddess Iris, who was sent with the messages of the gods, bore th same name as the rainbow Iris.] H.g. Homer — Ipia-ffiv ioLKdres Hit re Kpovlav iv v€(peX (TTTipt^e, repas /iepoTuy &v6puTuy. — II, si. 27. " Like to the bow which Jove amid the clouds Placed a J a token to Responding man." 394 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. The digression we have just made involves some risk of distracting attention from the point it was intended Also — II. xvii. 547. 'HCre Trop(l>vpeiiv ipiv BvryroTffi raviirarj Zei)s i^ odpavdffev T^pas ifip^vai. ' ' Just as when Jove mid the high heavens displays His bow mysterious for a lasting sign." And the lines (Theog. v. 700) in Hesiod, in which Iris is called the daughter of V/onder, who is sent over the broad surface of the sea when strife and discord arose among the immortals, and who is also called " the great oath of the gods " — [" This is the token of the covenant between you and me, for perpetual generations," Gen. ix. 12.] — who is told to bring from afar in her golden pitcher the many-named water. Iris is called the daughter of Thaumas (which so closely approximates to the Greek Oav/m = wonder, Bryant says to the Egyptian " Thaumus "). Bryant further thinks that Iris and Eros were originally the same term, but that in time the latter was formed into the boyish deity Cupid = Eros. According to some. Iris was the mother of Eros by Zephyrus. [There were indeed three Eroses, which mark three different lines of tradition, vide Gladstone on Iris (the rainbow), " Homer and the Homeric Age," ii. 156.] Eros (Cupid), though a boy, was supposed to have been at the commence- ment of all things ; and Lucian says, " How came you with that childish face, when we know you to be as old as Jaipetus?" The union of Cupid and Chaos (the Deluge is frequently alluded to as chaos, vide Bryant) " gave birth to men and all the animals." Hesiod makes Eros the first to appear after Chaos. " At this season (Deluge) another era began ; the earth was supposed to be renewed, and time to return to a second infancy. They therefore formed an emblem of a child with a rainbow, to denote this renovation of the world, ai)d called him Eros, or Divine Love," . . . "yet esteemed the most ancient among the gods."- — Bryant, ii. 349. (Cupid is represented with a bow, as is also Apollo and Diana, which was an allusion to the supposed resemblance of the bow and the rainjoic.) Pro- bably from his connection with Iris, he is represented as breaking the thunderbolts of Jupiter, and riding on dolphins and subduing other monsters of the sea. Smith ("Myth. Diet." says Iris is derived from 4pS> eipw, " so that Iris would mean the speaker or messenger," ..." but it is not impossible that it may be connected with elpa, ' I join,' whence elp'fivr] ; so that Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, would be the joiner, or conciliator, or the messenger of heaven, who restores peace in nature." It appears to me more likely that clprivrj = peace (derivation uncertain — Liddell and Scott) was derived directly from Iris, in accordance with the tradition, and that the Greek word for wool, elpos, was cognate to elprjvri, THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 395 to .enforce — viz. the traditionary character of the mode, and, by implication, the traditionary recognition of the from being an emblem of peace {fi.g. the pontiff's caduceator, woollen veil). In the same way, if we do not actually find the rainbow as the token of the herald or caduceator, may we not discover it conversely in the circum- stance that Iris is represented as carrying in her hand a herald's staff? It is curious that we actually find, what I may call the sister emblem, viz. the Dove, used by the ancients, though just as we find, if I am right in the conjecture, the rainbow among the Polynesians, used in a perverted way as an ensign of war. It was possibly in superstitious remembrance of the tradition which we find more directly among the ancient Aryans and the Peruvians (p. 326-400), that war ought only to be made with a dispo- sition towards peace ; and that they thought to place themselves under the sanction of heaven by carrying this emblem as their ensign of war. Such, however, was the fact. Bryant (ii. 302) says : — " The dove became a favourite hieroglyphic among the Babylonians and Chaldees. ... In respect to the Babylonians, it seems to have been taken by them for their national ensign, and to have been depicted on their military standard when they went to war. They seem likewise to have been styled Ibnim, or the children of the Dove ;" and they are thus alluded to by the Prophet Jeremiah, oh. xxv. ver. 38 {id.) Bryant says (ii. 286), " The name of the Dove among the ancient Amonians (by which term he intends the descendants of Chus) was Ion and lonah ; sometimes expressed lonas, from whence came the Oiras of the Greeks." I should rather put it that we find the word for the Dove common to the Hebrew and the Greek (lonah, Hebrew ; Oivas, Greek), and, as Bryant seems to imply, among other nations also — e.g. the Babylonians — which is precisely what we should have expected. But if this identity is allowed, we must proceed with Bryant to see in Juno, Venus, and Diana, simply embodiments of the tradition of the Dove. Bryant says that " Juno is the same as lona," and although, as we have seen, the peacock is said to be her bird (with reference to the other symbol, the rainbow), and although Ovid (Bryant, 344) sends her to heaven accompanied by Iris (rainbow), yet in the plate (from Gru'ter) p. 410, she wUl be seen with a dove on her wand, and a pomegranate, as symbol of the ark (vide p. 380), in her hand. Bryant, moreover (344), considers Juno to be identical with "Venus. There was a statue in Laconia called Venus-Junonia. Of Dione and Venus Bryant says (ii. 341) : — " I have mentioned that the name Diona was properly Ad, or Ada, liina. Hence came the term Idione ; which Idione was an object of idolatry as early as the days of Moses. But there was a similar person- age named Deione. . . . This was a compound of De lone, the dove ; and Venus Dionoea may sometimes have been formed in the same manner. . . . Dionusus was likewise called Thyomus." Tide also Bryant, pp. 316, 396 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. obligation, of the declaration of war. We liave already seen in Ozanam {supra, p. 371) indications of the pro- 317. In Genesis viii. 9, the dove returned to the ark, not having found " where her foot might rest. " " In the hieroglyphical sculptures and paintings where this history was represented, the dove could not well be depicted otherwise than as hovering over the face of the deep. Hence it is that Venus or Dione is said to have risen from the sea. Hence it is, also, that she is said to preside over waters ; to appease the troubled ocean ; and to cause by her presence an universal calm ; that to her were owing [on the retiring of the waters] the fruits of the earth. . . . She was the Oenas (' Oicas ') of the Greeks ; whence came the Venus of the Latins." The address of Lucretius to this deity concludes with two lines of remarkable significance — " Te Dea, te fugiunt venti; te nubila coeli Adventumque tuum ; tibi rident sequora ponti ; PacatumqM nitet difiiiso lumine codum.'" " In Sicily, upon Mount Eryx, was a celebrated temple of this goddess, which is taken notice of by Cicero and other writers. Doves were here held as sacred as they were in Palestine or Syria [mde also in Cashmere, p. 6i]. It is remarkable that there were two days of the year set apart in this place for festivals, called ' Avayur/ia and 'Karayuiyia, at which time Venus was supposed to depwrt over the sea, and after a season to return. There were also sacred pigeons, which then took their flight from the island ; but one of them was observed on the ninth day to come back from the sea, and to fly to the shrine of the goddess. This was upon the fes- tival of 'Avay ay la. Upon this day it is said that there were great rejoicings. On what account can we imagine this veneration for the bird to be kept up, . . . but for a memorial of the dove sent out of the ark, and of its return from the deep to Noah ? The history is recorded upon the ancient coins of Eryx ; which have on one side the head of Janus bifrons, and on the other the sacred dove." — Bryant, ii. 319. Mr Cox's ("Mythology," ii. ch. ii. sec. vii.) counter-explanation, if I rightly gather it, is that " on AphroditS (Venus), the child of tJie froth or foam of the sea, was lavished all the wealth of words denoting the loveliness of the morning ; and thus the Hesiodic poet goes on at once to say that the grass sprung up under her feet as she moved, that Eros, Love, walked by her side, and Himeros, longing, followed after her. " " This is but saying, in other words, that the morning, the child of the heavens, springs up /rst from the sea, as Athene is born by the water-side." But why should the morning spring first from the sea ? — more particularly when the effects of her rising is noted in the springing up of flowers on the land ? If the rainbow, we see the reason in her connection with the Deluge, and THE DECLARA TION OF WAR. 397 bability of similar traditions among the primitive tribes of Germany. Will it clench the argument if we find Komans and Gauls on a common understanding in these matters, when brought for the first time into contact since their original separation ? — " The great misfortunes wMcli befel the city from the Gauls, are said to have proceeded from the violation of these sacred rites. For ■when the barbarians -were besieging Clusium, Pabius Ambustus was sent ambassador to their camp with proposals of peace, in favour of the besieged. But receiving a harsh answer, he thought himself released from his character of ambassador, and rashly taking up arms for the Clusians, challenged the bravest man in the Gaulish army. He proved victorious, . . . but the Gauls having discovered who he was, sent a herald to Rome to accuse Fabius of bearing arms against them, contrary to treaties and good faith, and xoiihout a declaration of war. Upon this the Feciales exhorted the Senate to deliver him up to the Gauls, but he appealed to the people, and, being a favourite with them, was screened from the sentence. Soon after this, the Gauls marched to Rome, and sacked the whole city except the Capitol, as we have related at large in the life of Camillus." — Plutarch's Nwma. her connection with the subsequent renovation of nature. Mr Cox also says (p. 3) : — " In her brilliant beauty she is Argun!, a name which appears again in that of Arguna, the compauion of Krishna and the Hellenic Argy- nius." Does not this complete the chain of her connection with Juno ? Mr Cox (p. 8) says : — " The Latin Venus is, in strictness of speech, a mere name, to which any epithet might be attached according to the conve- niences or the needs of the worshipper. . . . The name itself has been, it would seem, with good reason, connected with the Sanscrit root ' van,' to desire love or favour," — a derivation which equally accords with Bryant's view. Then there is the striking connection of Venus with Dionusos (vide p. S95). Mr Cox (p. 9) says, " The myth of Adonis links the legends of Aphrodite (Venus) with those of Dionusos. Like the Theban mTJCgod Adonis, born only on the death of his mother; and the two myths are, in one version, so fair the same that Dionysos, like Adonis, is placed in a chest, which, being cast into the sea, is carried to Brasise, where the body of his mother is buried." (Comp. Kabiri, Bunsen.) Mr Cox connects Athene with Aphrodite (Venus) (p. 4). Therefore we must ask him to reconsider his explanation of " the Athenian maidens embroidering the sacred peplos for the ship presented to Athene at the great Dionysiac festival." Compare evidence, supra, in chap, on Boulanger, &c. ; Catlin. 398 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. I venture further to think that the traditionary modes of the declaration of war may be detected among the Grauls in Caesar's time, in the manner of their challenge. E.g. it so came about that Caesar wished to draw the enemy (the Nervii) to his side of the valley and to engage them at a disadvantage before his camp. To this end he simulated fear. "Our men meanwhile re- tiring from the rampart, they approached still nearer, cast their darts on all sides within the trenches and sent heralds round the camp to proclaim," &c. (Duncan's Csesar, B. v. xlii.) We will now turn to the Greek tradition. I quote from an old author who has examined the matter more fully than I find it treated elsewhere. Rous. (" Archaeo- logiae Atticae," lib. 6, s. 3, civ.) says : — " As careful and cunning as they were in warlike affairs, I cannot find but that they did ' propere signi quae piget in- choare,' bear a great affection to peace; as may appear in their honourable receiving of ambassadors, to whom they gave hearing in no worse place than a temple. . . . The usual ensign carried by Greek ambassadburs was KTjpviceov, caduceus,^^ a right sta^ of mood with snakes twisted about it and looking one another in the face. . . . If the peace could not be kept, but they must needs have war, yet they would be sure to give warning and fair play, and make proclamations of their intentions ■^^ Vide ante, 391. That the entwined snakes were of late date wovdd appear, I think, from the allusions to the suppliants' wands in ^schylus, e.g. (vide Plumtre's ^schylus, " Libation Pourers," v. 1024) when Orestes puts on the suppliants wreaths, and takes the olive branch in his hand — " The branch of olive from the topmost growth, With amplest tufts of white wool meetly wreathed." and in the Supplicants (22) — " Holding in one hand the branches Suppliant, wreathed with white wool fillets." THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 399 before they marcht. The manner in proclaiming war was to send a fellow of purpose either to cast a spear or let loose a lamb into the borders of the country, or into the city itself whither they were marching (which Hesychius rather thinks to have been the signal before a battel), thereby showing them, that what was then a habitation for men, should shortly be a pasture for sheep. "■^^ I should rather have thought that it had analogy with the Jewish scapegoat ; but, whatever the idea, it was apparently symboUed and commemorated in the woollen veil prescribed to the Roman pontiff in the declaration of war. It would seem, however, that the signal for battle (chap, v.) was " instead of sounding a trumpet, they had fellows whom they called irvp(j)opov';, that went, before with torches, and throwing them down in the midst between the two armies, gave the sign. . . . Now, this business they might do safely and without any danger, .... for the torch-bearers were peculiarly protected by Mars, and accounted sacred." " The sense of national responsibility in war, and the reluctance of kings to involve themselves without the consent of their people would appear from CEschylos' " Supplicants " (v. 393, 363). I have referred (p. 326) to the Peruvian traditions of ■'^ Also, " Joannis Meursii Themis Athica, sive de Legibus AJticis," i. xi. says, " Postquam vero exeroitus eduotus esset pugnam inire, non licebat antiquam emiasum agmen hostium quis, huno expectans accepisset." " This has something in common with the fiery cross sent round by the Highlanders as the summons to war. In another aspect it has resemblances with the Indian mode of declaration of war. " The manner in which the Indians declare war against each other is by sending a slave with a hatchet, the handle of which is painted red, to the nation which they intend to break with; and the messenger, notwithstanding the danger to which he is exposed from the sudden fury of those whom he thus sets at defiance, executes his oommisBX9n with great fidelity."— Coroer"* " Travels in North America," p. 307. 400 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. Manco Capac's laws of war, and that " in every stage of the war the Peruvian was open to propositions for peace." From the Hindoo tradition, apparently. Mama's code was conceived in an identical spirit. (Vide " Hist, of India," " The Hindu and Mahometan Periods," by the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone ; Murray, 1866, ch. ii. p. 26.) " The laws of war (Manu's code) are honour- able and humane. Poisoned arrows and mischievously barbed arrows and fire arrows are all prohibited." [Dr Hooker, in his " Himalayan Journal," mentions a similar tradition among the Limboos, I think, or Lepchas."] " There are many situations in which it is by no means allowable to destroy the enemy. Among those who must always be spared are unarmed or wounded men, and those who have broken their weapons, and one who says, ' I am thy captive.' Other prohibitions are still more generous. . . . The settlement of a conquered country is conducted on equally liberal principles. Immediate security is to be assured to all by proclamation. The religion and laws of the country are to be maintained and respected." And I have fancied (vide 395) that the recognition at least of such a tradition, if it be only the " homage which vice pays to virtue," is to be read in the devices carried by the Babylonians.'® ^' That there may be limitations to the horrors of war, seema to be established by the instance of the prohibition of explosive bullets. I read in the Times (March 11, 1871) ; — " The British Medical Journal declares its opinion that the charges which have been put forward of explosive TyuUets having been used by the contending armies have been gi-oundless ; and is inclined to believe that the a/rticles of the St Peterslmrg Convention have been fmthfidly adhered to, notwithstanding the mutual recriminations to the contrary by both French and German Governments. " 1* Indirect evidence of the importance formerly attached to the declara- tion of war may, I think, be discovered in the formal addresses and invo- cations of the gods by the Homeric heroes previous to combat, which to us seem so forced and unnatural ; and the same sentiment was noticed by the THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 401 There was, moreover, a law at Athens which forbade them to declare war until after a deliberation of three days — " Bellum vero antequam decerneretur, triduo deli- berare lex jubebat " (Apsines, Marcell. in Hermog. ap. J. Meursii Them. Att., 1. i. c. xi.); and we have seen that the Senate at Rome postponed the declaration of war for thirty days. I cannot help thinking, though it is the merest surmise, that it is in the dim recollection of some such tradition that we must account for the meaningless and superstitious delays which we occasion- ally read of in the warfare of barbarous nations ; e.g. Csesar (De Bello Gallico, i. xl. c.) had drawn up his troops and offered the enemy battle, but Ariovistus thought proper to sound a retreat. " Caesar inquiring of the prisoners why Ariovistus so obstinately refused an engagement, found that it was the custom among the Grermans for the women to decide by lots and divination when it was proper to decide a battle; and that these had declared the army would not be victorious if they fought before the nem moon.^^^'' [There was also a law Spaniards, when they first came over, among the Peruvians, who did not neglect the punotUio of the declaration of war even in their most high- handed aggressions, e.g. Garcilasso de la Vega (Hakluyt Soc. ed. ii. 141) says — " The invaders sent the umal summons that the people might not be able to allege afterwards that they had been taken unawares. " " Carver ("Travels in North America," p. 301) says of the Indians— " Sometimes private chiefs make excursions. . . . These irregular sallies, however, are not always approved of by the elder chiefs, though they are often obliged to connive at them. . . . But when war is national, and undertaken by the community, their deliberations are formal and slow. The elders assemble in council, to which all the head warriors and young men are admitted, when they deliver their opinions in solemn speeches ; weighing with maturity the nature of the enterprise they are about to engage in, and balancing with great sagacity the advantages or incon- veniences that will arise from it. Their priests are also consulted on the subject, and even sometimes the advice of the most intelligent of their women is asked. If the determination be for war they prepare for it with much ceremony." 2 c 402 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. at Athens that it was not lawful to lead forth an army before the seyenth day of the month. " Vetitum Athenis erat, exercitum educere ante diem septimum."] J. Muersii, id. I have discussed the ancient mode of declaration of war at some length as an instance of tradition. There are some, I am afraid, to whom the discussion will appear ineffably trifling ; and I may even be miscon- strued to say that everything would be set right in Europe, if only a herald were sent in proper form to declare war. There are men of a certain cast of mind to whom forms are repugnant ; there are others to whom they are unintelligible. It has been observed, however, that the rejection of forms is one thing, the neglect of them another. The rejection of forms may be, on some principle, good, though misapplied, often does uncon- scious homage when it means to spurn, and may be compensated for in other ways. The neglect of them is simply evidence of laxity. Cromwell perfectly well knew the divinity which attached to forms when he said, " Take away that bauble ; " and, on the other hand, no one better than he would have judged the state of an army (not his own) in which he was told that it was the custom of soldiers not to salute their officers. The declaration of war without any solemnity, still more the commence- ment of hostilities without any declaration at all,^* seems "^ " In ancient times war was solemnly declared either by certain fixed ceremonies or by the announcement of heralds ; and a war commenced without such declaration was regarded as informal and irregular, and con- trary to the usages of nations. Grotius says that a declaration of war is not necessary by the law of nations — " Naturali jure nuUa requiritur de- claratio," but tliat it was required by the law of nations, ju/re gentium, by which term, be it remembered, he means the usages of nations. And in this he was right, as until the age in which he lived wars were almost in- variably preceded by solemn declarations. The Romans, according to Albericua GentUis, did not grant a triumph for any war which had been THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 403 to me closely analogous — as a sign of disorganisation — to tlie absence of any form of salute at a parade. I am far from contending tliat old forms, when they have become obsolete, can be resuscitated ; but I do contend for the resuscitation of ancient maxims and ideas. In any age fully imbued with the responsibility of war, in which it was considered unseemly to declare it until after a three days' deliberation in solemn conclave, and which even then protracted the declaration till the seventh or the thirtieth day, would it have been possible for two great nations to have gone to war because there had been " a breach of etiquette," if indeed there was a breach of etiquette, " at a G-erman watering-place ? " ^^ Allowing commenced without a formal declaration (De Jure Belli, c. ii. § i.) ; tut the Greeks do not seem to have been at all regular in the observance of the custom (Bynkershook, Qusea. Jur. Pub., 1. i. c. ii.) During the times of chivalry declarations of war were usually given with great formality, the habits of knighthood being carried into the customs of general war- fare, and it being held mean to fall upon an adversary when unprepared to defend himself (Ward, lutrod. ii. 206-230). With the decline of chivalry this custom fell into disuse. Gustavus Adolphus invaded Germany with- out any declaration of war (Zouch, De Judicio inter Gentes, P. ii. § x. 1) ; but this appears to have been an exception to the usages of the age, and Clarendon speaks of declarations of war as being customary in his time, and blames the war in which the Duke of Buckingham went to France, as entered into ' without so much as the formality of a declaration from the king, containing the ground and provocation and end of it, according to custom and obligation in the like cases.' Formal denunciations of war by heralds were discontinued about the time of Grotius ; the last instance having been, according to Voltaire, when Louis XIII. sent a herald to Brussels to declare war against Spain in 1635."— W. OJce Manning's Ccm- mmtaries on Law of Nations. " " Looking back on the history of the autumn ... we may yet be im- pressed by the conviction that, had the union of the European famih/ of nations been strengthened as it might have been before the war broke out, it might never have been begun, or would have long since terminated. The Treaty of Paris put on record a declaration in favour of arbitration, but it proved to be worthless when sought to be applied."— yimes, Feb. 15, 1871. I shall have a word to say presently on the declaration of the Treaty of Paris. 404 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. that this was merely the ostensible pretext, and that the real grounds. remained behind — if these long deli- berations had been necessarily interposed, would there not have been a thousand chances in favour of such a European intervention as saved the peace of Europe three years before in the affair of Luxembourg ? Yet, so far as we know at present, the following is the history of the commencement of the most horrible, the most destructive, and the most barbarous war^" of modern times. " A private letter from Paris relates that tlie Due de Grammont, who has taken to spend his evenings at the Jockey Club, was lately asked there, ' How he came to blunder into such a fatal war ? ' ^i He replied, ' I asked the Minister of War, Leboeuf, if he was ready, and he answered, "Eeady! ay, and doubly ready;" otherwise,' added the Due, ' I should have taken care not to have counselled a war which there were twenty modes of averting.'" — Times, Sept. 1, 1870.22 The extent of the disorganisation and the laxity into ^^ It must not be forgotten, however, that it was the revolution in Paris which gave this war its abnormal character, and created situations for which the law of nations had no precedents, or precedents only which were of doubtful application. ^^ Compare infra, p. 412. ^^ Compare with the following account of the declaration of war by M. F. de Champagny, de L'Acad. Fr., in the Gorrespondant, 25 Juin 1871 :— " A government wrongly inspired proposed to us a war. Without asking it why it wished to make it, without asking i£ it could make it, without reflection, without discussion, without listening to the men of name and experience, who implored of us at least twenty-four hours for reflection, we accepted this war, I do not say with enthusiasm, but with frivolous levity, not as crusaders, but as children. It seemed to us suffi- cient to tipple in the 'caf^s,' singing the 'Marseillaise,' to intoxicate the soldiers, to throw squibs into what were then called sensational journals, to cry ' h, Berlin ! ' in order to go right off to Berlin. And when it was dis- covered that we were not going on at all to Berlin, but that Berlin was coming to Paris, that this enthusiasm of the ' caf^ ' did not cause armies to spring into life, what was our resource ? Always the same : to overthrow a government ! " THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 405 whicli we have fallen, appears perhaps as strikingly as m any anything else in the frequency of the complaints of the little regard paid to " parlementaires " and officers bearing flags of truce. But what startles us more than all is the light manner in which this transgression of the law of nations is referred to even by the parties aggrieved. I will here place two extracts which I have made in juxtaposition : — Carver (" Travels in North America," p. 358) says, that when a deputation sets out together for their enemy's country with pro- positions of peace, "They bear before them the pipe of peace, ■which, I need not inform my readers, is of the same nature as a flag of truce among the Euro- peans, and is treated with the greatest respect and veneration even by the most bariarous nations. I never heard of an instance wherein the hearers of this sacred badge of friendship were ever treated disrespectfully, or its rights violated. The Indians believe that the Great Spirit never suffers an infraction of this kind to go unpunished." Count Chandordy, in his reply to Count Bismarck, dated Bor- deaux, Jan. 25, 1871, says : — " Count Bismarck reproaches the French armies with having fired on parlSmentaires.'' An accusa- tion of this nature had already been brought to the knowledge of the Paris Govenunent, and we may quote the following words of M. Jules Favre in his circular of 12th January — " I have the satisfaction to acquaint your ex- cellency that the Governor of Paris has hastened to order an inquiry into the facts alleged by Count Bismarck, and in an- nouncing this to him he has brought much more numerous facts of the same nature to his own cognizance which are im- puted to Prussian sentinels, but which he never would ha/ve allowed to interrupt ordirut/ry relations." I do not know whether this contrast between barbarism, such as it existed in the last century, and modern civi- lisation, will astonish those partisans of success whom in truth nothing in all the multiform atrocities of this dreadful war seems to have astonished or shocked, so 4o5 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. that it was at times almost ludicrous to hear these introuvables declare such things as the bombardment of hospitals and churches, as at Strasburg and Paris, quite right, which even the German commanders, when the matter was brought to their attention, admitted to be wrong. This perhaps is the worst symptom of corruption we have yet seen, and yet there was a time, and that quite recent, when a different sentiment prevailed. I have just referred^' to the declaration in the Treaty of Paris, which thought to inaugurate a new era by bringing all causes of conflict in Europe to a settlement of arbitra- tion. But let no one be discouraged or cease to believe in the possibility of such a consummation because of the result. There never was a stronger instance of the in- tellect of the world vainly striving to create an inter- national code and system for itself which was to be distinct from the law of nations ; for at the same moment that the diplomatists who were collected in Paris set to work upon their tower, which was to erect itself above the waters of any future inundation, they one and all agreed to demolish, and as a first step to pull down, the corner- stone from the temple of the past. How this was brought about will best be told in an extract from the Count de Montalembert's " Pie IX. et la France en 1849 et 1869," p. 10 :— " Let us go back to the origin of the evil, ... it dates back more especially from the Congress of Paris in 1856, from that diplomatic reunion which, after having solemnly declared that none of the con- tracting powers had, the right to interfere either collectively or indi- vidually in the relations of a sovereign with his siikjects (Protocol of 18th March), after having proclaimed the principle of the absolute independence of the sovereigns, for the benefit of the Turkish Sultan against his Christian subjects, thought it within its competency, in =3 Vide note 19, p. 403. THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 407 its protocol of tlie 8th of April, and in the absence of any representa- tive of the august accused, to proclaim, that the situation of the Pon- tifical States was 'ahnormal' and 'irregular.' This accusation de- veloped and exaggerated at the Tribune, and elsewhere by Lord Palmerston and Count Cavour, was equally formulated under the Presidency and upon the initiative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Prance, and it is consequently France which must bear the prin- cipal responsibility before the Church and Europe. "We can recall the grief and surprise which this strange proceeding created in the Catholic world." Thus was the game set rolling ; and the policy thus indicated was pursued with the eager and unrelenting pertinacity of some, and with the tacit approval of the rest of the co-signatories. The war declared by France against Austria, ■ which was the precipitating cause of the storm which broke upon the Papal States, can, it is true, only be regarded as evidence of the conspiracy — inasmuch as it was de- clared by one of the conspirators at the instigation of another, whose ultimate aim was the seizure of the States of the Church and of the other independent Italian sovereignties to the profit of Piedmont. So soon as the victory of the French arms was decided, the Emperor's proclamation from Milan appeared, inciting the popula- tions to insurrection. All then followed in sequence— the revolt of the Eomagnas four days after the Milan manifesto, their annexation along with the other independent states of Central Italy by Piedmont, this annexation being effected with the connivance, if not the consent, of France, and for which payment was eventually made in the cession of Nice and Savoy (all this being m contravention of the treaties of ViUafranca and Zurich). But wliat mattered the contravention of treaties in com- ' parison with the scenes which followed? The programme of the congress, or, if that is denied, the programme of two (if not three, for it is difficult to acquit Lord Pal- 4o8 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. merston and Lord Jolm Russell of participation by con- sent) of the powers who had entered into the conspiracy against European order, and these, at that time, the powers in the highest state of military efficiency, was to he carried out per fas et nefas. Naples and the patri- mony of St Peter had to be secured, and as they morally presented no vulnerable side, they were seized by the hand of the marauder in defiance of " all law, human and divine."^* Garibaldi's descent on Sicily, effected under the cover of the English navy, was simply a brusque and flagrant act of piracy, for which no plea of justification has ever been set up. The usurpation of the Papal States, though not less ruthlessly accom- plished in the end, was carried through with more regard to form in its preliminary stages ; yet at the last the diplomatic mask was torn off, and the invasion was made without any pretext or justification known to the law of nations, and without even a declaration of war. Here, again, the Imperial diplomacy and Italian in- trigue went hand in hand. Lamoriciere, in reliance upon the honour of France, had made all his dispositions against Garibaldi, and had received a letter from the French ambassador as late as the 7th September (bear- ing the same date as the so-called ultimatum of Oavour, although the Piedmontese troops had crossed the frontier before it was delivered), which I shall here reproduce, seeing that it is not on record in the Annuaire des Deux Mondes (1860) — " I inform you by the Emperor's orders that the Piedmontese mill not enter the Roman States, ^* These were the words which the Marquis of Bath had the courage to use in the House of Lords when everybody else was joining in a ludicrous " dirge of homage " to Cayour. I wish to put this protest, as well as the similar protests of the Marquis of Normanby and the Earl of Donough- more on record, as there may come a time when England will be glad to recur to them. THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 409 and that 20,000 French are ahout to occupy the different places of those states. Make, then, all your dispositions against Garibaldi.— Le Due de G-rammont." ^^ (This let- ter was dated September 7, 1860, the battle of Castel- gidardo was fought on the 18th September 1860.) It is needless to add that no reinforcements from France appeared, and that the assurance served no other purpose than to mislead, and to throw Lamoriciere off his guard. Indeed, in spite of various protestations and the subse- quent withdrawal of the French ambassador from Turin, the Catholic world settled down into the belief, not only that the Emperor of the French had never had the in- tention of sending troops to the rescue) but that the whole scheme of the invasion had been deliberately de- vised at the ominous interview which took place on the 28th of August previous, between the Emperor, Farini, and General Cialdini. It was even said that the words used by the Emperor on the occasion transpired, " frappez fort et frappez vite," — a terse and striking phrase, which will fitly perpetuate in the human memory the most flagrant violation of the law of nations which history affords.'^ =' Vide, "Current Events," in Rambler, 1860. '■^ " Does the faith of treaties, the right of treaties, still exist ? Look at what has happened in Europe during the last twenty years. The treaties made with the Church were the first violated ; they have declared that a ' concordat ' is nothing more than a law of the State, which the State can alter at will — ^in other words, that, unlike all other contracts, conventions of this nature, inviolable for one of the parties, can be broken by the other at its pleasure ; kings have thus put the Church outside the law of nations. But, in consequence, they have excluded themselves. When the most sacred of all treaties were thus trampled upon, how would they have the others respected ? They have even written, or caused to be written, on a solemn occasion (' Napoleon III. et L'ltalie, 1859 ') that treaties no longer bind when the general sentiment declares against them ; in other terms, when they displease us. At this epoch, in 1859, we were disputing with Austria a possession which all treaties had guaranteed to her, and 410 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. All this was done with the undisguised satisfaction of several veteran English statesmen, who were, moreover, directly or indirectly represented at the same congress which sought to bind the European powers to call in the arbitration of a friendly power, in case of- disagreement, before making an appeal to arms. JSTow there is no reason why this rule, good in itself, and congruous to the spirit and maxims of the law of nations, should not have been embodied as a fundamental article in the code ; for the law of nations is not a dead- letter, but, like everything that is of tradition, easily lending itself to adaptation and development according to the changing circumstances of the world. Can we be surprised that this principle, good and according to reason, but which nevertheless presupposes certain sentiments in the world in correspondence with it, should in the actual circumstances have been barren of results ? Is it wonderful that it should have miscarried in the hands of men who were parties to the invasion, without even the form of a declaration of war, of the State predestined by divine Providence to be the corner- stone of Christendom ? Would it have been befitting that this beneficent arrangement should have been destined the neutral signatories of these treaties did not protest. Victorious over Austria, we have in our turn made a treaty with her ; and this treaty was violated when scarcely signed ; and neither we nor the rest of Europe protested. Later on, the dissensions between Germany and Denmark ended in a treaty, which the rest of Europe guaranteed ; but soon Ger- many broke this treaty by force of arms, and Europe did not say a word. I omit here the convention of September, . . . the treaty of 1856. On all these occasions the indifference of third parties has come to the aid of the cupidity of the aggressors ; and the moral sense has been so far want- ing in the Cabinets that they have assisted and applauded acts of brigand- age for the love of the art, and without even thinking tha,t the brigand, when he grew strong, would fall on the morrow on themselves. Will you find in European history twelve years so fruitful in pledges and per- juries ?" THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 411 to be the work of men who, either by participation or as accessories after the fact, had set their hands to a deed which shocked every principle of morality, and made the very notion of public law in Europe ridiculous ? The early commencements of this policy cannot be studied at a more appropriate moment than now, when we are witnessing its denouement. What has been the result to France of its Italian policy? To Austria? To England? To Europe? Has any power' prospered that had a hand in setting the ball rolling, or, for that matter, any power that had the responsibility of staying the parricidal hand, and held back ? If Austria, the first victim, had firmly and strenuously resisted the early instigations of evil, would she ever, according to human calculations, have had to fight at Magenta and Solferino ? and, in another way, was there not something dramatic in the sudden reverse and displacement of Count Buol, who had been the Aus- trian representative at the Congress, imrnediately after he had hurled the fatal ultimatum ? The retort will be triumphant. Did not France, the great culprit of all, who both cast its own responsibility to the winds and sbwed the hurricane, conquer at Solferino ? Truly she did ; but respice finem, or rather, we may say, we have lived to see the end. Did not Solferino, after some ten years of delusive prosperity, lead up to Sedan? Of England I do not wish to say more than that since that date she has unaccountably fallen in the esteem of men ; has, in her turn, met with injustice, and no longer main- tains the same relative position which she held during the fifty years preceding the Congress. Everything, in fine, since that date, seems to have gone in favour of that European power which remained in the background, and which, if it did no good act at the Congress, at least had the worldly wisdom to fold its 412 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. arms and refrain from sacrilege. Yes, Prussia has had her victory ; hut hy all accounts there never was a vic- tory which has made a nation so sad and mournful, and which was greeted with fewer manifestations of joy. It was peace rather than victory which was welcomed home. Here, too, we seem to see the subtle and nicely-measured retaliation. Again, was there no significance in the un- looked-for disasters at Forbach and Woerth, occurring coincidently with the final abandonment of Rome by France ? These are things which strike the eye, but which are difficult of demonstration, and it would appear a hope- less errand to convince a generation which has witnessed the burning of Paris, if not without emotion, at any rate without serious refiection, and, in spite of manifest pre- diction, has refused to see in it " the finger of retribution and the hand of God." And yet belief in this retribution of heaven is at the foundation of the law of nations. Previously to the astounding experiences of the recent war, during those years so fruitful "in pledges and perjuries," it was a common phrase, and most frequently used with reference to France, that war was no longer an affair of divine Providence, but that Providence was always on the side of the big battalions. "With one word as to the significance of this phrase, which is tantamount to a negation of the law of nations, I shall conclude. It may certainly happen, that in a contest one party may be consciously hypocrite, whilst the other is con- scious of its rectitude ; but presumedly, and until the contrary is manifested, both parties must be supposed to believe themselves in the right, and to run the tilt like knights in the mediaeval tournament. Nevertheless, as Dr Johnson said, there are arguments for a "plenum" THE DECLARATION OF WAR. 413 and for a "vacuum," but one conclusion only can be true ; and in some way in every conflict, which is true and which is just is known only to the inscrutable judg- ment of the Most High. We do not know all the secrets of courts, neither could we exactly determine the point if we had before us all the deliberations of councils, it is sufficient for us to know that victory is not always on the side of the big battalions, as witness, inter alia, Marathon, Morgarten, Bannockburn, Lepanto, Mentana. Will any Englishman maintain the proposition that vic- tory is always on the side of the big battalions ? Then, beginning with Cressy and Poictiers, and following Marlborough through the fields of Blenheim, Eamilies, and Malplaquet, and the Duke of Wellington through the Peninsular War, we must renounce that which gives " the eclat to all our victories." Doubtless, then, the quality of troops will in some instances weigh far more than numbers. You allow it ? We now introduce an element of great uncertainty, and about which there will always be much dispute, and moreover it will always be a matter concerning which religion and morality will have much to say. It is no longer an affair of big battalions, it is no longer reduced to a matter of calculation, on which side the victory is to be. Let me further remark, that whilst there is one set of writers who will be ready to say that Providence is on the side of the big battalions, there is another set of writers, and these the men who are more conversant with the details, who will with great acuteness undertake to prove to you that it is so much an affair of Providence that in each case the victory was scarcely a victory, and only such because some casualty on the other side inter- vened to convert what would otherwise have been a victory into a defeat. It is unfortunately true that this latter class of historians and strategists do not, as a rule, trace in 414 THE DECLARATION OF WAR. the turn of events the retribution of Providence. Still, the presumption will always be that victory favours the righteous cause, although it may be only pro hac vice, and ultimate success may not crown the career of the victorious nation, because its virtues may not have merited more than a signal and single success ; — or it may even be that its merits may be of a kind such as to gain it a reward which transcends the rewards of earthly victory; or, again, the career of victory must be ex- plained and measured by the depths of the final catas- trophe and discomfiture. In any case, it is a great thing for a nation to have won a victory in a rightful cause. The reward of virtue remains and gladdens the heart in the day of disaster and distress. Whatever may chance to us, there will always lie in store for us the consolation of reading the history of the battle of Waterloo ; not, let us say, as the victory of one nation over another nation, but as the great and final triumph of a righteous over an un- righteous cause, gained by England. It is, thank God ! impossible alike for the conqueror and the revolutionary multitude to destroy the Past. INDEX. INDEX. ABOEiGiifAL races, their mysterious origin, 35. Acton, Lord, 251. Adam, supposed identity with Pro- metheus and Hercules, 42, 180; with Fohi, 64, 232; meaning of the word, 134 ; correspondence of, with Chaldsean god. Ana, 189. Adams, Mr Arthur, 348. Adaptability of law of nations, 410. Adonis and Venus, myths of, 396, 397. Adrastus, the legend of, 179. iEneid, the, of Virgil quoted, 212. .aischylus, the " Supplicants " of, quoted, 131. Africa, commemorative ceremonies of Deluge, 248, 250 ; Captain Burton's account of, 251 ; compared with Catlin's narrative, 254-260. See also Deluge, Commemorative Fes- tivals. Africanus, 95. Age of Bronze, the, 334, 335; com- mencement of, 336. Age, the Golden, 323 ; theory of and commencement, 323; tradition of, 328 Age, the Iron, 129. Agnatic relationship, 357, 358, 360. Algonquins, the, 152. Allies, Mr, on divergence between re- ligion and philosophy, 108. America, the Mozca Indians of, 70 ; diluvian traditions in, 242 ; the " O-kee-pa" of the Mandans, 245, 246 ; Catlin's account of ceremonies, 254-262 ; the Peruvian deity, 186 ; Peruvian worship, 304. See also Deluge, Commemorative Festivals. America, the discovery of, a proof of tradition, 824. American continent, source of peoples of, 263-266. American Indians, the legend of Michabo among the, 152, 153 ; tra- dition of fire among, 320. Amida or Adima, the Japanese god, 65. Amphictyonic Council and League, 361-.365. Ana, a Chaldean god, 187; tradi- tional identity of with Adam, 189; a reduplication of Enu or Enoch, 192. Ancestors, worship of, 161, 205. Ancient society, the unit of, 339. Andamans, the, 308, 313. Andriossy's hypothesis regarding overflow of the NUe, 68. Anthisteries, the, 226. Antiquity of man, 91. Apollo, 241. Apotheosis of Nimrod, 160. Arab and Iroquois, exceptional in- stances of human progress, 33. Arba-Lisun, the, or Four Tonsues, 184. Arbitration instead of war, 380. . Areopagus, a cosmopolitic, 383. Argos, feast of the deluge at, 243. Argyll, Duke of, on tradition, 120, 123 ; on capability of savage races, 314. Arrival and conflict of different races in India, 35-38. Aryan nations in India, their struggle with the Santals, 36 ; their dialect, 36 ; Mr Tylor on, 41 ; one of the primitive races, 43; probable iden- tity with Japhetic race, 43; their colour, 84 ; their mythology, 168. Ash, the,traditionregarding, 175,176. Assemblies of Greece, the, 369. Assyrian history, corroboration of, 289. Assyrian mythology, 182 ; deities of, 2d 4i8 INDEX. 183; II or Ra, 185 ; L'Abbe Gainet on, 187 ; Ana, 187 ; Bil or Bnu, 190 ; Hea or Hoa, 194 ; Nebo, 206. Asteropoeus, 252. Astral religion, 163. Astronomical cycle of China, 61. Atliens, the Hydrophoria at, 244. Atlantis, the, of Plato an embodiment of tradition, 367. Autochthones, or earth-born, 131. Avocations of primitive life — hunter, husbandman, and shepherd, 33. Babylonian chronology, 57, 58 ; Hales on, 57. Bacchus, connection of, with Satur- nalia, 214 ; reduplications of, 215, 216. Ealdr, the legend of, localised and individualised, 171 ; in the Scan- dinavian Edda, 172 ; paralleled with an account of the Fall, 172. Ballad, "Welsh, quoted, 253. Basis of international law, 11. Basis of theory of Golden Age, 323. Baskets of water, the, parallel ac- counts of by Burton and Catliu, 2.56. Bastian, M.A., on human progress, 75. Bath, the Marquis of, 408, Bel Nipru or Nimrod, 191. Belligerent Rights, 376, 377. Belus, the god, 133 ; identity of with Nimrod, 159. Bentham, on International Law, 3, 5 ; his peculiar crotchet, "utility,"' 6; on public opinion, 7 ; the "greatest happiness ' principle, 13 ; criticism on Blackstone's views of primitive life, 54. Benthamism tested by Darwinism, 17. Berosus' account of Hoa, 327. Bertrand, M. , legend concerning the man-bull, 203. " Bhilsa Tope," the, 252. Bifrons, a name applied to several gods, 220. Big battalions, 412, 413. Big canoe, the, parallel accounts of, by Burton and Catlin, 255 ; corre- spondence of to the canopied boat of Egyptians, 273. Bil or Bnu, a Chaldsean deity, 190. Blackness of complexion, the result of the curse of Canaan, 79; asso- ciated with evil, 79 ; traditions re- garding, 81, 82 ; a mark of infe- riority, 84 ; how used by satirists, 85 ; operation asa curse, 89, 90. Blackstone on primitive life and a state of nature, 54. Boat, philology of the word, 196. Bochica, 325. Bolabola, declaration of war at, 388, 389. Bonzies, the, 270. Book. of Genesis, the, 120. Book of Sothis, 95. Bougainville on divinities of the Ta- hitians, 315. Boulanger, M., quoted, 118; on dilu- vian tradition, 242, 243, 247, 262 ; on the Golden Age, 328, 329. Brace, Mr, his "Ethnology," quoted, 27, 37, 267. " Breach of etiquette," a, conse- quences of, 403; the ostensible .pretext of Franco-German war, 404. Brigham Young and the Mormons, 18. British Medical Journal on explosive bullets, 400. Bronze Age, the, 29,3, 334, 335 ; its commencement, 336. Bryant, Mr J., xi. ; on creation of man, '133, 136; on the symbol of the bull, 203 ; on Dionusus, 215 ; on Noah and Janus, 219 ; his deri- vation of Juno and Venus, 392 ; on the dove, 395. Buddhist legend, 136. Buffaloes, Feast of the, 260. " Bull-dance," the, 254 ; parallel ac- counts of, by Burton and Catlin, 254. Bunsen, Baron, 37 ; on Chinese and Egyptian chronology, 58-62, 73 ; on Egyptian chronicles, 94-96 ; on tradition of creation, 132 ; on the Kabiri, 198 ; on Arya, 335. Burial customs among Mandans and Formosans, 2GB. Burial, mode of, common to several savage nations, 308. Burton, Capt. Richard, on Fetish ; 80 ; on Dahome customs, 250 ; the bull-dance, 254 ; the big canoe, 255 ; the baskets of water, 256 ; the gourds or calabashes, 257; the " aged white man," 258, 259; cus- toms at Whydat, 262. Burton, J. Hill, 3. Cadmus and alphabetic writing, 221. Caduceatores, the, 390. Cain, tradition in Tonga connected with, 82. Calmet on " Sem," or Shem, 207 ; on Saturn, 210. INDEX. 419 Canaan. See Chanaan. Canada, Col. Macdonell's service in, xxUi., xxiv. Canaanite race, the correspondence between and aboriginal tribes in India, 39, 48 ; literal fulfilment of prophecy regarding, 40, 41, 83, 85. Canopied boat, the, of the Egyptians, Carver, Mr, on Indian wars, 28 ; the Indian mode of declaration of war, 399, 401 ; Indian flags of truce, 405. Cashmir, tradition of Deluge in, 68 ; commemorative festival in, 69. Catholicism and Christianity, identity Catlin, Mr G., on traditions of Crea- tion among the Indians, 134, 138 ; of Deluge, 223; the " 0-kee-pa," 245 ; the big canoe, 255 ; the bas- kets of water, 256 ; the gourds or calabashes used by the Indians, 257; the "first man," 258, 259; the " evil spirit," 260 ; water cere- monies, 262 ; on the pheasant, 266 ; description of a " whale ashore" at Vancouver's Island, 317 ; on the crania.1 development of the Flat- head and Crow Indians, 318. Caverley's Theocritus quoted, 217. Centre of tradition, the, 339. Ceremony at Gorblo, 307. Chaldaaa, early inhabitants of, 184. Chaldsean Pantheon, deities of the, 183. Chaldsean system of chronology, 57 ; ■religion, 163. Champagny, M. F. de, 404, 409. Chanaan, or Canaan, the curse of, 79 ; tradition of this curse among the Sioux Indians, 81 ; in Tonga, 82. Chandordy, Count, 405. Chaos in the Phoenician cosmogony, 174 ; the commencement of all things, 174-177._ Chateaugay, xxviii. China, certain and uncertain history of, 58, 59 ; astronomical cycle of, 61 ; aboriginal tribes, 133 ; belief in, as to creation of man, 134. Chinese chronology, 58-65 ; confusion in, 65. Chinese tradition of first and second heaven, 328. Chin-nong, 240. Chippeways and Natchez tribes, in- stitution of perpetual fire among, 320. Choctaw Indians, tradition regarding creation of man, 134. Christian doctrine, the foundation of, 142. Chronicles of Egypt, 93. Chronology, Egyptian, Palmer on, •92-104; the Sothic cycle, 96-100; various systems of, 101. Chronology, from the point of view of science, 72 ; Bunsen's views, 73; Lyell's, 73 ; Sir John Lubbock's, 73-75; Hales on, 135. Chronology, from the point of view of tradition, 55 ; historical testi- mony and evidence in favour of Scriptural, 55 ; Indian, 56 ; Baby- lonian, 57 ; Hales, Rev. W., on, 57 ; Chinese, 58-65. Chronos, Saturn as, 218. Cicero, on International Law, 10 ; "De Legibus" quoted, 368; the "Offices," 375. Civilisation, a state of, the primitive condition of man, 284. Civilisation, principles and teaching of, 339. Civilisation, progress of man to, 329, 331. Cognation and agnation among t'le Romans, 357, 358. Coincidences of the Bible with Sau- choniathon, 130. Coleridge, H. N., on oral transmission of tradition, 122. Coleridge, Rev. Henry J. , 224 ; on conflicting elements of heathenism, 344. College, the Fecial, 373. Colour in man, persistency of, 77. Coloured cloth and feathers, em- blematic of peace and war, 388-3J2, 398. Commemorative Festivals. See Fes- tivals, Commemorative. Comity of nations, restriction of the 379. Communal marriage, 51, 52. Commune, the, 110. Communistic schemes, 109. Comte and the Coratists, 112. Conflicting elements of heatheuism, 344. Confusion of tongues, Hesiod on the, 334. Confusion of tradition of Enoch with Xisuthrus and Noah, 326. Conscience, Mr Darwin on, 2, 12 ; its subjective existence, 12; outward expression, 13. Constituent Assembly, the, of 1789, Montalembert on, 113. Cook, Capt., on customs at Huaheine, 420 INDEX. 271, 272 ; quoted, 298; on declara- tion of war at Bolabola, 388, 389. Copan, the peaceaUe people of, 29. Cosmogony, Eoman ideas of the, 23. Cosmopolitio Areopagus, a, 383. Cox, Eev. G. TV., xiv. ; on mythology, 158, 165, 168 ; on myths of Venus and Adonis, 396, 397. Cranial development of Flathead and Crow Indians, 318. Creation of man, tradition of among Bed Indians, 133 ; Max MuUer on, 133. Creation, the, Mexican tradition of, 152, lf:3 ; Slavonian account of, 154. Creoles,thepersietencyofcolourin, 77. Cunningham, Major, the "Bhilsa Tope," 252. Curse of Canaan, the, 79 ; traditions of, 81-85, 217. Customs of the Samoides, 28 ; at Huaheine, 271. Cycle, astronomical, of China, 61 ; the Sothic, 96, 98-100. Dagon, the god of the Philistines, 200 ; the Fish-man, 219 ;. Mr La- yard on, 238. Dahome, the "So-sin" customs of, 250, 251, 254-262; precedence of women in, 259. Dancing an Indian ceremonial, 302, 303. D'Anselme, Vicomte, on philology of Noah and boat, 196. Darkness, associated with the Ser- pent, 173 ; the parent of light, 174- 177. Darwinism, Benthamism tested by, 17. Darwin on Conscience, 2, 12 ; and the utilitarians, 15-17. Davies, Bev. E., xi,, 253. Day and night, used as symbols, 84. Declaration of war, the, 386 ; accom- panied by religious formalities, 386, 387 ; method of, at Bolabola, 388, 389 ; at St Julian, 389 ; symbols used at, 389-392; Plutarch on, 397 ; traditionary modes of, 398- 400; importance attached to forms of, 402 ; consequences of the viola- tion of forms of, 406—411. Deities of the ChaldseanPantheon, 183. "De Legibus" quoted, 10, 133. De Quincey, quoted, 38.3. Deluge of Deucalion, the, 224, 225, 229. Deluge of Ogyges, the, 229 ; anterior to that of Deucalion, 230 ; its date, 231. Deluge, the — ^traditions of, localised in China, 65-67 ; commemorative monument of, 67 ; traditions of, in Egypt, 67 ; in Cashmir, 68 ; among Sioux Indians, 81; among Tartar tribes, 135; L'Abbe Gainet on, 137 ; Phrygian legend of, 193 ; Phoenician legend of, localised, 198; Santal legend of, 199; Etruscan monument commemorative of, 204 ; connection of Saturn with, 210-212 ; of Ogyges and Deucalion, 222 ; traditions of, among Indian tribes, 223 ; Sanscrit story of, 224 ; its date, 2.31 ; tradi- tions of, among Greeks, 230-235 Frederick Schlegel on, 233, 234 traditions of, in Africa and Ame rica, 242 ; Boulanger on, 242, 243 commemorative festivals of, 243- 246, 252-262, 275-282; the dove and rainbow of, 393, 396. /See also N'oah. " Democracy in America," Tooque- ville's, 8. Demonolatry, 146. " De Berum Natura" quoted, 334. Deucalion, 222 ; Mr Grote on tradi- tions of, 224, 225 ; Max Muller on legend of, 226 ; Mr Kenriok on, 230-232, 241; connected with Hy- drophoria at Athens, 244. Devil, the, belief in among savages 302. Devil-worship, 141. Diana, the temple of, 364. Diffusion of Hamitic races, 41. Dike and dikaspoloi, 347. Diluvian tradition. See Noah, Deluge. Diluvian ' traditions in Africa and America, 242-282. See Deluge. Festivals (commemorative). Diogenes Laertius' scheme of chrono- logy, 101. Dionusus, identified with Noah, 215; the first king of India, 220, 221. Dionysia, 249. Discovery of America, the, a proof of tradition, 324. Dispersion, the, 329, 336 ; rise of government under, 342. Disraeli, Mr, on sceptical effects of discoveries of science, xvi., xvii. Distribution of races, 89. Divergence between religion and phi- losophy, 108. Divinities of the Tahitians, 315. Divinity attaching to forms, 402, 403. Dixon, Hepworth, his conversation with Brigham Young, 18 ; his views of human progress, 32, INDEX. 421 Donoughmore, Earl of, 408. Dove, the bird of Venus, 392 : tradi- tions of, 394-396. Duo de Grammonfc, the, 404. Dyaks and Javanese, contrast in colour, 81. Dyans, 170. Dyer, Dr, on the Sabines, 352 ; the temple of Diana, 364. Dynasties of Egypt, 97, 98, 102, 103. Dynasty of the Popes, 381, 382. Eastern Islanders, tradition among the, 200. Egg, the mundane, tradition of, 306 ; an emblem of the Creation, 307; the Mahabarata account of, 308. Egypt, chronology of, 92 ; its Chron- icles, 93; dynasties of, 97; com- memorative festival of the Deluge in, 249. Egyptian chronology. Palmer on, 92- 104. Egyptians, the, canopied boat of, 273 ; Jewish rites and ceremonies bor- rowed from, 274. Ellis's " Polynesian Researches " quoted, 265 ; on Tahitiau relics, 312. Endogamy, 45-47, 50. English socialists, 110. Enoch, result of his disappearance re- garding Nimrod, 160 ; embodied traditionally in Chaldasan gods Ana and Enu, 192. Eiiu or Bil, a Chaldean deity, 190; a reduplication of Enoch, 192. jEpimetheus (afterthought) and Pro- metheus (forethought), 180. Epochs of prehistoric archaeology, 287, 288. Equality of the sexes, 109. Eratosthenes, 95 ; scheme of chrono- logy of, 103. Eros and Iris, 394. Eschylus, the " Supplicants" quoted, 398, Esquimaux, the, 311. Ethnological difficulties, 89-91. Ela-uscan monument commemorative of the Deluge, 204. Etymologies— of mam, 134, 227, 228 ; Noah, 196; hoat, 196; river, 253; horse, 253, 255 ; plough, 255 ; names of metals, 290 ; fire, 321 ; plough, 335. Euridike and Orpheus, 173. European league, a general, 381i 382. European radicalism, 110. Eusebius' testimony to value of tra- dition, 120. Evil associated with blackness, 79. Evil Spirit, the, in Mandan cere- monies, 260. "Excursion," the, of Wordsworth quoted, 145. Exogamy, 45-47. Faloonek's "PalseontologicalMem.," 139. Fall, the, Lenormant on, 128. Faniily, the, 26 ; tendency to disper- sion of, 27 ; gradual consolidation and expansion into tribes and then to states, 30, 31 ; the unit of ancient society, 339. Family tradition, confusion of, 116. Fatimala, the, 40. Feast of the Buffaloes, the, 260. Feathers, coloured, emblematic of peace and war, 389-392. Fecial College, the, 373 ; correspond- ence of, with Herald's College, 374. Federal union between Bomans and and Latins, 355. Feegees, the, religion among, 301; their characteristics and civilisa- tion, 313. Fergusson, Adam, on the Six Nations, 365. Festivals, commemorative, of the De- luge, 66 ; in Cashmir, 69 ; among various nations, 243 ; the Hydro- phoria at Athens, 244 ; the " 0-kee- pa," 245 ; the Panathensea, 248 ; the Dionysia, 249 ; in Egypt, 249 ; among the Mandan Indians, 250 ; the "So-sin'' customs of Dahome, 250, 251; at Sanchi, 252; the " Bull-dance," 254 ; the " big canoe," 255 ; the baskets of v?ater, 256 ; the gourds and calabashes, 257; the "first man," 258, 259; among the Santals, 262 ; among the Japanese, 268, 269; at Huaheine, 271 ; among the Egyptians, 273 ; among the Patagonians, 275-279 ; Pongol Festival of Southern India compared with Mandan and Da- homan ceremonies, 275-282. See Deluge. Fetish, 80. Feuds and wars, origin of, 27-29. Fire, unknown to various ancient nations, 128, 129 ; knowledge of among savages, 318-320; Polyne- sian etymology of the word, 321. "First man," the, in Mandan cere- monies, 258, 259, 26,3. Fish-god, the, of Berosus, 202. " Fish, history of the," 197. 422 INDEX. Flag, the white, a symbol of peace, 391. Flags of truce, Carver and Count Chandordy parallelised, 405. Flathead and Crow Indians, the heads of, 318. Flint, use of, among ancient nations, 297. Fohi the great, 63 ; identified with Adam, 64, 232. Formation of States, 342, 343. Formosans, burial customs among the, 268. Foundation of law of nations, 412. Foundation of Christian doctrine, the, 142. Foundation of JBoman law, 352- 360. Four Races, the, or Kiprat-Arbat, 184. France against Austria, consequences of the war of, 407-409. Franco-German war, the, its osten- sible pretext, 404; its abnormal character, 404 ; origin of traced to Congress of 1856, 406. Fresquet, De, on declaration of war, 386, 387. Fuegians, religion among the, 303, 304; the lowest race of savages, 313. Fulfilment of prophecy regarding Chanaan, 40, 41. Gainet, L'AbbS, on diluvian tradi- tion, 137 ; on mythology, 159 ; on Chaldaean monotheism, 187 ; translation of the ' ' History of the Fish," 197; on Deucalion, 228; on Mandan traditions, 272. Genesis, the Book of, 120 ; relation of traditions to, 127, 128, 130. Geological speculations, 233. " Gesta Eomanorum," tale from the, 179. Gibbon, on the use of letters, 120 ; his " Decline and Fall," quoted, 120, 361. Gladstone, W. E., his "Juventus Mundi," 114 ; on the mythology of Homer, 162 ; on tradition, 182, 183 ; on impersonation of good and evil, 310 ; the key to the Homeric system, 332 ; the progress of Greek morality, 349 ; the Homeric age, 375. Gnostic sect, a curious, 154. Goguet, M., on origin of laws, 121 ; human progress, 128; kinship, 129; Janus, 219. Golden Age, the, and Noah, 323 ; basis of the theory, 323; its com- mencement, 323 ; under Saturn, 325 ; tradition of, 328 ; Boulanger on, 328, 329; Sir Henry Maine on, 351. Gorbio, curious ceremony at, 307. Gould, Mr Baring, xvi. ; on "Origin and Development of Keligious Be- lief," 140 ; summary of Ms views, 141 ; his views opposed to tradition, 142 ; partial recognition of the value of revelation, 147 ; on monotheism, 150 ; on the Samoyed superstitions, 155. Gourds and calabashes, the, used in Dahoman and Mandan festivals, 257. Govat, Charles E., his description of the Pongol festivals, 275-282. Governments, rise of, after Disper- sion, 342. Gradual progress of religion among primitive peoples, 143, 144, 148, 154. Great Hare or Babbit, tradition of the, 152, 153. Greatest happiness principle, the, 13, 16. Grecian mythology, 164-170. Grecian traditions of the Deluge, 230-235. Greek and Latin Leagues, 367. Greeijwood's, Col. G., "Eain and Rivers," quoted, 233, 234. Grote, Mr, 30, 42 ; on Importance of myths, 117 ; on Deucalion, 224. Grotesque belief of the Hindoos as to support of the Earth, 138. Guanches, religion of the, 305. Guinea, religious festival in, 303. Guinnard, M., his narrative of Pata- gonian ceremonies, 275-279. Hales, Rev. W., on chronology, 57, 85, 90. Ham, identified with Hoang-ti, 64 ; prosperity of, 85 ; tradition of his blackness of complexion, 86; Sir J. G. Wilkinson on, 86 ; Bacchus identified with, 215. Hamitic races, diffusion of the, 41 ; apostasy of, 160. Hea or Hoa, a Chaldaean deity, 194 ; the inventor of cuneiform writing, 195. Heathenism, conflicting elements of, 344. Heavens, First and Second, Chinese tradition of, 328. INDEX. 423 Helps, Mr, on worship of Peruvians, 304 ; his traditions of Peru com- pared with classical and oriental traditions, 325-327. Hercules or Herakles, supposed iden- tity with Adam, 42; confusion of traditions regarding, 158, 180. Herodotus quoted, 33, 68. Hero-worship an early form of idola- try, 160, 161; among the Chaldseans a source of deification, 188, 190, 191. Hesiod and the Iron Age, 129 ; on the confusion of tongues, 334. Hetairism, 53. Heterogeneity, 46. Hieroglyphic of the Dove, 395. Hindoo laws of war, 400. Hindoos, curious Ijelief as to the world's support, 138. " Historicus " (in Times) on Inter- national law, 384. "History of the Fish," 197. History of "Western civilisation, Dr Newman on, 338-340. Hoa or Hea, 194. Hoa, account of, by Berosus, 327. Hoang-ti, 60, 63 ; identified with Shem or Ham, 64 ; with Noah, 65. Home and Foreign Review on Belli- gerent Eights at Sea, 376, 377. Homeric Age, the, 375. Homer's Iliad quoted, 347. Hooker, Dr, on the beliefs of the Lepchas, 305 : on the Khasias, 306 ; on the conduct of war, 400. Horrors of war, limitations to, 400. Horse, etymology of the word, 253, 255. Houacouvou, director of evil spirits, Patagonian festival in honour of, 277. Huaheine, customs at, 271. Human race, tradition of the, 105- 153. Human society founded upon a con- tract, 21. Hunter, Mr, on Indian traditions, 29; on primitive life in India, 34, 36 ; on Aryan colour, 84 ; on Santal customs, 247, 262. Husenbeth, Very Eev. Dr, xv. Huxley's definition of Positivism, 113. Hydrophoria, the, at Athens, 244. Hyksos or Shepherds, dynasty of, 102. Identification of Noah with Saturn, 325. Identity of Christianity and Catho- licism, 113. II or Ea, the Chaldaean deity, 183 ; account of, by Eawlinson, 185. Iliad, the, quoted, 347. Illustrated London News on Japanese religious festivals, 268 ; on cere- mony at Gorbio, 307. Impersonation of good and evil, Mr Gladstone on, 310. Indian ceremonials, 'Washington Irving on, 302. Indian chronology, 56. Indian mode of declaration of war, 399, 401. Indian tribes, close resemblance of one to another, 77. Indian wars, their causes, 28, 29. Indians, Eed, tradition regarding creation of man, 133 ; of the earth, by Michabo, 1.52, 153 ; ordeals and tortures, 247. Indians, traditions among Mozca, 70. Indo-Germanic races identified with descendants of Japheth, 42. Influence of Stoics on Koman law, 372. Inheritance through females, 52. Interfusion of ancestral and solar worship, 205. International Law, the Tablet on, 3 ; Bentham on, 3, 5, 6 ; its origin and growth, 4 ; an unwritten law, 4 ; De TocqueviUe on, 8 ; Pall Mall Gazette on, 9, 11 ; Cicero on, 10 ; an "'organised constraint," 10; analogy with law of honour, 11 ; original idea at its basis, 11 ; rela- tion to utilitarianism, 14, 15 ; the ' jus feciale, 373; " Historicus " on, 384. International Society, the, 110. Invention of writing, 123. Inventiveness of savage races. Sir J. Lubbock on, 310. Ionian federation, the, 364. Iris and Eros, 394. Iron Age, the, 129. Iroquois, traditions regarding crea- tion of man, 135. Irving, 'Washington, on Indian cere- monials, 302. Jacob, 151. James, W., xxiii. Janus, 217; derivation of January, 218; a double-headed god, 219, 220 ; identified with Noah, 326. Japan, commemorative festival of the Deluge in, 268, 269. Japanese legend of the bull and the egg, 257. 424 INDEX. Japetua, identity of with Japheth, 43. Japheth, fulfilment of prophecy re- garding the race of, 41 ; their pros- perity, 41; identity -with Indo- Germanio races, 42. Javan, son of Japheth, identified with Yavana, 43. Javanese and Dyaks, contrast in ooloiir, 81. Jenkins, Captain, xxvii. Jewish monotheism, 149. Jewish rites and ceremonies borrowed from Egyptians, 272-274. Juno and Venus, derivation of names of, 392. Jus Fedale, the, 373. Jus Gentium, the, 351, 353, 373. Kaeiki, the, 197 ; Bunsen on, 198. Kant's scheme of a universal society, 383. Kenrick, Mr, on Manu, 228 ; the tra- dition of Deucalion, 230-232. Khasias, the, superstitions of the, 306. King, Captain, quoted, 265; on Sand- wich Islanders, .315. Kinship through females, 46, 47, 51 ; Goguet on, 129. Kiprat-Arhat, the, or Four Eaces, 184. Klaproth, on Sanscrit history, 68 ; on the curse of Canaan, 83. Kronos, or Noah, 136. Lacokdaibe, L'Abb^, 4; on tradition, 105-107. Laertius', Diogenes, scheme of chron- ology, 101. Lamech, the story of, embodied in various traditions, 178, 179. Lapland tradition, a, 296. " Last ERmbles," the, of Catlin, quo- ted, 134. Latin League, the, 355. Law connected with religion, 368. Law, International. See International Law. Law of honour, the, 11. Law of Nations, the, an unwritten law, 4; Sir Henry Maine on the, 338 ; common to all nations, 345 ; testimony to in the Manx Thing, 347; ancient codes of, 350 ; the,;''MS gentiuTn, 351 ; origin of the phrase, 352, 353 ; the Amphictyonic Coun- cil, 361 ; primary objects of, 367 ; common source, 371 ; discussed on the basis of usage, 378 ; the lex legum, of mankind, 385 ; a modem transgression of, 405 ; the seizure of Papal States a flagrant violation of, 407-409 ; adaptability of, 410 ; foundation of, 412. ;See Interna- tional Law. Law of Nature, the, 20 ; question whether there is or is not a, 20 ; different solutions of this question, 20 ; Sir G. C. Lewis on, 22 ; Sir H. Maine on, 22, 25 ; what the Eoman meant by it, 23 ; among the an- cients, 23; a social compact, 23, 24 ; tradition of, 350 ; origin of the phrase, 352, 353. Law, unwritten, 369 ; Ozanam on, 370, 37L Laws, the first, of all nations, 121. Layard, Mr, on the man-fish, 238. League of the Ten Kings, 367. Legend of the tortoise, 138, 139 ; of Michabo, 152, 153 ; of the bull and the egg, 257. Legends of (Edipus and Perseus, 178. Legists of different nationalities, their agreement accounted for, 385. Lenormant, on Noe, 88 ; on the Fall, 128. Lepchas, the, curious legend of, 224 ; religion among the, 305, 307. Letters, the use of, a distinction be- tween a civilised and savage people, 120. Levitical worship, the ceremonial borrowed from Egypt, 272, 273. Lewis, Sir G. C. , on Law of Nature, 22, 24 ; 380. Light and darkness, as symbols, 84. Limitations to horrors of war, 400. Local tradition, persistency of, 117. Lower Egypt, dynasties of, 103. Lowest races of savages, the, 313. Lubbock, Sir John, oni^rimitive mar- riage, 51 ; on the antiquity of man, 91 ; on tcater- worship, 252 ; on tra- dition, 283 ; his theory opposed to that of De Maistre, 287; division of pre-historio archaiology, 287, 288 ; untrustworthiness of tradition for evidence of history, 294 ; on religion among savage races, 299, 300, 308 ; his suppositions regarding invent- iveness of savage races, 310-314; views supported by Duke of Ar- gyll, 314 ; description of a " whale ashore " in Australia, 316 ; on the knowledge of fire, 318-321. ■ Lucas, Mr Edward, xv. INDEX. 42s Lucretius' " De Eerum Natura" quoted, 334. Lyell, Sir C,, xiii. : on human pro- is, 73, 123. Maoaulat, Lord, on Benthamism, 13, 15 ; the dynasty of the Popes, 381, 382. MaodoneU, Col. George, xii. ; memoir of, xix.; parentage, xx.; an admirer of the Stuarts, xxi.; results of a letter to the "War Secretary, xxii. ; raises a regiment of Maodonells, xxiii. ; service in Canada, xxiv. ; the taking of Ogdensburg, xxv.- xxix. M'Lennan, Mr, on primitive mar- riage, 44; on marriage customs, 47, 125. Macrobius, on Janus Bifrons, 218. Maine, Sir Henry, xv. ; on the law of nature, 22, 25 ; on the law of nations, 338 ; the unit of ancient society, 341 ; notions of primitive antiquity, 343 ; on ancient codes, 350 ; the jus gentium, 351 ; origin of name of law of nations, of na- ture, &c., 352, 353 ; the foundation of Roman law, 357, 358 ; his dis- tinction between jus genUwm and jusfeciale, 373. Maistre, Count Joseph de, his theory regarding the early races of man, 78 ; his view of tradition, 283-286; on the pontifical power, 381. Malays, traditions among the, 136. Malthus, Mr, theories regarding over- population, 17. " Man," Max MuUer on derivation of the word, 134 ; its etymology, 227, 228. Man and the monkey, traditions con- necting the, 136. Man-bull, the, traditions of, 203. Manco-Capac, 240 ; the lawgiver of Peru, 325 ; identity of with Quet- zalcohuatl, 326. Mandan Indians, traditions among the, 134, 138; tradition of the Deluge, 191 ; commemorative festi- • vals among, 250, 254-262 ; the Evil Spirit of, 260 ; source and origin of, 263-266; mode of burial of, 268; art of fortifying their towns, 314. Mauetho, 94 ; system of chronology of, 95, 96. Man-fish, Mr Layard on the, 238. Manning, Dr. See Westminster. Manning, W. Oke, 14, 384. Man's progress, from a savage to a civilised state, 32 ; exceptional cases of the Arab and Iroquois, 33; Lyell's views of, 73 ; Lubbock's views, 73, 75 ; Bastian's views, 75. Manx Thing, the, 347. Maritime Alps, local ceremony in the, 307. Marriage, primitive, 44, 125; customs, 47 ; communal, 51, 52. Maupertuis', M., account of a Lap- land tradition, 296. Meaco, ceremony in the temple of, at Japan, 269. Meaning of the word Adam, 134. Melia, Very Eev. Dr P., xv. Memoir of Colonel Macdonell, xix- xxix. Memphis, 67. Menes, the first king of Egypt, 67 ; early legend regarding, 192 ; the first who put laws in writing, 295. Menu, Ordinances of, 40, 49. Metallic weapons of ancient races, 290, 293. Metallurgy of the ancients, Mr Vaux on the, 292. Mexico, the States of, 366. Mexicans, traditions among the, re- garding creation of man, 133; of the earth, 153. Michabo, the legend of, among the American Indians, 152, 153. Mill, Mr J. S., quoted, 32; on the status of women, 109. Mistletoe, the legend of the, 172, 176. Mivart, Mr St George, xv. Modes of settlement into communi- ties, 31. Monkey and man, traditions oonnect- ' ing the, 136, Monogamy, 124. Monotheism, Jewish, 149 ; Semitic, 170 ; Chaldean, 187. Mosaic law, origin of, 359. Montagu, Lord Robert, M.P., xvi. Montalembert, Dc' la, 4, 113 ; on re- sults of Congress of Paris, in 1856, 406. Montesquieu, 384, 385. Montfau9on on Bacchus, 215 ; the de- claration of war, 387. Mormons, the, 18. Mosaic authorship of Pentateuch, evidence of, 359. Mozca Indians, the, 70 ; tradition of Bochica among, 325. Miiller, Mr Max, on Aryan dialects, 36 ; on Comparative Philology, 116; on derivation of the word man, 134, 228 ; nature-worship, 143 ; mytho- 426 INDEX. logy, 165, 167-170 ; on legend of Deucalion, 226 ; " ComparatiTe Philology" quoted, 393. Mundane egg, the, 306, 307. Myrmidon, 240. Mysterious origin of aboriginal races, 35. Mythological tradition among the Eastern Islanders, 200. Mythology, 1.57 ; source and origin of, 169-164 ; solar, 166 ; Rev. G. W. Cox on, 168 ; Max Miiller on, 167-170 ; complications and confu- sion in, 171-181 ; Assyrian, see Assyrian mythology. Myths connecting man with the monkey, 136. Myths, their importance,117. Natchez tribes, institution of per- petual fire among, 320. Nations, law of. See International Law, Law of Nations. Natural right, 5. Nature, law of. See Law of Nature. Nature-worship, 143, 163, 173. Nazarians, the, a curious Gnostic sect, 154. Nebo, a Cbaldaean deity, 206 ; resem- blance of, to Shem, 207. Necessities of the pastoral life, 27. Negro, the, persistency of colour in, 77 ; subserviency of, 80. iVer, SOS8-, and gar, Chaldeean periods of time, 57. Nergal identified with Mars, 164. Newman, Dr, 310, 323 ; on history of "Western civilisation, 338-340. New Zealanders, curious tradition among, 139; their degeneration and retrogression, 321, 322. Nicolas, Mon. A. , 107. Niebiihr, quoted, 364. Nillson, Professor, on the Stone Age, 290, 292 ; quoted, 297. Nimrod, a powerful chieftain, 88 ; in the Chaldsean mythology, 158 ; identity with Belus, 159 ; his apo- theosis confounded with Enoch's disappearance, 160. Nin or Ninip, the true fish-god, 200 ; identification with Noah, 202 ; em- blem of, in Assyria, 203 ; note of Rawlinson on, 205. Noah (or Noe), identified with Shin- nong, 64, 232 ; with Cannes, 139 ; confusion of traditions regarding, 158 ; traditions of, among the Chaldseans, 183 ; philology of the name, 196 ; warlike epithets ap- plied to, 202 ; correspondence of Nin to, 202 ; Nebo a counterpart of, 206 ; identifications of (with Xisuthrus) 208, (with Saturn) 210- 212, (with Bacchus) 215, (with Janus) 217, 326, (with Ogyges and Deucalion) 222 ; the depositary of tradition and channel of law, 236 ; summary of evidence regarding traditional identifications, 236-241; and the Golden Age, 323 ; proofs of identity with Saturn, 325 ; asso- ciations of dove and rainbow with, 393, 396. See also Deluge, Festivals, commemorative. Nomadic life, 27. Normamby, the Marquis of, 408. Notions of primitive antiquity, 343. "Num," the deity of Samoides, 155. Cannes, the mysterious fi.sh, 199 ; the god of science and knowledge, 201. Oceanus, Saturn identified as, 217. (Edipus, legend of, 178 ; identified with Lamech, 178 ; corruption of the legend in the *' Gesta Eoman- orum," 179. "Offices," the, of Cicero quoted, 373. Cgdensburg, the taking of, xxvii. Cgier, M. Pegot, on the worship of the Guanches, 305. Cgilby's " Japan," quoted, 268, 269. Cgyges and Deucalion, traditional connection of, with Deluge, 222. "C-kee-pa," the, a religious ceremony of Mandans, 245, 246. Cld Chronicle of Egypt, the, 93; analysis of, 97. Cpischeschaht Indians, ceremonies among the, 268. " Oracula Sybillina," the, quoted, 188, 195, 236, 237. Cral transmission of tradition, 121, 122 ; H. N. Coleridge on, 122. Orhis terrarutn^ the, 338, 339 ; nuc- leus of, 344. Crdeals among the Indians, 247. Ordinances of Menu, 40, 49. Oriental religions. Cardinal "Wiseman on the, 154. "Origin and Development of Reli- gious Belief," Mr Baring Gould on, 140-153. Origin and growth of International law, 4. " Origin of Laws," Goquet's, quoted, 128. Origin of Mosaic law, 359. Orpheus and Euridike, 173. " Orvar Odd's saga," 296, 297. INDEX. 427 Osiris, the judge of the sonl, 189, 240. Over-population, Malthus' views re- garding, 17. Ox Temple of Meaco, ceremony in the, 269. Ozanam, on Laws, 370, 371. Paohaoamao, the Peruvian deity, 186, 304, 305. Pagan view of the social compact, 23. Pall Mall Gazette, the, on the Dar- winian theory of conscience, 2, 12 ; on laws, 9, 11 ; on utilitarianism, 14, 18 ; on European radicalism, 110 ; on the custom of the Manx Thing, 347. Palmer, Mr William, on Egyptian chronology, 92-104, 159 ; on Osiris, 189. Panathensea, the, 248. Pantheon, the, of the Egyptians, 159; of the Chaldaeans, 163. Papacy, the, head of a general Euro- pean league, 381, 382. Papal States, seizure of the, 407-409. Paralleled traditions, 254-262 ; cus- toms, 268 ; festivals, 275-282, 325- 327. Parlementaires, 405. Pastoral life, necessities of, 27. Pastoret's History, quoted, on Am- phictyonic Council, 363, 364, 369. Patagonians, religious festivals among the, 275-279. Peace and war, symbols of, 388-392. Peacock, the, symbol of the rainbow, 388-392. Pelasgians, the, 361. Pelaagus, 240. Pentateuch, the Eev. W. Smith's work on, quoted, 272, 273, 359. Pentheus, the fate of, 217. Peopling of American Continent, how accomplished, 263-266. Persistency of colour in African races and others, 77. Perseus, legend of, 178. Persians, ancient tradition of the, 128. Peru, the deity of, 186. Peruvians, worship of the, 304 ; Gar- cilasso de la Vega on, 305. Pheasant, the, relation of, to the Mandans, 266. Philology, comparative, 116. Philosophy alone is not religion, 145. Phoenician tradition of Deluge, 211 ; cosmogonies, 132, 159. Phoroneus, the father of mankind, 90, 239. Phrygian legend of the Deluge, 193. Pinkerton's account of religion of the Samoides, 155. Plato, tradition of condition of fami- lies recorded by, 30, 332 ; his At- lantis, an embodiment of tradition, 367. Plough, etymology of the word, 255, 335. Plumtre's -ffischylus, 390. Plutarch's " Numa," quoted, 397.' Polyandry, regulated and rude, 48, 49. Polygamy, 125. " Polynesian Eesearches,'' quoted, 265. Polytheism and monotheism, 149-151. Pongol festival of Southern India, 275-282. Pontifical power, the, 381. Poole, Mr, 76. Pope, the, centre of a European league, 382. Pope's Odyssey quoted, 389. Poseidon, 240. Positivism, Huxley's definition of, 113. Posterity of Ham, the, 87, 88. Precedence of women in Dahome, 259. Pottery, the art of, an evidence of progress, 73, 311. Pre-historic Archaeology divided into four epochs, 287, 288. Prayer and Punishment, expressed by same word by Latins, 286. Prescott's *' History of Mexico" quoted, 309, 366. Prevost, Sir G., xxv., xxvi. Primary objects of Law of Nations, 367. Primitive condition of mankind, tra- ditions regarding, from Sanchonia- thon, 126, 284. Primitive life, 26 ; the family, 26 ; society and government, 26; ne- cessities of pastoral, 27 ; origin of feuds and wars, 27-29 ; tendency to dispersion, 27 ; gradual consoli- dation, .30, 31 ; Mr J. S. Mill on, 32 ; progress from a savage to a civUised state, 32 ; the Arab and Iroquois exceptional instances, 33 ; distinctive avocations of hunter, husbandman, and shepherd, 33 ; in India, Mr Hunter on, 34, 36 ; exo- gamous tribes, 46 ; polyandrous families, 48 ; marriage, 49-51 ; views of Blackstone on, 54. Prinaitive marriage, Mr M'Lennan's theory of, 44 ; Sir John Lubbock on, 51. 428 INDEX. Primitive races, 43. Prophecy of St Malaohy, 380. Progress of man to civilisation, 329, 331. Prometheus, supposed identity -with Adam, 42 ; confusion of traditions regarding, 158, 180. Promiscuity, 47, 125. Pu-an-lcu, the primeval man, 63. Public opinion, 6, 7. Puriiication and punishment, associa- tion of, 286. Pythagoras, 233. QnAPAWS, tradition of the, 29. Quetzalcohuatl, identity of "with Manco Capac, 326. Quinoey, De, 136 ; on Kant's scheme of a universal society, 383. Rabbit, the Great, tradition of, 152, 163. Races, primitive, 43. Radicalism, European, 110. Radien, the deity of Scandinavian mythology, 186. "Rain and Rivers," the, of Col. G. Greenwood, quoted, 233, 234. Rainbow, the symbol of peace, 392; tradition of the, 393-395. Ra or II, the Chaldsean deity, 183 ; account of, by Rawlinson, 185. Ravana, 50. Rawlinson, Professor, xvi., 25, 30; on Babylonian chronology, 57, 58 ; on good and evil personifications, 83 ; identification of Nergal with Mars, 164 ; on deities of Chaldsean Pantheon. 183, 185, 190, 194 ; on Nin or Ninip, 205 ; on Noah, 239; corroboration of Assyrian history, 289 ; the use of metals, 293, Reduplication and confusion of deities, 190. Reduplications— of Yao and Hoang-ti, 65 ; of Enoch, 192 ; of Bacchus, 21.5, 216. Relics of Scriptural tradition in Greece, 182. Religion and philosophy, divergence between, 108. Religion of the Samoides, 155 ; among savage races, 299 ; the- Tonpinam- bas of Brazil, 301; the Feegees, 301; among Indians, 302, 303 ; in Guinea, 303 ; among the Fuegians, 303, 304; among Peruvians, 304, 305 ; among Lepchas and Limboos, 305 ; among the Khasias, 306 ; among Anda- mans, 308 ; among Tahitians, 314, 315; among Sandwich Islanders, 315 ; in Vancouver's Island, 317. Religion, gradual progress of, among primitive peoples, 143, 144, 148, 154. "Religion the representation of -a philosophic idea, " 141. Religious formalities on declaration of war, 386. Restriction of the comity of nations, 379. Revelation, primitive, 146, 147. Rites, Levitical, borrowed from the Egyptians, 272, 273. River, etymology af the word, 253. Rock, the Very Rev. Dr, 387. Roman Church, the Spectator on, 110. Roman law, 3.51-353; influence of Stoics on, 372. Roman ideas of the cosmogony, 23. Romans and Latins, political union of the, 355. Rude and regulated polyandry, 48, 49. Ryley, Mr E. , on Belligerent Rights, 376, 377. Sabines, the, 352. Sacrifices in the Temple of Neptune, 368. Sacrificial weapons, 293. St Julian, scene at, 389. St Malachy, ancient prophecy of, 380. Saluberry, General De, xxvii, Samoans, the, 313. Samoides, customs of the, 28 ; their religion, 155, 156. Samoyed traditions of Creation, 154, 155. Sanchi, commemorative festival of Deluge at, 252. Sanchoniathon, traditions from, 126 ; relation of, to Genesis, 127, 128, 130 ; on diluvian tradition, 211. Sandwich Islanders, religion among the, 315. Sanscrit literature, 56 ; etymology of the word plough, 335. Sanscrit story of the Deluge, 224. Santals, the, 35; struggle with the Aryans for the mastery, 36 ; tradi- tions of, 223 ; customs of, 262. Satirists, use of blackness of com- plexion by, 85. Saturday Mevieia, the, on Mr Glad- stone's "Juventus Mundi," 114; on Indian traditions, 228. Saturnalia, the, 214. Saturn, identified as Nin, 201 ; tradi- tional connection of, with Deluge, 210-212; reference to as Oceanus, INDEX. 429 217 ; the inventor of agriculture, 325. Savage belief in the devil, 302. Savage races, vestiges of religion among, 299, 300. Scandinavian Edda, atory of Baldr in, 172 ; quoted, 175. Scandinavian mythology, the deity of, 186. Sceptical effect of diacoveries in science, xvi., xvii. Scheme of a universal society, Kant's, 383. Schemes, communiatic, 110. Schlegel on tradition, 124 ; on Chal- dsean mythology, 188 ; on Indian traditions, 199 ; on diluvian tradi- tion, 233, 234. Scriptural chronology, historical tes- timony and evidence in favour of, 55. Scriptural tradition, reUca of in Greece, 182. Scripture and tradition, 119. Scythians, the, 33. Seebohm, Mr F. , xv. Semitic monotheiam, 170. Serpent, the, associated with dark- ness, 173. Servitude in marriage, the law of, 109. Sethites and Cainitea, 188. Shakergal, the feast of roses in Cash- mir, 69. Shem, resemblance of Nebo to, 207. Shepherds, dynasty of the, 102. Shin-nong, the divine husbandman, 63 ; identified with Noah, 64, 232. Siethas, the, worshipped by the Lapps, 155. Sioux Indians, tradition among the, regarding blackness of complexion, 81 ; of creation of man, 134. Six Nations, tribes of the, 365. Slavonian account of the Creation, 154. Smith, Eev. Dr, on the Pentateuch, 272, 273; origin of Mosaic law, 359. Social compact, the. Pagan view of, 23. Socialiats, English, 110. Society and government, elementary constituent of, 26. Society, human, founded upon a con- tract, 21. Solar and ancestral worship, inter- fuaion of, 205. Solar mythology, 166, 172. "So-sin," the, commemorative festi- val in Dahome, 250, 254. Soss, sar, and ner, Chaldean periods of time, 57. Sothic cycle, the, 96, 98-100. Bothis, Book of, 95. Southern India, Pongol festival of, 275-282. " Spanish Conquest of America," the, of Helps, quoted, 304, 325-327. Spectator, the, on the Eoman Church, 110. Spencer, Dr, 274. State of nature, a, 331-33.3. States, formation of, 342-343. Stephens' "Central America" quoted, 29 Stevens, Mr E. T.. 269, 296. Stoics, the, their influence on Roman law, 372. Stone Age, the, untenable hypothesis of, 289 ; Professor Nillson on, 290, 292, 297 ; evidence in favour of, 296, 297 ; mode of burial in, 308, 309. Stripes of coloured cloth, emblematic, 388. " Struggle for existence," the, 16. Subjective existence of conscience 12. Sudra, the, 40. Sun-worahip, 154-156, 163. Superatitiona of the Khasias, 306. " Supplicants," the, of jjlschylus quoted, 131. Symbols of peace and war, 388-392. Syncellus, 94, 95, 97 ; quoted, 199. Tablet, The, quoted, 2 ; on Arbitra- tion instead of "War, 380 ; on posi- tion of the Papacy, 382. Tahitians, the, tools of, 290 ; religion and civilisation of, 314, 315. Tamanacs, tradition of the, 229. Tangaloa, the Tonga god, 82. Tartar tribes, tradition of Deluge among, 135. Tasman's "Voyage of Discovery" quoted, 298, 299. Taamaniana, knowledge of fire among the, 319. Taurua, 204. Taylor, Eev. Eichard, on the New Zealanders, 321, 322. Temple of Diana, the, 364. Temple of Neptune, sacrifices in the, 368. Tendency of tradition to uncertainty and distortion, 115, 116 ; to redu- plication, 209. Ten Kings, League of the, 367. Themis and Themistes, 346, 348, 349. 43° INDEX. Three stages of progress with man, 32. Timas, The, quoted, 245, 380; on Franco-German war, 403. Tlascala, the republic of, 366, 367. Tlascopan, the kingdom of, 366. Tocqueville, De, on international law, 8. Tohil, the fire-god, 319. Tonga, tradition in, regarding black- ness of complexion, 82. Tongusy, the religion of the, 156. Tonpinambas, the, of Brazil, 301. Topan, the idol, 269. Tortoise, curious belief regarding the, 138, 139. Tortures among the Indians, 247. " Totems and Totemism," 125. Tradition — among Mozca Indians, 70; of the human race, 105 ; Pere Lacordaire 'on, 105-107 ; common origin of, 108 ; antagonism of reli- gion to, 109 ; tendency of, to un- certainty and distortion, 115, 116 ; confusion of family tradition, 116 ; persistency of local, 117 ; unity of Scripture with, 119 ; Duke of Argyll on, 120 ; testimony of Euse- bius to value of, 120 ; oral trans- mission, the main channel of, 122 ; Schlegel on, 124 ; Sanchoniathon on, 126 ; concordance and diverg- ence in, 130 ; truth and persistence of, 131 ; of the creation of man, 131-137 ; intellectual strictures upon, 139 ; opposition of Baring Gould's views, 142 ; relics of scrip- tural, in Greece, 182 ; of the man- bull, 203; of the Deluge among American Indians, 223 ; among Santals and .Lepchas, 224 ; the Saiwrday Revie/m on Indian, 228; Sir John Lubbock on, 283 ; De Maistre's view, 283-286 ; untrust- worthiness and uncertainty of, ac- cording to Lubbock, 294; a Lapland, 296 ; capacity of savages for trans- mission of, 297-299 ; evidences of, in religion of savage nations, 301- 306 ; of the mundane egg, 306-308; of fire, 319, 320; the discovery of America a proof of, 324 ; of Bochica among Mozca Indians, 325; Peru- vian, compared with classical and oriental, 325-327 ; transfusion and intermixture of, 327, 328 ; of Golden Age, 328 ; of first and second heavens among Chinese, 328 ; of age of primitive equality, 332; coincidence of science with, 334 ; the centre of, 339 ; preserva- tion of, under patriarchal govern- ments, 343 ; of a law common to aE nations, 345 ; of a law of nature, 350 ; the Atlantis of Plato an em- bodiinent of, 367 ; of law connecting religion, 368 ; o{ the rainbow, 393- 395 ; of the dove, 393-396 ; of modes of declaration of war, 398. See also Deluge, Festivals, Noah. Traditions connecting man with the monkey, 136. Traditions, paralleled and compared, of dHuvian customs, 254-262, 268. Transition from Stone to Bronze Age, 293. Treaties, the violation of, 409, 410. Treaty of Paris, the, 403. Tressan, L'Abbe, on mythology, 208. Tribes of the Malay peninsula, 136 ; of the Six Nations, 365. Triptolemus, the inventor of the plough, 216. Truth and persistence of tradition, 131. Turanian race, their migrations, 37. Turditani, the, 240. Tylor, Mr E. B. , xiv. , 41 ; on myths connecting man with the monkey, 136 ; on Animism, 300. Union of Romans and Latins,' the, 355. Universal society, scheme of a, 383. Unwritten laws, 369. Usage the basis of law of nations, 378. Untenable hypothesis of a Stone Age, 289. Urquhart, Mr D., 386. Utilitarianism and international law, 14, 15. " Utility," Bentham's peculiar crot- chet, 6 ; the basis of his juridical system, 12, Vaivaswata, 197. Valdegamas, Marquis de, 112. Vancouver's Island, scene on, 317. Vaux, Mr, on metallurgy of the an- cients, 292. Vega, Garcilasso de la, on Peruvian religion, 30,5. Venus, 396 ; myths of, 396, 397. Vestiges of religion among savage races, 299, 300. Vigne, MrG. G., 64, 69. Violation of treaties, the, 409, 410. Virgil, lines of, on Saturn, 1 37 ; his 2Eneid quoted, 211 ; the Eclogues, 327. INDEX. 431 Virtue and vice personified as white and black in the Zendavesta, 83. Voltaire, the intellect of, 113. Voltairean prejudices against primi- tive records, 25. Vul, the son of Ana, 193. Wallace, Mr, 81 ; on man, 91. Wallis, Captain, 291, 389. Wallis, Mr J. E., 2. War and peace, symbols of, 388-392. War, the Declaration of, 386. See Declaration of War. Warburton, E., on oral transmission of past events among the Indians, 121. Waring, Mr J. B., 308. Warlike epithets applied to Noah, 202. Water, etymology of the word, 253. Weapons of metal among ancient races, 290, 293. Weld, Eev. A. , xiv. Weld, F. A. Governor of Western Australia, 297. Welsh baUad quoted, 253. Westminster, Archbishop of, xv. "AVliale ashore," a, contrasted de- scriptions of, by Catlin and Sir John Lubbock, 316, 317. Whately, Archbishop, 283. White and black personifications of vice and virtue in the Zendavesta, 83. White flag, the,asymbol of peace, 391. Wilkinson, Sir J. G., on Ham, 86; his "Ancient Egyptians" quoted, 335. Wilson's " Arohaeologia of Scotland " quoted, 289, 293. Wiseman, Cardinal, 39 ; on the dis- tribution of man, 82 ; the unity of Scripture with tradition, 119 ; the Oriental religions, 154 ; conformity of grammatical forms, 189 ; Jewish rites and ceremonies, 274 ; the growth of nations, 331. Wordsworth's "Excursion" quoted, 145. Women, their status, 109; prece- dence of, in Dahome, 259. Worship, mode of, among the Peru- vians, 304. Worship of ancestors, 161, 205. Writing, its invention, 123; cunei- form, 195 ; Greece indebted to Cad- mus for, 221. 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