'lilllllil:':!-''' final and Decisive ml MbeSZ W88 ^O^LS^If THE DISCOVERY of NOAHS ARK FINAL AND DECISIVE By J. M. WOOLSEY author of 'EDEN DISCOVERED" ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Cochrane Publishing Company Tribune Building New York 1910 Copyright, 1910. by J. M. WOOLSEY Entered at Stationers' Hall London, England Printed in the United States of America THE DlSGOverij of Noah's ArK CHAPTEE FIRST. THE LEGEND OF THE FLOOD. The moon to the ancients was the land of wonders — a land of endless change and masquerade. The moon was to them the "mother of all things,'' the mother of all religions, rites and ceremonies, the mother of witchcraft and magic. For the moon made signs and wrote in golden letters on her bulletin board which priests were appointed to interpret. And that is how the moon became the wise one and oracle box of the ancient world, and the speech friend — the Aaron to Moses, the sun. Again the moon became the water carrier of the fiery sun who drank at her fountain, for the moon to them, dropped the dews at night and sucked up the ocean in tides, and was sup posed to control and distribute the waters. At one time it seemed drowned with flood, and again consumed by fire, and again reborn from its ashes, as a little island of light at the mouth of the dark waters; or again as a boat sailing on the blue sea of the moon. All the sun gods drank at her fountain. Old Odin, the chief God of the Norsemen, drank at that fountain, for which he had to pawn his last dollar. Heabani, the man of shaggy hair, drank there with his flocks. There Eachel watered her sheeji; there Christ, the Sun God, THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK resorted to cool his thirst and sat by the harlot woman who kept the well. That fountain went dry in the scorching sun of mid summer, and it was there little Sindhu, the pitcher boy of the Hindu tale, died while drawing the last sup of water for his old blind father and mother. It was in that dry well that the Argonautic Hylas fell, and the dry pit in which the Hebrew Joseph and the Hindu Puran-Bhagat were thrown. Dermat O'Dyna of Joyce's "Old Celtic Eomances" died there of his raging thirst, and Christ died begging for a drink. And that is how the moon became the "mother of all things ;" for the scorching disc of the sun forbade human observation, and the moon, until comparatively recent times, was supposed to be self-luminous. It was the prevailing belief of the old world inhab itants that the earth had been destroyed by periodic vis itations of flre and water, famine and pestilence. For sea shells and sand banks were found upon the tops of high mountains, and the bones of unknown and prehis toric animals were found turned to stone. Though the flood myth was universally known, some nations had attached to it greater importance than oth ers, it having been better developed during their literary age. In ancient belief flre and the sea were the enemies of the earth — that the earth was raised from the prime val ocean and rested upon it like an inverted bowl, and that fire and water were restrained by the good divinities, but if let loose would devour the earth. The Eddas say that the gods chained the fire or it would con sume the world. And there were signs of the coming flood when the THE LEGEND OF THE FLOOD wolf howls for a feast, and the ravens scent the prey, "for the flood and the warrior prepared the raven's feast." And for this reason the sea had its boundary set. "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." And Muspel- heim, the fire world of the Norsemen, had a fire guard. The sun in his many mansions, phases and positions, became so many separate gods, heroes, or patriarchs, on his yearly circuit, ending in his last struggle with the winter fiood. And this solar drama of the year suggested a like his tory of the human race, which ^^'as made to begin in Eden, the Spring garden, and fall off by a moral deca dence and pur.sue the same down-hill road of the summer sun, and end with destruction of the race by a flood; and again reappear in a lone survivor as the new sun, or Noah of Spring, to restore his vineyard. As Gilgames, the Babylonian hero, at the close of his summer season, struck with disease and impurity, plunged in the fountain of Sagittarius the water carrier, who brought the annual floods of the rainy season to purify the earth, and renew the strength of the solar prince, who returned to his summer kingdom healed of his leprosy. And this suggested the story of the deluge to purify the earth from sin, 'from which one family alone escaped in an ark, which is witnessed to-day as the new moon ring of light riding upon the dark waters of the moon. That one who escaped to tell Abraham that Lot was taken. ( Genesis 14 :13. ) That same ark of the Hindu flood drawn by a horned serpent. The same God who brought Israel out of Egypt THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK "God brought them out of Egypt; he hath the strength of a Unicorn." ( Numbers 23 . -22. ) The same ark of Cadmus drawn by serpents, to the Elysian plain, and the same ark of Israel drawn by cowa. At the approach of Avinter the old moon tree is cut down, hoAvn and hollowed out into a ship, which becomes a "Golden Dragon" to carry the children of hope and promise back to the house of the east, the promised land. The ten children of King Volsung chained to the tree to be devoured hy wolves, and all die save Sigmund, who alone escapes. At the Egyptian festivals they carried an ark upon their shoulders to commemorate the preservation of Osiris the sun, from Typhon the sea. "Lo, the noble oak of the forest, with his feet in the flower and the grass. How the winds that bear the summer, o'er its topmost boughs have passed; Then cometh the a.xes of man, and low it lies ou the ground, And the crane comes out of the south land, and its nest is nowhere found; But the trees is a 'GoldenDragon,' and fair it floats on the flood, And beareth the kings and the earl folk — " etc. ( Sigurd the Volsung, by William Morris. ) The moon in one of its quadratures turns up in a crescent like a boat and is seen sailing on the blue sea of the sky. This crescent became a symbol Of escape and preservation. The Egyptian queen Isis had a crescent boat under her, and the Scandinavian Freya had an ark or chest. THE LEGEND OF THE FLOOD All arks everywhere, portable or stationary, contained the symbols of life and the embodiment of creative en ergy, and at the time of winter during the reign of Ty phon, the summer sunshine crept in the ark of the moon for safety. The moon naturally suggested an angel of light, or an ancient mariner riding upon the dark waters of the moon in a crescent boat, as the Egyptian Ea had a boat upon the s.ky. The Hindus say Siva dwelt in the moon, and navi gated the waters of the deluge in the ship Argha; or floated over the waters of the moon on the coils of the moon serpent. Here, say the Hindus, lived their Rishis, and that they were preserved in an ark. This ark that floated was the shrine of the God, and the house where he was born, the God who rides upon the storm, these arks, or sacred chests, belonged to all the great religions and were a part of their temple furniture ; they were types of the visible moon ark in the heavens ; they were carried in religious processions and upon the battle flelds, and contained mystic moon symbols. ( Amos 5 :26 ) . They were consecrated for the abode of the deity whose presence was invited, and to them a living oracle. Europa was carried off in that same ship of the moon which sailed from the sign Taurus (the bull) Avhile Phrixus and Helle sailed in the same moon ship from the sign Aries (the ram of the golden fleece) ; the same car or ship or ark of Hades that eloped, with Proserpine, and the ram ship of Phrixus was the same as the buli ship of Europa — both are the moon. in the rites of the mysteries, souls were regenerated by coming from a door in the side of an ark. In the Egyptian magical formula of the resurrection THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK of Osiris in the book of Eespirations it says, "that his soul may it rise to heaven in the disc of the moon." (Records of Past, Vol. 4, p. 121.) In the Babylonian inscription, "0 moon, chief of the gods, king of the gods of heaven and earth and of the stars upon stars." (Eecords of Past, Vol. 5, p. 147.) The story of the flood at flrst was but a simple thread which in time developed to Avhat we find in the Babylo nian tablets, all the gods and forces of nature engaged in the general destruction. As the moon was a life boat it alternately became a coffin and death boat. Osiris, Isis, Adonis, Attis, Bacchus, Ceres, and many more all had arks. The mysteries celebrated this birth from an ark or coffin. The aspirant in the mysteries was put in an ark and committed to the sea, and then came out at the time of the year that Noah was liberated from the ark. Most of the native tribes of North and South America and South Sea Islands, have the story of the flood in primitive form, as from one to two or three saved from the flood in a boat, or upon a log or raft, and all these native stories more or less enlarged or amplified by mis sionary infiuence. For the moon taught the story of the flood — that moon flooded with dark water, and the lone survivor seen upon the third day paddling his way in the little crescent boat of the new moon. THE SACRED NUMBERS CHAPTEE SECOND. THE SACRED NUMBERS — THREE AND SEVEN. The number seven originated from the number of the sun, moon, and five planets, making seven, that being all the planets then known. And these became the seven Cabiri called the "Great ones" or powerful gods. The seven Cabiri of th.e Phoenicians were the special gods of sailors; they had invented ships and presided over navigation. And there were originally but seven magnificent gods in the Babylonian Pantheon, and likewise but seven in the Egyptian systems of Thebes and Memphis; and the Hindus originally adopted the seven Rishis or ancestral saints. This number seven was afterward increased to ten, to suit an astronomical and calendar number, and gen erally adopted. But the old flood legends were written in the age of seven, which was the great age and the terminus, when there occurred a cataclysm or deluge at the end of the seventh reign, which ended the reign of Enoch the just, who was translated at the age of 365 years — the number of days of our late solar year; but in their last revision of the story, they pass over the flood of the seventh reign by merely translating Enoch "the just," and arbitrarily increasing the number of pa triarchs to ten, and give the ark to Noah, but the number seven is retained elsewhere. And there were originally but seven divine persons in the Iranian tradition, beginning with Yima, the flrst man, and later pieced out with reduplications like the Hebrew to ten. There were originally but seven in the 10 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK systems of Thebes and Memphis of Egypt. (Lenormant, p. 235.) And in the Chaldean records there are six di vine revelations, one for each reign before the flood hero who was the seventh ; for the flood was originally visited upon the seventh reign, as it occurred with Enoch of Genesis. As the Hindus originally adopted the seven Richis or ancestral saints. Vishnu was the seventh Manu in the Hindu account, and redeemed the world at the time of the deluge. In the Hindu, Vishnu says to Manus, the Hindu Noah : "Thou shalt build a ship and enter into it with seven sages, with two of every kind of animals, and the seed of every plant, and shalt wait until the end of the night of Brahma." Sieven is the chief .and prevailing number used in the old Diluvian Mythology, and has reference to the seven planets, or sun, moon and five plants, which were the seven Cabiri of Phoenicia. Though various systems occur among the ancients, as three, seven and ten, the seven Cabiri were associated with the ark and marked on the prow of the Phoenician ships — they were the guardians of the deep. There were seven giants rescued from the flood in the ancient Mexican, and they built a tower to see what was going on in Heaven, and to have a place of refuge in time of another flood. According to the Gnostic and Buddhistic ideas, there was a central light which gave birth to the seven planets, making in the group eight; this central light AA-as not en veloped by darkness, but existed with God. in the inflnite. And Noah, with seven others of his family, complete the crew of eight souls in the Hebrew ark. And we flnd Ptah aud his seven sons in Egj^Dt making THE SACRED NUMBERS the Ogdoad. And in Phoenicia is found the seven sons of Sydyk, the god of the eight rays. Then spake Queen Herborg of Welshland: "Of old in the days departed, were my brave ones under shield. "Seven sons, and the eighth my husband, and they fell in the southland field." (Sigurd the Volsung, p. 264.) The crew of the British Druidical vessel contained seven souls with Arthur, the eighth. The seven stars of the Great Bear which we call the dipper or wain, which revolve around the pole star every night in a circle, and never dip in the ocean, were ven erated by the Hindus and called the seven Rishis or in spired ones, and likened to the seven who escaped in the ark, and by some the pole star was supposed to be the abode of the deity — these seven with the pole star .making eight. Story of the "Haunted Ships" in Scotch Folk Lore, as told by old Moll Moray, as she sat hidden behind an oak by Blawhooly Bay. " 'Twas on that very Bay my blythe good man perished with seven more of his company; 'twas on that bank where the waves leap I saw seven corpses stretched out, but the dearest was the eighth." To the memory of these mariners a stone stands in the Kirkyard engraved with a sinking ship on a shoreless sea. It was in Blawhooly Bay the spectre ships cast off their dead, then vanish, but leave the old hull as a me morial, and it was there the ship of Jock Matheson went down head foremost, because he scoffed at Old Moll, and barely saved himself by swimming, but did not trust him self again in the water until he had made Old. Moll a present of a new kirtle and a stone of cheese. Old Moll is the moon. 12 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK The ship that went down was the black moon, that sank in the moon bay, and the one who saved himself was the lone survivor, the Jonah who swam for three days, and is seen to land as the solitary ring of the new moon on the shore of the moon bay, and that ring is the kirtle or jacket he gave Old Moll, the moon, our Virgin Mary, or Mare, the goddess of the moon sea. THE SACRED TRIAD. Noah had three sons — Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Xisuthrus, the hero of the Chaldean flood, had three sons — Zerovanos, Titan, and Japetosthes. The Hindu Manu had three sons — Sama, Cama, and Pra Japati. The Iranian hero of the flood had three sons. Hellen, the son of Deucalion, the Greek Noah, had three sons — Dorus, Huthus, and Aeolus. Saturn had three sons — Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto. In the Norse Triads we find Odin, Vile, and Ve, ancl Odin, Thor, and Balder. THE SHIP ARGO CHAPTEE THIED. THE SHIP ARGO. The ship Argo is the moon, the dark moon, and the limb of the speaking oak set in the prow is the ring of the new moon, which is the tree of life, or fire stick, the motor power, guide and wisdom tree, the pillar of fire through the winderness. King Arthur had fifty knights to encircle the round table, which is the moon, and the Argo had fifty men for her crew, which are the fifty-two weeks of the year in round numbers. It was a fifty oared vessel in which Danaus fled over the sea ; he built it with the aid of Minerva, the first boat that ever was made, in which he fled over the sea with his fifty daughters. Danaus means the dragon ship or sailor; the fifty represents the fifty-two A\'eeks of the year in round numbers. That stem of the Argo was the new moon — the same ring on the ship of Balder, which was called the Eing- horn, and. the same funeral ship on which Sigurd aud Brynhild were laid, with the ring of Andvari between them, and the same "ring stemmed" vessel on which the hero Scyld was laid with his weapons and treasures, and let the sea bear him away. "And men cannot say, counsellors in the hall. Heroes under heaven in whose hands that ship fell." (Epic of Beowulf.) It was the voyage of Maildun in Old Celtic Eomances by Joyce: Which is the winter voyage by the old mariner, stopping at the moon houses which are so many islands or ports of the sky. 14 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK "The island of the wonderful apple tree." "Island, of the red hot animals." "The island dyed white and black." "Island of the burning river," which is the ring of the moon. "Isle of the speaking birds." "The island standing on one pillar," which is the moon pillar. It was said that Queen Isis of Egypt sought over the world for the scattered limbs of her husband Osiris, in the first ship that ever went with sails — which is the same Argo : the moon, picking up her scattered limbs or rings every month. The Argo was said to be the first ship that ever was built and sent out for the Golden Fleece, which is true enough. Her destination was Hades, for which Colchis was substituted, which at that time was the most remote land known to the East, as the pillars of Hercules were the boundary of the West. It was the seven voyages of Sinbad the sailor, whose name "Sin" means the "moon;" they are the seven months of winter, during which the moon sails on her way to the Spring equinox, stopping at the monthly signs on her way. It was the ship of the "Flying Dutchman" and the ship that carried Jonah, and the boat that carried Christ. It sailed through the Babylonian deluge, and the Hindu flood, and became the ark of Noah. It is yet to be the ship of Eagnarok, for the Norsemen, and the old ship Zion, for the Christian on her last voyage to the prom ised land. That is the ship of the Eow^an masts in which the hero went to bring back the princess from the north country. THE SHIP ARGO who had been transformed into a worm by a witch step mother. ("The Worm of Spindleston Heights," Evans' Old Ballads, Vol. 4.) And the magic Eowan ash of Northern Europe, potent against evil and witchcraft, was long ago in prehistoric times, used for the same purpose in the mother country of the east, and the word still heard in Mt. Eowandis and the town of the same name in Kurdistan, of Asiatic Turkey. The golden fleece is the golden robe of the Easter moon, brought back to Aries to renew the Golden Age, which occurs every year at the Spring equinox. It is the lost Helen brought back from Troy or Hades, the winter dungeon. It is the lost necklace of Harmonia ; it is the Niblung treasure — they are all the summer treasures which have been hidden in the winter prison house of the west. Every year there was something lost upon which the salvation of the gods and of men depended: a Golden Fleece, a sword, a cross, a holy cup or grail, a tablet or treasure — all one under many forms and names. That Argo is the moon, the one-hundred-eyed Argus which represents the one hundred days of the period of winter; again he is the moon as the watch dog of the night, with one eye in the back of his neck, which is the ring of the new moon in the back of the neck of the old moon ; he is the old. watch dog Argus that met Ulys ses on his retum home. Phrixus and Helle are the twin forks of the silver moon born to the Easter maiden, the first wife who is divorced at the end of her season, when her husband Athamas is compelled to wed the step-mother or winter 16 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK scold who persecutes the children of her rival, who were provided with a way of escape on the back of the Spring ram of Aries, the ram of the "golden fleece," which is the same ship Argo, the moon, which again brought back the Golden Fleece in Spring; the children visibly are the twin forks of the silver moon hidden in the black car of the moon. And the barren field which was ploughed by Jason is the winter moon striped with the golden rings or fur rows of the sun. And Absyrtus, the brother of Medea, cut in pieces and scattered upon the sea, are again the silver limbs or rings of the moon scattered upon the moon waters at every wane of the moon to fertilize the waters. The Helle who fell off the ship into the Hellespont and was drowned, is the ring of the moon which fell off in the dark moon water and became a bridge for the children of light to pass over the water, the Helles pont or bridge "of Helle. The Hylas who fell in the well is the same little Sindhu, the pitcher boy of the Hindu Maha-Bharata, whose fountain goes dry at every midsummer ; the Puran Bhaghat and the Hebrew Joseph cast in the dry well of the moon. Idmon the seer, killed by the boar's tooth, is Iddo the seer of 2nd Chronicles 9 :29. They are both the Tammuz and Adonis killed at midsummer by the spear of the moon, or boar's tooth. The Lemnian women enraged at their torpid, sexless husbands, impotent at the winter season, is the same tragedy enacted in the Dionysia of the Greeks and Thra- cians when the women slew the divine Orpheus aud Pen- theus. THE SHIP ARGO The story of the Argonauts is older than Homer, and by him mentioned. (II, 7, 469, lb, 21, 40) ; again by Hessiod (Theog 992). Samothrace has recorded a famous deluge which hap pened before the age of the Argonauts, occasioned by the sudden overflow of the Euxine; this flood reached the top of the mountains. According to Artemidorus the rites and mysteries of Samothrace were the same as celebrated in one of the British Islands. In the city of Cyzicus there is a stone left there by the Argonauts who had used it for an anchor. This stone having repeatedly taken flight from the Pryta- naeum has been fastened down with lead. (Pliny: B. 36, Ch. 23, 25.) Medea, in revenge for her desertion by Jason, per suaded him to sleep under the prow of the Argo, which fell and killed him while asleep — for the tree of life iu Spring becomes the tree of death in winter. To the Greeks the tale of the Argonauts was authentic history ; as much so as the Mosaic record to us. The same old ark of the moon which has piloted so many adventurers, or gone to pieces and the hero es caped to an island, or has been captured by pirates and sold in a foreign land. Celestial characters and astronmical scenery are located in familiar places with some real and contem porary names and places to render the story attractive and give the narrative the appearance of reality, and with such tales the ancient world abounds. Jason had assembled his crew of heroes for the ex pedition. A crowd of women gathered around him weeping; slaves approached with their faces downward. 18 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK bearing his armor. Sad was the parting from his mother, her tears and embrace. Again they all press round him, and the old priestess of Diana kisses his hand with affection, and the ship departs on her voyage, adorned with regalia and decora tions. Jason embarked at the rising of the Pleiades about the time the sun enters Taurus (Dupuis). According to Argonautica, p. 93, the goddess Athene built the ship Argo, and with the goddess worked Argus, and she cut her timbers aJbout the peak of Pelicon with a brazen axe. Pindar says the Argonautic expedition was under taken to bring back the soul of Phrixus, which could not rest in a foreign land. (Pythian Ode, No. 4.) In the same way the Greeks brought back the bones of Pelops and Orestes, and the Hebrews brought back the bones of Jacob and Joseph from Egypt. For the soul of Phryxus was the first ring of the Spring moon. And our Spring can never, return until the Easter moon returns ; other moons may look as fair and bright, but it is the Easter moon alone that can bring back the Springtime. The olive branch must be brought by the dove before the ark could rest. The statue of Diana must be brought from Tauris, which is the Easter moon. BOAT OF WAINAMOINEN 19 CHAPTEE FOUE. BOAT OF WAINAMOINEN. The story of the Argo, or the ark, which went to Colchis to bring back the golden fleece, is found in the ancient native songs of Finland, where the hero of the ark is Wainamoinen, the "wise and ancient" bard who built a magic boat to bring back the lost Sampo, the mill which had been stolen by the Laps. And he built his boat and joined it by magic songs of enchantment, and at the last found he lacked the three words of enchant ment to make the boat pass safely over the waters, and learned they were only to be found upon the tongue of the wise old giant Wipunen, who died and disappeared long ages ago; and after long search found the cavern where the old song giant lay, and went down in his tomb, and when he strove to wrest from him the three magic words, the old giant swallowed him; and he built a flre in the giant, and burned him for three days, until he gave up the three magic words by which the boat was completed, and when she was launched he sang an in vocation : "Rock O winds this wondrous vessel, Rolling waters bear me on; Come aboard my ship, O Ukko (chief god of the Fin- landers), Come aboard, thou God of Mercy." (Crawford's Kalevala, Rune 17.) The scene is at the conjunction of sun and moon at the Spring equinox — the resurrection of Spring — Wain- 20 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK amoinen the hero of the Kalevala, has built his ship, which is the dark moon that is in hiding, and will not move without the magic ring Avhich lies deep down under the floor of the sea, and the road to Hades is down through the moon, and the hero is swallowed by the giant moon-fish, like Jonah and Christ, and the fire kindled will come up on the third evening and take its place in the prow of the ship as the wisdom ring. He is the lost ring, he is the golden fleece, he is that chief among ten thousand, that one sheaf, Joseph, be fore whom all knelt, that giant Wipunen is the old win ter moon Saturn who swallowed all his children. That speaking oak is the mover and guardian of the ship. The oak, the "mover" before whom heaven and earth would tremble, is the guardian of the door. (Davies: British Druids, 520.) And this pillar is the first ring of the moon, which is the Kentaur, or bull goader, the goad fly, or motor power of the moon. That is why the ship of Agamennon stopped at Aulis and would not move without sacrifice, until the red pil lar appeared bathed in blood. That magic boat of the Kalevala is the same boat of Jason, the Argo, for the Argo lacked the limb of the speaking oak, the wisdom oak; that limb cut from the oracle oak of Dodona and set in the prow by Minerva the goddess of wisdom — which is the ring of the Easter moon, the Tree of Life, without which the ship of the moon will not move — it is a magic ring. The dark ship remains in hiding for three days wait ing for the pilot, and on the third evening the pilot lands, and the ship moves on. It is the horse of Sigurd BOAT OF WAINAMOINEN 21 the Volsung, that stood still and would not move until his rider mounted; it is the horse Pegasus who would own no rider but him who carried the golden bridle; it is the one ridden by Odin the Goth, that old "gray- horsed" warrior, the Sleipnir, the eight-legged steed. For that moon vehicle has many names — it may be a ship or chariot, a horse, an eagle or dolphin — no matter what : they are the moon that carries the banner of light. The Rabinical writers say that the Arkites obtained from the river Pison (which is a river of Eden : the ser pent river), a luminous stone which gave light in the ark. This stone also gave light to the Mormon ship which traversed the great sea down below the surface where the sea was calm. ( See Book of Mormon ) . And that stone is the new moon ring, the wisdom stone, the divining stone of the ancients. The three lost words which Wainamoinen the Spring harper, forced from the sleeping giant Wipunen, are the three rings of the moon in one, which have been gathered together, one on each of the three dark nights. The big hero of the ship miade a boat of an alder with three strokes of his axe. (Waifs and Strays of Celtic tradition, Vol. 3rd, Celtic Romances, p. 240.) The boat is the ring of the new moon which appears floating on the blue waters of the moon on the third evening of darkness, or the third stroke of the sun rod upon the moon. In the story of the Dumling, he has to bring a boat, not one board of which has been hewn, and which has grown in the exact shape required. In that ship Wainamoinen brought back the handmill or quern, which is the ring of the Easter moon, which is the Golden Fleece brought by the Argo. 22 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK "Spin a thread of crimson color, Draw it gently through the water, That the thread our ship may follow, And our vessel pass in safety." (Kalevala, p. 596.) It was the thread which drew Puran Bhagat out of the well. THE OGYGIAN FLOOD 23 CHAPTER FIVE. THE OGYGIAN FLOOD. In the northern Scandinavian Mythology, there oc curred the deluge in which all the giants were drowned, except Bergelmer, who with his wife escaped on a boat . or cradle, and after the subsidence of the waters be came the progenitors of a new race of giants. Ogyges, flrst king of Thebes, or the city of the ark, was the only person saved from the Ogygian flood of his time; he is the Og, the giant, the king of Bashan, and king of the Amorites ( Joshua 13 :12 ) , ( Dent. 31 :4 ) . He is Ogier the Dane, the orcus, the ogre, the Aegir, the sea, and his ship is the moon ; and this Ogygian flood corresponds to the flood of Ymer the Norse giant, whose flow of blood drowned the first race of giants. In "Polynesian Researches," by Ellis, ii. 58-9, the flood, like the Babylonian, began at daybreak, and a flsherman found refuge in the island of the moon tree, the column of the universe, which would seem to mean the Irminsul, or moon pillar. In New Zealand the deluge is caused by the breaking of the vault of heaven, and with the Sandwich Islanders it was called the flood of the moon. For the moon among all nations taught the story of the flood; that moon observed to be deluged with water from which a lone survivor escaped in the little boat with the white sail, which we call the new moon. For the moon to them was the home of the winds and 24 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK waters, for the moon was seen to drop the dews at night as soon as the sun had gone down, and had ceased to devour the water, and again the moon was seen to draw off the ocean in the tides every day, and then spew them back, for the laws of attraction as yet had not been discovered. THE RHODIAN FLOOD 25 CHAPTEE SIX. THE RHODIAN FLOOD. The Ehodians or Telchines, who inhabited the island of Ehodes, foresaw the catastrophe by their magic and divination, and fled from the deluge which overwhelmed the island: some remained and fied to the highest sum mits and were saved. It was here the sun saw Ehodus, the maid of the isl and, and, charmed with her beauty, stayed the waves, beat back the deluge, and called the island by her name, and she became his wife. The reason why Hea, the Babylonian god, could fore see the deluge and give warning, is because he was the God and personification of the deep, which is the source of all knowledge, and that is how the Ehodians or Tel chines, who were the inhabitants of the deep, the dwarf fire-smiths and metal workers of the Island of Ehodus, which represented the fire workers of the moon, were wise and had the same foresight as the seven wise maid ens of the British Druids who held nightly orgies and sang around the caldron of inspiration, and these same maidens had foretold the British flood likewise. 26 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK CHAPTEE SEVEN. GREEK DELUGE. The Greeks have Iavo accounts of a deluge — the first in the time of Ogyges, an ancient king of Boeotia, and the second, that of Deucalion, a legend of Thessaly. Prometheus, the father of Deucalion, acts as saviour, and by his advice Deucalion built an ark or chest which he and his wife entered. The winter raven croaked, and the wolf repeated the warnings. The Greek legend of the Thessalian deluge as given by Ovid in the first Book of Metamorphoses. Jupiter let loose the south wind, and the south wind flew abroad with soaking wings. His terrible face veiled with the darkness, the water streams from his hoary beard and locks, clouds gather upon his forehead, his wings and the folds of his robe drip with wet. 'S'^^ith his broad hand he squeezes the hanging clouds. Neptune calls together the rivers and says to them: "Pour forth your might !" The rivers open the mouths of their fountains and rush over the plains; they bear down the standing corn ; they cover the green fields, and the industry and the hope of the year perish. Groves and houses ride upon the sea; fiocks and men are lifted and overwhelmed; one struggles in a boat; another clings to a hilltop; fishes dash against the trees of the wood; the dolphins swim among the oaks; the -^xaves beat the mountain top. The wolf swims among the sheep; the wave carries along the tawny lion; the wave carries along the tigers. The wild bird has fallen in the deep — the sea has no longer a shore. But. high GREEK DELUGE 27 among the clouds on Mt. Parnassus, Deucalion and Pyrrha have escaped in their boat. The work is done ! Then Triton, standing above the deep, blew his trumpet and recalled the waves, which was heard by all the waters of the earth and the sea, and the silent earth lay bare and dead. Deucalion and Pyrrha are both children of Pandora, the betrayer of the box. Their names are from the Greek and mean water and fire. They are the embrionic seed of the sun and moon, as the ark tacitly refers to the womb or cist of human life; for Deucalion was car ried in the ark nine days and nights, agreeing with the nine months of foetal life through which the babe is hidden in its mother's ark, and suggesting the nine days over sea and land with lighted torches during which Demeter sought her lost child Proserpine. The Greeks celebrated their deluge at Athens by a ceremony at a rent in the earth, which they said drank up the waters of the deluge, and at this celebration water was poured in the chasm. The Syrians also celebrated their historic deluge at Hierapolis. The same old Charon who ferried over the souls of the dead in the black boat without sail or oar. The ship of the moon under black sails in which The seus sailed to Crete with the seven boys and girls to be devoured by the Minotaur, and Theseus is the son of Aegeus, who is the old Norse Aeger, the sea. 28 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK CHAPTEE EIGHT. THE PERSIAN FLOOD. On the Mithraic plates as shown by Lajard are the scorpion and serpent, the symbols of winter and death, biting and stinging the summer symbol of the sun as a bull, and a raven, the prophet of winter, is perched above in the cleft of a rock with ominous wings raised, croaking the doom of the year; the driver of the sun chariot is dismounted, still holding the whip in his hand. And a man is seen in the crescent moon with hands uplifted escaping the flood, while another on foot is overtaken by the flood and struggling to escape waist deep in the water. That man escaping the deluge in the ark of the new moon is the key of the flood story. He is the Noah, the captain of the Hebrew ark of the moon. The Persian has three floods in succession of ten days each. In a prayer which is an invocation to the moon from the Iranian : "I adore Ormuzd ; I adore the moon which preserves the seed of the bull;" it means the seed ring, the inde structible fire upon the moon hearth; that seed is the golden calf made by Aaron the priest, which is the ring of the new moon. BABYLONIAN DELUGE 29 CHAPTEE NINE. BABYLONIAN DELUGE. The epic of the Euphratean deluge was copied from the library of Assurbanipal, and dates 660 B. C, and the older copy of the Accadian from which it was drawn, and the oldest story known, was found on the site of the ancient city of Sippar and dates 2100 B. C. in the reign of Ammizaduga, one of the last kings of the first dynasty of Babylonia. (L. W. King: Babylonian Mythology, 1899.) A still older fragment of the deluge has recently been unearthed from the oldest part of the temple library at Nippur in lower Babylonia, as deciphered by Profes sor Hilprecht, of the University of Pennsylvania. It is the oldest tablet yet discovered, and dates about 2900 B. C. The Nippur account so far as it has appeared is much simpler in its construction and less detailed in its ac count than the one copied from the library of Assur banipal 660 B. 0. But the simple myth was still older and had existed long before through the earlier ages of Folklore and lip literature. The story was widely circulated through the Semitic nations in a general way, though none of the versions agree with one another in all their particulars. The Chaldean legend of the deluge has been found transplanted to the Hittite city of Carchemish, and found also in Apamea of Asia Minor. 30 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK The story of the Babylonian flood belongs to the epic of Gilgames and -occurs as the eleventh lay in the sign of Aquarius, the month of rain. The name of the Babylonian Noah has come down through many nations and many tongues, and known as Xisuthros, Khasisadra, and again as Shamashnapishtim, which means "Sun of Life," "Morning Sun," and his father's name was Ubaratutu. The captain of the Babylonian ark was Tammuz, the Babylonian shepherd, husband of Ishtar, the darling of all lands, who descends to the lower world and be comes the judge of the dead. He it was for whom the Babylonian women wept and the Shulamite longed. The Chaldean flood was caused by the neglect of sac- riflce and want of reverence for the gods, which is the common complaint of the gods in all ages. — "Diana's alters neglected;" the same with Venus, and the same complaint of Jehovah in the time of Cain. Ea, the god of the waters and the god of wisdom, gave warning to Shamashnapishtim, who reigned at Shurip- pak, the "ship city" situated on the banks of the Eu phrates; but as he did not dare betray a secret of heaven to a mortal, he conflded the resolution to a hedge of reeds and the whisper of the reeds reached the eaxs of Shamashnapishtim : "Hedge, hedge, wall, wall ! Heark en, hedge, and understand well, wall ! Man of Shurip- pak, construct a wooden house, build a ship, abandon thy goods, throw away thy possessions, save thy life, and place in the vessel all the seed of life. The deluge will begin at dawn and cover the earth and drown all living things." Shamashapishtim repeated the warning to the peo ple, but the people refused to believe and mocked his counsel. BABYLONIAN DELUGE 31 The ship when completed was one hundred and forty cubits long, and the deck one hundred and forty broad ; the ship was square. "I fllled it ^^ith all I had of the seed of life, and all I had of silver and gold, and caused all my family and servants and the beasts, both do mestic and wild, to enter the ark. The day foretold I feared its dawning: I entered the ship and shut the door, and gave the ship in charge of the pilot." A black cloud arose from the foundations of heaven. Eamman growled in its bosom; Nebo and Marduk ran before it like two throne bearers. Nera the Great tore up the stake to which the ark was moored. Ninib came up quickly; he began the attack; the Anunnalii raised their torches and made the earth tremble; the tempest of Eamman scaled the heavens, changed all to darkness, and flooded the earth like a lake; the hurricane raged over the mountains; the tempest rushed upon men like the shock of an army ; brother no longer beheld brother, men r-ecognized each other no more. In heaven the gods were afraid; they fled to the high heaven of Ann, and like dogs cowered upon the parapet. Ishtar wailed like a woman in travail: "The children to whom I have given birth, where are they? Like the spawn of fish they encumber the sea!" The gods sat weeping, their lips were closed. Six days and nights the wind continued, the tempest raged; the seventh day the storm abated, the deluge ceased. I surveyed the sea, but there was no land. At the end of twelve days the ship touched the mountain of Nizir and stopped. A dove was let loose, then a swallow, and came back; then a raven was sent which swam round, fed upon the dead, and returned no more. Then the inhabitants of the ark were sent forth toward 32 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK the four winds; then Shamashnapishtim, otherwise called Xisuthros, disappeared, but the Arkites were en joined by a voice from heaven to return to Babylon and dig up the books which had been buried at Sippara be fore the flood, and informed his followers that the coun try in which they then were was Armenia. The gods, Eamman, Nebo, IMerodach, Nergal and Ninib, led the attack upon mankind in this flood. In another version, Ea said to Bel after the flood: "I did not reveal the judgment of the gods. I caused Khasisadra (Noah) to dream a dream, and he became aware of the judgment of the gods, and then he made his resolve." All these tales are but nature plays, written by the tragic poets, to celebrate the adventures and exploits of the sun through the twelve signs of the year. The Accadian Noah landed on Nizir, the mountain of the world where was the habitation of the gods and the cradle of the human race. It is the present Elwend in Kurdistan, a little south of Mt. Eowandiz, between latitudes 35° 36°. There he offered sacrifice upon the mountain of Nizir, and the gods gathered like flies, and the great goddess lit up the rainbow, "and the crystal radiance of those gods before me may I never forget." It is the same sacrifice Noah performed at the landing of the ark. (Principally taken from Maspero's "Dawn of Civ- ization.") ANOTHEE AND SIMPLER VERSION. The city of Surippak had grown old, and the gods who dwelt in it were neglected; the gods became angry, and the flood is ordered. A voice was heard in the night BABYLONIAN DELUGE 33 time crying: "The great flood is coming!" The storm increased; men could not discern the sky. The gods feared the tempest and sought refuge iu the heaven of Anu; the gods crouched down like dogs; they hid them selves in the standing corn. According to Berossos, Cronos (Ea) appeared to Xisuthros in his sleep and made known to him that on the 15th of the month Daisios, shortly before mid summer, the flood would come, and that he should bury the secred records at Sippara, the city of the sun, build an ark, take on board his wife, children, and friends, and when he asked what way he should steer, was told "towards the gods." The arks of the Babylonians and Israelites were cof fers or rectangular chests with rings through the four corners for transportation, and were sometimes called ships, and when the Babylonian kings were enthroned, their seat was called the ship of enthronement, for Ea, the Babylonian god, was lord of the waters. As Christ Avas ruler of the sea and stilled the waters, he sat upon the "ship of enthronement" .or the ark. It is thus described in one of the oldest Accadian hymns : "Its helm is of cedar wood. Its serpent-like oar has a handle of gold. Its mast painted with turquoise. Its house, its ascent, is a mountain that gives rest to the heart. The ship of Ea is Destiny." 34 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK CHAPTER TEN. THE HINDU DELUGE. In Hindu belief the world is governed by periods of emanatictn and absorption which alternate, as Brahma awakes or falls asleep. The cause of the Hindu flood was the sleep of Brahma, at the close of a kalpa, one of the four ages, and as he slept the strong demon Hayagriva stole the Vedas which had flowed from his lips, and Vishnu, to redeem the world, took the form of a fish, for as his abode was henceforth to be in the water, he was called a fish, the living symbol of the water, as a bird was that of the air. The object of this fish incarnation was to save Vaivas- wata, the seventh Manu, and progenitor of the human race, from the deluge. (Dawson's Hindu Dictionary, 35.) The Hindu Manu entered the ark with seven sages, according to the command of Vishnu. Vishnu was the seventh Manu, like the consecrated Enoch of the Hebrew flood, who was the Noah of the olden time before the Patriarchs were increased to ten. Manu was forewarned of the approaching deluge by Vishnu himself, who had taken the form of a fish, and the ship was bound to the horn of the fish by the serpent as a rope; he was the unicorn. And the fish blazed upon the waters in a flame of gold and conducted the ship. And Manu took on board the seven companions called saints. The seven companions whose radiance gave light to the ship — they were the seven planets. THE HINDU DELUGE 35 The bark was stored with beasts, plants and seeds, and swam the floods steered by Vishnu under the form of a fish, and was landed upon a peak of the Himalaya mountains, and tied up to a crag, where the fish revealed himself to Manu as Brahma the chief god. The ark is the moon, and the crag to which it was tied is the pole or pillar of the new moon, located for con venience upon the Himalayas, for visible characters are few, and they have to play many parts in the same piece with change of dress. Heri and Brahma, after the deluge, slew the demon Hayagriva, and recovered the sacred books of the Vedas, which contained all knowledge, human and divine — as Sigurd the Volsung slew the serpent Fafnir, who had stolen the Volsung treasures. The story is of annual occurrence. The ark of Manu is the moon ark of Noah that lands on the mountains of the east every spring; the ark is the Easter moon. This moon ark was the Pushpaka or self-moving car of large dimensions which contained within it a palace or city; it belonged originally to Brahma, who gave it to Kiwera, and was stolen from him by Ravana, his half- brother. (Dawson's Hindu Classical Dictionary.) Manu was an ideal first man. The Hindu Manu or Noah is but a personified era or period of time or epoch in their cosmical history. In Hindu Cosmogony there were fourteen Manus or reign of Manusto, one Kalpa or day of Brahma corresponding to the fourteen rings or life of the moon. There were fourteen mythical progenitors in the Hindu by the name Manu, and the deluge occurred in the age of the seventh Manu — these fourteen Manus similar 36 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK to the fourteen Judges of the Hebrews, which are the complete number of rings that fill the orb of the moon. The Hindu fish form of the story was imported from Babylonia, where Hea appears as the "beneficent saviour fish," and this Satyavrata or Hindu Noah is the man of "truth and righteousness." The Hindus have several accounts of the deluge, which, like their mythology in general, are wild and erratic. These Avatars are for the purpose of recovering lost treasures the ocean has swallowed — the fourteen rings lost in the deluge — the number of the moon rings. The Indian literature has four versions of the floods, many varieties among different nations, and no two alike in all their parts. The Hindu deluge occurred in the time of the seventh period when the patriarchs were limited to seven, at the time when they were but the seven patriarchs in the Hebrew Pantheon. For these heroes are but flgure heads of cycles syste matically arranged. These great cycle ages end with a prophet and cataclysm and the birth of a new order of things. Enoch lived three hundred and sixty-five years, which is the number of days of the solar year, and must have been written since the solar time succeeded the lunar. The sign Aquarius at first only indicated the flood time ; later it was mistaken for the cause of the flood. The ancient nations in general believed that the earth was subject to periodical destructions, both by flre and water, at the end of a great astronomical year when the sun and planets return to the same sign of the Zodiac from which they started. And this was called the Annus Magnus or great cycle. That is, when all the THE HINDU DELUGE 37 planets met in the sigh of Capricorn, the earth would be overwhelmed with water, and when the conjunction of all the planets occurred in the sign of Cancer the world would be destroyed by flre. Among philosophers these periodical destructions were a step in the progress of evolution and improve ment. These riots of nature were supposed to occur at long intervals to restore the balance of power like a Millenium or Ragnarok, that continents and seas, fire and water, obey the laws of the universe. 38 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK CHAPTEE ELEVEN. HEBREW FLOOD. As the sun and moon were symbolized or likened to animals, as cow, horse, sheep, swine, deer, bear, it be came a menagerie — a zoological garden, a sheep fold, a cow pen — and its keeper became a shepherd, grazier, drover, cowkeeper, kentaur, or bull driver; and as the moon was flooded with water in which the gold fish were seen swimming, it became an aquarium, or fish pond, where the sun fish spawned ; and as the moon flew over sea and land as a bird, it became an aviary, or bird cage, or hen coop, or tree in which the eagle, swan and stork built their nest and laid from one to seven eggs to suit cosmical and magical numbers. Again, at the right season, it was a bee-hive, inside of which was seen the golden honey. Samson and John the Baptist fed on that honey, and the moon was named Melissa, the "honey woman," and Deborah, the Judge of Israel forty years, was the moon, a honey woman — her name means a bee. Again it was a farm or garden, and as the dark moon pressed out red wine it became the vintage kept by the vine dresser as an Adam, Noah, or Tammuz. Again, it was an orchard, a lawn, a park or field, a meadow, a black forest, and cut down by the golden axe of the wood chopper. And every year this garden died and was ac cursed, and became a hortus siccus, or an herbarium. And every year this wealth of sunshine and vapor which had been scattered abroad upon this garden, and the seed HEBREW FLOOD 39 sown, and the talents lent had to be accounted for by the steward, and the golden harvest gathered home in the old storehouse of the moon by Saturn the reaper, where were stored all the farming implements; and the moon floated off upon the great deep with its vast menagerie and all the seeds of life, and that Noah, or ship man, who was the Tammuz, the sun of life, became the cap tain of the ark, that old sea captain, that "ancient mar- riner," the one chosen to run the ship back to Eden, the spring garden of the east. He always arrives three days before dry land ap pears; he heaves the lead and finds he is upon sound ings, and he sends forth the raven to search for land, but they are the three dark nights that always occur when sun and moon meet in council. But no winter bird could bring back a sign of spring, and the raven fled away, feeding upon the floating dead — it was only at the third time the dove brought the olive branch, which is the purple moon, bearing in its mouth the flrst ring of the spring moon, the golden branch, the token of peace, and there Noah found rest, and that olive branch was the peak of the new moon and the mountain of the east on which Noah landed and built an altar, for the world in that age rested upon four mountain peaks corresponding to the four cardi nal points. The ark is lunar and confined to the sky, but when the story was transferred to the earth for moral and religious instruction, the story became a lit tle confused for want of scenic correspondence. In primitive times when the Hebrews were in their tribal and nomadic state, they had no literature, no stories of Creation, Fall or Deluge ; these stories were in 40 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK later time gathered from Babylonian and Persian sources. There are evidently two accounts of the deluge in the Mosaic records; they have both been copied and inter woven in the form now found in Genesis — copied nearly in their original form, which causes the book of Genesis to contain repetitions and double narratives which are characterized by difference in style. Eichhom has separated them, and compared the two documents side by side. In the older the word Elohim is used and the style is more primitive and detailed ; and in the newer, the deity is distinguished by the name of Jehovah, and the narrative is more brief, and the style later and more poetical. Seven days before the flood the warning was given to Noah. Clean beasts and birds were taken in the ark by sevens, and seven days' interval between the despatch of the messenger birds. And Noah waited seven days, and the ark rested in the seventh month, which is at the end of winter at the spring equinox at the time the moon ark has always landed, and the time the seven devils were cast out of Mary Magdalen, who is the winter moon, the same old lunar ark immortalized by the Chaldaeans. The ark of the Israelites drawn by cows from the win ter Philistines back to the house of God is the repre sentative of the moon ark which meets the sun in Aries every spring on time without regard to Jew or Gentile. That same ark rolled up from Egypt, the winter hermitage, with the bones of Jacob ; that ark of safety, the refuge of the summer children. That ark is the moon tree, that tree of the Volsung garden cut down at the end of summer and becomes a "Golden Dragon" HEBREW FLOOD ship in A\inter to swim the floods of the rainy season with the faithful chosen seed, the children of light. That cloud ship from which Jehovah spake with a tongue of flre. Noah means a boat — in Greek it is Nans, in Latin Navis, in Sanscrit it is Nans, in Irish it is Noi. Joshua was the son of Nun, and Nun signifies a fish which is used as a personification of the sea, and this Joshua, who is identified with Jesus, was a lineal de scendant of the Babylonian fish god. Noah is the Egyptian Nu, the ancient divinity of the waters. Sydyk, the just in the Phoenician, is the same just one as Noah and Enoch, and has a son, Esmond the healer (called Aesculapius), who mutilated himself. The Hebrew name for Noah's ark and Joseph's coffin, carried up from Egypt, and the cradle of Moses, is the same word Tebah, a chest or box which the Egyptian.s called Teh. On the seventeenth day of the month Athor, Osiris, the Egyptian, was shut in his ark, and on the same sev enteenth day Noah was shut in the ark, and on the sev enteenth of the corresponding month the Hindu festival of the dead occurred, and Xisuthros was the tenth king of the Babylonian Deluge. The ark of Jewish worship was an oblong chest of acacia inlaid with gold, and upon the top was the mercy seat, and inside were the two tablets of stone, a pot of manna and Aaron's rod; rings were at the corners, through which poles were fitted for transportation. An isolated peak is still pointed out at the head of the Euphrates still called Ararat or Agri-Dagh, and by the Persians Kuh-il-Nuh, or mountain of Noah. (Smith.) 42 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK The old cloud navigator was very kind and amiable. The Thessalian Noah landed on his home mountain of Parnassus. The Hindu Noah came home to Mt. Meru of Hima layas ; the Hebrew Noah chose Ararat at the head of the Euphrates river, and for the ancient Briton he landed upon the highlands of Snowdon. EGYPTIAN FLOOD 43 CHAPTEE TWELVE. EGYPTIAN FLOOD. A myth discovered in the tomb of Seti, by M. Naville, states that Ea and Nun took counsel to destroy the world for disobedience, and sent Hathor to slay them, and that Ea drank of the blood of the slain, rejoiced and swore (like Jehovah) he would never again destroy mankind. It was Typhon (the sea) who conspired against Osiris, and compelled him to enter an ark (Faber Mys teries of the Cabiri, V 1, p. 151 ) , and we know that the ark was the moon, for Typhon framed a box or casket that would exactly fit Osiris (the sun) his brother, in which he inclosed him, for the sun just fits in the frame of the full moon at night. Typhon was the moon, and it was in his own box he inclosed his brother Osiris, the summer sun, in the moon ark — the same ark of Noah, and the same golden Nib- lung treasure buried down in the vault of the moon every year and guarded by the typhon or the serpent Fafnir, or the Hesperian Ladon ; they are all that seven fold serpent that bound Magdalen and Brynhild in the seven-fold winter sleep — bound the seven sleepers of Ephesus, the seven months of winter, and those seven sleepers, the winter months in lunar time properly be tween six or seven months, but arbitrarily strained to seven in round numbers to agree with the seven souls of the ark and the sacred seven. The Egyptians ploughed and sowed up to the seven- 44 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK teenth of the month Athyr, for at that time Osiris (the sun) entered the moon ark, and correspondingly their seed must be in the ground. And on the twenty-fifth of March the Egyptians said Osiris came out of his ark, for at that time the sun and moon were in conjunction : their season of love. It was the love time and concep tion of Astarte among the Phoenicians and the same with the Virgin Mary, for our Lady Day or Conception Day is on the twenty-fifth of March. Osiris was put in the ark on the seventeenth of the month Athyr, and the three days' festival followed, called the mourning for Osiris, and six months after, on the nineteenth of the month called Pachons, another festival was given, when a procession went to the sea, the priests bearing a sacred ark, in which was a golden boat, and in this fresh water was poured, when all cried aloud: "Osiris is found!" This golden boat represented the little golden boat of the new moon. Osiris was twenty-eight years old when he was shut in the ark by Typhon, his winter brother. (They are the twenty-eight days of the lui/ar month, the monthly age of the moon. His body was torn in fourteen pieces, which are the fourteen limbs or rings of every full moon, which is fourteen days in being dismembered, one ring cast off every night. There were seventy-two conspirators, together with Typhon and an Ethiopian hag. The seventy-two are the number of solar years required for the sun to reg ister one degree on the precession of the equinox. The Egyptians travelled in a boat upon the Nile and EGYPTIAN FLOOD 45 their sun went in a boat. The Egyptian Horus sailed in a boat over the blue sea of the sky. An ark was made in shape of a crescent, in which Osiris was concealed, and then brought forth with joy. ( Bryant, 11, 332. ) Isis had a crescent-shaped boat and ancient pagan figures are shown in a moon-shaped boat or lunar ark. They built temples in the form of ships and then car ried small ships on the shoulders of priests in their re ligious processions in honor of their deities. According to Diodorus Siculus, Sesostris built a ship 280 cubits long of cedar, and covered it with plates of gold and silver, and this ship was dedicated to Osiris at the city of Thebes, the city of the ark. The ark of Isis was carried as a boat; it contained a lingam ; it was the boat of life. The votaries of Cybele carried this boat, and the early Christians called Adam "the mast of the boat of life," and the Hindu Siva was called "the mast of the boat of life." 46 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK CHAPTEE THIETEEN. NORSE SHIP. NAGLFAR AND SKIDBLADNER. Skidbladner, the ship of the Northern God Frey, was made by the dwarfs of many pieces. It would expand to carry all the gods (the Aesir) and their arms and am munition, and always had fair wind no matter which way its captain was going, and when not in use could be folded up as a napkin and put in his pocket, or taten apart and put in a purse. The ship is the moon composed of fourteen pieces or rings, which are folded up every month and put in the moon bagj and the moon ship always has fair wind. This ship was also called the "Boar," "Gold Bristle," and could run in air or on the sea by night or day, faster than a horse, and the night ever so dark was lit up by his bristle. The ship is the moon, and the bristle is the ring of fire or torch we call the new moon ring. It was the ship of the Einghorn, on which the dead body of the Norse god Balder lay in state; it was the largest of all ships, and when everything was ready all the people could not launch the ship; and they sent to Hell for the giantess Hyrroken (the smoking fire), who with one push set it afloat. The Einghorn is the moon ship, and the giantess is the flre bug or goad fly, or bull goader, which stung Io, the moon cow. It is the new moon ring, the propelling power of the moon, the torch of Hell. NORSE SHIP 47 Again this Norse ship appears as the Naglfar, or nail ship. This mythical ship was made of nail parings, which was to float on the flood at Ragnarok, the mille- nium, and the giant Hrym will be the steersman. ( The nail parings are the rings of the moon.) (Anderson: Norse Mythology, p. 417.) That enchanted ship that can sail on sea or land. That is the magic bone on which Oiler, the Norse wiz ard, sails across the deep; the bone is the ring of the new moon. 48 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK CHAPTER FOURTEEN. THE FLOOD OF DYLAN. There were three awful events of the island of Britain, the bursting of the lake of waters, and the overwhelming of all lands. All perished except Dwy- van and Dwyvack, who escaped in a naked vessel with out sails to repeople Britain. And these two inhabitants were the flrst to appear at the opening of the door of the ark. And this ark is called Caer Ochren, "the inclosure whose side produced life," which is the house of the moon with the silver door in its side. And the second event was the consternation of the tempest of flre when the earth split asunder to Annwn ( the lower region ) , and most of all things perished. And the third was the scorching summer when woods and plants were set on flre by the heat of the sun, and animals and plants perished. For the Deity sent a pestilential wind and a pure poi son descended, every blast of which was death, and the patriarch was shut up in the ark of the "strong door"; then a tempest of fire arose and split the earth asunder to the great deep. The lake Llion burst its bounds, the waves lifted over the land, the rain poured down from heaven, and the waters covered the earth. (Davies Mythology : British Druids, p. 226. ) Taliesin, the Druid Bard, says: "Truly I was in the ship with Dylan, son of the sea, embraced in the center between the royal knees, when like the rushing of hostile THE FLOOD OF DYLAN 49 spears the floods came forth from heaven to the great deep. No other bard will sing the violence of the con vulsive throes when forth proceeded with thundering din the billows against the shore in Dylan's day of ven geance, a day which extends to us." The flood of Dylan had been caused by the sins and profligacy of mankind, and was intended for a divine lustration to purify the earth and wash away the sins of the inhabitants. Dylan, the Irish Decian, is a corruptir>n of the Thes salian Deucalion, the hero of the Greek deluge. For the mysteries of Ceres and Proserpine were celebrated in the British Islands Avith the same rites as at Samoth race, with the similar tradition of the bursting of a lake. There were several local and popular traditions of the deluge in Britain and Wales, varied according to the whims of priests and poets. From Mabinogion (Guest's) p. 501, there is an ac count of the overflow of the sixteen cities which once stood on the site of Cardigan Bay. Six lakes were enumerated, in which ancient cities were overwhelmed, in which some person or small fam ily escaped upon a raft or piece of timber, which is a tale common to rude nations over the earth. In one account the well was left in charge of a woman who left the cover off and the well overflowed the whole country. The flood in Welsh Mythology was caused by or im puted to a son of Seithin Saidi, king, of Dyved, this son of Seithin Saidi was named Seithinin— the drunkard— who, while in liquor, let in the sea and destroyed six^ teen cities, the largest and finest in Wales, and Cardi gan Bay, occupied their place. 50 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK The Noah of British Arkite Mythology entered the ark by the counsel of Pwyll (reason, discretion) and Pryderi (deep thought). (Davies Mythology, 415.) Who is the same wise man Ea, the prophet of the Baby lonian flood. "The heavy blue chain didst thou O just man endure, and for the spoils of the deep ; woeful is thy song. Thrice the number that would have filled Prydwen we entered into the deep; excepting seven, none have returned from Caer Sidi," which is the ark, or fairy inclosure. The Celts celebrated the first of May as the day of deliverance from the ark. HU, KING OF BRITIAN 51 CHAPTER FIFTEEN. HU^ KING OP BRITIAN. THE BUILDER OF THE ARK. Hu corresponds to Odin, the Scandinavian hero. He corresponds both in name and character with Hea, chief god of the Babylonians, for the British Hu (pro nounced Hee) was lord of the sea. Hu was the ruler of the deep and lord of the island of Mona, and presided at Stone-Henge, the ark of the world. "Hu the Mighty," the chief Druid of Britain, was the dragon ruler of the world; he constructed the ark and formed the curvatures of that sacred ship which passed the dale of grievous waters, having its forepart stored with corn. And mounted aloft by the two connected serpents, which visibly is the black ball of the moon borne aloft by the two arms of the new moon. The British Hu was the god of all things — father of all the tribes of the earth, and the progenitor of the Cymri, the old Teutonic or Gothic race — he was king of kings, and was represented on earth by a bull, lion and dragon. Supreme ruler of the British Islands and em peror of the land and sea; he was a ploughman, a bard, musician, enchanter and vanquisher of giants, and pre sided over the vessel of the iron door. (Davies Myth ology, British Druids, p. 120.) He was connected with a goddess called Ked or Cerid- wen (Ceres: the moon). Hu was the ox which drew the Avanc or beaver out of the sea at the spring equinox. 52 THE DISCOVERY OF NOAH'S ARK The Avanc, draAvn out of the lake, was the Diluvian ark. "The heaA'y blue chain didst thou, O just man en dure, and for the spoils or ravages of the deep (deluge), doleful is thy song." Hu Pendragon Avas yoked as an ox, patient in afflic tion, and Avore the blue chain. (The chain is the first ring of the moon.) The Uthr Pendragon had his sanc tuary in an island surrounded by the tide. He Avas at tended by a spotted cow (the moon), and this cow pro cured a blessing, for it Avas on the eve of a serene day (May Eve) this loAving heifer was sacrificed on the day of the landing of the ark. In the old Druidical deluge of the Britains the flood had been caused by the sinking of the Avanc or beaver, which is the moon or earth itself, had sunk in the sea, and likened to a huge amphibious beaver which dwelt part of the time — the winter season — under the water, during the season of rain and flood, and then pulled out again in spring by the sacred oxen (the sun and moon) at the spring equinox. And Ave find the same story in the Hindu, where the earth had been dragged to the bottom of the sea by the demon Hiran Yaksha, which had caused the flood, and the god Vishnu took the form of a boar and raised the earth upon his tusk (and the tusk is the flrst ring of the .spring moon). And the ark or Avanc of the British Hu Gadarn is the same ark of Israel stolen by the Philistines and dra-nii home to the JeAvs in spring by the two heifers, which are the two forks of the new moon of the vernal equinox. And the same ark of the Hindu Noah drawn home to the spring landing by the horn of the fish, who was Brahma, himself in disguise. HU. KING OF BRITIAN 53 In another form of the story there had been lost in the time of the Hindu deluge the fourteen treasures (which are the fourteen bright rings, of which the full moon is composed) and the gods and demons together had united to churn them from the moon s