vented nests for the abode of his subjects, such as the Indians on the Oronoco have, is not stated; but the latter brought down fire from heaven for them to cook with, and became the second, or rather the first, Prometheus.

Chinese mythological history ends with the appearance of Fuhhí, and their chronology should not be charged with the long periods antecedent, varying from forty-five to five hundred thousand years, for the people themselves do not believe this duration. These periods are, however, a mere twinkling compared with the Kulpas of the Hindus, whose highest era, called the Unspeakably Inexpressible, requires 4,456,448 cyphers following a unit to represent it.

The accession of Fuhhí is placed in the Chinese annals, B.C. 2852, or eight years after the death of Enos, 1152 years after the creation, and 508 before the deluge, according to the common received chronology of Usher. Fuhhí and his seven successors are stated to have reigned 747 years, averaging 93 each. Those who follow Usher consider these monarchs, if they ever had an existence, to be Chinese travesties of the eight antediluvian patriarchs. The common chronology brings the deluge about thirteen years after the accession of Yau, and the death of Shun, the last of the eight, B.C. 2205, or twenty-five years after the confusion of tongues. According to Hales, the last epoch is one hundred and twelve years before the call of Abraham, and these eight Chinese monarchs are, therefore, contemporaries of the patriarchs who lived between Shem and Abraham, commencing with Salah, and ending with Nahor. The duration of their reigns, moreover, is such as would bear the same proportion to ages

of five hundred years, which their contemporaries lived, as the present average of twenty or twenty-five years does to a life of sixty.

To Shinnung, i. e. Divine Husbandman, and Hwangti. i. e. Yellow Emperor, are also ascribed many valuable inventions. The first was the patron of agriculture, and discoverer of the medicinal properties of herbs; the second invented the cycle now in use; the calendar was formed in his reign, and characters were made for recording events. The Chinese annalists fill up the reigns of these chiefs, and their successors, down to the time of Yau, with a series of inventions and improvements in the arts of life and good government, sufficient to bring society to that degree of comfort and order they suppose consonant with the character of the monarchs. The earliest records of the Chinese correspond rather too closely with their present character to receive full belief; but while they may be considered as unworthy of entire confidence, it will be allowed that they present an appearance of probability and naturalness hardly possessed by the early annals of Greece.

The establishment of the sexagenary cycle in the sixtyfirst year of Hwangtí's reign, after the deluge, and eightytwo years after the death of Arphaxad, is a remarkable record; and although it would have been easy, as many suppose was done, to have antedated it at some subsequent period in order to impose upon themselves with the belief of antiquity, no arguments or facts are adduced to prove that such was the case.

Three reigns, averaging eighty years' duration, intervened between that of Hwangtí and the celebrated Yau, but no records have come down of the history of the rul

ers, except that they lived and died. They were all elected by the people, much as were Shamgar, Jephthah, and other judges in Israel, and probably exercised a similar sway. The reigns and character of Yau and Shun have been immortalized by Confucius, and whatever was their real history, that sage showed his sagacity in going back to their remote times for his models, and fixing upon a period neither fabulous nor certain; one which prevented the cavils of skepticism and the appearance of complete fabrication. Whether they were fictitious personages or not, they are represented as following those principles of government which every man of sound judgment must approve ; and their system of religious rites savors strongly of the simplicity of patriarchal times, when even in China the knowledge of the true God was not utterly lost.

A tremendous deluge occurred during the reign of Yau, B.C. 2293, caused, it is said, by the overflowing of the rivers in the north of China. Those who place the Noachic deluge B.C. 2348, regard this as only a different version of that event; the variation of fifty years being unimportant. M. Klaproth, who favors the Septuagint chronology, says it is nearly synchronous with the deluge of Xisuthrus, B.C. 2297. The record of this catastrophe in the Shu King is hardly applicable to an overwhelming flood. "Grandees," said the emperor, 66 we suffer much from the inundation; the waters cover the hills on every side; they overtop the mountains, and seem to be rising even to the skies. If any one can be found who is able to remedy this evil, I wish he may be employed." They presented Kwan as a proper man, but he showed his inefficiency in laboring nine years without success to drain off the waters. Yau was then advised to employ Shun, who

called in Yu, a son of Kwăn, to his aid, and the floods were assuaged by deepening the beds of the rivers, and opening new channels. These slight notices hardly comport with a flood like the Noachic deluge, and are with much greater probability referred to an overflow of one of the great rivers, or to the change in the bed of the Yellow River from its former source into the Gulf of Pechele, through Chihlí, northeast to its present one along the lowlands of Kiangsu. In our view of the chronology of the Bible, as compared with the Chinese, it requires a far greater constraint upon these records to bring them to refer to that event, than to suppose they allude to a local disaster not beyond the power of remedy. These remarks of Yau may also have been put into their present shape by Confucius nearly seventeen centuries afterwards, and it may be supposed, without militating against their authenticity, that the extent of the flood has been described so as to do some honor to the distinguished men who remedied it.

The records in the Shu King of Yau and Shun, and their successor Yu the Great, who began to reign B.C. 2205, are longer than those of any other persons who lived prior to Abraham. Those who follow Usher, regard Yu as being the leader of the first band of colonists from the West after the deluge, one hundred and thirtynine years before,―much too short a time, however, for the collecting of a large colony, when the intermediate countries were barely settled, and men were more inclined to join their efforts in building a tower. The chronicle represents the merits of Yu to have been first exhibited in reducing the waters, and dividing the country into nine regions, and as he had assisted Shun in his government

during his lifetime, he was unanimously called to the va cant dignity, and became the founder of the Hia dynasty.

Chinese historians supply many details regarding the conduct of Yu and Kieh Kwei, the first and last Princes of the house of Hia, all the credible particulars of which are taken from the classics, particularly the Book of Records. One of the most remarkable records of the reign of Yu, is an inscription traced on the rocks of Hang shan, one of the mountains where annual sacrifices were made by the ancient emperors, and preserved in Si-ngan fu in Shensì. This inscription relates to the inundation, and is thus given by Amyot, who regards it as genuine, although it cannot be allowed to possess the same authenticity in its copied form, as the inscriptions at Karnac and Mosul, which are still, so to speak, in situ.

"The venerable emperor said, Oh! aid and counselor! Who will help me in administering my affairs? The great and little islets (the inhabited places) even to their summits, the abodes of the beasts and birds and all beings, are widely inundated. Advise, send back the waters, and raise the dikes. For a long time I have quite forgotten my family; I repose on the top of the mountain Yohlu. By prudence and my labors, I have moved the spirits; I know not the hours, but repose myself only in my incessant labors. The mountains Hwa, Yoh, Tai, and Hăng have been the beginning and end of my enterprise; when my labors were completed, I offered a thanksgiving sacrifice at the solstice. My affliction has ceased; the confusion in nature has disappeared; the deep currents coming from the south flow into the sea; clothes can now be made, food can be