CHAPTER VII.

SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

LEAVING Chaldea, Egypt, and Greece, and proceeding farther east, we meet with similar traditions.

The Persian philosopher Zoroaster taught that the "wickedness and diabolical acts" of a person called Malcûs occasioned a universal deluge. Another Persian writer says, that Noah himself dwelt in the mountain from which the waters of the flood issued.*

A mythological fable of the Chinese relates that the father of Fohi, their great ancestor, was a Rain-bow. In their histories it is recorded that Fohi carefully trained up seven sorts of creatures, which he annually sacrificed to the Supreme Spirit of Heaven and Earth.† Sir William Jones, although he cannot insist with confidence that there is an allusion in the circumstance of the rain-bow above mentioned to the sacred narrative of the flood, says, I may nevertheless assure you, after full inquiry and consideration, that the Chinese believe the earth to have been wholly covered with water, which, in works of undisputed authenticity, they describe as flowing abundantly, then subsiding, and separating the higher from the lower age of mankind; and that the divisions of time, from which their poetical history begins, just preceded the appearance of Fohi in the mountains of China."‡

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The Hindoo tradition is very circumstantial, and its coincidence with the sacred history very strik

* HYDE upon the Religion of the Ancient Persians, ch. 10. + MAURICE, Indian Antiq. Vol. V. p. 32. Asiatic. Researches, Vol. II.

Disser. on the Chinese.

ing. The Hindoos have an ancient poem entitled "The Bhagavat." The first Purána, or legend of this poem is occupied with the history of this tradition. It is as follows: "Brahma, the Creator, near the close of a grand astronomical period, fatigued with the care of so many worlds, fell into a profound slumber. During his repose, the strong demon, Hayagriva, approached, and stole from him the Vedas,-four sacred books, whose contents originally flowed from his divine lips. The demon retired to the deep recesses of the ocean, and, to preclude the possibility of being compelled to surrender his treasure, swallowed the Vedas. The world, deprived of the wakeful superintendence of the Creator, fell into disorder. The whole human race, no longer guided by the light of the sacred books, became, with the exception of Satyavrata, king of Dravira, and the seven Rishis, or holy men, exceedingly corrupt. In the words of the Bhagavat itself, "A holy king, named Satyavrata, then reigned, a servant of the spirit which moved on the waves, and so devout that water was his only sustenance. He was the child of the sun, and in the present Calpa* is invested by Narayant with the office of Menu, by the name of the God of Obsequies. One day, as he was making a libation in the river Critámalà, and held water in the palm of his hand, he perceived a small fish moving in it." The king immediately dropped the water and the fish into the stream. At its earnest entreaty, he removed it thence to a vase full of water. In consequence of its continually increasing size, he was obliged to remove it thence to a cistern,-thence to a pool,— thence to a deep lake, and, finally, to the ocean.

* Calpa, is a period of time.

Narayan, signifies the Divine Spirit.

"When the fish was thrown into the waves, he thus again spoke to Satyavrata :-Here the horned sharks and other monsters of great strength will

devour me: thou shouldst not, O valiant man, leave me in this ocean. Thus repeatedly deluded by the fish, who had addressed him with gentle words, the king said: Who art thou that beguilest me in that assumed shape? Never before have I seen, or heard of, so prodigious an inhabitant of the waters, who, like thee, has filled up, in a single day, a lake an hundred leagues in circumference! Surely thou art Bhagavat, who appearest before me; the great Heri, whose dwelling was on the waves; and who, now, in compassion to thy servants, bearest the form of the natives of the deep. Salutation and praise to thee, O first male! the lord of creation, of preservation, of destruction! Thou art the highest

object, O supreme ruler, of us, thy adorers, who piously seek thee. All thy delusive descents in this world, give existence to various beings; yet I am anxious to know, for what cause that shape has been assumed by thee. Let me not, O lotos-eyed! approach in vain the feet of a deity whose perfect benevolence has been extended to all; when thou hast shown us, to our amazement, the appearance of other bodies not in reality existing, but successively exhibited. The lord of the universe, loving the pious man who thus implored him, and intending to preserve him from the sea of destruction caused by the depravity of the age, thus instructed him. In seven days from the present time, O thou tamer of enemies! the three worlds will be plunged in an ocean of death; but in the midst of the destroying waves, a large vessel, sent by me for thy use, shall stand before thee. Then shalt thou take all medicinal herbs, all the variety of seeds, and, accompanied by seven saints, encircled by pairs of all brute animals, thou shalt enter the spacious ark, and continue in it, secure from the flood, on one immense ocean, without light, except the radiance of thy holy companions. When the ship shall be agitated by an impetuous wind, thou shalt fasten it with a large sea-serpent, on my horn ;* but I will be near thee, drawing the vessel, with thee and thy attendants. I will remain on the ocean, O chief of men! until a night of brahmá shall be completely ended. Thou shalt then know my true greatness, rightly named the supreme godhead: by my favour all thy questions shall be answered, and thy mind abundantly instructed. Heri, having thus instructed the monarch, disappeared; and Satyavrata humbly waited for the time which the ruler of our

*The horn was an emblem of power.

senses had appointed. The pious king, having scattered toward the east the pointed blades of the grass darbha, and turning his face toward the north, sat meditating on the feet of the god who had borne the form of a fish. The sea, overwhelming its shores, deluged the whole earth; and it was soon perceived to be augmented by showers from immense clouds. He, still meditating on the command of Bhagavat, saw the vessel advancing, and entered it, with the chiefs of Brahmans, having first conformed to the directions of Heri. The saints thus addressed him: O king! meditate on Césava, who will, surely, deliver us from this danger, and grant us prosperity. The god, being invoked by the monarch, appeared again distinctly on the vast ocean, in the form of a fish, blazing like gold, extending a million of leagues, with one stupendous horn, on which the king, as he had before been commanded by Heri, tied the ship with a cable made of a vast serpent; and, happy in his preservation, stood praising the destroyer of Madhu. When the monarch had finished his hymn, the primeval male, Bhagavat, who watched for his safety on the great expanse of water, spoke aloud to his own divine essence, pronouncing a sacred Purána, which contained the rules of the Sanc'hya philosophy: but it was an infinite mystery, to be preserved within the breast of Satyavrata; who, sitting in the vessel with the saints, heard the principle of the soul, the eternal being, proclaimed by the preserving power. Then Heri, rising together with Brahma, from the destructive deluge, which was abated, slew the demon Hayagríva, and recovered the sacred books. Satyavrata, instructed in all divine and human knowledge, was appointed, in the present age, by the favour of Vishnu, the seventh Menu, surnamed Vaivaswata. But the appearance of the horned fish to the religious monarch