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diff --git a/old/5109.txt b/old/5109.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..22ffc75 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/5109.txt @@ -0,0 +1,17089 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel +by Ignatius Donnelly +(#2 in our series by Ignatius Donnelly) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel + +Author: Ignatius Donnelly + +Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5109] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on April 29, 2002] +[Most recently updated on May 5, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, RAGNAROK: THE AGE OF FIRE AND GRAVEL *** + + + + + Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel + +Ragnarok: the Age of Fire and Gravel + +[Redactor's Notes: "Ragnarok" is a sequel to "Atlantis" but goes far +beyond presaging the pseudo-science of Velikovsky's "Worlds in +Collision". The original scans and HTML were provided by Mr. J.B. +Hare. In this edition the illustrations and figures have been +replaced by the glyph "###". Because of the numerous notes, they have +been retained on the original page. Searching on "[" will reveal the +set of notes for the current page. The page numbers of the original +have been retained as {p.117} for example. The HTML is plain vanilla +with no illustrations. For a fully illustrated version the reader is +referred to the website http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/rag/index.htm +where other explanatory material prepared by Mr. Hare is available.] + +---------------------------------------------------------------------- + + RAGNAROK: + + THE AGE OF FIRE AND GRAVEL. + + BY + + IGNATIUS DONNELLY, + + AUTHOR OF "ATLANTIS: THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD." + +_"I am not inclined to conclude that man had no existence at all +before the epoch of the great revolutions of the earth. He might have +inhabited certain districts of no great extent, whence, after these +terrible events, he repeopled the world. Perhaps, also, the spots +where he abode were swallowed up, and the bones lie buried under the +beds of the present seas."--CUVIER._ + + [1883] + + {scanned at sacred-texts.com, December, 2001} + + ### + + THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE DRIFT. + +{p. iii} + + CONTENTS. + + + PART I. + THE DRIFT. + + I. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DRIFT 1 + + II. THE ORIGIN OF THE DRIFT NOT KNOWN 8 + + III. THE ACTION OF WAVES 10 + + IV. WAS IT CAUSED BY ICEBERGS? 13 + + V. WAS IT CAUSED By GLACIERS? 17 + + VI. WAS IT CAUSED BY A CONTINENTAL ICE-SHEET? 23 + + VII. THE DRIFT A GIGANTIC CATASTROPHE 43 + + VIII. GREAT HEAT A PREREQUISITE 58 + + PART II. + THE COMET. + + I. A COMET CAUSED THE DRIFT 63 + + II. WHAT IS A COMET? 65 + + III. COULD A COMET STRIKE THE EARTH? 82 + + IV. THE CONSEQUENCES TO THE EARTH 91 + + {p. iii} + + PART III. + THE LEGENDS. + + I. THE NATURE OF MYTHS 113 + + II. DID MAN EXIST BEFORE THE DRIFT? 121 + + III. LEGENDS OF THE COMING OF THE COMET 132 + + IV. RAGNAROK 141 + + V. THE CONFLAGRATION OF PHAËTON 154 + + VI. OTHER LEGENDS OF THE CONFLAGRATION 166 + + VII. LEGENDS OF THE CAVE-LIFE 195 + + VIII. LEGENDS OF THE AGE OF DARKNESS 208 + + IX. THE TRIUMPH OF THE SUN 233 + + X. THE FALL OF THE CLAY AND GRAVEL 251 + + XI. THE ARABIAN MYTHS 268 + + XII. THE BOOK OF JOB 276 + + XIII. GENESIS READ BY THE LIGHT OF THE COMET 316 + + PART IV. + CONCLUSIONS. + + I. WAS PRE-GLACIAL MAN CIVILIZED? 341 + + II. THE SCENE OF MAN'S SURVIVAL 366 + + III. THE BRIDGE 376 + + IV. OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED 389 + + V. BIELA'S COMET 408 + + VI. THE UNIVERSAL BELIEF OF MANKIND 424 + + VII. THE EARTH STRUCK BY COMETS MANY TIMES 431 + + VIII. THE AFTER-WORD 437 + +{p. iv} + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE DRIFT Frontispiece. + + TILL OVERLAID WITH BOWLDER-CLAY 5 + + SCRATCHED STONE, FROM THE TILL 6 + + RIVER ISSUING FROM A SWISS GLACIER 19 + + TERMINAL MORAINE 20 + + GLACIER-FURROWS AND SCRATCHES AT STONY POINT, 26 + LAKE ERIE + + DRIFT-DEPOSITS IN THE TROPICS 38 + + STRATIFIED BEDS IN TILL, LEITHEN WATER, 54 + PEEBLESSHIRE, SCOTLAND + + SECTION AT JOINVILLE 54 + + ORBITS OF THE PERIODIC COMETS 83 + + ORBIT OF EARTH AND COMET 88 + + THE EARTH'S ORBIT 89 + + THE COMET SWEEPING PAST THE EARTH 92 + + THE SIDE OF THE EARTH STRUCK BY THE COMET 93 + + THE SIDE NOT STRUCK BY THE COMET 93 + + THE GREAT COMET OF 1811 95 + + CRAG AND TAIL 98 + + SOLAR SPECTRUM 105 + + SECTION AT ST. ACHEUL 122 + + THE ENGIS SKULL 124 + + THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL 125 + + PLUMMET FROM SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA 180 + + {p. v} + + COMET OF 1862 137 + + COURSE OF DONATI'S COMET 157 + + THE PRIMEVAL STORM 220 + + THE AFRITE IN THE PILLAR 270 + + DAHISH OVERTAKEN BY DIMIRIAT 272 + + EARTHEN VASE, FOUND IN THE CAVE OF FURFOOZ, 347 + BELGIUM + + PRE-GLACIAL MAN'S PICTURE OF THE MAMMOTH 349 + + PRE-GLACIAL MAN'S PICTURE OF REINDEER 350 + + PRE-GLACIAL MAN'S PICTURE OF THE HORSE 351 + + SPECIMEN OF PRE-GLACIAL CARVING 352 + + STONE IMAGE FOUND IN OHIO 353 + + COPPER COIN, FOUND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN FEET 356 + UNDER GROUND, IN ILLINOIS {front} + + COPPER COIN, FOUND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN FEET 356 + UNDER GROUND, IN ILLINOIS {back} + + BIELA'S COMET, SPLIT IN TWO 409 + + SECTION ON THE SCHUYLKILL 432 + +{p. 1} + + RAGNAROK: + + THE AGE OF FIRE AND GRAVEL. + + PART I. + + The Drift + + CHAPTER I. + + THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DRIFT. + +READER,--Let us reason together:-- + +What do we dwell on? The earth. What part of the earth? The latest +formations, of course. We live upon the top of a mighty series of +stratified rocks, laid down in the water of ancient seas and lakes, +during incalculable ages, said, by geologists, to be from _ten to +twenty miles in thickness_. + +Think of that! Rock piled over rock, from the primeval granite +upward, to a height _four times greater than our highest mountains_, +and every rock stratified like the leaves of a book; and every leaf +containing the records of an intensely interesting history, +illustrated with engravings, in the shape of fossils, of all forms of +life, from the primordial cell up to the bones of man and his +implements. + +But it is not with the pages of this sublime volume + +{p. 2} + +we have to deal in this book. It is with a vastly different but +equally wonderful formation. + +Upon the top of the last of this series of stratified rocks we find +THE DRIFT. + +What is it? + +Go out with me where yonder men are digging a well. Let us observe +the material they are casting out. + +First they penetrate through a few inches or a foot or two of surface +soil; then they enter a vast deposit of sand, gravel, and clay. It +may be fifty, one hundred, five hundred, eight hundred feet, before +they reach the stratified rocks on which this drift rests. It covers +whole continents. It is our earth. It makes the basis of our soils; +our railroads cut their way through it; our carriages drive over it; +our cities are built upon it; our crops are derived from it; the +water we drink percolates through it; on it we live, love, marry, +raise children, think, dream, and die; and in the bosom of it we will +be buried. + +Where did it come from? + +That is what I propose to discuss with you in this work,--if you will +have the patience to follow me. + +So far as possible, [as I shall in all cases speak by the voices of +others] I shall summon my witnesses that you may cross-examine them. +I shall try, to the best of my ability, to buttress every opinion +with adequate proofs. If I do not convince, I hope at least to +interest you. + +And to begin: let us understand what the Drift _is_, before we +proceed to discuss its origin. + +In the first place, it is mainly unstratified; its lower formation is +altogether so. There may be clearly defined strata here and there in +it, but they are such as a tempest might make, working in a +dust-heap: picking up a patch here and laying it upon another there. +But there + +{p. 3} + +are no continuous layers reaching over any large extent of country. + +Sometimes the material has been subsequently worked over by rivers, +and been distributed over limited areas in strata, as in and around +the beds of streams. + +But in the lower, older, and first-laid-down portion of the Drift, +called in Scotland "the till," and in other countries "the hard-pan," +there is a total absence of stratification. + +James Geikie says: + +"In describing the till, I remarked that the irregular manner in +which the stones were scattered through that deposit imparted to it a +confused and tumultuous appearance. The clay does not arrange itself +in layers or beds, but is distinctly unstratified."[1] + +"The material consisted of earth, gravel, and stones, and also in +some places broken trunks or branches of trees. Part of it was +deposited in a pell-mell or unstratified condition during the +progress of the period, and part either stratified or unstratified in +the opening part of the next period when the ice melted."[2] + +"The unstratified drift may be described as a heterogeneous mass of +clay, with sand and gravel in varying proportions, inclosing the +transported fragments of rock, of all dimensions, partially rounded +or worn into wedge-shaped forms, and generally with surfaces furrowed +or scratched, the whole material looking as if it had been scraped +together."[3] + +The "till" of Scotland is "spread in broad but somewhat ragged +sheets" through the Lowlands, "continuous across wide tracts," while +in the Highland and upland districts it is confined principally to +the valleys.[4] + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 21. + +2. Dana's "Text-Book," p. 220. + +3. "American Cyclopædia," vol. vi, p. 111. + +4. "Great Ice Age," Geikie, p. 6.] + +{p. 4} + +"The lowest member is invariably a tough, stony clay, called 'till' +or 'hard-pan.' Throughout wide districts stony clay alone occurs."[1] + +"It is hard to say whether the till consists more of stones or of +clay."[2] + +This "till," this first deposit, will be found to be the strangest +and most interesting. + +In the second place, although the Drift is found on the earth, it is +unfossiliferous. That is to say, it contains no traces of +pre-existent or contemporaneous life. + +This, when we consider it, is an extraordinary fact: + +Where on the face of this life-marked earth could such a mass of +material be gathered up, and not contain any evidences of life? It is +as if one were to say that he had collected the _detritus_ of a great +city, and that it showed no marks of man's life or works. + +"I would reiterate," says Geikie,[3] "that nearly all the Scotch +shell-bearing beds belong to the _very close of the glacial_ period; +only in one or two places have shells ever been obtained, with +certainty, from a bed in the true till of Scotland. They occur here +and there in bowlder-clay, and underneath bowlder-clay, in maritime +districts; but this clay, as I have shown, is more recent than the +till--fact, rests upon its eroded surface." + +"The lower bed of the drift is entirely destitute of organic +remains."[4] + +Sir Charles Lyell tells us that even the stratified drift is usually +devoid of fossils: + +"Whatever may be the cause, the fact is certain that over large areas +in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, I might add throughout the northern +hemisphere, on both sides of the Atlantic, the stratified drift of +the glacial period is very commonly devoid of fossils."[5] + +[1. "Great Ice Age," Geikie, p. 7. + +2. Ibid., p. 9. + +3. Ibid., p. 342. + +4. Rev. O. Fisher, quoted in "The World before the Deluge," p. 461. + +5. "Antiquity of Man," third edition, p. 268.] + +{p. 5} + +In the next place, this "till" differs from the rest of the Drift in +its exceeding hardness: + +"This till is so tough that engineers would much rather excavate the +most obdurate rocks than attempt to remove it from their path. Hard +rocks are more or less easily assailable with gunpowder, and the +numerous joints and fissures by which they are traversed enable the +workmen to wedge them out often in considerable lumps. But till has +neither crack nor joint; it will not blast, and to pick it to pieces +is a very slow and laborious process. Should streaks of sand +penetrate it, water will readily soak through, and large masses will +then run or collapse, as soon as an opening is made into it." + + ### + + TILL OVERLAID WITH BOWLDER-CLAY, RIVER STINCHAR. + _r_, Rock; _t_, Till; _g_, Bowlder-Clay; _x_, Fine Gravel, etc. + +The accompanying cut shows the manner in which it is distributed, and +its relations to the other deposits of the Drift. + +In this "till" or "hard-pan" are found some strange and +characteristic stones. They are bowlders, not water-worn, not +rounded, as by the action of waves, and yet not angular--for every +point and projection has been ground off. They are not very large, +and they differ in this and other respects from the bowlders found in +the other portions of the Drift. These stones in the "till" are +always striated--that is, cut by deep lines or grooves, usually +running lengthwise, or parallel to their longest diameter. The cut on +the following page represents one of them. + +{p. 6} + +Above this clay is a deposit resembling it, and yet differing from +it, called the "bowlder-clay." This is not so tough or hard. The +bowlders in it are larger and more angular-sometimes they are of +immense size; one at + + ### + + SCRATCHED STONE (BLACK SHALE), FROM THE TILL. + +Bradford, Massachusetts, is estimated to weigh 4,500,000 pounds. Many +on Cape Cod are twenty feet in diameter. One at Whitingham, Vermont, +is forty-three feet long by thirty feet high, or 40,000 cubic feet in +bulk. In some + +{p. 7} + +cases no rocks of the same material are found within two hundred +miles.[1] + +These two formations--the "till" and the "bowlder-clay"--sometimes +pass into each other by insensible degrees. At other times the +distinction is marked. Some of the stones in the bowlder-clay are +furrowed or striated, but a large part of them are not; while in the +"till" _the stone not striated is the rare exception_. + +Above this bowlder-clay we find sometimes beds of loose gravel, sand, +and stones, mixed with the remains of man and other animals. These +have all the appearance of being later in their deposition, and of +having been worked over by the action of water and ice. + +This, then, is, briefly stated, the condition of the Drift. + +It is plain that it was the result of violent action of some kind. + +And this action must have taken place upon an unparalleled and +continental scale. One writer describes it as, + +"A remarkable and stupendous period--a period so startling that it +might justly be accepted with hesitation, were not the conception +unavoidable before a series of facts as extraordinary as itself."[2] + +Remember, then, in the discussions which follow, that if the theories +advanced are gigantic, the facts they seek to explain are not less +so. We are not dealing with little things. The phenomena are +continental, world-wide, globe-embracing. + +[1. Dana's "Text-Book," p. 221. + +2. Gratacap, "Ice Age," "Popular Science Monthly," January, 1878.] + + CHAPTER II. + + THE ORIGIN OF THE DRIFT NOT KNOWN. + +WHILE several different origins have been assigned for the phenomena +known as "the Drift," and while one or two of these have been widely +accepted and taught in our schools as established truths, yet it is +not too much to say that no one of them meets all the requirements of +the case, or is assented to by the profoundest thinkers of our day. + +Says one authority: + +"The origin of the unstratified drift is a question which has been +much controverted."[1] + +Louis Figuier says,[2] after considering one of the proposed theories: + +"No such hypothesis is sufficient to explain either the cataclysms or +the glacial phenomena; and we need not hesitate to confess our +ignorance of this strange, this mysterious episode in the history of +our globe. . . . Nevertheless, we repeat, no explanation presents +itself which can be considered conclusive; and in science we should +never be afraid to say, _I do not know_." + +Geikie says: + +"Many geologists can not yet be persuaded that till has ever formed +and accumulated under ice." [3] + +A recent scientific writer, after summing up all the facts and all +the arguments, makes this confession: + +[1. "American Cyclopædia," vol. vi, p. 112. + +2. "The World before the Deluge," pp. 435, 463. + +3. "The Great Ice Age," p. 370.] + +{p. 9} + +From the foregoing facts, it seems to me that we are justified in +concluding: + +"1. That however simple and plausible the Lyellian hypothesis may be, +or however ingenious the extension or application of it suggested by +Dana, it is not sustained by any proof, and the testimony of the +rocks seems to be decidedly against it. + +"2. Though much may yet be learned from a more extended and careful +study of the glacial phenomena of all parts of both hemispheres, the +facts already gathered _seem to be incompatible with any theory yet +advanced_ which makes the Ice period simply a series of telluric +phenomena, and so far strengthens the arguments of those who look to +extraneous and cosmical causes for the origin of these phenomena."[1] + +The reader will therefore understand that, in advancing into this +argument, he is not invading a realm where Science has already set up +her walls and bounds and landmarks; but rather he is entering a forum +in which a great debate still goes on, amid the clamor of many +tongues. + +There are four theories by which it has been attempted to explain the +Drift. + +These are: + +I. The action of great waves and floods of water. + +II. The action of icebergs. + +III. The action of glaciers. + +IV. The action of a continental ice-sheet. + +We will consider these several theories in their order. + +[1. "Popular Science Monthly," July, 1876, p. 290.] + +{p. 10} + + CHAPTER III. + + THE ACTION OF WAVES. + +WHEN men began, for the first time, to study the drift deposits, they +believed that they found in them the results of the Noachic Deluge; +and hence the Drift was called the Diluvium, and the period of time +in which it was laid down was entitled the Diluvial age. + +It was supposed that-- + +"Somehow and somewhere in the far north a series of gigantic waves +was mysteriously propagated. These waves were supposed to have +precipitated themselves upon the land, and then swept madly over +mountain and valley alike, carrying along with them a mighty burden +of rocks and stones and rubbish. Such deluges were called 'waves of +translation.'"[1] + +There were many difficulties about this theory: + +In the first place, there was no cause assigned for these waves, +which must have been great enough to have swept over the tops of high +mountains, for the evidences of the Drift age are found three +thousand feet above the Baltic, four thousand feet high in the +Grampians of Scotland, and six thousand feet high in New England. + +In the next place, if this deposit had been swept up from or by the +sea, it would contain marks of its origin. The shells of the sea, the +bones of fish, the remains of seals and whales, would have been taken +up by these great deluges, and carried over the land, and have +remained + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 26.] + +{p. 11} + +mingled in the _débris_ which they deposited. This is not the case. +The unstratified Drift is unfossiliferous, and where the stratified +Drift contains fossils they are the remains of land animals, except +in a few low-lying districts near the sea. + +I quote: + +"Over the interior of the continent _it contains no marine fossils or +relics_."[1] + +Geikie says: + +"_Not a single trace of any marine organism has yet been detected in +true till_."[2] + +Moreover, if the sea-waves made these great deposits, they must have +picked up the material composing them either from the shores of the +sea or the beds of streams. And when we consider the vastness of the +drift-deposits, extending, as they do, over continents, with a depth +of hundreds of feet, it would puzzle us to say where were the +sea-beaches or rivers on the globe that could produce such +inconceivable quantities of gravel, sand, and clay. The production of +gravel is limited to a small marge of the ocean, not usually more +than a mile wide, where the waves and the rocks meet. If we suppose +the whole shore of the oceans around the northern half of America to +be piled up with gravel five hundred feet thick, it would go but a +little way to form the immense deposits which stretch from the Arctic +Sea to Patagonia. + +The stones of the "till" are strangely marked, striated, and +scratched, with lines parallel to the longest diameter. No such +stones are found in river-beds or on sea-shores. + +Geikie says: + +"We look in vain for striated stones in the gravel which the surf +drives backward and forward on a beach, + +[1. Dana's "Text-Book," p. 220. + +2. "The Great Ice Age," p. 15.] + +{p. 12} + +and we may search the _detritus_ that beaches and rivers push along +their beds, but _we shall not find any stones at all resembling those +of the till_."[1] + +But we need not discuss any further this theory. It is now almost +universally abandoned. + +We know of no way in which such waves could be formed; if they were +formed, they could not find the material to carry over the land; if +they did find it, it would not have the markings which are found in +the Drift, and it would possess marine fossils not found in the +Drift; and the waves would not and could not scratch and groove the +rock-surfaces underneath the Drift, as we know they are scratched and +grooved. + +Let us then dismiss this hypothesis, and proceed to the consideration +of the next. + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 69.] + +{p. 13} + + CHAPTER IV. + + WAS IT CAUSED BY ICEBERGS? + +WE come now to a much more reasonable hypothesis, and one not without +numerous advocates even to this day, to wit: that the drift-deposits +were caused by icebergs floating down in deep water over the sunken +land, loaded with _débris_ from the Arctic shores, which they shed as +they melted in the warmer seas of the south. + +This hypothesis explains the carriage of enormous blocks weighing +hundreds of tons from their original site to where they are now +found; but it is open to many unanswerable objections. + +In the first place, if the Drift had been deposited under water deep +enough to float icebergs, it would present throughout unquestionable +evidences of stratification, for the reason that the larger masses of +stone would fall more rapidly than the smaller, and would be found at +the bottom of the deposit. If, for instance, you were to go to the +top of a shot-tower, filled with water, and let loose at the same +moment a quantity of cannon-balls, musket-balls, pistol-balls, +duck-shot, reed-bird shot, and fine sand, all mixed together, the +cannon-balls would reach the bottom first, and the other missiles in +the order of their size; and the deposit at the bottom would be found +to be regularly stratified, with the sand and the finest shot on top. +But nothing of this kind is found in the Drift, especially in the +"till"; clay, sand, gravel, stones, + +{p. 14} + +and bowlders are all found mixed together in the utmost confusion, +"higgledy-piggledy, pell-mell." + +Says Geikie: + +"Neither can till owe its origin to icebergs. If it had been +distributed over the sea-bottom, it would assuredly have shown some +kind of arrangement. When an iceberg drops its rubbish, it stands to +reason that the heavier blocks will reach the bottom first, then the +smaller stones, and lastly the finer ingredients. There is no such +assortment visible, however, in the normal 'till,' but large and +small stones are scattered pretty equally through the clay, which, +moreover, is quite unstratified."[1] + +This fact alone disposes of the iceberg theory as an explanation of +the Drift. + +Again: whenever deposits are dropped in the sea, they fall uniformly +and cover the surface below with a regular sheet, conforming to the +inequalities of the ground, no thicker in one place than another. But +in the Drift this is not the case. The deposit is thicker in the +valleys and thinner on the hills, sometimes absent altogether on the +higher elevations. + +"The true bowlder-clay is spread out over the region under +consideration as a somewhat widely extended and uniform sheet, yet it +may be said to fill up all small valleys and depressions, and to be +thin or absent on ridges or rising grounds."[2] + +That is to say, it fell as a snow-storm falls, driven by high winds; +or as a semi-fluid mass might be supposed to fall, draining down from +the elevations and filling up the hollows. + +Again: the same difficulty presents itself which we found in the case +of "the waves of transplantation." Where did the material of the +Drift come from? On what sea-shore, in what river-beds, was this +incalculable mass of clay, gravel, and stones found? + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 72. + +2. "American Cyclopædia," vol. vi, p. 112.] + +{p. 15} + +Again: if we suppose the supply to have existed on the Arctic coasts, +the question comes, + +Would the icebergs have carried it over the face of the continents? + +Mr. Croll has shown very clearly[1] that the icebergs nowadays +usually sail down into the oceans without a scrap of _débris_ of any +kind upon them. + +Again: how could the icebergs have made the continuous scratchings or +striæ, found under the Drift nearly all over the continents of Europe +and America? Why, say the advocates of this theory, the icebergs +press upon the bottom of the sea, and with the stones adhering to +their base they make those striæ. + +But two things are necessary to this: First, that there should be a +force great enough to drive the berg over the bottom of the sea when +it has once grounded. We know of no such force. On the contrary, we +do know that wherever a berg grounds it stays until it rocks itself +to pieces or melts away. But, suppose there was such a propelling +force, then it is evident that whenever the iceberg floated clear of +the bottom it would cease to make the strive, and would resume them +only when it nearly stranded again. That is to say, when the water +was deep enough for the berg to float clear of the bottom of the sea, +there could be no striæ; when the water was too shallow, the berg +would not float at all, and there would be no striæ. The berg would +mark the rocks only where it neither floated clear nor stranded. +Hence we would find striæ only at a certain elevation, while the +rocks below or above that level would be free from them. But this is +not the case with the drift-markings. They pass over mountains and +down into the deepest valleys; they are + +[1. "Climate and Time," p. 282.] + +{p. 16} + +universal within very large areas; they cover the face of continents +and disappear under the waves of the sea. + +It is simply impossible that the Drift was caused by icebergs. I +repeat, when they floated clear of the rocks, of course they would +not mark them; when the water was too shallow to permit them to float +at all, and so move onward, of course they could not mark them. The +striations would occur only when the water was; just deep enough to +float the berg, and not deep enough to raise the berg clear of the +rocks; and but a small part of the bottom of the sea could fulfill +these conditions. + +Moreover, when the waters were six thousand feet deep in New England, +and four thousand feet deep in Scotland, and over the tops of the +Rocky Mountains, where was the rest of the world, and the life it +contained? + +{p. 17} + + CHAPTER V. + + WAS IT CAUSED BY GLACIERS? + +WHAT is a glacier? It is a river of ice, crowded by the weight of +mountain-ice down into some valley, along which it descends by a +slow, almost imperceptible motion, due to a power of the ice, under +the force of gravity, to rearrange its molecules. It is fed by the +mountains and melted by the sun. + +The glaciers are local in character, and comparatively few in number; +they are confined to valleys having some general slope downward. The +whole Alpine mass does not move down upon the plain. The movement +downward is limited to these glacier-rivers. + +The glacier complies with some of the conditions of the problem. We +can suppose it capable of taking in its giant paw a mass of rock, and +using it as a graver to carve deep grooves in the rock below it; and +we can see in it a great agency for breaking up rocks and carrying +the _detritus_ down upon the plains. But here the resemblance ends. + +That high authority upon this subject, James Geikie, says: + +"But we can not fail to remark that, although scratched and polished +stones occur not infrequently in the frontal moraines of Alpine +glaciers, yet at the same time these moraines _do not at all resemble +till_. The moraine consists for the most part of a confused heap of +rough _angular_ stones and blocks, and loose sand and _débris_; +scratched + +{p. 18} + +stones are decidedly in the minority, and indeed _a close search will +often fail to show them_. Clearly, then, the till is not of the +nature of a terminal moraine. _Each stone_ in the 'till' gives +evidence of having been subjected to a grinding process. . . . + +"We look in vain, however, among the glaciers of the Alps for such a +deposit. The scratched stones we may occasionally find, _but where is +the clay?_ . . . It is clear that the conditions for the gathering of +a stony clay like the I till' do not obtain (as far as we know) among +the Alpine glaciers. There is too much water circulating below the +ice there to allow any considerable thickness of such a deposit to +accumulate."[1] + +But it is questionable whether the glaciers do press with a steady +force upon the rocks beneath so as to score them. As a rule, the base +of the glacier is full of water; rivers flow from under them. The +opposite picture, from Professor Winchell's "Sketches of Creation," +page 223, does not represent a mass of ice, bugging the rocks, +holding in its grasp great gravers of stone with which to cut the +face of the rocks into deep grooves, and to deposit an even coating +of rounded stones and clay over the face of the earth. + +On the contrary, here are only angular masses of rock, and a stream +which would certainly wash away any clay which might be formed. + +Let Mr. Dawkins state the case: + +"The hypothesis upon which the southern extension is founded--that +the bowlder-clays have been formed by ice melting on the land--is +open to this objection, that _no similar clays have been proved to +have been so formed_, either in the Arctic regions, where the +ice-sheet has retreated, or in the districts forsaken by the glaciers +in the Alps or Pyrenees, or in any other mountain-chain. . . . + +The English bowlder-clays, as a whole, differ from + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," pp. 70-72.] + +{p. 19} + +the _moraine profonde_ in their softness, and the large area which +they cover. Strata of bowlder-clay at all comparable to the great +clay mantle covering the lower grounds of Britain, north of the +Thames, are conspicuous by their absence from the glaciated regions +of Central Europe and the Pyrenees, which were not depressed beneath +the sea." + + ### + + A RIVER ISSUING FROM A SWISS GLACIER. + +Moreover, the Drift, especially the "till," lies in great continental +sheets of clay and gravel, of comparatively uniform thickness. The +glaciers could not form such sheets; they deposit their material in +long ridges called "terminal moraines." + +Agassiz, the great advocate of the ice-origin of the Drift, says: + +"All these moraines are the land-marks, so to speak, by which we +trace the height and extent, as well as the + +[1. Dawkin's "Early Man in Britain," pp. 116, 117.] + +{p. 20} + +progress and retreat, of glaciers in former times. Suppose, for +instance, that a glacier were to disappear entirely. For ages it has +been a gigantic ice-raft, receiving all sorts of materials on its +surface as it traveled onward, and bearing them along with it; while +the hard particles of rocks set in its lower surface have been +polishing and fashioning the whole surface over which it extended. As +it now melts it drops its various burdens to the ground; bowlders are +the milestones marking the different stages of its journey; the +terminal and lateral moraines are the frame-work which it erected +around itself as it moved forward, and which define its boundaries +centuries after it has vanished."[1] + + ### + + TERMINAL MORAINE. + +And Professor Agassiz gives us, on page 307 of the same work, the +above representation of a "terminal moraine." + +The reader can see at once that these semicircular + +[1. "Geological Sketches," p. 308.] + +{p. 21} + +ridges bear no resemblance whatever to the great drift-deposits of +the world, spread out in vast and nearly uniform sheets, without +stratification, over hills and plains alike. + +And here is another perplexity: It might naturally be supposed that +the smoothed, scratched, and smashed appearance of the underlying +rocks was due to the rubbing and rolling of the stones under the ice +of the glaciers; but, strange to say, we find that-- + +"The scratched and polished rock-surfaces are by no means confined to +till-covered districts. They are met with _everywhere_ and _at all +levels_ throughout the country, from the sea-coast up to near the +tops of some of our higher mountains. The lower hill-ranges, such as +the Sidlaws, the Ochils, the Pentlands, the Kilbarchan and Paisley +Hills, and others, exhibit polished and smoothed rock-surfaces _on +their very crest_. Similar markings streak and score the rocks up to +a great height in the deep valleys of the Highlands."[1] + +We can realize, in our imagination, the glacier of the +mountain-valley crushing and marking the bed in which it moves, or +even the plain on which it discharges itself; but it is impossible to +conceive of a glacier upon the bare top of a mountain, without walls +to restrain it or direct its flow, or higher ice accumulations to +feed it. + +Again: + +"If glaciers descended, as they did, on both sides of the great +Alpine ranges, then we would expect to find the same results on the +plains of Northern Italy that present themselves on the low grounds +of Switzerland. But this is not the case. On the plains of Italy +there are no traces of the stony clay found in Switzerland and all +over Europe. Neither are any of the stones of the drift of Italy +scratched or striated."[2] + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 73. + +2. Ibid., pp. 491, 492.] + +{p. 22} + +But, strange to say, while, as Geikie admits, no true "till" or Drift +is now being formed by or under the glaciers of Switzerland, +nevertheless "till" is found in that country _disassociated from the +glaciers_. Geikie says: + +"In the low grounds of Switzerland we get a dark, tough clay, packed +with scratched and well-rubbed stones, and containing here and there +some admixture of sand and irregular beds and patches of earthy +gravel. This clay is quite unstratified, and the strata upon which it +rests frequently exhibit much confusion, being turned up on end and +bent over, exactly as in this country the rocks are sometimes broken +and disturbed below till. The whole deposit has experienced much +denudation, but even yet it covers considerable areas, and attains a +thickness varying from a few feet up to not less than thirty feet in +thickness."[1] + +Here, then, are the objections to this theory of the glacier-origin +of the Drift: + +I. The glaciers do not produce striated stones. + +II. The glaciers do not produce drift-clay. + +III. The glaciers could not have formed continental sheets of "till." + +IV. The glaciers could not have existed upon, and consequently could +not have striated, the mountain-tops. + +V. The glaciers could not have reached to the great plains of the +continents far remote from valleys, where we still find the Drift and +drift-markings. + +VI. The glaciers are limited in number and confined in their +operations, and were utterly inadequate to have produced the +thousands of square miles of drift-_débris_ which we find enfolding +the world. + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 373.] + +{p. 23} + + CHAPTER VI. + + WAS IT CAUSED BY CONTINENTAL ICE-SHEETS? + +WE, come now to the theory which is at present most generally +accepted: + +It being apparent that glaciers were not adequate to produce the +results which we find, the glacialists have fallen back upon an +extraordinary hypothesis--to wit, that the whole north and south +regions of the globe, extending from the poles to 35° or 40° of north +and south latitude, were, in the Drift age, covered with enormous, +continuous sheets of ice, from one mile thick at its southern margin, +to three or five miles thick at the poles. As they find +drift-scratches upon the tops of mountains in Europe three to four +thousand feet high, and in New England upon elevations six thousand +feet high, it follows, according to this hypothesis, that the +ice-sheet must have been considerably higher than these mountains, +for the ice must have been thick enough to cover their tops, and high +enough and heavy enough above their tops to press down upon and +groove and scratch the rocks. And as the _striæ_ in Northern Europe +were found to disregard the conformation of the continent and the +islands of the sea, it became necessary to suppose that this polar +ice-sheet filled up the bays and seas, so that one could have passed +dry-shod, in that period, from France to the north pole, over a +steadily ascending plane of ice. + +No attempt has been made to explain where all this + +{p. 24} + +ice came from; or what force lifted the moisture into the air which, +afterward descending, constituted these world-cloaks of frozen water. + +It is, perhaps, easy to suppose that such world-cloaks might have +existed; we can imagine the water of the seas falling on the +continents, and freezing as it fell, until, in the course of ages, it +constituted such gigantic ice-sheets; but something more than this is +needed. This does not account for these hundreds of feet of clay, +bowlders, and gravel. + +But it is supposed that these were torn from the surface of the rocks +by the pressure of the ice-sheet moving southward. But what would +make it move southward? We know that some of our mountains are +covered to-day with immense sheets of ice, hundreds and thousands of +feet in thickness. Do these descend upon the flat country? No; they +lie there and melt, and are renewed, kept in equipoise by the +contending forces of heat and cold. + +Why should the ice-sheet move southward? Because, say the +"glacialists," the lands of the northern parts of Europe and America +were then elevated fifteen hundred feet higher than at present, and +this gave the ice a sufficient descent. But what became of that +elevation afterward? Why, it went down again. It had accommodatingly +performed its function, and then the land resumed its old place! + +But _did_ the land rise up in this extraordinary fashion? Croll says: + +"The greater elevation of the land (in the Ice period) is simply +assumed as an hypothesis to account for the cold. The facts of +geology, however, are fast establishing the opposite conclusion, +viz., that when the country was covered with ice, the land stood in +relation to the sea at a lower level than at present, and that the +continental periods or times, when the land stood in relation to the + +{p. 25} + +sea at a higher level than now, were the warm inter-glacial periods, +when the country was free of snow and ice, And a mild and equable +condition of climate prevailed. This is the conclusion toward which +we are being led by the more recent revelations of surface-geology, +and also by certain facts connected with the geographical +distribution of plants and animals during the Glacial epoch."[1] + +H. B. Norton says: + +"When we come to study the cause of these phenomena, we find many +perplexing and contradictory theories in the field. A favorite one is +that of vertical elevation. But it seems impossible to admit that the +circle inclosed within the parallel of 40°--some seven thousand miles +in diameter--could have been elevated to such a height as to produce +this remarkable result. This would be a supposition hard to reconcile +with the present proportion of land and water on the surface of the +globe and with the phenomena of terrestrial contraction and +gravitation."[2] + +We have seen that the surface-rocks underneath the Drift are scored +and grooved by some external force. Now we find that these markings +do not all run in the same direction; on the contrary, they cross +each other in an extraordinary manner. The cut on the following page +illustrates this. + +If the direction of the motion of the ice-sheets, which caused these +markings, was,--as the glacialists allege,--always from the elevated +region in the north to the lower ground in the south, then the +markings must always have been in the same direction: given a fixed +cause, we must have always a fixed result. We shall see, as we go on +in this argument, that the deposition of the "till" was +instantaneous; and, as these markings were made before or at the same +time the "till" was laid down, how could the land + +[1. "Climate and Time," p. 391. + +2. "Popular Science Monthly," October, 1879, p. 833.] + +{p. 26} + +possibly have bobbed up and down, now here, now there, so that the +elevation from which the ice-sheet descended + + ### + + SKETCH OF GLACIER-FURROWS AND SCRATCHES AT STONY POINT, LAKE ERIE, + MICHIGAN. + + _aa_, deep water-line; _bb_ border of the bank of earthy + materials; _cc_, deep parallel grooves four and a half feet + apart and twenty-five feet long, bearing north 60° east; + _d_, a set of grooves and scratches bearing north 60° west; + _e_, a natural bridge. + + [Winchell's "Sketches of Creation," p. 213.] + +was one moment in the northeast, and the next moment had whirled away +into the northwest? As the poet says: + + ". . . Will these trees, + That have outlived the eagle, page thy steps + And skip, when thou point'st out?" + +{p. 27} + +But if the point of elevation was whisked away from east to west, how +could an ice-sheet a mile thick instantaneously adapt itself to the +change? For all these markings took place in the interval between the +time when the external force, whatever it was, struck the rocks, and +the time when a sufficient body of "till" had been laid down to +shield the rocks and prevent further wear and tear. Neither is it +possible to suppose an ice-sheet, a mile in thickness, moving in two +diametrically opposite directions at the same time. + +Again: the ice-sheet theory requires an elevation in the north and a +descent southwardly; and it is this descent southwardly which is +supposed to have given the momentum and movement by which the weight +of the superincumbent mass of ice tore up, plowed up, ground up, and +smashed up the face of the surface-rocks, and thus formed the Drift +and made the _striæ_. + +But, unfortunately, when we come to apply this theory to the facts, +we find that it is the _north_ sides of the hills and mountains that +are striated, while the _south sides have gone scot-free!_ Surely, if +weight and motion made the Drift, then the groovings, caused by +weight and motion, must have been more distinct upon a declivity than +upon an ascent. The school-boy toils patiently and slowly up the hill +with his sled, but when he descends he comes down with +railroad-speed, scattering the snow before him in all directions. But +here we have a school-boy that tears and scatters things going +_up_-hill, and sneaks down-hill snail-fashion. + +"Professor Hitchcock remarks, that Mount Monadnock, New Hampshire, +3,250 feet high, is scarified from top to bottom on its northern side +and western side, but not on, the southern."[1] + +This state of things is universal in North America. + +[1. Dana's "Manual of Geology," p. 537.] + +{p. 28} + +But let us look at another point: + +If the vast deposits of sand, gravel, clay, and bowlders, which are +found in Europe and America, were placed there by a great continental +ice-sheet, reaching down from the north pole to latitude 35° or 40°; +if it was the ice that tore and scraped up the face of the rocks and +rolled the stones and striated them, and left them in great sheets +and heaps all over the land--then it follows, as a matter of course, +that in all the regions equally near the pole, and equally cold in +climate, the ice must have formed a similar sheet, and in like manner +have torn up the rocks and ground them into gravel and clay. This +conclusion is irresistible. If the cold of the north caused the ice, +and the ice caused the Drift, then in all the cold north-lands there +must have been ice, and consequently there ought to have been Drift. +If we can find, therefore, any extensive cold region of the earth +where the Drift is not, then we can not escape the conclusion that +the cold and the ice did not make the Drift. + +Let us see: One of the coldest regions of the earth is Siberia. It is +a vast tract reaching to the Arctic Circle; it is the north part of +the Continent of Asia; it is intersected by great mountain-ranges. +Here, if anywhere, we should find the Drift; here, if anywhere, was +the ice-field, "the sea of ice." It is more elevated and more +mountainous than the interior of North America where the +drift-deposits are extensive; it is nearer the pole than New York and +Illinois, covered as these are with hundreds of feet of _débris_, and +yet _there is no Drift in Siberia!_ + +I quote from a high authority, and a firm believer in the theory that +glaciers or ice-sheets caused the drift; James Geikie says: + +"It is remarkable that _nowhere in the great plains of Siberia do any +traces of glacial action appear to have_ + +{p. 29} + +_been observed._ If cones and mounds of gravel and great erratics +like those that sprinkle so wide an area in Northern America and +Northern Europe had occurred, they would hardly have failed to arrest +the attention of explorers. Middendorff does, indeed, mention the +occurrence of trains of large erratics which he observed along the +banks of some of the rivers, but these, he has no doubt, were carried +down by river-ice. The general character of the 'tundras' is that of +wide, flat plains, covered for the most part with a grassy and mossy +vegetation, but here and there bare and sandy. Frequently nothing +intervenes to break the monotony of the landscape. . . . It would +appear, then, that ill Northern Asia representatives of the glacial +deposits which are met with in similar latitudes in Europe and +America _do not occur_. The northern drift of Russia and Germany; the +åsar of Sweden; the kames, eskers, and erratics of Britain; and the +iceberg-drift of Northern America have, apparently, no equivalent in +Siberia. Consequently we find the great river-deposits, with their +mammalian remains, which tell of a milder climate than now obtains in +those high latitudes, still lying _undisturbed at the surface_."[1] + +Think of the significance of all this. There is no Drift in Siberia; +no "till," no "bowlder-clay," no stratified masses of gravel, sand, +and stones. There was, then, no Drift age in all Northern Asia, _up +to the Arctic Circle!_ + +How pregnant is this admission. It demolishes at one blow the whole +theory that the Drift came of the ice. For surely if we could expect +to find ice, during the so-called Glacial age, anywhere on the face +of our planet, it would be in Siberia. But, if there was an ice-sheet +there, it did not grind up the rocks; it did not striate them; it did +not roll the fragments into bowlders and pebbles; it rested so +quietly on the face of the land that, as Geikie tells us, the +pre-glacial deposits throughout Siberia, with their mammalian +remains, are still found "_lying undisturbed_ + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 460, published in 1873.] + +{p. 30} + +_on the surface_"; and he even thinks that the great mammals, the +mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, "may have survived in Northern +Asia down to a comparatively recent date,"[1] ages after they were +crushed out of existence by the Drift of Europe and America. + +Mr. Geikie seeks to account for this extraordinary state of things by +supposing that the climate of Siberia was, during the Glacial age, +too dry to furnish snow to make the ice-sheet. But when it is +remembered that there was moisture enough, we are told, in Northern +Europe and America at that time to form a layer of ice from _one to +three miles in thickness_, it would certainly seem that enough ought +to have blown across the eastern line of European Russia to give +Siberia a fair share of ice and Drift. The explanation is more +extraordinary than the thing it explains. One third of the water of +all the oceans must have been carried up, and was circulating around +in the air, to descend upon the earth in rain and snow, and yet none +of it fell on Northern Asia! And as the line of the continents +separating Europe and Asia had not yet been established, it can not +be supposed that the Drift ref used to enter Asia out of respect to +the geographical lines. + +But not alone is the Drift absent from Siberia, and, probably, all +Asia; it does not extend even over all Europe. Louis Figuier says +that the traces of glacial action "are observed in all the north of +Europe, in Russia, Iceland, Norway, Prussia, the British Islands, +part of Germany in the north, and even in some parts of the south of +Spain."[2] M. Edouard Collomb finds only a "a shred" of the glacial +evidences in France, and thinks they were _absent from part of +Russia!_ + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 461. + +2. "The World before the Deluge," p. 451.] + +{p. 31} + +And, even in North America, the Drift is not found everywhere. There +is a remarkable region, embracing a large area in Wisconsin, Iowa, +and Minnesota, which Professor J. D. Whitney[1] calls "the driftless +region," in which no drift, no clays, no gravel, no rock strive or +furrows are found. The rock-surfaces have not been ground down and +polished. "This is the more remarkable," says Geikie, "seeing that +the regions to the north, west, east, and south are all more or less +deeply covered with drift-deposits."[2] And, in this region, as in +Siberia, the remains of the large, extinct mammalia are found +imbedded in the surface-wash, or in cracks or crevices of the +limestone. + +If the Drift of North America was due to the ice-sheet, why is there +no drift-deposit in "the driftless region" of the Northwestern States +of America? Surely this region must have been as cold as Illinois, +Ohio, etc. It is now the coldest part of the Union. Why should the +ice have left this oasis, and refused to form on it? Or why, if it +did form on it, did it refuse to tear up the rock-surfaces and form +Drift? + +Again, no traces of northern drift are found in California, which is +surrounded by high mountains, in some of which fragments of glaciers +are found even to this day.[3] + +According to Foster, the Drift did not extend to Oregon; and, in the +opinion of some, it does not reach much beyond the western boundary +of Iowa. + +Nor can it be supposed that the driftless regions of Siberia, +Northwestern America, and the Pacific coast are due to the absence of +ice upon them during the Glacial + +[1. "Report of the Geological Survey of Wisconsin," vol. i, p. 114. + +2. "The Great Ice Age," p. 465. + +3. Whitney, "Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural +Sciences."] + +{p. 32} + +age, for in Siberia the remains of the great mammalia, the mammoth, +the woolly rhinoceros, the bison, and the horse, are found to this +day imbedded in great masses of ice, which, as we shall see, are +supposed to have been formed around them at the very coming of the +Drift age. + +But there is another difficulty: + +Let us suppose that on all the continents an ice-belt came down from +the north and south poles to 35° or 40° of latitude, and there stood, +massive and terrible, like the ice-sheet of Greenland, frowning over +the remnant of the world, and giving out continually fogs, +snow-storms, and tempests; what, under such circumstances, must have +been the climatic conditions of the narrow belt of land which these +ice-sheets did not cover? + +Louis Figuier says: + +"Such masses of ice could only have covered the earth when the +temperature of the air was lowered at least some degrees below zero. +But organic life is incompatible with such a temperature; and to this +cause must we attribute the disappearance of certain species of +animals and plants--in particular the rhinoceros and the +elephant--which, before this sudden and extraordinary cooling of the +globe, appeared to have limited themselves, in immense herds, to +Northern Europe, and chiefly to Siberia, where their remains have +been found in such prodigious quantities."[1] + +But if the now temperate region of Europe and America was subject to +a degree of cold great enough to destroy these huge animals, then +there could not have been a tropical climate anywhere on the globe. +If the line of 35° or 40°, north and south, was several degrees below +zero, the equator must have been at least below the frost-point. And, +if so, how can we account for the survival, + +[1. "The World before the Deluge," p. 462.] + +{p. 33} + +to our own time, of innumerable tropical plants that can not stand +for one instant the breath of frost, and whose fossilized remains are +found in the rocks prior to the Drift? As they lived through the +Glacial age, it could not have been a period of great and intense +cold. And this conclusion is in accordance with the results of the +latest researches of the scientists:-- + +"In his valuable studies upon the diluvial flora, Count Gaston de +Saporta concludes that the climate in this period was marked rather +by extreme moisture than extreme cold." + +Again: where did the clay, which is deposited in such gigantic +masses, hundreds of feet thick, over the continents, come from? We +have seen (p. 18, _ante_) that, according to Mr. Dawkins, "no such +clay has been proved to have been formed, _either in the Arctic +regions, whence the ice-sheet has retreated_, or in the districts +forsaken by the glaciers." + +If the Arctic ice-sheet does not create such a clay now, why did it +create it centuries ago on the plains of England or Illinois? + +The other day I traveled from Minnesota to Cape May, on the shore of +the Atlantic, a distance of about fifteen hundred miles. At scarcely +any point was I out of sight of the red clay and gravel of the Drift: +it loomed up amid the beach-sands of New Jersey; it was laid bare by +railroad-cuts in the plains of New York and Pennsylvania; it covered +the highest tops of the Alleghanies at Altoona; the farmers of Ohio, +Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin were raising crops upon it; it was +everywhere. If one had laid down a handful of the Wisconsin Drift +alongside of a handful of the New Jersey deposit, he could scarcely +have perceived any difference between them. + +{p. 34} + +Here, then, is a geological formation, almost identical in character, +fifteen hundred miles long from east to west, and reaching through +the whole length of North and South America, from the Arctic Circle +to Patagonia. + +Did ice grind this out of the granite? + +Where did it get the granite? The granite reaches the surface only in +limited areas; as a rule, it is buried many miles in depth under the +sedimentary rocks. + +How did the ice pick out its materials so as to grind _nothing but +granite_? + +This deposit overlies limestone and sandstone. The ice-sheet rested +upon them. Why were _they_ not ground up with the granite? Did the +ice intelligently pick out a particular kind of rock, and that the +hardest of them all? + +But here is another marvel--this clay is red. The red is due to the +grinding up of mica and hornblende. Granite is composed of quartz, +feldspar, and mica. In syenitic granite the materials are quartz, +feldspar, and hornblende. Mica and hornblende contain considerable +oxide of iron, while feldspar has none. When mica and hornblende are +ground up, the result is blue or red clays, as the oxidation of the +iron turns the clay red; while the clay made of feldspar is light +yellow or white. + +Now, then, not only did the ice-sheet select for grinding the granite +rocks, and refuse to touch the others, but it put the granite itself +through some mysterious process by which it separated the feldspar +from the mica and hornblende, and manufactured a white or yellow clay +out of the one, which it deposited in great sheets by itself, as west +of the Mississippi; while it ground up the mica and hornblende and +made blue or red clays, which it laid down elsewhere, as the red +clays are spread over that great stretch of fifteen hundred miles to +which I have referred. + +{p. 35} + +Can any one suppose that ice could so discriminate? + +And if it by any means effected this separation of the particles of +granite, indissolubly knit together, how could it perpetuate that +separation while moving over the land, crushing all beneath and +before it, and leave it on the face of the earth free from commixture +with the surface rocks? + +Again: the ice-sheets which now exist in the remote north do not move +with a constant and regular motion southward, grinding up the rocks +as they go. A recent writer, describing the appearance of things in +Greenland, says: + +"The coasts are deeply indented with numerous bays and fiords or +firths, which, when traced inland, are almost invariably found to +terminate against glaciers. Thick ice frequently appears, too, +crowning the exposed sea-cliffs, from the edges of which _it droops +in thick, tongue-like, and stalactitic projections_, until its own +weight forces it to break away and topple down the precipices into +the sea."[1] + +This does not represent an ice-sheet moving down continuously from +the high grounds and tearing up the rocks. It rather breaks off like +great icicles from the caves of a house. + +Again: the ice-sheets to-day do not striate or groove the rocks over +which they move. + +Mr. Campbell, author of two works in defense of the iceberg +theory--"Fire and Frost," and "A Short American Tramp"--went, in +1864, to the coasts of Labrador, the Strait of Belle Isle, and the +Gulf of St. Lawrence, for the express purpose of witnessing the +effects of icebergs, and testing the theory he had formed. On the +coast of Labrador he reports that at Hanly Harbor, where + +[1. "Popular Science Monthly," April, 1874, p. 646.] + +{p. 36} + +the whole strait is blocked up with ice each winter, and the great +mass swung bodily up and down, "grating along the bottom at all +depths," he "found the rocks ground smooth, but _not striated_."[1] +At Cape Charles and Battle Harbor, he reports, "the rocks at the +water-line are _not striated_."[2] At St. Francis Harbor, "the +water-line is much rubbed smooth, but _not striated_."[3] At Sea +Islands, he says, "No striæ are to be seen at the land-wash in these +sounds or on open sea-coasts near the present waterline."[4] + +Again: if these drift-deposits, these vast accumulations of sand, +clay, gravel, and bowlders, were caused by a great continental +ice-sheet scraping and tearing the rocks on which it rested, and +constantly moving toward the sun, then not only would we find, as I +have suggested in the case of glaciers, the accumulated masses of +rubbish piled up in great windrows or ridges along the lines where +the face of the ice-sheet melted, but we would naturally expect that +the farther north we went the less we would find of these materials; +in other words, that the ice, advancing southwardly, would sweep the +north clear of _débris_ to pile it up in the more southern regions. +But this is far from being the case. On the contrary, the great +masses of the Drift extend as far north as the land itself. In the +remote, barren grounds of North America, we are told by various +travelers who have visited those regions, "sand-hills and erratics +appear to be as common as in the countries farther south."[5] Captain +Bach tells us[6] that he saw great chains of sand-hills, stretching + +[1. "A Short American Tramp," pp. 68, 107. + +2. Ibid., p. 68. + +3. Ibid., p. 72. + +4. Ibid., p. 76. + +5. "The Great Ice Age," p. 391. + +6. "Narrative of Arctic Land Expedition to the Mouth of the Great +Fish River," pp. 140, 346.] + +{p. 37} + +away from each side of the valley of the Great Fish River, in north +latitude 66°, of great height, and crowned with gigantic bowlders. + +Why did not the advancing ice-sheet drive these deposits southward +over the plains of the United States? Can we conceive of a force that +was powerful enough to grind up the solid rocks, and yet was not able +to remove its own _débris_? + +But there is still another reason which ought to satisfy us, once for +all, that the drift-deposits were not due to the pressure of a great +continental ice-sheet. It is this: + +If the presence of the Drift proves that the country in which it is +found was once covered with a body of ice thick and heavy enough by +its pressure and weight to grind up the surface-rocks into clay, +sand, gravel, and bowlders, then the tropical regions of the world +must have been covered with such a great ice-sheet, upon the very +equator; for Agassiz found in Brazil a vast sheet of "ferruginous +clay with pebbles," which covers the whole country, "a sheet of +drift," says Agassiz, "consisting of the same homogeneous, +unstratified paste, and containing loose materials of all sorts and +sizes," deep red in color, and distributed, as in the north, in +uneven hills, while sometimes it is reduced to a thin deposit. It is +recent in time, although overlying rocks ancient geologically. +Agassiz had no doubt whatever that it was of glacial origin. + +Professor Hartt, who accompanied Professor Agassiz in his South +American travels, and published a valuable work called "The Geology +of Brazil," describes drift-deposits as covering the province of +Pará, Brazil, upon the equator itself. The whole valley of the Amazon +is covered with stratified and unstratified and unfossiliferous + +{p. 38} + +Drift,[1] and also with a peculiar drift-clay (_argile plastique +bigarrée_), plastic and streaked. + +Professor Hartt gives a cut from which I copy the following +representation of drift-clay and pebbles overlying a gneiss hillock +of the Serra do Mar, Brazil: + + ### + + DRIFT-DEPOSITS IN THE TROPICS. + + _a_, drift-clay; _f f_, angular fragments of quartz; _c_. + sheet of pebbles; _d d_, gneiss in situ; _g g_, quartz and + granite veins traversing the gneiss. + +But here is the dilemma to which the glacialists are reduced: If an +ice-sheet a mile in thickness, or even one hundred feet in thickness, +was necessary to produce the Drift, and if it covered the equatorial +regions of Brazil, then there is no reason why the same climatic +conditions should not have produced the same results in Africa and +Asia; and the result would be that the entire globe, from pole to +pole, must have rolled for days, years, or centuries, wrapped in a +continuous easing, mantle, or shroud of ice, under which all +vegetable and animal life must have utterly perished. + +[1. "Geology of Brazil," p. 488.] + +{p. 39} + +And we are not without evidences that the drift-deposits are found in +Africa. We know that they extend in Europe to the Mediterranean. The +"Journal of the Geographical Society" (British) has a paper by George +Man, F. G. S., on the geology of Morocco, in which he says: + +"Glacial moraines may be seen on this range nearly eight thousand +feet above the sea, forming gigantic ridges and mounds of porphyritic +blocks, in some places damming up the ravines, and at the foot of +Atlas are enormous mounds of bowlders." + +These mounds oftentimes rise two thousand feet above the level of the +plain, and, according to Mr. Man, were produced by glaciers. + +We shall see, hereafter, that the sands bordering Egypt belong to the +Drift age. The diamond-bearing gravels of South Africa extend to +within twenty-two degrees of the equator. + +It is even a question whether that great desolate land, the Desert of +Sahara, covering a third of the Continent of Africa, is not the +direct result of this signal catastrophe. Henry W. Haynes tells us +that drift-deposits are found in the Desert of Sahara, and that-- + +"In the _bottoms_ of the dry ravines, or wadys, which pierce the +hills that bound the valley of the Nile, I have found numerous +specimens of flint axes of the type of St. Acheul, which have been +adjudged to be true palæolithic implements by some of the most +eminent cultivators of prehistoric science."[1] + +The sand and gravel of Sahara are underlaid by a deposit of clay. + +Bayard Taylor describes in the center of Africa + +[1. "The Palæolithic Implements of the Valley of the Delaware," +Cambridge, 1881.] + +{p. 40} + +great plains of coarse gravel, dotted with gray granite bowlders.[1] + +In the United States Professor Winchell shows that the drift-deposits +_extend to the Gulf of Mexico_. At Jackson, in Southern Alabama, be +found deposits of pebbles one hundred feet in thickness.[2] + +If there are no drift-deposits except where the great ice-sheet +ground them out of the rocks, then a shroud of death once wrapped the +entire globe, and _all life ceased_. + +But we know that all life,--vegetable, animal, and human,--is derived +from pre-glacial sources; therefore animal, vegetable, and human life +did not perish in the Drift age; therefore an ice-sheet did not wrap +the world in its death-pall; therefore the drift-deposits of the +tropics were not due to an ice-sheet; therefore the drift-deposits of +the rest of the world were not due to ice-sheets: therefore we must +look elsewhere for their origin. + +There is no escaping these conclusions. Agassiz himself says, +describing the Glacial age: + +"All the springs were dried up; the rivers ceased to flow. To the +movements of a numerous and animated creation _succeeded the silence +of death_." + +If the verdure was covered with ice a mile in thickness, all animals +that lived on vegetation of any kind must have perished; +consequently, all carnivores which lived on these must have ceased to +exist; and man himself, without animal or vegetable food, must have +disappeared for ever. + +A writer, describing Greenland wrapped in such an ice-sheet, says + +[1. "Travels in Africa," p. 188. + +2. "Sketches of Creation," pp. 222, 223.] + +{p. 41} + +"The whole interior seems to be buried beneath a great depth of snow +and ice, which loads up the valleys and wraps over the hills. The +scene opening to view in the interior is desolate in the +extreme--nothing but one dead, dreary expanse of white, so far as the +eye can reach--_no living creature frequents this wilderness--neither +bird, beast, nor insect_. The silence, deep as death, is broken only +when the roaring storm arises to sweep before it the pitiless, +blinding snow."[1] + +And yet the glacialists would have us believe that Brazil and Africa, +and the whole globe, were once wrapped in such a shroud of death! + +Here, then, in conclusion, are the evidences that the deposits of the +Drift are not due to continental ice-sheets: + +I. The present ice-sheets of the remote north create no such deposits +and make no such markings. + +II. A vast continental elevation of land-surfaces at the north was +necessary for the ice to slide down, and this did not exist. + +III. The ice-sheet, if it made the Drift markings, must have scored +the rocks going up-hill, while it did not score them going down-hill. + +IV. If the cold formed the ice and the ice formed the Drift, why is +there no Drift in the coldest regions of the earth, where there must +have been ice? + +V. Continental ice-belts, reaching to 40° of latitude, would have +exterminated all tropical vegetation. It was not exterminated, +therefore such ice-sheets could not have existed. + +VI. The Drift is found in the equatorial regions of the world. If it +was produced by an ice-sheet in those regions, all pre-glacial forms +of life must have perished; but they did not perish; therefore the +ice-sheet could not + +[1. "Popular Science Monthly," April, 1874, p. 646.] + +{p. 42} + +have covered these regions, and could not have produced the +drift-deposits there found. + +In brief, the Drift is _not_ found where ice must have been, and _is_ +found where ice could not have been; the conclusion, therefore, is +irresistible that the Drift is not due to ice. + +{p. 43} + + CHAPTER VII. + + THE DRIFT A GIGANTIC CATASTROPHE. + +IN the first place, the Drift fell upon a fair and lovely world, a +world far better adapted to give happiness to its inhabitants than +this storm-tossed planet on which we now live, with its endless +battle between heat and cold, between sun and ice. + +The pre-glacial world was a garden, a paradise; not excessively warm +at the equator, and yet with so mild and equable a climate that the +plants we now call tropical flourished within the present Arctic +Circle. If some future daring navigator reaches the north pole and +finds solid land there, he will probably discover in the rocks at his +feet the fossil remains of the oranges and bananas of the pre-glacial +age. + +That the reader may not think this an extravagant statement, let me +cite a few authorities. + +A recent writer says: + +"This was, indeed, for America, _the golden age_ of animals and +plants, and in all respects but one--the absence of man--the country +was more interesting and picturesque than now. We must imagine, +therefore, that the hills and valleys about the present site of New +York were covered with noble trees, and a dense undergrowth of +species, for the most part different from those now living there; and +that these were the homes and feeding-grounds of many kinds of +quadrupeds and birds, which have long since become extinct. The broad +plain which sloped gently seaward from the highlands must have been + +{p. 44} + +covered with a sub-tropical forest of-giant trees and tangled vines +teeming with animal life. This state of things doubtless continued +through many thousands of years, but ultimately a change came over +the fair face of Nature more complete and terrible than we have +language to describe."[1] + +Another says: + +"At the close of the Tertiary age, which ends the long series of +geological epochs previous to the Quaternary, the landscape of Europe +had, in the main, assumed its modern appearance. The middle era of +this age--the Miocene--was characterized by tropical plants, a varied +and imposing fauna, and a genial climate, so extended as to nourish +forests of beeches, maples, _walnuts_, poplars, and _magnolias in +Greenland and Spitzbergen_, while an exotic vegetation hid the +exuberant valleys of England."[2] + +Dr. Dawson says: + +"This delightful climate was not confined to the present temperate or +tropical regions. It extended to the very shores of the Arctic Sea. +In _North_ Greenland, at Atane-Kerdluk, in latitude 70° north, at an +elevation of more than a thousand feet above the sea, were found the +remains of beeches, oaks, pines, poplars, maples, _walnuts, +magnolias, limes_, and _vines_. The remains of similar plants were +found in Spitzbergen, in latitude 78° 56'."[3] + +Dr. Dawson continues: + +"Was the Miocene period on the whole a better age of the world than +that in which we live? In some respects it was. Obviously, there was +in the northern hemisphere a vast surface of land under a mild and +equable climate, and clothed with a rich and varied vegetation. Had +we lived in the Miocene we might have sat under our own vine and +fig-tree equally in Greenland and Spitzbergen and in those more +southern climes to which this + +[1. "Popular Science Monthly," October, 1878, p. 648. + +2. L. P. Gratacap, in "American Antiquarian," July, 1881, p. 280. + +3. Dawson, "Earth and Man," p. 261.] + +{p. 45} + +privilege is now restricted. . . . Some reasons have been adduced for +the belief that in the Miocene and Eocene there were intervals of +cold climate; but the evidence of this may be merely local and +exceptional, and does not interfere with the broad characteristics of +the age."[1] + +Sir Edward Belcher brought away from the dreary shores of Wellington +Channel (latitude 75° 32' north) portions of a tree which there can +be no doubt whatever had actually grown where be found it. The roots +were in place, in a frozen mass of earth, the stump standing upright +where it was probably overtaken by the great winter.[2] Trees have +been found, _in situ_, on Prince Patrick's Island, in latitude 76° +12' north, _four feet in circumference_. They were so old that the +wood had lost its combustible quality, and refused to burn. Mr. +Geikie thinks that it is possible these trees were pre-glacial, and +belonged to the Miocene age. They may have been the remnants of the +great forests which clothed that far northern region when the +so-called glacial age came on and brought the Drift. + +We shall see hereafter that man, possibly civilized man, dwelt in +this fair and glorious world--this world that knew no frost, no cold, +no ice, no snow; that he had dwelt in it for thousands of years; that +he witnessed the appalling and sudden calamity which fell upon it; +and that he has preserved the memory of this catastrophe to the +present day, in a multitude of myths and legends scattered all over +the face of the habitable earth. + +But was it sudden? Was it a catastrophe? + +Again I call the witnesses to the stand, for I ask you, good reader, +to accept nothing that is not _proved_. + +In the first place, was it sudden? + +[1. "Earth and Man," p. 264. + +2. "The Last of the Arctic Voyages," vol. i, p. 380.] + +{p. 46} + +One writer says: + +"The glacial action, in the opinion of the land-glacialists, was +limited to a _definite period_, and operated _simultaneously_ over a +vast area."[1] + +And again: + +"The drift was accumulated where it is by some violent action."[2] + +Louis Figuier says: + +"The two cataclysms of which we have spoken surprised Europe at the +moment of the development of an important creation. The whole scope +of animated nature, the evolution of animals, was _suddenly arrested_ +in that part of our hemisphere over which these gigantic convulsions +spread, followed by the brief but sudden submersion of entire +continents. Organic life had scarcely recovered from the violent +shock, when a second, and perhaps severer blow assailed it. The +northern and central parts of Europe, the vast countries which extend +from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean and the Danube, were visited by +a period of sudden and severe cold; the temperature of the polar +regions seized them. The plains of Europe, but now ornamented by the +luxurious vegetation developed by the heat of a burning climate, the +boundless pastures on which herds of great elephants, the active +horse, the robust hippopotamus, and great carnivorous animals grazed +and roamed, became covered with a mantle of ice and snow."[3] + +M. Ch. Martins says: + +"The most violent convulsions of the solid and liquid elements appear +to have been themselves only the effects due to a cause much more +powerful than the mere expansion of the pyrosphere; and it is +necessary to recur, in order to explain them, to some new and bolder +hypothesis than has Yet been hazarded. Some philosophers have belief + +[1. American Cyclopædia," vol. vi, p. 114. + +2. Ibid., vol. vi, p. 111. + +3. "The World before the Deluge," p. 435.] + +{p. 47} + +in an astronomical revolution which may have overtaken our globe in +the first age of its formation, and have modified its position in +relation to the sun. They admit _that the poles have not always been +as they are now_, and that _some terrible shock displaced them_, +changing at the same time the inclination of the axis of the rotation +of the earth."[1] + +Louis Figuier says: + +"We can not doubt, after such testimony, of the existence, in the +frozen north, of the almost entire remains of the mammoth. The +animals seem to have _perished suddenly; enveloped in ice at the +moment of their death_, their bodies have been preserved from +decomposition by the continual action of the cold."[2] + +Cuvier says, speaking of the bodies of the quadrupeds which the ice +had seized, and which have been preserved, with their hair, flesh, +and skin, down to our own times: + +"If they had not been frozen as soon as killed, putrefaction would +have decomposed them; and, on the other hand, this eternal frost +could not have previously prevailed in the place where they died, for +they could not have lived in such a temperature. It was, therefore, +_at the same instant when these animals perished that the country +they inhabited was rendered glacial_. These events must have been +_sudden, instantaneous, and without any gradation_."[3] + +There is abundant evidence that the Drift fell upon a land covered +with forests, and that the trunks of the trees were swept into the +mass of clay and gravel, where they are preserved to this day. + +Mr. Whittlesey gives an account of a log found _forty feet below the +surface_, in a bed of blue clay, resting + +[1. "The World before the Deluge," p. 463. + +2. Ibid., p. 396. + +3. "Ossements fossiles, Discours sur les Révolutions du Globe."] + +{p. 48} + +upon the "hard-pan" or "till," in a well dug at Columbia, Ohio.[1] + +At Bloomington, Illinois, pieces of wood were found _one hundred and +twenty-three feet below the surface_, in sinking a shaft.[2] + +And it is a very remarkable fact that none of these Illinois clays +_contain any fossils_.[3] + +The inference, therefore, is irresistible that the clay, thus +unfossiliferous, fell upon and inclosed the trees while they were yet +growing. + +These facts alone would dispose of the theory that the Drift was +deposited upon lands already covered with water. It is evident, on +the contrary, that it was dry land, inhabited land, land embowered in +forests. + +On top of the Norwich crag, in England, are found the remains of an +ancient forest, "showing stumps of trees standing erect with their +roots penetrating an ancient soil."[4] In this soil occur the remains +of many extinct species of animals, together with those of others +still living; among these may be mentioned the hippopotamus, three +species of elephant, the mammoths, rhinoceros, bear, horse, Irish +elk, etc. + +In Ireland remains of trees have been found in sand-beds below the +till.[5] + +Dr. Dawson found a hardened peaty bed under the bowlder-clay, in +Canada, which "contained many small roots and branches, apparently of +coniferous trees allied to the spruces."[6] Mr. C. Whittlesey refers +to decayed + +[1. "Smithsonian Contributions," vol. xv. + +2. "Geology of Illinois," vol. iv, p. 179. + +3. "The Great Ice Age," p. 387. + +4. Ibid., p. 340. "Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science," vol. vi, p. +249. + +5. "Acadian Geology," p. 63.] + +{p. 49} + +leaves and remains of the elephant and mastodon found below and in +the drift in America.[1] + +"The remains of the mastodon, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and elephant +are found in the pre-glacial beds of Italy."[2] + +These animals were slaughtered outright, and so suddenly that few +escaped: + +Admiral Wrangel tells us that the remains of elephants, rhinoceroses, +etc., are heaped up in such quantities in certain parts of Siberia +that "he and his men climbed over ridges and mounds composed entirely +of their bones."[3] + +We have seen that the Drift itself has all the appearance of having +been the product of some sudden catastrophe: + +"Stones and bowlders alike are scattered higgledy-piggledy, +pell-mell, through the clay, so as to give it a _highly confused and +tumultuous appearance_." + +Another writer says: + +"In the mass of the 'till' itself fossils sometimes, but very rarely, +occur. Tusks of the mammoth, reindeer-antlers, and _fragments of +wood_ have from time to time been discovered. They almost invariably +afford marks of having been subjected to the same action as the +stones and bowlders by which they are surrounded."[4] + +Another says: + +"Logs and fragments of wood are often got at great depths in the +buried gorges."[5] + +[1. "Smithsonian Contributions," vol. xv. + +2. "The Great Ice Age," p. 492. + +3. Agassiz, "Geological Sketches," p. 209. + +4. "The Great Ice Age," p. 150. + +5. "Illustrations of Surface Geology," "Smithsonian Contributions."] + +{p. 50} + +Mr. Geikie says: + +"Below a deposit of till, at Woodhill Quarry, near Kilmaurs, in +Ayrshire (Scotland), the remains of mammoths and reindeer and certain +marine shells have several times been detected during the quarrying +operations. . . . Two elephant-tasks were got at a depth of seventeen +and a half feet from the surface. . . . The mammalian remains, +obtained from this quarry, occurred in a peaty layer between two thin +beds of sand and gravel which lay beneath a mass of 'till,' and +_rested directly on the sandstone rock_."[1] + +And again: + +"Remains of the mammoth have been met with at Chapelhall, near +Airdrie, where they occurred in a bed of laminated sand, _underlying_ +'till.' Reindeer-antlers have also been discovered in other +localities, as in the valley of the Endrick, about four miles from +Loch Lomond, where an antler was found associated with marine shells, +near the bottom of a bed of blue clay, and _close to the underlying +rock_--the blue clay being covered with twelve feet of tough, stony +clay."[2] + +Professor Winchell says + +"Buried tree-trunks are often exhumed from the glacial drift at a +depth of from twenty to _sixty feet from the surface_. Dr. Locke has +published an account of a mass of buried drift-wood at Salem, Ohio, +_forty-three feet below the surface_, imbedded in ancient mud. The +museum of the University of Michigan contains several fragments of +well-preserved tree-trunks exhumed from wells in the vicinity of Ann +Arbor. Such occurrences are by no means uncommon. The encroachments +of the waves upon the shores of the Great Lakes reveal whole forests +of the buried trunks of the white cedar."[3] + +These citations place it beyond question that the Drift came suddenly +upon the world, slaughtering the animals, + +[1. The Great Ice Age," p. 149. + +2. Ibid., p. 150. + +3. Winchell, "Sketches of Creation," p. 259.] + +{p. 51} + +breaking up the forests, and overwhelming the trunks and branches of +the trees in its masses of _débris_. + +Let us turn to the next question: Was it an extraordinary event, a +world-shaking cataclysm? + +The answer to this question is plain: The Drift marks probably the +most awful convulsion and catastrophe that has ever fallen upon the +globe. The deposit of these continental masses of clay, sand, and +gravel was but one of the features of the apalling event. In addition +to this the earth at the same time was cleft with great cracks or +fissures, which reached down through many miles of the planet's crust +to the central fires and released the boiling rocks imprisoned in its +bosom, and these poured to the surface, as igneous, intrusive, or +trap-rocks. Where the great breaks were not deep enough to reach the +central fires, they left mighty fissures in the surface, which, in +the Scandinavian regions, are known as _fiords_, and which constitute +a striking feature of the scenery of these northern lands; they are +great canals--hewn, as it were, in the rock--with high walls +penetrating from the sea far into the interior of the land. They are +found in Great Britain, Maine, Nova Scotia, Labrador, Greenland, and +on the Western coast of North America. + +David Dale Owen tells us that the outburst of trap-rock at the Dalles +of the St. Croix came up _through open fissures_, breaking the +continuity of strata, without tilting them into inclined planes."[1] +It would appear as if the earth, in the first place, cracked into +deep clefts, and the igneous matter within took advantage of these +breaks to rise to the surface. It caught masses of the sandstone in +its midst and hardened around them. + +These great clefts seem to be, as Owen says, "lines + +[1. "Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota," p. 142.] + +{p. 52} + +radiating southwestwardly from Lake Superior, as if that was the seat +of the disturbance which caused them."[1] + +Moreover, when we come to examine the face of the rocks on which the +Drift came, we do not find them merely smoothed and ground down, as +we might suppose a great, heavy mass of ice moving slowly over them +would leave them. There was something more than this. There was +something, (whatever it was,) that fell upon them with awful force +and literally _smashed_ them, pounding, beating, pulverizing them, +and turning one layer of mighty rock over upon another, and +scattering them in the wildest confusion. We can not conceive of +anything terrestrial that, let loose upon the bare rocks to-day, +would or could produce such results. + +Geikie says: + +"When the 'till' is removed from the underlying rocks, these almost +invariably show either a well-smoothed, polished, and striated +surface, or else a _highly confused, broken, and smashed_ +appearance."[2] + +Gratacap says: + +"'_Crushed ledges_' designate those plicated, overthrown, or curved +exposures where parallel rocks, as talcose schist, usually vertical, +are bent and fractured, _as if by a maul like force, battering them +from above_. The strata are oftentimes tumbled over upon a cliff-side +like a row of books, and rest upon heaps of fragments broken away by +the strain upon the bottom layers, or _crushed_ off from their +exposed layers."[3] + +The Rev. O. Fisher, F. G. S., says he + +"Finds the covering beds to consist of two members--a lower one, +entirely destitute of organic remains, and + +[1. "Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota," p. 147. + +2. "The Great Ice Age," p. 73. + +3. "Popular Science Monthly," January, 1878, p. 326.] + +{p. 53} + +generally unstratified, which has often been _forcibly_ INDENTED +_into the bed beneath it_, sometimes exhibiting slickensides at the +junction. There is evidence of this lower member having been pushed +or dragged over the surface, from higher to lower levels, _in a +plastic condition_; on which account he has named it 'The Trail'."[1] + +Now, all these details are incompatible with the idea of ice-action. +What condition of ice can be imagined that would _smash_ rocks, that +would beat them like a maul, that would _indent_ them? + +And when we pass from the underlying rocks to the "till" itself, we +find the evidences of tremendous force exerted in the wildest and +most tumultuous manner. + +When the clay and stones were being deposited on those crushed and +pounded rocks, they seem to have picked up the _detritus_ of the +earth in great masses, and whirled it wildly in among their own +material, and deposited it in what are called "the intercalated +beds." It would seem as if cyclonic winds had been at work among the +mass. While the "till" itself is devoid of fossils, "the intercalated +beds" often contain them. Whatever was in or on the soil was seized +upon, carried up into the air, then cast down, and mingled among the +"till." + +James Geikie says, speaking of these intercalated beds: + +"They are twisted, bent, crumpled, and confused _often in the wildest +manner_. Layers of clay, sand, and gravel, which were probably +deposited in a nearly horizontal plane, are puckered into folds and +sharply curved into vertical positions. I have seen whole beds of +sand and clay which had all the appearance of having been pushed +forward bodily for some distance the bedding assuming _the most +fantastic appearance_. . . . The intercalated beds are everywhere cut +through by the overlying 'till,' and + +[1. "Journal of the Geological Society and Geological Magazine."] + +{p. 54} + +large portions have been carried away. . . . They form but a small +fraction of the drift-deposits."[1] + +In the accompanying cut we have one of these sand (_s_) and clay +(_c_) patches, embosomed in the "till," _t_1 and _t_2. + + ### + + STRATIFIED BEDS IN TILL, LEITHEN WATER, PEEBLESSHIRE, SCOTLAND. + +And again, the same writer says: + +"The intercalated beds are remarkable for having yielded an imperfect +skull of the great extinct ox (_Bos primigenius_), and remains of the +Irish elk or deer, and the horse, together with layers of peaty +matter."[2] + +Several of our foremost scientists see in the phenomena of the Drift +the evidences of a cataclysm of some sort. + +Sir John Lubbock[3] gives the following representation of a section +of the Drift at Joinville, France, containing + + ### + + SECTION AT JOINVILLE. + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 149. + +2. Ibid., p. 149. + +3. "Prehistoric Times," p. 370.] + +{p. 55} + +an immense sandstone block, eight feet six inches in length, with a +width of two feet eight inches, and a thickness of three feet four +inches. + +Discussing the subject, Mr. Lubbock says: + +"We must feel that a body of water, with power to move such masses as +these, must have been very different from any floods now occurring in +those valleys, and might well deserve the name of a _cataclysm_. . . +. But a flood which could bring down so great a mass would certainly +have swept away the comparatively light and movable gravel below. We +can not, therefore, account for the phenomena by aqueous action, +because a flood which would deposit the sandstone blocks would remove +the underlying gravel, and a flood which would deposit the gravel +would not remove the blocks. The _Deus ex machinâ_ has not only been +called in most unnecessarily, but when examined turns out to be but +an idol, after all." + +Sir John thinks that floating ice might have dropped these blocks; +but then, on the other hand, M. C. d'Orbigny observes that all the +fossils found in these beds belong to fresh-water or land animals. +The sea has had nothing to do with them. And D'Orbigny thinks the +Drift came from cataclysms. + +M. Boucher de Perthes, the first and most exhaustive investigator of +these deposits, has always been of opinion that the drift-gravels of +France were deposited by _violent cataclysms_.[1] + +This view seems to be confirmed by the fact that the gravel-beds in +which these remains of man and extinct animals are found lie at an +elevation of from eighty to _two hundred feet above the present +water-levels of the valleys_. + +Sir John Lubbock says: + +"Our second difficulty still remains--namely, the height at which the +upper-level gravels stand above the + +[1. "Mém. Soc. d'Em. l'Abbeville," 1861, p. 475.] + +{p. 56} + +present water-line. We can not wonder that these beds have generally +been attributed to violent cataclysms."[1] + +In America, in Britain, and in Europe, the glacial deposits made +clean work of nearly all animal life. The great mammalia, too large +to find shelter in caverns, were some of them utterly swept away, +while others never afterward returned to those regions. In like +manner palæolithic man, man of the rude and unpolished flint +implements, the contemporary of the great mammalia, the mammoth, the +hippopotamus, and the rhinoceros, was also stamped out, and the +cave-deposits of Europe show that there was a long interval before be +reappeared in those regions. The same forces, whatever they were, +which "smashed" and "pounded" and "contorted" the surface of the +earth, crushed man and his gigantic associates out of existence.[2] + +But in Siberia, where, as we have seen, some of the large mammalia +were caught and entombed in ice, and preserved even to our own day, +there was no "smashing" and "crushing" of the earth, and many escaped +the snow-sheets, and their posterity survived in that region for long +ages after the Glacial period, and are supposed only to have +disappeared in quite recent times. In fact, within the last two or +three years a Russian exile declared that he had seen a group of +living mammoths in a wild valley in a remote portion of that +wilderness. + +These, then, good reader, to recapitulate, are points that seem to be +established: + +I. The Drift marked a world-convulsing catastrophe. It was a gigantic +and terrible event. It was something quite out of the ordinary course +of Nature's operations. + +II. It was sudden and overwhelming. + +[1. "Prehistoric Times," p. 372. + +2. "The Great Ice Age," p. 466.] + +{p. 57} + +III. It fell upon land areas, much like our own in geographical +conformation; a forest-covered, inhabited land; a glorious land, +basking in perpetual summer, in the midst of a golden age. + +Let us go a step further. + +{p. 58} + + CHAPTER VIII. + + GREAT HEAT A PREREQUISITE. + +Now, it will be observed that the principal theories assigned for the +Drift go upon the hypothesis that it was produced by extraordinary +masses of ice--ice as icebergs, ice as glaciers, or ice in +continental sheets. The scientists admit that immediately preceding +this Glacial age the climate was mild and equable, and these great +formations of ice did not exist. But none of them pretend to say how +the ice came or what caused it. Even Agassiz, the great apostle of +the ice-origin of Drift, is forced to confess: + +"We have, as yet, no clew to the source of this great and _sudden_ +change of climate. Various suggestions have been made--among others, +that formerly the inclination of the earth's axis was greater, or +that a submersion of the continents under water might have produced a +decided increase of cold; but none of these explanations are +satisfactory, and science has yet to find any cause which accounts +for all the phenomena connected with it."[1] + +Some have imagined that a change in the position of the earth's axis +of rotation, due to the elevation of extensive mountain-tracts +between the poles and the equator, might have caused a degree of cold +sufficient to produce the phenomena of the Drift; but Geikie says-- + +"It has been demonstrated that the protuberance of the earth at the +equator so vastly exceeds that of any + +[1. "Geological Sketches," p. 210.] + +{p. 59} + +possible elevation of mountain-masses between the equator and the +poles, that any slight changes which may have resulted from such +geological causes could have had only an infinitesimal effect upon +the. general climate of the globe."[1] + +Let us reason together:-- + +The ice, say the glacialists, caused the Drift. What caused the ice? +Great rains and snows, they say, falling on the face of the land. +Granted. What is rain in the first instance? Vapor, clouds. Whence +are the clouds derived? From the waters of the earth, principally +from the oceans. How is the water in the clouds transferred to the +clouds from the seas? By evaporation. What is necessary to +evaporation? _Heat_. + +Here, then, is the sequence: + +If there is no heat, there is no evaporation; no evaporation, no +clouds; no clouds, no rain; no rain, no ice; no ice, no Drift. + +But, as the Glacial age meant ice on a stupendous scale, then it must +have been preceded by heat on a stupendous scale. + +Professor Tyndall asserts that the ancient glaciers indicate the +action of heat as much as cold. He says: + +"Cold will not produce glaciers. You may have the bitterest northeast +winds here in London throughout the winter without a single flake of +snow. Cold must have the fitting object to operate upon, and this +object--the aqueous vapor of the air--is the direct product of heat. +Let us put this glacier question in another form: the latent heat of +aqueous vapor, at the temperature of its production in the tropics, +is about 1,000° Fahr., for the latent heat augments as the +temperature of evaporation descends. + +A pound of water thus vaporized at the equator has absorbed one +thousand times the quantity of heat which + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 98.] + +{p. 60} + +would raise a pound of the liquid one degree in temperature. . . . It +is perfectly manifest that by weakening the sun's action, either +through a defect of emission or by the steeping of the entire solar +system in space of a low temperature, _we should be cutting off the +glaciers at their source_."[1] + +Mr. Croll says: + +"Heat, to produce _evaporation_, is just as essential to the +accumulation of snow and ice as cold to produce condensation."[2] + +Sir John Lubbock says: + +"Paradoxical as it may appear, the primary cause of the Glacial epoch +may be, after all, _an elevation of the temperature in the tropics_, +causing a greater amount of evaporation in the equatorial regions, +and consequently a greater supply of the raw material of snow in the +temperate regions during the winter months."[3] + +So necessary did it appear that heat must have come from some source +to vaporize all this vast quantity of water, that one gentleman, +Professor Frankland,[4] suggested that the ocean must have been +rendered hot by the internal fires of the earth, and thus the water +was sent up in clouds to fall in ice and snow; but Sir John Lubbock +disposes of this theory by showing that the fauna of the seas during +the Glacial period possessed an Arctic character. We can not conceive +of Greenland shells and fish and animals thriving in an ocean nearly +at the boiling-point. + +A writer in "The Popular Science Monthly"[5] says: + +"These evidences of vast accumulations of ice and snow on the borders +of the Atlantic have led some theorists + +[1. "Heat considered as a Mode of Motion," p. 192. + +2. "Climate and Time," p. 74. + +3. "Prehistoric Times," p. 401. + +4. "Philosophical Magazine," 1864, p. 328. + +5. July, 1876, p. 288.] + +{p. 61} + +to suppose that the Ice period was attended, if not in part caused, +by a far more abundant evaporation from the surface of the Atlantic +than takes place at present; and it has even been conjectured that +submarine volcanoes in the tropics might have loaded the atmosphere +with an unusual amount of moisture. This speculation seems to me, +however, both improbable and superfluous; improbable, because no +traces of any such cataclysm have been discovered, and it is more +than doubtful whether the generation of steam in the tropics, however +large the quantity, would produce glaciation of the polar regions. +The ascent of steam and heated air loaded with vapor to the altitude +of refrigeration would, as it seems to me, result in the rapid +radiation of the heat into space, and the local precipitation of +unusual quantities of rain; and the effect of such a catastrophe +would be slowly propagated and feebly felt in the Arctic and +Antarctic regions. + +When we consider the magnitude of the ice-sheets which, it is claimed +by the glacialists, covered the continents during the Drift age, it +becomes evident that a vast proportion of the waters of the ocean +must have been evaporated and carried into the air, and thence cast +down as snow and rain. Mr. Thomas Belt, in a recent number of the +"Quarterly Journal of Science," argues that the formation of +ice-sheets at the poles _must have lowered the level of the oceans of +the world two thousand-feet!_ + +The mathematician can figure it out for himself: Take the area of the +continents down to, say, latitude 40°, on both sides of the equator; +suppose this area to be covered by an ice-sheet averaging, say, two +miles in thickness; reduce this mass of ice to cubic feet of water, +and estimate what proportion of the ocean would be required to be +vaporized to create it. Calculated upon any basis, and it follows +that the level of the ocean must have been greatly lowered. + +What a vast, inconceivable accession of _heat_ to our + +{p. 62} + +atmosphere was necessary to lift this gigantic layer of ocean-water +out of its bed and into the clouds! + +The ice, then, was not the cause of the cataclysm; it was simply one +of the secondary consequences. + +We must look, then, behind the ice-age for some cause that would +prodigiously increase the _heat_ of our atmosphere, and, when we have +found _that_, we shall have discovered the cause of the +drift-deposits as well as of the ice. + +The solution of the whole stupendous problem is, therefore, heat, not +cold. + +{p. 63} + + PART II. + + The Comet. + + CHAPTER I. + + A COMET CAUSED THE DRIFT. + +Now, good reader, we have reasoned together up to this point. To be +sure, I have done most of the talking, while you have indulged in +what the Rev. Sydney Smith called, speaking of Lord Macaulay, +"brilliant flashes of silence." + +But I trust we agree thus far that neither water nor ice caused the +Drift. Water and ice were doubtless associated with it, but neither +produced it. + +What, now, are the elements of the problem to be solved? + +First, we are to find something that instantaneously increased to a +vast extent the heat of our planet, vaporized the seas, and furnished +material for deluges of rain, and great storms of snow, and +accumulations of ice north and south of the equator and in the high +mountains. + +Secondly, we are to find something that, _coming from above_, +smashed, pounded, and crushed "as with a maul," and rooted up as with +a plow, the gigantic rocks of the surface, and scattered them for +hundreds of miles from their original location. + +{p. 64} + +Thirdly, we are to find something which brought to the planet vast, +incalculable masses of clay and gravel, which did not contain any of +the earth's fossils; which, like the witches of Macbeth, + + Look not like th' inhabitants of earth, + And yet are on it; " + +which are marked after a fashion which can not be found anywhere else +on earth; produced in a laboratory which has not yet been discovered +on the planet. + +Fourthly, we are to find something that would produce cyclonic +convulsions upon a scale for which the ordinary operations of nature +furnish us no parallel. + +Fifthly, we are to find some external force so mighty that it would +crack the crust of the globe like an eggshell, lining its surface +with great rents and seams, through which the molten interior boiled +up to the light. + +Would a comet meet all these prerequisites? + +I think it would. + +Let us proceed in regular order. + +{p. 65} + + CHAPTER II. + + WHAT IS A COMET? + +IN the first place, are comets composed of solid, liquid, or gaseous +substances? Are they something, or the next thing to nothing? + +It has been supposed by some that they are made of the most +attenuated gases, so imponderable that if the earth were to pass +through one of them we would be unconscious of the contact. Others +have imagined them to be mere smoke-wreaths, faint mists, so rarefied +that the substance of one a hundred million miles long could, like +the genie in the Arabian story, be inclosed in one of Solomon's brass +bottles. + +But the results of recent researches contradict these views: + +Padre Secchi, of Rome, observed, in Donati's comet, of 1858, from the +15th to the 22d of October, that the nucleus threw out intermittingly +from itself appendages having the form of brilliant, coma-shaped +masses of incandescent substance twisted violently backward. He +accounts for these very remarkable changes of configuration by the +influence first of the sun's heat upon the comet's substance as it +approached toward perihelion, and afterward by the production in the +luminous emanations thus generated of enormous tides and perturbation +derangements. Some of the most conspicuous of these luminous +developments occurred on October 11th, when the comet was at its +nearest approach to the earth, and on + +{p. 66} + +October 17th, when it was nearest to the planet Venus. He has no +doubt that the close neighborhood of the earth and Venus at those +times was the effective cause of the sudden changes of aspect, and +that those changes of aspect may be accepted _as proof that the +comet's substance consists of "really ponderable material."_ + +Mr. Lockyer used the spectroscope to analyze the light of Coggia's +comet, and he established beyond question that-- + +"Some of the rays of the comet were sent either from _solid +particles_, or from vapor in a state of _very high condensation_, and +also that beyond doubt other portions of the comet's light issue from +the vapor _shining by its own inherent light_. The light coming from +the more dense constituents, and therefore giving a continuous +colored spectrum, was, however, deficient in blue rays, and was most +probably emitted _by material substance at the low red and yellow +stages of incandescence_." + +Padre Secchi, at Rome, believed he saw in the comet "carbon, or an +oxide of carbon, as the source of the bright luminous bands," and the +Abbé Moigno asks whether this comet may not be, after all, "_un +gigantesque diamant volatilisé_." + +"Whatever may be the answer hereafter given to that question, the +verdict of the spectroscope is clearly to the effect that the comet +is made up of a _commingling of thin vapor and of denser particles_, +either compressed into the _condition of solidification_, or into +some physical state approaching to that condition, and is therefore +entirely in accordance with the notion formed on other grounds that +the nucleus of the comet is a _cluster of solid nodules or granules_, +and that the luminous coma and tail are jets and jackets of vapor, +associated with the more dense ingredients, and _swaying and +streaming about them as heat and gravity, acting antagonistic ways, +determine_."[1] + +[1. "Edinburgh Review," October, 1874, p. 210.] + +{p. 67} + +If the comet shines by reflected light, it is pretty good evidence +that there must be some material substance there to reflect the light. + +"A considerable portion of the light of the comet is, nevertheless, +borrowed from the sun, for it has one property belonging to it that +only reflected light can manifest. It is capable of being polarized +by prisms of double-refracting spar. Polarization of this character +is _only possible_ when the light that is operated upon has already +been reflected _from an imperfectly transparent medium_."[1] + +There is considerable difference of opinion as to whether the bead of +the comet is solid matter or inflammable gas. + +"There is nearly always a point of superior brilliancy perceptible in +the comet's head, which is termed its nucleus, and it is necessarily +a matter of pressing interest to determine what this bright nucleus +is; whether it is really a kernel of hard, solid substance, or merely +a whiff of somewhat more condensed vapor. Newton, from the first, +maintained that the comet is _made partly of solid substance_, and +_partly of an investment of thin, elastic vapors_. If this is the +case, it is manifest that the central nodule of dense substance +should be capable of intercepting light when it passes in front of a +more distant luminary, such as a fixed star. Comets, on this account, +have been watched very narrowly whenever they have been making such a +passage. On August 18, 1774, the astronomer Messier believed that he +saw a second bright star _burst into sight from behind the nucleus of +a comet which had concealed it the instant before_. Another observer, +Wartmann, in the year 1828, noticed that the light of an +eighth-magnitude star was _temporarily quenched as the nucleus of +Encke's comet passed over it_."[2] + +Others, again, have held that stars have been seen through the +comet's nucleus. + +[1. "Edinburgh Review," October, 1874, p. 207. + +2. Ibid., p. 206.] + +{p. 68} + +Amédée Guillemin says: + +"Comets have been observed whose heads, instead of being nebulous, +have presented the appearance of stars, with which, indeed, they have +been confounded."[1] + +When Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Urania, he thought it +was a comet. + +Mr. Richard A. Proctor says: + +"The spectroscopic observations made by Mr. Huggins on the light of +three comets show that a certain portion, at least, of the light of +these objects _is inherent_. . . . The nucleus gave in each case +three bands of light, indicating that the substances of the nuclei +consisted of glowing vapor."[2] + +In one case, the comet-head seemed, as in the case of the, comet +examined by Padre Secchi, to consist of pure carbon. + +In the great work of Dr. H. Schellen, of Cologne, annotated by +Professor Huggins, we read: + +"That the nucleus of a comet can not be in itself a dark and solid +body, such as the planets are, is proved by its great transparency; +but this does not preclude the possibility of its consisting of +_innumerable solid particles_ separated from one another, which, when +illuminated by the sun, give, by the reflection of the solar light, +the impression of a homogeneous mass. It has, therefore, been +concluded that comets are either composed of a substance which, like +gas in a state of extreme rarefaction, is perfectly transparent, or +of _small solid particles_ individually separated by intervening +spaces through which the light of a star can pass without +obstruction, and which, held together by mutual attraction, as well +as by gravitation toward a denser central conglomeration, moves +through space _like a cloud of dust_. In any case the connection +lately noticed by Schiaparelli, between comets and meteoric + +[1. "The Heavens," p. 239. + +2. Note to Guillemin's "Heavens," p. 261.] + +{p. 69} + +showers, seems to necessitate the supposition that in many comets a +similar aggregation of particles seems to exist."[1] + +I can not better sum up the latest results of research than by giving +Dr. Schellen's words in the work just cited: + +"By collating these various phenomena, the conviction can scarcely be +resisted that the nuclei of comets not only emit their own light, +which is that of a glowing gas, but also, together with the coma and +the tail, reflect the light of the sun. There seems nothing, +therefore, to contradict the theory that the mass of a comet may be +composed of _minute solid bodies_, kept apart one from another in the +same way as the infinitesimal particles forming a cloud of dust or +smoke are held loosely together, and that, as the comet approaches +the sun, the most easily fusible constituents of these small bodies +become wholly or partially vaporized, and in a condition of _white +heat_ overtake the remaining solid particles, and surround the +nucleus in a self-luminous cloud of glowing vapor."[2] + +Here, then, we have the comet: + +First, a more or less solid nucleus, on fire, blazing, glowing. + +Second, vast masses of gas heated to a white heat and enveloping the +nucleus, and constituting the luminous head, which was in one case +fifty times as large as the moon. + +Third, solid materials, constituting the tail (possibly the nucleus +also), which are ponderable, which reflect the sun's light, and are +carried along under the influence of the nucleus of the comet. + +Fourth, possibly in the rear of all these, attenuated volumes of gas, +prolonging the tail for great distances. + +What are these solid materials? + +[1. "Spectrum Analysis," 1872. + +2. Ibid., p. 402.] + +{p. 70} + +Stones, and sand, the finely comminuted particles of stones ground +off by ceaseless attrition. + +What is the proof of this? + +Simply this: that it is now conceded that meteoric showers are shreds +and patches of cometic matter, dropped from the tail; _and meteoric +showers are stones_. + +"Schiaparelli considers meteors to be dispersed portions of the +comet's original substance; that is, of the substance with which the +comet entered the solar domain. Thus comets would come to be regarded +as consisting of _a multitude of relatively minute masses_."[1] + +Now, what is the genesis of a comet? How did it come to be? How was +it born? + +In the first place, there are many things which would connect them +with our planets. + +They belong to the solar system; they revolve around the sun. + +Says Amédée Guillemin: + +"Comets form a part of our solar system. Like the. planets, they +revolve about the sun, traversing with very variable velocities +extremely elongated orbits."[2] + +We shall see reason to believe that they contain the same kinds of +substances of which the planets are composed. + +Their orbits seem to be reminiscences of former planetary conditions: + +"All the comets, having a period not exceeding seven years, travel in +the same direction around the sun as the planets. Among comets with +periods less than eighty years long, five sixths travel in the same +direction as the planets."[3] + +[1. "American Cyclopædia," vol. v, p. 141. + +2. "The Heavens," p. 239. + +3. American Cyclopedia," vol. v, p. 141.] + +{p. 71} + +It is agreed that this globe of ours was at first a gaseous mass; as +it cooled it condensed like cooling steam into a liquid mass; it +became in time a molten globe of red-hot matter. As it cooled still +further, a crust or shell formed around it, like the shell formed on +an egg, and on this crust we dwell. + +While the crust is still plastic it shrinks as the mass within grows +smaller by further cooling, and the wrinkles so formed in the crust +are the depths of the ocean and the elevations of the mountain-chains. + +But as ages go on and the process of cooling progresses, the crust +reaches a density when it supports itself, like a couple of great +arches; it no longer wrinkles; it no longer follows downward the +receding molten mass within; mountains cease to be formed; and at +length we have a red-hot ball revolving in a shell or crust, with a +space between the two, like the space between the dried and shrunken +kernel of the nut and the nut itself. + +Volcanoes are always found on sea-shores or on islands. Why? Through +breaks in the earth the sea-water finds its way occasionally down +upon the breast of the molten mass; it is at once converted into gas, +steam; and as it expands it blows itself out through the escape-pipe +of the volcano; precisely as the gas formed by the gunpowder coming +in contact with the fire of the percussion-cap, drives the ball out +before it through the same passage by which it had entered. Hence, +some one has said, "No water, no volcano." + +While the amount of water which so enters is small because of the +smallness of the cavity between the shell of the earth and the molten +globe within, this process is carried on upon a comparatively small +scale, and is a safe one for the earth. But suppose the process of +cooling to go on uninterruptedly until a vast space exists between the + +{p. 72} + +crust and the core of the earth, and that some day a convulsion of +the surface creates a great chasm in the crust, and the ocean rushes +in and fills up part of the cavity; a tremendous quantity of steam is +formed, too great to escape by the aperture through which it entered, +an explosion takes place, and the crust of the earth is blown into a +million fragments. + +The great molten ball within remains intact, though sorely torn; in +its center is still the force we call gravity; the fragments of the +crust can not fly off into space; they are constrained to follow the +master-power lodged in the ball, which now becomes the nucleus of a +comet, still blazing and burning, and vomiting flames, and wearing +itself away. The catastrophe has disarranged its course, but it still +revolves in a prolonged orbit around the sun, carrying its broken +_débris_ in a long trail behind it. + +This _débris_ arranges itself in a regular order: the largest +fragments are on or nearest the head; the smaller are farther away, +diminishing in regular gradation, until the farthest extremity, the +tail, consists of sand, dust, and gases. There is a continual +movement of the particles of the tail, operated upon by the +attraction and repulsion of the sun. The fragments collide and crash +against each other; by a natural law each stone places itself so that +its longest diameter coincides with the direction of the motion of +the comet; hence, as they scrape against each other they mark each +other with lines or _striæ_, lengthwise of their longest diameter. +The fine dust ground out by these perpetual collisions does not go +off into space, or pack around the stones, but, still governed by the +attraction of the head, it falls to the rear and takes its place, +like the small men of a regiment, in the farther part of the tail. + +Now, all this agrees with what science tells us of the constitution +of clay. + +{p. 73} + +"It is a finely levigated silico-aluminous earth--formed by the +disintegration of feldspathic or granite rocks."[1] + +The particles ground out of feldspar are finer than those derived +from mica and hornblende, and we can readily understand how the great +forces of gravity, acting upon the dust of the comet's tail, might +separate one from the other; or how magnetic waves passing through +the comet might arrange all the particles containing iron by +themselves, and thus produce that marvelous separation of the +constituents of the granite which we have found to exist in the Drift +clays. If the destroyed world possessed no sedimentary rocks, then +the entire material of the comet would consist of granitic stones and +dust such as constitutes clays. + +The stones are reduced to a small size by the constant attrition: + +"The stones of the 'till' are not of the largest; indeed, bowlders +above four feet in diameter are comparatively seldom met with in the +till."[2] + +And this theory is corroborated by the fact that the eminent German +geologist, Dr. Hahn, has recently discovered an entire series of +organic remains in meteoric stones, of the class called _chrondites_, +and which he identifies as belonging to classes of sponges, corals, +and crinoids. Dr. Weinland, another distinguished German, +corroborates these discoveries; and he has also found fragments in +these stones very much like the youngest marine chalk in the Gulf of +Mexico; and he thinks he sees, under the microscope, traces of +vegetable growth. Francis Birgham says: + +[1. "American Cyclopædia," article "Clay." + +2. "The Great Ice Age," p. 10.] + +{p. 74} + +"This entire ex-terrestrial fauna hitherto discovered, which already +comprises about fifty different species, and which originates from +different meteoric falls, even from some during the last century, +conveys the impression that it doubtlessly once formed part of _a +single ex-terrestrial-celestial body_ with a unique creation, which +in by-gone ages seems to have been overtaken by a grand catastrophe, +during which it was broken up into fragments."[1] + +When we remember that meteors are now generally believed to be the +droppings of comets, we come very near to proof of the supposition +that comets are the _débris_ of exploded planets; for only on planets +can we suppose that life existed, for there was required, for the +growth of these sponges, corals, and crinoids, rocks, earth, water, +seas or lakes, atmosphere, sunshine, and a range of temperature +between the degree of cold where life is frozen up and the degree of +heat in which it is burned up: hence, these meteors must be fragments +of bodies possessing earth-like conditions. + +We know that the heavenly bodies are formed of the same materials as +our globe. + +Dana says: + +"Meteoric stones exemplify the same chemical and crystallographic +laws as the rocks of the earth, and have afforded no new element or +principle of any kind."[2] + +It may be presumed, therefore, that the granite crust of the exploded +globe from which some comet was created was the source of the finely +triturated material which we know as clay. + +But the clays are of different colors--white, yellow, red, and blue. + +[1. "Popular Science Monthly," November, 1881, p. 86. + +2. "Manual of Geology," p. 3.] + +{p. 75} + +"The aluminous minerals contained in granite rocks are feldspar, +mica, and hornblende. . . . Mica and hornblende generally contain +considerable oxide of iron, while feldspar usually yields only a +trace or none. Therefore clays which are derived from feldspar are +light-colored or white, while those partially made up of decomposed +mica or hornblende are dark, either bluish or red."[1] + +The tail of the comet seems to be perpetually in motion. It is, says +one writer, "continually _changing and fluctuating_ as vaporous +masses of cloud-like structure might be conceived to do, and in some +instances there has been a strong appearance even of an _undulating +movement_."[2] + +The great comet of 1858, Donati's comet, which many now living will +well remember, and which was of such size that when its head was near +our horizon the extremity of the tail reached nearly to the zenith, +illustrated this continual movement of the material of the tail; that +appendage shrank and enlarged millions of miles in length. + +Mr. Lockyer believed that he saw in Coggia's comet the evidences of a +_whirling_ motion-- + +"In which the regions of greatest brightness were caused by the +different coils _cutting_, or appearing to cut, each other, and so in +these parts leading to compression or condensation, and _frequent +collision of the luminous particles_." + +Olbers saw in a comet's tail-- + +"A sudden flash and pulsation of light which vibrated for several +seconds through it, and the tail appeared during the continuance of +the pulsations of light to be lengthened by several degrees and then +again contracted."[1] + +[1. "American Cyclopædia," article "Clay." + +2. "Edinburgh Review," October, 1874, p. 208, + +3, "Cosmos," vol. i, p. 143.] + +{p. 76} + +Now, in this perpetual motion, this conflict, these great thrills of +movement, we are to find the source of the clays which cover a large +part of our globe to a depth of hundreds of feet. Where are those +exposures of granite on the face of the earth from which ice or water +could have ground them? Granite, I repeat, comes to the surface only +in limited areas. And it must be remembered that clay is the product +exclusively of granite ground to powder. The clays are composed +exclusively of the products of disintegrated granite. They contain +but a trace of lime or magnesia or organic matters, and these can be +supposed to have been infiltrated into them after their arrival on +the face of the earth.[1] Other kinds of rock, ground up, form sand. +Moreover, we have seen that neither glaciers nor ice-sheets now +produce such clays. + +We shall see, as we proceed, that the legends of mankind, in +describing the comet that struck the earth, represent it as +party-colored; it is "speckled" in one legend; spotted like a tiger +in another; sometimes it is a _white_ boar in the heavens; sometimes +a _blue_ snake; sometimes it is _red_ with the blood of the millions +that are to perish. Doubtless these separate formations, ground out +of the granite, from the mica, hornblende, or feldspar, respectively, +may, as I have said, under great laws, acted upon by magnetism or +electricity, have arranged themselves in separate lines or sheets, in +the tail of the comet, and hence we find that the clays of one region +are of one color, while those of another are of a different hue. +Again, we shall see that the legends represent the monster as +"winding," undulating, writhing, twisting, fold over fold, precisely +as the telescopes show us the comets do to-day. + +[1. "American Cyclopædia," vol. iv, p. 650.] + +{p. 77} + +The very fact that these waves of motion run through the tail of the +comet, and that it is capable of expanding and contracting on an +immense scale, is conclusive proof that it is composed of small, +adjustable particles. The writer from whom I have already quoted, +speaking of the extraordinary comet of 1843, says: + +"As the comet moves past the great luminary, it sweeps round its tail +as a sword may be conceived to be held out at arm's-length, and then +waved round the head, from one side to the opposite. But a sword with +a blade one hundred and fifty millions of miles long must be a +somewhat awkward weapon to brandish round after this fashion. Its +point would have to sweep through a curve stretching out more than +six hundred millions of miles; and, even with an allowance of two +hours for the accomplishment of the movement, the flash of the weapon +would be of such terrific velocity that it is not an easy task to +conceive how any blade of _connected material substance_ could bear +the strain of the stroke. Even with a blade that possessed the +coherence and tenacity of iron or steel, the case would be one that +it would be difficult for molecular cohesion to deal with. But that +difficulty is almost infinitely increased when it is a substance of +much lower cohesive tenacity than either iron or steel that has to be +subjected to the strain. + +"There would be, at least, some mitigation of this difficulty if it +were lawful to assume that the substance which is subjected to this +strain was not amenable to the laws of ponderable existence; if there +were room for the notion that comets and their tails, which have to +be brandished in such a stupendous fashion, were sky-spectres, +immaterial phantoms, unreal visions of that negative shadow-kind +which has been alluded to. This, however, unfortunately, is not a +permissible alternative in the circumstances of the case. The great +underlying and indispensable fact that the comet comes rushing up +toward the sun out of space, and then shoots round that great center +of attraction by the force of its own acquired and ever-increasing +impetuosity; the fact that it is obedient + +{p. 78} + +through this course to the law of elliptical, or, to speak more +exactly, of conic-section, movement, _permits of no doubt as to the +condition of materiality_. The comet is obviously drawn by the +influence of the sun's mass, and is subservient to that all-pervading +law of sympathetic gravitation that is the sustaining bond of the +material universe. _It is ponderable substance beyond all question_, +and held by that chain of physical connection which it was the glory +of Newton to discover. If the comet were not a material and +ponderable substance it would not gravitate round the sun, and it +would not move with increasing velocity as it neared the mighty mass +until it had gathered the energy for its own escape in the enhanced +and quickened momentum. In the first instance, the ready obedience to +the attraction, and then the overshooting of the spot from which it +is exerted, combine to establish the comet's right to stand ranked at +least among the ponderable bodies of space."[1] + +And it is to the comet we must look for the source of a great part of +those vast deposits of gravel which go to constitute the Drift. + +"They have been usually attributed to the action of waves; but the +mechanical work of the ocean is mostly confined to its shores and +soundings, where alone material exists in quantity within reach of +the waves and currents.[2] . . . The eroding action is greatest for a +short distance above the height of half-tide, and, except in violent +storms, it is almost null below low-tide."[3] + +But if any one will examine a sea-beach he will see, not a vast mass +of pebbles perpetually rolling and grinding each other, but an +expanse of sand. And this is to be expected; for as soon as a part of +the pebbles is, by the attrition of the waves, reduced to sand, the +sand packs around the stones and arrests their further waste. To form +such a mass of gravel as is found in the Drift we + +[1. "Edinburgh Review," October, 1874, p. 202. + +2. Dana's "Text Book," p. 286. + +3. Ibid., p. 287.] + +{p. 79} + +must conceive of some way whereby, as soon as the sand is formed, it +is removed from the stones while the work of attrition goes on. This +process we can conceive of in a comet, if the finer _detritus_ is +constantly carried back and arranged in the order of the size of its +particles. + +To illustrate my meaning: let one place any hard substance, +consisting of large fragments, in a mortar, and proceed to reduce it +with a pestle to a fine powder. The work proceeds rapidly at first, +until a portion of the material is triturated; you then find that the +pulverized part has packed around and protected the larger fragments, +and the work is brought to a stand-still. You have to remove the +finer material if you would crush the pieces that remain. + +The sea does not separate the sand from the gravel; it places all +together at elevations where the waves can not reach them: + +"Waves or shallow soundings have some transporting power; and, as +they always move toward the land, their action is landward. They thus +beat back, little by little, any _detritus_ in the waters, preventing +that loss to continents or islands which would take place if it were +carried out to sea."[1] + +The pebbles and gravel are soon driven by the waves up the shore, and +beyond the reach of further wear;[2] and "_the rivers carry only silt +to the ocean_."[3] + +The brooks and rivers produce much more gravel than the sea-shore: + +"The _detritus_ brought down by rivers is vastly greater in quantity +than the stones, sand, or clay produced by the wear of the coasts."[4] + +[1. Dana's "Text Book," p. 288. + +2. Ibid., p. 291. + +3. Ibid., p. 302. + +4. Ibid., p. 290.] + +{p. 80} + +But it would be absurd to suppose that the beds of rivers could have +furnished the immeasurable volumes of gravel found over a great part +of the world in the drift-deposits. + +And the drift-gravel is different from the gravel of the sea or +rivers. + +Geikie says, speaking of the "till": + +"There is something very peculiar about the shape of the stones. They +are neither round and oval, like the pebbles in river-gravel, or the +shingle of the sea-shore, nor are they sharply angular like +newly-fallen _débris_ at the base of a cliff, although they more +closely resemble the latter than the former. They are, indeed, +angular in shape, but the sharp corners and edges have _invariably +been smoothed away_. . . . Their shape, as will be seen, is by no +means their most striking peculiarity. Each is smoothed, polished, +and covered with striæ or scratches, some of which are delicate as +the lines traced by an etching-needle, others deep and harsh as the +scores made by the plow upon a rock. And, what is worthy of note, +most of the scratches, coarse and fine together, seem to run parallel +to the longer diameter of the stones, which, however, are scratched +in many other directions as well."[1] + +Let me again summarize: + +I. Comets consist of a blazing nucleus and a mass of ponderable, +separated matter, such as stones, gravel, clay-dust, and gas. + +II. The nucleus gives out great heat and masses of burning gas. + +III. Luminous gases surround the nucleus. + +IV. The drift-clays are the result of the grinding up of granitic +rocks. + +V. No such deposits, of anything like equal magnitude, could have +been formed on the earth. + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 13.] + +{p. 81} + +VI. No such clays are now being formed under glaciers or Arctic +ice-sheets. + +VII. These clays were ground out of the substance of the comet by the +endless changes of position of the material of which it is composed +as it flew through space, during its incalculable journeys in the +long reaches of time. + +VIII. The earth-supplies of gravel are inadequate to account for the +gravel of the drift-deposits. + +IX. Neither sea-beach nor rivers produce stones like those found in +the Drift. + +I pass now to the next question. + +{p. 82} + + CHAPTER III. + + COULD A COMET STRIKE THE EARTH? + +READER, the evidence I am about to present will satisfy you, not only +that a comet might have struck the earth in the remote past, but, +that the marvel is that the earth escapes collision for a single +century, I had almost said for a single year. + +How many comets do you suppose there are within the limits of the +solar system (and remember that the solar system occupies but an +insignificant portion of universal space)? + +Half a dozen-fifty-a hundred-you will answer. + +Let us put the astronomers on the witness-stand: + +Kepler affirmed that "COMETS ARE SCATTERED THROUGH THE HEAVENS WITH +AS MUCH PROFUSION AS FISHES IN THE OCEAN." + +Think of that! + +"Three or four telescopic comets are now entered upon astronomical +records every year. Lalande had a list of seven hundred comets that +had been observed in his time." + +Arago estimated that the comets belonging to the solar system, within +the orbit of Neptune, numbered _seventeen million five hundred +thousand!_ + +Lambert regards _five hundred millions_ as a very moderate +estimate![1] + +[1. Guillemin, "The Heavens," p. 251.] + +{p. 83} + +And this does not include the monstrous fiery wanderers who may come +to visit us, bringing their relations + + ### + + ORBITS OF THE PERIODIC COMETS. + +along, from outside the solar system--a sort of celestial immigrants +whom no anti-Chinese legislation can keep away. + +Says Guillemin: + +"Leaving mere re-appearances out of the question, _new comets are +constantly found to arrive from the depths of space_, describing +around the sun orbits which testify to the attractive power of that +radiant body; and, for the + +{p. 84} + +most part, going away for centuries, to return again from afar after +their immense revolutions."[1] + +But do these comets come anywhere near the orbit of the earth? + +Look at the map on the preceding page, from Amédée Guillemin's great +work, "The Heavens," page 244, and you can answer the question for +yourself. + +Here you see the orbit of the earth overwhelmed in a complication of +comet-orbits. The earth, here, is like a lost child in the midst of a +forest full of wild beasts. + +And this diagram represents the orbits of only six comets out of +those seventeen millions or five hundred millions! + +It is a celestial game of ten-pins, with the solar system for a +bowling-alley, and the earth waiting for a ten-strike. + +In 1832 the earth and Biela's comet, as I will show more particularly +hereafter, were both making for the same spot, moving with celestial +rapidity, but the comet reached the point of junction one month +before the earth did; and, as the comet was not polite enough to wait +for us to come up, this generation missed a revelation. + +"In the year 1779 Lexell's comet approached so near to the earth that +it would have increased the length of the sidereal year by three +hours if its mass had been equal to the earth's."[2] + +And this same comet did strike our fellow-planet, Jupiter. + +[1. "The Heavens," p. 251. + +2. "Edinburgh Review," October, 1874, p. 205.] + +{p. 85} + +In the years 1767 and 1779 Lexell's comet passed though the midst of +Jupiter's satellites, and became entangled temporarily among them. +But not one of the satellites altered its movements to the extent of +a hair's breadth, or of a tenth of an instant."[1] + +But it must be remembered that we had no glasses then, and have none +now, that could tell us what were the effects of this visitation upon +the surface of Jupiter or its moons. The comet might have covered +Jupiter one hundred feet--yes, one hundred miles--thick with gravel +and clay, and formed clouds of its seas five miles in thickness, +without our knowing anything about it. Even our best telescopes can +only perceive on the moon's surface--which is, comparatively +speaking, but a few miles distant from us--objects of very great +size, while Jupiter is sixteen hundred times farther away from us +than the moon. + +But it is known that Lexell's comet was very much demoralized by +Jupiter. It first came within the influence of that planet in 1767; +it lost its original orbit, and went bobbing around Jupiter until +1779, when it became entangled with Jupiter's moons, and then it lost +its orbit again, and was whisked off into infinite space, never more, +perhaps, to be seen by human eyes. Is it not reasonable to suppose +that an event which thus demoralized the comet may have caused it to +cast down a considerable part of its material on the face of Jupiter? + +Encke's comet revolves around the sun in the short period of twelve +hundred and five days, and, strange to say-- + +"The period of its revolution is _constantly diminishing_; so that, +if this progressive diminution always follows the same rate, _the +time when the comet_, continually + +[1. "Edinburgh Review," October, 1874, p. 205.] + +{p. 86} + +describing a spiral, _will be plunged into the incandescent mass of +the sun can be calculated_."[1] + +The comet of 1874, first seen by Coggia, at Marseilles, and called by +his name, came between the earth and the sun, and _approached within +sixty thousand miles of the flaming surface of the sun_. It traveled +through this fierce blaze at the rate of _three hundred and sixty-six +miles per second!_ Three hundred and sixty-six miles _per second!_ +When a railroad-train moves at the rate of a mile per minute, we +regard it as extraordinary speed; but three hundred and sixty-six +miles _per second!_ The mind fails to grasp it. + +When this comet was seen by Sir John Herschel, after it had made its +grand sweep around the sun, it was not more than _six times the +breadth of the sun's face away from the sun_. And it had come +careering through infinite space with awful velocity to this close +approximation to our great luminary. + +And remember that these comets are no animalculæ. They are monsters +that would reach from the sun to the earth. And when we say that they +come so close to the sun as in the above instances, it means peril to +the earth by direct contact; to say nothing of the results to our +planet by the increased combustion of the run, and the increased heat +on earth should one of them fall upon the sun. We have seen, in the +last chapter, that the great comet of 1843 possessed a tail one +hundred and fifty million miles long; that is, it would reach from +the sun to the earth, and have over fifty million miles of tail to +spare; and it swept this gigantic appendage around in two hours, +describing the are of a circle _six hundred million miles long!_ + +[1. Guillemin, "The Heavens," p. 247.] + +{p. 87} + +The mind fails to grasp these figures. Solar space is hardly large +enough for such gyrations. + +And it must be remembered that this enormous creature actually +_grazed the surface of the sun_. + +And it is supposed that this monster of 1843, which was first seen in +1668, returned, and was seen in the southern hemisphere in 1880--that +is to say, it came back in thirty-seven years instead of one hundred +and seventy-five years. Whereupon Mr. Proctor remarked: + +"If already the comet experiences such resistance in passing through +the corona when at its nearest to the sun that its period undergoes a +marked diminution, the effect must of necessity be increased at each +return, and after only a few, possibly one or two, circuits, the +comet will be absorbed by the sun." + +On October 10, 1880, Lewis Swift, of Rochester, New York, discovered +a comet which has proved to be of peculiar interest. From its first +discovery it has presented no brilliancy of appearance, for, during +its period of visibility, a telescope of considerable power was +necessary to observe it. Since this comet, when in close proximity to +the earth, was very faint indeed, its dimensions must be quite +moderate. + +The illustration on page 88 gives the orbit of the earth and the +orbit of this comet, and shows how closely they approached each +other; when at its nearest, the comet was only distant from the earth +0.13 of the distance of the earth from the sun. + +It comes back in eleven years, or in 1891. + +On the 22d of June, 1881, a comet of great brilliancy flashed +suddenly into view. It was unexpected, and advanced with tremendous +rapidity. The illustration on page 89 will show how its flight +intersected the orbit of the earth. At its nearest point, June 19th, +it was distant + +{p. 88} + +from the earth only 0.28 of the distance of the sun from the earth. + +Now, it is to be remembered that great attention has been paid during +the past few years to searching for comets, and some of the results +are here given. As many as five were discovered during the year 1881. +But not + + ### + + ORBIT OF EARTH AND COMET + +a few of the greatest of these strange orbs require thousands of +years to complete their orbits. The period of the comet of July, +1844, has been estimated at not less than one hundred thousand years! + +Some of those that have flashed into sight recently have been +comparatively small, and their contact with + +{p. 89} + + ### + + THE EARTH'S ORBIT + +the earth might produce but trifling results. Others, again, are +constructed on an extraordinary scale; but even the largest of these +may be but children compared with the monsters that wander through +space on orbits + +{p. 90} + +that penetrate the remotest regions of the solar system, and even +beyond it. + +When we consider the millions of comets around us, and when we +remember how near some of these have come to us during the last few +years, who will undertake to say that during the last thirty +thousand, fifty thousand, or one hundred thousand years, one of these +erratic luminaries, with blazing front and train of _débris_, may not +have come in collision with the earth? + +{p. 91} + + CHAPTER IV. + + THE CONSEQUENCES TO THE EARTH. + +IN this chapter I shall try to show what effect the contact of a +comet must have had upon the earth and its inhabitants. + +I shall ask the reader to follow the argument closely first, that he +may see whether any part of the theory is inconsistent with the +well-established principles of natural philosophy; and, secondly, +that he may bear the several steps in his memory, as he will find, as +we proceed, that _every detail of the mighty catastrophe has been +preserved in the legends of mankind_, and precisely in the order in +which reason tells us they must have occurred. + +In the first place, it is, of course, impossible at this time to say +precisely how the contact took place; whether the head of the comet +fell into or approached close to the sun, like the comet of 1843, and +then swung its mighty tail, hundreds of millions of miles in length, +moving at a rate almost equal to the velocity of light, around +through a great are, and swept past the earth;--the earth, as it +were, going through the midst of the tail, which would extend for a +vast distance beyond and around it. In this movement, the side of the +earth, facing the advance of the tail, would receive and intercept +the mass of material--stones, gravel, and the finely-ground-up-dust +which, compacted by water, is now clay--which came in contact with +it, while the comet would sail off into space, + +{p. 92} + +demoralized, perhaps, in its orbit, like Lexell's comet when it +became entangled with Jupiter's moons, but shorn of a comparatively +small portion of its substance. + +The following engraving will illustrate my meaning. I can not give, +even approximately, the proportions of the + + ### + + THE COMET SWEEPING PAST THE EARTH. + +objects represented, and thus show the immensity of the sun as +compared with our insignificant little orb. In a picture showing the +true proportions of the sun and earth, the sun would have to be so +large that it would take up the entire page, while the earth would be +but as a + +{p. 93} + + ### + + THE SIDE OF THE EARTH STRUCK BY THE COMET {left} + + THE SIDE NOT STRUCK BY THE COMET {right} + +{p. 94} + +pin-head. And I have not drawn the comet on a scale large enough as +compared with the earth. + +If the reader will examine the map on page 93, he will see that the +distribution of the Drift accords with this theory. If we suppose the +side of the earth shown in the left-hand figure was presented to the +comet, we will see why the Drift is supposed to be confined to +Europe, Africa, and parts of America; while the right-hand figure +will show the half of the world that escaped. + +"The breadth of the tail of the great comet of 1811, at its widest +part, was nearly fourteen million miles, the length one hundred and +sixteen million miles, and that of the second comet of the same year, +one hundred and forty million miles."[1] + +On page 95 is a representation of this monster. + +Imagine such a creature as that, with a head _fifty times as large as +the moon_, and a tail one hundred and sixteen million miles long, +rushing past this poor little earth of ours, with its diameter of +only seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-five miles! The earth, +seven thousand nine hundred and twenty-five miles wide, would simply +make a bullet-hole through that tail, fourteen million miles broad, +where it passed through it!--a mere eyelet-hole--a pin-hole--closed +up at once by the constant movements which take place in the tail of +the comet. And yet in that moment of contact the side of the earth +facing the comet might be covered with hundreds of feet of _débris_. + +Or, on the other hand, the comet may, as described in some of the +legends, have struck the earth, head on, amid-ships, and the shock +may have changed the angle of inclination of the earth's axis, and +thus have modified + +[1. Schellen, "Spectrum Analysis," p. 392.] + +{p. 95} + +permanently the climate of our globe; and to this cause we might look +also for the great cracks and breaks in the earth's surface, which +constitute the fiords of the sea-coast and the trap-extrusions of the +continents; and here, too, + + ### + + THE GREAT COMET OF 1811. + +might be the cause of those mighty excavations, hundreds of feet +deep, in which are now the Great Lakes of America, and from which, as +we have seen, great cracks radiate out in all directions, like the +fractures in a pane of glass where a stone has struck it. + +The cavities in which rest the Great Lakes have been attributed to +the ice-sheet, but it is difficult to comprehend how an ice-sheet +could dig out and root out a hole, as in the case of Lake Superior, +_nine hundred feet deep!_ + +{p. 96} + +And, if it did this, why were not similar holes excavated wherever +there were ice-sheets--to wit, all over the northern and southern +portions of the globe? Why should a general cause produce only local +results? + +Sir Charles Lyell shows[1] that glaciers do not cut out holes like +the depressions in which the Great Lakes lie; he also shows that +these lakes are not due to a sinking down of the crust of the earth, +because the strata are continuous and unbroken beneath them. He also +calls attention to the fact that there is a continuous belt of such +lakes, reaching from the northwestern part of the United States, +through the Hudson Bay Territory, Canada, and Maine, to Finland, and +that this belt does not reach below 50° north latitude in Europe and +40° in America. Do these lie in the track of the great collision? The +comet, as the striæ indicate, came from the north. + +The mass of Donati's comet was estimated by MM. Faye and Roche at +about the seven-hundredth part of the bulk of the earth. M. Faye says: + +"That is the weight of a sea of forty thousand square miles one +hundred and nine yards deep; and it must be owned that a like mass, +animated with considerable velocity, might well produce, by its shock +with the earth, very perceptible results."[2] + +We have but to suppose, (a not unreasonable supposition,) that the +comet which struck the earth was much larger than Donati's comet, and +we have the means of accounting for results as prodigious as those +referred to. + +We have seen that it is difficult to suppose that ice produced the +drift-deposits, because they are not found where ice certainly was, +and they are found where ice certainly was not. But, if the reader +will turn to the + +[1. "Elements of Geology," pp. 168,171, _et seq_. + +2. "The Heavens," p. 260.] + +{p. 97} + +illustration which constitutes the frontispiece of this volume, and +the foregoing engraving on page 93, he will see that the Drift is +deposited on the earth, as it might have been if it had suddenly +fallen from the heavens; that is, it is on one side of the globe--to +wit, the side that faced the comet as it came on. I think this map is +substantially accurate. There is, however, an absence of authorities +as to the details of the drift-distribution. But, if my theory is +correct, the Drift probably fell at once. If it had been twenty-four +hours in falling, the diurnal revolution would, in turn, have +presented all sides of the earth to it, and the Drift would be found +everywhere. And this is in accordance with what we know of the rapid +movements of comets. They travel, as I have shown, at the rate of +three hundred and sixty-six miles per second; this is equal to +twenty-one thousand six hundred miles per minute, and one million two +hundred and ninety-six thousand miles per hour! + +And this accords with what we know of the deposition of the Drift. It +came with terrific force. It smashed the rocks; it tore them up; it +rolled them over on one another; it drove its material _into_ the +underlying rocks; "it _indented it_ into them," says one authority, +already quoted. + +It was accompanied by inconceivable winds--the hurricanes and +cyclones spoken of in many of the legends. Hence we find the loose +material of the original surface gathered up and carried into the +drift-material proper; hence the Drift is whirled about in the +wildest confusion. Hence it fell on the earth like a great snow-storm +driven by the wind. It drifted into all hollows; it was not so thick +on, or it was entirely absent from, the tops of hills; it formed +tails, precisely as snow does, on the leeward side of all +obstructions. Glacier-ice is slow and plastic, + +{p. 98} + +and folds around such impediments, and wears them away; the wind does +not. Compare the following representation of a well-known feature of +the Drift, called + + ### + + CRAG AND TAIL.--_c_, crag; _t_, till. + +"crag and tail," taken from Geikie's work,[1] with the drifts formed +by snow on the leeward side of fences or houses. + +The material runs in streaks, just as if blown by violent winds: + +"When cut through by rivers, or denuded by the action of the sea, +_ridges_ of bowlders are often seen to be inclosed within it. +Although destitute of stratification, horizontal lines are found, +indicating differences in texture and color."[2] + +Geikie, describing the bowlder-clay, says: + +"It seems to have come from regions whence it is bard to see how they +could have been borne by glaciers. As a rule it is quite +unstratified, but traces of bedding are not uncommon." + +"Sometimes it contains worn fossils, and fragments of shells, broken, +crushed, and striated; sometimes it contains bands of stones arranged +in lines." + +In short, it appears as if it were gusts and great whirls of the same +material as the "till," lifted up by the cyclones and mingled with +blocks, rocks, bones, sands, fossils, earth, peat, and other matters, +picked up with terrible + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 18. + +2. "American Cyclopædia," vol. vi, p. 112.] + +{p. 99} + +force from the face of the earth and poured down pell-mell on top of +the first deposit of true "till." + +In England ninety-four per cent of these stones found in this +bowlder-clay are "stranger" stones; that is to say, they do not +belong to the drainage area in which they are found, but must have +been carried there from great distances. + +But how about the markings, the _striæ_, on the face of the +surface-rocks below the Drift? The answer is plain. _Débris_, moving +at the rate of a million miles an hour, would produce just such +markings. + +Dana says: + +"The sands carried by the winds when passing over rocks sometimes +_wear them smooth_, or cover them with _scratches and furrows_, as +observed by W. P. Blake on granite rocks at the Pass of San +Bernardino, in California. Even quartz was polished and garnets were +left projecting upon pedicels of feldspar. Limestone was so much worn +as to look as if the surface had been removed by solution. Similar +effects have been observed by Winchell in the Grand Traverse region, +Michigan. Glass in the windows of houses on Cape Cod sometimes has +holes worn through it by the same means. The hint from nature has led +to the use of sand, driven by a blast, with or without steam, for +cutting and engraving glass, and even for cutting and carving granite +and other hard rocks."[1] + +Gratacap describes the rock underneath the "till" as polished and +oftentimes lustrous."[2] + +But, it may be said, if it be true that _débris_, driven by a +terrible force, could have scratched and dented the rocks, could it +have made long, continuous lines and grooves upon them? But the fact +is, the _striæ_ on the face of the rocks covered by the Drift are +_not_ continuous; + +[1. Dana's "Text-Book," p. 275. + +2. "Popular Science Monthly," January, 1878, p. 320.] + +{p. 100} + +they do not indicate a steady and constant pressure, such as would +result where a mountainous mass of ice had caught a rock and held it, +as it were, in its mighty hand, and, thus holding it steadily, had +scored the rocks with it as it moved forward. + +"The groove is of irregular depth, its floor rising and falling, as +though hitches had occurred when it was first planed, the great +chisel meeting resistance, or being thrown up at points along its +path."[1] + +What other results would follow at once from contact with the comet? + +We have seen that, to produce the phenomena of the Glacial age, it +was absolutely necessary that it must have been preceded by a period +of heat, great enough to vaporize all the streams and lakes and a +large part of the ocean. And we have seen that no mere ice-hypothesis +gives us any clew to the cause of this. + +Would the comet furnish us with such heat? Let me call another +witness to the stand: + +In the great work of Amédée Guillemin, already cited, we read: + +"On the other hand, it seems proved that the light of the comets is, +in part, at least, borrowed from the sun. But may they not also +possess a light of their own? And, on this last hypothesis, is this +brightness owing to a kind of phosphorescence, or to the state of +incandescence of the nucleus? Truly, if the nuclei of comets be +incandescent, the smallness of their mass would eliminate from the +danger of their contact with the earth only one element of +destruction: _the temperature of the terrestrial atmosphere would be +raised to an elevation inimical to the existence of organized +beings_; and we should only escape the danger of a mechanical shock, +to run into a not less frightful + +[1. Gratacap, "The Ice Age," in "Popular Science Monthly," January, +1818, p. 321.] + +{p. 101} + +one of being _calcined in a many days passage through an immense +furnace_."[1] + +Here we have a good deal more heat than is necessary to account for +that vaporization of the seas of the globe which seems to have taken +place during the Drift Age. + +But similar effects might be produced, in another way, even though +the heat of the comet itself was inconsiderable. + +Suppose the comet, or a large part of it, to have fallen into the +sun. The arrested motion would be converted into heat. The material +would feed the combustion of the sun. Some have theorized that the +sun is maintained by the fall of cometic matter into it. What would +be the result? + +Mr. Proctor notes that in 1866 a star, in the constellation Northern +Cross, suddenly shone with _eight hundred times its former luster_, +afterward rapidly diminishing in luster. In 1876 a new star in the +constellation Cygnus became visible, subsequently fading again so as +to be only perceptible by means of a telescope; the luster of this +star must have increased from five hundred to _many_ thousand times. + +Mr. Proctor claims that should our sun similarly increase in luster +even one hundred-fold, the glowing heat would destroy all vegetable +and animal life on earth. + +There is no difficulty in seeing our way to heat enough, if we +concede that a comet really struck the earth or fell into the sun. +The trouble is in the other direction--we would have too much heat. + +We shall see, hereafter, that there is evidence in our rocks that in +two different ages of the world, millions of years before the Drift +period, the whole surface of the + +[1. "The Heavens," p. 260.] + +{p. 102} + +earth was actually fused and melted, probably by cometic contact. + +This earth of ours is really a great powder-magazine there is enough +inflammable and explosive material about it to blow it into shreds at +any moment. + +Sir Charles Lyell quotes, approvingly, the thought of Pliny: "It is +an amazement that our world, so full of combustible elements, stands +a moment unexploded." + +It needs but an infinitesimal increase in the quantity of oxygen in +the air to produce a combustion which would melt all things. In pure +oxygen, steel burns like a candle-wick. Nay, it is not necessary to +increase the amount of oxygen in the air to produce terrible results. +It has been shown[1] that, of our forty-five miles of atmosphere, one +fifth, or a stratum of nine miles in thickness, is oxygen. A shock, +or an electrical or other convulsion, which would even partially +disarrange or decompose this combination, and send an increased +quantity of oxygen, the heavier gas, to the earth, would wrap +everything in flames. Or the same effects might follow from any great +change in the constitution of the water of the world. Water is +composed of eight parts of oxygen and one part of hydrogen. "The +intensest heat by far ever yet produced by the blow-pipe is by the +combustion of these two gases." And Dr. Robert Hare, of Philadelphia, +found that the combination which produced the intensest heat was that +in which the two gases were in the _precise proportions found in +water_.[2] + +We may suppose that this vast heat, whether it came from the comet, +or the increased action of the sun, preceded the fall of the _débris_ +of the comet by a few minutes or a few hours. We have seen the +surface-rocks + +[1. "Science and Genesis," p. 125. + +2. Ibid., p. 127.] + +{p. 103} + +described as lustrous. The heat may not have been great enough to +melt them--it may merely have softened them; but when the mixture of +clay, gravel, striated rocks, and earth-sweepings fell and rested on +them, they were at once hardened and almost baked; and thus we can +account for the fact that the "till," which lies next to the rocks, +is so hard and tough, compared with the rest of the Drift, that it is +impossible to blast it, and exceedingly difficult even to pick it to +pieces; it is more feared by workmen and contractors than any of the +true rocks. + +Professor Hartt shows that there is evidence that some cause, prior +to but closely connected with the Drift, did decompose the +surface-rocks underneath the Drift to great depths, changing their +chemical composition and appearance. Professor Hartt says: + +"In Brazil, and in the United States in the vicinity of New York +city, the surface-rocks, under the Drift, are decomposed from a depth +of a few inches to that of a hundred feet. The feldspar has _been +converted into slate_, and the mica _has parted with its iron_."[1] + +Professor Hartt tries to account for this metamorphosis by supposing +it to have been produced by warm rains! But why should there be warm +rains at this particular period? And why, if warm rains occurred in +all ages, were not all the earlier rocks similarly changed while they +were at the surface? + +Heusser and Clarez suppose this decomposition of the rocks to be due +to nitric acid. But where did the nitric acid come from? + +In short, here is the proof of the presence on the earth, just before +the Drift struck it, of that conflagration which we shall find +described in so many legends. + +[1. "The Geology of Brazil," p. 25.] + +{p. 104} + +And certainly the presence of ice could not decompose rocks a hundred +feet deep, and change their chemical constitution. Nothing but heat +could do it. + +But we have seen that the comet is self-luminous--that is, it is in +process of combustion; it emits great gushes and spouts of luminous +gases; its nucleus is enveloped in a cloak of gases. What effect +would these gases have upon our atmosphere? + +First, they would be destructive to animal life. But it does not +follow that they would cover the whole earth. If they did, all life +must have ceased. They may have fallen in places here and there, in +great sheets or patches, and have caused, until they burned +themselves out, the conflagrations which the traditions tell us +accompanied the great disaster. + +Secondly, by adding increased proportions to some of the elements of +our atmosphere they may have helped to produce the marked difference +between the pre-glacial and our present climate. + +What did these gases consist of? + +Here that great discovery, the spectroscope, comes to our aid. By it +we are able to tell the elements that are being consumed in remote +stars; by it we have learned that comets are in part self-luminous, +and in part shine by the reflected light of the sun; by it we are +even able to identify the very gases that are in a state of +combustion in comets. + +In Schellen's great work[1] I find a cut (see next page) comparing +the spectra of carbon with the light emitted by two comets observed +in 1868--Winnecke's comet and Brorsen's comet. + +Here we see that the self-luminous parts of these comets + +[1. "Spectrum Analysis," p. 396.] + +{p. 105} + +burned with substantially the same spectrum as that emitted by +burning carbon. The inference is irresistible that these comets were +wrapped in great masses of carbon in a state of combustion. This is +the conclusion reached by Dr. Schellen. + + ### + + SOLAR SPECTRUM + +Padre Secchi, the great Roman astronomer, examined Dr. Winnecke's +comet on the 21st of June, 1868, and concluded that the light from +the self-luminous part was produced by carbureted hydrogen. + +We shall see that the legends of the different races speak of the +poison that accompanied the comet, and by which great multitudes were +slain; the very waters that + +{p. 106} + +first flowed through the Drift, we are told, were poisonous. We have +but to remember that carbureted hydrogen is the deadly fire-damp of +the miners to realize what effect great gusts of it must have had on +animal life. + +We are told[1] that it burns with a _yellow_ flame when subjected to +great heat, and some of the legends, we will see hereafter, speak of +the "yellow hair" of the comet that struck the earth. + +And we are further told that, "when it, carbureted hydrogen, is mixed +in due proportion with oxygen or atmospheric air, a compound is +produced which explodes with the electric spark or the approach of +flame." Another form of carbureted hydrogen, olefiant gas, is deadly +to life, burns with a white light, and when mixed with three or four +volumes of oxygen, or ten or twelve of air, it explodes with terrific +violence. + +We shall see, hereafter, that many of the legends tell us that, as +the comet approached the earth, that is, as it entered our atmosphere +and combined with it, it gave forth world-appalling noises, thunders +beyond all earthly thunders, roarings, howlings, and hissings, that +shook the globe. If a comet did come, surrounded by volumes of +carbureted hydrogen, or carbon combined with hydrogen, the moment it +reached far enough into our atmosphere to supply it with the +requisite amount of oxygen or atmospheric air, precisely such +dreadful explosions would occur, accompanied by noises similar to +those described in the legends. + +Let us go a step further: + +Let us try to conceive the effects of the fall of the material of the +comet upon the earth. + +We have seen terrible rain-storms, hail-storms, snow-storms; + +[1. "American Cyclopædia," vol. iii, p. 776.] + +{p. 107} + +but fancy a storm of stones and gravel and clay-dust!--not a mere +shower either, but falling in black masses, darkening the heavens, +vast enough to cover the world in many places hundreds of feet in +thickness; leveling valleys, tearing away and grinding down hills, +changing the whole aspect of the habitable globe. Without and above +it roars the earthquaking voice of the terrible explosions; through +the drifts of _débris_ glimpses are caught of the glaring and burning +monster; while through all and over all is an unearthly heat, under +which rivers, ponds, lakes, springs, disappear as if by magic. + +Now, reader, try to grasp the meaning of all this description. Do not +merely read the words. To read aright, upon any subject, you must +read below the words, above the words, and take in all the relations +that surround the words. So read this record. + +Look out at the scene around you. Here are trees fifty feet high. +Imagine an instantaneous descent of granite-sand and gravel +sufficient to smash and crush these trees to the ground, to bury +their trunks, and to cover the earth one hundred to five hundred feet +higher than the elevation to which their tops now reach! And this not +alone here in your garden, or over your farm, or over your township, +or over your county, or over your State; but over the whole continent +in which you dwell--in short, over the greater part of the habitable +world! + +Are there any words that can draw, even faintly, such a picture--its +terror, its immensity, its horrors, its destructiveness, its +surpassal of all earthly experience and imagination? And this human +ant-hill, the world, how insignificant would it be in the grasp of +such a catastrophe! Its laws, its temples, its libraries, its +religions, its armies, its mighty nations, would be but as the veriest + +{p. 108} + +stubble--dried grass, leaves, rubbish-crushed, smashed, buried, under +this heaven-rain of horrors. + +But, lo! through the darkness, the wretches not beaten down and +whelmed in the _débris_, but scurrying to mountain-caves for refuge, +have a new terror: the cry passes from lip to lip, "The world is on +fire!" + +The head of the comet sheds down fire. Its gases have fallen in great +volumes on the earth; they ignite; amid the whirling and rushing of +the _débris_, caught in cyclones, rises the glare of a Titanic +conflagration. The winds beat the rocks against the rocks; they pick +up sand-heaps, peat-beds, and bowlders, and whirl them madly in the +air. The heat increases. The rivers, the lakes, the ocean itself, +evaporate. + +And poor humanity! Burned, bruised, wild, crazed, stumbling, blown +about like feathers in the hurricanes, smitten by mighty rocks, they +perish by the million; a few only reach the shelter of the caverns; +and thence, glaring backward, look out over the ruins of a destroyed +world. + +And not humanity alone has fled to these hiding-places: the terrified +denizens of the forest, the domestic animals of the fields, with the +instinct which in great tempests has driven them into the houses of +men, follow the refugees into the caverns. We shall see all this +depicted in the legends. + +The first effect of the great heat is the vaporization of the waters +of the earth; but this is arrested long before it has completed its +work. + +Still the heat is intense--how long it lasts, who shall tell? An +Arabian legend indicates years. + +The stones having ceased to fall, the few who have escaped--and they +are few indeed, for many are shut up for ever by the clay-dust and +gravel in their hiding-places, + +{p. 109} + +and on many others the convulsions of the earth have shaken down the +rocky roofs of the caves--the few survivors come out, or dig their +way out, to look upon a changed and blasted world. No cloud is in the +sky, no rivers or lakes are on the earth; only the deep springs of +the caverns are left; the sun, a ball of fire, glares in the bronze +heavens. It is to this period that the Norse legend of Mimer's well, +where Odin gave an eye for a drink of water, refers. + +But gradually the heat begins to dissipate. This is a signal for +tremendous electrical action. Condensation commences. Never has the +air held such incalculable masses of moisture; never has heaven's +artillery so rattled and roared since earth began! Condensation means +clouds. We will find hereafter a whole body of legends about "the +stealing of the clouds" and their restoration. The veil thickens. The +sun's rays are shut out. It grows colder; more condensation follows. +The heavens darken. Louder and louder bellows the thunder. We shall +see the lightnings represented, in myth after myth, as the arrows of +the rescuing demi-god who saves the world. The heat has carried up +perhaps one fourth of all the water of the world into the air. Now it +is condensed into cloud. We know how an ordinary storm darkens the +heavens. In this case it is black night. A pall of dense cloud, many +miles in thickness, enfolds the earth. No sun, no moon, no stars, can +be seen. "Darkness is on the face of the deep." Day has ceased to be. +Men stumble against each other. All this we shall find depicted in +the legends. The overloaded atmosphere begins to discharge itself. +The great work of restoring the waters of the ocean to the ocean +begins. It grows colder--colder--colder. The pouring rain turns into +snow, and settles on all the uplands and north countries; snow falls +on + +{p. 110} + +snow; gigantic snow-beds are formed, which gradually solidify into +ice. While no mile-thick ice-sheet descends to the Mediterranean or +the Gulf of Mexico, glaciers intrude into all the valleys, and the +flora and fauna of the temperate regions become arctic; that is to +say, only those varieties of plants and animals survive in those +regions that are able to stand the cold, and these we now call arctic. + +In the midst of this darkness and cold and snow, the remnants of poor +humanity wander over the face of the desolated world; stumbling, +awe-struck, but filled with an insatiable hunger which drives them +on; living upon the bark of the few trees that have escaped, or on +the bodies of the animals that have perished, and even upon one +another. + +All this we shall find plainly depicted in the legends of mankind, as +we proceed. + +Steadily, steadily, steadily--for days, weeks, months, years--the +rains and snows fall; and, as the clouds are drained, they become +thinner and thinner, and the light increases. + +It has now grown so light that the wanderers can mark the difference +between night and day. "And the evening and the morning were the +first day." + +Day by day it grows lighter and warmer; the piled-up snows begin to +melt. It is an age of tremendous floods. All the low-lying parts of +the continents are covered with water. Brooks become mighty rivers, +and rivers are floods; the Drift _débris_ is cut into by the waters, +re-arranged, piled up in what is called the stratified, secondary, or +Champlain drift. Enormous river-valleys are cut out of the gravel and +clay. + +The seeds and roots of trees and grasses, uncovered by the rushing +torrents, and catching the increasing + +{p. 111} + +warmth, begin to put forth green leaves. The sad and parti-colored +earth, covered with white, red, or blue clays and gravels, once more, +wears a fringe of green. + +The light increases. The warmth lifts up part of the water already +cast down, and the outflow of the steaming ice-fields, and pours it +down again in prodigious floods. It is an age of storms. + +The people who have escaped gather together. _They know the sun is +coming back_. They know this desolation is to pass away. They build +great fires and make human sacrifices to bring back the sun. They +point and guess where he will appear; for they have lost all +knowledge of the cardinal points. And all this is told in the legends. + +At last the great, the godlike, the resplendent luminary breaks +through the clouds and looks again upon the wrecked earth. + +Oh, what joy, beyond all words, comes upon those who see him! They +fall upon their faces. They worship him whom the dread events have +taught to recognize as the great god of life and light. They burn or +cast down their animal gods of the pre-glacial time, and then begins +that world-wide worship of the sun which has continued down to our +own times. + +And all this, too, we shall find told in the legends. + +And from that day to this we live under the influence of the effects +produced by the comet. The mild, eternal summer of the Tertiary age +is gone. The battle between the sun and the ice-sheets continues. +Every north wind brings us the breath of the snow; every south wind +is part of the sun's contribution to undo the comet's work. A +continual amelioration of climate has been going on since the Glacial +age; and, if no new catastrophe falls on the earth, our remote +posterity will yet see the last snow-bank + +{p. 112} + +of Greenland melted, and the climate of the Eocene reestablished in +Spitzbergen. + +"It has been suggested that the warmth of the Tertiary climate was +simply the effect of the residual heat of a globe cooling from +incandescence, but many facts disprove this. For example, the fossil +plants found in our Lower Cretaceous rocks in Central North America +indicate a temperate climate in latitude 35° to 40° in the Cretaceous +age. The coal-flora, too, and the beds of coal, indicate a moist, +equable, and warm but not hot climate in the Carboniferous age, +millions of years before the Tertiary, and three thousand miles +farther south than localities where magnolias, tulip-trees, and +deciduous cypresses, grew in the latter age. Some learned and +cautious geologists even assert that there have been several Ice +periods, one as far back as the Devonian."[1] + +The ice-fields and wild climate of the poles, and the cold which +descends annually over Europe and North America, represent the +residuum of the refrigeration caused by the evaporation due to the +comet's heat, and the long absence of the sun during the age of +darkness. Every visitation of a comet would, therefore, necessarily +eventuate in a glacial age, which in time would entirely pass away. +And our storms are bred of the conflict between the heat and cold of +the different latitudes. Hence, it may be, that the Tertiary climate +represented the true climate of the earth, undisturbed by comet +catastrophes; a climate equable, mild, warm, stormless. Think what a +world this would be without tempests, cyclones, ice, snow, or cold! + +Let us turn now to the evidences that man dwelt on the earth during +the Drift, and that he has preserved recollections of the comet to +this day in his myths and legends. + +[1. "Popular Science Monthly," July, 1876, p. 283.] + +{p. 113} + + PART III + + The Legends + + CHAPTER I. + + THE NATURE OF MYTHS. + +IN a primitive people the mind of one generation precisely repeats +the minds of all former generations; the construction of the +intellectual nature varies no more, from age to age, than the form of +the body or the color of the skin; the generations feel the same +emotions, and think the same thoughts, and use the same expressions. +And this is to be expected, for the brain is as much a part of the +inheritable, material organization as the color of the eyes or the +shape of the nose. + +The minds of men move automatically: no man thinks because he intends +to think; he thinks, as he hungers and thirsts, under a great primal +necessity; his thoughts come out from the inner depths of his being +as the flower is developed by forces rising through the roots of the +plant. + +The female bird says to herself, "The time is propitious, and now, of +my own free will, and under the operation of my individual judgment, +I will lay a nestful of eggs and batch a brood of children." But it +is unconscious that it is moved by a physical necessity, which has +constrained all its ancestors from the beginning of time, + +{p. 114} + +and which will constrain all its posterity to the end of time; that +its will is nothing more than an expression of age, development, +sunlight, food, and "the skyey influences." If it were otherwise it +would be in the power of a generation to arrest the life of a race. + +All great thoughts are inspirations of God. They are part of the +mechanism by which he advances the race; they are new varieties +created out of old genera. + +There come bursts of creative force in history, when great thoughts +are born, and then again Brahma, as the Hindoos say, goes to sleep +for ages. + +But, when the fever of creation comes, the poet, the inventor, or the +philosopher can no more arrest the development of his own thoughts +than the female bird, by her will-power, can stop the growth of the +ova within her, or arrest the fever in the blood which forces her to +incubation. + +The man who wrote the Shakespeare plays recognized this involuntary +operation of even his own transcendent intellect, when he said: + + "Our poesy is a gum which oozes + From whence 'tis nourished." + +It came as the Arabian tree distilled its "medicinal gum"; it was the +mere expression of an internal force, as much beyond his control as +the production of the gum was beyond the control of the tree. + +But in primitive races mind repeats mind for thousands of years. If a +tale is told at a million hearth-fires, the probabilities are small, +indeed, that any innovation at one hearth-fire, however ingenious, +will work its way into and modify the narration at all the rest. +There is no printing-press to make the thoughts of one man the +thoughts of thousands. While the innovator is modifying + +{p. 115} + +the tale, to his own satisfaction, to his immediate circle of +hearers, the narrative is being repeated in its unchanged form at all +the rest. The doctrine of chances is against innovation. The majority +rules. + +When, however, a marvelous tale is told to the new generation--to the +little ones sitting around with open eyes and gaping mouths--they +naturally ask, "_Where_ did all this occur?" The narrator must +satisfy this curiosity, and so he replies, "On yonder mountain-top," +or "In yonder cave." + +The story has come down without its geography, and a new geography is +given it. + +Again, an ancient word or name may have a signification in the +language in which the story is told different from that which it +possessed in the original dialect, and, in the effort to make the old +fact and the new language harmonize, the story-teller is forced, +gradually, to modify the narrative; and, as this lingual difficulty +occurs at every fireside, at every telling, an ingenious explanation +comes at last to be generally accepted, and the ancient myth remains +dressed in a new suit of linguistic clothes. + +But, as a rule, simple races repeat; they do not invent. + +One hundred years ago the highest faith was placed in written +history, while the utmost contempt was felt for all legends. Whatever +had been written down was regarded as certainly true; whatever had +not been written down was necessarily false. + +We are reminded of that intellectual old brute, Dr. Samuel Johnson, +trampling poor Macpherson under foot, like an enraged elephant, for +daring to say that he had collected from the mountaineers of wild +Scotland the poems of Ossian, and that they had been transmitted, +from mouth to mouth, through ages. But the great epic of the son of +Fingal will survive, part of the widening + +{p. 116} + +heritage of humanity, while Johnson is remembered only as a +coarse-souled, ill-mannered incident in the development of the great +English people. + +But as time rolled on it was seen that the greater part of history +was simply recorded legends, while all the rest represented the +passions of factions, the hates of sects, or the servility and +venality of historians. Men perceived that the common belief of +antiquity, as expressed in universal tradition, was much more likely +to be true than the written opinions of a few prejudiced individuals. + +And then grave and able men,--philosophers, scientists,--were seen +with note-books and pencils, going out into Hindoo villages, into +German cottages, into Highland huts, into Indian _tepees_, in short, +into all lands, taking down with the utmost care, accuracy, and +respect, the fairy-stories, myths, and legends of the people;--as +repeated by old peasant-women, "the knitters in the sun," or by +"gray-haired warriors, famousèd for fights." + +And, when they came to put these narratives in due form, and, as it +were, in parallel columns, it became apparent that they threw great +floods of light upon the history of the world, and especially upon +the question of the unity of the race. They proved that all the +nations were repeating the same stories, in some cases in almost +identical words, just as their ancestors had heard them, in some most +ancient land, in "the dark background and abysm of time," when the +progenitors of the German, Gaul, Gael, Greek, Roman, Hindoo, Persian, +Egyptian, Arabian, and the red-people of America, dwelt together +under the same roof-tree and used the same language. + +But, above all, these legends prove the absolute fidelity of the +memory of the races. + +We are told that the bridge-piles driven by the Romans, two thousand +years ago, in the rivers of Europe, + +{p. 117} + +from which the surrounding waters have excluded the decaying +atmosphere, have remained altogether unchanged in their condition. If +this has been the case for two thousand years, why would they not +remain unchanged for ten thousand, for a hundred thousand years? If +the ice in which that Siberian mammoth was incased had preserved it +intact for a hundred years, or a thousand years, why might it not +have preserved it for ten thousand, for a hundred thousand years? + +Place a universal legend in the minds of a race, let them repeat it +from generation to generation, and time ceases to be an element in +the problem. + +Legend has one great foe to its perpetuation--civilization. + +Civilization brings with it a contempt for everything which it can +not understand; skepticism becomes the synonym for intelligence; men +no longer repeat; they doubt; they dissect; they sneer; they reject; +they invent. If the myth survives this treatment, the poets take it +up and make it their stock in trade: they decorate it in a masquerade +of frippery and finery, feathers and furbelows, like a clown dressed +for a fancy ball; and the poor barbarian legend survives at last, if +it survives at all, like the Conflagration in Ovid or King Arthur in +Tennyson--a hippopotamus smothered in flowers, jewels, and laces. + +Hence we find the legends of the primitive American Indians adhering +quite closely to the events of the past, while the myths that survive +at all among the civilized nations of Europe are found in garbled +forms, and. only among the peasantry of remote districts. + +In the future more and more attention will be given to the myths of +primitive races; they will be accounted as more reliable, and as +reaching farther back in time than many things which we call history. +Thoughtful men will + +{p. 118} + +analyze them, despising nothing; like a chemist who resolves some +compound object into its original elements--the very combination +constituting a history of the object. + +H. H. Bancroft describes myths as-- + +"A mass of fragmentary truth and fiction, not open to rationalistic +criticism; a partition wall of allegories, built of dead facts +cemented with wild fancies; it looms ever between the immeasurable +and the measurable past." + +But he adds: + +"Never was there a time in the history of philosophy when the +character, customs, and beliefs of aboriginal man, and everything +appertaining to him, were held in such high esteem by scholars as at +present." + +"It is now a recognized principle of philosophy that no religious +belief, however crude, nor any historical tradition, however absurd, +can be held by the majority of a people for any considerable time as +true, without having had in the beginning some foundation in fact."[1] + +An universal myth points to two conclusions: + +First, that it is based on some fact. + +Secondly, that it dates back, in all probability, to the time when +the ancestors of the races possessing it had not yet separated. + +A myth should be analyzed carefully; the fungi that have attached +themselves to it should be brushed off; the core of fact should be +separated from the decorations and errors of tradition. + +But above all, it must be remembered that we can not depend upon +either the geography or the chronology of a myth. As I have shown, +there is a universal tendency to give the old story a new habitat, +and hence we have Ararats and Olympuses all over the world. In the +same + +[1. "The Native Races of America," vol. iii, p. 14.] + +{p. 119} + +way the myth is always brought down and attached to more recent +events: + +"All over Europe-in Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, England, +Scotland, Ireland--the exploits of the oldest mythological heroes, +figuring in the Sagas, Eddas, and Nibelungen Lied, have been +ascribed, in the folk-lore and ballads of the people, to Barbarossa, +Charlemagne, Boabdil, Charles V, William Tell, Arthur, Robin Hood, +Wallace, and St. Patrick."[1] + +In the next place, we must remember how impossible it is for the mind +to invent an entirely new fact. + +What dramatist or novelist has ever yet made a plot which did not +consist of events that had already transpired somewhere on earth? He +might intensify events, concentrate and combine them, or amplify +them; but that is all. Men in all ages have suffered from +jealousy,--like Othello; have committed murders,--like Macbeth; have +yielded to the sway of morbid minds,--like Hamlet; have stolen, lied, +and debauched,--like Falstaff;--there are Oliver Twists, Bill +Sykeses, and Nancies; Micawbers, Pickwicks, and Pecksniffs in every +great city. + +There is nothing in the mind of man that has not preexisted in +nature. Can we imagine a person, who never saw or heard of an +elephant, drawing a picture of such a two-tailed creature? It was +thought at one time that man had made the flying-dragon out of his +own imagination; but we now know that the image of the _pterodactyl_ +had simply descended from generation to generation. Sindbad's great +bird, the _roc_, was considered a flight of the Oriental fancy, until +science revealed the bones of the _dinornis_. All the winged beasts +breathing fire are simply a recollection of the comet. + +In fact, even with the patterns of nature before it, the + +[1. Bancroft, "Native Races," note, vol. iii, p. 17.] + +{p. 120} + +human mind has not greatly exaggerated them: it has never drawn a +bird larger than the _dinornis_ or a beast greater than the mammoth. + +It is utterly impossible that the races of the whole world, of all +the continents and islands, could have preserved traditions from the +most remote ages, of a comet having struck the earth, of the great +heat, the conflagration, the cave-life, the age of darkness, and the +return of the sun, and yet these things have had no basis of fact. It +was not possible for the primitive mind to have imagined these things +if they had never occurred. + +{p. 121} + + CHAPTER II. + + DID MAN EXIST BEFORE THE DRIFT? + +FIRST, let us ask ourselves this question, Did man exist before the +Drift? + +If he did, he must have survived it; and he could hardly have passed +through it without some remembrance of such a terrible event +surviving in the traditions of the race. + +If he did not exist before the Drift, of course, no myths descriptive +of it could have come down to us. + +This preliminary question must, then, be settled by testimony. + +Let us call our witnesses + +"The palæolithic hunter of the mid and late Pleistocene +river-deposits in Europe belongs, as we have already shown, to a +fauna which arrived in Britain before the lowering of the temperature +produced glaciers and icebergs in our country; he may, therefore, be +viewed as being probably pre-glacial."[1] + +Man had spread widely over the earth before the Drift; therefore, he +had lived long on the earth. His remains have been found in Scotland, +England, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Greece; in Africa, in +Palestine, in India, and in the United States.[2] + +"Man was living in the valley of the lower Thames before the Arctic +mammalia had taken full possession of + +[1. Dawkins's "Early Man in Britain," p. 169. + +2. Ibid., pp. 165, 166.] + +{p. 122 } + +the valley of the Thames, and before the big-nosed rhinoceros had +become extinct."[1] + +Mr. Tidderman[2] writes that, among a number of bones obtained during +the exploration of the Victoria Cave, near Settle, Yorkshire, there +is one which Mr. Busk has identified as _human_. Mr. Busk says: + +"The bone is, I have no doubt, human; a portion of an unusually +clumsy fibula, and in that respect not unlike the same bone in the +Mentone skeleton." + +The deposit from which the bone was obtained is overlaid "by a bed of +stiff glacial clay, containing ice-scratched bowlders." "Here then," +says Geikie, "is direct proof that men lived in England prior to the +last inter-glacial period."[3] + +The evidences are numerous, as I have shown, that when these deposits +came upon the earth the face of the land was above the sea, and +occupied by plants and animals. + +### + +SECTION AT ST. ACHEUL. + +The accompanying cut, taken from Sir John Lubbock's "Prehistoric +Times," page 364, represents the strata at St. Acheul, near Amiens, +France. + +[1. Dawkins's "Early Man in Britain," p. 137. + +2. "Nature," November 6, 1873. + +3. "The Great Ice Age," p. 475.] + +{p. 123} + +The upper stratum (_a_) represents a brick earth, four to five feet +in thickness, and containing a few angular flints. The next (_b_) is +a thin layer of angular gravel, one to two feet in thickness. The +next (_c_) is a bed of sandy marl, five to six feet in thickness. The +lowest deposit (_d_) _immediately overlies the chalk_; it is a bed of +partially rounded gravel, and, in this, _human implements of flint +have been found_. The spot was used in the early Christian period as +a cemetery; _f_ represents one of the graves, made fifteen hundred +years ago; _e_ represents one of the ancient coffins, of which only +the nails and clamps are left, every particle of the wood having +perished. + +And, says Sir John Lubbock: + +"It is especially at the _lower part_" of these lowest deposits "that +the flint implements occur." + +The bones of the mammoth, the wild bull, the deer, the horse, the +rhinoceros, and the reindeer are found near the bottom of these +strata mixed with the flint implements of men. + +"All the fossils belong to animals which live on land; . . . we find +no marine remains."[2] + +Remember that the Drift is unfossiliferous and unstratified; that it +fell _en masse_, and that these remains are found in its lower part, +or _caught between it and the rocks below it_, and you can form a +vivid picture of the sudden and terrible catastrophe. The trees were +imbedded with man and the animals; the bones of men, smaller and more +friable, probably perished, ground up in the tempest, while only +their flint implements and the great bones of the larger animals, +hard as stones, remain to tell the dreadful story. And yet some human +bones + +[1. "Prehistoric Times," p. 366. + +2. Ibid., pp. 366, 367.] + +{p. 124} + +have been found; a lower jaw-bone was discovered in a pit at +Moulinguignon, and a skull and other bones were found in the valley +of the Seine by M. Bertrand.[1] + +And these discoveries have not been limited to river-gravels. In the +Shrub Hill gravel-bed in England, "_in the lowest part of it_, +numerous flint implements of the palæolithic type have been +discovered."[2] + +We have, besides these sub-drift remains, the skulls of men who +probably lived before the great cataclysm,--men who may have looked +upon the very comet that smote the world. They represent two widely +different races. One is "the Engis skull," so called from the cave of +Engis, near Liége, where it was found by Dr. Schmerling. "It is a +fair average human skull, which might," says Huxley, "have belonged +to a philosopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brains of a +savage."[3] It represents a + + ### + + THE ENGIS SKULL. + +civilized, if not a cultivated, race of men. It may represent a +victim, a prisoner, held for a cannibalistic feast or a trader from a +more civilized region. + +[1. "Prehistoric Times," p. 360. + +2. Ibid., p. 351. + +3. "Man's Place in Nature," p. 156.] + +{p. 125} + +In another cave, in the Neanderthal, near Hochdale, between +Düsseldorf and Elberfeld, a skull was found which is the most +ape-like of all known human crania. The mail to whom it belonged must +have been a barbarian brute of the rudest possible type. Here is a +representation of it. + + ### + + THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. + +I beg the reader to remember these skulls when he comes to read, a +little further on, the legend told by an American Indian tribe of +California, describing the marriage between the daughter of the gods +and a son of the grizzly bears, from which union, we are told, came +the Indian tribes. These skulls represent creatures as far apart, I +was about to say, as gods and bears. The "Engis skull," with its full +frontal brain-pan, its fine lines, and its splendidly arched dome, +tells us of ages of cultivation and development in some favored +center of the race; while the horrible and beast-like proportions of +"the Neanderthal skull" speak, with no less certainty, of +undeveloped, brutal, savage man, only a little above the gorilla in +capacity;--a prowler, a robber, a murderer, a cave-dweller, a +cannibal, a Cain. + +{p. 126} + +We shall see, as we go on in the legends of the races on both sides +of the Atlantic, that they all looked to some central land, east of +America and west of Europe, some island of the ocean, where dwelt a +godlike race, and where alone, it would seem, the human race was +preserved to repeople the earth, while these brutal representatives +of the race, the Neanderthal people, were crushed out. + +And this is not mere theorizing. It is conceded, as the result of +most extensive scientific research: + +1. That the great southern mammalia perished in Europe when the Drift +came upon the earth. + +2. It is conceded that these two skulls are associated with the bones +of these locally extinct animals, mingled together in the same +deposits. + +3. The conclusion is, therefore, logically irresistible, that these +skulls belonged to men who lived during or before the Drift Age. + +Many authorities support this proposition that man--palæolithic man, +man of the mammoth and the mastodon--existed in the caves of Europe +before the Drift. + +"After having occupied the English caves for untold ages, palæolithic +man disappeared for ever, and with him vanished many animals now +either locally or wholly extinct."[1] + +Above the remains of man in these caves comes a deposit of +stalagmite, twelve feet in thickness, indicating a vast period of +time during which it was being formed, and during this time _man was +absent_.[2] + +Above this stalagmite comes another deposit of cave-earth: + +"The deposits immediately _overlying_ the stalagmite and cave-earth +contain an almost _totally different assemblage_ + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 411. + +2. Ibid., p. 411.] + +{p. 127} + +_of animal remains_, along with relics of the neolithic, bronze, +iron, and historic periods. + +"There is no passage, but, on the contrary, a _sharp and abrupt +break_ between these later deposits and the underlying palæolithic +accumulations."[1] + +Here we have the proof that man inhabited these caves for ages before +the Drift; that he perished with the great mammals and disappeared; +and that the twelve feet of stalagmite were formed while no men and +few animals dwelt in Europe. But some fragment of the human race had +escaped elsewhere, in some other region; there it multiplied and +replenished the earth, and gradually extended and spread again over +Europe, and reappeared in the cave-deposits above the stalagmite. +And, in like manner, the animals gradually came in from the regions +on which the Drift had not fallen. + +But the revelations of the last few years prove, not only that man +lived during the Drift age, and that he dwelt on the earth when the +Drift fell, but that he can be traced backward for ages before the +Drift; and that he was contemporary with species of great animals +that had run their course, and ceased to exist centuries, perhaps +thousands of years, before the Drift. + +I quote a high authority: + +"Most of the human relics of any sort have been found in the more +recent layers of the Drift. They have been discovered, however, not +only in the older Drift, but also, though very rarely, _in the +underlying Tertiary_. For instance, in the Upper Pliocene at St. +Prest, near Chartres, were found stone implements and cuttings on +bone, in connection with relics of a long-extinct elephant (_Elephas +meridionalis_) _that is wholly lacking in the Drift_. During the past +two years the evidences of human existence in the Tertiary period, i. +e., previous to the age of mammoths + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 411.] + +{p. 128} + +of the Diluvial period, have multiplied, and by their multiplication +give cumulative confirmation to each other. Even in the lower strata +of the Miocene (the middle Tertiary) important discoveries of stone +knives and bone-cuttings have been made, as at Thenay, department of +Marne-et-Loire, and Billy, department of Allier, France. Professor J. +D. Whitney, the eminent State geologist of California, reports +similar discoveries there also. So, then, we may believe that before +the last great upheaval of the Alps and Pyrenees, and while the yet +luxuriant vegetation of the then (i. e., in the Tertiary period) +paradisaic climate yet adorned Central Europe, man inhabited this +region."[1] + +We turn to the American Continent and we find additional proofs of +man's pre-glacial existence. The "American Naturalist," 1873, says: + +"The discoveries that are constantly being made in this country are +proving that man existed on this continent as far back in geological +time as on the European Continent; and it even seems that America, +really the Old World, geologically, will soon prove to be the +birthplace of the earliest race of man. One of the late and important +discoveries is that by Mr. E. L. Berthoud, which is given in full, +with a map, in the 'Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of +Sciences for 1872,' p. 46. Mr. Berthoud there reports the discovery +of ancient fire-places, rude stone monuments, and implements of stone +in great number and variety, in several places along Crow Creek, in +Colorado, and also on several other rivers in the vicinity. These +fire-places indicate several ancient sites of an unknown race +differing entirely from the mound-builders and the present Indians, +while the shells and other fossils found with the remains make it +quite certain that the deposit in which the ancient sites are found +_is as old as the Pliocene, and perhaps as the Miocene_. As the +fossil shells found with the relies of man are of estuary forms, and +as the sites of the ancient towns are on extended + +[1. "Popular Science Monthly," April, 1875, p. 682.] + +{p. 129} + +points of land, and at the base of the ridges or bluffs, Mr. Berthoud +thinks the evidence is strongly in favor of the locations having been +near some ancient fresh-water lake, whose vestiges the present +topography of the region favors." + +I quote the following from the "Scientific American" (1880): + +"The finding of numerous relies of a buried race on an ancient +horizon, _from twenty to thirty feet below the present level of +country in Missouri and Kansas_, has been noted. The St. Louis +'Republican' gives particulars of another find of an unmistakable +character made last spring (1880) in Franklin County, Missouri, by +Dr. R. W. Booth, who was engaged in iron-mining about three miles +from Dry Branch, a station on the St. Louis and Santa Fé Railroad. At +a depth of _eighteen feet below the surface_ the miners uncovered a +human skull, with portions of the ribs, vertebral column, and +collar-bone. With them were found two flint arrow-heads of the most +primitive type, imperfect in shape and barbed. _A few pieces of +charcoal were also found_ at the same time and place. Dr. Booth was +fully aware of the importance of the discovery, and tried to preserve +everything found, but upon touching the skull it crumbled to dust, +and some of the other bones broke into small pieces and partly +crumbled away; but enough was preserved to fully establish the fact +that they are human bones. + +"Some fifteen or twenty days subsequent to the first finding, at a +depth of _twenty-four feet below the surface_, other bones were +found--a thigh-bone and a portion of the vertebra, and several pieces +of _charred wood, the bones apparently belonging to the first-found +skeleton_. In both cases the bones rested on a fibrous stratum, +suspected at the time to be a fragment of coarse matting. This lay +upon a floor of soft _but solid iron-ore_, which retained the imprint +of the fibers. . . . + +"The indications are that the filled cavity had originally been a +sort of cave, and that the supposed matting was more probably a layer +of twigs, rushes, or weeds, which the inhabitants of the cave had +used as a bed, as the fiber + +{p. 130} + +marks cross each other irregularly. The ore-bed in which the remains +were found, and part of which seems to have formed after the period +of human occupation of the cave, lies in the second (or saccharoidal) +sandstone of the Lower Silurian." + +Note the facts: The remains of this man are found separated--part are +eighteen feet below the surface, part twenty-four feet--that is, they +are _six feet apart_. How can we account for this condition of +things, except by supposing that the poor savage had rushed for +safety to his shallow rock-shelter, and had there been caught by the +world-tempest, and _torn to pieces_ and deposited in fragments with +the _débris_ that filled his rude home? + +In California we encounter a still more surprising state of things. + +The celebrated Calaveras skull was found in a shaft _one hundred and +fifty feet deep_, under five beds of lava and volcanic tufa, and four +beds of auriferous gravel. + +The accompanying cut represents a plummet found in digging a well in +the San Joaquin Valley, California, _thirty feet below the surface_. + + ### + + PLUMMET FROM SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CAL. + +Dr. Foster says: + +"In examining this beautiful relic, one is led almost instinctively +to believe that it was used as a plummet, for the purpose of +determining the perpendicular to the horizon [for building +purposes?]; . . . when we consider its symmetry of form, the contrast +of colors brought out by the process of grinding and polishing, and +the delicate drilling of the hole through a material (syenite) so +liable to fracture, we are free to say it affords an exhibition of +the lapidary's skill superior to anything yet furnished by the Stone +age of either continent."[1] + +[1. "The Prehistoric Races of the United States," p. 55.] + +{p. 131} + +In Louisiana, layers of pottery, _six inches thick_, with remnants of +matting and baskets, were found _twelve feet below the surface_, and +underneath what Dr. Foster believes to be strata of the Drift.[1] + +I might fill pages with similar testimony; but I think I have given +enough to satisfy the reader that man _did_ exist before the Drift. + +I shall discuss the subject still further when I come to consider, in +a subsequent chapter, the question whether pre-glacial man was or was +not civilized. + +[1. "The Prehistoric Races of the United States," p. 56.] + +{p. 132} + + CHAPTER III. + + LEGENDS OF THE COMING OF THE COMET. + +WE turn now to the legends of mankind. + +I shall try to divide them, so as to represent, in their order, the +several stages of the great event. This, of course, will be difficult +to do, for the same legend may detail several different parts of the +same common story; and hence there may be more or less repetition; +they will more or less overlap each other. + +And, first, I shall present one or two legends that most clearly +represent the first coming of the monster, the dragon, the serpent, +the wolf, the dog, the Evil One, the Comet. + +The second Hindoo "Avatar" gives the following description of the +rapid advance of some dreadful object out of space, and its +tremendous fall upon the earth: + +"By the power of God there issued from the essence of Brahma a being +shaped like a boar, _white and exceeding small_; this being, _in the +space of an hour_, grew to the size of an elephant of the largest +size, _and remained in the air_." + +That is to say, it was an atmospheric, not a terrestrial creature. + +"Brahma was astonished on beholding this figure, and discovered, by +the force of internal penetration, that it could be nothing but the +power of the Omnipotent which had assumed a body and become visible. +He now felt that God is all in all, and all is from him, and all in +him; + +{p. 133} + +and said to Mareechee and his sons (the attendant genii): 'A +wonderful animal has emanated from my essence; at first of the +smallest size, it has in one hour increased to this enormous bulk, +and, without doubt, it is a portion of the almighty power.'" + +Brahma, an earthly king, was at first frightened by the terrible +spectacle in the air, and then claimed that he had produced it +himself! + +"They were engaged in this conversation when that _vara_, or +'boar-form,' suddenly uttered a sound _like the loudest thunder_, and +the echo reverberated and _shook all the quarters of the universe_." + +This is the same terrible noise which, as I have already shown, would +necessarily result from the carbureted hydrogen of the comet +exploding in our atmosphere. The legend continues: + +"But still, under this dreadful awe of heaven, a certain wonderful +divine confidence secretly animated the hearts of Brahma, Mareechee, +and the other genii, who immediately began praises and thanksgiving. +That _vara_ (boar-form) figure, hearing the power of the Vedas and +Mantras from their mouths, again made a loud noise, and _became a +dreadful spectacle_. Shaking the _full flowing mane_ which hung down +his neck on both sides, and erecting the humid _hairs_ of his body, +he proudly displayed his two most exceedingly white tusks; then, +rolling about his wine-colored (red) eyes, and erecting his _tail_, +he descended _from the region of the air_, and plunged headforemost +into the water. The whole body of water was convulsed by the motion, +and began to rise in waves, while the guardian spirit of the sea, +being terrified, began to tremble for his domain and cry for mercy.[1] + +flow fully does this legend accord with the descriptions of comets +given by astronomers, the "horrid hair," the mane, the animal-like +head! Compare it with Mr. + +[1. Maurice's "Ancient History of Hindustan," vol. i, p. 304.] + +{p. 134} + +Lockyer's account of Coggia's comet, as seen through Newell's large +refracting telescope at Ferndene, Gateshead, and which he described +as having a head like "_a fan-shaped projection of light_, with +_ear-like appendages_, at each side, which sympathetically +complemented each other at every change either of form or luminosity." + +We turn to the legends of another race: + +The Zendavesta of the ancient Persians[1] describes a period of +"great innocence and happiness on earth." + +This represents, doubtless, the delightful climate of the Tertiary +period, already referred to, when endless summer extended to the +poles. + +"There was a 'man-bull,' who resided on an elevated region, which the +deity had assigned him." + +This was probably a line of kings or a nation, whose symbol was the +bull, as we see in Bel or Baal, with the bull's horns, dwelling in +some elevated mountainous region. + +"At last an evil one, denominated Ahriman, corrupted the world. After +having _dared to visit heaven_" (that is, he appeared first in the +high heavens), "he _descended upon the earth and assumed the form of +a serpent_." + +That is to say, a serpent-like comet struck the earth. + +"The man-bull was _poisoned by his venom_, and died in consequence of +it. Meanwhile, Ahriman _threw the whole universe into confusion_ +(chaos), for that enemy of good mingled himself with everything, +appeared everywhere, and sought to do mischief above and below." + +We shall find all through these legends allusions to the poisonous +and deadly gases brought to the earth by the comet: we have already +seen that the gases which are proved to be associated with comets are +fatal to life. + +[1. Faber's "Horæ Mosaicæ," vol. i, p. 72.] + +{p. 135} + +And this, be it remembered, is not guess-work, but the revelation of +the spectroscope. + +The traditions of the ancient Britons[1] tell us of an ancient time, +when + +"The profligacy of mankind had provoked the great Supreme to send a +pestilential wind upon the earth. A pure _poison descended, every +blast was death_. At this time the patriarch, distinguished for his +integrity, _was shut up_, together with his select company, in the +_inclosure with the strong door_. (The cave?) Here the just ones were +safe from injury. _Presently a tempest of fire arose. It split the +earth asunder_ to the great deep. The lake Llion burst its bounds, +and the waves of the sea lifted themselves on high around the borders +of Britain, _the rain poured down from heaven, and the waters covered +the earth_." + +Here we have the whole story told briefly, but with the regular +sequence of events: + +1. The poisonous gases. + +2. The people seek shelter in the caves. + +3. The earth takes fire. + +4. The earth is cleft open; the fiords are made, and the trap-rocks +burst forth. + +5. The rain pours down. + +6. There is a season of floods. + +When we turn to the Greek legends, as recorded by one of their most +ancient writers, Hesiod, we find the coming of the comet clearly +depicted. + +We shall see here, and in many other legends, reference to the fact +that there was more than one monster in the sky. This is in +accordance with what we now know to be true of comets. They often +appear in pairs or even triplets. Within the past few years we have +seen Biela's comet divide and form two separate comets, pursuing + +[1. "Mythology of the British Druids," p. 226.] + +{p. 136} + +their course side by side. When the great comet of 1811 appeared, +another of almost equal magnitude followed it. Seneca informs us that +Ephoras, a Greek writer of the fourth century before Christ, had +recorded the singular fact of a comet's separation into two parts. + +"This statement was deemed incredible by the Roman philosopher. More +recent observations of similar phenomena leave no room to question +the historian's veracity."[1] + +The Chinese annals record the appearance of _three_ comets--one large +and two smaller ones--at the same time, in the year 896 of our era. + +"They traveled together for three days. The little ones disappeared +first and then the large one." + +And again: + +"On June 27th, A. D. 416, two comets appeared in the constellation +Hercules, and pursued nearly the same path."[2] + +If mere proximity to the earth served to split Biela's comet into two +fragments, why might not a comet, which came near enough to strike +the earth, be broken into several separate forms? + +So that there is nothing improbable in Hesiod's description of two or +three aërial monsters appearing at or about the same time, or of one +being the apparent offspring of the other, since a large comet may, +like Biela's, have broken in two before the eyes of the people. + +Hesiod tells us that the Earth united with Night to do a terrible +deed, by which the Heavens were much wronged. The Earth prepared a +large sickle of white iron, with jagged teeth, and gave it to her son +Cronus, and stationed him in ambush, and when Heaven came, Cronus, +his son, grasped at him, and with his "huge sickle, long and +jagged-toothed," cruelly wounded him. + +[1. Kirkwood, "Comets and Meteors," p. 60. + +2. Ibid., p. 51.] + +{p. 137} + +Was this jagged, white, sickle-shaped object a comet? + +"And Night bare also hateful Destiny, and black Fate, and Death, and +Nemesis." + +And Hesiod tells us that "she," probably Night-- + +"Brought forth another monster, _irresistible_, nowise like to mortal +man or immortal gods, in a hollow cavern; the divine, +stubborn-hearted Echidna (half-nymph, with dark eyes and fair cheeks; +and half, on the other hand, a _serpent, huge and terrible and +vast_), _speckled_, and _flesh-devouring_, 'neath caves of sacred +Earth. . . . With her, they say that Typhaon (Typhon) associated in +love, a terrible and lawless ravisher for the dark-eyed maid. . . . +But she (Echidna) bare Chimæra, _breathing resistless fire_, fierce +and huge, fleet-footed as well as strong; this monster had three +heads: one, indeed, of a grim-visaged lion, one of a goat, and +another of a serpent, a fierce dragon; + + ### + + COMET OF 1862. Aspect of the head of the comet at nine in the + evening, the 23d August, and the 24th August at the same hour. + +{p. 138} + +in front a lion, a dragon behind, and in the midst a goat, _breathing +forth the dread strength of burning fire_. Her Pegasus slew and brave +Bellerophon." + +The astronomical works show what weird, and fantastic, and +goblin-like shapes the comets assume under the telescope. Look at the +representation on page 137, from Guillemin's work,[1] of the +appearance of the comet of 1862, giving the changes which took place +in twenty-four hours. If we will imagine one of these monsters close +to the earth, we can readily suppose that the excited people, looking +at "the dreadful spectacle," (as the Hindoo legend calls it,) saw it +taking the shapes of serpents, dragons, birds, and wolves. + +And Hesiod proceeds to tell us something more about this fiery, +serpent-like monster: + +"But when Jove had driven the Titans out from Heaven, huge Earth bare +her youngest-born son, Typhœus (Typhaon, Typhœus, +Typhon), by the embrace of Tartarus (Hell), through golden Aphrodite +(Venus), whose hands, indeed, are apt for deeds on the score of +strength, and untiring the feet of the strong god; and from his +shoulders there were a hundred heads of a serpent, a fierce dragon +playing with _dusky tongues_" (_tongues of fire and smoke?_), "and +from the eyes in his wondrous heads are sparkled beneath the brows; +whilst from all his heads _fire was gleaming_, as he looked keenly. +In all his terrible heads, too, _were voices sending forth every kind +of voice ineffable_. For one while, indeed, they would utter sounds, +so as for the gods to understand, and at another time, again, the +voice of a loud-bellowing bull, untamable in force and proud in +utterance; at another time, again, that of a lion possessing a daring +spirit; at another time, again, they would sound like to whelps, +wondrous to hear; and at another, he would hiss, and the lofty +mountains resounded. + +[1. "The Heavens," p. 256.] + +{p. 139} + +"And, in sooth, then would there have been done a deed past remedy, +and he, even he, would have reigned over mortals and immortals, +unless, I wot, the sire of gods and men had quickly observed him. +Harshly then he thundered, and heavily and terribly the earth +re-echoed around; and the broad heaven above, and the sea and streams +of ocean, and the abysses of earth. But beneath his immortal feet +_vast Olympus trembled_, as the king uprose and earth groaned +beneath. And the _heat from both caught the dark-colored sea_, both +of the thunder and the lightning, and _fire from the monster_, the +heat arising from the thunder-storms, _winds_, and burning lightning. +_And all earth, and heaven, and sea, were boiling_; and huge billows +roared around the shores about and around, beneath the violence of +the gods; and _unallayed quaking arose_. Pluto trembled, monarch over +the dead beneath; and the Titans under Tartarus, standing about +Cronus, trembled also, on account of _the unceasing tumult and +dreadful contention_. But Jove, when in truth he had raised high his +wrath, and had taken his arms, his thunder and lightning, and smoking +bolt, leaped up and smote him from Olympus, and scorched all around +the wondrous heads of the terrible monster. + +"But when at length he had quelled it, after having smitten it with +blows, the monster _fell down_, lamed, and _huge Earth groaned_. But +the _flame_ from the lightning-blasted monster _flashed forth in the +mountain hollows_, hidden and rugged, when he was stricken, and _much +was the vast earth burnt and melted by the boundless vapor_, like as +pewter, heated by the art of youths, and by the well-bored +melting-pit, or iron, which is the hardest of metals, subdued in the +dells of the mountain by blazing fire, melts in the sacred earth, +beneath the hands of Vulcan. So, I wot, _was earth melted in the +glare of burning fire_. Then, troubled in spirit, he hurled him into +wide Tartarus."[1] + +Here we have a very faithful and accurate narrative of the coming of +the comet: + +[1. "Theogony."] + +{p. 140} + +Born of Night a monster appears, a serpent, huge, terrible, speckled, +flesh-devouring. With her is another comet, Typhaon; they beget the +Chimæra, that breathes resistless fire, fierce, huge, swift. And +Typhaon, associated with both these, is the most dreadful monster of +all, born of Hell and sensual sin, a serpent, a fierce dragon, +many-headed, with dusky tongues and fire gleaming; sending forth +dreadful and appalling noises, while mountains and fields rock with +earthquakes; chaos has come; the earth, the sea boils; there is +unceasing tumult and contention, and in the midst the monster, +wounded and broken up, _falls upon the earth_; the earth groans under +his weight, and there he blazes and burns for a time in the mountain +fastnesses and desert places, melting the earth with boundless vapor +and glaring fire. + +We will find legend after legend about this Typhon he runs through +the mythologies of different nations. And as to his size and his +terrible power, they all agree. He was no earth-creature. He moved in +the air; he reached the skies: + +"According to Pindar the head of Typhon reached to the stars, his +eyes darted fire, his hands extended from the East to the West, +terrible serpents were twined about the middle of his body, and one +hundred snakes took the place of fingers on his hands. Between him +and the gods there was a dreadful war. Jupiter finally killed him +with a flash of lightning, and buried him under Mount Etna." + +And there, smoking and burning, his great throes and writhings, we +are told, still shake the earth, and threaten mankind: + + And with pale lips men say, + 'To-morrow, perchance to-day, + Encelidas may arise! "' + +{p. 141} + + CHAPTER IV. + + RAGNAROK + +THERE is in the legends of the Scandinavians a marvelous record of +the coming of the Comet. It has been repeated generation after +generation, translated into all languages, commented on, criticised, +but never understood. It has been regarded as a wild, unmeaning +rhapsody of words, or as a premonition of some future earth +catastrophe. + +But look at it! + +The very name is significant. According to Professor Anderson's +etymology of the word, it means "the darkness of the gods"; from +_regin_, gods, and _rökr_, darkness; but it may, more properly, be +derived from the Icelandic, Danish, and Swedish _regn_, a rain, and +_rök_, smoke, or dust; and it may mean the rain of dust, for the clay +came first as dust; it is described in some Indian legends as ashes. + +First, there is, as in the tradition of the Druids, page 135, _ante_, +the story of an age of crime. + +The Vala looks upon the world, and, as the "Elder Edda" tells us-- + + There saw she wade + In the heavy streams, + Men--foul murderers + And perjurers, + And them who others' wives + Seduce to sin. + Brothers slay brothers + Sisters' children + Shed each other's blood. {p. 142} + Hard is the world! + Sensual sin grows huge. + There are sword-ages, axe-ages; + Shields are cleft in twain; + Storm-ages, murder ages; + Till the world falls dead, + And men no longer spare + Or pity one another."[1] + +The world has ripened for destruction; and "Ragnarok," the darkness +of the gods, or the rain of dust and ashes, comes to complete the +work. + +The whole story is told with the utmost detail, and we shall see that +it agrees, in almost every particular, with what reason assures us +must have happened. + +"There are three winters," or years, "during which great wars rage +over the world." Mankind has reached a climax of wickedness. +Doubtless it is, as now, highly civilized in some regions, while +still barbarian in others. + +"Then happens that which will seem a great miracle: that _the wolf +devours the sun_, and this will seem a great loss." + +That is, the Comet strikes the sun, or approaches so close to it that +it seems to do so. + +"The other wolf devours the moon, and this, too, will cause great +mischief." + +We have seen that the comets often come in couples or triplets. + +"The stars shall be hurled from heaven." + +This refers to the blazing _débris_ of the Comet falling to the earth. + +"Then it shall come to pass that the earth will shake so violently +that trees will be torn up by the roots, the + +[1. Anderson, "Norse Mythology," p. 416.] + +{p. 143} + +mountains will topple down, and all bonds and fetters will be broken +and snapped." + +Chaos has come again. How closely does all this agree with Hesiod's +description of the shaking earth and the universal conflict of nature? + +"The Fenris-wolf gets loose." + +This, we shall see, is the name of one of the comets. + +"_The sea rushes over the earth_, for the Midgard-serpent writhes in +giant rage, and seeks to gain the land." + +The Midgard-serpent is the name of another comet; it strives to reach +the earth; its proximity disturbs the oceans. And then follows an +inexplicable piece of mythology: + +"The ship that is called Naglfar also becomes loose. It is made of +the nails of dead men; wherefore it is worth warning that, when a man +dies with unpared nails, he supplies a large amount of materials for +the building of this ship, which both gods and men wish may be +finished as late as possible. But in this flood Naglfar gets afloat. +The giant Hrym is its steersman. + +"The Fenris-wolf advances with wide-open mouth; _the upper jaw +reaches to heaven and the lower jaw is on the earth_." + +That is to say, the comet extends from the earth to the sun. + +"He would open it still wider had he room." + +That is to say, the space between the sun and earth is not great +enough; the tail of the comet reaches even beyond the earth. + +"_Fire flashes from his eyes and nostrils_." + +A recent writer says: + +"When bright comets happen to come very near to the sun, and are +subjected to close observation under the + +{p. 144} + +advantages which the fine telescopes of the present day afford, a +series of remarkable changes is found to take place in their luminous +configuration. First, _jets of bright light start out from the +nucleus_, and move through the fainter haze of the coma toward the +sun; and then these jets are turned backward round the edge of the +coma, and stream from it, behind the comet, until they are fashioned +into a tail."[1] + +"The Midgard-serpent vomits forth _venom_, defiling all the air and +the sea; he is very terrible, and places himself _side by side with +the wolf_." + +The two comets move together, like Biela's two fragments; and they +give out poison--the carbureted-hydrogen gas revealed by the +spectroscope. + +"In the midst of this clash and din the heavens are rent in twain, +and the sons of Muspelheim come riding through the opening." + +Muspelheim, according to Professor Anderson,[2] means the day of +judgment." _Muspel_ signifies an abode of fire, peopled by fiends. So +that this passage means, that the heavens are split open, or appear +to be, by the great shining comet, or comets, striking the earth; it +is a world of fire; it is the Day of Judgment. + +"Surt rides first, and before him and after _him flames burning +fire_." + +Surt is a demon associated with the comet;[3] he is the same as the +destructive god of the Egyptian mythology, Set, who destroys the sun. +It may mean the blazing nucleus of the comet. + +"He has a very good sword that shines brighter than the sun. As they +ride over Bifrost it breaks to pieces, as has before been stated." + +[1. "Edinburgh Review," October, 1874, p. 207. + +2. "Norse Mythology," p. 454. + +3. Ibid., p. 458.] + +{p. 145} + +Bifrost, we shall have reason to see hereafter, was a prolongation of +land westward from Europe, which connected the British Islands with +the island-home of the gods, or the godlike race of men. + +There are geological proofs that such a land once existed. A writer, +Thomas Butler Gunn, in a recent number of an English publication,[1] +says: + +"Tennyson's 'Voyage of Maeldune' is a magnificent allegorical +expansion of this idea; and the laureate has also finely commemorated +the old belief in the country of Lyonnesse, _extending beyond the +bounds_ of Cornwall: + + 'A land of old upheaven from the abyss + By fire, _to sink into the abyss again_; + Where fragments of forgotten peoples dwelt, + And the long mountains ended in a coast + Of ever-shifting sands, and far away + The phantom circle of a moaning sea.' + +"Cornishmen of the last generation used to tell stories of strange +household relics picked up at the very low tides, nay, even of the +quaint habitations seen fathoms deep in the water." + +There are those who believe that these Scandinavian Eddas came, in +the first instance, from Druidical Briton sources. + +The Edda may be interpreted to mean that the Comet strikes the planet +west of Europe, and crushes down some land in that quarter, called +"the bridge of Bifrost." + +Then follows a mighty battle between the gods and the Comet. It can +have, of course, but one termination; but it will recur again and +again in the legends of different nations. It was necessary that the +gods, the protectors of mankind, should struggle to defend them +against these strange and terrible enemies. But their very +helplessness + +[1. "All the Year Round."] + +{p. 146} + +and their deaths show how immense was the calamity which had befallen +the world. + +The Edda continues: + +"The sons of Muspel direct their course to the plain which is called +Vigrid. Thither repair also the Fenris-wolf and the Midgard-serpent." + +Both the comets have fallen on the earth. + +"To this place have also come Loke" (the evil genius of the Norse +mythology) "and Hrym, and with him all the Frost giants. In Loke's +company are all the friends of Hel" (the goddess of death). "The sons +of Muspel have then their efficient bands alone by themselves. The +plain Vigrid is one hundred miles (rasts) on each side." + +That is to say, all these evil forces, the comets, the fire, the +devil, and death, have taken possession of the great plain, the heart +of the civilized land. The scene is located in this spot, because +probably it was from this spot the legends were afterward dispersed +to all the world. + +It is necessary for the defenders of mankind to rouse themselves. +There is no time to be lost, and, accordingly, we learn-- + +"While these things are happening, Heimdal" (he was the guardian of +the Bifrost-bridge) "stands up, blows with all his might in the +Gjallar-horn and _awakens all the gods_, who thereupon hold counsel. +Odin rides to Mimer's well to ask advice of Mimer for himself and his +folk. + +"Then quivers the ash Ygdrasil, and all things in heaven and earth +tremble." + +The ash Ygdrasil is the tree-of-life; the tree of the ancient +tree-worship; the tree which stands on the top of the pyramid in the +island-birth place of the Aztec race; the tree referred to in the +Hindoo legends. + +"The asas" (the godlike men) "and the einherjes" (the heroes) "arm +themselves and speed forth to the battlefield. Odin rides first; with +his golden helmet, resplendent + +{p. 147} + +byrnie, and his spear Gungner, he advances against the Fenris-wolf" +(the first comet). "Thor stands by his side, but can give him no +assistance, for he has his hands full in his struggle with the +Midgard-serpent" (the second comet). "Frey encounters Surt, and heavy +blows are exchanged ere Frey falls. The cause of his death is that he +has not that good sword which he gave to Skirner. Even the dog Garm," +(another comet), "that was bound before the Gnipa-cave, gets loose. +He is the greatest plague. He contends with Tyr, and they kill each +other. Thor gets great renown by slaying the Midgard-serpent, but +retreats only nine paces when he falls to the earth dead, _poisoned +by the venom that the serpent blows upon him_." + +He has breathed the carbureted-hydrogen gas! + +"The wolf swallows Odin, and thus causes his death; but Vidar +immediately turns and rushes at the wolf, placing one foot on his +nether jaw. + +["On this foot he has the shoe, for which materials have been +gathering through all ages, namely, the strips of leather which men +cut off from the toes and heels of shoes; wherefore he who wishes to +render assistance to the asas must cast these strips away."] + +This last paragraph, like that concerning the ship Naglfar, is +probably the interpolation of some later age. The narrative continues: + +"With one hand Vidar seizes the upper jaw of the wolf, and thus rends +asunder his mouth. Thus the wolf perishes. Loke fights with Heimdal, +and they kill each other. _Thereupon Surt flings fire over the earth, +and burns up all the world_." + +This narrative is from the Younger Edda. The Elder Edda is to the +same purpose, but there are more allusions to the effect of the +catastrophe on the earth + + The eagle screams, + _And with pale beak tears corpses_. . . . + Mountains dash together, {p. 148} + Heroes go the way to Hel, + And heaven is rent in twain. . . . + _All men abandon their homesteads_ + When the warder of Midgard + In wrath slays the serpent. + _The sun grows dark, + The earth sinks into the sea_, + The bright stars + From heaven vanish; + _Fire rages, + Heat blazes, + And high flames play + 'Gainst heaven itself_" + +And what follow then? Ice and cold and winter. For although these +things come first in the narrative of the Edda, yet we are told that +"_before these_" things, to wit, the cold winters, there occurred the +wickedness of the world, and the wolves and the serpent made their +appearance. So that the events transpired in the order in which I +have given them. + + "First there is a winter called the Fimbul winter," + + "The mighty, the great, the iron winter,"[1] + +"'_When snow drives from. all quarters_, the frosts are so severe, +the winds so keen, there is no joy in the sun. _There are three such +winters in succession, without any intervening summer_." + +Here we have the Glacial period which followed the Drift. Three years +of incessant wind, and snow, and intense cold. + +The Elder Edda says, speaking of the Fenris-wolf: + + "It feeds on the bodies + Of men, when they die + The seats of the gods + _It stains with red blood_." + +[1. "Norse Mythology," p. 444.] + +{p. 149} + +This probably refers to the iron-stained red clay cast down by the +Comet over a large part of the earth; the "seats of the gods" means +the home of the god-like race, which was doubtless covered, like +Europe and America, with red clay; the waters which ran from it must +have been the color of blood. + + "_The Sunshine blackens_ + In the summers thereafter, + And the weather grows bad." + +In the Younger Edda (p. 57) we are given a still more precise +description of the Ice age: + +"Replied Har, explaining, that as soon as the streams, that are +called Elivogs" (the rivers from under ice), "had came so far that +the venomous yeast" (the clay?) "which flowed with them hardened, as +does dross that runs from the fire, then it turned" (as) "into ice. +And when this ice stopped and flowed no more, then gathered over it +the drizzling rain that arose from the venom" (the clay), "and froze +into rime" (ice), "_and one layer of ice was laid upon another clear +into the Ginungagap_." + +Ginungagap, we are told,[1] was the name applied in the eleventh +century by the Northmen to the ocean between Greenland and Vinland, +or America. It doubtless meant originally the whole of the Atlantic +Ocean. The clay, when it first fell, was probably full of chemical +elements, which rendered it, and the waters which filtered through +it, unfit for human use; clay waters are, to this day, the worst in +the world. + +"Then said Jafnhar: 'All that part of Ginungagap that turns to the +north' (the north Atlantic) 'was filled with thick and heavy ice and +rime, and everywhere within were drizzling rains and gusts. But the +south part of Ginungagap was lighted up by the glowing sparks that +flew out of Muspelheim.'" + +[1. "Norse Mythology," p. 447.] + +{p. 150} + +The ice and rime to the north represent the age of ice and snow. +Muspelheim was the torrid country of the south, over which the clouds +could not yet form in consequence of the heat--Africa. + +But it can not last forever. The clouds disappear; the floods find +their way back to the ocean; nature begins to decorate once more the +scarred and crushed face of the world. But where is the human race? +The "Younger Edda" tells us: + +"During the conflagration caused by Surt's fire, a woman by the name +of Lif and a man named Lifthraser lie concealed in Hodmimer's hold, +or forest. The dew of the dawn serves them for food, and so great a +race shall spring from them, that their descendants shall soon spread +over the whole earth."[1] + +The "Elder Edda" says: + + "Lif and Lifthraser + Will lie hid + In Hodmimer's-holt; + The morning dew + They have for food. + From them are the races descended." + +Holt is a grove, or forest, or hold; it was probably a cave. We shall +see that nearly all the legends refer to the caves in which mankind +escaped from destruction. + +This statement, + +"From them are the races descended," + +shows that this is not prophecy, but history; it refers to the past, +not to the future; it describes not a Day of Judgment to come, but +one that has already fallen on the human family. + +Two others, of the godlike race, also escaped in some + +[1. "Norse Mythology" p. 429.] + +{p. 151} + +way not indicated; Vidar and Vale are their names. They, too, had +probably taken refuge in some cavern. + +"Neither the sea nor Surt's fire had harmed them, and they dwell on +the plains of Ida, where Asgard _was before_. Thither come also the +sons of Thor, Mode, and Magne, and they have Mjolner. _Then come +Balder and Hoder from Hel_. + +Mode and Magne are children of Thor; they belong to the godlike race. +They, too, have escaped. Mjolner is Thor's hammer. Balder is the Sun; +he has returned from the abode of death, to which the comet consigned +him. Hoder is the Night. + +All this means that the fragments and remnants of humanity reassemble +on the plain of Ida--the plain of Vigrid--where the battle was +fought. They possess the works of the old civilization, represented +by Thor's hammer; and the day and night once more return after the +long midnight blackness. + +And the Vala looks again upon a renewed and rejuvenated world: + + "She sees arise + The second time. + From the sea, the earth, + _Completely green_. + The cascades fall, + The eagle soars, + From lofty mounts + Pursues its prey." + +It is once more the glorious, the sun-lighted world the world of +flashing seas, dancing streams, and green leaves; with the eagle, +high above it all, + + "Batting the sunny ceiling of the globe + With his dark wings;" + +while + + "The wild cataracts leap in glory." + +{p. 152} + +What history, what poetry, what beauty, what inestimable pictures of +an infinite past have lain hidden away in these Sagas--the despised +heritage of all the blue-eyed, light-haired races of the world! + +Rome and Greece can not parallel this marvelous story: + + The gods convene + On Ida's plains, + And talk of the powerful + Midgard-serpent; + They call to mind + The Fenris-wolf + And the ancient runes + Of the mighty Odin." + +What else can mankind think of, or dream of, or talk of for the next +thousand years but this awful, this unparalleled calamity through +which the race has passed? + +A long-subsequent but most ancient and cultivated people, whose +memory has, for us, almost faded from the earth, will thereafter +embalm the great drama in legends, myths, prayers, poems, and sagas; +fragments of which are found to-day dispersed through all literatures +in all lands; some of them, as we shall see, having found their way +even into the very Bible revered alike of Jew and Christian: + +The Edda continues, + + "Then again + The wonderful Golden tablets + Are found in the grass + In time's morning, + The leader of the gods + And Odin's race + Possessed them." + +And what a find was that! This poor remnant of humanity discovers +"the golden tablets" of the former + +{p. 153} + +civilization. Doubtless, the inscribed tablets, by which the art of +writing survived to the race; for what would tablets be without +inscriptions? For they talk of "the ancient runes of mighty Odin," +that is, of the runic letters, the alphabetical writing. And we shall +see hereafter that this view is confirmed from other sources. + +There follows a happy age: + + "The fields unsown + Yield their growth; + All ills cease. + Balder comes. + Hoder and Balder, + Those heavenly gods, + Dwell together in Odin's halls." + +The great catastrophe is past. Man is saved, The world is once more +fair. The sun shines again in heaven. Night and day follow each other +in endless revolution around the happy globe. Ragnarok is past. + +{p. 154} + + CHAPTER V. + + THE CONFLAGRATION OF PHAËTON + +Now let us turn to the mythology of the Latins, as preserved in the +pages of Ovid, one of the greatest of the poets of ancient Rome.[1] + +Here we have the burning of the world involved in the myth of +Phaëton, son of Phœbus--Apollo--the Sun--who drives the chariot +of his father; he can not control the horses of the Sun, they run +away with him; they come so near the earth as to set it on fire, and +Phaëton is at last killed by Jove, as he killed Typhon in the Greek +legends, to save heaven and earth from complete and common ruin. + +This is the story of the conflagration as treated by a civilized +mind, explained by a myth, and decorated with the flowers and foliage +of poetry. + +We shall see many things in the narrative of Ovid which strikingly +confirm our theory. + +Phaëton, to prove that he is really the son of Phœbus, the Sun, +demands of his parent the right to drive his chariot for one day. The +sun-god reluctantly consents, not without many pleadings that the +infatuated and rash boy would give up his inconsiderate ambition. +Phaëton persists. The old man says: + +"Even the ruler of vast Olympus, who hurls the ruthless bolts with +his terrific right hand, can not guide + +[1. "The Metamorphoses," book xi, fable 1.] + +{p. 155} + +this chariot; and yet, what have we greater than Jupiter? The first +part of the road is steep, and such as the horses, though fresh in +the morning, can hardly climb. In the middle of the heaven it is high +aloft, whence it is often a source of fear, even to myself, to look +down upon the sea and the earth, and my breast trembles with fearful +apprehensions. The last stage is a steep descent, and requires a sure +command of the horses. . . . Besides, the heavens are carried round +with a constant rotation, and carrying with them the lofty stars, and +whirl them with rapid revolution. Against this I have to contend; and +that force which overcomes all other things does not overcome me, and +_I am carried in a contrary direction to the rapid world_." + +Here we seem to have a glimpse of some higher and older learning, +mixed with the astronomical errors of the day: Ovid supposes the +rapid world to move, revolve, one way, while the sun appears to move +another. + +But Phaëton insists on undertaking the dread task. The doors of +Aurora are opened, "her halls filled with roses"; the stars +disappear; the Hours yoke the horses, "filled with the _juice of +ambrosia_," the father anoints the face of his son with a hallowed +drug that he may the better endure the great heat; the reins are +handed him, and the fatal race begins. Phœbus has advised him +not to drive too high, or "thou wilt set on fire the signs of the +heavens"--the constellations;--nor too low, or he will consume the +earth. + +"In the mean time the swift Pyroeis, and Eoüs and Æthon, the horses +of the sun, and Phlegon, the fourth, fill the air with neighings, +sending forth flames, and beat the barriers with their feet. . . . +They take the road . . . they cleave the resisting clouds, and, +raised aloft by their wings, they pass by the east winds that had +arisen from the same parts. But the weight" (of Phaëton) "was light, +and such as the horses of the sun could not feel; and the yoke was +deficient of its wonted weight. . . . Soon as + +{p. 156} + +the steeds had perceived this they rush on and leave the beaten +track, and run not in the order in which they did before. He himself +becomes alarmed, and knows not which way to turn the reins intrusted +to him; nor does he know where the way is, nor, if he did know, could +he control them. Then, for the first time, did the cold Triones grow +warm with sunbeams, and attempt, in vain, to be dipped in the sea +that was forbidden to them. And the Serpent, which is situate next to +the icy pole, being before torpid with cold, and formidable to no +one, grew warm, and regained new rage for the heat. And they say that +thou, Boötes, scoured off in a mighty bustle, although thou wert but +slow, and thy cart hindered thee. But when from the height of the +skies the unhappy Phaëton looked down upon the earth lying far, very +far beneath, he grew pale, and his knees shook with a sudden terror; +and, in a light so great, darkness overspread his eyes. And now he +could wish that he had never touched the horses of his father; and +now he is sorry that he knew his descent, and prevailed in his +request; now desiring to be called the son of Merops." + +"What can he do? . . . He is stupefied; he neither lets go the reins, +nor is able to control them. In his fright, too, he sees strange +objects scattered everywhere in various parts of the heavens, and the +forms of huge wild beasts. There is a spot where the Scorpion bends +his arms into two curves, and, with his tail and claws bending on +either side, he extends his limbs through the space of two signs of +the zodiac. As soon as the youth beheld him, wet with the sweat of +black venom, and threatening wounds with the barbed point of his +tail, bereft of sense he let go the reins in a chill of horror." + +Compare the course which Ovid tells us Phaëton pursued through the +constellations, past the Great Serpent and Boötes, and close to the +venomous Scorpion, with the orbit of Donati's comet in 1858, as given +in Schellen's great work.[1] + +[1. "Spectrum Analysis," p. 391.] + +{p. 157} + + ### + + COURSE OF DONATI'S COMET + +The path described by Ovid shows that the comet came from the north +part of the heavens; and this agrees with what we know of the Drift; +the markings indicate that it came from the north. + +The horses now range at large; "they go through + +{p. 158} + +the air of an unknown region; . . . they rush on the stars fixed in +the sky"; they approach the earth. + +"The moon, too, wonders that her brother's horses run _lower than her +own_, and the scorched clouds send forth smoke, As each region is +most elevated it is _caught by the flames_, and cleft, it makes _vast +chasms, its moisture being carried away_. The grass grows pale; the +trees, with their foliage, are _burned up_, and the dry, standing +corn affords fuel for its own destruction. But I am complaining of +trifling ills. _Great cities perish_, together with their +fortifications, and the flames _turn whole nations into ashes_; +woods, together with mountains, are on fire. Athos burns, and the +Cilician Taurus, and Tmolus, and Œta, and Ida, now dry but once +most famed for its springs, and Helicon, the resort of the virgin +Muses, and Hæmus, not yet called Œagrian. _Ætna burns intensely +with redoubled flames_, and Parnassus, with its two summits, and +Eryx, and Cynthus, and Orthrys, and Rhodope, at length to be +despoiled of its snows, and Mimas, and Dindyma, and Mycale, and +Cithæron, created for the sacred rites. Nor does its cold avail even +Scythia; Caucasus is on fire, and Ossa with Pindus, and Olympus, +greater than them both, and the lofty Alps, and the cloud-bearing +Apennines. + +"Then, indeed, Phaëton _beholds the world see on fire on all sides_, +and he can not endure heat so great, and he inhales with his mouth +scorching air, as though from a deep furnace, and perceives his own +chariot to be on fire. And neither is he able now to bear the ashes +and _the emitted embers_; and on every side he is involved in a +_heated smoke_. Covered with _a pitchy darkness_, he knows not +whither he is going, nor where he is, and is hurried away at the +pleasure of the winged steeds. They believe that it was then that the +nations of _the Æthiopians contracted their black hue_, the blood +being attracted. into the surface of the body. Then was Libya" +(Sahara?) "made dry by the heat, the moisture being carried off; then +with disheveled hair the Nymphs _lamented the springs and the lakes_. +Bœotia bewails Dirce, Argos Amymone, and Ephyre the waters of +Pirene. Nor do rivers that + +{p. 159} + +have banks distant remain secure. Tanais smokes in the midst of its +waters, and the aged Peneus and Teuthrantian Caïcus and rapid +Ismenus. . . . The Babylonian Euphrates, too, was on fire, Orontes +was in flames, and the swift Thermodon and Ganges and Phasis and +Ister. Alpheus _boils_; the banks of Spercheus burn; and the gold +which Tagus carries with its stream melts in the flames. The +river-birds, too, which made famous the Mæonian banks with song, grew +hot in the middle of Caÿster. The Nile, affrighted, fled to the +remotest parts of the earth and concealed his head, which still lies +hid; his seven last mouths are empty, seven channels without any +streams. The same fate dries up the Ismarian rivers, Hebeus together +with Strymon, and the Hesperian streams, the Rhine, the Rhone, and +the Po, and the Tiber, to which was promised the sovereignty of the +world." + +In other words, according to these Roman traditions here poetized, +the heat dried up the rivers of Europe, Asia, and Africa; in short, +of all the known world. + +Ovid continues: + +"All the ground bursts asunder, and through the chinks the light +penetrates into Tartarus, and startles the infernal king with his +spouse." + +We have seen that during the Drift age the great clefts in the earth, +the fiords of the north of Europe and America, occurred, and we shall +see hereafter that, according to a Central American legend, the red +rocks boiled up through the earth at this time. + +"The _ocean, too, is contracted_," says Ovid, "and that which lately +was sea is a surface of parched sand, and the mountains which the +deep sea has covered, start up and increase the number of the +scattered Cyclades" (a cluster of islands in the Ægean Sea, +surrounding Delos as though with a circle, whence their name); "the +fishes sink to the bottom, and the crooked dolphins do not care to +raise themselves on the surface into the air as usual. The bodies of +sea-calves float lifeless on their backs on + +{p. 160} + +the top of the water. The story, too, is that even Nereus himself and +Doris and their daughters _lay hid in the heated caverns_." + +All this could scarcely have been imagined, and yet it agrees +precisely with what we can not but believe to have been the facts. +Here we have an explanation of how that vast body of vapor which +afterward constituted great snow-banks and ice-sheets and +river-torrents rose into the air. Science tells us that to make a +world-wrapping ice-sheet two miles thick, all the waters of the ocean +must have been evaporated;[1] to make one a mile thick would take one +half the waters of the globe; and here we find this Roman poet, who +is repeating the legends of his race, and who knew nothing about a +Drift age or an Ice age, telling us that the water _boiled_ in the +streams; that the bottom of the Mediterranean lay exposed, a bed of +dry sand; that the fish floated dead on the surface, or fled away to +the great depths of the ocean; and that even the sea-gods "hid in the +heated caverns." + +Ovid continues: + +"Three times had Neptune ventured with stern countenance to thrust +his arms out of the water; three times he was unable to endure the +scorching heat of the air." + +This is no doubt a reminiscence of those human beings who sought +safety in the water, retreating downward into the deep as the heat +reduced its level, occasionally lifting up their heads to breathe the +torrid and tainted air. + +"However, the genial Earth, _as she was surrounded by the sea_, amid +the waters of the main" (the ocean); "the springs dried up on every +side which had hidden themselves in the bowels of their cavernous +parent, burnt up, lifted up her all-productive face as far as her +neck, and + +[1. "Science and Genesis," p. 125.] + +{p. 161} + +placed her hand to her forehead, and, shaking all things with a _vast +trembling_, she _sank down a little and retired below the spot where +she is wont_ to be." + +Here we are reminded of the bridge Bifrost, spoken of in the last +chapter, which, as I have shown, was probably a prolongation of land +reaching from Atlantis to Europe, and which the Norse legends tell us +sank down under the feet of the forces of Muspelheim, in the day of +Ragnarok: + +"And thus she spoke with a parched voice: 'O sovereign of the gods, +if thou approvest of this, if I have deserved it, why do thy +lightnings linger? Let me, if doomed to perish by the force of fire, +perish by thy flames; and alleviate my misfortune by being the author +of it. With difficulty, indeed, do I open my mouth for these very +words. Behold my scorched hair, and _such a quantity of ashes over my +eyes_' (the Drift-deposits), '_so much, too, over my features_. And +dost thou give this as my recompense? This as the reward of my +_fertility_ and my duty, in that I _endure wounds from the crooked +plow and harrows_, and am harassed all the year through, in that I +supply green leaves for the cattle, and corn, a wholesome food, for +mankind, and frankincense for yourselves. + +"'But still, suppose I am deserving of destruction, why have the +waves deserved this? Why has thy brother' (Neptune) 'deserved it? Why +do the seas delivered to him by lot _decrease_, and why do they +_recede still farther from the sky?_ But if regard neither for thy +brother nor myself influences thee, still have consideration for thy +own skies; look around on either side, see how each pole is +_smoking_; if the fire shall injure them, _thy palace will fall in +ruins_. See! Atlas himself is struggling, and hardly can he bear the +glowing heavens on his shoulders. + +"'If the sea, if the earth, if the palace of heaven, perish, we are +then jumbled into the old chaos again. Save it from the flames, if +aught still survives, and provide for the preservation of the +universe.' + +{p. 162} + +"Thus spoke the Earth; nor, indeed, could she any longer endure the +vapor, nor say more, and she withdrew her face within herself, _and +the caverns neighboring to the shades below_. + +"But the omnipotent father, having called the gods above to witness, +and him, too, who had given the chariot to Phaëton, that unless he +gives assistance all things will perish in direful ruin, mounts aloft +to the highest eminence, from which he is wont to spread the clouds +over the spacious earth; and from which he moves his thunders, and +burls the brandished lightnings. _But then he had neither clouds that +he could draw over the earth, nor showers that he could pour down +from the sky_." + +That is to say, so long as the great meteor shone in the air, and for +some time after, the heat was too intense to permit the formation of +either clouds or rain; these could only come with coolness and +condensation. + +He thundered aloud, and darted the poised lightning from his right +ear, against the charioteer, and at the same moment deprived him both +of life and his seat, and by his ruthless fires restrained the +flames. The horses are affrighted, and, making a bound in the +opposite direction, they shake the yoke from their necks, and +disengage themselves from the torn harness. In one place lie the +reins, in another the axle-tree wrenched from the pole, in another +part are the spokes of the broken wheels, and _the fragments of the +chariot torn in pieces are scattered far and wide_. But Phaëton, the +flames consuming his _yellow_ hair, _is hurled headlong_, and is +borne in _a long track through the air_, as sometimes _a star is seen +to fall from the serene sky_, although it really has not fallen. Him +the great Eridanus receives in a part of the world far distant from +his country, and bathes his foaming face. The _Hesperian Naiads_ +commit his body, smoking from the _three-forked_ flames, to the tomb, +and inscribe these verses on the stone: 'Here is Phaëton buried, the +driver of his father's chariot, which, if he did not manage, still he +miscarried in a great attempt.' + +"But his wretched father" (the Sun) "_had hidden his_ + +{p. 163} + +_face overcast with bitter sorrow_, and, if only we can believe it, +they say that _one day passed without the sun_. The flames" (of the +fires on the earth) "afforded light, and there was some advantage in +that disaster." + +As there was no daily return of the sun to mark the time, that one +day of darkness was probably of long duration; it may have endured +for years. + +Then follows Ovid's description of the mourning of Clymene and the +daughters of the Sun and the Naiads for the dead Phaëton. Cycnus, +king of Liguria, grieves for Phaëton until he is transformed into a +swan; reminding one of the Central American legend, (which I shall +give hereafter,) which states that in that day all men were turned +into _goslings_ or _geese_, a reminiscence, perhaps, of those who +saved themselves from the fire by taking refuge in the waters of the +seas: + +"Cycnus becomes a new bird; but he trusts himself not to the heavens +or the air, as being mindful of the _fire unjustly sent from thence_. +He _frequents the pools and the wide lakes_, and, abhorring fire, he +chooses the streams, the very contrary of flames. + +"Meanwhile, the father of Phaëton" (the Sun), "in _squalid garb_ and +destitute of his comeliness, _just as he is wont to be when he +suffers an eclipse of his disk_, abhors both the light, himself, and +the day; and gives his mind up to grief, and adds resentment to his +sorrow." + +In other words, the poet is now describing the age of darkness, +which, as we have seen, must have followed the conflagration, when +the condensing vapor wrapped the world in a vast cloak of cloud. + +The Sun refuses to go again on his daily journey; just as we shall +see hereafter, in the American legends, he refuses to stir until +threatened or coaxed into action. + +{p. 164} + +"All the deities," says Ovid, "stand around the Sun as he says such +things, and they entreat him, with suppliant voice, _not to determine +to bring darkness over the world_." At length they induce the enraged +and bereaved father to resume his task. + +"But the omnipotent father" (Jupiter) "surveys the vast walls of +heaven, and carefully searches that no part, impaired by the violence +of the fire, may fall into ruin. After he has seen them to be secure +and in their own strength, he examines the earth, and the _works of +man_; yet a care for his own Arcadia is more particularly his object. +He _restores, too, the springs and the rivers_, that had not yet +dared to flow, _he gives grass to the earth, green leaves to the +trees_; and orders the injured forests again to be green." + +The work of renovation has begun; the condensing moisture renews the +springs and rivers, the green mantle of verdure once more covers the +earth, and from the waste places the beaten and burned trees put +forth new sprouts. + +The legend ends, like Ragnarok, in a beautiful picture of a +regenerated world. + +Divest this poem of the myth of Phaëton, and we have a very faithful +tradition of the conflagration of the world caused by the comet. + +The cause of the trouble is a something which takes place high in the +heavens; it rushes through space; it threatens the stars; it +traverses particular constellations; it is disastrous; it has yellow +hair; it is associated with great heat; it sets the world on fire it +dries up the seas; its remains are scattered over the earth; it +covers the earth with ashes; the sun ceases to appear; there is a +time when he is, as it were, in eclipse, darkened; after a while he +returns; verdure comes again upon the earth, the springs and rivers +reappear, the world is renewed. During this catastrophe man has +hidden himself, swanlike, + +{p. 165} + +in the waters; or the intelligent children of the earth betake +themselves to deep caverns for protection from the conflagration. + +How completely does all this accord, in chronological order and in +its details, with the Scandinavian legend; and with what reason +teaches us must have been the consequences to the earth if a comet +had fallen upon it! + +And the most ancient of the ancient world, the nation that stood +farthest back in historical time, the Egyptians, believed that this +legend of Phaëton really represented the contact of the earth with a +comet. + +When Solon, the Greek lawgiver, visited Egypt, six hundred years +before the Christian era, he talked with the priests of Sais about +the Deluge of Deucalion. I quote the following from Plato +("Dialogues," xi, 517, _Timæus_): + +"Thereupon, one of the priests, who was of very great age, said, 'O +Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are but children, and there is never an +old man who is an Hellene.' Solon, hearing this, said, 'What do you +mean?' 'I mean to say,' he replied, 'that in mind you are all young; +there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, +nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you the +reason of this: there have been, and there will be again, many +destructions of mankind arising out of many causes. There is a story +which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Phaëthon, the +son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, +because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, +burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a +thunder-bolt. Now, this has the form of a myth, but _really signifies +a declination of the bodies moving around the earth and in the +heavens, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth_ +recurring at long intervals of time: when this happens, those who +live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable +to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the sea-shore."' + +{p. 166} + + CHAPTER VI. + + OTHER LEGENDS OF THE CONFLAGRATION. + +THE first of these, and the most remarkable of all, is the legend of +one of the Central American nations, preserved not by tradition +alone, but committed to writing at some time in the remote past. + +In the "Codex Chimalpopoca," one of the sacred books of the Toltecs, +the author, speaking of the destruction which took place by fire, +says: + +"The third sun" (or era) "is called _Quia-Tonatiuh_, sun of rain, +because there fell a _rain of fire; all which existed burned; and +there fell a rain of gravel_." + +"They also narrate that while the sandstone, which we now see +_scattered about_, and the _tetzontli_ (_amygdaloide poreuse_--trap +or basaltic rocks), '_boiled with great tumult_, there also rose the +rocks of vermilion color.'" + +That is to say, the basaltic and red trap-rocks burst through the +great cracks made, at that time, in the surface of the disturbed +earth. + +"Now, this was in the year _Ce Tecpatl_, One _Flint_, it was the day +_Nahui-Quiahuit_l, Fourth Rain. Now, in this day, in which men were +lost and destroyed _in a rain of fire_, they _were transformed into +goslings_; the _sun itself was on fire_, and everything, together +with the houses, was consumed."[1] + +[1. "The North Americans of Antiquity," p. 499.] + +{p. 167} + +Here we have the whole story told in little: "Fire fell from heaven," +the comet; "the sun itself was on fire"; the comet reached to, or +appeared to reach to, the sun; or its head had fallen into the sun; +or the terrible object may have been mistaken for the sun on fire. +"_There was a rain of gravel_"--the Drift fell from the comet. There +is also some allusion to the sandstones scattered about; and we have +another reference to the great breaks in the earth's crust, caused +either by the shock of contact with the comet, or the electrical +disturbances of the time; and we are told that the trap-rocks, and +rocks of vermilion color, boiled up to the surface with great tumult. +Mankind was destroyed, except such as fled into the seas and lakes, +and there plunged into the water, and lived like "goslings." + +Can any one suppose that this primitive people invented all this? And +if they did, how comes it that their invention agreed so exactly with +the traditions of all the rest of mankind; and with the revelations +of science as to the relations between the trap rocks and the gravel, +as to time at least? + +We turn now to the legends of a different race, in a different stage +of cultivation--the barbarian Indians of California and Nevada. It is +a curious and wonderful story: + +"The natives in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe ascribe its origin to a +great natural convulsion. There was a time, they say, when their +tribe possessed the whole earth, and were strong numerous, and rich; +but a day came in which a people rose up stronger than they, and +defeated and enslaved them. Afterward the Great Spirit sent an +immense wave across the continent from the sea, and this wave +ingulfed both the oppressors and the oppressed, all but a very small +remnant. Then the task-masters made the remaining people raise up a +great temple, so that + +{p. 168} + +they, of the ruling caste, should have a refuge in case of another +flood, and on the top of this temple the masters worshiped a column +of perpetual fire." + +It would be natural to suppose that this was the great deluge to +which all the legends of mankind refer, and which I have supposed, +elsewhere, to refer to the destruction of "Atlantis"; but it must be +remembered that both east and west of the Atlantic the traditions of +mankind refer to several deluges--to a series of +catastrophes--occurring at times far apart. It may be that the legend +of the Tower of Babel refers to an event far anterior in time even to +the deluge of Noah or Deucalion; or it may be, as often happens, that +the chronology of this legend has been inverted. + +The Tahoe legend continues: + +"Half a moon had not elapsed, however, before the earth was again +troubled, this time with strong convulsions and thunderings, upon +which the masters took refuge in their great tower, closing the +people out. The poor slaves fled to the Humboldt River, and, getting +into canoes, paddled for life _from the awful sight behind them_; for +the land was tossing like a troubled sea, and casting up fire, smoke, +and ashes. _The flames went up to the very heavens, and melted many +stars_, SO THAT THEY RAINED DOWN IN MOLTEN METAL UPON THE EARTH, +forming the ore" [gold?] "that white men seek. The Sierra was mounded +up from the bosom of the earth; while the place where the great fort +stood sank, leaving only the dome on the top exposed above the waters +of Lake Tahoe. The inmates of the temple-tower clung to this dome to +save themselves from drowning; but the Great Spirit walked upon the +waters in his wrath, and took the oppressors one by one, _like +pebbles_, and threw them far into the recesses of a great cavern on +the east side of the lake, called to this day the Spirit Lodge, where +the waters shut them in. There must they remain till the last great +volcanic burning, which is to overturn the + +{p. 169} + +whole earth, is to again set them free. In the depths of +cavern-prison they may still be heard, wailing and their cave, +moaning, when the snows melt and the waters swell in the lake."[1] + +Here we have the usual mingling of fact and myth. The legend +describes accurately, no doubt, the awful appearance of the tossing +earth and the falling fire and _débris_; the people flying to rivers +and taking shelter in the caves) and some of them closed up in the +caves for ever. + +The legend, as is usual, accommodates itself to the geography and +topography of the country in which the narrators live. + +In the Aztec creation-myths, as preserved by the Fray Andres de +Olmos, and taken down by him from the lips of those who narrated the +Aztec traditions to him, we have an account of the destruction of +mankind by the sun, which reads as follows: + +The sun had risen indeed, and _with the glory of the cruel fire about +him_, that not even the eyes of the gods could endure; but he moved +not. There he lay on the horizon; and when the deities sent Tlotli, +their messenger, to him, with orders that he should go on upon his +way, his ominous answer was that he would never leave that place +_till he had destroyed and put an end to them all_. Then a great fear +fell upon some, while others were moved only to anger; and among the +others was one Citli, who immediately strung his bow and advanced +against the glittering enemy. By quickly lowering his head the sun +avoided the first arrow shot at him; but the second and third had +attained his body in quick succession, when, filled with fury, he +seized the last and launched it back upon his assailant. And the +brave Citli laid shaft to string never more, for the arrow of the sun +pierced his forehead. Then all was dismay in the assembly of the +gods, and _despair filled their hearts_, for they saw that + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 89.] + +170 THE LEGENDS. + +they could not prevail against the shining one; and they agreed to +die, and to cut themselves open through the breast. . Xololt was +appointed minister, and he killed his companions one by one, and last +of all he slew himself also. . . . Immediately after the death of the +gods, the sun began his motion in the heavens; and a man called +Tecuzistecatl, or Tezcociztecatl, who, when Nanahuatzin leaped into +the fire, had retired into a cave, now emerged from his concealment +as the moon. Others say that instead of going into a cave, this +Tecuzistecatl had leaped into the fire after Nanahuatzin, but that +the heat of the fire being somewhat abated he had come out less +brilliant than the sun. Still another variation is that the sun and +moon came out equally bright, but this not seeming good to the gods, +one of them took a rabbit by the heels and slung it into the face of +the moon, dimming its luster with a blotch whose mark may be seen to +this day."[1] + +Here we have the same Titanic battle between the gods, the godlike +men of old--"the old ones"--and the Comet, which appears in the Norse +legends, when Odin, Thor, Prey, Tyr, and Heimdal boldly march out to +encounter the Comet and fall dead, like Citli, before the weapons or +the poisonous breath of the monster. In the same way we see in Hesiod +the great Jove, rising high on Olympus and smiting Typhaon with his +lightnings. And we shall see this idea of a conflict between the gods +and the great demon occurring all through the legends. And it may be +that the three arrows of this American story represent the three +comets spoken of in Hesiod, and the Fenris-wolf, Midgard-serpent, and +Surt or Garm of the Goths: the first arrow did not strike the sun; +the second and the third "attained its body," and then the enraged +sun launched the last arrow back at Citli, at the earth; and +thereupon despair filled the people, and they prepared to die. + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 62.] + +{p. 171} + +The Avesta, the sacred book of the ancient Persians, written in the +Zend dialect, tells the same story. I have already given one version +of it: + +Ahura Mazda is the good god, the kind creator of life and growth; he +sent the sun, the fertilizing rain. He created for the ancestors of +the Persians a beautiful land, a paradise, a warm and fertile +country. But Ahriman, the genius of evil, created Azhidahaka, "_the +biting snake of winter_." "He had triple jaws, three heads, six eyes, +the strength of a thousand beings." He brings ruin and winter on the +fair land. Then comes a mighty hero, Thraetaona, who kills the snake +and rescues the land.[1] + +In the Persian legends we have Feridun, the hero of the Shah-Nameh. +There is a serpent-king called Zohak, who has committed dreadful +crimes, assisted by a demon called Iblis. As his reward, Iblis asked +permission to kiss the king's shoulder, which was granted. Then from +the shoulder sprang two dreadful serpents. Iblis told him that these +must be fed every day with the brains of two children. So the human +race was gradually being exterminated. Then Feridun, beautiful and +strong, rose up and killed the serpent-king Zohak, and delivered his +country. Zohak is the same as Azhidahaka in the Avesta--"the biting +snake of winter."[2] He is Python; he is Typhaon; he is the +Fenris-wolf; he is the Midgard-serpent. + +The Persian fire-worship is based on the primeval recognition of the +value of light and fire, growing out of this Age of Darkness and +winter. + +In the legends of the Hindoos we read of the fight between Rama, the +sun-god (_Ra_ was the Egyptian god of the sun), and Ravana, a giant +who, accompanied by the + +[1. Poor, "Sanskrit Literature," p. 144. + +2. Ibid., p. 158.] + +{p. 172} + +Rakshasas, or demons, made terrible times in the ancient land where +the ancestors of the Hindoos dwelt at that period. He carries away +the wife of Rama, Sita; her name signifies "a furrow," and seems to +refer to agriculture, and an agricultural race inhabiting the +furrowed earth. He bears her struggling through the air. Rama and his +allies pursue him. The monkey-god, Hanuman, helps Rama; a bridge of +stone, sixty miles long, is built across the deep ocean to the Island +of Lanka, where the great battle is fought: "_The stones which crop +out through Southern India are said to have been dropped by the +monkey builders!_" The army crosses on the bridge, as the forces of +Muspelheim, in the Norse legends, marched over the bridge "Bifrost." + +The battle is a terrible one. Ravana has ten heads, and as fast as +Rama cuts off one another grows in its place. Finally, Rama, like +Apollo, fires the terrible arrow of Brahma, the creator, and the +monster falls dead. + +"Gods and demons are watching the contest from the sky, and flowers +fall down in showers on the victorious hero." + +The body of Ravana is _consumed by fire_. Sita, the furrowed earth, +goes through _the ordeal of fire_, and comes out of it purified and +redeemed from all taint of the monster Ravana; and Rama, the sun, and +Sita, the earth, are separated _for fourteen years_; Sita _is hid in +the dark jungle_, and then they are married again, and live happily +together ever after. + +Here we have the battle in the air between the sun and the demon: the +earth is taken possession of by the demon; the demon is finally +consumed by fire, and perishes; the earth goes through an ordeal of +fire, a conflagration; and for fourteen years the earth and sun do +not see each other; the earth is hid in a dark jungle; but + +{p. 173} + +eventually the sun returns, and the loving couple are again married, +and live happily for ever after. + +The Phoibos Apollo of the Greek legends was, Byron tells us-- + + The lord of the unerring bow, + The god of life and poetry and light, + The sun in human limbs arrayed, and brow + All radiant from his triumph in the fight. + The shaft had just been shot, the arrow bright + With an immortal's vengeance; in his eye + And nostril beautiful disdain, and might, + And majesty flash their full lightnings by, + Developing in that one glance the deity." + +This fight, so magnificently described, was the sun-god's battle with +Python, the destroyer, the serpent, the dragon, the Comet. What was +Python doing? He was "stealing the springs and fountains." That is to +say, the great heat was drying up the water-courses of the earth. + +"The arrow bright with an immortal's vengeance," was the shaft with +which Apollo broke the fiend to pieces and tumbled him down to the +earth, and saved the springs and the clouds and the perishing ocean. + +When we turn to America, the legends tell us of the same great battle +between good and evil, between light and darkness. + +Manibozho, or the Great Hare Nana, is, in the Algonquin legends, the +White One, the light, the sun. "His foe was the glittering prince of +serpents"-the Comet.[1] + +Among the Iroquois, according to the Jesuit missionary, Father +Brebeuf, who resided among the Hurons in 1626, there was a legend of +two brothers, Ioskeba and Tawiscara, which mean, in the Oneida +dialect, the _White One_, the light, the sun, and the _Dark One_, the +night. + +[1. Brinton's "Myths," p. 182.] + +{p. 174} + +They were twins, born of a virgin mother, who died in giving them +life. Their grandmother was the moon (the _water_ deity), called +_At-aeusic_, a word which signifies "she bathes herself," derived +from the word for _water_. + +"The brothers quarreled, and finally came to blows, the former using +the horns of a stag, the latter the wild rose. He of the weaker +weapon was very naturally discomfited and sorely wounded. Fleeing for +life, the blood gushed from him at every step, and as it fell _turned +into flint-stones_. The victor returned to his grandmother in the +_far east_, and established his lodge on _the borders of the great +ocean_, whence the sun comes. In time he became _the father of +mankind_, and special guardian of the Iroquois. The earth was at +first arid and sterile, but he destroyed the gigantic frog which had +swallowed all the waters, and guided the torrents into smooth streams +and lakes. The woods he stocked with game; and, having learned from +the great tortoise who supports the world how to make fire, taught +his children, the Indians, this indispensable art. . . . Sometimes +they spoke of him as the sun, but this is only figuratively."[1] + +Here we have the light and darkness, the sun and the night, battling +with each other; the sun fights with a younger brother, another +luminary, the comet; the comet is broken up; it flies for life, the +red blood (the red clay) streaming from it, and _flint-stones_ +appearing on the earth wherever the blood (the clay) falls. The +victorious sun re-establishes himself in the east. And then the myth +of the sun merges into the legends concerning a great people, who +were the fathers of mankind who dwelt "in the east," on the borders +of the great eastern ocean, the Atlantic. "The earth was at first +arid and sterile," covered with _débris_ and stones; but the +returning sun, the White One, destroys the gigantic frog, emblem of +cold and water, the great snows and ice-deposits; this + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 184.] + +{p. 175} + +frog had "swallowed all the waters," that is to say, the falling +rains had been congealed in these great snow-banks and glaciers; the +sun melts them, and kills the frog; the waters pour forth in deluging +floods; Manibozho "guides the torrents into smooth streams and +lakes"; the woods return, and become once more full of animal life. +Then the myth again mixes up the sun and the sun-land in the east. +From this sun-land, represented as "a tortoise," always the emblem of +an island, the Iroquois derive the knowledge of "how to make fire." + +This coming of the monster, his attack upon and conquest of the sun, +his apparent swallowing of that orb, are all found represented on +both sides of the Atlantic, on the walls of temples and in great +earth-mounds, in the image of a gigantic serpent holding a globe in +its mouth. + +This long-trailing object in the skies was probably the origin of +that primeval serpent-worship found all over the world. And hence the +association of the serpent in so many religions with the evil-one. In +itself, the serpent should no more represent moral wrong than the +lizard, the crocodile, or the frog; but the hereditary abhorrence +with which he is regarded by mankind extends to no other created +thing. He is the image of the great destroyer, the wronger, the enemy. + +Let us turn to another legend. + +An ancient authority[1] gives the following legend of the Tupi +Indians of Brazil: + +"Monau, without beginning or end, author of all that is, seeing the +ingratitude of men, and their contempt for him who had made them thus +joyous, withdrew from them, and sent upon them _tata_, the divine +_fire, which burned all that was on the surface of the earth_. He + +[1. "Une Fête Brésilienne célébré à Rouen en 1550," par M. Ferdinand +Denis, p. 82.] + +{p. 176} + +swept about the fire in such a way that _in places he raised +mountains, and in others dug valleys_. Of all men one alone, Irin +Magé, was saved, whom Monau carried into the heaven. He, seeing all +things destroyed, spoke thus to Monau: 'Wilt thou also destroy the +heavens and their garniture? Alas! henceforth where will be our home? +Why should I live, since there is none other of my kind? Then Monau +was so filled with pity that he _poured a deluging rain on the earth, +which quenched the fire_, and flowed on all sides, forming the ocean, +which we call the _parana_, the great waters."[1] + +The prayer of Irin Magé, when he calls on God to save the garniture +of the heavens, reminds one vividly of the prayer of the Earth in +Ovid. + +It might be inferred that heaven meant in the Tupi legend the +heavenly land, not the skies; this is rendered the more probable +because we find Irin asking where should he dwell if heaven is +destroyed. This could scarcely allude to a spiritual heaven. + +And here I would note a singular coincidence: The fire that fell from +heaven was the divine _tata_. In Egypt the Dame of deity was "ta-ta," +or "pta-pta," which signified father. This became in the Hebrew +"ya-ya," from which we derive the root of Jah, Jehovah. And this word +is found in many languages in Europe and America, and even in our +own, as, "da-da," "daddy," father. The Tupi "_tata_" was fire from +the supreme father. + +Who can doubt the oneness of the human race, when millions of threads +of tradition and language thus cross each other through it in all +directions, like the web of a mighty fabric? + +We cross from one continent to another, from the torrid part of South +America to the frozen regions of North America, and the same legend +meets us. + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 227.] + +{p. 177} + +The Tacullies of British Columbia believe that the earth was formed +by a musk-rat, who, diving into the universal sea, brought up the +land in his mouth and spit it out, until he had formed "quite an +island, and, by degrees, the whole earth": + +"In some unexplained way, this earth became afterward peopled in +every part, and it remained, _until a fierce fire, of several days' +duration, swept over it, destroying all life_, with two exceptions; +one man and one woman _hid themselves in a deep cave in the heart of +a mountain_, and from these two has the world since been +repeopled."[1] + +Brief as is this narrative, it preserves the natural sequence of +events: First, the world is made; then it becomes peopled in every +part; then a fierce fire sweeps over it for several days, consuming +all life, except two persons, who save themselves by hiding in a deep +cave; and from these the world is repeopled. How wonderfully does all +this resemble the Scandinavian story! + +It has oftentimes been urged, by the skeptical, when legends of +Noah's flood were found among rude races, that they had been derived +from Christian missionaries. But these myths can not be accounted for +in this way; for the missionaries did not teach that the world was +once destroyed by fire, and that a remnant of mankind escaped by +taking refuge in a cave; although, as we shall see, such a legend +really appears in several places hidden in the leaves of the Bible +itself. + +We leave the remote north and pass down the Pacific coast until we +encounter the Ute Indians of California and Utah. This is their +legend: + +"The Ute philosopher declares the sun to be a living personage, and +explains his passage across the heavens along an appointed way by +giving an account of a fierce + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 98] + +{p. 178} + +personal conflict between Ta-vi, the sun-god, and Ta-wats, one of the +supreme gods of his mythology. + +"In that, long ago, the time to which all mythology refers, the sun +roamed the earth at will. _When he came too near with his fierce heat +the people were scorched, and when he hid away in his cave for a long +time, too idle to come forth, the night was long and the earth cold_. +Once upon a time Ta-wats, the hare-god, was sitting with his family +by the camp-fire in the solemn woods, anxiously waiting for the +return of Ta-vi, the wayward sun-god. Wearied with long watching, the +hare-god fell asleep, and the sun-god came so near that he scorched +the naked shoulder of Ta-wats. Foreseeing the vengeance which would +be thus provoked, he fled back to his cave beneath the earth. Ta-wats +awoke in great anger, and speedily determined to go and fight the +sun-god. After a long journey of many adventures the hare-god came to +the brink of the earth, and there watched long and patiently, till at +last the sun-god coming out he shot an arrow at his face, but the +fierce heat consumed the arrow ere it had finished its intended +course; then another arrow was sped, but that also was consumed; and +another, and still another, till only one remained in his quiver, but +this was the magical arrow that had never failed its mark. Ta-wats, +holding it in his hand, lifted the barb to his eye and baptized it in +a divine tear; then the arrow was sped and _struck the sun-god full +in the face, and the sun was shivered into a thousand fragments, +which fell to the earth, causing a general conflagration_. Then +Ta-wats, the hare-god, fled before the destruction he had wrought, +and as he fled the burning earth consumed his feet, consumed his +legs, consumed his body, consumed his bands and his arms--all were +consumed but the head alone, which bowled across valleys and over +mountains, fleeing destruction from the burning earth, until at last, +swollen with heat, the eyes of the god burst and the tears _gushed +forth in a flood which spread over the earth and extinguished the +fire_. The sun-god was now conquered, and he appeared before a +council of the gods to await sentence. In that long council were +established the days and the nights, the seasons and the years, with +the length + +{p. 179} + +thereof, and the sun was condemned to travel across the firmament by +the same trail day after day till the end of time."[1] + +Here we have the succession of arrows, or comets, found in the legend +of the Aztecs, and here as before it is the last arrow that destroys +the sun. And here, again, we have the conflagration, the fragments of +something falling on the earth, the long absence of the sun, the +great rains and the cold. + +Let us shift the scene again. + +In Peru--that ancient land of mysterious civilization, that brother +of Egypt and Babylon, looking out through the twilight of time upon +the silent waters of the Pacific, waiting in its isolation for the +world once more to come to it-in this strange land we find the +following legend: + +"_Ere sun and moon was made_, Viracocha, the White One, rose from the +bosom of Lake Titicaca, and presided over the erection of those +wondrous cities whose ruins still dot its islands and western shores, +and whose history is totally lost in the night of time."[2] + +He constructed the sun and moon and created the inhabitants of the +earth. These latter attacked him with murderous intent (the comet +assailed the sun?); but "scorning such unequal contest he manifested +his power by hurling the lightning on the hill-sides and _consuming +the forests_," whereupon the creatures he had created humbled +themselves before him. One of Viracocha names was _At-achuchu_. He +civilized the Peruvians, taught them arts and agriculture and +religion; they called him "The teacher of all things." _He came from +the east_ and disappeared in the Western Ocean. Four civilizers +followed him who _emerged from the cave_ + +[1. "Popular Science Monthly," October, 1879, p, 799. + +2. Brinton's; "Myths of the New World," p. 192.] + +{p. 180} + +Pacarin Tampu, the House of Birth.[1] These four brothers were also +called Viracochas, _white men_. + +Here we have the White One coming from the east, hurling his +lightning upon the earth and causing a conflagration; and afterward +civilized men emerged from a cave. They were white men; and it is to +these cave-born men that Peru owed its first civilization. + +Here is another and a more amplified version of the Peruvian legend: + +The Peruvians believed in a god called At-achuchu, already referred +to, the creator of heaven and earth, and the maker of all things. +From him came the first man, Guamansuri. + +This first mortal is mixed up with events that seem to refer to the +Age of Fire. + +He descended to the earth, and "there seduced the sister of certain +Guachemines, rayless ones, or Darklings"; that is to say, certain +Powers of Darkness, "who then possessed it. For this crime they +destroyed him." That is to say, the Powers of Darkness destroyed the +light. But not for ever. + +"Their sister proved pregnant, and died in her labor, giving birth to +two eggs," the sun and moon. "From these emerged the two brothers, +Apocatequil and Piguerao." + +Then followed the same great battle, to which we have so many +references in the legends, and which always ends, as in the case of +Cain and Abel, in one brother slaughtering the other. In this case, +Apocatequil "was the more powerful. By touching the corpse of his +mother (the sun?) he brought her to life, he drove off and slew the +Guachemines (the Powers of Darkness), and, directed by + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 193.] + +{p. 181} + +_At-achuchu_, released the race of Indians from the soil by turning +it up with a golden spade." + +That is to say, he dug them out from the cave in which they were +buried. + +"For this reason they adored him as their maker. He it was, they +thought, who produced the thunder and the lightning by _hurling +stones with his sling;_ and the thunder-bolts that fall, said they, +are his children. Few villages were willing to be without one or more +of these. They were in appearance _small, round, smooth stones_, but +had the admirable properties of securing fertility to the fields, +protecting from lightning," etc.[1] + +I shift the scene again; or, rather, group together the legends of +three different localities. I quote: + +"The Takahlis" (the Tacullies already referred to) "of the North +Pacific coast, the Yurucares of the Bolivian Cordilleras, and the +Mbocobi of Paraguay, each and all attribute the destruction of the +world to a _general conflagration_, which swept over the earth, +consuming everything living _except a few who took refuge in a deep +cave_."[2] + +The Botocudos of Brazil believed that the world was once destroyed by +the moon falling upon it. + +Let us shift the scene again northward: + +There was once, according to the Ojibway legends, a boy; the sun +burned and spoiled his bird-skin coat; and he swore that he would +have vengeance. He persuaded his sister to make him a noose of her +own hair. He fixed it just where the sun would strike the land as it +rose above the earth's disk; and, sure enough, he caught the sun, and +held it fast, so that it did not rise. + +"The animals who ruled the earth were immediately put into _great +commotion. They had no light._ They called a council to debate upon +the matter, and to appoint + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 165. + +2. Ibid., p. 217.] + +{p. 182} + +some one to go and cut the cord, for this was a very hazardous +enterprise, as the rays of the sun would _burn up whoever came so +near_. At last the dormouse undertook it, for at this time the +dormouse was the largest animal in the world" (the mastodon?); "when +it stood up it looked like a mountain. When it got to the place where +the sun was snared, its back began to _smoke and burn with the +intensity of the heat_, and the top of its carcass was reduced to +_enormous heaps of ashes_. It succeeded, however, in cutting the cord +with its teeth and freeing the sun, but it was _reduced to very small +size_, and has remained so ever since." + +This seems to be a reminiscence of the destruction of the great +mammalia.[1] The "enormous heaps of ashes" may represent the vast +deposits of clay-dust. + +Among the Wyandots a story was told, in the seventeenth century, of a +boy whose father was killed and eaten by a bear, and his mother by +the Great Hare. He was small, but of prodigious strength. He climbed +a tree, like Jack of the Bean-Stalk, until he reached heaven. + +"He set his snares for game, but when he got up at night to look at +them he found _everything on fire_. His sister told him he had caught +the sun unawares, and when the boy, Chakabech, went to see, so it +was. But he dared not go near enough to let him out. But by chance he +found a little mouse, and blew upon her until she grew so big" (again +the mastodon) "that she could set the sun free, and he went on his +way. But while he was held in the snare, _day failed down here on +earth_." + +It was the age of darkness[2] + +The Dog-Rib Indians, far in the northwest of America, near the +Esquimaux, have a similar story: Chakabech becomes Chapewee. He too +climbs a tree, but it is in pursuit + +[1. Tylor's "Early History of Mankind," p. 848. + +2. Le Jeune (1637), in "Rélations des Jesuits dans la Nouvelle +France," vol. i, p. 54.] + +{p. 183} + +of a squirrel, until he reaches heaven. He set a snare made of his +sister's hair and caught the sun. "_The sky was instantly darkened_. +Chapewee's family said to him, 'You must have done something wrong +when you were aloft, _for we no longer enjoy the light of day_.' 'I +have,' replied he, 'but it was unintentionally.' Chapewee sent a +number of animals to cut the snare, but the intense _heat reduced +them all to ashes_." At last the ground-mole working in the earth cut +the snare but lost its sight, "and its nose and teeth have ever since +been brown as if burnt."[1] + +The natives of Siberia represented the mastodon as a great mole +burrowing in the earth and casting up ridges of earth--the sight of +the sun killed him. + +These sun-catching legends date back to a time when the races of the +earth had not yet separated. Hence we find the same story, in almost +the same words, in Polynesia and America. + +Maui is the Polynesian god of the ancient days. He concluded, as did +Ta-wats, that the days were too short. He wanted the sun to slow-up, +but it would not. So he proceeded to catch it in a noose like the +Ojibway boy and the Wyandot youth. The manufacture of the noose, we +are told, led to the discovery of the art of rope-making. He took his +brothers with him; he armed himself, like Samson, with a jaw-bone, +but instead of the jaw-bone of an ass, he, with much better taste, +selected the jawbone of his mistress. She may have been a lady of +fine conversational powers. They traveled far, like Ta-wats, even to +the very edge of the place where the sun rises. There he set his +noose. The sun came and put his head and fore-paws into it; then the +brothers pulled the ropes + +[1. Richardson's "Narrative of Franklin's Second Expedition," p. 291.] + +{p. 184} + +tight and Maui gave him a great whipping with the jawbone; he +screamed and roared; they held him there for a long time, (the Age of +Darkness,) and at last they let him go; and weak from his wounds, +(obscured by clouds,) he crawls slowly along his path. Here the jaw +of the wolf Fenris, which reached from earth to heaven, in the +Scandinavian legends, becomes a veritable jaw-bone which beats and +ruins the sun. + +It is a curious fact that the sun in this Polynesian legend is _Ra_, +precisely the same as the name of the god of the sun in Egypt, while +in Hindostan the sun-god is Ra-ma. + +In another Polynesian legend we read of a character who was satisfied +with nothing, "even pudding would not content him," and this +unconscionable fellow worried his family out of all heart with his +new ways and ideas. He represents a progressive, inventive race. He +was building a great house, but the days were too short; so, like +Maui, he determined to catch the sun in nets and ropes; but the sun +went on. At last he succeeded; he caught him. The good man then had +time to finish his house, but the sun cried and cried "until the +island of Savai was nearly drowned."[1] + +And these myths of the sun being tied by a cord are, strange to say, +found even in Europe. The legends tell us: + +"In North Germany the townsmen of Bösum sit up in their church-tower +and hold the sun by a cable all day long; taking care of it at night, +and letting it up again in the morning. In 'Reynard the Fox,' the day +is bound with a rope, and its bonds only allow it to come slowly on. +The Peruvian Inca said the sun is like a tied beast, who goes ever +round and round, in the same track."[2] + +That is to say, they recognized that he is not a god, but the servant +of God. + +[1. Tyler's "Early Mankind," p. 347. + +2. Ibid., p. 352.] + +{p. 185} + +Verily the bands that knit the races of the earth together are +wonderful indeed, and they radiate, as I shall try to show, from one +spot of the earth's surface, alike to Polynesia, Europe, and America. + +Let us change the scene again to the neighborhood of the Aztecs: + +We are told of two youths, the ancestors of the Miztec chiefs, who +separated, each going his own way to conquer lands for himself: + +"The braver of the two, coming to the vicinity of Tilantongo, armed +with buckler and bow, was _much vexed and oppressed by the ardent +rays of the sun_, which he took to be the lord of that district, +striving to prevent his entrance therein. Then the young man strung +his bow, and advanced his buckler before him, and drew shafts from +his quiver. He shot these against the great light even till the going +down of the same; then he took possession of all that land, seeing +that he had _grievously wounded the sun_ and forced him to hide +behind the mountains. Upon this story is founded the lordship of all +the caciques of Mizteca, and upon their descent from this mighty +archer, their ancestor. Even to this day, the chiefs of the Miztecs +blazon as their arms a plumed chief with bow and arrows and shield, +and the sun in front of him setting behind gray clouds."[1] + +Are these two young men, one of whom attacks and injures the sun, the +two wolves of the Gothic legends, the two comets, who devoured the +sun and moon? And did the Miztec barbarians, in their vanity, claim +descent from these monstrous creatures of the sky? Why not, when the +historical heroes of antiquity traced their pedigree back to the +gods; and the rulers of Peru, Egypt, and China pretended to be the +lineal offspring of the sun? And there are not wanting those, even in +Europe, who + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 73.] + +{p. 186} + +yet believe that the blood-royal differs in some of its constituents +from the blood of the common people + + "What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster + Sink in the ground? " + +In the Aztec legends there were four ages, or suns, as they were +termed. The first terminated, according to Gama, in a destruction of +the people of the world by hunger; the second ended in a destruction +by winds; in the third, _the human race was swept away by fire_, and +the fourth destruction was by water. And in the Hindoo legends we +find the same series of great cycles, or ages: one of the Shastas +teaches that the human race has been destroyed four times--first by +water, secondly by winds, thirdly the earth swallowed them, and +_lastly fire consumed them_.[1] + +I come now to a most extraordinary record: + +In the prayer of the Aztecs to the great god Tezcatlipoca, "the +supreme, invisible god," a prayer offered up in time of pestilence, +we have the most remarkable references to the destruction of the +people by stones and fire. It would almost seem as if this great +prayer, noble and sublime in its language, was first poured out in +the very midst of the Age of Fire, wrung from the human heart by the +most appalling calamity that ever overtook the race; and that it was +transmitted from age to age, as the hymns of the Vedas and the +prayers of the Hebrews have been preserved, for thousands of years, +down to our own times, when it was carefully transcribed by a +missionary priest. It is as follows: + +"O mighty Lord, under whose wing we find defense and shelter, thou +art invisible and impalpable, even as night and the air. How can I, +that am so mean and worthless, dare to appear before thy majesty? +Stuttering + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 232.] + +{p. 187} + +and with rude lips I speak, ungainly is the manner of my speech as +one leaping among furrows, as one advancing unevenly; for all this I +fear to raise thine anger, and to provoke instead of appeasing thee; +nevertheless, thou wilt do unto me as may please thee. O Lord, _thou +hast held it good to forsake us in these days_, according to the +counsel that thou hast as well in heaven as in hades,--alas for us, +in that thine _anger and indignation has descended upon us in these +days_; alas in that the many and grievous afflictions of thy wrath +have overgone, and swallowed us up, _coming down even as stones, +spears, and arrows upon the wretches that inhabit the earth!_--this +is the sore pestilence with which we are afflicted and _almost +destroyed_. O valiant and all-powerful Lord, the common people are +almost _made an end of and destroyed;_ a great destruction the ruin +and pestilence already make in this nation; and, what is most pitiful +of all, the little children, that are innocent and understand +nothing, only to play with _pebbles and to heap up little mounds of +earth, they too die, broken and dashed to pieces as against stones +and a wall_--a thing very pitiful and grievous to be seen, for there +remain of them not even those in the cradles, nor those that could +not walk or speak. Ah, Lord, how _all things become confounded!_ of +young and old and of men and women there _remains neither branch nor +root;_ thy nation, and thy people, and thy wealth, _are leveled down +and destroyed_. + +"O our Lord, protector of all, most valiant and most kind, _what is +this?_ + +"Thine anger and thine indignation, does it glory or delight in +_hurling the stone, and arrow, and spear? The FIRE of the pestilence, +made exceeding hot, is upon thy nation_, as a fire in a hut, _burning +and smoking, leaving nothing upright or sound_. The grinders of thy +teeth," (the falling stones), "are employed, and thy bitter whips +upon the miserable of thy people, who have become lean, and of little +substance, even as a hollow green cane. + +Yea, _what doest thou now_, O Lord, most strong, compassionate, +invisible, and impalpable, whose will all things obey, upon whose +disposal depends the rule of the world, to whom all are +subject,--what in thy divine breast + +{p. 188} + +hast thou decreed? Peradventure, hast thou altogether forsaken thy +nation and thy people? Hast thou verily determined that it _utterly +perish_, and that there be no more memory of it in the world, _that +the peopled place become a wooded hill, and_ A WILDERNESS OF STONES? +Peradventure, wilt thou permit that the temples, and the places of +prayer, and the altars, built for thy service, _be razed_ and +destroyed, and no memory of them left? + +"Is it, indeed, possible that thy wrath and punishment and vexed +indignation are altogether implacable, and will go on to the end to +our destruction? Is it already fixed in thy divine counsel that there +is to be no mercy nor pity for us, _until the arrows of thy fury are +spent to our utter perdition and destruction?_ Is it possible that +this lash and chastisement is not given for our correction and +amendment, but only for _our total destruction and obliteration;_ +that THE SUN SHALL NEVER MORE SHINE UPON US, _but that we must remain +in_ PERPETUAL DARKNESS and silence; that never more wilt thou look +upon us with eyes of mercy, neither little nor much? + +"Wilt thou after this fashion destroy the wretched sick that can not +find rest, nor turn from side to side, whose mouth and teeth _are +filled with earth and scurf?_ It is a sore thing to tell how we are +all in darkness, having none understanding nor sense to watch for or +aid one another. We are all as drunken, and without understanding: +without hope of any aid, _already the little children perish of +hunger_, for there is none to give them food, nor drink, nor +consolation, nor caress; none to give the breast to them that suck, +_for their fathers and mothers have died and left them orphans_, +suffering for the sins of their fathers." + +What a graphic picture is all this of the remnant of a civilized +religious race hiding in some deep cavern, in darkness, their friends +slaughtered by the million by the falling stones, coming like arrows +and spears, and the pestilence of poisonous gases; their +food-supplies scanty; they themselves horrified, awe-struck, +despairing, fearing that they would never again see the light; that +this dreadful day was the end of the human race + +{p. 189} + +and of the world itself! And one of them, perhaps a priest, certainly +a great man, wrought up to eloquence, through the darkness and the +terror, puts up this pitiful and pathetic cry to the supreme God for +mercy, for protection, for deliverance from the awful visitation. + +How wonderful to think that the priesthood of the Aztecs have through +ages preserved to us, down to this day, this cavern-hymn--one of the +most ancient of the utterances of the heart of man extant on the +earth--and have preserved it long after the real meaning of its words +was lost to them! + +The prayer continues + +"O our Lord, all-powerful, full of mercy, our refuge, though indeed +thine anger and indignation, thine arrows and stones, have sorely +hurt this poor people, let it be as a father or a mother that rebukes +children, pulling their ears, pinching their arms, whipping them with +nettles, pouring chill water upon them, all being done that they may +amend their puerility and childishness. Thy chastisement and +indignation have lorded and prevailed over these thy servants, over +this poor people, even as rain falling upon the trees and the green +canes, being touched of the wind, drops also upon those that are +below. + +"O most compassionate Lord, thou knowest that the common folk are as +children, that being whipped they cry and sob and repent of what they +have done. Peradventure, already these poor people by reason of their +chastisement weep, sigh, blame, and murmur against themselves; in thy +presence they blame and bear witness against their bad deeds, and +punish themselves therefor. Our Lord, most compassionate, pitiful, +noble, and precious, let a time be given the people to repent; let +the past chastisement suffice; let it end here, to begin again if the +reform endure not. Pardon and overlook the sins of the people; cause +thine anger and thy resentment to cease; repress it again within thy +breast _that it destroy no further_; let it rest there; let it cease, +for of a surety _none can avoid death nor escape to anyplace_." + +{p. 190} + +"We owe tribute to death; and all that live in the world are vassals +thereof; this tribute shall every man pay with his life. None shall +avoid from following death, for it is thy messenger what hour soever +it may be sent, hungering and thirsting always to devour all that are +in the world and so powerful that none shall escape; then, indeed, +shall every man be judged according to his deeds. O most pitiful +Lord, at least take pity and have mercy upon the children that are in +the cradles, upon those that can not walk Have mercy also, O Lord, +upon the poor and very miserable, who have nothing to eat, nor to +cover themselves withal, nor a place to sleep, who do not know what +thing a happy day is, whose days pass altogether in pain, affliction, +and sadness. Than this, were it not better, O Lord, if thou shouldst +forget to have mercy upon the soldiers and upon the men of war whom +thou wilt have need of some time? Behold, it is better to die in war +and go to serve food and drink in the house of the Sun, than to die +in this pestilence and descend to hades. O most strong Lord, +protector of all, lord of the earth, governor of the world and +universal master, let the sport and satisfaction thou hast already +taken in this past punishment suffice; _make an end of this smoke and +fog_ of thy resentment; _quench also the burning and destroying fire +of thine anger;_ let _serenity come and clearness;_ let the small +birds of thy people begin to sing and" (to) "_approach the sun; give +them_ QUIET WEATHER; so that they may cause their voices to reach thy +highness, and thou mayest know them."[1] + +Now it may be doubted by some whether this most extraordinary +supplication could have come down from the Glacial Age; but it must +be remembered that it may have been many times repeated in the deep +cavern before the terror fled from the souls of the desolate fragment +of the race; and, once established as a religious prayer, associated +with such dreadful events, who would dare to change a word of it? + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 200.] + +{p. 191} + +Who would dare, among ourselves, to alter a syllable of the "Lord's +Prayer"? Even though Christianity should endure for ten thousand +years upon the face of the earth; even though the art of writing were +lost, and civilization itself had perished, it would pass unchanged +from mouth to mouth and from generation to generation, crystallized +into imperishable diamonds of thought, by the conservative power of +the religious instinct. + +There can be no doubt of the authenticity of this and the other +ancient prayers to Tezcatlipoca, which I shall quote hereafter. I +repeat what H. H. Bancroft says, in a foot-note, in his great work: + +"Father Bernardino de Sahagun, a Spanish Franciscan, was _one of the +first preachers sent to Mexico_, where he was much employed in the +instruction of the native youth, working for the most part in the +province of Tezcuco. While there, in the city of Tepeopulco, in the +latter part of the sixteenth century, he began the work, best known +to us as the 'Historia General de las Cosas de Nueva España,' from +which the above prayers have been taken. It would be hard to imagine +a work of such a character constructed after a better fashion of +working than his. Gathering the principal natives of the town in +which he carried on his labors, he induced them to appoint him a +number of persons, the most learned and experienced in the things of +which he proposed to write. These learned Mexicans being collected, +Father Sahagun was accustomed to get them to paint down in their +native fashion the various legends, details of history and mythology, +and so on, that he wanted; at the foot of the said. pictures these +learned Mexicans wrote out the explanations of the same in the +Mexican tongue; and this explanation the Father Sahagun translated +into Spanish. That translation purports to be what we now read as the +'Historia General.'"[1] + +[1. "The Native Races of the Pacific States," vol. iii, p. 231.] + +{p. 192} + +Sahagun was a good and holy man, who was doubtless inspired of God, +in the face of much opposition and many doubts, to perpetuate, for +the benefit of the race, these wonderful testimonials of man's +existence, condition, opinions, and feelings in the last great +cataclysm which shook the whole world and nearly destroyed it. + +Religions may perish; the name of the Deity may change with race and +time and tongue; but He can never despise such noble, exalted, +eloquent appeals from the hearts of millions of men, repeated through +thousands of generations, as these Aztec prayers have been. Whether +addressed to Tezcatlipoca, Zeus, Jove, Jehovah, or God, they pass +alike direct from the heart of the creature to the heart of the +Creator; they are of the threads that tie together matter and spirit. + +In conclusion, let me recapitulate + +1. The original surface-rocks, underneath the Drift, are, we have +seen, decomposed and changed, for varying depths of from one to one +hundred feet, by fire; they are metamorphosed, and their metallic +constituents vaporized out of them by heat. + +2. Only tremendous heat could have lifted the water of the seas into +clouds, and formed the age of snow and floods evidenced by the +secondary Drift. + +3. The traditions of the following races tell us that the earth was +once swept by a great conflagration: + +_a_. The ancient Britons, as narrated in the mythology of the Druids. + +_b_. The ancient Greeks, as told by Hesiod. + +_c_. The ancient Scandinavians, as appears in the _Elder Edda_ and +_Younger Edda_. + +_d_. The ancient Romans, as narrated by Ovid. + +_e_. The ancient Toltecs of Central America, as told in their sacred +books. + +{p. 193} + +_f_. The ancient Aztecs of Mexico, as transcribed by Fray de Olmos. + +_g_. The ancient Persians, as recorded in the Zend-Avesta. + +_h_. The ancient Hindoos, as told in their sacred books. + +_i_. The Tahoe Indians of California, as appears by their living +traditions. + +Also by the legends of-- + +_j_. The Tupi Indians of Brazil. + +_k_. The Tacullies of British America. + +_1_. The Ute Indians of California and Utah. + +_m_. The Peruvians. + +_n_. The Yurucares of the Bolivian Cordilleras. + +_o_. The Mbocobi of Paraguay. + +_p_. The Botocudos of Brazil. + +_q_. The Ojibway Indians of the United States. + +_r_. The Wyandot Indians of the United States. + +_s_. Lastly, the Dog-rib Indians of British Columbia. + +We must concede that these legends of a world-embracing conflagration +represent a race-remembrance of a great fact, or that they are a +colossal falsehood--an invention of man. + +If the latter, then that invention and falsehood must have been +concocted at a time when the ancestors of the Greeks, Romans, +Hindoos, Persians, Goths, Toltecs, Aztecs, Peruvians, and the Indians +of Brazil, the United States, the west coast of South America, and +the northwestern extremity of North America, and the Polynesians, +(who have kindred traditions,) all dwelt together, as one people, +alike in language and alike in color of their hair, eyes, and skin. +At that time, therefore, all the widely separated regions, now +inhabited by these races, must have been without human inhabitants; +the race must have been a mere handful, and dwelling in one spot. + +{p. 194} + +What vast lapses of time must have been required before mankind +slowly overflowed to these remote regions of the earth, and changed +into these various races speaking such diverse tongues! + +And if we take the ground that this universal tradition of a +world-conflagration was an invention, a falsehood, then we must +conclude that this handful of men, before they dispersed, in the very +infancy of the world, shared in the propagation of a prodigious lie, +and religiously perpetuated it for tens of thousands of years. + +And then the question arises, How did they hit upon a lie that +accords so completely with the revelations of science? They possessed +no great public works, in that infant age, which would penetrate +through hundreds of feet of _débris_, and lay bare the decomposed +rocks beneath; therefore they did not make a theory to suit an +observed fact. + +And how did mankind come to be reduced to a handful? If men grew, in +the first instance, out of bestial forms, mindless and speechless, +they would have propagated and covered the world as did the bear and +the wolf. But after they had passed this stage, and had so far +developed as to be human in speech and brain, some cause reduced them +again to a handful. What was it? Something, say these legends, some +fiery object, some blazing beast or serpent, which appeared in the +heavens, which filled the world with conflagrations, and which +destroyed the human race, except a remnant, who saved themselves in +caverns or in the water; and from this seed, this handful, mankind +again replenished the earth, and spread gradually to all the +continents and the islands of the sea. + +{p. 195} + + CHAPTER VII. + + LEGENDS OF THE CAVE-LIFE. + +I HAVE shown that man could only have escaped the fire, the poisonous +gases, and the falling stones and clay-dust, by taking refuge in the +water or in the deep caves of the earth. + +And hence everywhere in the ancient legends we find the races +claiming that they came up out of the earth. Man was earth-born. The +Toltecs and Aztecs traced back their origin to "the seven caves." We +have seen the ancestors of the Peruvians emerging from the primeval +cave, _Pacarin-Tampu_; and the Aztec Nanahuatzin taking refuge in a +cave; and the ancestors of the Yurucares, the Takahlis, and the +Mbocobi of America, all biding themselves from the conflagration in a +cave; and we have seen the tyrannical and cruel race of the Tahoe +legend buried in a cave. And, passing to a far-distant region, we +find the Bungogees and Pankhoos, Hill tribes, of the most ancient +races of Chittagong, in British India, relating that "their ancestors +came out of a cave in the earth, under the guidance of a chief named +Tlandrokpah."[1] + +We read in the Toltec legends that a dreadful hurricane visited the +earth in the early age, and carried away trees, mounds, horses, etc., +and the people escaped by _seeking safety in caves_ and places where +the great hurricane + +[1. Captain Lewin, "The Hill Tribes of Chittagong" p. 95, 1869.] + +{p. 196} + +could not reach them. After a few days they came forth "to see what +had become of the earth, when they found it all populated with +monkeys. All this time they were in darkness, without the light of +the sun Or the moon, which the wind had brought them."[1] + +A North American tribe, a branch of the Tinneh of British America, +have a legend that "the earth existed first in a chaotic state, with +only one human inhabitant, a woman, _who dwelt in a cave_ and lived +on berries." She met one day a mysterious animal, like a dog, who +transformed himself into a handsome young man, and they became the +parents of a giant race."[2] + +There seems to be an allusion to the cave-life in Ovid, where, +detailing the events that followed soon after the creation, he says: + +"Then for the first time did the parched air _glow with sultry heat_, +and the _ice_, bound up by the winds, was pendent. Then for the first +time did men enter houses; those houses were _caverns_, and thick +shrubs, and twigs fastened together with bark."[3] + +But it is in the legends of the Navajo Indians of North America that +we find the most complete account of the cave-life. + +It is as follows: + +"The Navajos, living north of the Pueblos, say that at one time all +the nations, Navajos, Pueblos, Coyoteros, and white people, lived +together tinder ground, in the heart of a mountain, near the river +San Juan. _Their food was meat, which they had in abundance, for all +kinds of game were closed up with them in their cave;_ but their +light was dim, and only endured for a few hours each day. There were, +happily, two dumb men among the Navajos, flute-players, + +[1. "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 239. + +2. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 105. + +3. "The Metamorphoses," Fable IV.] + +{p. 197} + +who enlivened the darkness with music. One of these, striking by +chance on the roof of the limbo with his flute, brought out a hollow +sound, upon which the elders of the tribe determined to bore in the +direction whence the sound came. The flute was then set up against +the roof, and the Raccoon sent up the tube _to dig a way out_, but he +could not. Then the Moth-worm mounted into the breach, and bored and +bored till he found himself suddenly on the outside of the mountain, +and _surrounded by water_." + +We shall see hereafter that, in the early ages, mankind, all over the +world, was divided into totemic septs or families, bearing animal +names. It was out of this fact that the fables of animals possessing +human speech arose. When we are told that the Fox talked to the Crow +or the Wolf, it simply means that a man of the Fox totem talked to a +man of the Crow or Wolf totem. And, consequently, when we read, in +the foregoing legend, that the Raccoon went up to dig a way out of +the cave and could not, it signifies that a man of the Raccoon totem +made the attempt and failed, while a man of the Moth-worm totem +succeeded. We shall see hereafter that these totemic distinctions +probably represented original race or ethnic differences. + +The Navajo legend continues: + +"Under these novel circumstances, he, (the Moth-worm,) heaped up a +little mound, and set himself down on it to observe and ponder the +situation. A critical situation enough!--for from the four corners of +the universe four great white Swans bore down upon him, every one +with two arrows, one under each wing. The Swan from the north reached +him first, and, having pierced him with two arrows, drew them out and +examined their points, exclaiming, as the result, 'He is of my race.' +So, also, in succession, did all the others. Then they went away; and +toward the directions in which they departed, to the north, south, +east, and west, were found four great _arroyos_, + +{p. 198} + +by which _all the water flowed off, leaving only_ MUD. The Worm now +returned to the cave, and the Raccoon went up into the mud, _sinking +in it mid-leg deep_, as the marks on his fur show to this day. And +the wind began to rise, sweeping up the four great _arroyos_, and +_the mud was dried away_. + +"_Then the men and the animals began to come up from their cave_, and +their coming up required several days. First came the Navajos, and no +sooner had they reached the surface than they commenced gaming at +_patole_, their favorite game. Then came the Pueblos and other +Indians, who _crop their hair and build houses_. Lastly came _the +white people_, who started off at once _for the rising sun_, and were +lost sight of for many winters. + +"When these nations lived under ground they all _spake one tongue_; +but, with the light of day and the level of earth, came many +languages. The earth was at this time very small, and _the light was +quite as scanty as it had been down below, for there was as yet no +heaven, no sun, nor moon, nor stars_. So another council of the +ancients was held, and a committee of their number appointed to +manufacture these luminaries."[1] + +Here we have the same story: + +In an ancient age, before the races of men had differentiated, a +remnant of mankind was driven, by some great event, into a cave; all +kinds of animals had sought shelter in. the same place; +something--the Drift--had closed up the mouth of the cavern; the men +subsisted on the animals. At last they dug their way out, to find the +world covered with mud and water. Great winds cut the mud into deep +valleys, by which the waters ran off. The mud was everywhere; +gradually it dried up. But outside the cave it was nearly as dark as +it was within it; the clouds covered the world; neither sun, moon, +nor stars could be seen; the earth was very small, that is, but +little of it was above the waste of waters. + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 81.] + +{p. 199} + +And here we have the people longing for the return of the sun. The +legend proceeds to give an account of the making of the sun and moon. +The dumb fluter, who had charge of the construction of the sun, +through his clumsiness, _came near setting fire to the world_. + +"_The old men_, however, either more lenient than Zeus, or lacking +his thunder, contented themselves with forcing the offender back by +puffing the smoke of their pipes into his face." + +Here we have the event, which properly should have preceded the +cave-story, brought in subsequent to it. The sun nearly burns up the +earth, and the earth is saved amid the smoke of incense from the +pipes of the old men--the gods. And we are told that the increasing +size of the earth has four times rendered it necessary that the sun +should be put farther back from the earth. The clearer the +atmosphere, the farther away the sun has appeared. + +"At night, also, the other dumb man issues from this cave, bearing +the moon under his arm, and lighting up such part of the world as he +can. Next, the old men set to work to make the heavens, intending to +_broider in the stars in beautiful patterns of bears, birds, and such +things_." + +That is to say, a civilized race 'began to divide up the heavens into +constellations, to which they gave the names of the Great and Little +Bear, the Wolf, the Serpent, the Dragon, the Eagle, the Swan, the +Crane, the Peacock, the Toucan, the Crow, etc.; some of which names +they retain among ourselves to this day. + +"But, just as they had made a beginning, a prairie-wolf rushed in, +and, crying out, 'Why all this trouble and embroidery?' scattered the +pile of stars over all the floor of heaven, just as they still lie." + +This iconoclastic and unæsthetical prairie-wolf represents a +barbarian's incapacity to see in the arrangement + +{p. 200} + +of the stars any such constellations, or, in fact, anything but an +unmeaning jumble of cinders. + +And then we learn how the tribes of men separated: + +"The old men" (the civilized race, the gods) "prepared two earthen +_tinages_, or water-jars, and having decorated one with bright +colors, filled it with trifles; while the other was left plain on the +outside, but filled within with flocks and herds and riches of all +kinds. These jars being covered, and presented to the Navajos and +Pueblos, the former chose the gaudy but paltry jar; while the Pueblos +received the plain and rich vessel--each nation showing, in its +choice, traits which characterize it to this day." + +In the legends of the Lenni-Lenape,--the Delaware Indians,--mankind +was once buried in the earth with a wolf; and they owed their release +to the wolf, who scratched away the soil and dug out a means of +escape for the men and for himself. The Root-Diggers of California +were released in the same way by a coyote."[1] + +"The Tonkaways, a wild people of Texas, still celebrate this early +entombment of the race in a most curious fashion. They have a grand +annual dance. One of them, naked as he was born, is _buried in the +earth_; the others, clothed in wolf-skins, walk over him, snuff +around him, howl in lupine style, and finally dig _him up with their +nails_."[2] + +Compare this American custom with the religious ceremony of an +ancient Italian tribe: + +"Three thousand years ago the Hirpani, or Wolves, an ancient Sabine +tribe of Italy, were wont to collect on Mount Soracte, and there go +through certain rites, in memory of an oracle which predicted their +extinction when they ceased to gain their living as wolves do, by +violence and plunder. Therefore they dressed in wolf-skins, + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 247. + +2. Ibid.] + +{p. 201} + +_ran with barks and howls over burning coals_, and gnawed wolfishly +whatever they could seize."[1] + +All the tribes of the Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and +Natchez, who, according to tradition, were in remote times banded +into one common confederacy, unanimously located their earliest +ancestry near an artificial eminence in the valley of the Big Black +River, in the Natchez country, whence they pretended to have emerged. +This hill is an elevation of earth about half a mile square and +fifteen or twenty feet high. From its northeast corner a wall of +equal height extends for nearly half a mile to the high land. This +was the _Nunne Chaha_, properly _Nanih waiya_, sloping hill, famous +in Choctaw story, and which Captain Gregg found they had not yet +forgotten in their Western home. + +"The legend was, that in its center was a cave, the house of the +Master of Breath. Here he made the first men from the _clay around +him, and, as at that time the waters covered the earth_, he raised +the wall to dry them on. When the soft mud had hardened into elastic +flesh and firm bone, he _banished the waters to their channels and +beds_, and gave the dry land to his creatures."[2] + +Here, again, we have the beginnings of the present race of men in a +cave, surrounded by clay and water, which covered the earth, and we +have the water subsiding into its channels and beds, and the dry land +appearing, whereupon the men emerged from the cave. + +A parallel to this Southern legend occurs among the Six Nations of +the North. They with one consent looked to a mountain near the falls +of the Oswego River, in the State of New York, as the locality where +their forefathers saw the light of day; and their name, Oneida, +signifies _the people of the stone_. + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 217. + +2. Ibid., p. 242.] + +{p. 202} + +The cave of Pacarin-Tampu, already alluded to, the Lodgings of the +Dawn, or the Place of Birth of the Peruvians, was five leagues +distant from Cuzco, surrounded by a sacred grove, and inclosed with +temples of great antiquity. + +"From its hallowed recesses the mythical civilizers, of Peru, tile +first of men, emerged, and in it, during the time of the flood, the +remnants of the race escaped the fury of the waves."[1] + +We read in the legends of Oraibi, hereafter quoted more fully, that +the people climbed up a ladder from a lower world to this--that is, +they ascended from the cave in which they had taken refuge. This was +in an age of cold and darkness; there was yet no sun or moon. + +The natives in the neighborhood of Mount Shasta, in Northern +California, have a strange legend which refers to the age of Caves +and Ice. + +They say the Great Spirit made Mount Shasta first: + +"_Boring a hole in the sky_," (the heavens cleft in twain of the +Edda?) "using a _large stone_ as an auger," (the fall of stones and +pebbles?) "he pushed down _snow and ice until they reached the +desired height;_ then he stepped from cloud to cloud down to _the +great icy pile_, and from it to the earth, where he planted the first +trees by merely putting his finger into the soil here and there. _The +sun began to melt the snow; the snow produced water; the water ran +down the sides of the mountains_, refreshed the trees, and made +rivers. The Creator gathered the leaves that fell from the trees, +blew upon them, and they became birds," etc.[2] + +This is a representation of the end of the Glacial Age. + +But the legends of these Indians of Mount Shasta go still further. +After narrating, as above, the fall of a + +[1. Balboa, "Histoire du Pérou," p. 4. + +2. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 90.] + +{p. 203} + +stone from heaven, and the formation of immense masses of ice, which +subsequently melted and formed rivers, and after the Creator had made +trees, birds,. and animals, especially the grizzly bear, then we have +a legend which reminds us of the cave-life which accompanied the +great catastrophe: + +"Indeed, this animal" (the grizzly bear) "was then so large, strong, +and cunning, that the Creator somewhat feared him, and hollowed out +Mount Shasta as a wigwam for himself, where he might reside while on +earth in the most perfect security and comfort. So the smoke was soon +to be seen curling up from the mountain where the Great Spirit and +his family lived, and still live, though their hearth-fire is alive +no longer, now that the white-man is in the land." + +Here the superior race seeks shelter in a cave on Mount Shasta, and +their camp-fire is associated with the smoke which once went forth +out of the volcano; while an inferior race, a Neanderthal race, dwell +in the plains at the foot of the mountain. + +"This was thousands of snows ago, and there came after this a late +and severe spring-time, in which a memorable storm blew up from the +sea, shaking the huge lodge" (Mount Shasta) "to its base." + +(Another recollection of the Ice Age.) + +"The Great Spirit commanded his daughter, little more than an infant, +to go up and bid the wind to be still, cautioning her, at the same +time, in his fatherly way, not to put her head out into the blast, +but only to thrust out her little red arm and make a sign, before she +delivered her message."[1] + +Here we seem to have a reminiscence of the cave-dwellers, looking out +at the terrible tempest from their places of shelter. + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 91.] + +{p. 204} + +The child of the Great Spirit exposes herself too much, is caught by +the wind and blown down the mountain-side, where she is found, +shivering on the snow, by a family of grizzly bears. These grizzly +bears evidently possessed some humane as well as human traits: "They +walked then on their hind-legs like men, and talked, and carried +clubs, using the fore-limbs as men use their arms." They represent in +their bear-skins the rude, fur-clad race that were developed during +the intense cold of the Glacial Age. + +The child of the Great Spirit, the superior race, intermarries with +one of the grizzly bears, and _from this union came the race of men_, +to wit, the Indians. + +"But the Great Spirit punished the grizzly bears by depriving them of +the power of speech, and of standing erect--in short, by making true +bears of them. But no Indian will, to this day, kill a grizzly bear, +recognizing as he does the tie of blood." + +Again, we are told: + +"The inhabitants of central Europe and the Teutonic races who came +late to England place their mythical heroes under ground in caves, in +vaults beneath enchanted castles, or _in mounds_ which rise up and +open, and show their buried inhabitants alive and busy about the +avocations of earthly men. . . . In Morayshire the buried race are +_supposed to be under the sandhills_, as they are in some parts of +Brittany."[1] + +Associated with these legends we find many that refer to the time of +great cold, and snow, and ice. I give one or two specimens: + +In the story of the Iroquois, (see p. 173, _ante_,) we are told that +the White One, [the Light One, the Sun,] after he had destroyed the +monster who covered the earth with + +[1. "Frost and Fire," vol. ii, p. 190.] + +{p. 205} + +blood and stones, then destroyed the gigantic frog. The frog, a +cold-blooded, moist reptile, was always the emblem of water and cold; +it represented the great ice-fields that squatted, frog-like, on the +face of the earth. It had "swallowed all the waters," says the +Iroquois legend; that is, "the waters were congealed in it; and when +it was killed great and destructive torrents broke forth and +devastated the land, and Manibozho, the White One, the beneficent +Sun, guided these waters into smooth streams and lakes." The Aztecs +adored the goddess of water under the figure of a great green frog +carved from a single emerald.[1] + +In the Omaha we have the fable of "How the Rabbit killed the Winter," +told in the Indian manner. The Rabbit was probably a reminiscence of +the Great Hare, Manabozho; and he, probably, as we shall see, a +recollection of a great race, whose totem was the Hare. + +I condense the Indian story: + +"The Rabbit in the past time moving came where the Winter was. The +Winter said: 'You have not been here lately; sit down.' The Rabbit +said he came because his grandmother had altogether _beaten the life +out of him_" (the fallen _débris_?). "The Winter went hunting. It was +_very cold: there was a snow-storm_. The Rabbit seared up a deer. +'Shoot him,' said the Rabbit. 'No; I do not hunt such things as +that,' said the Winter. They came upon some men. That was the +Winter's game. He killed the men and _boiled them for supper_," +(cave-cannibalism). "The Rabbit refused to eat the human flesh. The +Winter went hunting again. The Rabbit found out from the Winter's +wife that the thing the Winter dreaded most of all the world was the +head of a Rocky Mountain sheep. The Rabbit procured one. _It was +dark_. He threw it suddenly at the Winter, saying, 'Uncle, that +_round thing_ by you is the head of a Rocky Mountain + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 185.] + +{p. 206} + +sheep.' The Winter became altogether dead. Only the woman remained. +_Therefore from that time it has not been very cold_." + +Of course, any attempt to interpret such a crude myth must be +guess-work. It shows, however, that the Indians believed that there +was a time when the winter was much more severe than it is now; it +was very cold and dark. Associated with it is the destruction of men +and cannibalism. At last the Rabbit brings a round object, (the +Sun?), the head of a Rocky Mountain sheep, and the Winter looks on +it, and perishes. + +Even tropical Peru has its legend of the Age of Ice. + +Garcilaso de la Vega, a descendant of the Incas, has preserved an +ancient indigenous poem of his nation, which seems to allude to a +great event, the breaking to fragments of some large object, +associated with ice and snow. Dr. Brinton translates it from the +Quichua, as follows + + "Beauteous princess, + Lo, thy brother + _Breaks thy vessel + Now in fragments_. + From the blow come + Thunder, lightning, + Strokes of lightning + And thou, princess, + Tak'st the water, + With it raineth, + And _the hail_, or + _Snow dispenseth_. + Viracocha, + World-constructor, + World-enlivener, + To this office + Thee appointed, + Thee created."[1] + +[1. "Myths of the New World," p. 167.] + +{p. 207} + +But it may be asked, How in such a period of terror and calamity--as +we must conceive the comet to have caused-would men think of finding +refuge in caves? + +The answer is plain: either they or their ancestors had lived in +caves. + +Caves were the first shelters of uncivilized men. It was not +necessary to fly to the caves through the rain of falling _débris_; +many were doubtless already in them when the great world-storm broke, +and others naturally sought their usual dwelling-places. + +"The cavern," says Brinton, "dimly lingered in the memories of +nations." + +Man is born of the earth; he is made of the clay like Adam, created-- + + "Of good red clay, + Haply from Mount Aornus, beyond sweep + Of the black eagle's wing." + +The cave-temples of India-the oldest temples, probably, on earth--are +a reminiscence of this cave-life. + +We shall see hereafter that Lot and his daughters "dwelt in a cave"; +and we shall find Job bidden away in the "narrow-mouthed bottomless" +pit or cave. + +[1. "Myths of the New World," p. 244.] + +{p. 208} + + CHAPTER VIII. + + LEGENDS OF THE AGE OF DARKNESS. + +ALL the cosmogonies begin with an Age of Darkness; a damp, cold, +rainy, dismal time. + +Hesiod tells us, speaking of the beginning of things + +"In truth, then, _foremost sprung Chaos_. . . . But from Chaos were +born _Erebus and black Night;_ and from Night again sprang forth +Æther and Day, whom she bare after having conceived by _union with +Erebus_." + +Aristophanes, in his "Aves," says:[1] + +"_Chaos and Night and black Erebus_ and wide Tartarus _first +existed_."[2] + +Orpheus says: + +"_From the beginning the gloomy night enveloped and obscured all +things_ that were under the ether" (the clouds). "The earth was +invisible on account of the darkness, but the light _broke through +the ether_" (the clouds), "and illuminated the earth." + +By this power were produced the sun, moon, and stars.[3] + +It is from Sanchoniathon that we derive most of the little we know of +that ancient and mysterious people, the Phœnicians. He lived +before the Trojan war; and of his writings but fragments +survive--quotations in the writings of others. + +[1. "The Theogony." + +2. Faber's "Origin of Pagan Idolatry," vol. i, p. 255. + +3. Cory's "Fragments," p. 298.] + +{p. 209} + +He tells us that-- + +"The beginning of all things was a condensed, windy air, or a breeze +of _thick_ air, and a _chaos turbid and black as Erebus_. + +"Out of this chaos was generated Môt, which some call Ilus," (_mud,_) +"but others the putrefaction of a watery mixture. And from this +sprang all the seed of the creation, and the generation of the +universe. . . . And, when the air began to send forth light, winds +were produced and clouds, and very great defluxions and _torrents of +the heavenly waters_." + +Was this "thick air" the air thick with comet-dust, which afterward +became the mud? Is this the meaning of the "_turbid_ chaos"? + +We turn to the Babylonian legends. Berosus wrote from records +preserved in the temple of Belus at Babylon. He says: + +"There was a time in which there _existed nothing but darkness_ and +an _abyss of waters_, wherein resided _most hideous beings_, which +were produced of a twofold principle." + +Were these "hideous beings" the comets? + +From the "Laws of Menu," of the Hindoos, we learn that the universe +existed at first in darkness. + +We copy the following text from the Vedas: + +"The Supreme Being alone existed; _afterward there was universal +darkness;_ next the watery ocean was produced by the diffusion of +virtue." + +We turn to the legends of the Chinese, and we find the same story: + +Their annals begin with "Pwan-ku, or the Reign of Chaos."[1] + +[1. "The Ancient Dynasties of Berosus and China," Rev. T. P. +Crawford, D. D., p. 4.] + +{p. 210} + +And we are told by the Chinese historians that-- + +"P'an-ku came forth in the midst of the _great chaotic void_, and we +know not his origin; that he knew the rationale of heaven and earth, +and _comprehended the changes of the Darkness and the Light_."[1] + +He "existed _before the shining of the Light_."[2] He was "the Prince +of Chaos." + +"After the chaos _cleared away_, heaven appeared first in order, then +earth, then after they existed, _and the atmosphere had changed its +character, man came forth_."[3] + +That is to say, P'an-ku lived through the Age of Darkness, during a +chaotic period, and while the atmosphere was pestilential with the +gases of the comet. Where did he live? The Chinese annals tell us: + +"In the age after the chaos, when heaven and earth had _just +separated_." + +That is, when the great mass of cloud had just lifted from the earth: + +"Records had not yet been established or inscriptions invented. At +first even the rulers _dwelt in caves_ and desert places, eating raw +flesh and drinking blood. At this fortunate juncture Pan-ku-sze _came +forth_, and from that time heaven and earth began to be heaven and +earth, men and things to be men and things, and so the chaotic state +passed away."[1] + +This is the rejuvenation of the world told of in so many legends. + +And these annals tell us further of the "Ten Stems," being the stages +of the earth's primeval history. + +"At _Wu_--the Sixth Stem--the Darkness and the Light unite _with +injurious effects_--all things become _solid_," (frozen?), "_and the +Darkness destroys the growth of all things_. + +[1. Compendium of Wong-shi-Shing 1526-1590," Crawford, p. 3. + +2. Ibid. + +3. Ibid., p. 2. + +4. Ibid., p. 3.] + +{p. 211} + +"At _Kung_--the Seventh Stem--_the Darkness nips all things_." + +But the Darkness is passing away: + +"At _Jin_--the Ninth Stem--the Light _begins to nourish all things in +the recesses below_. + +"Lastly, at _Tsze_, all things _begin to germinate_."[1] + +The same story is told in the "Twelve Branches." + +"1. _K'wun-tun_ stands for the period of _chaos, the cold midnight +darkness_. It is said that with it all things began to germinate in +the hidden recesses of the under-world." + +In the 2d--_Ch'i-fun-yoh_--"light and heat become active, and all +things begin to rise in obedience to its nature." In the +3d--_Sheh-ti-kuh_--the stars and sun probably appear, as from this +point the calendar begins. In the 5th--_Chi-shii_--all things in a +torpid state begin to come forth. In the 8th--_Hëen-hia_--all things +harmonize, and the present order of things is established; that is to +say, the effects of the catastrophe have largely passed away.[2] + +The kings who governed before the Drift were called the Rulers of +heaven and earth; those who came after were the Rulers of man. + +"_Cheu Ching-huen_ says: 'The Rulers of man succeeded to the Rulers +of heaven and the Rulers of earth in the government; that then _the +atmosphere gradually cleared away_, and all things sprang up +together; that the order of time was gradually settled, and the +usages of society gradually became correct and respectful."[3] + +And then we read that "the day and night had not yet been divided," +but, after a time, "day and night were distinguished from each +other."[4] + +Here we have the history of some event which changed + +[1. "Compendium of Wong-shi-Shing 1526-1590," Crawford, pp. 4, 5. + +2. Ibid., p. 8. + +3. Ibid. + +4. Ibid., p. 7.] + +{p. 212} + +the dynasties of the world: the heavenly kingdom was succeeded by a +merely human one; there were chaos, cold, and darkness, and death to +vegetation; then the light increases, and vegetation begins once more +to germinate; the atmosphere is thick; the heavens rest on the earth; +day and night can not be distinguished from one another, and mankind +dwell in caves, and live on raw meat and blood. + +Surely all this accords wonderfully with our theory. + +And here we have the same story in another form: + +"The philosopher of Oraibi tells us that when the people ascended by +means of the magical tree, which constituted the ladder from the +lower world to this, they found the firmament, _the ceiling of this +world, low down upon the earth_--the floor of this world." + +That is to say, when the people climbed up, from the cave in which +they were bidden, to the surface of the earth, the dense clouds +rested on the face of the earth. + +"Machito, one of their gods, raised the firmament on his shoulders to +where it is now seen. _Still the world was dark, as there was no sun, +no moon, and no stars_. So the people murmured because of the +darkness and the cold. Machito said, 'Bring me seven maidens'; and +they brought him seven maidens; and he said, 'Bring me seven baskets +of cotton-bolls'; and they brought him seven baskets of cotton-bolls; +and he taught the seven maidens to weave a magical fabric from the +cotton, and when they had finished it he held it aloft, and the +breeze carried it away toward the firmament, and in the twinkling of +an eye it was transformed into a beautiful and full-orbed moon; and +the same breeze caught the remnants of flocculent cotton, which the +maidens had scattered during their work, and carried them aloft, and +they were transformed into bright stars. But _still it was cold;_ and +the people murmured again, and Machito said, 'Bring me seven +buffalo-robes'; and they brought him seven buffalo-robes, and from +the densely matted hair of the robes he wove another wonderful +fabric, which the storm carried + +{p. 213} + +away into the sky, and it was transformed into the full-orbed sun. +Then Machito appointed times and seasons, and ways for the heavenly +bodies; and the gods of the firmament have obeyed the injunctions of +Machito from the day of their creation to the present." * + +Among the Thlinkeets of British Columbia there is a legend that the +Great Crow or Raven, Yehl, was the creator of most things: + +"_Very dark, damp, and chaotic_ was the world in the beginning; +nothing with breath or body moved there except Yehl; in the likeness +of _a raven he brooded over the mist; his black winds beat down the +vast confusion; the waters went back before him and the dry land +appeared_. The Thlinkeets were placed on the earth--though how or +when does not exactly appear--while the world was _still in darkness, +and without sun, moon, or stars_."[2] + +The legend proceeds at considerable length to tell the doings of +Yehl. His uncle tried to slay him, and, when he failed, "he +imprecated with a potent curse a deluge upon all the earth. . . . The +flood came, the waters rose and rose; but Yehl clothed himself in his +bird-skin, and soared up to the heavens, where he stuck his beak into +a cloud, and remained until the waters were assuaged."[3] + +This tradition reminds us of the legend of the Thessalian Cerambos, +"who escaped the flood by rising into the air on wings, given him by +the nymphs." + +I turn now to the traditions of the Miztecs, who dwelt on the +outskirts of the Mexican Empire; this legend was taken by Fray +Gregoria Garcia[4] from a book found in a convent in Cuilapa, a +little Indian town, about a league and a half south of Oajaca; the +book had been compiled by the vicar of the convent, "just as they + +[1. "Popular Science Monthly," October, 1879, p. 800. + +2. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 98. + +3. Ibid., p. 99. + +4. "Origen de los Ind.," pp. 327-329.] + +{p. 214} + +themselves were accustomed to depict and to interpret it in their +primitive scrolls": + +"In the year and in _the day of obscurity and darkness_," (the days +of the dense clouds?), "yea, even before the days or the years were," +(before the visible revolution of the sun marked the days, and the +universal darkness and cold prevented the changes of the seasons?), +"when the world was in _great darkness and chaos_, when the earth was +covered with water, and there was nothing but _mud and slime on all +the face of the earth_--behold a god became visible, and his name was +the Deer, and his surname was the Lion-snake. There appeared also a +very beautiful goddess called the Deer, and surnamed the Tiger-snake. +These two gods were the origin and beginning of all the gods." + +This lion-snake was probably one of the comets; the tiger-snake was +doubtless a second comet, called after the tiger, on account of its +variegated, mottled appearance. It will be observed they appeared +_before_ the light had returned, + +These gods built a temple on a high place, and laid out a garden, and +waited patiently, offering sacrifices to the higher gods, wounding +themselves with _flint_ knives, and "praying that it might seem good +to them to shape the firmament, and _lighten the darkness_ of the +world, and to establish the foundation of the earth; or, rather, to +gather the waters together so that the earth might appear--as they +had no place to rest in save only one little garden." + +Here we have the snakes and the people confounded together. The earth +was afterward made fit for the use of mankind, and at a later date +there came-- + +"A great deluge, wherein perished many of the sons and daughters that +had been born to the gods; and it is said that, when the deluge was +passed, the human race + +{p. 215} + +was restored, as at the first, and the Miztec kingdom populated, and +the heavens and the earth established."[1] + +Father Duran, in his MS. "History Antique of New Spain," written in +A. D. 1585, gives the Cholula legend, which commences: + +"In the beginning, _before the light of the sun_ had been created, +this land was _in obscurity and darkness_ and void of any created +thing." + +In the Toltec legends we read of a time when-- + +"There was a tremendous hurricane that carried away trees, mounds, +houses, and the largest edifices, notwithstanding which many men and +women escaped, _principally in caves_, and places where the great +hurricane could not reach them. A few days having passed, they set +out to see what had become of the earth, when they found it all +populated with monkeys. All this time they were in darkness, _without +seeing the light of the sun, nor the moon, that the wind had brought +them_."[2] + +In the Aztec creation-myths, according to the accounts furnished by +Mendieta, and derived from Fray Andres de Olmos, one of the earliest +of the Christian missionaries among the Mexicans, we have the +following legend of the "Return of the Sun": + +"_Now, there had been no sun in existence for many years;_ so the +gods being assembled in a place called Teotihuacan, six leagues from +Mexico, and gathered at the time _around a great fire_, told their +devotees that he of them who should first cast himself into that, +fire should have the honor of being transformed into a sun. So, one +of them, called Nanahuatzin . . . flung himself into the fire. Then +the gods" (the chiefs?) "began to peer through the gloom in all +directions _for the expected light_, and to make bets as to what part +of heaven. he should + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, pp. 71-73. + +2. "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 239.] + +{p. 216} + +first appear in. Some said 'Here,' and some said 'There'; but when +the sun rose they were all proved wrong, for not one of them had +fixed upon the east." + +In the long-continued darkness they had lost all knowledge of the +cardinal points. The ancient landmarks, too, were changed. + +The "Popul Vuh," the national book of the Quiches, tells us of four +ages of the world. The man of the first age was made of clay; he was +"strengthless, inept, watery; he could not move his head, his face +looked but one way; his sight was restricted, he could not look +behind him," that is, he had no knowledge of the past; "he had been +endowed with language, but he had no intelligence, so he was consumed +in the water."[1] + +Then followed a higher race of men; they filled the world with their +progeny; they had intelligence, but _no moral sense_"; "they forgot +the Heart of Heaven." They were _destroyed by fire and pitch from +heaven_, accompanied by tremendous earthquakes, from which only a few +escaped. + +Then followed a period _when all was dark_, save the white light "of +the morning-star--sole light as yet of the primeval world"--probably +a volcano. + +"Once more are the gods in council, _in the darkness, in the night of +a desolated universe_." + +Then the people prayed to God for light, evidently for the return of +the sun: + +"'Hail! O Creator they cried, 'O Former! Thou that hearest and +understandest us! abandon us not! forsake us not! O God, thou that +art in heaven and on earth; O Heart of Heaven I O Heart of Earth! +_give us descendants, and a posterity as long as the light endure_.'" +. . . + +In other words, let not the human race cease to be. + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 46.] + +{p. 217} + +"It was thus they spake, living tranquilly, _invoking the return of +the light; waiting the rising of the sun;_ watching the star of the +morning, precursor of the sun. But no sun came, and the four men and +their descendants grew uneasy. 'We have no person to watch over us,' +they said; 'nothing to guard our symbols!' Then they adopted gods of +their own, and waited. They kindled fires, _for the climate was +colder;_ then there fell _great rains and hail-storms,_ and put out +their fires. Several times they made fires, and several times the +rains and storms extinguished them. Many other trials also they +underwent in Tulan, famines and such things, and _a general dampness +and cold_--for the earth was _moist, there being yet no sun_." + +All this accords with what I have shown we might expect as +accompanying the close of the so-called Glacial Age. Dense clouds +covered the sky, shutting out the light of the sun; perpetual rains +and storms fell; the world was cold and damp, muddy and miserable; +the people were wanderers, despairing and hungry. They seem to have +come from an eastern land. We are told: + +"Tulan was a much colder climate than the happy eastern land they had +left." + +Many generations seem to have grown up and perished under the sunless +skies, "waiting for the return of the light"; for the "Popul Vuh" +tells us that "here also the language of all the families was +confused, so that no one of the first four men could any longer +understand the speech of the others." + +That is to say, separation and isolation into rude tribes had made +their tongues unintelligible to one another. + +This shows that many, many years--it may be centuries--must have +elapsed before that vast volume of moisture, carried up by +evaporation, was able to fall + +{p. 218} + +back, in snow and rain to the land and sea, and allow the sun to +shine through "the blanket of the dark." Starvation encountered the +scattered fragments of mankind. + +And in these same Quiche legends of Central America we are told: + +"The persons of the godhead were enveloped in the _darkness which +enshrouded a desolated world_."[1] + +They counseled together, and created four men of white and yellow +maize (the white and yellow races?). It was _still dark;_ for they +had no light but the light of the morning-star. They came to Tulan. + +And the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg gives further details of the +Quiche legends: + +Now, behold our ancients and our fathers were made lords, and _had +their dawn_. Behold we will relate also the rising of the sun, the +moon, and the stars! Great was their joy when they saw the +morning-star, which came out first, with its resplendent face before +the sun. _At last_ the sun itself began to come forth; the animals, +small and great, were in joy; they rose from the water-courses and +ravines, and stood on the mountain-tops, with their heads toward +where the sun was coming. An innumerable crowd of people were there, +and the dawn cast light on all these people at once. At last _the +face of the ground was dried by the sun:_ like a man the sun showed +himself, and his presence warmed and dried the surface of the ground. +Before the sun appeared, _muddy and wet_ was the surface of the +ground, and it was before the sun appeared, and then only the sun +rose like a man. _But his heat had no strength_, and he _did but show +when he rose;_ he only remained like" (an image in) "a mirror and it +is not, indeed, the same sun that appears now, they say, in the +stories."[2] + +[1. "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 214. + +2. Tylor's "Early History of Mankind," p. 308.] + +{p. 219} + +How wonderfully does all this accord with what we have shown would +follow from the earth's contact with a comet! + +The earth is wet and covered with mud, the clay; the sun is long +absent; at last he returns; he dries the mud, but his face is still +covered with the remnants of the great cloud-belt; "his heat has no +strength"; he shows himself only in glimpses; he shines through the +fogs like an image in a mirror; he is not like the great blazing orb +we see now. + +But the sun, when it did appear in all its glory, must have been a +terrible yet welcome sight to those who had not looked upon him for +many years. We read in the legends of the Thlinkeets of British +Columbia, after narrating that the world was once "dark, damp, and +chaotic," full of water, with no sun, moon, or stars, how these +luminaries were restored. The great hero-god of the race, Yehl, got +hold of three mysterious boxes, and, wrenching the lids off, let out +the sun, moon, and stars. + +"When he set up the blazing light" (of the sun) "in heaven, the +people that saw it were at first afraid. Many hid themselves in the +mountains, and in the forests, and even in the water, and were +changed into the various kinds of animals that frequent these +places."[1] + +Says James Geikie: + +"Nor can we form any proper conception of how long a time was needed +to bring about that other change of climate, under the influence of +which, slowly and imperceptibly, this immense sheet of frost melted +away from the lowlands and retired to the mountain recesses. We must +allow that long ages elapsed before the warmth became such as to +induce plants and animals to clothe and people the land. How vast a +time, also, must have passed away ere the warmth reached its +climax!"[2] + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 100. + +2. "The Great Ice Age," p. 184.] + +{p. 220} + +And all this time the rain fell. There could be no return of the sun +until all the mass of moisture sucked up by the comet's heat had been +condensed into water, and falling on the earth had found its way back +to the ocean; and this process had to be repeated many times. It was +the age of the great primeval rain. + + ### + + THE PRIMEVAL STORM. + +In the Andes, Humboldt tells us of a somewhat similar state of facts: + +"A thick mist during a particular season obscures the firmament for +many months. Not a planet, not the most brilliant stars of the +southern hemisphere--Canopus, the + +{p. 221} + +Southern Cross, nor the feet of Centaur--are visible. It is +frequently almost impossible to discover the position of the moon. If +by chance the outlines of the sun's disk be visible during the day, +it appears devoid of rays." + +Says Croll: + +"We have seen that the accumulation of snow and ice on the ground, +resulting from the long and cold winters, tended to cool the air and +produce fogs, which cut off the sun's rays."[1] + +The same writer says: + +"Snow and ice lower the temperature by chilling the air and +condensing the rays into thick fogs. The great strength of the sun's +rays during summer, due to his nearness at that season, would, in the +first place, tend to produce an increased amount of evaporation. But +the presence of snow-clad mountains and an icy sea would chill the +atmosphere and condense the vapors into thick fogs. The thick fogs +and cloudy sky would effectually prevent the sun's rays from reaching +the earth, and the snow, in consequence, would remain unmelted during +the entire summer. In fact, we have this very condition of things +exemplified in some of the islands of the Southern Ocean at the +present day. Sandwich Land, which is in the same parallel of latitude +as the north of Scotland, is covered with ice and snow the entire +summer; and in the Island of South Georgia, which is in the same +parallel as the center of England, the perpetual snow descends to the +very sea-beach. The following is Captain Cook's description of this +dismal place: 'We thought it very extraordinary,' he says, 'that an +island between the latitudes of 54° and 55° should, in the very +height of summer, be almost wholly covered with frozen snow, in some +places many fathoms deep. . . . The head of the bay was terminated by +ice-cliffs of considerable height, pieces of which were continually +breaking off, which made a noise like cannon. Nor were the interior +parts of the country less horrible. The savage rocks raised their +lofty summits + +[1. "Climate and Time," p. 75.] + +{p. 222} + +till lost in the clouds, and valleys were covered with seemingly +perpetual snow. Not a tree nor a shrub of any size was to be seen.'" + +I return to the legends. + +The Gallinomeros of Central California also recollect the day of +darkness and the return of the sun: + +"In the beginning they say there was _no light, but a thick darkness +covered all the earth_. Man stumbled blindly against man and against +the animals, the birds clashed together in the air, and confusion +reigned everywhere. The Hawk happening by chance to fly into the face +of the Coyote, there followed mutual apologies, and afterward a long +discussion on the emergency of the situation. Determined to make some +effort toward abating the public evil, the two set about a remedy. +The Coyote gathered a great heap, of tules" (rushes) "rolled them +into a ball, and gave it to the Hawk, together with some pieces of +flint. Gathering all together as well as he could, the Hawk flew +straight up into the sky, where he struck fire with the flints, lit +his ball of reeds, and left it there whirling along all in a fierce +red glow as it continues to the present; for it is the sun. In the +same way the moon was made, but as the tules of which it was +constructed were rather damp, its light has always been somewhat +uncertain and feeble."[2] + +The Algonquins believed in a world, an earth, "anterior to this of +ours, but one _without light or human inhabitants_. A lake burst its +bounds and submerged it wholly." + +This reminds us of the Welsh legend, and the bursting of the lake +Llion (see page 135, _ante_). + +The ancient world was united in believing in great cycles of time +terminating in terrible catastrophes: + +[1. Captain Cook's "Second Voyage," vol. ii, pp. 232-235; + +2. "Climate and Time," Croll, pp. 60, 61. + +3. Powers's Pomo MS., Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 86.] + +{p. 223} + +Hence arose the belief in Epochs of Nature, elaborated by ancient +philosophers into the Cycles of the Stoics, the great Days of Brahm, +long periods of time rounding off by sweeping destructions, the +Cataclysms and Ekpyrauses of the universe. Some thought in these all +things perished, others that a few survived. . . . For instance, +Epietetus favors the opinion that at the solstices of the great year +not only all human beings, but even the gods, are annihilated; and +speculates whether at such times Jove feels lonely.[1] Macrobius, so +far from agreeing with him, explains the great antiquity of Egyptian +civilization by the hypothesis that that country is so happily +situated between the pole and the equator, as to escape both the +deluge and conflagration of the great cycle."[2] + +In the Babylonian Genesis tablets we have the same references to the +man or people who, after the great disaster, divided the heavens into +constellations, and regulated, that is, discovered and revealed, +their movements. In the Fifth Tablet of the Creation Legend[3] we +read: + +"1. It was delightful all that was fixed by the great gods. + +2. Stars, their appearance (in figures) of animals he arranged. + +3. To fix the year through the observation of their constellations, + +4. Twelve months or signs of stars in three rows he arranged, + +5. From the day when the year commences unto the close. + +6. He marked the positions of the wandering stars to shine in their +courses, + +7. That they may not do injury, and may not trouble any one." + +That is to say, the civilized race that followed the great cataclysm, +with whom the history of the event was + +[1. Discourses," book iii, chapter xiii. + +2. Brinton's Myths of the New World," p. 215. + +3. Proctor's Pleasant Ways," p. 393.] + +{p. 224} + +yet fresh, and who were impressed with all its horrors, and who knew +well the tenure of danger and terror on which they held all the +blessings of the world, turned their attention to the study of the +heavenly bodies, and sought to understand the source of the calamity +which had so recently overwhelmed the world. Hence they "marked," as +far as they were able, "the positions of the 'comets,'" "that they +might not" again "do injury, and not trouble any one." The word here +given is _Nibir_, which Mr. Smith says does not mean planets, and, in +the above account, _Nibir_ is contradistinguished from the stars; +they have already been arranged in constellations; hence it can only +mean comets. + +And the tablet proceeds, with distinct references to the Age of +Darkness: + +"8. The positions of the gods Bel and Hea he fixed with him, + +9. And _he opened the great gates in the darkness shrouded_. + +10. The fastenings were strong on the left and right. + +11. In its mass, (i. e., the lower chaos,) he made a _boiling_. + +12. The god Uru (the moon) _he caused to rise out_, the _night he +overshadowed_, + +13. To fix it also for the light of the night until the shining of +the day. + +14. That the month might not be broken, and in its amount be regular, + +15. At the beginning of the month, at the rising of the night, + +16. His (the sun's) horns are breaking through to shine on the +heavens. + +17. On the seventh day _to a circle he begins to swell_, + +18. And stretches _toward the dawn further_, + +19. When the god Shamas, (the in the horizon of heaven, in the east, + +20 . . . . formed beautifully and . . . + +21 . . . . to the orbit Shamas was perfected." + +{p. 225} + +Here the tablet becomes illegible. The meaning, however, seems plain: + +Although to left and right, to east and west, the darkness was +fastened firm, was dense, yet "the great gods opened the great gates +in the darkness," and let the light through. First, the moon +appeared, through a "boiling," or breaking up of the clouds, so that +now men were able to once more count time by the movements of the +moon. On the seventh day, Shamas, the sun, appeared; first, his +horns, his beams, broke through the darkness imperfectly; then he +swells to a circle, and comes nearer and nearer to perfect dawn; at +last he appeared on the horizon, in the east, formed beautifully, and +his orbit was perfected; i. e., his orbit could be traced +continuously through the clearing heavens. + +But how did the human race fare in this miserable time? + +In his magnificent poem "Darkness," Byron has imagined such a blind +and darkling world as these legends depict; and he has imagined, too, +the hunger, and the desolation, and the degradation of the time. + +We are not to despise the imagination. There never was yet a great +thought that had not wings to it; there never was yet a great mind +that did not survey things from above the mountain-tops. + +If Bacon built the causeway over which modern science has advanced, +it was because, mounting on the pinions of his magnificent +imagination, he saw that poor struggling mankind needed such a +pathway; his heart embraced humanity even as his brain embraced the +universe. + +The river which is a boundary to the rabbit, is but a landmark to the +eagle. Let not the gnawers of the world, the rodentia, despise the +winged creatures of the upper air. + +{p. 226} + +Byron saw what the effects of the absence of the sunlight would +necessarily be upon the world, and that which he prefigured the +legends of mankind tell us actually came to pass, in the dark days +that followed the Drift. + +He says: + + "Morn came, and went--and came, and brought no day, + And men forgot their passions in the dread + Of this their desolation, and all hearts + Were chilled into a selfish prayer for light. . . . + A fearful hope was all the world contained; + Forests were set on fire--but hour by hour + They fell and faded,--and the crackling trunks + Extinguished with a crash,--and all was black. + The brows of men by the despairing light + Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits + The flashes fell upon them; some lay down + And bid their eyes and wept; and some did rest + Their chins upon their clinchèd hands and smiled; + And others hurried to and fro, and fed + Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up + With mad disquietude on the dull sky, + The pall of a past world; and then again + With curses cast them down upon the dust, + And gnashed their teeth and howled. . . . + And War, which for a moment was no more, + Did glut himself again--a meal was bought + With blood, and each sat sullenly apart, + Gorging himself in gloom, . . . and the pang + Of famine fed upon all entrails;--men + Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh + The meager by the meager were devoured, + Even dogs assailed their masters." + +How graphic, how dramatic, how realistic is this picture! And how +true! + +For the legends show us that when, at last, the stones and clay had +ceased to fall, and the fire had exhausted itself, and the remnant of +mankind were able to dig their way out, to what an awful wreck of +nature did they return. + +{p . 227} + +Instead of the fair face of the world, as they had known it, bright +with sunlight, green with the magnificent foliage of the forest, or +the gentle verdure of the plain, they go forth upon a wasted, an +unknown land, covered with oceans of mud and stones; the very face of +the country changed--lakes, rivers, hills, all swept away and lost. +They wander, breathing a foul and sickening atmosphere, under the +shadow of an awful darkness, a darkness which knows no morning, no +stars, no moon; a darkness palpable and visible, lighted only by +electrical discharges from the abyss of clouds, with such roars of +thunder as we, in this day of harmonious nature, can form no +conception of. It is, indeed, "chaos and ancient night." All the +forces of nature are there, but disorderly, destructive, battling +against each other, and multiplied a thousand-fold in power; the +winds are cyclones, magnetism is gigantic, electricity is appalling. + +The world is more desolate than the caves from which they have +escaped. The forests are gone; the fruit-trees are swept away; the +beasts of the chase have perished; the domestic animals, gentle +ministers to man, have disappeared; the cultivated fields are buried +deep in drifts of mud and gravel; the people stagger in the darkness +against each other; they fall into the chasms of the earth; within +them are the two great oppressors of humanity, hunger and terror; +hunger that knows not where to turn; fear that shrinks before the +whirling blasts, the rolling thunder, the shocks of blinding +lightning; that knows not what moment the heavens may again open and +rain fire and stones and dust upon them. + +God has withdrawn his face; his children are deserted; all the, +kindly adjustments of generous Nature are gone. God has left man in +the midst of a material world without law; he is a wreck, a fragment, +a lost particle, + +{p. 228} + +in the midst of an illimitable and endless warfare of giants. + +Some lie down to die, hopeless, cursing their helpless gods; some die +by their own bands; some gather around the fires of volcanoes for +warmth and light--stars that attract them from afar off; some feast +on such decaying remnants of the great animals as they may find +projecting above the _débris_, running to them, as we shall see, with +outcries, and fighting over the fragments. + +The references to the worship of "the morning star," which occur in +the legend, seem to relate to some great volcano in the East, which +alone gave light when all the world was lost in darkness. As Byron +says, in his great poem, "Darkness": + + And they did live by watch-fires--and the thrones, + The palaces of crownèd kings--the huts, + The habitations of all things which dwell, + Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed, + And men were gathered round their blazing homes + To look once more into each other's face; + Happy were they _who dwelt within the eye + Of the volcanoes and their mountain-torch_." + +In this pitiable state were once the ancestors of all mankind. + +If you doubt it, reader, peruse again the foregoing legends, and then +turn to the following Central American prayer, the prayer of the +Aztecs, already referred to on page 186, _ante_, addressed to the god +Tezcatlipoca, himself represented as a flying or winged serpent, +perchance the comet: + +"Is it possible that this lash and chastisement are not given for our +correction and amendment, but only for our total destruction and +overthrow; that _the sun will never more shine upon us, but that we +must remain in perpetual darkness?_ . . . It is a sore thing to tell +how we are all in + +{p. 229} + +darkness. . . . O Lord, . . . make an end of _this smoke and fog_. +Quench also the _burning and destroying fire of thine anger_; let +serenity come and _clearness_," (light); "let the small birds of thy +people begin to sing and _approach the sun_." + +There is still another Aztec prayer, addressed to the same deity, +equally able, sublime, and pathetic, which it seems to me may have +been uttered when the people had left their biding-place, when the +conflagration had passed, but while darkness still covered the earth, +before vegetation had returned, and while crops of grain as yet were +not. There are a few words in it that do not answer to this +interpretation, where it refers to those "people who have something"; +but there may have been comparative differences of condition even in +the universal poverty; or these words may have been an interpolation +of later days. The prayer is as follows: + +"O our Lord, protector most strong and compassionate, invisible and +impalpable, thou art the giver of life; lord of all, and lord of +battles. I present myself here before thee to say some few words +concerning the need of the poor people of none estate or +intelligence. When they lie down at night they have nothing, nor when +they rise up in the morning; the darkness and the light pass alike in +great poverty. Know, O Lord, that thy subjects and servants suffer a +sore poverty that can not be told of more than that it is a sore +poverty and desolateness. The men have no garments, nor the women, to +cover themselves with, but only certain rags rent in every part, that +allow the air and the cold to pass everywhere. + +"With great toil and weariness they scrape together enough for each +day, _going by mountain and wilderness seeking their food_; so faint +and enfeebled are they that their bowels cleave to their ribs, and +all their body reechoes with hollowness, and they walk as people +affrighted, the face and body in likeness of death. If they be +merchants, they now sell only cakes of salt and broken + +{p. 230} + +pepper; the people that have something despise their wares, so that +they go out to sell from door to door, and from house to house; and +when they sell nothing they sit down sadly by some fence or wall, or +in some corner, licking their lips and gnawing the nails of their +hands for the hunger that is in them; they look on the one side and +on the other at the mouths of those that pass by, hoping peradventure +that one may speak some word to them. + +"O compassionate God, the bed on which they lie down is not a thing +to rest upon, but to endure torment in; they draw a rag over them at +night, and so sleep; there they throw down their bodies, and the +bodies of children that thou hast given them. For the misery that +they grow up in, for the filth of their food, for the lack of +covering, their faces are yellow, and all their bodies of the color +of earth. They _tremble with cold_, and for leaness they stagger in +walking. They go weeping and sighing, and full of sadness, and all +misfortunes are joined to them; _though they stay by afire, they find +little heat_."[1] + +The prayer continues in the same strain, supplicating God to give the +people "some days of prosperity and tranquillity, so that they may +sleep and know repose"; it concludes: + +"If thou answerest my petition it will be only of thy liberality and +magnificence, for no one is worthy to receive thy bounty for any +merit of his, but only through thy grace. _Search below the +dung-hills_ and in the mountains for thy servants, friends, and +acquaintance, and raise them to riches and dignities." . . . + +"Where am I? Lo, I speak with thee, O King; well do I know that I +stand in an eminent place, and that I talk with one of great majesty, +before whose presence flows a river through a chasm, a gulf sheer +down of awful depth; this, also, is a slippery place, whence many +precipitate themselves, for there shall not be found one without +error before thy majesty. I myself, a man of little understanding and +lacking speech, dare to address + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 204.] + +{p. 231} + +my words to thee; I put myself in peril of falling into the gorge and +cavern of this river. I, Lord, have come to take with my hands, +_blindness to mine eyes_, rottenness and shriveling to my members, +poverty and affliction to my body; for my meanness and rudeness this +it is that I merit to receive. Live and rule for ever in all +quietness and tranquillity, O thou that art our lord, our shelter, +our protector, most compassionate, most pitiful, invisible, +impalpable." + +It is true that much of all this would apply to any great period of +famine, but it appears that these events occurred when there was +great cold in the country, when the people gathered around fires and +could not get warm, a remarkable state of things in a country +possessing as tropical a climate as Mexico. Moreover, these people +were wanderers, "going by mountain and wilderness," seeking food, a +whole nation of poverty-stricken, homeless, wandering paupers. And +when we recur to the part where the priest tells the Lord to seek his +friends and servants in the mountains, "below the dung-hills," and +raise them to riches, it is difficult to understand it otherwise than +as an allusion to those who had been buried under the falling slime, +clay, and stones. Even poor men do not dwell under dung-hills, nor +are they usually buried under them, and it is very possible that in +transmission from generation to generation the original meaning was +lost sight of. I should understand it to mean, "Go, O Lord, and +search and bring back to life and comfort and wealth the millions +thou hast slaughtered on the mountains, covering them with hills of +slime and refuse." + +And when we turn to the traditions of the kindred and more ancient +race, the Toltecs,[1] we find that, after the fall of the fire from +heaven, the people, emerging from the + +[1. "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 240.] + +{p. 232} + +seven caves, wandered _one hundred and four years_, "suffering from +nakedness, hunger, and cold, over many lands, across expanses of sea, +and through untold hardships," precisely as narrated in the foregoing +pathetic prayer. + +It tells of the migration of a race, over the desolated world, during +the Age of Darkness. And we will find something, hereafter, very much +like it, in the Book of Job. + +{p. 233} + + CHAPTER IX. + + THE TRIUMPH OF THE SUN. + +A GREAT solar-myth underlies all the ancient mythologies. It +commemorates the death and resurrection of the sun. It signifies the +destruction of the light by the clouds, the darkness, and the +eventual return of the great luminary of the world. + +The Syrian Adonis, the sun-god, the Hebrew Tamheur, and the Assyrian +Du-Zu, all suffered a sudden and violent death, disappeared for a +time from the sight of men, and were at last raised from the dead. + +The myth is the primeval form of the resurrection. + +All through the Gothic legends runs this thought--the battle of the +Light with the Darkness; the temporary death of the Light, and its +final triumph over the grave. Sometimes we have but a fragment of the +story. + +In the Saxon Beowulf we have Grendel, a terrible monster, who comes +to the palace-hall at midnight, and drags out the sleepers and sucks +their blood. Beowulf assails him. A ghastly struggle follows in the +darkness. Grendel is killed. But his fearful mother, the devil's +clam, comes to avenge his death; she attacks Beowulf, and is +slain.[1] There comes a third dragon, which Beowulf kills, but is +stifled with the breath of the monster and dies, rejoicing, however, +that the dragon has brought with him a great treasure of gold, which +will make his people rich.[2] + +[1. Poor, "Sanskrit and Kindred Literatures," p. 315. + +2. Ibid.] + +{p. 234} + +Here, again, are the three comets, the wolf, the snake, and the dog +of Ragnarok; the three arrows of the American legends; the three +monsters of Hesiod. + +When we turn to Egypt we find that their whole religion was +constructed upon legends relating to the ages of fire and ice, and +the victory of the sun-god over the evil-one. We find everywhere a +recollection of the days of cloud, "when darkness dwelt upon the face +of the deep." + +Osiris, their great god, represented the sun in his darkened or +nocturnal or ruined condition, before the coming of day. M. +Mariette-Bey says: + +"Originally, Osiris is the nocturnal sun; he is _the primordial night +of chaos_; he is consequently anterior to Ra, the Sun of Day."[1] + +Mr. Miller says: + +"As nocturnal sun, Osiris was also regarded as a type of the sun +_before its first rising_, or of the primordial night of chaos, and +as such, according to M. Mariette, his first rising--his original +birth to the light under the form of Ra--symbolized the birth of +humanity itself in the person of the first man."[2] + +M. F. Chabas says: + +"These forms represented the same god at different hours of the day. +. . . the nocturnal sun and the daily sun, which, succeeding to the +first, dissipated the darkness on the morning of each day, and +renewed the triumph of Horus over Set; that is to say, _the cosmical +victory which determined the first rising of the sun_--the +organization of the universe at the commencement of time. Ra is the +god who, after _having marked the commencement of time_, continues +each day to govern his work. . . . He succeeds + +[1. "Musée de Boulaq," etc., pp. 20, 21, 100, 101. + +2. Rev. O. D. Miller, "Solar Symbolism," "American Antiquarian," +April, 1881, p. 219.] + +{p. 235} + +to a primordial form, Osiris, the nocturnal sun, or better, _the sun +before its first rising_."[1] + +"_The suffering and death of Osiris_," says Sir G. Wilkinson, "_were +the great mystery of the Egyptian religion_, and some traces of it +are perceptible among other people of antiquity. His being the divine +goodness, and the abstract idea of good; his _manifestation upon +earth_, his _death_ and _resurrection_, and his office as judge of +the dead in a future state, look like the early revelation of a +future manifestation of the Deity, converted into a mythological +fable."[2] + +Osiris--the sun--had a war with Seb, or Typho, or Typhon, and was +killed in the battle; he was subsequently restored to life, and +became the judge of the under-world.[3] + +Seb, his destroyer, was a son of Ra, the ancient sun-god, in the +sense, perhaps, that the comets, and all other planetary bodies, were +originally thrown out from the mass of the sun. Seb, or Typho, was +"the personification of all evil." He was the destroyer, the enemy, +the evil-one. + +Isis, the consort of Osiris, learns of his death, slain by the great +serpent, and ransacks the world in search of his body. She finds it +mutilated by Typhon. This is the same mutilation which we find +elsewhere, and which covered the earth with fragments of the sun. + +Isis was the wife of Osiris (the dead sun) and the mother of Horus, +the new or returned sun; she seems to represent a civilized people; +she taught the art of cultivating wheat and barley, which were always +carried in her festal processions. + +When we turn to the Greek legends, we shall find + +[1. "Revue Archæologique," tome xxv, 1873, p. 393. + +2. Notes to Rawlinson's "Herodotus," American edition, vol. ii, +p.:219. + +3. Murray's "Mythology," p. 347.] + +{p. 236} + +Typhon described in a manner that clearly identifies him with the +destroying comet. (See page 140, _ante_.) + +The entire religion of the Egyptians was based upon a solar-myth, and +referred to the great catastrophe in the history of the earth when +the sun was for a time obscured in dense clouds. + +Speaking of the legend of "the dying sun-god," Rev. O. D. Miller says: + +"The wide prevalence of this legend, and its extreme antiquity, are +facts familiar to all Orientalists. There was the Egyptian Osiris, +the Syrian Adonis, the Hebrew Tamheur, the Assyrian _Du-Zu_, all +regarded as solar deities, vet as having lived a mortal life, +_suffered a violent death_, being subsequently _raised from, the +dead_. . . . How was it possible _to conceive the solar orb as dying +and rising from the dead_, if it had not already been taken for a +mortal being, as a type of mortal man? . . . We repeat the +proposition: it was impossible to conceive the sun _as dying and +descending into hades_ until it had been assumed as a type and +representative of man. . . . The reign of Osiris in Egypt, his war +with Typhon, his death and resurrection, were events appertaining to +the divine dynasties. We can only say, then, that the origin of these +symbolical ideas was _extremely ancient_, without attempting to fix +its chronology." + +But when, we realize the fact that these ancient religions were built +upon the memory of an event which had really happened--an event of +awful significance to the human race--the difficulty which perplexed +Mr. Miller and other scholars disappears. The sun had, apparently, +been slain by an evil thing; for a long period it returned not, it +was dead; at length, amid the rejoicings of the world, it arose from +the dead, and came in glory to rule mankind. + +And these events, as I have shown, are perpetuated in the sun-worship +which still exists in the world in many + +{p. 237} + +forms. Even the Christian peasant of Europe still lifts his hat to +the rising sun. + +The religion of the Hindoos was also based on the same great cosmical +event. + +Indra was the great god, the sun. He has a long and dreadful contest +with Vritra, "the throttling snake." Indra is "the cloud-compeller"; +he "shatters the cloud with his bolt and releases the imprisoned +waters";[1] that is to say, he slays the snake Vritra, the comet, and +thereafter the rain pours down and extinguishes the flames which +consume the world. + +"He goes in search of the cattle, the clouds, which the evil powers +have driven away."[2] + +That is to say, as the great heat disappears, the moisture condenses +and the clouds form. Doubtless mankind remembered vividly that awful +period when no cloud appeared in the blazing heavens to intercept the +terrible heat. + +"He who fixed firm the _moving earth_; who tranquillized _the +incensed mountains_; who spread the spacious firmament; who +consolidated the heavens--he, men, is Indra. + +"He who having destroyed Ahi (Vritra, Typhon,) set free the seven +rivers, who, _recovered the cows_, (the clouds,) _detained by Bal_; +who generated fire in the clouds; who is invincible in battle--he, +men, is Indra." + +In the first part of the "Vendidad," first chapter, the author gives +an account of the beautiful land, the Aryana Vaejo, which was a land +of delights, created by Ahura Mazda (Ormaz). Then "an evil being, +Angra-Manyus, (Ahriman,) pill of death, created _a mighty serpent_, +and _winter_, the work of the Devas." + +"_Ten months of winter are there_, and two months of summer." + +[1. Murray's "Mythology," p. 330. + +2. Ibid.] + +{p. 238} + +Then follows this statement: + +"Seven months of summer are there; five months of winter were there. +The latter are cold as to water, cold as to earth, cold as to trees. +There is the heart of winter; then all around _falls deep snow_. +There is the worst of evils." + +This signifies that once the people dwelled in a fair and pleasant +land. The evil-one sent a mighty serpent; the serpent brought a great +winter; there were but two months of summer; gradually this +ameliorated, until the winter was five months long and the summer +seven months long. The climate is still severe, cold and wet; deep +snows fell everywhere. It is an evil time. + +The demonology of the Hindoos turns on the battles between the +Asuras, the irrational demons of the air, the comets, and the gods: + +"They dwell beneath the three-pronged root of the world-mountain, +occupying the nadir, while their great enemy Indra," (the sun;) "the +highest Buddhist god, sits upon the pinnacle of the mountain, in the +zenith. The Meru, which stands between the earth and the heavens, +around which the heavenly bodies revolve, is the battlefield of the +Asuras and the Devas."[1] + +That is to say, the land Meru--the same as the island Mero of the +ancient Egyptians, from which Egypt was first colonized; the Merou of +the Greeks, on which the Meropes, the first men, dwelt--was the scene +where this battle between the fiends of the air on one side, and the +heavenly bodies and earth on the other, was fought. + +The Asuras are painted as "gigantic opponents of the gods, terrible +ogres, with bloody tongues and long tusks, eager to devour human +flesh and blood."[2] + +And we find the same thoughts underlying the myths + +[1. "American Cyclopædia," vol. v, p. 793. + +2. Ibid.] + +{p. 239} + +of nations the most remote from these great peoples of antiquity. + +The Esquimaux of Greenland have this myth: + +"In the beginning were two brothers, one of whom said, 'There shall +be night and there shall be day, and men shall die, one after +another.' But the second said, 'There shall be no day, but only night +all the time, and men shall live for ever.' They had a long struggle, +but here once more he who loved darkness rather than light was +worsted, and the day triumphed." + +Here we have the same great battle between Light and Darkness. The +Darkness proposes to be perpetual; it says, "There shall be no more +day." After a long struggle the Light triumphed, the sun returned, +and the earth was saved. + +Among the Tupis of Brazil we have the same story of the battle of +light and darkness. They have a myth of Timandonar and Ariconte: + +"They were brothers, one of fair complexion, the other dark. They +were constantly struggling, and Ariconte, which means _the stormy or +cloudy day_, came out worst." + +Again the myth reappears; this time among the Norsemen: + +Balder, the bright sun, (Baal?) is slain by the god Hodur, the blind +one; to wit, the Darkness. But Vali, Odin's son, slew Hodur, the +Darkness, and avenged Balder. Vali is the son of Rind--the rind--the +frozen earth. That is to say, Darkness devours the sun; frost rules +the earth; Vali, the new sun, is born of the frost, and kills the +Darkness. It is light again. Balder returns after Ragnarok. + +And Nana, Balder's wife, the lovely spring-time, died of grief during +Balder's absence. + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 200.] + +{p. 240} + +We have seen that one of the great events of the Egyptian mythology +was the search made by Isis, the wife of Osiris, for the dead sun-god +in the dark nether world. In the same way, the search for the dead +Balder was an important part of the Norse myths. Hermod, mounted on +Odin's horse, Sleifner, the slippery-one, (the ice?) set out to find +Balder. He rode nine days and nine nights through deep valleys, _so +dark that he could see nothing_;[1] at last he reaches the barred +gates of Hel's (death's) dominions. There he found Balder, seated on +a throne: he told Hel that all things in the world were grieving for +the absence of Balder, the sun. At last, after some delays and +obstructions, Balder returns, and the whole world rejoices. + +And what more is needed to prove the original unity of the human +race, and the vast antiquity of these legends, than the fact that we +find the same story, and almost the same names, occurring among the +white-haired races of Arctic Europe, and the dark-skinned people of +Egypt, Phœnicia, and India. The demon Set, or Seb, of one, +comes to us as the Surt of another; the Baal of one is the Balder of +another; Isis finds Osiris ruling the underworld as Hermod found +Balder on a throne in Hel, the realm of death. + +The celebration of the May-day, with its ceremonies, the May-pole, +its May-queen, etc., is a survival of the primeval thanksgiving with +which afflicted mankind welcomed the return of the sun from his long +sleep of death. In Norway,[2] during the middle ages, the whole scene +was represented in these May-day festivals: One man represents +summer, he is clad in green leaves the other represents winter; he is +clad in straw, fit picture of the + +[1. "Nome Mythology," p. 288. + +2. Ibid., p. 291.] + +{p. 241} + +misery of the Drift Age. They have each a large company of attendants +armed with staves; they fight with each other until winter (the age +of darkness and cold) is subdued. They pretend to pluck his eyes out +and throw him in the water. Winter is slain. + +Here we have the victory of Osiris over Seb; of Adonis over Typhon, +of Balder over Hodur, of Indra over Vritra, of Timandonar over +Ariconte, brought down to almost our own time. To a late period, in +England, the rejoicing over the great event survived. + +Says Horatio Smith: + +"It was the custom, both here and in Italy, for the youth of both +sexes to proceed before daybreak to some neighboring wood, +accompanied with music and horns, about sunrise to deck their doors +and windows with garlands, and to spend the afternoon dancing around +the May-pole." + +Stow tells us, in his "Survey of London": + +"Every man would walk into the sweet meddowes and green woods, there +to rejoice their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers, +and with the harmony of birds praising God in their kindes."[2] + +Stubbs, a Puritan of Queen Elizabeth's days, describing the May-day +feasts, says: + +"And then they fall to banquet and feast, to leape and dance about +it," (the May-pole), "as the heathen people did at the dedication of +their idolles, whereof this is a perfect picture, or rather the thing +itself."[3] + +Stubbs was right: the people of England in the year 1550 A. D., and +for years afterward, were celebrating the end of the Drift Age, the +disappearance of the darkness and the victory of the sun. + +[1. "Festivals, Games," etc., p. 126. + +2. Ibid., p. 127. + +3. Ibid.] + +{p. 242} + +The myth of Hercules recovering his cows from Cacus is the same story +told in another form: + +A strange monster, Cacus, (the comet,) stole the cows of Hercules, +(the clouds,) and dragged them backward by their tails into a cave, +and vomited smoke and flame when Hercules attacked him. But Hercules +killed Cacus with his unerring arrows, and released the cows. + +This signifies that the comet, breathing fire and smoke, so rarefied +the air that the clouds disappeared and there followed an age of +awful heat. Hercules smites the monster with his lightnings, and +electrical phenomena on a vast scale accompany the recondensation of +the moisture and the return of the clouds. + +"Cacus is the same as Vritra in Sanskrit, Azbidihaka in Zend, Python +in Greek, and the worm Fafnir in Norse."[1] + +The cows everywhere are the clouds; they are white and soft; they +move in herds across the fields of heaven; they give down their milk +in grateful rains and showers to refresh the thirsty earth. + +We find the same event narrated in the folk-lore of the modern +European nations. + +Says the Russian fairy-tale: + +"Once there was an old couple who had three sons." + +Here we are reminded of Shem, Ham, and Japheth; of Zeus, Pluto, and +Neptune; of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; of the three-pronged trident of +Poseidon; of the three roots of the tree Ygdrasil. + +"Two of them," continues the legend, "had their wits about them, but +the third, Ivan, was a simpleton. + +"Now, in the lands in which Ivan lived _there was never any day, but +always night_. This was a _snake's doings_. Well, Ivan undertook to +kill the snake." + +[1. Poor, "Sanskrit Literature," p. 236.] + +{p. 243} + +This is the same old serpent, the dragon, the apostate, the leviathan. + +"Then came a _third_ snake with twelve heads. Ivan killed it, and +destroyed the heads, and immediately there was _a bright light_ +throughout the whole land."[1] + +Here we have the same series of monsters found in Hesiod, in +Ragnarok, and in the legends of different nations; and the killing of +the third serpent is followed by a bright light throughout the whole +land--the conflagration. + +And the Russians have the legend in another form. They tell of Ilia, +the peasant, the servant of Vladimir, _Fair Sun_. He meets the +brigand Soloveï, a monster, a gigantic bird, called the nightingale; +his claws extend for seven versts over the country. Like the dragon +of Hesiod, he was full of sounds--"he roared like a wild beast, +bowled like a dog, and whistled like a nightingale." Ilia bits him +with an arrow in the right eye, and he _tumbles_ headlong from his +lofty nest _to the earth_. The wife of the monster follows Ilia, who +has attached him to his saddle, and is dragging him away; she offers +cupfuls of gold, silver, and pearls--an allusion probably to the +precious metals and stones which were said to have fallen from the +heavens. The Sun (Vladimir) welcomes Ilia, and requests the monster +to howl, roar, and whistle for his entertainment; he contemptuously +refuses; Ilia then commands him and he obeys: the noise is so +terrible that the roof of the palace falls off, and the courtiers +_drop dead with fear_. Ilia, indignant at such an uproar, "cuts up +the monster into little pieces, which _he scatters over the +fields_"--(the Drift).[2] + +Subsequently Ilia _hides away in a cave_, unfed by + +[1. Poor, "Sanskrit and Kindred Literatures," p. 390. + +2. Ibid., p. .281.] + +{p. 244} + +Vladimir--that is to say, without the light of the sun. At length the +sun goes to seek him, expecting to find him starved to death; but the +king's daughter has sent him food every day for _three years_, and he +comes out of the cave hale and hearty, and ready to fight again for +Vladimir, the Fair Sun.[1] These three years are the three years of +the "Fimbul-winter" of the Norse legends. + +I have already quoted (see chapter viii, Part Ill, page 216, _ante_) +the legends of the Central American race, the Quiches, preserved in +the "Popul Vuh," their sacred book, in which they describe the Age of +Darkness and cold. I quote again, from the same work, a graphic and +wonderful picture of the return of the sun + +"They determined to leave Tulan, and the greater part of them, under +the guardianship and direction of Tohil, set out to see where they +would take up their abode. They continued on their way amid the most +extreme hardships for the want of food; sustaining themselves at one +time upon the mere smell of their staves, and by imagining they were +eating, when in verity and truth they ate nothing. Their heart, +indeed, it is again and again said, was almost broken by affliction. +Poor wanderers! they had a cruel way to go, many forests to pierce, +many stern mountains to overpass, and a long passage to make through +the sea, along _the shingle and pebbles and drifted sand_--the sea +being, however, parted for their passage. At last they came to a +mountain, that they named Hacavitz, after one of their gods, and here +they rested--for here they were by some means given to understand +that _they should see the sun_. Then, indeed, was filled with an +exceeding joy the heart of Balam-Quitzé, of Balam-Agab of Mahucutah, +and of Iqui-Balam. It seemed to them that even the face of the +morning star caught a new and more resplendent brightness. + +"They shook their incense-pans and danced for very gladness: sweet +were their tears in dancing, very hot + +[1. Poor, "Sanskrit and Kindred Literatures," p. 883.] + +{p. 245} + +their incense--their precious incense. _At last the sun commenced to +advance_; the animals small and great were full of delight; they +raised themselves to the surface of the water; they fluttered in the +ravines; they gathered at the edge of the mountains, turning their +beads together toward that part from which the sun came. And the lion +and the tiger roared. And the first bird that sang was that called +the Queletzu. All the animals were beside themselves at the sight; +the eagle and the kite beat their wings, and every bird both great +and small. _The men prostrated themselves on the ground_, for their +hearts were full to the brim."[1] + +How graphic is all this picture! How life-like! Here we have the +starving and wandering nations, as described in the preceding +chapter, moving in the continual twilight; at last the clouds grow +brighter, the sun appears: all nature rejoices in the unwonted sight, +and mankind fling themselves upon their faces like "the rude and +savage man of Ind, kissing the base ground with obedient breast," at +the first coming of the glorious day. + +But the clouds still are mighty; rains and storms and fogs battle +with the warmth and light. The "Popul Vuh" continues: + +"And the sun and the moon and the stars were now all established"; +that is, they now become visible, moving in their orbits. "Yet was +not the sun then in the beginning the same as now; his _heat wanted +force_, and he was _but as a reflection in a mirror_; verily, say the +historians, not at all the same sun as that of to-day. Nevertheless, +he _dried up and warmed the surface of the earth, and answered many +good ends_." + +Could all this have been invented? This people could not themselves +have explained the meaning of their myth, and yet it dove-tails into +every fact revealed by our latest science as to the Drift Age. + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 46.] + +{p. 246} + +And then, the "Popul Vuh" tells us, the sun petrified their gods: in +other words, the worship of lions, tigers, and snakes, represented by +stone idols, gave way before the worship of the great luminary whose +steadily increasing beams were filling the world with joy and light. + +And then the people sang a hymn, "the song called 'Kamucu,'" one of +the oldest of human compositions, in memory of the millions who had +perished in the mighty cataclysm: + +"We _see;_" they sang, "alas, we ruined ourselves in Tulan; _there +lost we many of our kith and kin;_ they still remain there! left +behind! We, indeed, _have seen the sun_, but they--now that his +golden light begins to appear, where are they?" + +That is to say, we rejoice, but the mighty dead will never rejoice +more. + +And shortly after Balam-Quitzé, Balam-Agab, Mahucutah, and +Iqui-Balam, the hero-leaders of the race, died and were buried. + +This battle between the sun and the comet graduated, as I have shown, +into a contest between light and darkness; and, by a natural +transition, this became in time the unending struggle between the +forces of good and the powers of evil--between God and Satan; and the +imagery associated with it has,--strange to say,--continued down into +our own literature. + +That great scholar and mighty poet, John Milton, had the legends of +the Greeks and Romans and the unwritten traditions of all peoples in +his mind, when he described, in the sixth book of "Paradise Lost," +the tremendous conflict between the angels of God and the followers +of the Fallen One, the Apostate, the great serpent, the dragon, +Lucifer, the bright-shining, the star of the morning, coming, like +the comet, from the north. + +{p. 247} + +Milton did not intend such a comparison; but he could not tell the +story without his over-full mind recurring to the imagery of the +past. Hence we read the following description of the comet; of that-- + + "Thunder-cloud of nations, + Wrecking earth and darkening heaven." + +Milton tells us that when God's troops went forth to the battle-- + + "At last, + Far in the horizon, _to the north_, appeared + From skirt to skirt, a _fiery region stretched_, + In battailous aspect, and nearer view + Bristled with upright beams innumerable + Of rigid spears, and helmets thronged and shields + Various, with boastful arguments portrayed, + The banded powers of Satan, hasting on + With furious expedition. . . . + High in the midst, exalted as a god, + The apostate, in _his sun-bright chariot_, sat, + Idol of majesty divine, inclosed + With _flaming cherubim_ and golden shields." + +The comet represents the uprising of a rebellious power against the +supreme and orderly dominion of God. The angel Abdiel says to Satan: + + "Fool! not to think how vain + Against the Omnipotent to rise in arms; + Who out of smallest things could without end + Have raised incessant armies to defeat + Thy folly; or, with solitary hand, + Reaching beyond all limit, at one blow, + Unaided, could have finished thee, and whelmed + Thy legions under darkness." + +The battle begins: + + "Now storming fury rose, + And clamor such as heard in heav'n till now + Was never; arms on armor clashing brayed {p. 248} + Horrible discord, and the madding wheels + Of brazen chariots raged; dire was the noise + Of conflict; overhead the dismal _hiss_ + Of fiery darts in _flaming volleys flew_, + And, flying, vaulted either host with fire. . . . + Army 'gainst army, numberless to raise + _Dreadful combustion_ warring and disturb + Though not destroy, their happy native seat. + . . . Sometimes on firm ground + A standing fight, then _soaring on main wing_ + Tormented all the air, _all air seemed then_ + Conflicting fire." + +Michael, the archangel, denounces Satan as an unknown being a +stranger: + + "Author of evil, _unknown till thy revolt_, + _Unnamed_ in heaven . . . how hast thou disturbed + Heav'n's blessed peace, and into nature brought + Misery, uncreated till the crime + Of thy rebellion! . . . But think not here + To trouble holy rest; heav'n casts thee out + From all her confines: heav'n, the seat of bliss, + Brooks not the works of violence and war. + Hence then, and evil go with thee along, + Thy offspring, to the place of evil, bell, + Thou and thy wicked crew! " + +But the comet (Satan) replies that it desires liberty to go where it +pleases; it refuses to submit its destructive and erratic course to +the domination of the Supreme Good; it proposes-- + + "Here, however, to dwell free + If not to reign." + +The result, of the first day's struggle is a drawn battle. + +The evil angels meet in a night conference, and prepare gunpowder and +cannon, with which to overthrow God's armies! + + "Hollow engines, long and round, + Thick rammed, at th' other bore with touch of fire {p. 249} + Dilated and infuriate, shall send forth + From far, with thund'ring noise, among our foes + Such implements of mischief, as shall dash + To pieces, and overwhelm whatever stands + Adverse." + +Thus armed, the evil ones renew the fight. They fire their cannon: + + "For sudden all at once their reeds + Put forth, and to a narrow vent applied + With nicest touch. Immediate in a flame, + But soon obscured with clouds, all heav'n appeared, + From these deep-throated engines belched, whose roar + Emboweled with outrageous noise the air, + And all her entrails tore, disgorging foul + Their devilish glut, chained thunder-bolts and hail + Of iron globes." + +The angels of God were at first overwhelmed by this shower of +missiles and cast down; but they soon rallied: + + "From their foundations, loos'ning to and fro, + They plucked the seated hills, with all their load, + Rocks, waters, woods, and by their shaggy tops + Uplifted bore them in their hands." + +The rebels seized the hills also: + + So hills amid the air encountered hills, + Hurled to and fro with jaculation. dire. + + . . . . And now all heaven + Had gone to wrack, with ruin overspread," + +had not the Almighty sent out his Son, the Messiah, to help his +sorely struggling angels. The evil ones are overthrown, overwhelmed, +driven to the edge of heaven: + + "The monstrous sight + Struck them with horror backward, but far worse + Urged them behind; headlong themselves they threw + Down from the verge of heav'n; eternal wrath + Burnt after them to the bottomless pit. . . .{p. 250} + Nine days they fell: _confounded Chaos roared_ + And felt tenfold confusion in their fall + Through his wide anarchy, so huge a rout + Encumbered him with ruin." + +Thus down into our own times and literature has penetrated a vivid +picture of this world-old battle. We see, as in the legends, the +temporary triumph of the dragon; we see the imperiled sun obscured; +we see the flying rocks filling the appalled air and covering all +things with ruin; we see the dragon at last slain, and falling clown +to hell and chaos; while the sun returns, and God and order reign +once more supreme. + +And thus, again, Milton paints the chaos that precedes restoration: + + On heav'nly ground they stood; and from the shores + They viewed the vast immeasurable abyss, + Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild, + Up from the bottom, turned by furious winds + And surging waves, as mountains to assault + Heav'n's height, and with the center mix the poles." + +But order, peace, love, and goodness follow this dark, wild age of +cold and wet and chaos:--the Night is slain, and the sun of God's +mercy shines once more on its appointed track in the heavens. + +But never again, they feel, shall the world go back to the completely +glorious conditions of the Tertiary Age, the golden age of the +Eden-land. The comet has "brought death into the world, and all our +woe." Mankind has sustained its great, its irreparable "Fall." + +This is the event that lies, with mighty meanings, at the base of all +our theologies. + +{p. 251} + + CHAPTER X. + + THE FALL OF THE CLAY AND GRAVEL. + +I TRUST that the reader, who has followed me thus far in this +argument, is satisfied that the legends of mankind point unmistakably +to the fact that the earth, in some remote age--before the +Polynesians, Red-men, Europeans, and Asiatics had separated, or been +developed as varieties out of one family--met with a tremendous +catastrophe; that a conflagration raged over parts of its surface; +that mankind took refuge in the caves of the earth, whence they +afterward emerged to wander for a long time, in great poverty and +hardships, during a period of darkness; and that finally this +darkness dispersed, and the sun shone again in the heavens. + +I do not see how the reader can avoid these conclusions. + +There are but two alternatives before him: he must either suppose +that all this concatenation of legends is the outgrowth of a +prodigious primeval lie, or he must concede that it describes some +event which really happened. + +To adopt the theory of a great race-lie, originating at the beginning +of human history, is difficult, inasmuch as these legends do not tell +the same story in anything like the same way, as would have been the +case had they all originated in the first instance from the same +mind. While we have the conflagration in some of the legends, it has + +{p. 252} + +been dropped out of others; in one it is caused by the sun; in +another by the demon; in another by the moon; in one Phaëton produced +it by driving the sun out of its course; while there are a whole body +of legends in which it is the result of catching the sun in a noose. +So with the stories of the cave-life. In some, men seek the caves to +escape the conflagration; in others, their race began in the caves. +In like manner the age of darkness is in some cases produced by the +clouds; in others by the death of the sun. Again, in tropical regions +the myth turns upon a period of terrible heat when there were neither +clouds nor rain; when some demon had stolen the clouds or dragged +them into his cave: while in more northern regions the horrible age +of ice and cold and snow seems to have made the most distinct +impression on the memory of mankind. In some of the myths the comet +is a god; in others a demon; in others a serpent; in others a +feathered serpent; in others a dragon; in others a giant; in others a +bird in others a wolf; in others a dog; in still others a boar. + +The legends coincide only in these facts:--the monster in the air; +the heat; the fire; the cave-life; the darkness; the return of the +light. + +In everything else they differ. + +Surely, a falsehood, springing out of one mind, would have been more +consistent in its parts than this. + +The legends seem to represent the diverging memories which separating +races carried down to posterity of the same awful and impressive +events: they remembered them in fragments and sections, and described +them as the four blind men in the Hindoo story described the +elephant;--to one it was a tail, to another a trunk, to another a +leg, to another a body;--it needs to put all their stories together +to make a consistent whole. We can not understand + +{p. 253} + +the conflagration without the comet; or the cave-life without both; +or the age of darkness without something that filled the heavens with +clouds; or the victory of the sun without the clouds, and the +previous obscuration of the sun. + +If the reader takes the other alternative, that these legends are not +fragments of a colossal falsehood, then he must concede that the +earth, since man inhabited it, encountered a comet. No other cause or +event could produce such a series of gigantic consequences as is here +narrated. + +But one other question remains: Did the Drift material come from the +comet? + +It could have resulted from the comet in two ways: either it was a +part of the comet's substance falling upon our planet at the moment +of contact; or it may have been torn from the earth itself by the +force of the comet, precisely as it has been supposed that it was +produced by the ice. + +The final solution of this question can only be reached when close +and extensive examination of the Drift deposits have been made to +ascertain how far they are of earth-origin. + +And here it must be remembered that the matter which composes our +earth and the other planets and the comets was probably all cast out +from the same source, the sun, and hence a uniformity runs through it +all. Humboldt says: + +"We are 'astonished at being able to touch, weigh, and chemically +decompose metallic and earthy masses which belong to the outer world, +to celestial space'; to find in them the minerals of our native +earth, making it probable, as the great Newton conjectured, that the +materials which belong to one group of cosmical bodies are for the +most part the same."[1] + +[1. "Cosmos," vol. iv, p. 206.] + +{p. 254} + +Some aërolites are composed of finely granular tissue of olivine, +augite, and labradorite blended together (as the meteoric stone found +at Duvets, in the department de l'Ardèche, France): + +"These bodies contain, for instance, crystalline substances, +perfectly similar to those of our earth's crust; and in the Siberian +mass of meteoric iron, investigated by Pallas, the olivine only +differs from common olivine by the absence of nickel, which is +replaced by oxide of tin." + +Neither is it true that all meteoric stones are of iron. Humboldt +refers to the aërolites of Siena, "in which the iron scarcely amounts +to two per cent, or the earthy aërolite of Alais, (in the department +du Gard, France,) _which broke up in the water_," (clay?); "or, +lastly, those from Jonzac and Juvenas, which contained _no metallic +iron_."[2] + +Who shall say what chemical changes may take place in remnants of the +comet floating for thousands of years through space, and now falling +to our earth? And who shall say that the material of all comets +assumes the same form? + +I can not but continue to think, however, until thorough scientific +investigation disproves the theory, that the cosmical granite-dust +which, mixed with water, became clay, and which covers so large a +part of the world, we might say one half the earth-surface of the +planet, and possibly also the gravel and striated stones, fell to the +earth from the comet. + +It is a startling and tremendous conception, but we are dealing with +startling and tremendous facts. Even though we dismiss the theory as +impossible, we still find ourselves face to face with the question, +Where, then, did these continental masses of matter come from? + +[1. "Cosmos," vol. i, p. 131. + +2. Ibid., vol. i, p. 129.] + +{p. 255} + +I think the reader will agree with me that the theory of the +glacialists, that a world-infolding ice-sheet produced them, is +impossible; to reiterate, they are found, (on the equator,) where the +ice-sheet could not have been without ending all terrestrial life; +and they are not found where the ice must have been, in Siberia and +Northwestern America, if ice was anywhere. + +If neither ice nor water ground up the earth-surface into the Drift, +then we must conclude that the comet so ground it up, or brought the +materials with it already ground up. + +The probability is, that both of these suppositions are in part true; +the comet brought down upon the earth the clay-dust and part of the +gravel and bowlders; while the awful force it exerted, meeting the +earth while moving at the rate of a million miles an hour, smashed +the surface-rocks, tore them to pieces, ground them up and mixed the +material with its own, and deposited all together on the heated +surface of the earth, where the lower part was baked by the heat into +"till" or "hardpan," while the rushing cyclones deposited the other +material in partly stratified masses or drifts above it; and part of +this in time was rearranged by the great floods which followed the +condensation of the cloud-masses into rain and snow, in the period of +the River or Champlain Drift. + +Nothing can be clearer than that the inhabitants of the earth +believed that the stones fell from heaven--to wit, from the comet. +But it would be unsafe to base a theory upon such a belief, inasmuch +as stones, and even fish and toads, taken up by hurricanes, have +often fallen again in showers; and they would appear to an uncritical +population to have fallen from heaven. But it is, at least, clear +that the fall of the stones and the clay are associated in + +{p. 256} + +the legends with the time of the great catastrophe; they are part of +the same terrible event. + +I shall briefly recapitulate some of the evidence. + +The Mattoles, an Indian tribe of Northern California, have this +legend: + +"As to the creation, they teach that a certain Big Man began by +making the _naked earth, silent and bleak_, with nothing of plant or +animal thereon, save one Indian, who roamed about _in a wofully +hungry and desolate state_. Suddenly there arose a terrible +whirlwind, _the air grew dark and thick with dust and drifting sand_, +and the Indian fell upon his face in sore dread. Then there came a +great calm, and the man rose and looked, and lo, all the earth was +perfect and peopled; the grass and the trees were green on every +plain and hill; the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, the +creeping things, the things that swim, moved everywhere in his +sight."[1] + +Here, as often happens, the impressive facts are remembered, but in a +disarranged chronological order. There came a whirlwind, thick with +dust, the clay-dust, and drifting sand and gravel. It left the world +naked and lifeless, "silent and bleak"; only one Indian remained, and +he was dreadfully hungry. But after a time all this catastrophe +passed away, and the earth was once more populous and beautiful. + +In the Peruvian legends, Apocatequil was the great god who saved them +from the powers of the darkness. He restored the light. He produced +the lightning by hurling stones with his sling. The thunder-bolts are +_small, round, smooth stones_.[2] + +The stone-worship, which played so large a part in antiquity, was +doubtless due to the belief that many of the stones of the earth had +fallen from heaven. Dr. Schwarz, + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 86. + +2. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 165.] + +{p. 257} + +of Berlin, has shown that the lightning was associated in popular +legends _with the serpent_. + +"When the lightning kindles the woods it is associated with the +_descent of fire from heaven_, and, as in popular imagination, where +it falls it scatters the thunderbolts in all directions, _the +flint-stones_, which flash when struck, were supposed to be these +fragments, and gave rise to the stone-worship so frequent in the old +world."[1] + +In Europe, in old times, the bowlders were called devil-stones; they +were supposed. to have originated from "the malevolent agency of +man's spiritual foes." This was a reminiscence of their real source. + +The reader will see (page 173, _ante_) that the Iroquois legends +represent the great battle between the _White One_, the sun, and the +_Dark One_, the comet. The _Dark One_ was wounded to death, and, as +it fled for life, "the blood gushed from him at every step, and as it +fell _turned into flint-stones_." + +Here we have the red clay and the gravel both represented. + +Among the Central Americans the flints were associated with Hurakan, +Haokah, and Tlaloe {_Tlaloc?--jbh_}, the gods of storm and thunder: + +"The thunder-bolts, as elsewhere, were believed to be flints, and +thus, as the emblem of the fire and the storm, this stone figures +conspicuously in their myths. Tohil, the god who gave the Quiches +fire by shaking his sandals, was _represented by a flint-stone_. Such +a stone, _in the beginning of things, fell from heaven to earth, and +broke into sixteen hundred pieces_, each of which sprang up a god. . +. . This is the germ of the adoration of stones as emblems of the +fecundating rains. This is why, for example) the Navajos use, as +their charm for rain, certain + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 117.] + +{p. 258} + +long, _round_ stones, which they think fall from the cloud when it +thunders."[1] + +In the Algonquin legends of Manibozho, or Manobosbu, or Nanabojou, +the great ancestor of all the Algic tribes, the hero man-god, we +learn, had a terrific battle with "his brother Chakekenapok, _the +flint-stone, whom he broke in pieces, and scattered over the land_, +and changed his entrails into fruitful vines. The conflict was _long +and terrible_. The face of nature was _desolated as by a tornado, and +the gigantic bowlders and loose rocks found on the prairies are the +missiles hurled by the mighty combatants_."[2] + +We read in the Ute legends, given on page ---, _ante_, that when the +magical arrow of Ta-wats "struck the sun-god full in the face, the +sun was shivered into a _thousand fragments, which fell to the +earth_, causing a general conflagration."[3] + +Here we have the same reference to matter falling on the earth from +the heavens, associated with devouring fire. And we have the same +sequence of events, for we learn that when all of Ta-wats was +consumed but the head, "his tears gushed forth in a flood, which +spread over the earth and extinguished the fires." + +The Aleuts of the Aleutian Archipelago have a tradition that a +certain Old Man, called Traghdadakh, created men "_by casting stones +on the earth; he flung also other stones into the air, the water, and +over the land_, thus making beasts, birds, and fishes."[4] + +It is a general belief in many races that the stone axes and celts +fell from the heavens. In Japan, the stone + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 170. + +2. Ibid., p. 181. + +3. Major J. W. Powell, "Popular Science Monthly," 1879, p. 799. + +4 Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 104.] + +{p. 259} + +arrow-heads are rained from heaven by the flying spirits, who shoot +them. Similar beliefs are found in Brittany, in Madagascar, Ireland, +Brazil, China, the Shetlands, Scotland, Portugal, etc.[1] + +In the legends of Quetzalcoatl, the central figure of the Toltec +mythology, we have a white man--a bearded man--from an eastern land, +mixed up with something more than man. He was the Bird-serpent, that +is, the winged or flying serpent, the great snake of the air, the son +of Iztac Mixcoatl, "the white-cloud serpent, the spirit of the +tornado."[2] He created the world. He was overcome by Tezcatlipoca, +the spirit of the night. + +"When he would promulgate his decrees, his herald proclaimed them +from Tzatzitepec, the hill of shouting, with such a mighty voice that +it could be heard a hundred leagues around. The _arrows which he +shot_ transfixed great trees; _the stones he threw leveled forests;_ +and when he laid his hands on the rocks the _mark was indelible_."[3] + +"His symbols were the bird, the serpent, the cross, and _the +flint_."[4] + +In the Aztec calendar the sign for the age of fire is the _flint_. + +In the Chinese Encyclopædia of the Emperor Kang-hi, 1662, we are told: + +"In traveling from the shores of the Eastern Sea toward Che-lu, +neither brooks nor ponds are met with in the country, although it is +intersected by mountains and valleys. Nevertheless, there are found +in the sand, very far away from the sea, oyster-shells and the +shields of crabs. The tradition of the Mongols who inhabit the +country is, that it has been said from time immemorial that in a + +[1. Tyler's "Early Mankind," p. 224. + +2. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 197. + +3. Ibid., p. 197. + +4. Ibid., p. 198.] + +{p. 260} + +remote antiquity the waters of the deluge flooded the district, and +when they retired the places where they had been made their +appearance covered with sand. . . . This is why these deserts are +called the 'Sandy Sea,' which indicates that they were not always +covered with sand and gravel."[1] + +In the Russian legends, a "golden ship sails across the heavenly sea; +it breaks into fragments, which neither princes nor people can put +together again,"--reminding one of Humpty-Dumpty, in the +nursery-song, who, when he fell from his elevated position on the +wall-- + + "Not all the king's horses, + Nor all the king's men, + Can ever make whole again." + +In another Russian legend, Perun, the thunder-god, destroys the +devils with _stone_ hammers. On Ilya's day, the peasants offer him a +roasted animal, which is cut up and _scattered over the fields_,[2] +just as we have seen the great dragon or serpent cut to pieces and +scattered over the world. + +Mr. Christy found at Bou-Merzoug, on the plateau of the Atlas, in +Northern Africa, in a bare, deserted, stony place among the +mountains, a collection of fifteen hundred tombs, made of rude +limestone slabs, set up with one slab to form a roof, so as to make +perfect dolmens--closed chambers--where the bodies were packed in. + +"Tradition says that a wicked people lived there, and for their sins +_stones were rained upon them from heaven;_ so they built these +chambers to creep into."[3] + +In addition to the legend of "Phaëton," already given, Ovid derived +from the legends of his race another story, + +[1. Tylor's "Early Mankind," p. 328. + +2. Poor, "Sanskrit Literature," p. 400. + +3. Tylor's "Early Mankind," p. 222.] + +{p. 261} + +which seems to have had reference to the same event. He says (Fable +XI): + +"After the men who came from the Tyrian nation had touched this grove +with ill-fated steps, and the urn let down into the water made a +splash, the _azure dragon_ stretched forth his head from the deep +cave, and uttered dreadful hissings." + +We are reminded of the flying monster of Hesiod, which roared and +hissed so terribly. + +Ovid continues: + +"The urns dropped from their hands, and the blood left their bodies, +and a sudden trembling seized their astonished limbs. He wreathes his +scaly orbs in rolling spirals, and, with a spring, becomes twisted +into mighty folds; and, uprearing himself from below the middle into +the light air, he looks down upon all the grove, and is of" (as) +"large size, as, if you were to look on him entire, the _serpent_ +which separates the two Bears" (the constellations). + +He slays the Phœnicians; "some he kills with his sting, some +with his long folds, some breathed upon by the venom of his baleful +poison." + +Cadmus casts a huge stone, as big as a millstone, against him, but it +falls harmless upon his scales, "that were like a coat-of-mail"; then +Cadmus pierced him with his spear. In his fall he crushes the +forests; the blood flows from his poisonous palate and changes the +color of the grass. He is slain. + +Then, under the advice of Pallas, Cadmus _sows the earth with the +dragon's teeth,_ "_under the earth turned up_, as the seeds of a +future people." Afterward, the earth begins to move, and armed men +rise up; they slay Cadmus, and then fight with and slay each other. + +This seems to be a recollection of the comet, and the stones falling +from heaven; and upon the land so afflicted + +{p. 262} + +subsequently a warlike and aggressive and quarrelsome race of men +springs up. + +In the contest of Hercules with the Lygians, on the road from +Caucasus _to the Hesperides_, "there is an attempt to explain +mythically the origin of the round quartz blocks in the Lygian field +of stones, at the mouth of the Rhône."[1] + +In the "Prometheus Delivered" of Æsechylus, Jupiter draws together a +cloud, and causes "the district round about to be _covered with a +shower of round stones_."[2] + +The legends of Europe refer to a race buried under sand and earth: + +"The inhabitants of Central Europe and Teutonic races who came late +to England, place their mythical heroes _under ground in caves_, in +vaults beneath enchanted castles, or in _mounds_ which open and show +their buried inhabitants alive and busy about the avocations of +earthly men. . . . In Morayshire _the buried race are supposed to +have been buried under the sand-hills_, as they are in some parts of +Brittany."[3] + +Turning again to America, we find, in the great prayer of the Aztecs +to Tezcalipoca, {_Tezcatlipoca--jbh_} given on page 186, _ante_, many +references to some material substances falling from heaven; we read: + +"Thine anger and indignation has _descended upon us_ in these days, . +. . coming down even as _stones, spears, and darts upon the wretches +that inhabit_ the earth; this is the pestilence by which we are +afflicted and _almost destroyed_." The children die, "broken and +dashed to pieces _as against stones_ and a wall. . . . Thine anger +and thy indignation does it delight in _hurling the stone and arrow +and spear_. The _grinders of thy teeth_" (the dragon's teeth of +Ovid?) "are employed, and thy bitter whips upon the miserable of + +[1. "Cosmos," vol. i, p. 115. + +2. Ibid., p. 115. + +3. "Frost and Fire," vol. ii, p. 190.] + +{p. 263} + +thy people.... Hast thou verily determined that it utterly perish; . +. . that the peopled place become a wooded hill and _a wilderness of +stones?_ . . . Is there to be no mercy nor pity for us until the +_arrows of thy fury are spent?_ . . . Thine arrows and _stones have +sorely hurt this poor people_." + +In the legend of the Indians of Lake Tahoe (see page 168, _ante_), we +are told that the stars were melted by the great conflagration, and +they rained down molten metal upon the earth. + +In the Hindoo legend (see page 171, _ante_) of the great battle +between Rama, the sun-god, and Ravana, the evil one, Rama persuaded +the monkeys to help him build a bridge to the Island of Lanka, "and +_the stones which crop out through Southern India are said to have +been dropped by the monkey builders_." + +In the legend of the Tupi Indians (see page 175, _ante_), we are told +that God "swept about the fire in such way that in _some places he +raised mountains and in others dug valleys_." + +In the Bible we have distinct references to the fall of matter from +heaven. In Deuteronomy (chap. xxviii), among the consequences which +are to follow disobedience of God's will, we have the following: + +"22. The Lord shall smite thee . . . with an extreme burning, and +with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall +pursue thee until thou perish. + +"23. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the +earth that is under thee shall be iron. + +"24. _The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from. +heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed_. . . . + +"29. And thou shalt _grope at noonday_, as the blind gropeth in +darkness." + +And even that marvelous event, so much mocked at by modern thought, +the standing-still of the sun, at the + +{p. 264} + +command of Joshua, may be, after all, a reminiscence of the +catastrophe of the Drift. In the American legends, we read that the +sun stood still, and Ovid tells us that "a day was lost." Who shall +say what circumstances accompanied an event great enough to crack the +globe itself into immense fissures? It is, at least, a curious fact +that in Joshua (chap. x) the standing-still of the sun was +accompanied by a fall of stones from heaven by which multitudes were +slain. + +Here is the record + +"11. And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were +in the going down to Beth-horon, that _the Lord cast down great +stones from heaven upon them_ unto Azekah, and they died: there were +more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel +slew with the sword." + +"13. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people +had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the +book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and +hasted not to go down _about a whole day_. + +"14. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the +Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for +Israel." + +The "book of Jasher" was, we are told, a very ancient work, long +since lost. Is it not possible that a great, dim memory of a terrible +event was applied by tradition to the mighty captain of the Jews, +just as the doings of Zeus have been attributed, in the folk-lore of +Europe, to Charlemagne and Barbarossa? + +If the contact of Lexell's comet with the earth would, as shown on +page 84, _ante_, have increased the length of the sidereal year three +hours, what effect might not a comet, many times larger than the mass +of the earth, have had upon the revolution of the earth? Were the +heat, + +{p. 265} + +the conflagrations, and the tearing up of the earth's surface caused +by such an arrestment or partial slowing-up of the earth's revolution +on its axis? + +I do not propound these questions as any part of my theory, but +merely as suggestions. The American and Polynesian legends represent +that the catastrophe increased the length of the days. This may mean +nothing, or a great deal. At least, Joshua's legend may yet take its +place among the scientific possibilities. + +But it is in the legend of the Toltecs of Central America, as +preserved in one of the sacred books of the race, the "Codex +Chimalpopoca," that we find the clearest and most indisputable +references to the fall of gravel (see page 166, _ante_): + +"'The third sun' (or era) 'is called Quia-Tonatiuh, sun of rain, +because there fell a rain of fire; all which existed burned; _and +there fell a rain of gravel_.' + +"'They also narrate that while _the sandstone which we now see +scattered about_, and the tetzontli' (_amygdaloide poreuse_, basalt, +trap-rocks) 'boiled with great tumult, there also arose the rocks of +vermilion color.' + +"'Now this was in the year Ce Tecpatl, One _Flint_, it was the day +_Nahui-Quiahuitl_, Fourth Rain. Now, in this day in which men were +lost and destroyed _in a rain of fire_, they were transformed into +goslings.'"[1] + +We find also many allusions in the legends to the clay. + +When the Navajos climbed up from their cave they found the earth +covered with clay into which they sank mid-leg deep; and when the +water ran off it left the whole world full of mud. + +In the Creek and Seminole legends the Great Spirit made the first +man, in the primeval cave, "from the clay around him." + +[1. "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 499.] + +{p. 266} + +Sanchoniathon, from the other side of the world, tells us, in the +Phœnician legends (see page 209, _ante_), that first came +chaos, and out of chaos was generated _môt_ or mud. + +In the Miztec (American) legends (see page 214, _ante_), we are told +that in the Age of Darkness there was "nothing but _mud and slime_ on +all the face of the earth." + +In the Quiche legends we are told that the first men were destroyed +by fire and _pitch_ from heaven. + +In the Quiche legends we also have many allusions to the wet and +muddy condition of the earth before the returning sun dried it up. + +In the legends of the North American Indians we read that the earth +was covered with great heaps of ashes; doubtless the fine, dry powder +of the clay looked like ashes before the water fell upon it. + +There is another curious fact to be considered in connection with +these legends--that the calamity seems to have brought with it some +compensating wealth. + +Thus we find Beowulf, when destroyed by the midnight monster, +rejoicing to think that his people would receive a treasure, a +fortune by the monster's death. + +Hence we have a whole mass of legends wherein a dragon or great +serpent is associated with a precious horde of gold or jewels. + +"The Scythians had a saga of the sacred gold which fell _burning_ +from heaven. The ancients had also some strange fictions of silver +which fell from heaven, and with which it had been attempted, under +the Emperor Severus, to cover bronze coins."[1] + +"In Peru the god of riches was worshiped under the image of a +rattlesnake, horned and hairy, _with a tail of gold_. It was said to +_have descended from the heavens in_ + +[1. "Cosmos," vol. i, p. 115.] + +{p. 267} + +_the sight of all the people_, and to have been seen by the whole +army of the Inca."[1] + +The Peruvians--probably in reference to this event--chose as their +arms two serpents with their tails interlaced. + +Among the Greeks and ancient Germans the fiery dragon was _the +dispenser of riches_, and "_watches a treasure in the earth_."[2] + +These legends may be explained by the fact that in the Ural +Mountains, on the east of Europe, in South America, in South Africa, +and in other localities, the Drift gravels contain gold and precious +stones. + +The diamond is found in drift-gravels alone. It is pure carbon +crystallized. Man has been unable to reproduce it, except in minute +particles; nor can he tell in what laboratory of nature it has been +fabricated. It is not found _in situ_ in any of the rocks of an +earth-origin. Has it been formed in space? Is it an outcome of that +pure carbon which the spectroscope has revealed to us as burning in +some of the comets? + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 125. + +2. Ibid., p. 125.] + +{p. 268} + + CHAPTER XI. + + THE ARABIAN MYTHS. + +AND when we turn to the Arabian tales, we not only see, by their +identity with the Hindoo and Slavonic legends, that they are of great +antiquity, dating back to the time when these widely diverse races, +Aryan and Semitic, were one, but we find in them many allusions to +the battle between good and evil, between God and the serpent. + +Abou Mohammed the Lazy, who is a very great magician, with power over +the forces of the air and the Afrites, beholds a battle between two +great snakes, one tawny-colored, the other white. The tawny serpent +is overcoming the white one; but Abou Mohammed kills it with a rock. +"The white serpent" (the sun) "departed and was _absent for a while_, +but returned"; and the tawny serpent was torn to pieces and scattered +over the land, and nothing remained of her but her head. + +And then we have the legend of "the City of Brass," or bronze. It +relates to "an ancient age and period in the olden time." One of the +caliphs, Abdelmelik, the son of Marwan, has heard from antiquity that +Solomon, (Solomon is, in Arabic, like Charlemagne in the middle-age +myths of Europe, the synonym for everything venerable and powerful,) +had imprisoned genii in bottles of brass, and the Caliph desired to +procure some of these bottles. + +{p. 269} + +Then Talib (the son of Sahl) tells the Caliph that a man once voyaged +to the Island of Sicily, but a wind arose and blew him away "to one +of the lands of God." + +"This happened during the black darkness of night." + +It was a remote, unfrequented land; the people were black and lived +in caves, and were naked and of strange speech. They cast their nets +for Talib and brought up a bottle of brass or bronze, containing one +of the imprisoned genii, who came out of it, as a blue smoke, and +cried in a horrible voice, "Repentance, repentance, O prophet of God!" + +All this was in a Western land. And Abdelmelik sent Talib to find +this land. It was "a journey of two years and some months going, and +the like returning." It was in a far country. They first reach a +deserted palace in a desolate land, the palace of "Kosh the son of +Sheddad the son of Ad, the greater." He read an inscription: + +"Here was a people, whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over +for their lost dominion. + +"And in this palace is the last information respecting lords +collected in the dust. + +"Death hath destroyed them and disunited them, and in the dust they +have lost what they amassed." + +Talib goes on with his troops, until they come to a great pillar of +black stone, sunk into which, to his armpits, was a mighty creature; +"he had two wings and four arms; two of them like those of the sons +of Adam, and two like the fore-legs of lions with claws. He had hair +upon his head like the tails of horses, and two eyes like two burning +coals, and he had a third eye in his forehead, like the eye of the +lynx, from which there appeared sparks of fire." + +He was the imprisoned comet-monster, and these + +{p. 270} + +arms and eyes, darting fire, remind us of the description given of +the apostate angel in the other legends: + + ### + + THE AFRITE IN THE PILLAR. + +"He was tall and black; and he was crying out 'Extolled be the +perfection of my Lord, who hath appointed me this severe affliction +and painful torture until the day of resurrection!'" + +{p. 271} + +The party of Talib were stupefied at the sight and retreated in +fright. And the wise man, the Sheik Abdelsamad, one of the party, +drew near and asked the imprisoned monster his history. And he +replied: + +"I am an Afrite of the genii, and my name is Dahish, the son of +Elamash, and I am restrained here by the majesty of God. + +"There belonged to one of the sons of Eblis an idol of red carnelian, +of which I was made guardian; and there used to worship it one of the +kings of the sea, of illustrious dignity, of great glory, leading, +among his troops of the genii, a million warriors who smote with +swords before him, and who answered his prayer in cases of +difficulty. These genii, who obeyed him, were under my command and +authority, following my words when I ordered them: all of them were +in rebellion against Solomon the son of David (on both of whom be +peace!), and I used to enter the body of the idol, to command them +and to forbid them." + +Solomon sent word to this king of the sea that he must give up the +worship of the idol of red carnelian; the king consulted the idol, +and this Afrite, speaking through the idol, encouraged the king to +refuse. What,--he said to him,--can Solomon do to thee, "when thou +art in the midst of this great sea?" And so Solomon came to compel +the island-race to worship the true God; he surrounded his island, +and filled the land with his troops, assisted by birds and wild +beasts, and a dreadful battle followed in the air: + +"After this they came upon us all together, and we contended with him +in a wide tract _for a period of two days_; and calamity befell us on +the third day, and the decree of God (whose name be exalted!) was +executed among us. The first who charged upon Solomon were I and my +troops: and I said to my companions, 'Keep in your places in the +battle-field while I go forth to them and challenge _Dimiriat_."' +(Dimiriat was the Sun, the + +{p. 272} + +bright one.) "And lo, _he came forth, like a great mountain, his +fires flaming and his smoke ascending;_ and he approached and _smote +me with a flaming fire; and his arrow prevailed over my fire_. He +cried out at me _with a prodigious cry_, so that I imagined the +_heaven had fallen_ and closed over me, and the mountains shook at +his voice. + + ### + + DAHISH OVERTAKEN BY DIMIRIAT. + +Then he commanded his companions, and they charged upon us all +together: we also charged upon them, and we cried out one to another: +_the fires rose and the smoke ascended_, the hearts of the combatants +were almost cleft asunder, and the battle raged. The birds fought in +the air, and the wild _beasts in the dust_; and I contended with +Dimiriat until he wearied me and I wearied him; + +{p. 273} + +after which I became weak, and my companions and troops were +enervated and my tribes were routed." + +The birds tore out the eyes of the demons, and cut them in pieces +until _the earth was covered with the fragments_, like the trunks of +palm-trees. "As for me, I flew from before Dimiriat, but he followed +me a journey of three months until he overtook me." And Solomon +hollowed out the black pillar, and sealed him in it with his signet, +and chained him until the day of resurrection. + +And Talib and his party go on still farther, and find "the City of +Brass," a weird, mysterious, lost city, in a desolate land; silent, +and all its people dead; a city once of high civilization, with +mighty, brazen walls and vast machinery and great mysteries; a city +whose inhabitants had perished suddenly in some great calamity. And +on the walls were tablets, and on one of them were inscribed these +solemn words: + +"'Where are the kings and the peoples of the earth? They have quitted +that which they have built and peopled. And in the grave they are +pledged for their past actions. There, after destruction, they have +become putrid corpses. Where are the troops? They repelled not nor +profited. And where is that which they collected and boarded? The +decree of the Lord of the Throne _surprised them_. Neither riches nor +refuge saved them from it.' + +"And they saw the merchants dead in their shops; their skins were +dried, and their bones were carious, and they had become examples to +him who would be admonished." + +Everywhere were the dead, "lying upon skins, and appearing almost as +if they would speak." + +Their death seems to have been due to a long period of terrible heat +and drought. + +On a couch was a damsel more beautiful than all the daughters of +Adam; she was embalmed, so as to preserve all her charms. Her eyes +were of glass, filled with quick + +{p. 274} + +silver, which seemed to follow the beholder's every motion. Near her +was a tablet of gold, on which was inscribed: + +"In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful.... the Lord of +lords, the Cause of causes; the Everlasting, the Eternal. . . . Where +are the kings of the regions of the earth" Where are the Amalekites? +Where are the mighty monarchs? The mansions are void of their +presence, and they have quitted their families and homes. Where are +the kings of the foreigners and the Arabs? They have all died and +become rotten bones. Where are the lords of high degree? They have +all died. Where are Korah and Haman? Where is Sheddad, the son of +Add? Where are Canaan and Pharaoh? God hath _cut them off_, and it is +he who cutteth short the lives of mankind, and he hath made the +mansions to be void for their presence. . . . I am Tadmor, the +daughter of the king of the Amalekites, of those who ruled the +countries with equity: I possessed what none of the kings possessed," +(i. e., in extent of dominion,) "and ruled with justice, and acted +impartially toward my subjects; I gave and bestowed; and I lived a +longtime in the enjoyment of happiness and an easy life, and +emancipated both female and male slaves. Thus I did until _the +summoner of death came, and disasters occurred before me_. And the +cause was this: _Seven years_ in succession came upon us, _during +which no water descended on us from heaven, nor did any grass grow +for us on the face of the earth_. So we ate what food we had in our +dwellings, and after that we fell upon the beasts and ate, and there +remained nothing. Upon this, therefore, I caused the wealth to be +brought, and meted it with a measure, and sent it, by trusty men, who +went about with it through _all regions_, not leaving unvisited a +single large city, to seek for some food. _But they found it not_, +and they returned to us with the wealth after a long absence. So, +thereupon we exposed to view our riches and our treasures, locked the +gates of the fortresses in our city, and submitted ourselves to the +decrees of our Lord; and thus we all died, as thou beholdest, and +left what we had built and what we had treasured." + +{p. 275} + +And this strange tale has relations to all the other legends. + +Here we have the great demon, darting fire, blazing, smoking, the +destructive one; the rebel against the good God. He is overthrown by +the bright-shining one, Dimiriat, the same as the Dev-Mrityu of the +Hindoos; he and his forces are cut to pieces, and scattered over the +land, and he, after being chased for months through space, is +captured and chained. Associated with all this is a people of the +Bronze Age--a highly civilized people; a people living on an island +in the Western Sea, who perished by a calamity which came on them +suddenly; "a summoner of death" came and brought disasters; and then +followed a long period of terrible heat and drought, in which not +they alone, but all nations and cities, were starved by the drying up +of the earth. The demon had devoured the cows-the clouds; like Cacus, +he had dragged them backward into his den, and no Hercules, no Indra, +had arisen to hurl the electric bolt that was to kill the heat, +restore the clouds, and bring upon the parched earth the grateful +rain. And so this Bronze-Age race spread out their useless treasures +to the sun, and, despite their miseries, they praise the God of gods, +the Cause of causes, the merciful, the compassionate, and lie down to +die. + +And in the evil-one, captured and chained and sealed by Solomon, we +seem to have the same thing prefigured in Revelation, xx, 2: + +"2. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the +devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. + +"3. And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set +a seal upon him, that he should no more seduce the nations." + +{p. 276} + + CHAPTER XII. + + THE BOOK OF JOB. + +WE are told in the Bible (Job, i, 16)-- + +"While he [Job] was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, +_The fire of God is fallen from heaven_ and hath burned up the sheep, +and the servants, and _consumed them_, and I only am escaped alone to +tell thee." + +And in verse 18 we are told-- + +"While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy +sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest +brother's house: + +"19. And behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and +smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, +and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee." + +We have here the record of a great convulsion. Fire fell from heaven; +the fire of God. It was not lightning, for it killed the seven +thousand sheep, (see chap. i, 3,) belonging to Job, and all his +shepherds; and not only killed but consumed them--burned them up. A +fire falling from heaven great enough to kill seven thousand sheep +must have been an extensive conflagration, extending over a large +area of country. And it seems to have been accompanied by a great +wind--a cyclone--which killed all Job's sons and daughters. + +Has the book of Job anything to do with that great event which we +have been discussing? Did it originate out of it? Let us see. + +In the first place it is, I believe, conceded by the foremost + +{p. 277} + +scholars that the book of Job is not a Hebrew work; it was not +written by Moses; it far antedates even the time of Abraham. + +That very high orthodox authority, George Smith, F. S. A., in his +work shows that-- + +"Everything relating to this patriarch has been violently +controverted. His country; the age in which he lived; the author of +the book that bears his name; have all been fruitful themes of +discord, and, as if to confound confusion, these disputants are +interrupted by others, who would maintain that no such person ever +existed; that the whole tale is a poetic fiction, an allegory!"[1] + +Job lived to be two hundred years old, or, according to the +Septuagint, four hundred. This great age relegates him to the era of +the antediluvians, or their immediate descendants, among whom such +extreme ages were said to have been common. + +C. S. Bryant says: + +"Job is in the purest Hebrew. The author uses only the word _Elohim_ +for the name of God. The compiler or reviser of the work, Moses, or +whoever he was, employed at the heads of chapters and in the +introductory and concluding portions the name of _Jehovah_; but all +the verses where _Jehovah_ occurs, in Job, are later interpolations +in a very old poem, written at a time when the Semitic race had no +other name for God but _Elohim_; before Moses obtained the elements +of the new name from Egypt."[2] + +Hale says: + +"The cardinal constellations of spring and autumn, in Job's time, +were _Chima_ and _Chesil_, or Taurus and Scorpio, of which the +principal stars are Aldebaran, the Bull's Eye, and Antare, the +Scorpion's Heart. Knowing, therefore, the longitudes of these stars +at present, the interval + +[1. "The Patriarchal Age," vol. i, p. 351. + +2. MS. letter to the author, from C. S. Bryant, St. Paul, Minnesota.] + +{p. 278} + +of time from thence to the assumed date of Job's trial will give the +difference of these longitudes, and ascertain their positions then +with respect to the vernal and equinoctial points of intersection of +the equinoctial and ecliptic; according to the usual rate of the +precession of the equinoxes, one degree in seventy-one years and a +half."[1] + +A careful calculation, based on these principles, has proved that +this period was 2338 B. C. According to the Septuagint, in the +opinion of George Smith, Job lived, or the book of Job was written, +from 2650 B. C. to 2250 B. C. Or the events described may have +occurred 25,740 years before that date. + +It appears, therefore, that the book of Job was written, even +according to the calculations of the orthodox, long before the time +of Abraham, the founder of the Jewish nation, and hence could not +have been the work of Moses or any other Hebrew. Mr. Smith thinks +that it was produced _soon after the Flood_, by an Arabian. He finds +in it many proofs of great antiquity. He sees in it (xxxi, 26, 28) +proof that in Job's time idolatry was an offense under the laws, and +punishable as such; and he is satisfied that all the parties to the +great dialogue were free from the taint of idolatry. Mr. Smith says: + +"The Babylonians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Canaanites, Midianites, +Ethiopians of Abyssinia, Syrians, and other contemporary nations, had +sunk into gross idolatry long before the time of Moses." + +The Arabians were an important branch of the great Atlantean stock; +they derived their descent from the people of Add. + +"And to this day the Arabians declare that _the father of Job was the +founder of the great Arabian people_."[2] + +[1. Hale's "Chronology," vol. ii, p. 55. + +2. Smith's "Sacred Annals," vol. i, p. 360.] + +{p. 279} + +Again, the same author says: + +"Job acted as high-priest in his own family; and, minute as are the +descriptions of the different classes and usages of society in this +book, we have not the slightest allusion to the existence of any +priests or specially appointed ministers of religion, _a fact which +shows the extreme antiquity of the period_, as priests were, in all +probability, first appointed about the time of Abraham, and became +general soon after."[1] + +He might have added that priests were known among the Egyptians and +Babylonians and Phœnicians from the very beginning of their +history. + +Dr. Magee says: + +"If, in short, there be on the whole, that genuine air of the antique +which those distinguished scholars, Schultens, Lowth, and Michaelis, +affirm in every respect to pervade the work, we can scarcely hesitate +to pronounce, with Lowth and Sherlock, that _the book of Job is the +oldest in the world now extant_."[2] + +Moreover, it is evident that this ancient hero, although he probably +lived before Babylon and Assyria, before Troy was known, before +Greece had a name, nevertheless dwelt in the midst of a high +civilization. + +"The various arts, the most recondite sciences, the most remarkable +productions of earth, in respect of animals, vegetables, and +minerals, the classified arrangement of the stars of heaven, are all +noticed." + +Not only did Job's people possess an alphabet, but books were +written, characters were engraved; and some have even gone so far as +to claim that the art of printing was known, because Job says, "Would +that my words were printed in a book!" + +[1. Smith's "Sacred Annals," p. 364. + +2. Magee "On the Atonement," vol. ii, p. 84.] + +{p. 280} + +The literary excellence of the work is of the highest order. Lowth +says: + +"The antiquary, or the critic, who has been at the pains to trace the +history of the Grecian drama from its first weak and imperfect +efforts, and has carefully observed its tardy progress to perfection, +will scarcely, I think, without astonishment, contemplate a poem +produced so many ages before, so elegant in its design, so regular in +its structure, so animated, so affecting, so near to the true +dramatic model; while, on the contrary, the united wisdom of Greece, +after ages of study, was not able to produce anything approaching to +perfection in this walk of poetry before the time of Æschylus."[1] + +Smith says: + +"The debate rises high above earthly things; the way and will and +providential dealings of God are investigated. All this is done with +the greatest propriety, with the most consummate skill; and, +notwithstanding the expression of some erroneous opinions, all is +under the influence of a devout and sanctified temper of mind."[2] + +Has this most ancient, wonderful, and lofty work, breathing the +spirit of primeval times, its origin lost in the night of ages, +testifying to a high civilization and a higher moral development, has +it anything to do with that event which lay far beyond the Flood? + +If it is a drama of Atlantean times, it must have passed through many +hands, through many ages, through many tongues, before it reached the +Israelites. We may expect its original meaning, therefore, to appear +through it only like the light through clouds; we may expect that +later generations would modify it with local names and allusions; we +may expect that they would even strike out parts whose meaning they +failed to understand, and + +[1. "Hebrew Poetry," lecture xxxiii. + +2. "Sacred Annals," vol. i, p. 365.] + +{p. 281} + +interpolate others. It is believed that the opening and closing parts +are additions made in a subsequent age. If they could not comprehend +how the fire from heaven and the whirlwind could have so utterly +destroyed Job's sheep, servants, property, and family, they would +bring in those desert accessories, Sabæan and Chaldean robbers, to +carry away the camels and the oxen. + +What is the meaning of the whole poem? + +God gives over the government of the world for a time to Satan, to +work his devilish will upon Job. Did not God do this very thing when +he permitted the comet to strike the earth? Satan in Arabic means a +serpent. "Going to and fro" means in the Arabic in "the heat of haste +"; Umbreit translates it, "from _a flight over the earth_." + +Job may mean a man, a tribe, or a whole nation. + +From a condition of great prosperity Job is stricken down, in an +instant, to the utmost depths of poverty and distress; and the chief +agency is "fire from heaven" and great wind-storms. + +Does this typify the fate of the world when the great catastrophe +occurred? Does the debate between Job and his three visitors +represent the discussion which took place in the hearts of the +miserable remnants of mankind, as they lay hid in caverns, touching +God, his power, his goodness, his justice; and whether or not this +world-appalling calamity was the result of the sins of the people or +otherwise? + +Let us see what glimpses of these things we can find in the text of +the book. + +When Job's afflictions fall upon him he curses his day--the day, as +commonly understood, wherein he was born. But how can one curse a +past period of time and ask the darkness to cover it? + +{p. 282} + +The original text is probably a reference to the events that were +_then_ transpiring: + +"Let that day _be turned into darkness_; let not God regard it from +above; and _let not the light shine upon it_. Let darkness and the +_shadow of death cover it;_ let a mist overspread it, and let it be +wrapped up in bitterness. _Let a darksome whirlwind_ seize upon that +night. . . . Let them curse it who curse the clay, who are _ready to +raise up a leviathan_."[1] + +De Dieu says it should read, "And thou, leviathan, rouse up." "Let a +mist overspread it"; literally, "let a gathered mass of dark clouds +cover it." + +"The Fathers generally understand the devil to be meant by the +leviathan." + +We shall see that it means the fiery dragon, the comet: + +"Let the stars be darkened _with the mist thereof;_ let it _expect +light and not see it, nor the rising of the dawning of the day_."[2] + +In other words, Job is not imprecating future evils on a past +time--an impossibility, an absurdity: he is describing the events +then transpiring--the whirlwind, the darkness, the mist, the day that +does not come, and the leviathan, the demon, the comet. + +Job seems to regret that he has escaped with his life: + +"For now," he says, "_should I have lain still and been quiet_," (if +I had not fled) "I should have slept: then had I been at rest, with +kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for +themselves; or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses +with silver."[3] + +Job looks out over the whole world, swept bare of its inhabitants, +and regrets that he did not stay and bide the + +[1. Douay version, chapter iii, verses 4-8. + +2. Ibid., verse 9. + +3. King James's version, chapter iii, verses 18-15.] + +{p. 283} + +pelting of the pitiless storm, as, if he had done so, he would be now +lying dead with kings and counselors, who built places for +themselves, now made desolate, and with princes who, despite their +gold and silver, have perished. Kings and counselors do not build +"desolate places" for themselves; they build in the heart of great +communities; in the midst of populations: the places may become +desolate afterward. + +Eliphaz the Temanite seems to think that the sufferings of men are +due to their sins. He says: + +Even _as I have seen_, they that plough wickedness and sow +wickedness, reap the same. _By the blast of God they perish, and by +the breath of his nostrils are they consumed_. The roaring of the +lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young +lions are broken. _The old lion perisheth for lack of prey_, and the +stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad." + +Certainly, this seems to be a picture of a great event. Here again +the fire of God, that consumed Job's sheep and servants, is at work; +even the fiercest of the wild beasts are suffering: the old lion dies +for want of prey, and its young ones are scattered abroad. + +Eliphaz continues: + +"In thoughts, from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth +on me, _fear came upon me_, and trembling, which made all my bones to +shake. Then a spirit _passed before my face_, the hair of my flesh +stood up." + +A voice spake: + +"Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure +than his Maker? Behold he put no trust in his servants, and his +angels he charged with folly: How much less them that dwell in houses +of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before +the moth. _They are destroyed from morning to evening; they perish +forever without any regarding it_." + +{p. 284} + +The moth can crush nothing, therefore Maurer thinks it should read, +"crushed like the moth." "They are destroyed," etc.; literally, "they +are _broken to pieces in the space of a day_."[1] + +All through the text of Job we have allusions to the catastrophe +which had fallen on the earth (chap. v, 3): + +"I have seen the foolish taking root: but suddenly I," (God,) "cursed +his habitation." + +"4. His children are far from safety," (far from any place of +refuge?) "and they are _crushed in the gate_, neither is there any to +deliver them. + +"5. Whose harvest the hungry eateth up, and taketh it even out of the +thorns, and the robber swalloweth up their substance." + +That is to say, in the general confusion and terror the harvests are +devoured, and there is no respect for the rights of property. + +"6. Although affliction _cometh not forth of the dust_, neither doth +trouble _spring out of the ground_." + +In the Douay version it reads: + +"Nothing on earth is done without a cause, and sorrow doth not spring +out of the ground" (v, 6). + +I take this to mean that the affliction which has fallen upon men +comes not out of the ground, but from above. + +"7. Yet man is born unto trouble, _as the sparks fly upward_." + +In the Hebrew we read for sparks, "sons of _flame_ or burning coal." +Maurer and Gesenius say, "As the sons of lightning fly high"; or, +"troubles are many and fiery as sparks." + +[1. Faussett's "Commentary," iii, 40.] + +{p. 285} + +"8. I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause; + +"9. Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things +without number: + +10. Who _giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the +fields_." + +Rain here signifies the great floods which cover the earth. + +"11. To set up _on high_ those that be low; that those which mourn +may be _exalted to safety_." + +That is to say, the poor escape to the high places--to safety--while +the great and crafty perish. + +"12. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands +can not perform their enterprise. + +"13. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness," (that is, in the +very midst of their planning,) "and the counsel of the froward is +_carried headlong_," (that is, it is instantly overwhelmed). + +"14. They MEET WITH DARKNESS IN THE DAY-TIME, and _grope in the +noonday as in the night_." (Chap. v.) + +Surely all this is extraordinary--the troubles of mankind come from +above, not from the earth; the children of the wicked are crushed in +the gate, far from places of refuge; the houses of the wicked are +"crushed before the moth," those that plow wickedness perish," by the +"blast of God's nostrils they are consumed"; the old lion perishes +for want of prey, and its whelps are scattered abroad. Eliphaz sees a +vision, (the comet,) which "makes his bones to shake, and the hair of +his flesh to stand up"; the people "are destroyed from morning to +evening"; the cunning find their craft of no avail, but are taken; +the counsel of the froward is carried headlong; the poor find safety +in high places; and darkness comes in midday, so that the people +grope their way; + +{p. 286} + +and Job's children, servants, and animals are destroyed by a fire +from heaven, and by a great wind. + +Eliphaz, like the priests in the Aztec legend, thinks he sees in all +this the chastening hand of God: + +"17. Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise +not thou the chastening of the Almighty: + +"18. For he _maketh sore_, and bindeth up: he _woundeth_, and his +hands make whole." (Chap. v.) + +We are reminded of the Aztec prayer, where allusion is made to the +wounded and sick in the cave "whose mouths were full of _earth_ and +scurf." Doubtless, thousands were crushed, and cut, and wounded by +the falling stones, or burned by the fire, and some of them were +carried by relatives and friends, or found their own way, to the +shelter of the caverns. + +"20. In _famine_ he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the +power of the sword. + +"21. _Thou shalt be hid_ from the scourge of the tongue: neither +shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh." (Chap. v.) + +"The scourge of the tongue" has no meaning in this context. There has +probably been a mistranslation at some stage of the history of the +poem. The idea is, probably, "You are hid in safety from the scourge +of the comet, from the tongues of flame; you need not be afraid of +the destruction that is raging without." + +"22. At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh neither shalt thou be +afraid of the beasts of the earth. + +"23. For thou shalt be in league with THE STONES OF THE FIELD: and +the beasts of the field shall _be at peace with thee_." (Chap. v.) + +That is to say, as in the Aztec legend, the stones of the field have +killed some of the beasts if the earth, "the lions have perished," +and their whelps have been scattered; + +{p. 287} + +the stones have thus been your friends; and other beasts have fled +with you into these caverns, as in the Navajo tradition, where you +may be able, living upon them, to defy famine. + +Now it may be said that all this is a strained construction; but what +construction can be substituted that will make sense of these +allusions? How can the stones of the field be in league with man? How +does the ordinary summer rain falling on the earth set up the low and +destroy the wealthy? And what has all this to do with a darkness that +cometh in the day-time in which the wicked grope helplessly? + +But the allusions continue + +Job cries out, in the next chapter (chap. vi) + +"2. Oh that my grief" (my sins whereby I deserved wrath) "were +thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! + +3. _As the sands of the sea this would appear heavier_, therefore my +words are full of sorrow. (Douay version.) + +'14. For the _arrows of the Almighty are within_ me, the poison +whereof drinketh up my spirit; _the terrors of God do set themselves +in array against me_" ("war against me"-Douay ver.). + +That is to say, disaster comes down heavier than the sands--the +gravel of the sea; I am wounded; the arrows of God, the darts of +fire, have stricken me. We find in the American legends the +descending _débris_ constantly alluded to as "stones, arrows, and +spears"; I am poisoned with the foul exhalations of the comet; the +terrors of God are arrayed against me. All this is comprehensible as +a description of a great disaster of nature, but it is extravagant +language to apply to a mere case of boils. + +"9. Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let +loose his hand and cut me off." + +{p. 288} + +The commentators say that "to destroy me" means literally "to grind +or crush me." (Chap. vi.) + +Job despairs of final escape: + +"11. What is my strength that I can hold out? And what is I end that +I should keep patience?" (Douay.) + +"12 . Is my strength the _strength of stones?_ Or is my flesh of +brass? " + +That is to say, how can I ever bold out? How can I ever survive this +great tempest? How can my strength stand the crushing of these +stones? Is my flesh brass, that it will not burn up? Can I live in a +world where such things are to continue? + +And here follow allusions which are remarkable as occurring in an +Arabian composition, in a land of torrid beats: + +"15. My brethren" (my fellow-men) "have dealt deceitfully" (have +sinned) "as a brook, and as the stream of brooks _they pass away_. + +16. Which are blackish _by reason of the ice_, and wherein _the snow +is hid_. + +"17. What time they wax _warm_, they vanish: when it is hot, they +_are consumed out of their place_. + +18. The paths of their way are turned aside; they _go to nothing and +perish_." + +The Douay version has it: + +"16. They" (the people) "that fear the hoary frost, _the snow shall +fall upon them_. + +"17. At the time _when they shall be scattered they shall perish;_ +and after it _groweth hot they shall be melted out of their place_. + +"18. The paths of their steps are entangled; _they shall walk in vain +and shall perish_." + +There is a great deal of perishing here--some by frost and snow, some +by heat; the people are scattered, they lose their way, they perish. + +{p. 289} + +Job's servants and sheep were also consumed in their place; _they_ +came to naught, _they_ perished. + +Job begins to think, like the Aztec priest, that possibly the human +race has reached its limit and is doomed to annihilation (chap. vii): + +"1. Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his +days also like the days of an hireling?" + +Is it not time to discharge the race from its labors? + +"4. When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, _and the night be +gone?_ and I am full of tossings to and fro unto _the dawning of the +day_." + +He draws a picture of his hopeless condition, shut up in the cavern, +never to see the light of day again. (Douay ver., chap. vii): + +"12: Am I sea or a whale, _that thou hast inclosed me in a prison?_" + +"7. My eyes _shall not return to see good things_. + +"8. Nor shall the sight of man behold me; thy eyes are upon me, and I +shall be no more"; (or, as one translates it, thy mercy shall come +too late when I shall be no more.) + +"9. As a cloud is consumed and passeth away, so he that shall go down +to hell" (or the grave, the cavern) shall not come up. + +"10. Nor shall he return any more into his house, neither shall his +place know him any more." + +How strikingly does this remind one of the Druid legend, given on +page 135, _ante_: + +"The profligacy of mankind had provoked the Great Supreme to send a +pestilential wind upon the earth. A pure poison descended, every +blast was death. At this time the patriarch, _distinguished for his +integrity_, was _shut up, together with his select company_, in the +inclosure with the strong door. Here the just ones were safe from +injury. Presently a tempest of fire arose," etc. + +{p. 290} + +Who can doubt that these widely separated legends refer to the same +event and the same patriarch? + +Job meditates suicide, just as we have seen in the American legends +that hundreds slew themselves under the terror of the time: + +"21. For now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the +morning, but I shall not be." + +The Chaldaic version gives us the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of +chapter viii as follows: + +"The sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat but it withereth the +grass, and the flower thereof faileth, and the grace of the fashion +of it perisheth, so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways." + +And then Job refers to the power of God, seeming to paint the +cataclysm (chap. ix): + +"5. Which _removeth the mountains_, and they know not which +_overturneth them in his anger_. + +"6. Which _shaketh the earth out of her place_, and the _pillars +thereof_ tremble. + +"7. Which commandeth the sun, _and it riseth not; and sealeth up the +stars_. + +"8. Which alone spreadeth out the heavens and _treadeth upon the +waves of the sea_." + +All this is most remarkable: here is the delineation of a great +catastrophe--the mountains are removed and leveled; the earth shakes +to its foundations; the sun _fails to appear_, and the stars are +sealed up. How? In the dense masses of clouds? + +Surely this does not describe the ordinary manifestations of God's +power. When has the sun refused to rise? It can not refer to the +story of Joshua, for in that case the sun was in the heavens and +refrained from setting; and Joshua's time was long subsequent to that +of Job. But when we take this in connection with the fire + +{p. 291} + +falling from heaven, the great wind, the destruction of men and +animals, the darkness that came at midday, the ice and snow and sands +of the sea, and the stones of the field, and the fact that Job is +shut up as in a prison, never to return to his home or to the light +of day, we see that peering through the little-understood context of +this most ancient poem are the disjointed reminiscences of the age of +fire and gravel. It sounds like the cry not of a man but of a race, a +great, religious, civilized race, who could not understand how God +could so cruelly visit the world; and out of their misery and their +terror sent up this pitiful yet sublime appeal for mercy. + +"13. If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop +under him." + +One commentator makes this read: + +"Under him the whales below heaven bend," (the crooked leviathan?) + +"17. For he shall crush me in a _whirlwind_, and multiplieth my +wounds even without cause." (Douay ver.) + +And Job can not recognize the doctrine of a special providence; he +says: + +"22. This is one thing" (therefore I said it). "He _destroyeth the +perfect and the wicked_. + +"23. If the _scourge slay suddenly_, he will laugh at the trial of +the innocent. + +"24. The earth _is given into the hands of the wicked:_ he covereth +the faces of the judges thereof; if it be not him, who is it then?" +(Douay ver.) + +That is to say, God has given up the earth to the power of Satan (as +appears by chapter i); good and bad perish together; and the evil one +laughs as the scourge (the comet) slays suddenly the innocent ones; +the very judges who should have enforced justice are dead, and + +{p. 292} + +their faces covered with dust and ashes. And if God has not done this +terrible deed, who has done it? + +And Job rebels against such a state of things + +"34. Let him take his _rod away from me_, and let not his fear +terrify me. + +"35. Then I would speak to him and not fear him but it is not so with +me." + +What rod--what fear? Surely not the mere physical affliction which is +popularly supposed to have constituted Job's chief grievance. Is the +"rod" that terrifies Job so that he fears to speak, that great object +which cleft the heavens; that curved wolf-jaw of the Goths, one end +of which rested on the earth while the other touched the sun? Is it +the great sword of Surt? + +And here we have another (chap. x) allusion to the "darkness," +although in our version it is applied to death: + +"21. Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of +darkness and the shadow of death. + +"22. A _land of darkness_ as darkness itself, and of the shadow of +death, _without any order_, and _where the light is as darkness_." + +Or, as the Douay version has it: + +"21. Before I go, and return no more, to _a land that is dark and +covered with the mist of death_. + +"22. A land of misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, and no +order but _everlasting horror dwelleth_." + +This is not death; death is a place of peace, "where the wicked +ceased from troubling "; this is a description of the chaotic +condition of things on the earth outside the cave, "without any +order," and where even the feeble light of day is little better than +total darkness. Job thinks he might just as well go out into this +dreadful world and end it all. + +Zophar argues (chap. xi) that all these things have + +{p. 293} + +come because of the wickedness of the people, and that it is all +right: + +"10. If he _cut off_ and _shut up_ and _gather together_, who can +hinder him? + +"11. For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not +then consider it? + +"If he cut off," the commentators say, means literally, "If he pass +by as a storm." + +That is to say, if he cuts off the people, (kills them by the +million,) and shuts up a few in caves, as Job was shut up in prison, +gathered together from the storm, how are _you_ going to help it? +Hath he not seen the vanity and wickedness of man? + +And Zophar tells Job to hope, to pray to God, and that he will yet +escape: + +"16. Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it _as waters +that pass away_. + +"17. And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt +shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning." + +"Thou shalt shine forth" Gesenius renders, "though _now thou art in +darkness_ thou shalt presently be as the morning"; that is, the storm +will pass and the light return. Umbreit gives it, "Thy darkness shall +be as the morning; only the darkness of morning twilight, not +nocturnal darkness." That is, Job will return to that dim light which +followed the Drift Age. + +"18. And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, _thou +shalt dig_ about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety." + +That is to say, when the waters pass away, with them shall pass away +thy miseries; the sun shall yet return brighter than ever; thou shalt +be secure; thou shalt _dig thy way out of these caverns;_ and then +take thy rest in + +{p. 294} + +safety, for the great tempest shall have passed for ever. We are told +by the commentators that the words "about thee" are an interpolation. + +If this is not the interpretation, for what would Job dig about him? +What relation can digging have with the disease which afflicted Job? + +But Job refuses to receive this consolation. He refuses to believe +that the tower of Siloam fell only on the wickedest men in the city. +He refers to his past experience of mankind. He thinks honest poverty +is without honor at the hands of successful fraud. He says (chap. +xii): + +"5. He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp _despised in +the thought of him that is at ease_." + +But-- + +"6. The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are +secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly." + +And he can not see how, if this calamity has come upon men for their +sins, that the innocent birds and beasts, and even the fish in the +heated and poisoned waters, are perishing: + +"7. But ask now the beasts," ("for verily," he has just said, "ye are +the men, and wisdom will die with you,") "and _they_ shall teach +thee; and the fowls of the air, and _they_ shall tell thee: + +"8. Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the fishes of +the sea shall declare it unto thee. + +"9. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath +wrought this?" + +Wrought what? Job's disease? No. Some great catastrophe to bird and +beast and earth. + +You pretend, he says, in effect, ye wise men, that only the wicked +have suffered; but it is not so, for aforetime I have seen the honest +poor man despised and the villain + +{p. 295} + +prosperous. And if the sins of men have brought this catastrophe on +the earth, go ask the beasts and the birds and the fish and the very +face of the suffering earth, what they have done to provoke this +wrath. No, it is the work of God, and of God alone, and he gives and +will give no reason for it. + +"14. Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built up again; _he +shutteth up a man_, and there can be no opening. + +"15. Behold, _he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up:_ also, he +sendeth them out, and _they overturn the earth_." + +That is to say, the heat of the fire from heaven sucks up the waters +until rivers and lakes are dried up: Cacus steals the cows of +Hercules; and then again they fall, deluging and overturning the +earth, piling it into Mountains in one place, says the Tupi legend, +and digging out valleys in another. And God buries men in the caves +in which they sought shelter. + +"23. He increaseth the nations, _and destroyeth them:_ he enlargeth +the nations, and straiteneth them again. + +"24. He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the +earth, and causeth them to wander _in a wilderness where there is no +way_. + +"25. _They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to +stagger like a drunken man_." + +More darkness, more groping in the dark, more of that staggering like +drunken men, described in the American legends: + +"Lo, mine eye," says Job, (xiii, 1,) "_hath seen all this, mine ear +hath heard_ and understood it. What ye know, the same do I know also." + +We have all seen it, says Job, and now you would come here with your +platitudes about God sending all this to punish the wicked: + +{p. 296} + +"4. But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value." + +Honest Job is disgusted, and denounces his counselors with Carlylean +vigor: + +"11. Shall not his excellency make you afraid? _and his dread fall +upon you?_ + +"12. Your remembrances are like unto _ashes_, your bodies to bodies +of _clay_. + +"13. Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on +me what will. + +"14. Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in +mine hand? + +"15. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain +mine own ways before him." + +In other words, I don't think this thing is right, and, though I tear +my flesh with my teeth, and contemplate suicide, and though I may be +slain for speaking, yet I will speak out, and maintain that God ought +not to have done this thing; he ought not to have sent this horrible +affliction on the earth--this fire from heaven, which burned up my +cattle; this whirlwind which slew my children; this sand of the sea; +this rush of floods; this darkness in noonday in which mankind grope +helplessly; these arrows, this poison, this rush of waters, this +sweeping away of mountains. + +"If I hold my tongue," says Job, "I shall give up the ghost!" + +Job believes-- + + "The grief that will not speak, + Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break." + +"As _the waters fail from the sea_," says Job, (xiv, 11,) and the +flood _decayeth and drieth up:_ + +"12. So man _lieth down, and riseth not:_ till the heavens be no +more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. + +{p. 297} + +13. O that thou wouldest _hide me_ in the grave, that thou wouldest +keep me secret, _until thy wrath be past_, that thou wouldest appoint +me a set time, and _remember me!_" + +What does this mean? When in history have the waters failed from the +sea? Job believes in the immortality of the soul (xix, 26): "Though +worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." Can these +words then be of general application, and mean that those who lie +down and rise not shall not awake for ever? No; he is simply telling +that when the conflagration came and dried up the seas, it +slaughtered the people by the million; they fell and perished, never +to live again; and he calls on God to hide him in a grave, a tomb, a +cavern--until the day of his wrath be past, and then to remember him, +to come for him, to let him out. + +"20. My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and _I am escaped +with the skin of my teeth_." + +Escaped from what? From his physical disease? No; he carried that +with him. + +But Zophar insists that there is a special providence in all these +things, and that only the wicked have perished (chap. xx): + +"5. The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the +hypocrite but for a moment." + +"7. Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have +seen him shall say, Where is be?" + +16. He shall suck the _poison of asps: the viper's tongue shall slay +him_." + +How? + +"23. When he is about to fill his belly, _God shall cast the fury of +his wrath upon him_, and shall RAIN IT UPON him, while he is eating. + +"24. He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall +strike him through. + +{p. 298} + +"25. It is drawn and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering +sword" (the comet?) "cometh out of his gall: _terrors are upon him_. + +"26. _All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not +blown shall consume him_. . . . + +"27. The heavens _shall reveal his iniquity;_ and _the earth shall +rise up against him_. + +"28. The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall +_flow away_ in the day of his wrath." + +What does all this mean? While the rich man, (necessarily a wicked +man,) is eating his dinner, God shall rain upon him a consuming fire, +a fire not blown by man; he shall be pierced by the arrows of God, +the earth shall quake under his feet, the heavens shall blaze forth +his iniquity; the darkness shall be hid, shall disappear, in the +glare of the conflagration; and his substance shall flow away in the +floods of God's wrath. + +Job answers him in powerful language, maintaining from past +experience his position that the wicked ones do not suffer in this +life any more than the virtuous (chap. xxi): + +"Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon +them. Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and +casteth not her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock, +and their children dance. They spend their days in wealth, and _in a +moment go down to the grave_. Therefore they say unto God, Depart +from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." + +And here we seem to have a description (chap. xvi, Douay ver.) of +Job's contact with the comet: + +"9. A false speaker riseth up against my face, contradicting me." + +That is, Job had always proclaimed the goodness of God, and here +comes something altogether evil. + +{p. 299} + +"10. He hath gathered together his fury against me; and threatening +me he hath _gnashed with his teeth upon me:_ my enemy hath beheld me +_with terrible_ eyes." + +"14. He has compassed me _round about with his lances_, he hath +wounded my loins, he hath not spared, he hath poured out my bowels on +the earth. + +"15. He hath torn me with _wound upon wound_, he hath rushed in upon +me _like a giant_." + +"20. For behold _my witness is in heaven_, and he that knoweth my +conscience is on high." + +It is impossible to understand this as referring to a skin-disease, +or even to the contradictions of Job's companions, Zophar, Bildad, +etc. + +Something rose up against Job that comes upon him with fury, gnashes +his teeth on him, glares at him with terrible eyes, surrounds him +with lances, wounds him in every part, and rushes upon him like a +giant; and the witness of the truth of Job's statement is there in +the heavens. + +Eliphaz returns to the charge. He rebukes Job and charges him with +many sins and oppressions (chap. xxii): + +"10. Therefore snares are around about thee, and _sudden fear +troubleth thee;_ + +"11. _Or darkness, that thou canst not see; and abundance of waters +cover thee_." + +"13. And thou sayest, How doth God know? Can he judge _through the +dark cloud?_ + +"14. _Thick clouds are a covering to him_, that he seeth not and he +walketh in the circuit of heaven. + +15. Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? + +"16. Which were cut down out of time, _whose foundation was overflown +with a flood?_" + +"20. Whereas our substance is not cut down, but _the remnant of them +the fire consumeth_." + +"24. He shall give for earth _flint_, and for flint _torrents of +gold_." (Douay ver.) + +{p. 300} + +What is the meaning of all this? And why this association of the +flint-stones, referred to in so many legends; and the gold believed +to have fallen from heaven in torrents, is it not all wonderful and +inexplicable upon any other theory than that which I suggest? + +"30. He shall deliver _the island of the innocent_: and it is +delivered by the pureness of thine "(Job's) "hands." + +What does this mean? Where was "the island of the innocent"? What was +the way which the wicked, who did not live on "the island of the +innocent," had trodden, but which was swept away in the flood as the +bridge Bifrost was destroyed, in the Gothic legends, by the forces of +Muspelheim? + +And Job replies again (chap. xxiii): + +"16. For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me: + +"17. _Because I was not cut off before the darkness_, neither hath he +covered the darkness from my face." + +That is to say, why did I not die before this great calamity fell on +the earth, and before I saw it? + +Job continues (chap. xxvi): + +"5. Dead things are formed from _under the waters_, and the +inhabitants thereof. + +"6. _Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering_. + +The commentators tell us that the words, "dead things are formed +under the waters," mean literally, "the souls of the dead tremble +from under the waters." + +In all lands the home of the dead was, as I have shown elsewhere,[1] +beyond the waters: and just as we have seen in Ovid that Phaëton's +conflagration burst open the earth + +[1. "Atlantis," 359, 421, etc.] + +{p. 301} + +and disturbed the inhabitants of Tartarus; and in Hesiod's narrative +that the ghosts trembled around Pluto in his dread dominion; so here +hell is laid bare by the great catastrophe, and the souls of the dead +in the drowned Flood-land, beneath the waters, tremble. + +Surely, all these legends are fragments of one and the same great +story. + +"7. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the +earth upon nothing. + +"8. _He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is +not rent under them_." + +The clouds do not break with this unparalleled load of moisture. + +"9. _He holdeth back the face of his throne_, and _spreadeth his +cloud upon it_. + +"10. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, _until the day and +night come to an end_. + +"11. The pillars of heaven _tremble_, and are astonished at his +reproof. + +"12. He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he +smiteth through the proud." ("By his wisdom _he has struck the proud_ +one."--Douay ver.) + +"13. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens his hand hath +_formed the crooked serpent_." ("His artful hand brought forth the +winding serpent."--Douay ver.) + +What is the meaning of all this? The dead under the waters tremble; +hell is naked, in the blazing heat, and destruction is uncovered; the +north, the cold, descends on the world; the waters are bound up in +thick clouds; the face of God's throne, the sun, is bidden by the +clouds spread upon it; darkness has come, day and night are all one; +the earth trembles; he has lighted up the heavens with the fiery +comet, shaped like a crooked serpent, but he has struck him as Indra +struck Vritra. + +How else can these words be interpreted? When + +{p. 302} + +otherwise did the day and night come to an end? What is the crooked +serpent? + +Job continues, (chap. xxviii,) and speaks in an enigmatical way, v. +3, of "the _stones_ of darkness, and the shadow of death." + +114. The flood breaketh out from the inhabitants; even the waters +forgotten of the foot: _they are dried up_, they are gone away from +men. + +"5. As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned +up _as it were fire_." + +Maurer and Gesenius translate verse 4 in a way wonderfully in accord +with my theory: "The flood breaketh out from the inhabitants," they +render, "a shaft, (or gulley-like pit,) is broken open far from the +inhabitant, the dweller on the surface of the earth."[1] This is +doubtless the pit in which Job was bidden, the narrow-mouthed, +bottomless cave, referred to hereafter. And the words, "forgotten of +the foot," confirm this view, for the high authorities, just cited, +tell us that these words mean literally, "unsupported by the foot +THEY HANG BY ROPES IN DESCENDING; they are dried up; they are gone +away from men."[2] + +Here we have, probably, a picture of Job and his companions +descending by ropes into some great cavern, "dried up" by the heat, +seeking refuge, far from the habitations of men, in some "deep shaft +or gulley-like pit." + +And the words, "they are gone away from men," Maurer and Gesenius +translate, "far from men they move with uncertain steps--they +_stagger_." They are stumbling through the darkness, hurrying to a +place of refuge, precisely as narrated in the Central American +legends. + +[1. Fausset's "Commentaries," vol. iii, p. 66. + +2. Ibid.] + +{p. 303} + +This is according to the King James version, but the Douay version +gives it as follows: + +"3. He hath set _a time for darkness_, and the _end of all things he +considereth_; the stone also that is _in the dark_, and the shadow of +death. + +"4. The flood _divideth from the people that are on their journey, +those whom the foot of the needy man hath forgotten, and those who +cannot be come at_. + +5. The land out of which bread grew in its place, _hath been +overturned with fire_." + +That is to say, God has considered whether he would not make an end +of all things: he has set a time for darkness; in the dark are the +stones; the flood separates the people; those who are escaping are +divided by it from those who were forgotten, or who are on the other +side of the flood, where they can not be come at. But the land where +formerly bread grew, the land of the agricultural people, the +civilized land, the plain of Ida where grew the apples, the plain of +Vigrid where the great battle took place, _that has been overturned +by fire_. + +And this land the next verse tells us: + +"6. The stones of it are the place of sapphires, and the clods of it" +(King James, "dust") "are gold." + +We are again reminded of those legends of America and Europe where +gold and jewels fell from heaven among the stones. We are reminded of +the dragon-guarded hoards of the ancient myths. + +The Douay version says: + +"9. He" (God) "has stretched out his hand to the _flint_, he hath +_overturned mountains from the roots_." + +What is the meaning Of FLINT here? And why this recurrence of the +word flint, so common in the Central American legends and religions? +And when did God in + +{p. 304} + +the natural order of things overturn mountains by the roots? + +And Job (chap. xxx, Douay version) describes the condition of the +multitude who had at first mocked him, and the description recalls +vividly the Central American pictures of the poor starving wanderers +who followed the Drift Age: + +"3. Barren with want and hunger, who gnawed in the wilderness, +_disfigured with calamity_ and misery. + +4. And they ate grass, and _barks of trees_, and the _root of +junipers was their food_. + +"5. Who snatched up these things out of the valleys, and _when they +had found any of them, they ran to them with a cry_. + +"6. They dwelt in the _desert places of torrents_, and _in caves of +the earth_, or UPON THE GRAVEL." + +Is not all this wonderful? + +In the King James version, verse 3 reads: + +3. For want and famine they were solitary, fleeing into the +wilderness, in former time, desolate and waste." + +The commentators say that the words, "in former time, desolate and +waste," mean literally, "_the yesternight of desolation and waste_." + +Job is describing the condition of the people immediately following +the catastrophe, not in some remote past. + +And again Job says (Douay version, chap. xxx): + +"12. . . . My calamities forthwith arose; they have overthrown my +feet, and have overwhelmed me with their paths as with waves. . . . + +"14. They have rushed in upon me as when a wall is broken, and a gate +opened, and have rolled themselves down to my miseries. . . ." + +Maurer translates, "as when a wall is broken," "with a shout like the +_crash of falling masonry_." + +{p. 305} + +29. I was the brother of _dragons_ and companion of ostriches. + +"30. My _skin is become black_ upon me, and my bones are dried up +with the _heat_." + +We are reminded of Ovid's statement that the conflagration of Phaëton +caused the skin of the Africans to turn black. + +In chapter xxxiv, (King James's version,) we read: + +"14. If he" (God) "set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself +his spirit and his breath; + +"15. _All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto +dust_." + +And in chapter xxxvi, (verses 15, 16, Douay,) we see that Job was +shut up in something like a cavern: + +"15. He shall deliver the poor out of his distress, and shall open +his ear in affliction. + +"16. Therefore he shall _set thee at large out of the narrow mouth, +and which hath no foundation under it_; and the rest of thy table +shall be full of fatness." + +That is to say, in the day when he delivers the poor out of their +misery, he will bring thee forth from the place where thou hast been +"hiding," (see chap. xiii, 20,) from that narrow-mouthed, bottomless +cavern; and instead of starving, as you have been, your table, during +the rest of your life, "shall be full of fatness." + +"27. He" (God) "lifteth up the drops of rain and poureth out showers +like floods. + +"28. Which flow from the clouds which _cover all from above_." + +The commentators tell us that this expression, "which cover all from +above," means literally, "the bottom of the sea is laid bare"; and +they confess their inability to understand it. But is it not the same +story told by Ovid of the bottom of the Mediterranean having been +rendered + +{p. 306} + +a bed of dry sand by Phaëton's conflagration; and does it not remind +us of the Central American legend of the starving people migrating in +search of the sun, through rocky places where the sea had been +separated to allow them to pass? + +And the King James version continues + +"32. _With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to +shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt_. + +"33. _The noise thereof_ sheweth concerning it, the cattle also +concerning the vapor." + +This last line shows how greatly the original text has been garbled; +what have the cattle to do with it? Unless, indeed, here, as in the +other myths, the cows signify the clouds. The meaning of the rest is +plain: God draws up the water, sends it down as rain, which covers +all things; the clouds gather before the sun and hide its light; and +the vapor restores the cows, the clouds; and all this is accompanied +by great disturbances and noise. + +And the next chapter (xxxvii) continues the description: + +"2. Hear ye attentively the terror of his" (the comet's) "voice, and +the sound that cometh out of his mouth. + +"3. He beholdeth under all the heavens," (he is seen under all the +heavens?) "and his _light is upon the ends of the earth_. + +"4. After it a NOISE SHALL ROAR, he shall thunder with the voice of +his majesty, and shall not be found out when his voice shall be +heard." + +The King James version says, "And he will not stay them when his +voice is heard." + +"5. God shall _thunder wonderfully_ with his voice, he that doth +great and unsearchable things." + +Here, probably, are more allusions to the awful noises made by the +comet as it entered our atmosphere, referred to by Hesiod, the +Russian legends, etc. + +{p. 307} + +"6. _He commandeth the snow to go down upon the earth_, and _the +winter rain_ and the shower of his strength "--("the _great rain of +his strength_," says the King James version). + +"7. He sealeth up the hand of every man." + +This means, says one commentator, that "he confines men within doors" +by these great rains. Instead of houses we infer it to mean "the +caves of the earth," already spoken of, (chap. xxx, v. 6,) and this +is rendered more evident by the next verse: + +"8. And _the beast shall go into his covert_ and shall _abide in his +den_. + +"9. Out of the inner parts" (meaning the south, say the commentators +and the King James version) "_shall tempest come_, and _cold out of +the north_. + +"10. When God bloweth, there cometh _frost_, and _again the waters +are poured forth abundantly_." + +The King James version continues: + +"11. Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud." + +That is to say, the cloud is gradually dissipated by dropping its +moisture in snow and rain. + +"12. And it is turned round about by his counsels that they may do +whatsoever be commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth. + +"13. He causeth it to come, whether for _correction_, or for his +land, or for mercy." + +There can be no mistaking all this. It refers to no ordinary events. +The statement is continuous. God, we are told, will call Job out from +his narrow-mouthed cave, and once more give him plenty of food. There +has been a great tribulation. The sun has sucked up the seas, they +have fallen in great floods; the thick clouds have covered the face +of the sun; great noises prevail; there is a great light, and after +it a roaring noise; the snow + +{p. 308} + +falls on the earth, with winter rains, (cold rains,) and great rains; +men climb down ropes into deep shafts or pits; they are sealed up, +and beasts are driven to their dens and stay there: there are great +cold and frost, and more floods; then the continual rains dissipate +the clouds. + +"19. Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we can not order our +speech _by reason of darkness_. + +"20. Shall it be told him that I speak? If a man speak, surely _he +shall be swallowed up?_" + +And then God talks to Job, (chap. xxxviii,) and tells him "to gird up +his loins like a man and answer him." He says: + +"8. Who shut up the sea with doors, when it broke forth as issuing +out of the womb? + +119. When I made a _cloud the garment thereof_, and wrapped it in +_mists_ as in swaddling-bands, + +"10. I set my bounds around it, and made it bars and doors." . . . + +"22. Hast thou entered into _the storehouses of the snow_, or hast +thou beheld the treasures of the _hail?_" . . . + +"29. Out of whose womb came the _ice_? and the _frost_ from heaven, +who hath gendered it? + +"30. The waters are hardened like a _stone_, and _the surface of the +deep is frozen_." + +What has this Arabian poem to do with so many allusions to clouds, +rain, ice, snow, hail, frost, and _frozen oceans_? + +"36. Who hath put wisdom in the inward part? Or who hath given +understanding to the heart? " + +Umbreit says that this word "heart" means literally "a shining +phenomenon--a meteor." Who hath given understanding to the comet to +do this work? + +"38. When was _the dust poured on the earth_, and the _clods hardened +together_?" + +{p. 309} + +One version makes this read: + +"Poured itself into a mass by the rain, like molten metal." + +And another translates it-- + +"_Is caked into a mass by heat, like molten metal_, BEFORE THE RAIN +FALLS." + +This is precisely in accordance with my theory that the "till" or +"hard-pan," next the earth, was caked and baked by the heat into its +present pottery-like and impenetrable condition, long before the work +of cooling and condensation set loose the floods to rearrange and +form secondary Drift out of the upper portion of the _débris_. + +But again I ask, when in the natural order of events was dust poured +on the earth and hardened into clods, like molten metal? + +And in this book of Job I think we have a description of the +veritable comets that struck the earth, in the Drift Age, transmitted +even from the generations that beheld them blazing in the sky, in the +words of those who looked upon the awful sight. + +In the Norse legends we read of three destructive objects which +appeared in the heavens one of these was shaped like a serpent; it +was called "the Midgard-serpent"; then there was "the Fenris wolf"; +and, lastly, "the dog Garm." In Hesiod we read, also, of three +monsters: first, Echidna, "a serpent huge and terrible and vast"; +second, Chimæra, a lion-like creature; and, thirdly, Typhœus, +worst of all, a fierce, fiery dragon. And in Job, in like manner, we +have three mighty objects alluded to or described: first the +"winding" or "twisting" serpent with which God has "adorned the +heavens"; then "behemoth," monstrous enough to "drink up rivers," +"the chief of the ways of God"; and lastly, + +{p. 310} + +and most terrible of all, "leviathan"; the name meaning, the twisting +animal, gathering itself into folds." + +God, speaking to Job, and reminding him of the weakness and +littleness of man, says (chap. xl, v. 20): + +"Canst thou draw out the leviathan with a book, or canst thou tie his +tongue with a cord? " + +The commentators differ widely as to the meaning of this word +"leviathan." Some, as I have shown, think it means the same thing as +the crooked or "winding" serpent (_vulg_.) spoken of in chapter xxvi, +v. 13, where, speaking of God, it is said: + +"His spirit hath adorned the heavens, and his artful hand brought +forth the winding serpent." + +Or, as the King James version has it: + +"By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed +the crooked serpent." + +By this serpent some of the commentators understand "a constellation, +the devil, the leviathan." In the Septuagint he is called "the +apostate dragon." + +The Lord sarcastically asks Job: + +"21. Canst thou put a ring in his nose, or bore through his jaw with +a buckle? + +"22. Will he make many supplications to thee, or speak soft words to +thee? + +"23. Will he make a covenant with thee, and wilt thou take him to be +a servant for ever? + +"24. Shalt thou play with him as with a bird, or tie him up for thy +handmaids? + +"25. Shall friends" (Septuagint, "the nations") cut him in pieces, +shall merchants" (Septuagint, "the generation of the +Phœnicians") "divide him?" . . (chap. xli, v. 1. Douay version.) + +"I will not stir him up, like one that is cruel; for who can resist +my" (his?) "countenance," or, "who shall stand against me" (him?) +"and live?" . . . + +{p. 311} + +"4. Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can go into the +midst of his mouth? + +"5. Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round +about. + +"6. His body is like _molten shields_, shut close up, the scales +pressing upon one another. + +"7. One is joined to another, and not so much as any air can come +between them. + +"8. They stick one to another, and they hold one another fast, and +shall not be separated. + +"9. His sneezing is like the _shining of fire_, and his eyes like the +eyelids of the morning." (Syriac, "His look is brilliant." Arabic, +"The apples of his eyes are fiery, and his eyes are like the +brightness of the morning.") + +10. _Out of his mouth go forth lamps, like torches of lighted fire_." + +Compare these "sneezings" or "neesings" of the King James version, +and these "lamps like torches of lighted lire," with the appearance +of Donati's great comet in 1858: + +"On the 16th of September two diverging streams of light shot out +from the nucleus across the coma, and, having separated to about the +extent of its diameter, they turned back abruptly and streamed out in +the tail. _Luminous substance_ could be distinctly seen _rushing out +from the nucleus_, and then flowing back into the tail. M. Rosa +described the streams of light as resembling _long hair brushed +upward from the forehead_, and then allowed to fall back on each side +of the head."[1] + +"11. _Out of his nostrils goeth forth smoke_, like that of a pot +heated and boiling." (King James's version has it, "as out of a +seething pot or caldron.") + +"12. His breath _kindleth coals, and a flame cometh forth out of his +mouth_. + +"13. In his neck strength shall dwell, and want goeth before his +face." (Septuagint, "_Destruction runs before him_.") + +[1. "Edinburgh Review," October, 1874, p. 208.] + +{p. 312} + +"14. The members of his flesh cleave one to another; he shall send +lightnings against him, and they shall not be carried to another +place." (Sym., "His flesh being cast for him as in a foundry," +(molten,) "is immovable.") + +"15. His heart shall be as hard as a stone, and as firm as a smith's +anvil." (Septuagint, "He hath stood immovable as an anvil.") + +"16. When he shall raise him up, _the angels shall fear_, and being +affrighted shall purify themselves." + +Could such language properly be applied, even by the wildest stretch +of poetic fancy, to a whale or a crocodile, or any other monster of +the deep? What earthly creature could terrify the angels in heaven? +What earthly creature has ever breathed fire? + +"17. When a sword shall lay at him, it shall not be able to hold, nor +a spear, nor a breast-plate. + +"18. For he shall esteem iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. + +"19. The archer shall not put him to flight, the stones of the sling +are to him like stubble. + +"20. As stubble will he esteem the hammer, and he will laugh him to +scorn who shaketh the spear." + +We are reminded of the great gods of Asgard, who stood forth and +fought the monster with sword and spear and hammer, and who fell dead +before him; and of the American legends, where the demi-gods in vain +hurled their darts and arrows at him, and fell pierced by the +rebounding weapons. + +"21. _The beams of the sun shall be under him_," (in the King James +version it is, "SHARP STONES _are under him_"--the gravel, the +falling _débris_,) "and _he shall strew gold under him like mire_." +(The King James version says, "_he spreadeth sharp-pointed things +upon the mire_.") + +To what whale or crocodile can these words be applied? When did they +ever shed gold or stones? And + +{p. 313} + +in this, again, we have more references to gold falling from heaven: + +"22. He shall make the deep sea to boil like a pot, and shall make it +as when ointments boil." (The Septuagint says, "He deems the sea as a +vase of ointment, and the Tartarus of the abyss like a prisoner.") + +"23. _A path shall shine after him_; he shall esteem the deep as +growing old." (The King James version says, "One would think the deep +to be hoary.") + +1124. _There is no power upon earth that can be compared with him_, +who was made to fear no one. + +"25. He beholdeth every _high thing_; he is king over all the +children of pride." (Chaldaic, "of all the sons of the mountains.") + +Now, when we take this description, with all that has preceded it, it +seems to me beyond question that this was one of the crooked serpents +with which God had adorned the heavens: this was the monster with +blazing bead, casting out jets of light, breathing volumes of smoke, +molten, shining, brilliant, irresistible, against whom men hurled +their weapons in vain; for destruction went before him: he cast down +stones and pointed things upon the mire, the clay; the sea boils with +his excessive heat; he threatens heaven itself; the angels tremble, +and he beholds all high places. This is he whose rain of fire killed +Job's sheep and shepherds; whose chaotic winds killed Job's children; +whose wrath fell upon and consumed the rich men at their tables; who +made the habitations of kings "desolate places"; who spared only in +part "the island of the innocent," where the remnant of humanity, +descending by ropes, hid themselves in deep, narrow-mouthed caves in +the mountains. This is he who dried up the rivers and absorbed or +evaporated a great part of the water of the ocean, to subsequently +cast it down in great floods of snow and rain, to cover the north +with ice; + +{p. 314} + +while the darkened world rolled on for a long night of blackness +underneath its dense canopy of clouds. + +If this be not the true interpretation of Job, who, let me ask, can +explain all these allusions to harmonize with the established order +of nature? And if this interpretation be the true one, then have we +indeed penetrated back through all the ages, through mighty lapses of +time, until, on the plain of some most ancient civilized land, we +listen, perchance, at some temple-door, to this grand justification +of the ways of God to man; this religious drama, this poetical +sermon, wrought out of the traditions of the people and priests, +touching the greatest calamity which ever tried the hearts and tested +the faith of man. + +And if this interpretation be true, with how much reverential care +should we consider these ancient records embraced in the Bible! + +The scientist picks up a fragment of stone--the fool would fling it +away with a laugh,--but the philosopher sees in it the genesis of a +world; from it he can piece out the detailed history of ages; he +finds in it, perchance, a fossil of the oldest organism, the first +traces of that awful leap from matter to spirit, from dead earth to +endless life; that marvel of marvels, that miracle of all miracles, +by which dust and water and air live, breathe, think, reason, and +cast their thoughts abroad through time and space and eternity. + +And so, stumbling through these texts, falling over mistranslations +and misconceptions, pushing aside the accumulated dust of centuried +errors, we lay our hands upon a fossil that lived and breathed when +time was new: we are carried back to ages not only before the flood, +but to ages that were old when the flood came upon the earth. + +Here Job lives once more: the fossil breathes and palpitates;-hidden +from the fire of heaven, deep in his cavern; + +{p. 315} + +covered with burns and bruises from the falling _débris_ of the +comet, surrounded by his trembling fellow-refugees, while chaos rules +without and hope has fled the earth, we hear Job, bold, defiant, +unshrinking, pouring forth the protest of the human heart against the +cruelty of nature; appealing from God's awful deed to the sense of +God's eternal justice. + +We go out and look at the gravel-heap--worn, rounded, ancient, but +silent,--the stones lie before us. They have no voice. We turn to +this volume, and here is their voice, here is their story; here we +have the very thoughts men thought-men like ourselves, but sorely +tried--when that gravel was falling upon a desolated world. + +And all this buried, unrecognized, in the sacred book of a race and a +religion. + +{p. 316} + + CHAPTER XIII. + + GENESIS READ BY THE LIGHT OF THE COMET. + +AND now, gathering into our hands all the light afforded by the +foregoing facts and legends, let us address ourselves to this +question: How far can the opening chapters of the book of Genesis be +interpreted to conform to the theory of the contact of a comet with +the earth in the Drift Age? + +It may appear to some of my readers irreverent to place any new +meaning on any part of the sacred volume, and especially to attempt +to transpose the position of any of its parts. For this feeling I +have the highest respect. + +I do not think it is necessary, for the triumph of truth, that it +should lacerate the feelings even of the humblest. It should come, +like Quetzalcoatl, advancing with shining, smiling face, its hands +full of fruits and flowers, bringing only blessings and kindliness to +the multitude; and should that multitude, for a time, drive the +prophet away, beyond the seas, with curses, be assured they will +eventually return to set up his altars. + +He who follows the gigantic Mississippi upward from the Gulf of +Mexico to its head-waters on the high plateau of Minnesota, will not +scorn even the tiniest rivulet among the grass which helps to create +its first fountain. So he who considers the vastness for good of this +great force, Christianity, which pervades the world down the long +course of so many ages, aiding, relieving, encouraging, cheering, +purifying, sanctifying humanity, can not afford + +{p. 317} + +to ridicule even these the petty fountains, the head-waters, the +first springs from which it starts on its world-covering and +age-traversing course. + +If we will but remember the endless array of asylums, hospitals, and +orphanages; the houses for the poor, the sick, the young, the old, +the unfortunate, the helpless, and the sinful, with which +Christianity has literally sprinkled the world; when we remember the +uncountable millions whom its ministrations have restrained from +bestiality, and have directed to purer lives and holier deaths, he +indeed is not to be envied who can find it in his heart, with +malice-aforethought, to mock or ridicule it. + +At the same time, few, I think, even of the orthodox, while bating no +jot of their respect for the sacred volume, or their faith in the +great current of inspired purpose and meaning which streams through +it, from cover to cover, hold to-day that every line and word is +literally accurate beyond a shadow of question. The direct +contradictions which occur in the text itself show that the errors of +man have crept into the compilation or composition of the volume. + +The assaults of the skeptical have been largely directed against the +opening chapters of Genesis: + +"What!" it has been said, "you pretend in the first chapter that the +animated creation was made in six days; and then in the second +chapter (verses 4 and 5) you say that the heavens and the earth and +all the vegetation were made in one day. Again: you tell us that +there was light shining on the earth on the first day; and that there +was night too; for 'God divided the light from the darkness'; and +there was morning and evening on the first, second, and third days, +while the sun, moon, and stars, we are told, were not created until +the fourth day; and grass and fruit-trees were made before the sun." + +{p. 318} + +"How," it is asked, "could there be night and day and vegetation +without a sun?" + +And to this assault religion has had no answer. + +Now, I can not but regard these opening chapters as a Mosaic work of +ancient legends, dovetailed together in such wise that the true +chronological arrangement has been departed from and lost. + +It is conceded that in some of the verses of these chapters God is +spoken of as Elohim, while in the remaining verses he is called +Jehovah Elohim. This is very much as if a book were discovered to-day +in part of which God was referred to as Jove, and in the rest as +Jehovah-Jove. The conclusion would be very strong that the first part +was written by one who know the Deity only as Jove, while the other +portion was written by one who had come under Hebraic influences. And +this state of facts in Genesis indicates that it was not the work of +one inspired mind, faultless and free from error; but the work of two +minds, relating facts, it is true, but jumbling them together in an +incongruous order. + +I propose, therefore, with all reverence, to attempt a re-arrangement +of the verses of the opening chapters of the book of Genesis, which +will, I hope, place it in such shape that it will be beyond future +attack from the results of scientific research; by restoring the +fragments to the position they really occupied before their last +compilation. Whether or not I present a reasonably probable case, it +is for the reader to judge. + +If we were to find, under the _débris_ of Pompeii, a grand +tessellated pavement, representing one of the scenes of the "Iliad," +but shattered by an earthquake, its fragments dislocated and piled +one upon the top of another, it would be our duty and our pleasure to +seek, by following the clew of the picture, to re-arrange the +fragments so as + +{p. 319} + +to do justice to the great design of its author; and to silence, at +the same time, the cavils of those who could see in its shocked and +broken form nothing but a subject for mirth and ridicule. + +In the same way, following the clew afforded by the legends of +mankind and the revelations of science, I shall suggest a +reconstruction of this venerable and most ancient work. If the reader +does not accept my conclusions, he will, at least, I trust, +appreciate the motives with which I make the attempt. + +I commence with that which is, and should be, the first verse of the +first chapter, the sublime sentence: + +"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." + +Let us pause here: "God created the heavens and the earth _in the +beginning_";--that is, before any other of the events narrated in the +chapter. Why should we refuse to accept this statement? _In the +beginning_, says the Bible, at the very first, God created the +heavens and the earth. He did not make them in six days, he made them +_in the beginning_; the words "six days" refer, as we shall see, to +something that occurred long afterward. He did not attempt to create +them, he created them; he did not partially create them, he created +them altogether. The work was finished; the earth was made, the +heavens were made, the clouds, the atmosphere, the rocks, the waters; +and the sun, moon, and stars; all were completed. + +What next? Is there anything else in this dislocated text that refers +to this first creation? Yes; we go forward to the next chapter; here +we have it: + +Chap. ii, v. 1. "_Thus_ the heavens and the earth were finished, and +all the host of them." + +{p. 320} + +And then follows: + +Chap. ii, v. 4. "These are the generations of the heavens and of the +earth, _when they were created_, IN THE DAY that the Lord God made +the earth and the heavens. + +Chap. ii, v. 5. "And every plant of the field before it was in the +earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for the Lord God +_had not caused it to rain upon the earth_, and there was not a man +to till the ground." + +Here we have a consecutive statement--God made the heavens and the +earth in the beginning, and thus they were _finished_, and all the +host of them. They were not made in six days, but "_in the day_," to +wit, in that period of remote time called "The Beginning." And God +made also all the herbs of the field, all vegetation. And he made +every plant of the field before it was cultivated in that particular +part of the world called "The Earth," for, as we have seen, Ovid +draws a distinction between "The Earth" and the rest of the globe; +and Job draws one between "the island of the innocent" and the other +countries of the world. + +And here I would call the reader's attention particularly to this +remarkable statement: + +Chap. ii, verse 5. "For the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon +the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. + +Verse 6. "But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the +whole face of the ground." + +This is extraordinary: _there was no rain_. + +A mere inventor of legends certainly had never dared make a statement +so utterly in conflict with the established order of things; there +was no necessity for him to do so; he would fear that it would throw +discredit on all the rest of his narrative; as if he should say, "at +that time the grass was not green," or, "the sky was not blue." + +{p. 321} + +A world without rain! Could it be possible? 'Did the writer of +Genesis invent an absurdity, or did he record an undoubted tradition? +Let us see: + +Rain is the product of two things--heat which evaporates the waters +of the oceans, lakes, and rivers; and cold which condenses them again +into rain or snow. Both heat and cold are necessary, In the tropics +the water is sucked up by the heat of the sun; it rises to a cooler +stratum, and forms clouds; these clouds encounter the colder air +flowing in from the north and south, condensation follows, +accompanied probably by some peculiar electrical action, and then the +rain falls. + +But when the lemon and the banana grew in Spitzbergen, as geology +assures us they did in pre-glacial days, where was the cold to come +from? The very poles must then have possessed a warm climate. There +were, therefore, at that time, no movements of cold air from the +poles to the equator; when the heat drew up the moisture it rose into +a vast body of heated atmosphere, surrounding the whole globe to a +great height; it would have to pass through this cloak of warm air, +and high up above the earth, even to the limits of the earth-warmth, +before it reached an atmosphere sufficiently cool to condense it, and +from that great height it would fall as a fine mist. + +We find an illustration of this state of things on the coast of Peru, +from the river Loa to Cape Blanco,[1] where no rain ever falls, in +consequence of the heated air which ascends from the vast sand +wastes, and keeps the moisture of the air above the point of +condensation. + +Or it would have to depend for its condensation on the difference of +temperature between night and day, settling + +[1. "American Cyclopædia," vol. xiii, p. 387.] + +{p. 322} + +like a dew at night upon the earth, and so maintaining vegetation. + +What a striking testimony is all this to the fact that these +traditions of Genesis reach back to the very infancy of human +history--to the age before the Drift! + +After the creation of the herbs and plants, what came next? We go +back to the first chapter: + +Verse 21. "And God created great whales, and every living creature +that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their +kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was +good." + +Verse 22. "And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, +and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the +earth." + +Verse 25. "And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and +cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth +after his kind: and God saw that it was good." + +Verse 26. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our +likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and +over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the +earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." + +We come back to the second chapter: + +Verse 7. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and +breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a +living soul." + +We return to the first chapter: + +Verse 27. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God +created he him; male and female created he them." + +We come back to the second chapter: + +Verse 8. "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and +there he put the man he had formed." + +Verse 9. "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree +that is pleasant to the sight and good + +{p. 323} + +for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the +tree of knowledge of good and evil." + +Verse 10. "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden," etc. + +Here follows a description of the garden; it is a picture of a +glorious world, of that age when the climate of the Bahamas extended +to Spitzbergen. + +Verse 15. "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden +of Eden to dress it and to keep it." + +Here follows the injunction that "the man whom God had formed," (for +he is not yet called Adam--the Adami--the people of Ad,) should not +eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. + +And then we have, (probably a later interpolation,) an account of +Adam, so called for the first time, naming the animals, and of the +creation of Eve from a rib of Adam. + +And here is another evidence of the dislocation of the text, for we +have already been informed (chap. i, v. 27) that God had made Man, +"male and _female_"; and here we have him making woman over again +from man's rib. + +Verse 25. "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were +not ashamed." + +It was an age of primitive simplicity, the primeval world; free from +storms or ice or snow; an Edenic age; the Tertiary Age before the +Drift. + +Then follows the appearance of the serpent. Although represented in +the text in a very humble capacity, he is undoubtedly the same great +creature which, in all the legends, brought ruin on the world--the +dragon, the apostate, the demon, the winding or crooked serpent of +Job, the leviathan, Satan, the devil. And as such he is regarded by +the theologians. + +He obtains moral possession of the woman, just as we + +{p. 324} + +have seen, in the Hindoo legends, the demon Ravana carrying off Sita, +the representative of an agricultural civilization; just as we have +seen Ataguju, the Peruvian god, seducing the sister of certain +rayless ones, or Darklings. And the woman ate of the fruit of the +tree. + +This is the same legend which we see appearing in so many places and +in so many forms. The apple of Paradise was one of the apples of the +Greek legends, intrusted to the Hesperides, but which they could not +resist the temptation to pluck and eat. The serpent Ladon watched the +tree. + +It was one of the apples of Idun, in the Norse legends, the wife of +Brage, the god of poetry and eloquence. She keeps them in a box, and +when the gods feel the approach of old age they have only to taste +them and become young again. Loke, the evil-one, the Norse devil, +tempted Idun to come into a forest with her apples, to compare them +with some others, whereupon a giant called Thjasse, in the appearance +of an enormous eagle, flew down, seized Idun and her apples, and +carried them away, like Ravana, into the air. The gods compelled Loke +to bring her back, for they were the apples of the tree of life to +them; without them they were perishing. Loke stole Idun from Thjasse, +changed her into a nut, and fled with her, pursued by Thjasse. The +gods kindled _a great fire_, the eagle plumage of Thjasse caught the +flames, he _fell to the earth, and was slain by the gods_.[1] + +But the serpent in Genesis ruins Eden, just as he did in all the +legends; just as the comet ruined the Tertiary Age. The fair world +disappears; cold and ice and snow come. + +Adam and Eve, we have seen, were at first naked, and subsequently +clothe themselves, for modesty, with fig-leaves, (chap. iii, v. 7;) +but there comes a time, as in the + +[1. Norse Mythology," pp. 275, 276.] + +{p. 325} + +North American legends, when the great cold compels them to cover +their shivering bodies with the skins of the wild beasts they have +slain. + +A recent writer, commenting on the Glacial Age, says: + +"Colder and colder grew the winds. The body could not be kept warm. +Clothing must be had, and this must be furnished by the wild beasts. +Their hides must assist in protecting the life of men. . . . The +skins were removed and transferred to the bodies of men."[1] + +Hence we read in chapter iii, verse 21: + +"Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make _coats of +skins and clothed them_." + +This would not have been necessary during the warm climate of the +Tertiary Age. And as this took place, according to Genesis, before +Adam was driven out of Paradise, and while he still remained in the +garden, it is evident that some great change of climate had fallen +upon Eden. The Glacial Age had arrived; the Drift had come. It was a +rude, barbarous, cold age. Man must cover himself with skins; he +must, by the sweat of physical labor, wring a living out of the +ground which God had "cursed" with the Drift. Instead of the fair and +fertile world of the Tertiary Age, producing all fruits abundantly, +the soil is covered with stones and clay, as in Job's narrative, and +it brings forth, as we are told in Genesis,[2] only "thorns and +thistles"; and Adam, the human race, must satisfy its starving +stomach upon grass, "and thou shalt eat the herb of the field"; just +as in Job we are told: + +Chap. xxx, verse 3. "For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing +into the wilderness in former time, desolate and solitary." + +[1. Maclean's "Antiquity of Man," p. 65. + +2. Chap. iii, verse 18.] + +{p. 326} + +Verse 4. "Who cut up mallows by the bushes and juniper-roots for +their food." + +Verse 7. "Among the bushes they brayed, under the nettles were they +gathered together." + +And God "_drove out the man_" from the fair Edenic world into the +post-glacial desolation; and Paradise was lost, and-- + +"At the east of the garden of Eden he placed cherubims and _a flaming +sword_, which turned every way, to keep the way to the tree of life." + +This is the sword of the comet. The Norse legends say: + +"Yet, before all things, there existed what we call Muspelheim. It is +a world luminous, glowing, not to be dwelt in by strangers, and +situate at the end of the earth. Surtur holds his empire there. _In +his hand there shines a flaming sword_." + +There was a great conflagration between the by-gone Eden and the +present land of stones and thistles. + +Is there any other allusion besides this to the fire which +accompanied the comet in Genesis? + +Yes, but it is strangely out of place. It is a distinct description +of the pre-glacial wickedness of the world, the fire falling from +heaven, the cave-life, and the wide-spread destruction of humanity; +but the compiler of these antique legends has located it in a time +long subsequent to the Deluge of Noah, and in the midst of a densely +populated world. It is as if one were to represent the Noachic Deluge +as having occurred in the time of Nero, in a single province of the +Roman Empire, while the great world went on its course unchanged by +the catastrophe which must, if the statement were true, have +completely overwhelmed it. So we find the story of Lot and the +destruction of the cities of the plain brought down to the time + +{p. 327} + +of Abraham, when Egypt and Babylon were in the height of their glory. +And Lot's daughters believed that the whole human family, except +themselves, had been exterminated; while Abraham was quietly feeding +his flocks in an adjacent country. + +For if Lot's story is located in its proper era, what became of +Abraham and the Jewish people, and all the then civilized nations, in +this great catastrophe? And if it occurred in that age, why do we +hear nothing more about so extraordinary an event in the history of +the Jews or of any other people? + +Mr. Smith says: + +"The conduct of Lot in the mountain whither he had retired scarcely +admits of explanation. It has been generally supposed that his +daughters believed that the whole of the human race were destroyed, +except their father and themselves. But how they could have thought +so, when they had previously tarried at Zoar, it is not easy to +conceive; and we can not but regard the entire case as one of those +problems which the Scriptures present as indeterminate, on account of +a deficiency of data on which to form any satisfactory conclusion."[1] + +The theory of this book makes the whole story tangible, consistent, +and probable. + +We have seen that, prior to the coming of the comet, the human race, +according to the legends, had abandoned itself to all wickedness. In +the Norse Sagas we read: + + Brothers will fight together, + And become each other's bane; + Sisters' children + Their sib shall spoil; + Hard, is the world, + Sensual sins grow huge." + +[1. "The Patriarchal Age," vol. i, p. 388.] + +{p. 328} + +In the legends of the British Druids we are told that it was "the +profligacy of mankind" that caused God to send the great disaster. +So, in the Bible narrative, we read that, in Lot's time, God resolved +on the destruction of "the cities of the plain," Sodom, (Od, Ad,) and +Gomorrah, (Go-Meru,) because of the wickedness of mankind: + +Chap. xviii, verse 20. "And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom +and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous"-- + +therefore he determined to destroy them. When the angels came to +Sodom, the people showed the most villainous and depraved appetites. +The angels warned Lot to flee. Blindness (darkness?) came upon the +people of the city, so that they could not find the doors of the +houses. The angels took Lot and his wife and two daughters by the +hands, and led or dragged them away, and told them to fly "to the +mountain, lest they be consumed." + +There is an interlude here, an inconsistent interpolation probably, +where Lot stays at Zoar, and persuades the Lord to spare Zoar; but +soon after we find all the cities of the plain destroyed, and Lot and +his family hiding in a cave in the mountain; so that Lot's +intercession seems to have been of no avail: + +Verse 24. "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah +_brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven_." + +Verse 25. "And he overthrew those cities, and _all the cities of the +plain_, and all the _inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew +upon the ground_." + +It was a complete destruction of all living things in that locality; +and Lot "_dwell in a cave_, he and his two daughters." + +And the daughters were convinced that they were the + +{p. 329} + +last of the human race left alive on the face of the earth, +notwithstanding the fact that the Lord had promised (chap. iii, verse +21), "I will not overthrow this city," Zoar; but Zoar evidently _was_ +overthrown. And the daughters, rather than see the human race perish, +committed incest with their father, and became the mothers of two +great and extensive tribes or races of men, the Moabites and the +Ammonites. + +This, also, looks very much as if they were indeed repeopling an +empty and desolated world.. + +To recapitulate, we have here, in due chronological order: + +1. The creation of the heavens and the earth, and all the host of +them. + +2. The creation of the plants, animals, and man. + +3. The fair and lovely age of the Pliocene, the summer-land, when the +people went naked, or clothed themselves in the leaves of trees; it +was the fertile land where Nature provided abundantly everything for +her children. + +4. The serpent appears and overthrows this Eden. + +5. Fire falls from heaven and destroys a large part of the human race. + +6. A remnant take refuge in a cave. + +7. Man is driven out of the Edenic land, and a blazing sword, a +conflagration, waves between him and Paradise, between Niflheim and +Muspelheim. + +What next? + +We return now to the first chapter of this dislocated text: + +Verse 2. "And the earth _was without form, and void_." + +That is to say, chaos had come in the train of the comet. Otherwise, +how can we understand how God, as stated in the preceding verse, has +just made the heavens + +{p. 330} + +and the earth? How could his work have been so imperfect? + +"_And darkness was upon the face of the deep_." + +This is the primeval night referred to in all the legends; the long +age of darkness upon the earth. + +"And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." + +The word for _spirit_, in Hebrew, as in Latin, originally meant +_wind_; and this passage might be rendered, "a mighty wind swept the +face of the waters." This wind represents, I take it, the great +cyclones of the Drift Age. + +Verse 3. "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." + +The sun and moon had not yet appeared, but the dense mass of clouds, +pouring their waters upon the earth, had gradually, as Job expresses +it, "wearied" themselves,--they had grown thin; and the light began +to appear, at least sufficiently to mark the distinction between day +and night. + +Verse 4. "And God saw the light: that it was good; and God divided +the light from the darkness." + +Verse 5. "And God called the light day, and the darkness be called +night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." + +That is to say, in subdividing the phenomena of this dark period, +when there was neither moon nor sun to mark the time, mankind drew +the first line of subdivision, very naturally, at that point of time, +(it may have been weeks, or months, or years,) when first the +distinction between night and day became faintly discernible, and men +could again begin to count time. + +But this gain of light had been at the expense of the + +{p. 331} + +clouds; they had given down their moisture in immense and perpetual +rains; the low-lying lands of the earth were overflowed; the very +mountains, while not under water, were covered by the continual +floods of rain. There was water everywhere. To appreciate this +condition of things, one has but to look at the geological maps of +the amount of land known to have been overflowed by water during the +so-called Glacial Age in Europe. + +And so the narrative proceeds: + +Verse 6. "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the +waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." + +This has been incomprehensible to the critics. It has been supposed +that by this "firmament" was meant the heavens; and that the waters +"above the firmament" were the clouds; and it has been said that this +was a barbarian's conception, to wit, that the unbounded and +illimitable space, into which the human eye, aided by the telescope, +can penetrate for thousands of billions of miles, was a blue arch a +few hundred feet high, on top of which were the clouds; and that the +rain was simply the leaking of the water through this roof of the +earth. And men have said: "Call ye this real history, or inspired +narrative? Did God know no more about the nature of the heavens than +this?" + +And Religion has been puzzled to reply. + +But read Genesis in this new light: There was water everywhere; +floods from the clouds, floods from the melting ice; floods on the +land, where the return of the evaporated moisture was not able, by +the channel-ways of the earth, to yet find its way back to the oceans. + +"And God said, Let there be a firmament _in the midst of the waters_, +and let it divide the waters from the waters." + +{p. 332} + +That is to say, first a great island appeared dividing the waters +from the waters. This was "the island of the innocent," referred to +by Job, where the human race did not utterly perish. We shall see +more about it hereafter. + +"7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were +under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: +and it was so. + +"8. _And God called the firmament Heaven_. And the evening and the +morning were the second day." + +The Hebrew _Rokiâ_ is translated _stereoma_, or _solidity_, in the +Septuagint version. It meant solid land--not empty space. + +And if man was not or had not yet been on earth, whence could the +name Heaven have been derived? For whom should God have named it, if +there were no human ears to catch the sound? God needs no lingual +apparatus--he speaks no human speech. + +The true meaning probably is, that this was the region that had been +for ages, before the Drift and the Darkness, regarded as the home of +the godlike, civilized race; situated high above the ocean, "_in the +midst of the waters_," in mid-sea; precipitous and mountainous, it +was the first region to clear itself of the descending torrents. + +What next? + +"9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered +together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. + +"10. And God called the dry land Earth and the gathering together of +the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good." + +This may be either a recapitulation of the facts already stated, or +it may refer to the gradual draining off of the continents, by the +passing away of the waters; the continents + +{p. 333} + +being distinguished in order of time from the island "in the midst of +the waters." + +"11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding +seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is +in itself _upon the earth_: and it was so." + +It has been objected, as I have shown, that this narrative was false, +because science has proved that the fruit-trees did not really +precede in order of creation the creeping things and the fish, which, +we are told, were not made until the fifth day, two days afterward. +But if we will suppose that, as the water disappeared from the land, +the air grew warmer by the light breaking through the diminishing +clouds, the grass began to spring up again, as told in the Norse, +Chinese, and other legends, and the fruit-trees, of different kinds, +began to grow again, for we are told they produced each "after his +kind." + +And we learn "that its seed is in itself upon the earth." Does this +mean that the seeds of these trees were buried in the earth, and +their vitality not destroyed by the great visitation of fire, water, +and ice? + +And on the fourth day "God made two great lights," the sun and moon. +If this were a narration of the original creation of these great +orbs, we should be told that they were made exclusively to give +light. But this is not the case. The light was there already; it had +appeared on the evening of the first day; they were made, we are +told, to "divide the day from the night." Day and night already +existed, but in a confused and imperfect way; even the day was dark +and cloudy; but, with the return of the sun, the distinction of day +and night became once more clear. + +"14. And God said . . . Let them be for signs and for _seasons_, and +for days and years." + +{p. 334} + +That is to say, let them be studied, as they were of old, as +astronomical and astrological _signs_, whose influences control +affairs on earth. We have seen that in many legends a good deal is +said about the constellations, and the division of time in accordance +with the movements of the heavenly bodies, which was made soon after +the catastrophe: + +"90. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving +creature that hath life, and fowls that may fly above the earth in +the open firmament of heaven." + +That is to say, the moving creatures, the fishes which still live, +which have escaped destruction in the deep waters of the oceans or +lakes, and the fowls which were flying wildly in the open firmament, +are commanded to bring forth abundantly, to "replenish" the desolated +seas and earth. + +"23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. + +"24. And God said, Let the earth _bring forth_ the living creature +after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing and beast of the earth +after his kind: and it was so." + +God does not, in this, _create_ them; he calls them forth from the +earth, from the caves and dens where they had been hiding, each +_after his kind_; they were already divided into species and genera. + +"28. And God blessed them," (the human family,) "and God said unto +them, Be fruitful, and multiply and REPLENISH the _earth_." + +Surely the poor, desolated world needed replenishing, restocking. But +how could the word "replenish" be applied to a new world, never +before inhabited? + +We have seen that in chapter ii (verses 16 and 17) God especially +limited man and enjoined him not to eat of the + +{p. 335} + +fruit of the tree of knowledge; while in v. 22, ch. iii, it is +evident that there was another tree, "the tree of life," which God +did not intend that man should enjoy the fruit of. But with the close +of the Tertiary period and the Drift Age all this was changed: these +trees, whatever they signified, had been swept away, "the blazing +sword" shone between man and the land where they grew, or had grown; +and hence, after the Age of Darkness, God puts no such restraint or +injunction upon the human family. We read: + +Ch. i, v. 29. "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb +bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and _every +tree_, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; _to you it +shall be for meat_." + +With what reason, if the text is in its true order, could God have +given man, in the first chapter, the right to eat the fruit of +_every_ tree, and in the following chapters have consigned the whole +race to ruin for eating the fruit of one particular tree? + +But after the so-called Glacial Age all limitations were removed. The +tree of knowledge and the tree of life had disappeared for ever. The +Drift covered them. + +Reader, waive your natural prejudices, and ask yourself whether this +proposed readjustment of the Great Book does not place it thoroughly +in accord with all the revelations of science; whether it does not +answer all the objections that have been made against the +reasonableness of the story; and whether there is in it anything +inconsistent with the sanctity of the record, the essentials of +religion, or the glory of God. + +Instead of being, compelled to argue, as Religion now does, that the +whole heavens and the earth, with its twenty miles in thickness of +stratified rocks, were made in six actual days, or to interpret +"days" to mean vast periods + +{p. 336} + +of time, notwithstanding the record speaks of "the evening and the +morning" constituting these "days," as if they were really +subdivisions of sun-marked time; we here see that the vast Creation, +and the great lapses of geologic time, all lie far back of the day +when darkness was on the face of the deep; and that the six days +which followed, and in which the world was gradually restored to its +previous condition, were the natural subdivisions into which events +arranged themselves. The Chinese divided this period of +reconstruction into "branches" or "stems"; the race from whom the +Jews received their traditions divided it into days. + +The first subdivision was, as I have said, that of the twilight age, +when light began to invade the total darkness; it was subdivided +again into the evening and the morning, as the light grew stronger. + +The next subdivision of time was that period, still in the twilight, +when the floods fell and covered a large part of the earth, but +gradually gathered themselves together in the lower lands, and left +the mountains bare. And still the light kept increasing, and the +period was again subdivided into evening and morning. + +And why does the record, in each case, tell us that the evening and +the morning "constituted the day, instead of the morning and the +evening? The answer is plain:--mankind were steadily advancing from +darkness to light; each stage terminating in greater clearness and +brightness; they were moving steadily forward to the perfect dawn. +And it is a curious fact that the Israelites, even now, commence the +day with the period of darkness: they begin their Sabbath on Friday +at sunset. + +The third subdivision was that in which the continents cleared +themselves more and more of the floods, and the increasing light and +warmth called forth grass and the + +{p. 337} + +trees, and clothed nature in a mantle of green. Man had come out of +his cave, and there were scattered remnants of the animal kingdom +here and there, but the world, in the main, was manless and +lifeless--a scene of waste and desolation. + +In the fourth subdivision of time, the sun, moon, and stars +appeared;--dimly, and wrapped in clouds, in the evening; clearer and +brighter in the morning. + +In the next subdivision of time, the fish, which spawn by the +million, and the birds, which quadruple their numbers in a year, +began to multiply and scatter themselves, and appear everywhere +through the waters and on the land. And still the light kept +increasing, and "the evening and the morning were the fifth day." + +And on the sixth day, man and the animals, slower to increase, and +requiring a longer period to reach maturity, began to spread and show +themselves everywhere on the face of the earth. + +There was a long interval before man sent out his colonies and +repossessed the desolated continents. In Europe, as I have shown, +twelve feet of stalagmite intervenes in the caves between the remains +of pre-glacial and post-glacial man. As this deposit forms at a very +slow rate, it indicates that, for long ages after the great +destruction, man did not dwell in Europe. Slowly, "like a great blot +that spreads," the race expanded again over its ancient +bunting-grounds. + +And still the skies grew brighter, the storms grew less, the earth +grew warmer, and "the evening and the morning" constituted the sixth +subdivision of time. + +And this process is still going on. Mr. James Geikie says: + +"We are sure of this, that since the deposition of the shelly clays, +and the disappearance of the latest local glaciers, + +{p. 338} + +there have been no oscillations, but only a _gradual amelioration of +climate_."[1] + +The world, like Milton's lion, is still trying to disengage its +binder limbs from the superincumbent weight of the Drift. Every +snow-storm, every chilling blast that blows out from the frozen lips +of the icy North, is but a reminiscence of Ragnarok. + +But the great cosmical catastrophe was substantially over with the +close of the sixth day. We are now in the seventh day. The darkness +has gone; the sun has come back; the waters have returned to their +bounds; vegetation has resumed its place; the fish, the birds, the +animals, men, are once more populous in ocean, air, and on the land; +the comet is gone, and the orderly processes of nature are around us, +and God is "resting" from the great task of restoring his afflicted +world. + +The necessity for some such interpretation as this was apparent to +the early fathers of the Christian Church, although they possessed no +theory of a. comet. St. Basil, St. Cæsarius, and Origen, long before +any such theory was dreamed of, argued that the sun, moon, and stars +existed from the beginning, but that they did not _appear_ until the +fourth day. "Who," says Origen, "that has sense, can think that the +first, second, and third days were without sun, moon, or stars?" + +But where were they? Why did they not appear? What obscured them? + +What could obscure them but dense clouds? Where did the clouds come +from? They were vaporized water. What vaporized the water and caused +this darkness on the face of the deep, so dense that the sun, moon, +and stars did not appear until the world had clothed itself + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 438.] + +{p. 389} + +again in vegetation? Tremendous heat. Where did the heat come from? +If it was not caused by contact with a comet, _what was it_? And if +it was not caused by contact with a comet, how do you explain the +blazing sword at the gate of Eden; the fire falling from heaven on +"the cities of the plain"; and the fire that fell on Job's sheep and +camels and consumed them; and that drove Job to clamber by ropes down +into the narrow-mouthed bottomless cave; where he tells us of the +leviathan, the twisted, the undulating one, that cast down stones in +the mire, and made the angels in heaven to tremble, and the deep to +boil like a pot? And is it not more reasonable to suppose that this +sublime religious poem, called the Book of Job, represents the +exaltation of the human soul under the stress of the greatest +calamity our race has ever endured, than to believe that it is simply +a record of the sufferings of some obscure Arab chief from a +loathsome disease? Surely inspiration should reach us through a +different channel; and there should be some proportion between the +grandeur of the thoughts and the dignity of the events which produced +them. + +And if Origen is right, and it is absurd to suppose that the sun, +moon, and stars were not created until the third day, then the sacred +text is dislocated, transposed; and the second chapter narrates +events which really occurred before those mentioned in the first +chapter; and the "darkness" is something which came millions of years +after that "Beginning," in which God made the earth, and the heavens, +and all the host of them. + +In conclusion, let us observe how fully the Bible record accords with +the statements of the Druidical, Hindoo, Scandinavian, and other +legends, and with the great unwritten theory which underlies all our +religion. Here we have: + +{p. 340} + +1. The Golden Age; the Paradise. + +2. The universal moral degeneracy of mankind; the age of crime and +violence. + +3. God's vengeance. + +4. The serpent; the fire from heaven. + +5. The cave-life and the darkness. + +6. The cold; the struggle to live. + +7. The "Fall of Man," from virtue to vice; from plenty to poverty; +from civilization to barbarism; from the Tertiary to the Drift; from +Eden to the gravel. + +8. Reconstruction and regeneration. + +Can all this be accident? Can all this mean nothing? + +{p. 341} + + PART IV. + + (Conclusions) + + CHAPTER I. + + WAS PRE-GLACIAL MAN CIVILIZED? + +WE come now to another and very interesting question: + +In what stage of development was mankind when the Drift fell upon the +earth? + +It is, of course, difficult to attain to certainties in the +consideration of an age so remote as this. We are, as it were, +crawling upon our hands and knees into the dark cavern of an abysmal +past; we know not whether that which we encounter is a stone or a +bone; we can only grope our way. I feel, however, that it is proper +to present such facts as I possess touching this curious question. + +The conclusion at which I have arrived is, that mankind, prior to the +Drift, had, in some limited localities, reached a high stage of +civilization, and that many of our most important inventions and +discoveries were known in the pre-glacial age. Among these were +pottery, metallurgy, architecture, engraving, Carving, the use of +money, the domestication of some of our animals, and even the use of +an alphabet. I shall present the proofs of this startling conclusion, +and leave the reader to judge for himself. + +{p. 342} + +While this civilized, cultivated race occupied a part of the earth's +surface, the remainder of the world was peopled by races more rude, +barbarous, brutal, and animal-like than anything we know of on our +earth to-day. + +In the first place, I shall refer to the legends of mankind, wherein +they depict the condition of our race in the pre-glacial time. If +these statements stood alone, we might dismiss them from +consideration, for there would be a strong probability that later +ages, in repeating the legends, would attribute to their remote +ancestors the civilized advantages which they themselves enjoyed; but +it will be seen that these statements are confirmed by the remains of +man which have been dug out of the earth, and upon which we can rely +to a much greater extent. + +First, as to the legends: + +If I have correctly interpreted Job as a religious drama, founded on +the fall of the Drift, then we must remember that Job describes the +people overtaken by the catastrophe as a highly civilized race. They +had passed the stage of worshiping sticks and stones and idols, and +had reached to a knowledge of the one true God; they were +agriculturists; they raised flocks of sheep and camels; they built +houses; they had tamed the horse; they had progressed so far in +astronomical knowledge as to have mapped out the heavens into +constellations; they wrote books, consequently they possessed an +alphabet; they engraved inscriptions upon the rocks. + +But it may be said truly that the book of Job, although it may be +really a description of the Drift catastrophe, was not necessarily +written at the time of, or even immediately after, that event. So +gigantic and terrible a thing must have been the overwhelming +consideration and memory of mankind for thousands of years after it +occurred. We will see that its impress still exists on the + +{p. 343} + +imagination of the race. Hence we may assign to the book of Job an +extraordinary antiquity, and nevertheless it may have been written +long ages after the events to which it refers occurred; and the +writer may have clothed those events with the associations and +conditions of the age of its composition. Let us, then, go forward to +the other legends, for in such a case we can _prove_ nothing. We can +simply build up cumulative probabilities. + +In Ovid we read that the Earth, when the dread affliction fell upon +her, cried out: + +"O sovereign of the gods, if thou approvest of this, if I have +deserved it, why do thy lightnings linger? . . . And dost thou give +this as my recompense? This as the reward of my fertility and of my +duty, in that _I endure wounds from the crooked plow and harrows_, +and am harassed all the year through? In that I supply green leaves +to the _cattle_, and _corn_, a wholesome food for mankind, and +_frankincense_ for yourselves? " + +Here we see that Ovid received from the ancient traditions of his +race the belief that when the Drift Age came man was already an +agriculturist; he had invented the plow and the barrow; he had +domesticated the cattle; he had discovered or developed some of the +cereals; and he possessed a religion in which incense was burned +before the god or gods. The legend of Phaëton further indicates that +man had tamed the horse and had invented wheeled vehicles. + +In the Hindoo story of the coming of the demon Ravana, the comet, we +read that he carried off Sita, the wife of Rama, the sun; and that +her name indicates that she represented "the _furrowed earth_," to +wit, a condition of development in which man plowed the fields and +raised crops of food. + +When we turn to the Scandinavian legends, we see + +{p. 344} + +that those who transmitted them from the early ages believed that +pre-glacial man was civilized. The Asas, the godlike, superior race, +dwelt, we are told, "in stone houses." + +In describing, in the Elder Edda, the corrupt condition of mankind +before the great catastrophe occurred, the world, we are told, was +given over to all manner of sin and wickedness. We read: + + "Brothers will fight together, + And become each other's bane + Sisters' children + Their sib shall spoil. + Hard is the world; + Sensual sins grow huge. + There are _axe_-ages, _sword_-ages + _Shields_ are cleft in twain, + There are wind-ages, + murder-ages, + Ere the world falls dead."[1] + +When the great day of wrath comes, Heimdal blows in the +Gjallar-_horn_, Odin _rides_ to Mimer's well, Odin puts on his +_golden helmet_, the Asas hold counsel before their _stone doors_. + +All these things indicate a people who had passed far beyond +barbarism. Here we have axes, swords, helmets, shields, musical +instruments, domesticated horses, the use of gold, and stone +buildings. And after the great storm was over, and the remnant of +mankind crept out of the caves, and came back to reoccupy the houses +of the slain millions, we read of the delight with which they found +in the grass "the golden tablets" of the _Asas_--additional proof +that they worked in the metals, and possessed some kind of a written +language; they also had "the runes," or runic letters of Odin. + +[1. "The Vala's Prophecy," 48, 49.] + +{p. 345} + +In the Norse legends we read that Loke, the evil genius, carried off +Iduna, and her _apples_. + +And when we turn to the American legends, similar statements present +themselves. + +We see the people, immediately after the catastrophe, sending a +messenger to the happy eastern land, over the sea, by a bridge, to +procure drums and other musical instruments; we learn from the Aztecs +that while the darkness yet prevailed, the people built a sumptuous +_palace_, a masterpiece of skill, and on the top of it they placed an +_axe of copper_, the edge being uppermost, and on this axe the +heavens rested.[1] + +The Navajos, shut up in their cave, had flute-players with them. The +Peruvians were dug out of their cave with a golden _spade_. In the +Tahoe legend, we read that the superior race compelled the inferior +to build a great _temple_ for their protection from floods; and the +oppressed people escaped in _canoes_, while the world blazes behind +them. + +Soon after the Navajos came out of the cave, we find them, according +to the legend, possessed of water-jars, and we have references to the +division of the heavens into constellations. + +In the Arabian legend of the City of Brass, we are told that the +people who were destroyed were great architects, metallurgists, +agriculturists, and machinists, and that they possessed a written +language. + +We turn now to the more reliable evidences of man's condition, which +have been exhumed from the caves and the Drift. + +In the seventeenth century, Fray Pedro Simon relates that some +miners, running an adit into a hill near Callao, + +[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 71.] + +{p. 346} + +"met with a ship, _which had on top of it the great mass of the +hill_, and did not agree in its make and appearance with our ships." + +Sir John Clerk describes a canoe found near Edinburgh, in 1726. "The +washings of the river Carron discovered a _boat thirteen or fourteen +feet under ground_; it is thirty-six feet long and four and a half +broad, all of one piece of oak. There were several strata above it, +such as loam, clay, shells, moss, sand, and gravel." + +Boucher de Perthes found remains of man _thirty to forty feet_ below +the surface of the earth. + +In the following we have the evidence that the pre-glacial race was +acquainted with the use of fire, and cooked their food: + +"In the construction of a canal between Stockholm and Gothenburg, it +was necessary to cut through one of those hills called _osars_, or +erratic blocks, which were deposited by the Drift ice during the +glacial epoch. Beneath an immense accumulation of osars, with shells +and sand, there was discovered _in the deepest layer of subsoil, at a +depth of about sixty feet_, a circular mass of stones, forming a +hearth, in the middle of which there were wood-coals. No other hand +than that of man could have performed the work."[2] + +In the State of Louisiana, on Petite Anse Island, remarkable +discoveries have been made.[3] + +At considerable depths below the surface of the earth, fifteen to +twenty feet, _immediately overlying the salt-rocks_, and _underneath_ +what Dr. Foster believes to be the equivalent of the _Drift_ in +Europe, "associated with the bones of elephants and other huge +extinct quadrupeds," "incredible quantities of _pottery_ were found"; +in some + +[1. Tylor's "Early Mankind," p. 330. + +2. Maclean's "Manual of Antiquity of Man," p. 60; Buchner, p. 242. + +3. Foster's "Prehistoric Races," p. 56, etc.] + +{p. 347} + +cases these remains of pottery formed "veritable strata, three and +six inches thick"; in many cases the bones of the mastodon were found +_above_ these strata of pottery. Fragments of baskets and matting +were also found. + +Here we have evidence of the long-continued occupation of this spot +by man prior to the Drift Age, and that the human family had +progressed far enough to manufacture pottery, and weave baskets and +matting. + +The cave of Chaleux, Belgium, was buried by a mass of rubbish caused +by the falling in of the roof, consequently preserving all its +implements. There were found the split bones of mammals, and the +bones of birds and fishes. There was an immense number of objects, +chiefly manufactured from reindeer-horn, such as needles, +arrow-heads, daggers, and hooks. Besides these, there were ornaments +made of shells, pieces of slate with engraved figures, mathematical +lines, remains of very coarse pottery, hearthstones, ashes, charcoal, +and last, but not least, thirty thousand worked flints mingled with +the broken bones. In the hearth, placed in the center of the cave, +was discovered a stone, with certain but unintelligible signs +engraved upon it. M. Dupont also found about twenty pounds of the +bones of the water-rat, either scorched or roasted.[1] + + ### + + EARTHEN VASE, FOUND IN THE CAVE OF FURFOOZ, BELGIUM. + +[1. Maclean's "Antiquity of Man," p. 87.] + +{p. 348} + +Here we have the evidence that the people who inhabited this cave, or +some race with whom they held intercourse, manufactured pottery; that +they wore clothing which they sewed with needles; that they used the +bow and arrow; that they caught fish with hooks; that they ornamented +themselves; that they cooked their food; that they engraved on stone; +and that they had already reached some kind of primitive alphabet, in +which signs were used to represent things. + +We have already seen, (page 124, _ante_,) that there is reason to +believe that pre-glacial Europe contained a very barbarous race, +represented by the Neanderthal skull, side by side with a cultivated +race, represented by the fine lines and full brow of the Engis skull. +The latter race, I have suggested, may have come among the former as +traders, or have been captured in war; precisely as today in Central +Africa the skulls of adventurous, civilized Portuguese or Englishmen +or Americans might be found side by side with the rude skulls of the +savage populations of the country. The possession of a piece of +pottery, or carving, by an African tribe would not prove that the +Africans possessed the arts of engraving or manufacturing pottery, +but it would prove that somewhere on the earth's surface a race had +advanced far enough, at that time, to be capable of such works of +art. And so, in the remains of the pre-glacial age of Europe, we have +the evidence that some of these people, or their captives, or those +with whom they traded or fought, had gone so far in the training of +civilized life as to have developed a sense of art and a capacity to +represent living forms in pictures or carvings, with a considerable +degree of taste and skill. And these works are found in the most +ancient caves, "the archaic caves," associated with the bones of the +animals _that ceased to exist in Europe at the time of the_ + +{p. 349} + + ### + + PRE-GLACIAL MAN'S PICTURE OF THE MAMMOTH + +{p. 350} + +_Drift deposits_. Nay, more, a picture of a mammoth has been found +engraved _upon a piece of mammoth-tusk_. The engraving on page 349 +represents this most curious work of art. + +The man who carved this must have seen the creature it represented; +and, as the mammoth did not survive the Drift, that man must have +lived before or during the Drift. And he was no savage. Says Sir John +Lubbock: + +"No representation, however rude, of any animal has yet been found in +any of the Danish shell-mounds, or the Stone-Age lake-villages. Even +on objects of the Bronze Age they are so rare that it is doubtful +whether a single well-authenticated instance could be produced."[1] + +In the Dordogne caves the following spirited drawing was found, +representing a group of reindeer: + + ### + + PRE-GLACIAL MAN'S PICTURE OF REINDEER. + +Here it would appear as if the reindeer were fastened together by +lines or reins; if so, it implies that they were + +[1. "Prehistoric Times," p. 333.] + +{p. 351} + +domesticated. In this picture they seem to have become entangled in +their lines, and some have fallen to the ground. + +And it does not follow from the presence of the reindeer that the +climate was Lapland-like. The ancestors of all our so-called Arctic +animals must have lived during the mild climate of the Tertiary Age; +and those only survived after the Drift, in the north, that were +capable of accommodating themselves to the cold; the rest perished or +moved southwardly. + +Another group of animals was found, engraved on a piece of the palm +of a reindeer's horn, as follows: + + ### + + PRE-GLACIAL MAN'S PICTURE OF THE HORSE. + +Here the man stands alongside the horse's head--a very natural +position if the horse was domesticated, a very improbable one if he +was not. + +Pieces of pottery have also been found accompanying these palæolithic +remains of man. + +The oldest evidence of the existence of man is probably the fragment +of a cut rib from the Pliocenes of Tuscany, preserved in the museum +at Florence; it was associated with flint-flakes and _a piece of rude +pottery_.[1] + +But the art-capacity of these people was not limited to the drawing +of animals; they also carved figures out + +[1. Dawkins's "Early Man in Britain," p. 91.] + +{p. 352} + +of hard substances. The following engraving represents a poniard cut +from a reindeer's horn. + + ### + + A SPECIMEN OF PRE-GLACIAL CARVING. + +Sir John Lubbock says: + +"The artist bas ingeniously adapted the position of the animal to the +necessities of the case. The horns are thrown back on the neck, the +fore-legs are doubled up under the belly, and the hind-legs are +stretched out along the blade."[1] + +These things seem to indicate quite an advanced condition; the people +who made them manufactured pottery, possessed. domesticated animals, +and were able to engrave and carve images of living objects. It is +difficult to believe that they could have carved and engraved these +hard substances without metallic gravers or tools of some kind. + +The reader will see, on page 130, _ante_, a representation of a +sienite plummet found _thirty feet below the surface_, in a well, in +the San Joaquin Valley, California, which Professor Foster pronounces +to be-- + +"A finer exhibition of the lapidary's skill than has yet been +furnished by the Stone Age of either continent. "[2] + +[1. "Prehistoric Times," p. 335. + +2. Foster's "Prehistoric Races of the United States," p. 56.] + +{p. 353} + +The following picture represents a curious image carved out of black +marble, about twice as large as the cut, found near Marlboro, Stark +County, Ohio, by some workmen, while digging a well, at a depth of +_twelve feet below the surface_. The ground above it had never been +disturbed. It was imbedded in _sand and gravel_. The black or +variegated marble out of which this image is carved has not been +found in place in Ohio. + + ### + + STONE IMAGE FOUND IN OHIO + +T. W. Kinney, of Portsmouth, Ohio, writes as follows: + +"Last summer, while digging a vault for drainage, at the _depth of +twenty-seven feet_, the workmen found the tusk of a mastodon. The +piece was about four feet long and four inches in diameter at the +thickest part. It was nearly all lost, having, crumbled very much +when exposed to the air. I have a large piece of it; also several +flakes of flint found near the same depth. + +"I also have several of the flakes from other vaults, some of which +show evidence of work. + +"We also found a log at the depth of _twenty-two feet_. The log was +_burned at one end_, and at the other end was a _gap, the same as an +axeman's kerf_. Shell-banks below the level of the base of +mound-builders' works, from six to fifteen feet."[1] + +Was this burned log, thus found at a depth of twenty-two feet, a +relic of the great conflagration? Was that + +[1. "American Antiquarian," April, 1878, p. 36.] + +{p. 354} + +axe-kerf made by some civilized man who wielded a bronze or iron +weapon? + +It is a curious fact that _burned_ logs have, in repeated instances, +been exhumed from great depths in the Drift clay. + +While this work is going through the press, an article has appeared +in "Harper's Monthly Magazine," (September, 1882, p. 609,) entitled +"The Mississippi River Problem," written by David A. Curtis, in which +the author says: + +"When La Salle found out how goodly a land it was, his report was the +warrant of eviction that drove out the red man to make place for the +white, as the mound-builders had made place for the Indian in what we +call the days of old. Yet it must have been only yesterday that the +mound-builders wrought in the valley, for in the few centuries that +have elapsed since then the surface of the ground has risen only a +few feet--not enough to bury their works out of sight. How long ago, +then, must it have been that the race lived there whose pavements and +cisterns of Roman brick now lie _seventy feet underground_?" + +Mr. Curtis does not mean that the bricks found in this prehistoric +settlement had any historical connection with Rome, but simply that +they resemble Roman bricks. These remains, I learn, were discovered +in the vicinity of Memphis, Tennessee. The details have not yet, so +far as I am aware, been published. + +Is it not more reasonable to suppose that civilized man existed on +the American Continent thirty thousand years ago, (the age fixed by +geologists for the coming of the Drift,) a comparatively short period +of time, and that his works were then covered by the Drift-_débris_, +than to believe that a race of human beings, far enough advanced in +civilization to manufacture bricks, and build pavements and cisterns, +dwelt in the Mississippi Valley, in a past so inconceivably remote +that the slow increase of the soil, + +{p. 355} + +by vegetable decay, has covered their works to the depth of _seventy +feet_? + +I come now to the most singular and marvelous revelation of all: + +Professor Alexander Winchell, in an interesting and recent work,[1] +says: + +"I had in my possession for some time a copper relic resembling a +rude coin, which was taken from an artesian boring at the depth of +_one hundred and fourteen feet_, at Lawn Ridge, Marshall County, +Illinois. + +"Mr. W. H. Wilmot, then of Lawn Ridge, furnished me, in a letter +dated December 4, 1871, the following statement of deposits pierced +in the boring: + + + Soil 3 feet. + + Yellow clay 17 " + + Blue clay 44 " + + Dark vegetable matter 4 " + + Hard purplish clay 18 " + + Bright green clay 8 " + + Mottled clay 18 " + + Soil 2 " + + Depth of coin 114 " + + Yellow clay 1 " + + Sand and clay. + + Water, rising 60 feet. + +"In a letter of the 27th of December, written from Chillicothe, +Illinois, he stated that the bore was four inches for eighty feet, +and three inches for the remainder of the depth. But before one +hundred feet had been reached the four-inch portion was 'so plastered +over as to be itself but three inches in diameter,' and hence the +'coin' could not have come from any depth less than _eighty feet_. + +"'Three persons saw "the coin" at the same instant, and each claims +it.' This so-called coin was about the + +[1. "Sparks from a Geologist's Hammer," p. 170.] + +{p. 356} + +thickness and size of a silver quarter of a dollar, and was of +_remarkably uniform thickness_. It was approximately round, and +_seemed to have been cut_. Its two faces bore marks as shown in the +figure, _but they were not stamped as with a die nor engraved_. They +looked as if _etched_ + + ### ### + + COPPER COIN, FOUND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN FEET UNDER GROUND IN + ILLINOIS. + +_with acid_. The character of the marks was partly unintelligible. On +each side, however, was a rude outline of a human figure. One of +these held in one hand an object resembling a child, while the other +was raised as if in the act of striking. The figure wore a +head-dress, apparently made of quills. _Around the border were +undecipherable hieroglyphics_. The figure on the opposite side +extended only to the waist, and had also one hand upraised. This was +furnished _with long tufts like mule's ears_. Around the border was +another circle of hieroglyphics. On this side also was a rude outline +of a quadruped. I exhibited this relic to the Geological Section of +the American Association, at its meeting at Buffalo in 1876. The +general impression seemed to be that its origin could not date from +the epoch of the stratum in which it is represented to have been +found. One person thought he could detect a rude representation of +the signs of the zodiac around the border. Another fancied he could +discover numerals, and even dates. No one could even offer any +explanation of the objects or the circumstances of its discovery. The +figures bear a close resemblance to rude drawings executed on +birch-bark and rock surfaces by the American Indians. _But by what +means were they etched_? And by what means was _the uniform thickness +of the copper produced_? + +{p. 357} + +This object was sent by the owner to the Smithsonian Institution for +examination, and Secretary Henry referred it to Mr. William E. +Dubois, who presented the result of his investigation to the American +Philosophical Society. _Mr. Dubois felt sure that the object had +passed through a rolling-mill, and he thought the cut edges gave +further evidence of the machine-shop_. 'All things considered,' he +said, 'I can not regard this Illinois piece as _ancient_ nor _old_ +(observing the usual distinction), nor yet recent; because the tooth +of time is plainly visible.' He could suggest nothing to clear up the +mystery. Professor J. P. Lesley thought it might be an astrological +amulet. He detected upon it the signs of Pisces and Leo. He read the +date 1572. He said, 'The piece was placed there as a practical joke.' +He thought it might be Hispano-American or French-American in origin. +the suggestion of 'a practical joke' is itself something which must +be taken as a joke. No person in possession of this interesting +object would willingly part with it; least of all would he throw so +small an object into a hole where not one chance in a thousand +existed that it would ever be seen again by any person. + +"If this object does not date from the age of the stratum from which +obtained, it can only be a relic of the sixteenth or seventeenth +century, buried beneath the alluvium deposited more recently by the +Illinois River. The country is a level prairie, and 'Peoria Lake' is +an expansion of the river ten miles long and a mile and a half broad. +It is certainly possible that in such a region deep alluvial deposits +may have formed since the visits of the French in the latter part of +the seventeenth century. _But it is not easy to admit an accumulation +of one hundred and fourteen or one hundred and twenty-feet_, since +such a depth extends too much below the surface of the river. In +Whiteside County, fifty miles northwest from Peoria County, about +1851, according to Mr. Moffat, _a large copper ring was found one +hundred and twenty feet beneath the surface_, as also something which +has been compared to a boat-hook. Several other objects have been +found at less depths, including _stone pipes and pottery, and a +spear-shaped hatchet_, MADE OF IRON. If these + +{p. 358} + +are not 'ancient,' their occurrence at depths of ten, forty, fifty, +and one hundred and twenty feet must be explained as I have suggested +in reference to the 'coin.' An instrument of iron is a strong +indication of the civilized origin of all." + +This is indeed an extraordinary revelation. Here we have a copper +medal, very much like a coin, inscribed with alphabetical or +hieroglyphical signs, which, when placed under the microscope, in the +hands of a skeptical investigator, satisfies him that it is not +recent, and that it _passed through a rolling-mill and was cut by a +machine_. + +If it is not recent, if the tooth of time is plainly seen on it, it +is not a modern fraud; if it is not a modern fraud, then it is really +the coin of some pre-Columbian people. The Indians possessed no +currency or alphabet, so that it dates back of the red-men. Nothing +similar has been found in the hundreds of American mounds that have +been opened, so that it dates back of the mound-builders. + +It comes from a depth of _not less than eighty feet in glacial clay_, +therefore it is profoundly ancient. + +It is engraved after a method _utterly unknown to any civilized +nation on earth, within the range of recorded history_. IT IS +ENGRAVED WITH ACID! + +It belongs, therefore, to a civilization unlike any we know of. If it +had been derived from any other human civilization, the makers, at +the same time they borrowed the round, metallic form of the coin, +would have borrowed also the mold or the stamp. But they did not; and +yet they possessed a rolling-mill and a machine to cut out the coin. + +What do we infer? That there is a relationship between our +civilization and this, but it is a relationship in which this +represents the parent; and the round metallic + +{p. 359} + +coins of historical antiquity were derived from it, but without the +art of engraving by the use of acid. + +It does not stand alone, but at great depths in the same clay +_implements of copper and of_ IRON _are found_. + +What does all this indicate? + +That far below the present level of the State of Illinois, in the +depths of the glacial clays, about one hundred or one hundred and +twenty feet below the present surface of the land, there are found +the evidences of a high civilization. For a coin with an inscription +upon it implies a high civilization:--it implies an alphabet, a +literature, a government, commercial relations, organized society, +regulated agriculture, which could alone sustain all these; and some +implement like a plow, without which extensive agriculture is not +possible; and this in turn implies domesticated animals to draw the +plow. The presence of the coin, and of implements of copper and iron, +proves that mankind had passed far beyond the Stone Age. And these +views are confirmed by the pavements and cisterns of brick found +seventy feet below the surface in the lower Mississippi Valley. + +There is a Pompeii, a Herculaneum, somewhere, underneath central and +northwestern Illinois or Tennessee, of the most marvelous character; +not of Egypt, Assyria, or the Roman Empire, things of yesterday, but +belonging to an inconceivable antiquity; to pre-glacial times; to a +period ages before the flood of Noah;--a civilization which was +drowned and deluged out of sight under the immeasurable clay-flood of +the comet. + +Man crawled timidly backward into the history of the past over his +little limit of six thousand years; and at the farther end of his +tether he found the perfect civilization of early Egypt. He rises to +his feet and looks still backward, and the vista of history spreads +and + +{p. 360} + +spreads to antediluvian times. Here at last he thinks he has reached +the beginning of things: here man first domesticated the animals; +here he first worked in copper and iron; here he possessed for the +first time an alphabet, a government, commerce, and coinage. And, lo! +from the bottom of well-holes in Illinois, one hundred and fourteen +feet deep, the buckets of the artesian-well auger bring up copper +rings and iron hatchets and engraved coins--engraved by a means +unknown to historical mankind--and we stand face to face with a +civilization so old that man will not willingly dare to put it into +figures. + +Here we are in the presence of that great, but possibly brutal and +sensual development of man's powers, "the sword-ages, the axe-ages, +the murder-ages of the Goths," of which God cleared the earth when he +buried the mastodon under the Drift for ever. + +How petty, how almost insignificant, how school-boy-like are our +historians, with their little rolls of parchment under their arms, +containing their lists of English, Roman, Egyptian, and Assyrian +kings and queens, in the presence of such stupendous facts as these! + +Good reader, your mind shrinks back from such conceptions, of course. +But can you escape the facts by shrinking back? Are they not there? +Are they not all of a piece--Job, Ovid, Rama, Ragnarok, Genesis, the +Aztec legends; the engraved ivory tablets of the caves, the pottery, +the carved figures of pre-glacial Europe; the pottery-strata of +Louisiana under the Drift; the copper and iron implements, the brick +pavements and cisterns, and this coin, dragged up from well-holes in +Illinois? + +And what do they affirm? + +That this catastrophe was indeed THE FALL OF MAN. + +Think what a fall! + +From comfort to misery; from plowed fields to the + +{p. 361} + +thistles and the stones; from sunny and glorious days in a stormless +land to the awful trials of the Drift Age; the rains, the cold, the +snow, the ice, the incessant tempests, the darkness, the poverty, the +coats of hides, the cave-life, the cannibalism, the Stone Age. + +Here was a fall indeed. + +There is nothing in antiquity that has not a meaning. The very fables +of the world's childhood should be sacred from our laughter. + +Our theology, even where science has most ridiculed it, is based on a +great, a gigantic truth. Paradise, the summer land of fruits, the +serpent, the fire from heaven, the expulsion, the waving sword, the +"fall of man," the "darkness on the face of the deep," the age of +toil and sweat--all, all, are literal facts. + +And could we but penetrate their meaning, the trees of life and +knowledge and the apples of paradise probably represent likewise +great and important facts or events in the history of our race. + +And with what slow steps did mankind struggle upward! In some favored +geographical center they recovered the arts of metallurgy, the +domestication of animals, and the alphabet. + +"All knowledge," says the Hindoo Krishna, "was originally bestowed on +mankind by God. They lost it. They recovered it as a recollection." + +The poor barbarian Indians of America possess traditions of this +ancient civilization, traditions in forms as rude as their own +condition. + +It was represented by the Great Hare, Manibozho, or Nanaboshu. + +Do we not find his typical picture, with those great mule-tufts, +(referred to by Professor Winchell,) the hare-like ears, on this coin +of Illinois? + +{p. 362} + +Read what the Indians tell of this great being + +"From the remotest wilds of the Northwest," says Dr. Brinton, "to the +coast of the Atlantic, from the southern boundaries of Carolina to +the cheerless swamps of Hudson's Bay, the Algonquins were never tired +of gathering around the winter fire and repeating the story of +Manibozho or Michabo, the _Great Hare_. With entire unanimity their +various branches, the Powhatans of Virginia, the Lenni-Lenape of the +Delaware, the warlike hordes of New England, the Ottawas of the far +North, and the Western tribes, perhaps without exception, spoke of +this 'chimerical beast,' as one of the old missionaries calls it as +_their common ancestor_. The totem or clan which bore his name was +looked up to with peculiar respect. . . . + +"What he really was we must seek in the accounts of older travelers, +in the invocations of the _jossakeeds_ or prophets, and in the part +assigned to him in the solemn mysteries of religion. In these we find +him portrayed as the patron and founder of the Meda worship, _the +inventor of picture-writing_, the father and guardian of their +nation, the ruler of the winds, even the maker and preserver of the +world and creator of the sun and moon. From a grain of sand brought +from the bottom of the primeval ocean, he fashioned the habitable +land, and set it floating on the waters till it grew to such a size +that a strong young wolf, running constantly, died of old age ere he +reached its limits. . . . He was the founder of the medicine-hunt. . +. . He himself was a _mighty hunter_ of old. . . . Attentively +watching the spider spread its web to trap unwary flies, _he devised +the art of knitting nets to catch fish_."[1] + +This is a barbarian's recollection of a great primeval civilized race +who established religion, invented nets, and, as the other legends +concerning him show, first made the bow and arrow and worked in the +metals. + +There is every reason to think the division of the people into +several classes, or families, who take the name of + +[1. "Myths of the New World," p. 175.] + +{p. 363} + +some animal whose picture is their _totem_, dates back to the very +beginning of the human race. The animal fables, as I have suggested, +grew out of these animal _totems_; we find them everywhere among the +American tribes; and in some cases they are accompanied by mental and +physical traits which may be supposed to indicate that they +originated in primal race differences. This is the belief of Warren, +the native historian of the Ojibways. I am indebted to Hon. H. Al. +Rice, of St. Paul, for an opportunity to examine his valuable +manuscript history of that tribe of Indians. + +The great _totem_ of the Algonquins is the Hare; he represents a +ruling class, and is associated with recollections of this Great +Hare, this demi-god, this man or race, who taught them all the arts +of life with which they are acquainted. Then there is a _turtle +totem_, associated with myths of the turtle or tortoise, which are +the images all over the world of an island.[1] + +And when we cross the Atlantic we find[2] that the Arabs are divided +up in the same way into tribes bearing animal names. + +"_Asad_, lion; 'a number of tribes.' _Aws_, wolf; 'a tribe of the +Ancar, or Defenders.' _Badau_, ibex; 'a tribe of the Kalb and +others.' _Tha'laba_, she-fox; 'a name of tribes.' _Garad_, locusts; +'a sub-tribe of the Azol.' _Thawr_, bull; 'a sub-tribe of Hamdan and +of Abel Manah.' _Gahah_, colt of an ass; 'a sub-tribe of the Arabs.' +_Hida'_, kite; 'a sub-tribe of Murad.' + +"The origin of all names is referred, in the genealogical system of +the Arabs, to an ancestor who bore the tribal or gentile name. Thus +the _Kalb_ or dog-tribe consists of the Beni-Kalb--sons of Kalb (the +dog), who is in turn son of Wabra (the female rock-badger), son of +Tha'laba + +[1. Tylor's "Early History of Mankind." + +2. W. J. F. Maclennan, "Fortnightly Review," 1869 and 1870.] + +{p. 364} + +(the she-fox), great-grandson of Quoda'a, grandson of Saba', the +Sheba of Scripture. A single member of the tribe is Kalbi--a +Kalbite--_Caninus_." + +"The same names which appear as _totem_ tribes reach through Edom, +Midian, and Moab, into the land of Canaan."[1] + +Among the Jews there was the stock of the serpent, Nashon, to which +David belonged; and there is no doubt that they were once divided +into totemic families. + +And in all this we see another proof of the race-identity of the +peoples on the opposite sides of the Atlantic. + +Permit me to close this chapter with a suggestion: + +Is there not energy enough among the archæologists of the United +States to make a thorough examination of some part of the deep clay +deposits of Central Illinois or of those wonderful remains referred +to by Mr. Curtis? + +If one came and proved that at a given point he had found indications +of a coal-bed or a gold-mine, he would have no difficulty in +obtaining means enough to dig a shaft and excavate acres. Can not the +greed for information do one tenth as much as the greed for profit? + +Who can tell what extraordinary revelations wait below the vast mass +of American glacial clay? For it must be remembered that the articles +already found have been discovered in the narrow holes bored or dug +for wells. How small is the area laid bare by such punctures in the +earth compared with the whole area of the country in which they are +sunk! How remarkable that _anything_ should have been found under +such circumstances! How probable, therefore, that the remains of man +are numerous at a certain depth! + +Where a coin is found we might reasonably expect to + +[1. W. J. F. Maclennan, "Fortnightly Review," 1869 and 1870.] + +{p. 365} + +find other works of copper, and all those things which would +accompany the civilization of a people working in the metals and +using a currency,--such as cities, houses, temples, etc. Of course, +such things might exist, and yet many shafts might be sunk without +coming upon any of them. But is not the attempt worth making? + +{p. 366} + + CHAPTER II. + + THE SCENE OF MAN'S SURVIVAL + +LET us pass to another speculation: + +The reader is not constrained to accept my conclusions. They will, I +trust, provoke further discussion, which may tend to prove or +disprove them. + +But I think I can see that many of these legends point to an island, +east of America and west of Europe, that is to say in the Atlantic +Ocean, as the scene where man, or at least our own portion of the +human race, including the white, yellow, and brown races, survived +the great cataclysm and renewed the civilization of the pro-glacial +age and that from this center, in the course of ages, they spread +east and west, until they reached the plains of Asia and the islands +of the Pacific. + +The negro race, it seems probable, may have separated from our own +stock in pre-glacial times, and survived, in fragments, somewhere in +the land of torrid heats, probably in some region on which the Drift +did not fall. + +We are told by Ovid that it was the tremendous heat of the comet-age +that baked the negro black; in this Ovid doubtless spoke the opinion +of antiquity. Whether or not that period of almost insufferable +temperature produced any effect upon the color of that race I shall +not undertake to say; nor shall I dare to assert that the white race +was bleached to its present complexion by the long absence of the sun +during the Age of Darkness. + +{p. 367} + +It is true Professor Hartt tells us[1] that there is a marked +difference in the complexion of the Botocudo Indians who have lived +in the forests of Brazil and those, of the same tribe, who have dwelt +on its open prairies; and that those who have resided for hundreds, +perhaps thousands, of years in the dense forests of that tropical +land are nearly white in complexion. If this be the case in a merely +leaf-covered tract, what must have been the effect upon a race +dwelling for a long time in the remote north, in the midst of a humid +atmosphere, enveloped in constant clouds, and much of the time in +almost total darkness? + +There is no doubt that here and then were developed the rude, +powerful, terrible "ice-giants" of the legends, out of whose +ferocity, courage, vigor, and irresistible energy have been evolved +the dominant races of the west of Europe--the land-grasping, +conquering, colonizing races; the men of whom it was said by a Roman +poet, in the Viking Age: "The sea is their school of war and the +storm their friend they are sea-wolves that prey on the pillage of +the world." + +They are now taking possession of the globe. + +Great races are the weeded-out survivors of great sufferings. + +What are the proofs of my proposition that man survived on an +Atlantic island? + +In the first place we find Job referring to "the _island_ of the +innocent." + +In chapter xxii, verse 29, Eliphaz, the Temanite, says + +When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and +he shall save the humble person." + +Where shall he save him? The next verse (30) seems to tell + +[1. "The Geology of Brazil," p. 589.] + +{p. 368} + +"He shall deliver _the island of the innocent_: and _it is delivered_ +by the pureness of thine [Job's] hands." + +And, as I have shown, in Genesis it appears that, after the Age of +Darkness, God separated the floods which overwhelmed the earth and +made a firmament, a place of solidity, a refuge, (chap. i, vs. 6, 7,) +"in the midst of the waters." A firm place in the _midst_ of the +waters is necessarily an island. + +And the location of this Eden was westward from. Europe, for we read, +(chap. iii, v. 24): + +"So he drove out the man; and he placed _at the_ EAST _of the garden +of Eden_ cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to +keep the way of the tree of life." + +The man driven out of the Edenic land was, therefore, driven +_eastward_ of Eden, and the cherubims in the east of Eden faced him. +The land where the Jews dwelt was eastward of paradise; in other +words, paradise was west of them. + +And, again, when Cain was driven out be too moved _eastward_; he +"dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden," (chap. iv, verse +16.) There was, therefore, a constant movement of the human family +eastward. The land of Nod may have been _Od_, _Ad_, Atlantis; and +from _Od_ may have come the name of _Odin_, the king, the god of +Ragnarok. + +In Ovid "the earth" is contradistinguished from the rest of the +globe. It is an island-land, the civilized land, the land of the +Tritons or water-deities, of Proteus, Ægeon, Doris, and Atlas. It is, +in my view, Atlantis. + +Ovid says, (book ii, fable 1, "The Metamorphoses") + +"_The sea circling around the encompassed earth_. . . . The earth has +upon it men and cities, and woods and wild beasts, and rivers, and +nymphs and other deities of the + +{p. 369} + +country." On this land is "the palace of the sun, raised high on +stately columns, bright with radiant gold, and carbuncle that rivals +the flames; polished ivory crests its highest top, and double folding +doors shine with the brightness of silver." + +In other words, the legend refers to the island-home of a civilized +race, over which was a palace which reminds one of the great temple +of Poseidon in Plato's story. + +The Atlantic was sometimes called "the sea of ivory," in allusion, +probably, to this ivory-covered temple of Ovid. Hence Croly sang: + + Now on her hills of ivory + Lie giant-weed and ocean-slime, + Hiding from man and angel's eye + The land of crime." + +And, again, Ovid says, after enumerating the different rivers and +mountains and tracts of country that were on fire in the great +conflagration, and once more distinguishing the pre-eminent earth +from the rest of the world: + +"However, the genial Earth, _as she was surrounded with sea_, amid +the waters of the _main_," (the ocean,) "and the springs dried up on +every side, lifted up her _all-productive face_," etc. + +She cries out to the sovereign of the gods for mercy. She refers to +the burdens of the crops she annually bears; the wounds of the +crooked plow and the barrow, which she voluntarily endures; and she +calls on mighty Jove to put an end to the conflagration. And he does +so. The rest of the world has been scarred and seared with the fire, +but he spares and saves this island-land, this agricultural, +civilized land, this land of the Tritons and Atlas; this "island of +the innocent" of Job. And when the terrible convulsion was over, and +the + +{p. 370} + +rash Phaëton dead and buried, Jove repairs, with especial care, "his +own Arcadia." + +It must not be forgotten that Phaëton was the son of _Merops_; and +Theopompus tells us that the people who inhabited Atlantis were the +_Meropes_, the people of Merou. And the Greek traditions[1] show that +the human race issued from _Upa-Merou_; and the Egyptians claim that +their ancestors came from the _Island of Mero_; and among the Hindoos +the land of the gods and the godlike men was _Meru_. + +And here it is, we are told, where in deep caves, and from the seas, +receding under the great heat, the human race, crying out for mercy, +with uplifted and blistered hands, survived the cataclysm. + +And Ovid informs us that this land, "with a mighty trembling, sank +down a little" in the ocean, and the Gothic and Briton (Druid) +legends tell us of a prolongation of Western Europe which went down +at the same time. + +In the Hindoo legends the great battle between Rama and Ravana, the +sun and the comet, takes place _on an island_, the Island of Lanka, +and Rama builds a stone bridge sixty miles long to reach the island. + +In the Norse legends Asgard lies to the west of Europe; communication +is maintained with it by the bridge Bifrost. Gylfe goes to visit +Asgard, as Herodotus and Solon went to visit Egypt: the outside +barbarian was curious to behold the great civilized land. There he +asks many questions, as Herodotus and Solon did. He is told:[2] + +"The earth is round, and _without it round about lies the deep +ocean_." + +[1. "Atlantis," p. 171. + +2. The Fooling of Gylfe--The Creation of the World--The Younger Edda.] + +{p. 371} + +The earth is Ovid's earth; it is Asgard. It is an island, surrounded +by the ocean: + +"And along the outer strand of that sea they gave lands for the +giant-races to dwell in; and against the attack of restless giants +they built a burg within the sea and around the earth." + +This proves that by "the earth" was not meant the whole globe; for +here we see that around the outside margin of that ocean which +encircled Asgard, the mother-country had given lands for colonies of +the giant-races, the white, large, blue-eyed races of Northern and +Western Europe, who were as "restless" and as troublesome then to +their neighbors as they are now and will be to the end of time. + +And as the _Elder_ and _Younger Edda_ claim that the Northmen were +the giant races, and that their kings were of the blood of these +Asas; and as the bronze-using people advanced, (it has been proved by +their remains,[1]) into Scandinavia from the _southwest_, it is clear +that these legends do not refer to some mythical island in the Indian +Seas, or to the Pacific Ocean, but to the Atlantic: the west coasts +of Europe were "the outer strand" where these white colonies were +established; the island was in the Atlantic; and, as there is no body +of submerged land in that ocean with roots or ridges reaching out to +the continents east and west, except the mass of which the Azores +Islands constitute the mountain-tops, the conclusion is irresistible +that here was Atlantis; here was Lanka; here was "the island of the +innocent," here was Asgard. + +And the Norse legends describe this "Asgard" as a land of temples and +plowed fields, and a mighty civilized race. + +And here it is that Ragnarok comes. It is from the + +[1. Du Chaillu's "Land of the Midnight Sun," vol. i, pp. 343, 345, +etc.] + +{P. 372} + +people of Asgard that the wandering Gylfe learns all that he tells +about Ragnarok, just as Solon learned from the priests of Sais the +story of Atlantis. And it is here in Asgard that, as we have seen, +"during Surt's fire two persons, called Lif and Lifthraser, a man and +a woman, concealed themselves in Hodmimer's holt," and afterward +repeopled the world. + +We leave Europe and turn to India. + +In the Bagaveda-Gita Krishna recalls to the memory of his disciple +Ardjouna the legend as preserved in the sacred books of the Veda. + +We are told: + +"The earth was covered with flowers; the trees bent under their +fruit; thousands of animals sported over the plains and in the air; +white elephants roved unmolested under the shade of gigantic forests, +and Brahma perceived that the time had come for the creation of man +to inhabit this dwelling-place."[1] + +This is a description of the glorious world of the Tertiary Age, +during which, as scientific researches have proved, the climate of +the tropics extended to the Arctic Circle. + +Brahma makes man, Adima, (Adam,) and he makes a companion for him, +Héva, (Eve). + +_They are upon an island_. Tradition localizes the legend by making +this the Island of Ceylon. + +"Adima and Héva lived for some time in perfect happiness--no +suffering came to disturb their quietude; they had but to stretch +forth their hands and pluck from surrounding trees the most delicious +fruits--but to stoop and gather rice of the finest quality." + +This is the same Golden Age represented in Genesis, when Adam and +Eve, naked, but supremely happy, lived + +[1. Jacolliet, "The Bible in India," p. 195.] + +{p. 373} + +upon the fruits of the garden, and knew neither sorrow nor suffering, +neither toil nor hunger. + +But one day the evil-one came, as in the Bible legend the Prince of +the _Rakchasos_ (Raknaros--Ragnarok?) came, and broke up this +paradise. Adima and Héva leave their _island_; they pass to a +boundless country; they fall upon an evil time; "trees, flowers, +fruits, birds, vanish in an instant, amid terrific clamor";[1] the +Drift has come; they are in a world of trouble, sorrow, poverty, and +toil. + +And when we turn to America we find the legends looking, not +westward, but _eastward_, to this same island-refuge of the race. + +When the Navajos come out of the cave the white race goes _east_, and +the red-men go _west_; so that the Navajos inhabit a country _west_ +of their original habitat, just as the Jews inhabit one _east_ of it. + +"Let me conclude," says the legend, "by telling how the Navajos came +by the seed they now cultivate. All the wise men being one day +assembled, a Turkey-Hen came flying _from the direction of the +morning star_, and shook from her feathers an ear of blue corn into +the midst of the company; and in subsequent visits _brought all the +other seeds they possess_."[2] + +In the Peruvian legends the civilizers of the race came _from the +east_, after the cave-life. + +So that these people not only came from the east, but they maintained +intercourse for some time afterward with the parent-land. + +On page 174, _ante_, we learn that the Iroquois believed that when +Joskeha renewed the world, after the great battle with Darkness, he +learned from _the great tortoise_ + +[1. Jacolliet, "The Bible in India," p. 198. + +2. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 83.] + +{p. 374} + +--always the image of an island--how to make fire, and taught the +Indians the art. And in their legends the battle between the White +One and the Dark One took place in the east near the great ocean. + +Dr. Brinton says, speaking of the Great Hare, Manibozho: + +"In the oldest accounts of the missionaries he was alleged to reside +_toward the east_, and in the holy formula of the meda craft, when +the winds are invoked to the medicine-lodge, the _east is summoned_ +in his name, the door opens in that direction, and there _at the edge +of the earth_, where the sun rises, on _the shore of the infinite +ocean that surrounds the land_, he has his house, and sends the +luminaries forth on their daily journey."[1] + +That is to say, in the east, in the _surrounding_ ocean of the east, +to wit, in the Atlantic, this god, (or godlike race,) has his house, +his habitation, upon a land surrounded by the ocean, to wit, an +island; and there his power and his civilization are so great that he +controls the movements of the sun, moon, and stars; that is to say, +he fixes the measure of time by the movements of the sun and moon, +and he has mapped out the heavenly bodies into constellations. + +In the Miztec legend, (see page 214, _ante_,) we find the people +praying to God to gather the waters together and enlarge the land, +for they have only "a little garden" to inhabit in the waste of +waters. This meant an island. + +In the Arabian legends we have the scene of the catastrophe described +as an island west of Arabia, and it _requires two years and a half of +travel to reach it_. It is the land of bronze. + +In the Hindoo legend of the battle between Rama, the + +[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 177.] + +{p. 375} + +sun, and Ravana, the comet, the scene is laid on the _Island_ of +Lanka. + +In the Tahoe legend the survivors of the civilized race take refuge +in a cave, in a mountain on an _island_. They give the tradition a +local habitation in Lake Tahoe. + +The Tacullies say God first created an _island_. + +In short, we may say that, wherever any of these legends refer to the +locality where the disaster came and where man survived, the scene is +placed upon an island, in the ocean, in the midst of the waters; and +this island, wherever the points of the compass are indicated, lies +to the west of Europe and to the east of America: it is, therefore, +in the Atlantic Ocean; and the island, we shall see, is connected +with these continents by long bridges or ridges of land. + +This island was Atlantis. Ovid says it was the land of Neptune, +Poseidon. It is Neptune who cries out for mercy. And it is associated +with Atlas, the king or god of Atlantis. + +Let us go a step further in the argument. + +{p. 376} + + CHAPTER III. + + THE BRIDGE. + +THE deep-sea soundings, made of late years in the Atlantic, reveal +the fact that the Azores are the mountaintops of a colossal mass of +sunken land; and that from this center one great ridge runs southward +for some distance, and then, bifurcating, sends out one limb to the +shores of Africa, and another to the shores of South America; while +there are the evidences that a third great ridge formerly reached +northward from the Azores to the British Islands. + +When these ridges--really the tops of long and continuous +mountain-chains, like the Andes or the Rocky Mountains, the backbone +of a vast primeval Atlantic-filling, but, even then, in great part, +sunken continent, were above the water, they furnished a wonderful +feature in the scenery and geography of the world; they were the +pathways over which the migrations of races extended in the ancient +days; they wound for thousands of miles, irregular, rocky, +wave-washed, through the great ocean, here expanding into islands, +there reduced to a narrow strip, or sinking into the sea; they +reached from a central civilized land--an ancient, long-settled land, +the land of the godlike race--to its colonies, or connections, north, +south, east, and west; and they impressed themselves vividly on the +imagination and the traditions of mankind, leaving their image even +in the religions of the world unto this day. + +As, in process of time, they gradually or suddenly settled + +{p. 377} + +into the deep, they must at first have formed long, continuous +strings of islands, almost touching each other, resembling very much +the Aleutian Archipelago, or the Bahama group; and these islands +continued to be used, during later ages, as the stepping-stones for +migrations and intercourse between the old and the new worlds, just +as the discovery of the Azores helped forward the discovery of the +New World by Columbus; he used them, we know, as a halting-place in +his great voyage. + +When Job speaks of "the island of the innocent," which was spared +from utter destruction, he prefaces it by asking, (chap. xxii): + +"15. Hast thou marked _the old way_ which wicked men have trodden? + +"16. Which were (was?) cut down out of time, _whose foundation was +overflown with a flood_." + +And in chapter xxviii, verse 4, we have what may be another allusion +to this "way," along which go the people who are on their journey, +and which "divideth the flood," and on which some are escaping. + +The Quiche manuscript, as translated by the Abbé Brasseur de +Bourbourg,[1] gives an account of the migration of the Quiche race to +America from some eastern land in a very early day, in "the day of +darkness," ere the sun was, in the so-called glacial age. + +When they moved to America they wandered for a long time through +forests and over mountains, and "they had a _long passage to make, +through the sea, along the shingle and pebbles and drifted sand_." +And this long passage was through the sea "which was parted for their +passage." That is, the sea was on both sides of this long ridge of +rocks and sand. + +[1. Tylor's "Early Mankind," p. 308.] + +{p. 378} + +The abbé adds: + +"But it is not clear how they crossed the sea; they passed as though +there had been no sea, for they passed over scattered rocks, and +these rocks were rolled on the sands. This is why they called the +place 'ranged stones and torn-up sands,' the name which they gave it +in their passage within the sea, the water being divided when they +passed." + +They probably migrated along that one of the connecting ridges which, +the sea-soundings show us, stretched from Atlantis to the coast of +South America. + +We have seen in the Hindoo legends that when Rama went to the Island +of Lanka to fight the demon Ravana, he built a bridge of stone, sixty +miles long, with the help of the monkey-god, in order to reach the +island. + +In Ovid we read of the "settling down a little" of the island on +which the drama of Phaëton was enacted. + +In the Norse legends the bridge Bifrost cuts an important figure. One +would be at first disposed to regard it as meaning, (as is stated in +what are probably later interpolations,) the rainbow; but we see, +upon looking closely, that it represents a material fact, an actual +structure of some kind. + +Gylfe, who was, we are told, A king of Sweden in the ancient days, +visited Asgard. He assumed the name of Ganglere, (the walker or +wanderer). I quote from the "_Younger Edda, The Creation_": + +"Then asked Ganglere, 'What is the path from earth to heaven?'" + +The earth here means, I take it, the European colonies which surround +the ocean, which in turn surrounds Asgard; heaven is the land of the +godlike race, Asgard. Ganglere therefore asks what is, or was, in the +mythological past, the pathway from Europe to the Atlantic island. + +{p. 379} + +"Har answered, laughing, 'Foolishly do you now ask. Have you not been +told that the gods made a bridge from earth to heaven, which is +called Bifrost? You must have seen it. It may be that you call it the +rainbow. It has three colors, is very strong, and is made with more +craft and skill than other structures. Still, however strong it is, +it will break when the sons of Muspel come to ride over it, and then +they will have to swim their horses over great rivers in order to get +on.'" + +Muspel is the blazing South, the land of fire, of the convulsions +that accompanied the comet. But how can Bifrost mean the rainbow? +What rivers intersect a rainbow? + +"Then said Ganglere, 'The gods did not, it seems to me, build that +bridge honestly, if it shall be able to break to pieces, since they +could have done so if they had desired.' Then made answer Har: 'The +gods are worthy of no blame for this structure. Bifrost is indeed a +good bridge, but there is nothing in the world that is able to stand +when the sons of Muspel come to the fight.'" + +Muspel here means, I repeat, the heat of the South. Mere heat has no +effect on rainbows. They are the product of sunlight and falling +water, and are often most distinct in the warmest weather. + +But we see, a little further on, that this bridge Bifrost was a real +structure. We read of the roots of the ash-tree Ygdrasil, and one of +its roots reaches to the fountain of Urd: + +Here the gods have their doomstead. The _Asas ride hither every day +over Bifrost_, which is also called Asa-bridge." + +And these three mountain-chains going out to the different continents +were the three roots of the tree Ygdrasil, the sacred tree of the +mountain-top; and it is to this "three-pronged root of the +world-mountain" that the + +{p. 380} + +Hindoo legends refer, (see page 238, _ante_): on its top was heaven, +Olympus; below it was hell, where the Asuras, the comets, dwelt; and +between was Meru, (Mero Merou,) the land of the Meropes, Atlantis. + +The _Asas_ were clearly a human race of noble and godlike qualities. +The proof of this is that they perished in Ragnarok; they were +mortal. They rode over the bridge every day going from heaven, the +heavenly land, to the earth, Europe. + +We read on: + + "Kormt and Ormt, + And the two Kerlaugs + These shall Thor wade + Every day, + When he goes to judge + Near the Ygdrasil ash; + _For the Asa-bridge + Burns all ablaze--_ + The holy waters roar." + +These rivers, Kormt and Ormt and the two Kerlaugs, were probably +breaks in the long ridge, where it had gradually subsided into the +sea. The Asa-bridge was, very likely, dotted with volcanoes, as the +islands of the Atlantic are to this day. + +"Then answered Ganglere, 'Does fire burn over Bifrost?' Har answered: +'The red which you see in the rainbow is burning fire. The +frost-giants and the mountain-giants would go up to heaven if Bifrost +were passable for all who desired to go there. Many fair places are +there in heaven, and they are protected by a divine defense.'" + +We have just seen (p. 371, _ante_) that the home of the godlike race, +the _Asas_, to wit, heaven, Asgard, was surrounded by the ocean, was +therefore an island; and that around the outer margin of this ocean, +the Atlantic, + +[1. Elder Edda, "Grimner's Lay," 29.] + +{p. 381} + +the godlike race had given lands for the ice-giants to dwell in. And +now we read that this Asa-bridge, this Bifrost, reached from earth to +heaven, to wit, across this gulf that separated the island from the +colonies of the ice-giants. And now we learn that, if this bridge +were not defended by a divine defense, these troublesome ice-giants +would go up to heaven; that is to say, the bold Northmen would march +across it from Great Britain and Ireland to the Azores, to wit, to +Atlantis. Surely all this could not apply to the rainbow. + +But we read a little further. Har is reciting to Ganglere the wonders +of the heavenly land, and is describing its golden palaces, and its +mixed population of dark and light colored races, and he says: + +"Furthermore, there is a dwelling, by name Himinbjorg, _which stands +at the end of heaven, where the Bifrost bridge is united with +heaven_." + +And then we read of Heimdal, one of the gods who was subsequently +killed by the comet: + +"He dwells in a place called Himinbjorg, near Bifrost. He is the +ward," (warder, guardian,) "of the gods, and sits _at the end of +heaven, guarding the bridge against the mountain-giants_. He needs +less sleep than a bird; sees an hundred miles around him, and as well +by night as by day. _His teeth are of gold_." + +This reads something like a barbarian's recollection of a race that +practiced dentistry and used telescopes. We know that gold filling +has been found in the teeth of ancient Egyptians and Peruvians, and +that telescopic lenses were found in the ruins of Babylon. + +But here we have Bifrost, a bridge, but not a continuous structure, +interrupted in places by water, reaching from Europe to some Atlantic +island. And the island-people regarded it very much as some of the +English look + +{p. 382} + +upon the proposition to dig a tunnel from Dover to Calais, as a +source of danger, a means of invasion, a threat; and at the end of +the island, where the ridge is united to it, they did what England +will probably do at the end of the Dover tunnel: they erected +fortifications and built a castle, and in it they put a ruler, +possibly a sub-king, Heimdal, who constantly, from a high lookout, +possibly with a field-glass, watches the coming of the turbulent +Goths, or Gauls, or Gael, from afar off. Doubtless the white-headed +and red-headed, hungry, breekless savages had the same propensity to +invade the civilized, wealthy land, that their posterity had to +descend on degenerate Rome. + +The word _Asas_ is not, as some have supposed, derived from Asia. +Asia is derived from the _Asas_. The word _Asas_ comes from a Norse +word, still in use in Norway, _Aas_, meaning _a ridge of high +land_.[1] Anderson thinks there is some connection between _Aas_, the +high ridge, the mountain elevation, and _Atlas_, who held the world +on his shoulders. + +The _Asas_, then, were the civilized race who inhabited a high, +precipitous country, the meeting-point of a number of ridges. Atlas +was the king, or god, of Atlantis. In the old time all kings were +gods. They are something more than men, to the multitude, even yet. + +And when we reach "Ragnarok" in these Gothic legends, when the jaw of +the wolf Fenris reached from the earth to the sun, and he vomits fire +and poison, and when Surt, and all the forces of Muspel, "ride over +Bifrost, _it breaks to pieces_." That is to say, in this last great +catastrophe of the earth, the ridge of land that led from the British +Islands to Atlantis goes down for ever. + +[1. The Younger Edda," Anderson, note, p. 226.] + +{p. 383} + +And in Plato's description of Atlantis, as received by Solon from the +Egyptian priests, we read: + +"There was an island" (Atlantis) "situated in front of the straits +which you call the Columns of Hercules; the island was larger than +Libya and Asia put together, and _was the way to other islands_, and +from the islands _you might pass through the whole of the opposite +continent_," (America,) "which surrounds the true ocean." + +Now this is not very clear, but it may signify that there was +continuous land communication between Atlantis and the islands of the +half-submerged ridge, and from the islands to the continent of +America. It would seem to mean more than a passage-way by boats over +the water, for that existed everywhere, and could be traversed in any +direction. + +I have quoted on p. 372, _ante_, in the last chapter, part of the +Sanskrit legend of Adima and Héva, as preserved in the Bagaveda-Gita, +and other sacred books of the Hindoos. It refers very distinctly to +the bridge which united the island-home of primeval humanity with the +rest of the earth. But there is more of it: + +When, under the inspiration of the prince of demons, Adima and Héva +begin to wander, and desire to leave their island, we read: + +"Arriving at last at the extremity of the island"-- + +We have seen that the bridge Bifrost was connected with the extremity +of Asgard-- + +"they beheld a smooth and narrow arm of the sea, and beyond it a vast +and apparently boundless country," (Europe?) "_connected with their +island by a narrow and rocky pathway, arising from the bosom of the +waters_." + +This is probably a precise description of the connecting ridge; it +united the boundless continent, Europe, with + +{p. 384} + +the island; it rose out of the sea, it was rocky; it was the broken +crest of a submerged mountain-chain. + +What became of it? Here again we have a tradition of its destruction. +We read that, after Adima and Héva had passed over this rocky bridge-- + +"No sooner did they touch the shore, than trees, flowers, fruit, +birds, all that they had seen from the opposite side, vanished in an +instant, _amidst terrible clamor; the rocks by which they had crossed +sank beneath the waves_, a few sharp peaks alone remaining above the +surface, to indicate the place of the bridge, _which had been +destroyed by divine displeasure_." + +Here we have the crushing and instant destruction by the Drift, the +terrific clamor of the age of chaos, and the breaking down of the +bridge Bifrost under the feet of the advancing armies of Muspel; here +we have "the earth" of Ovid "settling down a little" in the ocean; +here we have the legends of the Cornishmen of the lost land, +described in the poetry of Tennyson; here we have the emigrants to +Europe cut off from their primeval home, and left in a land of stones +and clay and thistles. + +It is, of course, localized in Ceylon, precisely as the mountain of +Ararat and the mountain of Olympus crop out in a score of places, +wherever the races carried their legends. And to this day the Hindoo +points to the rocks which rise in the Indian Ocean, between the +eastern point of India and the Island of Ceylon, as the remnants of +the Bridge; and the reader will find them marked on our maps as" +Adam's Bridge" (_Palam Adima_). The people even point out, to this +day, a high mountain, from whose foot the Bridge went forth, over +which Adima and Héva, crossed to the continent; and it is known in +modern geography as "Adam's Peak." So vividly have the traditions of +a vast antiquity come down to us! The legends + +{p. 385} + +of the Drift have left their stamp even in our schoolbooks. + +And the memory of this Bridge survives not only in our geographies, +but in our religions. + +Man reasons, at first, from below upward; from godlike men up to +man-like gods; from Cæsar, the soldier, up to Cæsar, the deity. + +Heaven was, in the beginning, a heavenly city on earth; it is +transported to the clouds; and there its golden streets and sparkling +palaces await the redeemed. + +This is natural: we can only conceive of the best of the spiritual by +the best we know of the material; we can imagine no musical +instrument in the bands of the angels superior to a harp; no weapon +better than a sword for the grasp of Gabriel. + +This disproves not a spiritual and superior state; it simply shows +the poverty and paucity of our poor intellectual apparatus, which, +like a mirror, reflects only that which is around it, and reflects it +imperfectly. + +Men sometimes think they are mocking spiritual things when it is the +imperfection of material nature, (which they set so much store by,) +that provokes their ridicule. + +So, among all the races which went out from this heavenly land, this +land of high intelligence, this land of the master race, it was +remembered down through the ages, and dwelt upon and sung of until it +moved upward from the waters of the Atlantic to the distant skies, +and became a spiritual heaven. And the ridges which so strangely +connected it with the continents, east and west, became the bridges +over which the souls of men must pass to go from earth to heaven. + +For instance: + +The Persians believe in this bridge between earth and + +{p. 386} + +paradise. In his prayers the penitent in his confession says to this +day: + +"I am wholly without doubt in the existence of the Mazdayaçnian +faith; in the coming of the resurrection of the latter body; in the +stepping _over the bridge Chinvat_; as well as in the continuance of +paradise." + +The bridge and the land are both indestructible. + +Over the midst of the Moslem hell stretches the bridge Es-Sirat, +"finer than a hair and sharper than the edge of a sword." + +In the Lyke-Wake Dirge of the English north-country, they sang of + + The Brig of Dread + Na braider than a thread." + +In Borneo the passage for souls to heaven is across a long tree; it +is scarcely practicable to any except those who have killed a man. + +In Burmah, among the Karens, they tie strings across the rivers, for +the ghosts of the dead to pass over to their graves. + +In Java, a bridge leads across the abyss to the dwelling-place of the +gods; the evil-doers fall into the depths _below_. + +Among the Esquimaux the soul crosses an awful gulf over a stretched +rope, until it reaches the abode of "the great female evil spirit +below" (beyond?) "the sea." + +The Ojibways cross to paradise on a great snake, which serves as a +bridge. + +The Choctaw bridge is a slippery pine-log. + +The South American Manacicas cross on a wooden bridge. + +Among many of the American tribes, the Milky Way is the bridge to the +other world. + +[1. Poor, "Sanskrit Literature," p. 151.] + +{p. 387} + +The Polynesians have no bridge; they pass the chasm in canoes. + +The Vedic Yama of the Hindoos crossed the rapid waters, and showed +the way to our Aryan fathers. + +The modern Hindoo hopes to get through by holding on to the cow's +tail! + +Even the African tribes, the Guinea negroes, believe that the land of +souls can only be reached by crossing a river. + +Among some of the North American tribes "the souls come to a great +lake," (the ocean,) "where there is a _beautiful island_, toward +which they have to paddle in a canoe of white stone. On the way there +arises a storm, and the wicked souls are wrecked, and the heaps of +their bones are to be seen under the water, but the good reach the +happy _island_."[1] + +The Slavs believed in a pathway or road which led to the other world; +it was both the rainbow (as in the Gothic legends) and the Milky Way; +and, since the journey was long, they put boots into the coffin, (for +it was made on foot,) and coins to pay the ferrying across a wide +sea, even as the Greeks expected to be carried over the Styx by +Charon. This abode of the dead, at the end of this long pathway, was +_an island_, a warm, fertile land, called _Buyau_.[2] + +In their effort to restore the dead men to the happy island-home, the +heavenly land, beyond the water, the Norsemen actually set their dead +heroes afloat in boats on the open ocean.[3] + +Subsequently they raised a great mound over boat, warrior, horses, +weapons, and all. These boats are now being dug up in the north of +Europe and placed in the + +[1. Tylor's "Early Mankind," p. 362. + +2. Poor, "Sanskrit and Kindred Literatures," pp. 3 71, 372. + +3. Ibid.] + +{p. 388} + +great museums. They tell a marvelous religious and historical story. + +I think the unprejudiced reader will agree with me that these legends +show that some Atlantic island played an important part in the very +beginning of human history. It was the great land of the world before +the Drift; it continued to be the great land of the world between the +Drift and the Deluge. Here man fell; here he survived; here he +renewed the race, and from this center he repopulated the world. + +We see also that this island was connected with the continents east +and west by great ridges of land. + +The deep-sea soundings show that the vast bulk of land, of which the +Azores are the outcroppings, are so connected yet with such ridges, +although their crests are below the sea-level; and we know of no +other island-mass of the Atlantic that is so united with the +continents on both sides of it. + +Is not the conclusion very strong that Atlantis was the island-home +of the race, in whose cave Job dwelt; on whose shores Phaëton fell; +on whose fields Adam lived; on whose plain Sodom and Gomorrah stood, +and Odin and Thor and Citli died; from which the Quiches and the +Aztecs wandered to America; the center of all the races; the root of +all the mythologies? + +{p. 389} + + CHAPTER IV. + + OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. + +LET ME consider, briefly, those objections to my theory which have +probably presented themsevles {_sic_} to some of my readers. + +First, it may be said: + +"We don't understand you. You argue that there could not have been +such an ice-age as the glacialists affirm, and yet you speak of a +period of cold and ice and snow." + +True: 'but there is a great difference between such a climate as that +of Scotland, damp and cold, snowy and blowy, and a continental +ice-sheet, a mile or two thick, reaching from John o' Groat's House +to the Mediterranean. We can see that the oranges of Spain can grow +to-day within a comparatively short distance of Edinburgh; but we can +not realize that any tropical or semitropical plant could have +survived in Africa when a precipice of ice, five thousand feet high, +frowned on the coast of Italy; or that any form of life could have +survived on earth when the equator in South America was covered with +a continental ice-sheet a mile in thickness, or even ten feet in +thickness. We can conceive of a glacial age of snow-storms, rains, +hail, and wind--a terribly trying and disagreeable climate for man +and beast--but we can not believe that the whole world was once in +the condition that the dead waste of ice-covered Greenland is in now. + +{p. 390} + +Secondly, it may be said-- + +"The whole world is now agreed that ice produced the Drift; what +right, then, has any one man to set up a different theory against the +opinions of mankind? " + +One man, Mohammed said, with God on his side, is a majority; and one +man, with the truth on his side, must become a majority. + +All recognized truths once rested, solitary and alone, in some one +brain. + +Truth is born an acorn, not an oak. + +The Rev. Sydney Smith once said that there was a kind of men into +whom you could not introduce a new idea without a surgical operation. +He might have added that, when you had once forced an idea into the +head of such a man, you could not deliver him of it without +instruments. + +The conservatism of unthinkingness is one of the potential forces of +the world. It lies athwart the progress of mankind like a colossal +mountain-chain, chilling the atmosphere on both sides of it for a +thousand miles. The Hannibal who would reach the eternal city of +Truth on the other side of these Alps must fight his way over ice and +hew his way through rocks. + +The world was once agreed that the Drift was due to the Deluge. It +abandoned this theory, and then became equally certain that it came +from icebergs. This theory was, in turn, given up, and mankind were +then positive that glaciers caused the Drift. But the glaciers were +found to be inadequate for the emergency; and so the continents were +lifted up fifteen hundred feet, and the ice-sheets were introduced. +And now we wait to hear that the immense ice-masses of the Himalayas +have forsaken their elevations and are moving bodily over the plains +of India, grinding up the rocks into clay and gravel + +{p. 391} + +as they go, before we accept a theory which declares that they once +marched over the land in this fashion from Hudson's Bay to Cape Horn, +from Spitzbergen to Spain. + +The universality of an error proves nothing, except that the error is +universal. The voice of the people is only the voice of God in the +last analysis. We can safely appeal from Caiaphas and Pilate to Time. + +But, says another: + +"We find deep grooves or striations under the glaciers of to-day; +therefore the glaciers caused the grooves." + +But we find striations on level plains far remote from mountains, +where the glaciers could not have been; therefore the glaciers did +not cause the striations. "A short horse is soon curried." +Superposition is not paternity. A porcelain nest-egg found under a +hen is no proof that the hen laid it. + +But, says another + +"The idea of a comet encountering the earth, and covering it with +_débris_, is so stupendous, so out of the usual course of nature, I +refuse to accept it." + +Ah, my friend, you forget that those Drift deposits, hundreds of feet +in thickness, are _there_. _They_ are out of the usual course of +nature. It is admitted that they came suddenly from some source. If +you reject my theory, you do not get clear of the phenomena. The +facts are a good deal more stupendous than the theory. Go out and +look at the first Drift deposit; dig into it a hundred feet or more; +follow it for a few hundred miles or more; then come back, and +scratch your head, and tell me where it came from! Calculate how many +cart-loads there are of it, then multiply this by the area of your +own continent, and multiply that again by the area of two or three +more continents, and then again tell me where it came from! + +{p. 392} + +Set aside my theory as absurd, and how much nearer are you to solving +the problem? If neither waves, nor icebergs, nor glaciers, nor +ice-sheets, nor comets, produced this world-cloak of _débris_, where +did it come from? + +Remember the essential, the incontrovertible elements of the problem: + +1. Great heat. + +2. A sudden catastrophe. + +3. Great evaporation of the seas and waters. + +4. Great clouds. + +5. An age of floods and snows and ice and torrents. + +6. The human legends. + +Find a theory that explains and embraces all these elements, and +then, and not until then, throw mine aside. + +Another will say: + +"But in one place you give us legends about an age of dreadful and +long-continued heat, as in the Arabian tale, where no rain is said to +have fallen for seven years; and in another place you tell us of a +period of constant rains and snows and cold. Are not these statements +incompatible?" + +Not at all. This is a big globe we live on: the tropics are warmer +than the poles. Suppose a tremendous heat to be added to our natural +temperature; it would necessarily make it hotter on the equator than +at the poles, although it would be warm everywhere. There can be no +clouds without condensation, no condensation without some degree of +cooling. Where would the air cool first? Naturally at the points most +remote from the equator, the poles. Hence, while the sun was still +blazing in the uncovered heavens of the greater part of the earth, +small caps of cloud would form at the north and south poles, and shed +their moisture in gentle rain. As the heat brought to the earth by +the comet was accidental and + +{p. 393} + +adventitious, there would be a natural tendency to return to the +pre-comet condition. The extraordinary evaporation would of itself +have produced refrigeration. Hence the cloud-caps would grow and +advance steadily toward the equator, casting down continually +increasing volumes of rain. Snow would begin to form near the poles, +and it too would advance. We would finally have, down to say the +thirty-fifth degree of north and south latitude, vast belts of rain +and snow, while the equator would still be blazing with the tropical +heat which would hold the condensation back. Here, then, we would +have precisely the condition of things described in the "Younger +Edda" of the Northmen: + +"Then said Jafnhar: 'All that part of Ginungagap' (the Atlantic) +'that turns toward the north _was filled with thick, heavy ice and +rime_,' (snow,) 'and everywhere within were _drizzling gusts and +rain_. But the south part of Ginungagap was lighted up by the +_glowing sparks_ that flew out of Muspelheim' (Africa?). Added +Thride: 'As cold and all things grim proceeded from Niflheim, so that +which bordered on Muspelheim was hot and bright, and Ginungagap' (the +Atlantic near Africa?) 'was as warm and mild as windless air.'" + +Another may say: + +"But how does all this agree with your theory that the progenitors of +the stock from which the white, the yellow, and the brown races were +differentiated, were saved in one or two caverns in one place? How +did they get to Africa, Asia, and America?" + +In the first place, it is no essential part of my case that man +survived in one place or a dozen places; it can not, in either event, +affect the question of the origin of the Drift. It is simply an +opinion of my own, open to modification upon fuller information. If, +for instance, men dwelt in Asia at that time, and no Drift deposits + +{p. 394} + +fell upon Asia, races may have survived there; the negro may have +dwelt in India at that time; some of the strange Hill-tribes of China +and India may have had no connection with Lif and Lifthraser. + +But if we will suppose that the scene of man's survival was in that +Atlantic island, Atlantis, then this would follow: + +The remnant of mankind, whether they were a single couple, like Lif +and Lifthraser; or a group of men and women, like Job and his +companions; or a numerous party, like that referred to in the Navajo +and Aztec legends, in any event, they would not and could not stay +long in the cave. The distribution of the Drift shows that it fell +within twelve hours; but there were probably several days thereafter +during which the face of the earth was swept by horrible cyclones, +born of the dreadful heat. As soon, however, as they could safely do +so, the remnant of the people must have left the cave; the limited +nature of their food-supplies would probably drive them out. Once +outside, their condition was pitiable indeed. First, they encountered +the great heat; the cooling of the atmosphere had not yet begun; +water was a pressing want. Hence we read in the legends of Mimer's +well, where Odin pawned his eye for a drink. And we are told, in an +American legend, of a party who traveled far to find the life-giving +well, and found the possessor sitting over it to hide it. It was +during this period that the legends originated which refer to the +capture of the cows and their recovery by demi-gods, Hercules or Rama. + +Then the race began to wander. The world was a place of stones. +Hunger drove them on. Then came the clouds, the rains, the floods, +the snows, the darkness; and still the people wandered. The receded +ocean laid bare the great ridges, if they had sunk in the catastrophe, + +{p. 395} + +and the race gradually spread to Europe, Africa, and America. + +"But," says one, "how long did all this take? + +Who shall say? It may have been days, weeks, months, years, +centuries. The Toltec legends say that their ancestors wandered for +more than a hundred years in the darkness. + +The torrent-torn face of the earth; the vast rearrangement of the +Drift materials by rivers, compared with which our own rivers are +rills; the vast continental regions which were evidently flooded, all +testify to an extraordinary amount of moisture first raised up from +the seas and then cast down on the lands. Given heat enough to raise +this mass, given the cold caused by its evaporation, given the time +necessary for the great battle between this heat and this +condensation, given the time to restore this body of water to the +ocean, not once but many times,--for, along the southern border of +the floods, where Muspelheim. and Niflheim met, the heat must have +sucked up the water as fast almost as it fell, to fall again, and +again to be lifted up, until the heat-area was driven back and water +fell, at last, everywhere on the earth's face, and the extraordinary +evaporation ceased,--this was a gigantic, long-continued battle. + +But it may be asked: + +"Suppose further study should disclose the fact that the Drift _is_ +found in Siberia and the rest of Asia, and over all the world, what +then? " + +It will not disprove my theory. It will simply indicate that the +_débris_ did not, as I have supposed, strike the earth +instantaneously, but that it continued to fall during twenty-four +hours. If the comet was split into fragments, if there was the +"Midgard-Serpent" as well as the + +{p. 396} + +"Fenris Wolf" and "the dog Garm," they need not necessarily have +reached the earth at the same time. + +Another says: + +"You supposed in your book, 'Atlantis,' that the Glacial Age might +have been caused by the ridges radiating from Atlantis shutting off +the Gulf Stream and preventing the heated waters of the tropics from +reaching the northern shores of the world." + +True; and I have no doubt that these ridges did play an important +part in producing climatic changes, subsequent to the Drift Age, by +their presence or absence, their elevation or depression; but on +fuller investigation I find that they are inadequate to account for +the colossal phenomena of the Drift itself--the presence of the clay +and gravel, the great heat and the tremendous downfall of water. + +It may be asked, + +"How does your theory account for the removal of great blocks, +weighing many tons, for hundreds of miles from their original site? + +The answer is plain. We know the power of the ordinary hurricanes of +the earth. "The largest trees are uprooted, or have their trunks +snapped in two; and few if any of the most massive buildings stand +uninjured."[1] If we will remember the excessive heat and the +electrical derangements that must have accompanied the Drift Age, we +can realize the tremendous winds spoken of in many of the legends. We +have but to multiply the hurricane of the West Indies, or the cyclone +of the Mississippi Valley, a hundred or a thousand fold, and we shall +have power enough to move all the blocks found scattered over the +face of the Drift deposits or mixed with its material. + +[1. Appletons' "American Cyclopædia," vol. ix, p. 80.] + +{p. 397} + +Another asks: + +"How do you account for the fact that this Drift material does not +resemble the usual aërolites, which are commonly composed of iron, +and unlike the stones of the earth?" + +I nave shown that aërolites have fallen that did not contain any +iron, and that could not be distinguished from the material native to +the earth. And it must be remembered that, while the shining +meteoroids that blaze in periodical showers from radiant points in +the sky are associated with comets, and are probably lost fragments +of comet-tails, these meteoroids do not reach the earth, but are +always burned out, far up in our atmosphere, by the friction produced +by their motion. The iron aërolite is of different origin. It may be +a product of space itself, a condensation of metallic gases. The fact +that it reaches the earth without being consumed would seem to +indicate that it belongs at a lower level than the meteoric showers, +and has, consequently, a less distance to fall and waste. + +And these views are confirmed by a recent writer,[1] who, after +showing that the meteoroids, or shooting-stars, are very different +from meteorites or aërolites, and seldom or never reach the earth, +proceeds to account for the former. He says: + +"Many theories have been advanced in the past to account for these +strange bodies, but the evidence now accumulated proves beyond +reasonable doubt that they are near relatives, and probably the +_débris_ of comets. + +"Tempel's comet is now known to be traveling in the same orbit as the +November meteors, and is near the head of the train, and it appears, +in like manner, that the second comet of 1862 (Swift's comet) is +traveling in the orbit of the August meteors. And the first comet of +1881 seems to be similarly connected with the April meteors. . . . + +[1. Ward's "Science Bulletin," E. E. II., 1882, p. 4.] + +{p. 398} + +"Although few scientific men now question a relationship between +comets and the ordinary meteors, there are those, and among them some +of our ablest men, who think that the large meteors, or bolides, and +aërolites, may be different astronomically, and perhaps physically, +from the ordinary shooting-stars, and in the past some contended that +they originated in our atmosphere others that they were ejected from +terrestrial volcanoes. . . And at the present time the known facts, +and all scientific thought, seem to point to the conclusion that the +difference between them and ordinary shooting-stars is analogous to +that between rain and mist, and, in addition to the reasons already +given for connecting them with comets, may be mentioned the fact that +meteorites bring with them carbonic acid, which is known to form so +prominent a part of comets' tails; and if fragments of meteoric iron +or stone be heated moderately in a vacuum, they yield up gases +consisting of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, and the +spectrum of these gases corresponds to the spectrum of a cornet's +coma and tail. + +"By studying their microscopical structure, Mr. Sorby has been able +to determine that the material was at one time certainly in a state +of fusion; and that the most remote condition of which we have +positive evidence was that of small, detached, melted globules, the +formation of which can not be explained in a satisfactory manner, +except by supposing that their constituents were originally in the +state of vapor, as they now exist in the atmosphere of the sun; and, +on the temperature becoming lower, condensed into these "ultimate +cosmical particles." These afterward collected into larger masses, +which have been variously changed by subsequent metamorphic action, +and broken up by repeated mutual impact, and often again collected +together and solidified. The meteoric irons are probably those +portions of the metallic constituents which were separated from the +rest by fusion when the metamorphism was carried to that extreme +point.'" + +But if it be true, as is conceded, that all the planets and comets of +the solar system were out-throwings from the sun itself, then all +must be as much of one quality of + +{p. 399} + +material as half a dozen suits of clothes made from the same bolt of +cloth. And hence our-brother-the-comet must be made of just such +matter as our earth is made of. And hence, if a comet did strike the +earth and deposited its ground-up and triturated material upon the +earth's surface, we should find nothing different in that material +from earth-substance of the same kind. + +But, says another: + +"If the Drift fell from a comet, why would not this clay-dust and +these pebbles have been consumed before reaching the earth by the +friction of our atmosphere just as we have seen the meteoroids +consumed; or, if not entirely used up, why would these pebbles not +show a fused surface, like the iron aërolites? " + +Here is the difference: a meteorite, a small or large stone, is +detached, isolated, lone-wandering, lost in space; it comes within +the tremendous attractive power of our globe; it has no parental +attraction to restrain it; and it rushes headlong with lightning-like +rapidity toward the earth, burning itself away as it falls. + +But suppose two heavenly bodies, each with its own center of +attraction, each holding its own scattered materials in place by its +own force, to meet each other; then there is no more probability of +the stones and dust of the comet flying to the earth, than there is +of the stones and dust of the earth flying to the comet. And the +attractive power of the comet, great enough to bold its gigantic mass +in place through the long reaches of the fields of space, and even +close up to the burning eye of the awful sun itself, holds its dust +and pebbles and bowlders together until the very moment of impact +with the earth. In short, they, the dust and stones, do not continue +to follow the comet, because the earth has got in their way and +arrested them. It was this terrific force of the + +{p. 400} + +comet's attraction, represented in a fearful rate of motion, that +tore and pounded and scratched and furrowed our poor earth's face, as +shown in the crushed and striated rocks under the Drift. They would +have gone clean through the earth to follow the comet, if it had been +possible. + +If we can suppose the actual bulk of the comet to have greatly +exceeded the bulk of the earth, then the superior attraction of the +comet may have shocked the earth out of position. It has already been +suggested that the inclination of the axis of the earth may have been +changed at the time of the Drift; and the Esquimaux have a legend +that the earth was, at that time, actually shaken out of its +position. But upon this question I express no opinion. + +But another may say: + +"Your theory is impossible; these dense masses of clay and gravel +could not have fallen from a comet, because the tails of comets are +composed of material so attenuated that sometimes the stars are seen +through them." + +Granted: but remember that the clay did not come to the earth as +clay, but as a finely comminuted powder or dust; it packed into clay +after having been mixed with water. The particles of this dust must +have been widely separated while in the comet's tail; if they had not +been, instead of a deposit of a few hundred feet, we should have had +one of hundreds of miles in thickness. We have seen, (page 94, +_ante_,) that the tail of one comet was thirteen million miles broad; +if the particles of dust composing that tail had been as minute as +those of clay-dust, and if they had been separated from each other by +many feet in distance, they would still have left a deposit on the +face of any object passing through them much greater than the Drift. +To illustrate my meaning: you ride on a summer day a hundred miles in +a railroad-car, seated by an open + +{p. 401} + +window. There is no dust perceptible, at least not enough to obscure +the landscape; yet at the end of the journey you find yourself +covered with a very evident coating of dust. Now, suppose that, +instead of traveling one hundred miles, your ride had been prolonged +a million miles, or thirteen million miles; and, instead of the +atmosphere being perfectly clear, you had moved through a cloud of +dust, not dense enough to intercept the light of the stars, and yet +dense enough to reflect the light of the sun, even as a smoke-wreath +reflects it, and you can readily see that, long before you reached +the end of your journey, you would be buried alive under hundreds of +feet of dust. To creatures like ourselves, measuring our stature by +feet and inches, a Drift-deposit three hundred feet thick is an +immense affair, even as a deposit a foot thick would be to an ant; +but, measured on an astronomical scale, with the foot-rule of the +heavens, and the Drift is no more than a thin coating of dust, such +as accumulates on a traveler's coat. Even estimating it upon the +scale of our planet, it is a mere wrapping of tissue-paper thickness. +In short, it must be remembered that we are an infinitely +insignificant breed of little creatures, to whom a cosmical +dust-shower is a cataclysm. + +And that which is true of the clay-dust is true of the gravel. At a +million miles' distance it, too, is dust; it runs in lines or +streaks, widely separated; and the light shines between its particles +as it does through the leaves of the trees + + "And glimmering through the groaning trees + Kirk Alloway seems in a blaze; + Through every bore the beams are glancing." + +But another says: + +"Why do you think the finer parts of the material of the comet are +carried farthest back from the head?" + +{p. 402} + +Because the attractive power lodged in the nucleus acts with most +force on the largest masses; even as the rock is not so likely to +leave the earth in a wind-storm as the dust; and in the flight of the +comet through space, at the rate of three hundred and sixty-six miles +per second, its lighter substances would naturally trail farthest +behind it; for-- + + "The thing that's heavy in itself + Upon enforcement flies with greatest speed." + +And it would seem as if in time this trailing material of the comet +falls so far behind that it loses its grip, and is lost; hence the +showers of _meteoroids_. + +Another says: + +"I can not accept your theory as to the glacial clays they were +certainly deposited in water, formed like silt, washed down from the +adjacent continents." + +I answer they were not, because:-- + +1. If laid down in water, they would be stratified; but they are not. + +2. If laid down in water, they would be full of the fossils of the +water, fresh-water shells, sea-shells, bones of fish, reptiles, +whales, seals, etc.; but they are non-fossiliferous. + +3. If laid down in water, they would not be made exclusively from +granite. Where are the continents to be found which are composed of +granite and nothing but granite? + +4. Where were the continents, of any kind, from which these washings +came? They must have reached from pole to pole, and filled the whole +Atlantic Ocean. And how could the washings of rivers have made this +uniform sheet, reaching over the whole length and half the breadth of +this continent? + +5. If these clays were made from land-washings, how comes it that in +some places they are red, in others blue, in others yellow? In +Western Minnesota you penetrate + +{p. 403} + +through twenty feet of yellow clay until you reach a thin layer of +gravel, about an inch thick, and then pass at once, without any +gradual transition, into a bed of blue clay fifty feet thick; and +under this, again, you reach gravel. What separated these various +deposits? The glacialists answer us that the yellow clay was +deposited in fresh water, and the blue clay in salt water, and hence +the difference in the color. But how did the water change instantly +from salt to fresh? Why was there no interval of brackish water, +during which the blue and yellow clays would have gradually shaded +into each other? The transition from the yellow clay to the blue is +as immediate and marked as if you were to lay a piece of yellow cloth +across a piece of blue cloth. You can not take the salt out of a vast +ocean, big enough to cover half a continent, in a day, a month, a +year, or a century. And where were the bowl-like ridges of land that +inclosed the continent, and kept out the salt water during the ages +that elapsed while the yellow clay was being laid down in fresh +water? And, above all, why are no such clays, blue, yellow, or red, +now being formed anywhere on earth, under sheet-ice, glaciers, +icebergs, or anything else? And how about the people who built +cisterns, and used coins and iron implements before this silt was +accumulated in the seas, a million years ago, for it must have taken +that long to create these vast deposits if they were deposited as +silt in the bottom of seas and lakes. + +It may be asked: + +"What relation, in order of time, do you suppose the Drift Age to +hold to the Deluge of Noah and Deucalion? " + +The latter was infinitely later. The geologists, as I have shown, +suppose the Drift to have come upon the earth--basing their +calculations upon the recession of the + +{p. 404} + +Falls of Niagara--about thirty thousand years ago. We have seen that +this would nearly accord with the time given in Job, when he speaks +of the position of certain constellations. The Deluge of Noah +probably occurred somewhere from eight to eleven thousand years ago. +Hence, about twenty thousand years probably intervened between the +Drift and the Deluge. These were the "myriads of years" referred to +by Plato, during which mankind dwelt on the great plain of Atlantis. + +And this order of events agrees with all the legends. + +In the Bible a long interval elapsed between the fall of man, or his +expulsion from paradise, and the Deluge of Noah; and during this +period mankind rose to civilization; became workers in the metals, +musicians, and the builders of cities. + +In the Egyptian history, as preserved by Plato, the Deluge of +Deucalion, which many things prove to have been identical with the +Deluge of Noah, was the last of a series of great catastrophes. + +In the Celtic legends the great Deluge of Ogyges preceded the last +deluge. + +In the American legends, mankind have been many times destroyed, and +as often renewed. + +But it may be asked: + +"Are you right in supposing that man first rose to civilization in a +great Atlantic island? + +We can conceive, as I have shown, mankind at some central point, like +the Atlantic island, building up anew, after the Drift Age, the +shattered fragments of pre-glacial civilization, and hence becoming +to the post-glacial ancient world the center and apparent fountain of +all cultivation. But in view of the curious discoveries made, as I +have shown, in the glacial clays of the United + +{p. 405} + +States, further investigations may prove that it was on the North +American Continent civilization was first born, and that it was +thence moved _eastward_ over the bridge-like ridges to Atlantis. + +And it is, in this connection, remarkable that the Bible tells us +(Genesis, chap. ii, v. 8): + +"And the Lord God planted a garden _eastward, in Eden_; and there he +put the man that he had formed." + +He had first (v. 7) "formed man of the dust of the ground," and then +he moves him eastward to Eden, to the garden. + +And, as I have shown, when the fall of man came, when the Drift +destroyed the lovely Tertiary conditions, man was _again moved +eastward_; he was driven out of Eden, and the cherubims guarded the +_eastern_ extremity of the garden, to prevent man's return from (we +will say) the shores of Atlantis. In other words, the present habitat +of men is, as I have shown, according to the Bible, _east_ of their +former dwelling-place. + +In the age of man's declension he moved eastward. In the age of his +redemption he moves westward. + +Hence, if the Bible is to be relied on, before man reached the garden +of Eden, he had been created in some region _west of the garden_, to +wit, in America; and here he may have first developed the +civilization of which we find traces in Illinois, showing a +metal-working race sufficiently advanced to have an alphabet and a +currency. + +But in all this we do not touch upon the question of where man was +first formed by God. + +The original birthplace of the human race who shall tell? It was +possibly in some region now under the ocean, as Professor Winchell +has suggested; there he was evolved during the mild, equable, gentle, +plentiful, + +406 CONCLUSIONS. + +garden-age of the Tertiary; in the midst of the most favorable +conditions for increasing the vigor of life and expanding it into new +forms. It showed its influence by developing mammalian life in one +direction into the monstrous forms of the mammoth and the mastodon, +the climax of animal growth; and in the other direction into the more +marvelous expansion of mentality found in man. + +There are two things necessary to a comprehension of that which lies +around us--development and design, evolution and purpose; God's way +and God's intent. Neither alone will solve the problem. These are the +two limbs of the right angle which meet at the first life-cell found +on earth, and lead out until we find man at one extremity and God at +the other. + +Why should the religious world shrink from the theory of evolution? +To know the path by which God has advanced is not to disparage God. + +Could all this orderly nature have grown up out of chance, out of the +accidental concatenation of atoms? As Bacon said: + +"I would rather believe all the fables in the Talmud and the Koran +than that this universal frame is _without a mind!_" + +Wonderful thought! A flash of light through the darkness. + +And what greater guarantee of the future can we have than evolution? +If God has led life from the rudest beginnings, whose fossils are +engraved, (blurred and obscured,) on the many pages of the vast +geological volume, up to this intellectual, charitable, merciful, +powerful world of to-day, who can doubt that the same hand will guide +our posterity to even higher levels of development? + +{p. 407} + +If our thread of life has expanded from Cain to Christ, from the man +who murders to him who submits to murder for the love of man, who can +doubt that the Cain-like in the race will gradually pass away and the +Christ-like dominate the planet? + +Religion and science, nature and spirit, knowledge of God's works and +reverence for God, are brethren, who should stand together with +twined arms, singing perpetual praises to that vast atmosphere, +ocean, universe of spirituality, out of which matter has been born, +of which matter is but a condensation; that illimitable, +incomprehensible, awe-full Something, before the conception of which +men should go down upon the very knees of their hearts in adoration. + +{p. 408} + + CHAPTER V. + + BIELA'S COMET. + +HUMBOLDT Says: + +"It is probable that the vapor of the tails of comets mingled with +our atmosphere in the years 1819 and 1823."[1] + +There is reason to believe that the present generation has passed +through the gaseous prolongation of a comet's tail, and that hundreds +of human beings lost their lives, somewhat as they perished in the +Age of Fire and Gravel, burned up and poisoned by its exhalations. + +And, although this catastrophe was upon an infinitely smaller scale +than that of the old time, still it may throw some light upon the +great cataclysm. At least it is a curious story, with some marvelous +features: + +On the 27th day of February, 1826, (to begin as M. Dumas would +commence one of his novels,) M. Biela, an Austrian officer, residing +at Josephstadt, in Bohemia, discovered a comet in the constellation +Aries, which, at that time, was seen as a small round speck of filmy +cloud. Its course was watched during the following month by M. +Gambart at Marseilles and by M. Clausen at Altona, and those +observers assigned to it an elliptical orbit, with a period of _six +years and three quarters_ for its revolution. + +M. Damoiseau subsequently calculated its path, and announced that on +its next return the comet would cross + +[1. "Cosmos," Vol. i, p. 100.] + +{p. 409} + +the orbit of the earth, within _twenty thousand miles of its track, +and but about one month before the earth would have arrived at the +same spot!_ + +This was shooting close to the bull's-eye! + +He estimated that it would lose nearly ten days on its return trip, +through the retarding influence of Jupiter and Saturn; but, if it +lost forty days instead of ten, what then? + +But the comet came up to time in 1832, and the earth _missed it by +one month_. + +And it returned in like fashion in 1839 and 1846. But here a +surprising thing occurred. _Its proximity to the earth had split it +in two_; each half had a head and tail of its own; each had set up a +separate government for itself; and they were whirling through space, +side by side, like a couple of race-horses, about sixteen thousand +miles apart, or about twice as wide apart as the diameter of the +earth. Here is a picture of them, drawn from life. + + ### + + BIELA'S COMET, SPLIT IN TWO, (From Guillemin's "The Heavens," page + 247.) + +{p. 410} Did the Fenris-Wolf, the Midgard-Serpent, and the Dog-Garm +look like this? + +In 1852, 1859, and 1866, the comet SHOULD have returned, but it did +not. It was lost. It was dissipated. Its material was banging around +the earth in fragments somewhere. I quote from a writer in a recent +issue of the "Edinburgh Review": + +The puzzled astronomers were left in a state of tantalizing +uncertainty as to what had become of it. At the beginning of the year +1866 this feeling of bewilderment gained expression in the Annual +Report of the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society. The matter +continued, nevertheless, in the same state of provoking uncertainty +for another six years. The third period of the perihelion passage had +then passed, and nothing had been seen of the missing luminary. But +on the night of November 27, 1872, night-watchers were startled by a +sudden and a very magnificent display of falling stars or meteors, of +which there had been no previous forecast, and Professor +Klinkerflues, of Berlin, having carefully noted the common radiant +point in space from which this star-shower was discharged into the +earth's atmosphere, with the intuition of ready genius jumped at once +to the startling inference that here at last were traces of the +missing luminary. There were eighty of the meteors that furnished a +good position for the radiant point of the discharge, and that +position, strange to say, was very much the same as the position in +space which Biela's comet should have occupied just about that time +on its fourth return toward perihelion. Klinkerflues, therefore, +taking this spot as one point in the path of the comet, and carrying +the path on as a track into forward space, fixed the direction there +through which it should pass as a 'vanishing-point' at the other side +of the starry sphere, and having satisfied himself of that further +position he sent off a telegram to the other side of the world, where +alone it could be seen--that is to say, to Mr. Pogson, of the Madras +Observatory--which may be best told in his own nervous and simple +words. + +{p. 411} + +Herr Klinkerflues's telegram to Mr. Pogson, of Madras, was to the +following effect: + +"'November 30th--Biela touched the earth on the 27th of November. +Search for him near Theta Centauri.' + +"The telegram reached Madras, through Russia, in one hour and +thirty-five minutes, and the sequel of this curious passage of +astronomical romance may be appropriately told in the words in which +Mr. Pogson replied to Herr Klinkerflues's pithy message. The answer +was dated Madras, the 6th of December, and was in the following words: + +"'On the 30th of November, at sixteen hours, the time of the comet +rising here, I was at my post, but hopelessly; clouds and rain gave +me no chance. The next morning I had the same bad luck. But on the +third trial, with a line of blue break, about 17¼ hours mean time, _I +found Biela immediately!_ Only four comparisons in successive minutes +could be obtained, in strong morning twilight, with an anonymous +star; but direct motion of 2.5 seconds decided that I had got the +comet all right. I noted it--circular, bright, with, a decided +nucleus, but NO TAIL, and about forty-five seconds in diameter. Next +morning I got seven good comparisons with an anonymous star, showing +a motion of 17.9 seconds in twenty-eight minutes, and I also got two +comparisons with a Madras star in our current catalogue, and with +7,734 Taylor. I was too anxious to secure one good place for the one +in hand to look for the other comet, and the fourth morning was +cloudy and rainy.' + +"Herr Klinkerflues's commentary upon this communication was that he +forthwith proceeded to satisfy himself that no provoking accident had +led to the discovery of a comet altogether unconnected with Biela's, +although in this particular place, and that he was ultimately quite +confident of the identity of the comet observed by Mr. Pogson with +one of the two heads of Biela. It was subsequently settled that Mr. +Pogson had, most probably, seen both heads of the comet, one on the +first occasion of his successful search, and the second on the +following day; and the meteor-shower experienced in Europe on +November 27th was unquestionably due to the passage + +{p. 412} + +near the earth of a meteoric trail traveling in the track of the +comet. When the question of a possible collision was mooted in 1832, +Sir John Herschel remarked that such an occurrence might not be +unattended with danger, and that on account of the intersection of +the orbits of the earth and the comet a rencontre would in all +likelihood take place within the lapse of some millions of years. As +a matter of fact the collision did take place on November 27, 1872, +and the result, so far as the earth was concerned, was a magnificent +display of aërial fireworks! But a more telling piece of ready-witted +sagacity than this prompt employment of the telegraph for the +apprehension of the nimble delinquent can scarcely be conceived. The +sudden brush of the comet's tail, the instantaneous telegram to the +opposite side of the world, and the glimpse thence of the vagrant +luminary as it was just whisking itself off into space toward the +star Theta Centauri, together constitute a passage that stands quite +without a parallel in the experience of science." + +But did the earth escape with a mere shower of fireworks? + +I have argued that the material of a comet consists of a solid +nucleus, giving out fire and gas, enveloped in a great gaseous mass, +and a tail made up of stones, possibly gradually diminishing in size +as they recede from the nucleus, until the after-part of it is +composed of fine dust ground from the pebbles and bowlders; while +beyond this there may be a still further prolongation into gaseous +matter. + +Now, we have seen that Biela's comets lost their tails. What became +of them? There is no evidence to show whether they lost them in 1852, +1859, 1866, or 1872. The probabilities are that the demoralization +took place before 1852, as otherwise the comets would have been seen, +tails and all, in that and subsequent years. It is true that the +earth came near enough in 1872 to attract some of the wandering +gravel-stones toward itself, and that they fell, + +{p. 413} + +blazing and consuming themselves with the friction of our atmosphere, +and reached the surface of our planet, if at all, as cosmic dust. But +where were the rest of the assets of these bankrupt comets? They were +probably scattered around in space, _disjecta membra_, floating +hither and thither, in one place a stream of stones, in another a +volume of gas; while the two heads had fled away, like the fugitive +presidents of a couple of broken banks, to the Canadian refuge of +"_Theta Centauri_"--shorn of their splendors and reduced to first +principles. + +Did anything out of the usual order occur on the face of the earth +about this time? + +Yes. In the year 1871, on Sunday, the 8th of October, at half past +nine o'clock in the evening, events occurred which attracted the +attention of the whole world, which caused the death of hundreds of +human beings, and the destruction of millions of property, and which +involved three different States of the Union in the wildest alarm and +terror. + +The summer of 1871 had been excessively dry; the moisture seemed to +be evaporated out of the air; and on the Sunday above named the +atmospheric conditions all through the Northwest were of the most +peculiar character. The writer was living at the time in Minnesota, +hundreds of miles from the scene of the disasters, and he can never +forget the condition of things. There was a parched, combustible, +inflammable, furnace-like feeling in the air, that was really +alarming. It felt as if there were needed but a match, a spark, to +cause a world-wide explosion. It was weird and unnatural. I have +never seen nor felt anything like it before or since. Those who +experienced it will bear me out in these statements. + +At that hour, half past nine o'clock in the evening, _at apparently +the same moment_, at points hundreds of miles + +{p. 414} + +apart, in three different States, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois, +fires of the most peculiar and devastating kind broke out, so far as +we know, by spontaneous combustion. + +In Wisconsin, on its eastern borders, in a heavily timbered country, +near Lake Michigan, a region embracing _four hundred square miles_, +extending north from Brown County, and containing Peshtigo, Manistee, +Holland, and numerous villages on the shores of Green Bay, was swept +bare by an absolute whirlwind of flame. There were _seven hundred and +fifty people killed outright_, besides great numbers of the wounded, +maimed, and burned, who died afterward. More than three million +dollars' worth of property was destroyed.[1] + +It was no ordinary fire. I quote: + +"At sundown there was a lull in the wind and comparative stillness. +For two hours there were no signs of danger; but at a few minutes +after nine o'clock, and by a singular coincidence, _precisely the +time at which the Chicago fire commenced_, the people of the village +heard a terrible roar. It was that of a tornado, crushing through the +forests. _Instantly the heavens were illuminated with a terrible +glare_. _The sky_, which had been so dark a moment before, _burst +into clouds of flame_. A spectator of the terrible scene says the +fire did not come upon them gradually from burning trees and other +objects to the windward, but the first notice they had of it was _a +whirlwind of flame in great clouds from above the tops of the trees_, +which fell upon and entirely enveloped everything. The poor people +inhaled it, or the intensely hot air, and fell down dead. This is +verified by the appearance of many of the corpses. They were found +dead in the roads and open spaces, _where there were no visible marks +of fire near by, with not a trace of burning upon their bodies or +clothing_. At the Sugar Bush, which is an extended clearing, in some +places four miles in width, + +[1. See "History of the Great Conflagration," Sheahan & Upton, +Chicago, 1871, pp. 393, 394, etc.] + +{p. 415} + +corpses were found in the open road, between fences only slightly +burned. _No mark of fire was upon them; they lay there as if asleep_. +This phenomenon seems to explain the fact that so many were killed in +compact masses. They seemed to have huddled together, in what were +evidently regarded at the moment as the safest places, _far away from +buildings, trees, or other inflammable_ material, and there to have +died together."[1] + +Another spectator says: + +"Much has been said of the intense heat of the fires which destroyed +Peshtigo, Menekaune, Williamsonville, etc., but all that has been +said can give the stranger but a faint conception of the reality. The +heat has been compared to that engendered by a flame concentrated on +an object by a blow-pipe; but even that would not account for some of +the phenomena. For instance, we have in our possession a copper cent +taken from the pocket of a dead man in the Peshtigo Sugar Bush, which +will illustrate our point. _This cent has been partially fused_, but +still retains its round form, and the inscription upon it is legible. +Others, in the same pocket, were partially _melted_, and yet _the +clothing and the body of the man were not even singed_. We do not +know in what way to account for this, unless, as is asserted by some, +the tornado and fire were accompanied by electrical phenomena."[2] + +"It is the universal testimony that the prevailing idea among the +people was, that the last day had come. Accustomed as they were to +fire, nothing like this had ever been known. They could give no other +interpretation to this ominous roar, this _bursting of the sky with +fame, and this dropping down of fire out of the very heavens_, +consuming instantly everything it touched. + +"No two give a like description of the great tornado as it smote and +devoured the village. It seemed as if 'the fiery fiends of hell had +been loosened,' says one. 'It came in great sheeted _flames from +heaven_,' says another. 'There was _a pitiless rain of fire and_ +SAND.' 'The + +[1. See "History of the Great Conflagration," Sheahan & Upton, +Chicago, 1871, p. 372. + +2. Ibid., p. 373.] + +{p. 416} + +atmosphere was all afire.' Some speak of '_great balls of fire +unrolling and shooting forth, in streams_.' The fire leaped over +roofs and trees, and ignited whole streets at once. No one could +stand before the blast. It was a race with death, above, behind, and +before them."[1] + +A civil engineer, doing business in Peshtigo, says + +"The heat increased so rapidly, as things got well afire, that, _when +about four hundred feet from the bridge and the nearest building_, I +was obliged to lie down behind a log that was aground in about two +feet of water, and by going under water now and then, and holding my +head close to the water behind the log, I managed to breathe. There +were a dozen others behind the same log. If I had succeeded in +crossing the river and gone among the buildings on the other side, +probably I should have been lost, as many were." + +We have seen Ovid describing the people of "the earth" crouching in +the same way in the water to save themselves from the flames of the +Age of Fire. + +In Michigan, one Allison Weaver, near Port Huron, determined to +remain, to protect, if possible, some mill-property of which he had +charge. He knew the fire was coming, and dug himself a shallow well +or pit, made a thick plank cover to place over it, and thus prepared +to bide the conflagration. + +I quote: + +"He filled it nearly full of water, and took care to saturate the +ground around it for a distance of several rods. Going to the mill, +he dragged out a four-inch plank, sawed it in two, and saw that the +parts tightly covered the mouth of the little well. 'I kalkerated it +would be tech and go,' said he, 'but it was the best I could do.' At +midnight he had everything arranged, and the roaring then was + +[1. See "History of the Great Conflagration," Sheahan & Upton, +Chicago, 1871, p. 374.] + +{p. 417} + +awful to hear. The clearing was ten to twelve acres in extent, and +Weaver says that, for two hours before the fire reached him, there +was a constant flight across the ground of small animals. As he +rested a moment from giving the house another wetting down, a horse +dashed into the opening at full speed and made for the house. Weaver +could see him tremble and shake with excitement and terror, and felt +a pity for him. After a moment the animal gave utterance to a snort +of dismay, ran two or three times around the house, and then shot on +into the woods like a rocket." + +We have, in the foregoing pages, in the legends of different nations, +descriptions of the terrified animals flying with the men into the +caves of the earth to escape the great conflagration. + +'I Not long after this the fire came. Weaver stood by his well, ready +for the emergency, yet curious to see the breaking-in of the flames. +The roaring increased in volume, the air became oppressive, a cloud +of dust and cinders came showering down, and he could see the flame +through the trees. It did not run along the ground, or leap from tree +to tree, but it came on like a tornado, _a sheet of flame reaching +from the earth to the tops of the trees_. As it struck the clearing +he jumped into his well, and closed over the planks. He could no +longer see, but he could hear. He says that the flames made no halt +whatever, or ceased their roaring for an instant, but he hardly got +the opening closed before the house and mill were burning tinder, and +both were down in five minutes. The smoke came down upon him +powerfully, and his den was so hot he could hardly breathe. + +"He knew that the planks above him were on fire, but, remembering +their thickness, he waited till the roaring of the flames had died +away, and then with his head and hands turned them over and put out +the fire by dashing up water with his hands. Although it was a cold +night, and the water had at first chilled him, the heat gradually +warmed him up until he felt quite comfortable. He remained in his den +until daylight, frequently turning + +{p. 418} + +over the planks and putting out the fire, and then the worst had +passed. The earth around was on fire in spots, house and mill were +gone, leaves, brush, and logs were swept clean away as if shaved off +and swept with a broom, and nothing but soot and ashes were to be +seen."[1] + +In Wisconsin, at Williamson's Mills, there was a large but shallow +well on the premises belonging to a Mr. Boorman. The people, when cut +off by the flames and wild with terror, and thinking they would find +safety in the water, leaped into this well. "The relentless fury of +the flames drove them pell-mell into the pit, to struggle with each +other and die--some by drowning, and others by fire and suffocation. +None escaped. _Thirty-two bodies were found there_. They were in +every imaginable position; but the contortions of their limbs and the +agonizing expressions of their faces told the awful tale."[2] + +The recital of these details, horrible though they may be, becomes +excusable when we remember that the ancestors of our race must have +endured similar horrors in that awful calamity which I have discussed +in this volume. + +James B. Clark, of Detroit, who was at Uniontown, Wisconsin, writes: + +"The fire suddenly made a rush, like the flash of a train of +gunpowder, and swept in the shape of a crescent around the +settlement. It is almost impossible to conceive _the frightful +rapidity of the advance of the flames_. The rushing fire seemed to +eat up and annihilate the trees." + +They saw a black mass coming toward them from the wall of flame: + +"It was a stampede of cattle and horses thundering toward us, +bellowing moaning, and neighing as they galloped + +[1. See "History of the Great Conflagration," Sheahan & Upton, +Chicago, 1871, p. 390. + +2. Ibid., p. 386.] + +{p. 419} + +on; rushing with fearful speed, their eyeballs dilated and glaring +with terror, and every motion betokening delirium of fright. Some had +been badly burned, and must have plunged through a long space of +flame in the desperate effort to escape. Following considerably +behind came a solitary horse, panting and snorting and nearly +exhausted. He was saddled and bridled, and, as we first thought, had +a bag lashed to his back. As he came up we were startled at the sight +of a young lad lying fallen over the animal's neck, the bridle wound +around his hands, and the mane being clinched by the fingers. Little +effort was needed to stop the jaded horse, and at once release the +helpless boy. He was taken into the house, and all that we could do +was done; but he had inhaled the smoke, and was seemingly dying. Some +time elapsed and he revived enough to speak. He told his +name--Patrick Byrnes--and said: 'Father and mother and the children +got into the wagon. I don't know what became of them. Everything is +burned up. I am dying. Oh! is hell any worse than this?'"[1] + +How vividly does all this recall the book of Job and the legends of +Central America, which refer to the multitudes of the burned, maimed, +and wounded lying in the caverns, moaning and crying like poor +Patrick Byrnes, suffering no less in mind than in body! + +When we leave Wisconsin and pass about two hundred and fifty miles +eastward, over Lake Michigan and across the whole width of the State +of Michigan, we find much the same condition of things, but not so +terrible in the loss of human life. Fully _fifteen thousand people +were rendered homeless by the fires_; and their food, clothing, +crops, horses, and cattle were destroyed. Of these five to six +thousand were burned out the _same night that the fires broke out in +Chicago and Wisconsin_. The + +[1. See "History of the Great Conflagration," Sheahan & Upton, +Chicago, 1871, p. 383.] + +{p. 420} + +total destruction of property exceeded one million dollars; not only +villages and cities, but whole townships, were swept bare. + +But it is to Chicago we must turn for the most extraordinary results +of this atmospheric disturbance. It is needless to tell the story in +detail. The world knows it by heart: + + Blackened and bleeding, helpless, panting, prone, + On the charred fragments of her shattered throne, + Lies she who stood but yesterday alone." + +I have only space to refer to one or two points. + +The fire was spontaneous. The story of Mrs. O'Leary's cow having +started the conflagration by kicking over a lantern was proved to be +false. It was the access of gas from the tail of Biela's comet that +burned up Chicago! + +The fire-marshal testified: + +"I felt it in my bones that we were going to have a burn." + +He says, speaking of O'Leary's barn: + +"We got the fire under control, and it would not have gone a foot +farther; but the next thing I knew they came and told me that St. +Paul's church, about two squares north, was on fire."[1] + +They checked the church-fire, but-- + +"The next thing I knew the fire was in Bateham's planing-mill." + +A writer in the New York "Evening Post" says he saw in Chicago +"buildings far beyond the line of fire, _and in no contact with it, +burst into flames from the interior_." + +[1. See "History of the Great Conflagration," Sheahan & Upton, +Chicago, 1871, p. 163.] + +{p. 421} + +It must not be forgotten that the fall of 1871 was marked by +extraordinary conflagrations in regions widely separated. On the 8th. +of October, _the same day_ the Wisconsin, Michigan, and Chicago fires +broke out, the States of Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana, and Illinois were +severely devastated by prairie-fires; while terrible fires raged on +the Alleghanies, the Sierras of the Pacific coast, and the Rocky +Mountains, and in the region of the Red River of the North. + +"The Annual Record of Science and Industry" for 1876, page 84, says: + +"For weeks before and after the great fire in Chicago in 1872, great +areas of forest and prairie-land, both in the United States and the +British Provinces, were on fire." + +The flames that consumed a great part of Chicago were of an unusual +character and produced extraordinary effects. They absolutely +_melted_ the hardest building-stone, which had previously been +considered fire-proof. Iron, glass, granite, were fused and run +together into grotesque conglomerates, as if they had been put +through a blast-furnace. No kind of material could stand its breath +for a moment. + +I quote again from Sheahan & Upton's Work: + +"The huge stone and brick structures melted before the fierceness of +the flames as a snow-flake melts and disappears in water, and almost +as quickly. Six-story buildings would take fire and _disappear for +ever from sight in five minutes by the watch_. . . . The fire also +doubled on its track at the great Union Depot and burned half a mile +southward _in the very teeth of the gale_--a gale which blew a +perfect tornado, and in which no vessel could have lived on the lake. +. . . _Strange, fantastic fires of blue, red, and green played along +the cornices of buildings_."[1] + +[1. "History of the Chicago Fire," pp. 85, 86.] + +{p. 422} + +Hon. William B. Ogden wrote at the time: + +"The fire was accompanied by the fiercest tornado of wind ever known +to blow here."[1] + +"The most striking peculiarity of the fire was its intense heat. +Nothing exposed to it escaped. Amid the hundreds of acres left bare +there is not to be found a piece of wood of any description, and, +_unlike most fires, it left nothing half burned_. . . . The fire +swept the streets of all the ordinary dust and rubbish, consuming it +instantly."[2] + +The Athens marble burned like coal! + +"The intensity of the heat may be judged, and the thorough combustion +of everything wooden may be understood, when we state that in the +yard of one of the large agricultural-implement factories was stacked +some hundreds of tons of pig-iron. This iron was two hundred feet +from any building. To the south of it was the river, one hundred and +fifty feet wide. No large building but the factory was in the +immediate vicinity of the fire. Yet, so great was the heat, that +_this pile of iron melted and run, and is now in one large and nearly +solid mass_."[3] + +The amount of property destroyed was estimated by Mayor Medill at one +hundred and fifty million dollars; and the number of people rendered +houseless, at one hundred and twenty-five thousand. Several hundred +lives were lost. + +All this brings before our eyes vividly the condition of things when +the comet struck the earth; when conflagrations spread over wide +areas; when human beings were consumed by the million; when their +works were obliterated, and the remnants of the multitude fled before +the rushing flames, filled with unutterable consternation; + +[1. "History of the Chicago Fire," p. 87. + +2. Ibid., p. 119. + +3. Ibid., p. 121.] + +{p. 423} + +and as they jumped pell-mell into wells, so we have seen them in Job +clambering down ropes into the narrow-mouthed, bottomless pit. + +Who shall say how often the characteristics of our atmosphere have +been affected by accessions from extraterrestrial sources, resulting +in conflagrations or pestilences, in failures of crops, and in +famines? Who shall say how far great revolutions and wars and other +perturbations of humanity have been due to similar modifications? +There is a world of philosophy in that curious story, "Dr. Ox's +Hobby," wherein we are told how he changed the mental traits of a +village of Hollanders by increasing the amount of oxygen in the air +they breathed. + +{p. 424} + + CHAPTER VI. + + THE UNIVERSAL BELIEF OF MANKIND. + +THERE are some thoughts and opinions which we seem to take by +inheritance; we imbibe them with our mothers' milk; they are in our +blood; they are received insensibly in childhood. + +We have seen the folk-lore of the nations, passing through the +endless and continuous generation of children, unchanged from the +remotest ages. + +In the same way there is an untaught but universal feeling which +makes all mankind regard comets with fear and trembling, and which +unites all races of men in a universal belief that some day the world +will be destroyed by fire. + +There are many things which indicate that a far-distant, prehistoric +race existed in the background of Egyptian and Babylonian +development, and that from this people, highly civilized and +educated, we have derived the arrangement of the heavens into +constellations, and our divisions of time into days, weeks, years, +and centuries. This people stood much nearer the Drift Age than we +do. They understood it better. Their legends and religious beliefs +were full of it. The gods carved on Hindoo temples or painted on the +walls of Assyrian, Peruvian, or American structures, the flying +dragons, the winged gods, the winged animals, Gucumatz, Rama, Siva, +Vishnu, Tezcatlipoca, were painted in the very colors of the clays +which came from the disintegration of the granite, "red, + +{p. 425} + +white, and blue," the very colors which distinguished the comet; and +they are all reminiscences of that great monster. The idols of the +pagan world are, in fact, congealed history, and will some day be +intelligently studied as such. + +Doubtless this ancient astronomical, zodiac-building, and +constellation-constructing race taught the people the true doctrine +of comets; taught that the winding serpent, the flying dragon, the +destructive winged dog, or wolf, or lion, whose sphinx-like images +now frown upon us from ancient walls and door-ways, were really +comets; taught how one of them had actually struck the earth; and +taught that in the lapse of ages another of these multitudinous +wanderers of space would again encounter our globe, and end all +things in one universal conflagration. + +And down through the race this belief has come, and down through the +race it will go, to the consummation of time. + +We find this "day of wrath" prefigured in the words of Malachi, +(chap. iv, v. 1): + +"1. For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the +proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day +that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it +shall leave them neither root nor branch. + +"2. But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness +arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up +as calves of the stall. + +"3. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under +the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the +Lord of hosts." + +We find the same great catastrophe foretold in the book of +Revelation, (chap. xii, v. 3): + +"And there appeared another _wonder in heaven_; and behold a great +red _dragon_, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon +his heads. + +{p. 426} + +"4. _And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did +cast them to the earth_." + +And again, (chap. vi): + +"12. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there +was a great earthquake; _and the sun became black as sackcloth of +hair_, and the moon became as blood; + +"13. _And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth_, even as a +fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty +wind. + +"14. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; +and _every mountain and island were moved out of their places_. + +"15. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, +and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman and +every freeman, _hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the +mountains_; + +"16. And said to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us +from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath +of the Lamb + +17. _For the great day of his wrath is come_, and who shall be able +to stand?" + +Here we seem to have the story of Job over again, in this +prefiguration of the future. + +The Ethiopian copy of the apocryphal book of Enoch contains a poem, +which is prefixed to the body of that work, and which the learned +author of "Nimrod" supposes to be authentic. It certainly dates from +a vast antiquity. It is as follows: + +"Enoch, a righteous man, who was with God, answered and spoke while +his eyes were open, and while _he saw a holy vision in the heavens_. +. . . + +"Upon this account I spoke, and conversed with him who will _go forth +from his habitation_, the holy and mighty One, the God of the world. + +"Who will hereafter tread upon the mountain Sinai, and _appear with +his hosts_, and he manifested in the strength of his power from +heaven. + +{p. 427} + +"All shall be afraid, and the watchers be terrified. Great fear and +trembling shall seize even to the ends of the earth. + +"The lofty mountains shall be troubled, and the exalted hills +depressed, _melting like honeycomb in the flame_. + +"The earth shall be _immerged_, and _all things_ which are in it +_perish_. . . . + +"He shall preserve the elect, and toward them exercise clemency. . . +. The whole earth is full of water." + +This is either history or prophecy. + +In the Second Epistle General of Peter, (chap. iii,) we have some +allusions to the past, and some prophecies based upon the past, which +are very curious: + +Verse 5. "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word +of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the +water and in the water." + +That is to say, the earth was, as in Ovid and Ragnarok, and the +legends generally, an island, "standing out of the water and in the +water." + +Verse 6. "Whereby _the world that then was_, being overflowed with +water, perished." + +This seems to refer to the island Atlantis, "overflowed with water," +and destroyed, as told by Plato; thereby forming a very distinct +connection between the Island of Poseidon and the Deluge of Noah. + +We read on: + +Verse 7. "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same +word are kept in store, _reserved unto fire_ against the day of +judgment and perdition of ungodly men." + +Verse 10. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; +in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the +elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works +that are therein shall be burned up." + +{p. 428} + +The Gothic mythology tells us that Surt, with his flaming sword, +"shall come at the end of the world; he shall vanquish all the gods; +he shall give up the universe a prey to the flames." + +This belief in the ultimate destruction of the world and all its +inhabitants by fire was found among the American races as well as +those of the Old World: + +"The same terror inspired the Peruvians at every eclipse; for some +day--taught the Amantas--the shadow will veil the sun for ever, and +land, moon, and stars will be wrapped in a devouring conflagration, +to know no regeneration."[1] + +The Algonquin races believed that some day Michabo "will stamp his +foot on the ground, flames will burst forth to consume the habitable +land; only a pair, or only, at most, those who have maintained +inviolate the institutions he ordained, will he protect and preserve +to inhabit the new world he will then fabricate."[2] + +Nearly all the American tribes had similar presentiments. The +Chickasaws, the Mandans of the Missouri, the Pueblo Indians of New +Mexico, the Muyscas of Bogota, the Botocudos of Brazil, the +Araucanians of Chili, the Winnebagoes, all have possessed such a +belief from time immemorial. The Mayas of Yucatan had a prediction +which Father Lizana, _curé_ of Itzamal, preserved in the Spanish +language: + + "At the close of the ages, it hath been decreed, + Shall perish and vanish each weak god of men, + And the world shall be _purged with ravening fire_." + +We know that among our own people, the European races, this looking +forward to a conflagration which is to end all things is found +everywhere; and that everywhere a comet is regarded with terror. It +is a messenger of + +[1. Brinton's "Myths," p. 235. + +2. Ibid.] + +{p. 429} + +woe and disaster; it is a dreadful threat shining in the heavens; it +is "God's rod," even as it was in Job's day. + +I could fill pages with the proofs of the truth of this statement. + +An ancient writer, describing the great meteoric shower of the year +1202, says: + +"The stars flew against one another like a scattering swarm of +locusts, to the right and left; this phenomenon lasted until +daybreak; people were thrown into consternation and cried to God, the +Most High, with confused clamor."[1] + +The great meteoric display of 1366 produced similar effects. An +historian of the time says: + +"Those who saw it were filled with such great fear and dismay that +they were astounded, imagining that they were all dead men, and that +the end of the world had come."[2] + +How could such a universal terror have fixed itself in the blood of +the race, if it had not originated from some great primeval fact? And +all this terror is associated with a dragon. + +And Chambers says: + +"The dragon appears in the mythical history and legendary poetry of +almost every nation, as the emblem of the destructive and anarchical +principle; . . . as misdirected physical force and untamable animal +passions. . . . The dragon proceeds openly to work, running on its +feet with expanded wings, and head and tail erect, violently and +ruthlessly outraging decency and propriety, _spouting fire and fury +from both mouth and tail, and wasting and devastating the whole +land_."[3] + +This fiery monster is the comet. + +[1. Popular Science Monthly," June, 1882, p. 193. + +2. Ibid., p. 193. + +3. "Chambers's Encyclopaedia," vol. iii, p. 655.] + +{p. 430} + +And Milton speaks from the same universal inspiration when he tells +us: + + "A comet burned, + That fires the length of Ophiucus huge + In th' arctic sky, and _from its horrid hair + Shakes pestilence and war_." + +And in the Shakespeare plays[1] we read: + + "Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night! + Comets, importing change of times and states, + Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky; + And with them scourge the bad revolting stars." + +Man, by an inherited instinct, regards the comet as a great terror +and a great foe; and the heart of humanity sits uneasily when one +blazes in the sky. Even to the scholar and the scientist they are a +puzzle and a fear; they are erratic, unusual, anarchical, +monstrous--something let loose, like a tiger of the heavens, athwart +an orderly, peaceful, and harmonious world. They may be impalpable +and harmless attenuations of gas, or they way be loaded with death +and ruin; but in any event man can not contemplate them without +terror. + +[1. 1 Henry VI, 1, 1.] + +{p. 431} + + CHAPTER VII. + + THE EARTH STRUCK BY COMETS MANY TIMES. + +IF the reader is satisfied, from my reasoning and the facts I have +adduced, that the so-called Glacial Age really represents a collision +of the earth with one of these wandering luminaries of space, the +question can not but occur to him, Was this the first and only +occasion, during all the thousands of millions of years that our +planet has been revolving on its axis and circling around the sun, +that such a catastrophe has occurred? + +The answer must be in the negative. + +We find that all through the rocky record of our globe the same +phenomena which we have learned to recognize as peculiar to the Drift +Age are, at distant intervals, repeated. + +The long ages of the Palæozoic Time passed with few or no +disturbances. The movements of the earth's crust oscillated at a rate +not to exceed one foot in a century.[1] It was an age of peace. Then +came a tremendous convulsion. It has been styled by the geologists +"the epoch of the Appalachian revolution." + +"Strata were upraised and flexed into great (olds, some of the folds +a score or more of miles in span. Deep fissures were opened in the +earth's crust," like the fiords or great rock-cracks which +accompanied the Diluvial or Drift Age. "Rocks were consolidated; and +over some parts sandstones and shales were crystallized into gneiss, + +[1. Dana's "Text-Book," p. 150.] + +{p. 432} + +mica-schist, and other related rocks, and limestone into +architectural and statuary marble. Bituminous coal was turned into +anthracite in Pennsylvania."[1] + +I copy from the same work (p. 153) the following cut, showing the +extent to which the rocks were crushed out of shape: + + ### + + SECTION ON THE SCHUYLKILL, PENNSYLVANIA. + +_P, Pottsville on the coal-measures; 2, Calciferous formation; 3, +Trenton; 4, Hudson River; 5, Oneida and Niagara; 7, Lower Helderberg; +8, 10, 11, Devonian; 12, 13, Subcarboniferous; 14, Carboniferous, or +coal-measures._ + +These tremendous changes were caused by a pressure of some kind which +came from the east, from where the Atlantic Ocean now rolls. + +"It was due to a _lateral_ pressure, the folding having taken place +just as it might in paper or cloth under a lateral or _pushing_ +movement."[2] + +"It was accompanied by _great heat_ which melted and consolidated the +rocks, changed their condition, drove the volatile gases out of the +bituminous coal and changed it into anthracite, in some places +altered it to graphite, as if it had been passed through a +furnace."[3] + +It also made an almost universal slaughter of all forms of life: + +"The extermination of life which took place at this time was one of +the most extensive in all geological history; . . . no fossils of the +Carboniferous formation occur in later rocks."[4] + +[1. Dana's "Text-Book," p. 152. + +2. Ibid., p. 155. + +3. Ibid., p. 155. + +4. Ibid., p. 157.] + +{p. 433} + +it was accompanied or followed, as in the Drift Age, by tremendous +floods of water; the evaporated seas returned to the earth in wasting +storms: + +"The waters commenced the work of denudation, which has been +continued to the present time."[1] + +Is not all this a striking confirmation of my theory? + +Here we find that, long before the age of man, a fearful catastrophe +happened to the earth. Its rocks were melted--not merely decomposed, +as in the Drift Age,--but actually melted and metamorphosed; the +heat, as in the Drift Age, sucked up the waters of the seas, to cast +them down again in great floods; it wiped out nearly all the life of +the planet, even as the Drift Age exterminated the great mammals; +whatever drift then fell probably melted with the burning rocks. + +Here are phenomena which no ice-sheet, though it were a thousand +miles thick, can explain; here is heat, not ice; combustion, not +cold; and yet all these phenomena are but the results which we have +seen would naturally follow the contact of the earth with a comet. + +But while, in this particular case, the size of the comet, or its +more fiery nature, melted the surface of the globe, and changed the +very texture of the solid rocks, we find in the geological record the +evidences of repeated visitations when Drift was thrown upon the +earth in great quantities; but the heat, as in the last Drift Age, +was not great enough to consume all things. + +In the Cambrian formation, conglomerates are found, combinations of +stones and hardened clay, very much like the true "till." + +In the Lower Silurian of the south of Scotland, large blocks and +bowlders (from one foot to five feet in diameter) + +[1. Dana's "Text-Book," p. 156.] + +{p. 434} + +are found, "of gneiss, syenite, granite, etc., none of which belong +to the rocks of that neighborhood." + +Geikie says: + +"Possibly these bowlders may have come from some ancient Atlantis, +transported by ice."[1] + +The conglomerates belonging to the Old Red Sandstone formation in the +north of England and in Scotland, we are told, "closely resemble a +consolidated bowlder drift."[2] + +Near Victoria, in Australia, a conglomerate was found _nearly one +hundred feet in thickness_. + +"Great beds of conglomerate occur at the bottom of the Carboniferous, +in various parts of Scotland, which it is difficult to believe are +other than ancient morainic _débris_. They are frequently quite +unstratified, and the stones _often show that peculiar blunted form +which is so characteristic of glacial work_."[3] + +Professor Ramsay found well-scratched and blunted stones in a Permian +conglomerate. + +In the north of Scotland, a coarse, bowlder-conglomerate is +associated with the Jurassic strata. The Cretaceous formation has +yielded great stones and bowlders. In the Eocene of Switzerland, +erratics have been found, some angular and some rounded. They often +attain great size; one measured one hundred and five feet in length, +ninety feet in breadth, and forty-five feet in height. Some of the +blocks consist of _a kind of granite not known to occur anywhere in +the Alps_. + +Geikie says: + +"The occurrence in the Eocene of huge ice-carried blocks seems +_incomprehensible_ when the general character of the Eocene fossils +is taken into account, for these have a somewhat _tropical_ aspect. +So, likewise, the appearance of ice-transported blocks in the Miocene +is a _sore puzzle_, + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 478. + +2. Ibid., p. 479. + +3. Ibid.] + +{p. 435} + +as the fossils imbedded in this formation speak to us of tropical and +sub-tropical climates having prevailed in Central Europe."[1] + +It was precisely during the age when a warm climate prevailed in +Spitzbergen and North Greenland that these erratics were dropped down +on the plains of Italy! + +And, strange to say, just as we have found the Drift-deposits of +Europe and America unfossiliferous,--that is to say, containing no +traces of animal or vegetable life,--so these strange stone and clay +deposits of other and more ancient ages were in like manner +unfossiliferous.[2] + +In the "flysch" of the Eocene of the Alps, few or no fossils have +been found. In the conglomerates of Turin, belonging to the Upper +Miocene period, not a single organic remain has been found. + +What conclusion is forced upon us? + +That, written in the rocky pages of the great volume of the planet, +are the records of _repeated visitations from the comets_ which then +rushed through the heavens. + +No trace is left of their destructive powers, save the huge, +unstratified, unfossiliferous deposits of clay and stones and +bowlders, locked away between great layers of the sedimentary rocks. + +Can it be that there wanders through immeasurable space, upon an +orbit of such size that millions of years are required to complete +it, some monstrous luminary, so vast that when it returns to us it +fills a large part of the orbit which the earth describes around the +sun, and showers down upon us deluges of _débris_, while it fills the +world with flame? And are these recurring strata of stones and clay +and bowlders, written upon these widely separated pages of the +geologic volume, the record of its oft and regularly recurring +visitations? + +[1. "The Great Ice Age," p. 480. + +2. Ibid., p. 481.] + +{p. 436} + +Who shall say? Science will yet compare minutely the composition of +these different conglomerates. No secret can escape discovery when +the light of a world's intelligence is brought to bear upon it. + +And even here we stumble over a still more tremendous fact: + +It has been supposed that the primeval granite was the molten crust +of the original glowing ball of the earth, when it first hardened as +it cooled. + +But, lo! the microscope, (so Professor Whichell tells us,) reveals +that this very granite, this foundation of all our rocks, this +ancient globe-crust, is itself made up of sedimentary rocks, which +were melted, fused, and run together in some awful conflagration +which wiped out all life on the planet. + +Beyond the granite, then, there were seas and shores, winds and +rains, rivers and sediment carried into the waters to form the rocks +melted up in this granite; there were countless ages; possibly there +were animals and man; but all melted and consumed together. Was this, +too, the result of a comet visitation? + +Who shall tell the age of this old earth? Who shall count the ebbs +and flows of eternity? Who shall say how often this planet has been +developed up to the highest forms of life, and how often all this has +been obliterated in universal fire? + +The earth is one great tomb of life: + + "All that tread + The globe are but a handful to the tribes + That slumber in its bosom." + +In endless series the ages stretch along--birth, life, development, +destruction. And so shall it be till time is no more. + +{p. 437} + + CHAPTER VIII. + + THE AFTER-WORD. + +WHEN that magnificent genius, Francis Bacon, sent forth one of his +great works to the world, he wrote this prayer: + +"Thou, O Father, who gavest the visible light as the first-born of +thy creatures, and didst pour into man the intellectual light as the +top and consummation of thy workmanship, be pleased to protect and +govern this work, which coming from thy goodness returneth to thy +glory. . . . We humbly beg that this mind may be steadfastly in us; +and that thou, by our hands and the hands of others, on whom thou +shalt bestow the same spirit, wilt please to convey a largess of new +alms to thy family of mankind." + +And again he says: + +"This also we beg, that human things may not prejudice such as are +divine; neither that from the unlocking of the gates of sense, and +the kindling of a greater natural light, anything of incredulity, or +intellectual night, may arise in our minds toward divine mysteries." + +In the same spirit, but humbly halting afar after this illustrious +man, I should be sorry to permit this book to go out to the world +without a word to remove the impression which some who read it, and +may believe it, may form, that such a vast catastrophe as I have +depicted militates against the idea that God rules and cares for his +world and his creatures. It will be asked, If "there is a special +providence even in the fall of a sparrow," how + +{p. 438} + +could He have permitted such a calamity as this to overtake a +beautiful, populous, and perhaps civilized world? + +Here we fall again upon the great debate of Job, and we may answer in +the words which the author of that book puts into the mouth of God +himself, when from out the whirlwind he answered him: + +"Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him "He that +reproveth God, let him answer." + +In other words, Who and what is man to penetrate the counsels and +purposes of the Creator; and who are you, Job?-- + +"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare +it, if thou hast understanding. + +"Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who has +stretched the line upon it? + +"Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the +corner-stone thereof? + +"When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God +shouted for joy." + +Consider, Job, the littleness of man, the greatness of the universe; +and what right have you to ask Him, who made all this, the reasons +for his actions? + +And this is a sufficient answer: A creature seventy inches long +prying into the purposes of an Awful Something, whose power ranges so +far that blazing suns are seen only as mist-specks! + +But I may make another answer: + +Although it seems that many times have comets smitten the earth, +covering it with _débris_, or causing its rocks to boil, and its +waters to ascend into the heavens, yet, considering all life, as +revealed in the fossils, from the first cells unto this day, _nothing +has perished that was worth preserving_. + +{p. 439} + +So far as we can judge, after every cataclysm the world has risen to +higher levels of creative development. + +If I am right, despite these incalculable tons of matter piled on the +earth, despite heat and cyclones and darkness and ice and floods, not +even a tender tropical plant fit to adorn or sustain man's life was +blotted out; not an animal valuable for domestication was +exterminated; and not even the great inventions which man had +attained to, during the Tertiary Age, were lost. Nothing died but +that which stood in the pathway of man's development,--the monstrous +animals, the Neanderthal races, the half-human creatures intermediate +between man and the brute. The great centers of human activity to-day +in Europe and America are upon the Drift-deposits; the richest soils +are compounded of the so-called glacial clays. Doubtless, too, the +human brain was forced during the Drift Age to higher reaches of +development under the terrible ordeals of the hour. + +Surely, then, we can afford to leave God's planets in God's hands. +Not a particle of dust is whirled in the funnel of the cyclone but +God identifies it, and has marked its path. + +If we fall again upon + + "Axe-ages, sword-ages, + Wind-ages, murder-ages-- + +if "sensual sins grow huge"; if "brother spoils brother" if Sodom and +Gomorrah come again--who can say that God may not bring out of the +depths of space a rejuvenating comet? + +Be assured of one thing--this world tends now to a deification of +matter. + +Dives says: "The earth is firm under my feet; I own my possessions +down to the center of the earth and up to + +{p. 440} + +the heavens. If fire sweeps away my houses, the insurance company +reimburses me; if mobs destroy them, the government pays me; if civil +war comes, I can convert them into bonds and move away until the +storm is over; if sickness comes, I have the highest skill at my call +to fight it back; if death comes, I am again insured, and my estate +makes money by the transaction; and if there is another world than +this, still am I insured: I have taken out a policy in the ----- +church, and pay my premiums semiannually to the minister." + +And Dives has an unexpressed belief that heaven is only a larger Wall +Street, where the millionaires occupy the front benches, while those +who never had a bank account on earth sing in the chorus. + +Speak to Dives of lifting up the plane of all the underfed, +under-paid, benighted millions of the earth--his fellow-men--to +higher levels of comfort, and joy, and intelligence--not tearing down +any but building up all--and Dives can not understand you. + +Ah, Dives! consider, if there is no other life than this, the fate of +these uncounted millions of your race! What does existence give to +them? What do they get out of all this abundant and beautiful world? + +To look down the vista of such a life as theirs is like gazing into +one of the corridors of the Catacombs: an alley filled with reeking +bones of dead men; while from the cross-arches, waiting for the poor +man's coming on, ghastly shapes look out:--sickness and want and sin +and grim despair and red-eyed suicide. + +Put yourself in his place, Dives, locked up in such a cavern as that, +and the key thrown away! + +Do not count too much, Dives, on your lands and houses and +parchments; your guns and cannon and laws; your insurance companies +and your governments. There + +{p. 441} + +may be even now one coming from beyond Arcturus, or Aldebaran, or +Coma Berenices, with glowing countenance and horrid hair, and +millions of tons of _débris_, to overwhelm you and your possessions, +and your corporations, and all the ant-like devices of man in one +common ruin. + +Build a little broader, Dives. Establish spiritual relations. Matter +is not everything. You do not deal in certainties. You are but a +vitalized speck, filled with a fraction of God's delegated +intelligence, crawling over an egg-shell filled with fire, whirling +madly through infinite space, a target for the bombs of a universe. + +Take your mind off your bricks and mortar, and put out your tentacles +toward the great spiritual world around you. Open communications with +God. You can not help God. For Him who made the Milky Way you can do +nothing. But here are his creatures. Not a nerve, muscle, or +brain-convolution of the humblest of these but duplicates your own; +you excel them simply in the coordination of certain inherited +faculties which have given you success. Widen your heart. Put your +intellect to work to so readjust the values of labor, and increase +the productive capacity of Nature, that plenty and happiness, light +and hope, may dwell in every heart, and the Catacombs be closed for +ever. + +And from such a world God will fend off the comets with his great +right arm, and the angels will exult over it in heaven. + + End of Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, RAGNAROK: THE AGE OF FIRE AND GRAVEL *** + +This file should be named 5109.txt or 5109.zip + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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