ward, we find that he was born only 126 years after the death of Adam, and fourteen years after that of Seth. He was contemporary with Enos for 84 years, and with the remaining six antediluvian patriarchs (except Enoch) for centuries. We give these computations not as a matter of curiosity, but to show by how few steps, and yet by how many, contemporary teachers, the traditions of primeval history may have been handed down-from Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Abraham, and, we might add, from Abraham to Moses. (See the Tables of the Patriarchs, pp. 57, 65.)

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

(A.) NOAH'S ARK.

or

These were to be arranged in three tiers, one above another; "with The precise meaning of the He- lower, second, and third (stories) brew word (têbâh), translated ark, is shalt thou make it." Means were uncertain. The word occurs only in also to be provided for letting light Gen. vi.-viii. and in Ex. ii. 3. In into the ark. In the A. V. we read, all probability it is to the old Egyp- "A window shalt thou make to the tian that we are to look for its origi- ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish nal form. Bunsen, in his vocabulary, it above”—words, which it must be gives tba, "a chest," tpt, "a boat," confessed convey no very intelligible and in the Copt. Vers. of Exod. ii. 3, idea. The original, however, is ob5, thebi is the rendering of têbáh. scure, and has been differently interThis "chest," or "boat," was to be preted. What the "window" made of gopher (i.e., cypress) wood, "light-hole" was, is very puzzling. a kind of timber which, both for its It was to be at the top of the ark aplightness and its durability, was em-parently. If the words “unto a cu ployed by the Phoenicians for build- bit shalt thou finish it above," refer ing their vessels. The planks of the ark, after being put together, were to be protected by a coating of pitch, or rather bitumen, which was to be laid on both inside and outside, as the most effectual means of making it water-tight, and perhaps also as a protection against the attacks of marine animals. The ark was to consist of a number of “nests" or small compartments, with a view no doubt to the convenient distribution of the different animals and their food.

to the window and not to the ark itself, they seem to imply that this aperture or skylight extended to the breadth of a cubit the whole length of the roof. But if so, it could not have been merely an open slit, for that would have admitted the rain. Are we, then, to suppose that some transparent, or at least translucent, substance was employed? It would almost seem so. A different word is used in chap. viii. 6, where it is said that Noah opened the window of the

ark. There the word is challôn, which build a vessel, and to take with him frequently occurs elsewhere in the into it his friends and relations: and same sense. Supposing, then, the to put on board food and drink, totsôar to be, as we have said, a sky-gether with different animals, birds, light, or series of skylights running and quadrupeds; and as soon as he the whole length of the ark, the chal- had made all arrangements, to comlôn might very well be a single com- mit himself to the deep. . . . Wherepartment of the larger window which upon, not being disobedient (to the could be opened at will. But besides heavenly vision), he built a vessel the window there was to be a door. five stadia in length, and two in This was to be placed in the side of breadth. Into this he put every the ark. Of the shape of the ark thing which he had prepared, and nothing is said; but its dimensions embarked in it with his wife, his are given. It was to be 300 cubits children, and his personal friends. in length, 50 in breadth, and 30 in After the flood had been upon the height. Taking 21 inches for the earth and was in time abated, Xisucubit, the ark would be 525 feet in thrus sent out some birds from the length, 87 feet 6 inches in breadth, vessel, which not finding any food, and 52 feet 6 inches in height. This nor any place where they could rest, is very considerably larger than the returned thither. After an interval largest British man-of-war. It should of some days, Xisuthrus sent out the be remembered that this huge struct- birds a second time, and now they ure was only intended to float on the returned to the ship with mud on their water, and was not in the proper feet. A third time he repeated the sense of the word a ship. It had experiment, and then they returned neither mast, sail, nor rudder; it was no more: whence Xisuthrus judged in fact nothing but an enormous floating house, or oblong box rather. Two objects only were aimed at in its construction: the one that it should have ample stowage, and the other that it should be able to keep steady upon the water.

(B.) TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE.

that the earth was visible above the waters; and accordingly he made an opening in the vessel (?), and seeing that it was stranded upon the site of a certain mountain, he quitted it, with his wife and daughter and the pilot. Having then paid his aderation to the earth, and having built an altar and offered sacrifices to the gods, he, together with those who had left the vessel with him, disapThe traditions which come near-peared." Other notices of a flood est to the biblical account are those may be found (a) in the Phoenician of the nations of Western Asia. mythology, where the victory of PonForemost among these is the Chal- tus (the sea) over Demarous (the dæan. It is preserved in a fragment earth) is mentioned: (b) in the Sibof Berosus, and is as follows: "In ylline Oracles, partly borrowed, no the time of Xisuthrus happened a doubt, from the biblical narrative, great Deluge, the history of which is and partly perhaps from some Baby. thus described. The Deity Kronos lonian story. To these must be addappeared to him in a vision, and ed (c) the Phrygian story of King Anwarned him there would be a flood nakos or Nannakos (Enoch), in Iccby which mankind would be destroy- nium, who reached an age of more He therefore enjoined him to than 300 years, foretold the Flood,

ed.

and wept and prayed for his people, said that many persons fled at the seeing the destruction that was coming time of the Deluge, and so were upon them. Very curious, as show-saved; and that one in particular was ing what deep root this tradition must carried thither upon an ark, and was have taken in the country, is the fact landed upon its summit; and that that so late as the time of Septimius the remains of the vessel's planks and Severus, a medal was struck at Apa- timbers were long preserved upon the mea, on which the Flood is com-mountain."

A second cycle of traditions is that of Eastern Asia. To this belong the Persian, Chinese, and Indian. The Persian is mixed up with its cosmog. ony, and hence loses any thing like an historical aspect. The Chinese story is, in many respects, singularly like the biblical. Fáh-he, the repu ted author of Chinese civilization, is said to have escaped from the waters of the Deluge. He reappears as the first man at the production of a renovated world, attended by seven

Coin of Apamea, in Phrygia, representing companions-his wife, his three sons,

the Deluge.

and three daughters, by whose intermemorated. This medal represents marriage the whole circle of the unia kind of square vessel floating in the verse is finally completed. The Inwater. Through an opening in it dian tradition appears in various are seen two persons, a man and a forms. Of these, the one which most woman. Upon the top of this chest remarkably agrees with the biblical or ark is perched a bird, while anoth- account is that contained in the Maer flies toward it carrying a branch hábhárata. We are there told that between its feet. Before the vessel Brahma announces to Manu the apare represented the same pair as hav-proach of the Deluge, and bids him ing just quitted it, and got upon the build a ship and put in it all kinds of dry land. Singularly enough, too, seeds, together with the seven Rishis, on some specimens of this medal the or holy beings. The Flood begins letters N2, or NE, have been found and covers the whole earth. Brahma on the vessel, as in the annexed cut. himself appears in the form of a hornAs belonging to this cycle of tradition ed fish, and the vessel being made must be reckoned also (1) the Syrian, fast to him, he draws it for many related by Lucian, and connected years, and finally lands on the loftiest with a huge chasm in the earth near summit of Mount Himarat (i. e., the Hierapolis, into which the waters of Himalaya). Then, by the command the Flood are supposed to have drain- of God, the ship is made fast, and in ed: and (2), the Armenian, quoted memory of the event the mountain is by Josephus, from Nicolaus Damas-called Naubandhana (i. e., ship-bindcenus, who flourished about the age ing). By the favor of Brahma, of Augustus. He says: "There is Manu, after the Flood, creates the above Minyas in the land of Arme- new race of mankind, which are nia, a great mountain, which is call- hence termed Manudsha, i, e., born ed Baris [i. e., a ship], to which it is of Manu.

(C.) ARARAT.

The account of the Flood in the Koran is drawn, apparently, partly from biblical and partly from Persian WE are told that the ark "rested sources. In the main, no doubt, it upon the mountains of Ararat" follows the narrative in Genesis, but (Gen. viii. 4), meaning the moundwells at length on the testimony of tains of Armenia, for Ararat in bibNoah to the unbelieving. Another pe- lical geography (2 K. xix. 37; Jer. culiarity of this version is, that Noah li. 27) is not the name of a mouncalls in vain to one of his sons to en-tain, but of a district-the central ter into the ark; he refuses in the region, to which the name of Araratia hope of escaping to a mountain, and is assigned by the native geographer is drowned before his father's eyes. Moses of Chorene. This being the A third cycle of traditions is to be case, we are not called upon to decide found among the American nations. a point which the sacred writer himThese, as might be expected, show self leaves undecided, namely, the occasionally some marks of resem- particular mountain on which the blance to the Asiatic legends. "The ark rested. But nothing is more Noah, Xisuthrus or Manu, of the natural than that the scene of the Mexican nations," says A. von Hum- event should in due course of time boldt, "is termed Coxcox, Teo-Ci- be transferred to the loftiest of the pactli, or Tezpi. He saved himself mountains of Armenia, and that the with his wife Xochiquetzatl in a bark, name of Ararat should be specially or, according to other traditions, on affixed to that one: accordingly all a raft. The painting represents the associations connected with the Coxcox in the midst of the water ark now centre in the magnificent waiting for a bark. The mountain, mountain which the native Armenithe summit of which rises above the ans name Macis, and the Turks waters, is the peak of Colhuacan, the Aghri- Tágh. This is the culminatArarat of the Mexicans. At the foot ing point of the central range of Arof the mountain are the heads of menia, the Abus of the ancients. It Coxcox and his wife." A peculiar- rises majestically out of the valley of ity of many of these American Indian traditions must be noted, and that is, that the Flood, according to them, usually took place in the time of the First Man, who, together with his family, escape.

One more cycle of traditions must be mentioned-that, namely, of the Hellenic race. Hellas had two versions of a flood, one associated with Ogyges, and the other, in a far more elaborate form, with Deucalion, which is familiar to us from the wellknown story of Ovid.

the Araxes to an elevation of 17,260 feet above the level of the sea, and about 14,350 above the valley, and terminates in a double conical peak, the lower or Lesser Ararat being about 400 feet below the other. The mountain is very steep, as implied in the Turkish name, and the summit is covered with eternal snow. Until recently it was believed to be inaccessible, but the summit was gained by Parrot in 1829, and the ascent has been effected since his time.

BIRTH OF ABRAHAM.

A.M. 1656-2008. B.C. 2348-1996.

§ 1. The peopling of the earth. § 2. Tripartite division of the nations from a centre in Armenia. § 3. Interpretation of the record in Genesis x. § 4. The three great families-i. Of Japheth-ii. Of Shem-iii. Of Ham. § 5. The city and tower of Babel. § 6. The confusion of tongues and dispersion from Babel. § 7. Nimrod's empire. § 8. The Post-diluvian patriarchs.

§ 1. THE history of Noah's children divides itself into two branches; the general peopling of the earth by the descendants of his three sons, and the particular line of the chosen family. The former subject is briefly dismissed, but with notices full of interest; and the latter is pursued down to Abraham, on whose migration to Canaan we again come in

1 Gen. x.