alludes to a concealment of those sacred volumes during the prevalence of CHAP. V. the flood, like that of the writings of the Chaldèan Xisuthrus.

8. A similar belief in the existence of such books prevails also among the Mohammedans: and they doubtless, I think, derived it from the same pagan source as the Jews. According to a Musulman writer cited by Stanley, Abraham found among the Sabèans the long-lost chest of Adam, which contained the books of that patriarch and likewise those of Seth and Edris or Enoch. How the chest was supposed to have been preserved during the time of the deluge, does not appear. The Mohammedans tell us, that the books of Adam, Seth, Enoch, and Abraham, are now entirely lost :3 but the persuasion, that they once existed, serves to shew how widely the notion which I am now considering had extended itself.

2

II. This universal belief affords an additional argument in support of the opinion, that the various systems of pagan mythology originated from a com

mon source.

Whether any books of antediluvian science and theology were preserved by Noah in the Ark, I shall not pretend to determine: yet I can see nothing very improbable in the supposition, that he may have delivered to his posterity a volume or volumes replete with the treasured knowledge of a former world. Of such relics the pretended sacred books of the Gentiles may have been imitations. They must however, in that case, have been corrupt imitations: for it is almost superfluous to say, that the Indian Vedas, the Institutes of Menu, and the Phenician history of Sanchoniatho, could not have been received from Noah in their present state. Yet the general prevalence of these imitations proves their high antiquity: for the same notion of certain sacred books ascribed to the great father could not have prevailed in regions so widely separated from each other, unless the inhabitants of those regions had derived it, together with their system of theology, from a common centre. Hence, for the first corrupt imitation of the books of Noah, if indeed it were an imitation and if such books ever actually existed, we seem to be referred to the era of Nimrod, when state policy originally corrupted 'These books are styled in the Cadair Ceridwen the books of the ruler of the mount: by whom, as appears from the general connection of the poem, was clearly meant Noah on the summit of Ararat. Vide supra book iii. c. 4. § IV. 1.

2 Stanley's Hist. of Chald. Philos. p. 36.

* Scott's Preface to Arab. Nights' Entertainments.

the patriarchal religion by changing it into the worship of demon-gods. From this debased imitation, which can scarcely be ascribed to a later period, flowed, I apprehend, the various sacred volumes of Chaldèa, Egypt, Phenicia, Persia, Hindostan, Crete, and Britain.

If any antediluvian writings were really preserved, they would obviously be preserved in the Ark: for it is needless to say, that the Chaldèan legend of burying them under ground, the Hindoo legend of their being lost at the bottom of the ocean and afterwards recovered, and the Egyptian legend of their being left engraved on two pillars, are alike absurd. Far more rational is the Druidical tradition, that they were saved in the cell of the arkite sanctuary, when the waves of the ocean extended themselves on every side. Yet, unless I greatly mistake, some vestiges of the literal matter of fact (I speak on the supposition of the existence of such books) may still be traced by comparing together the Hindoo and Babylonian accounts.

1. We are told in the legend of Xisuthrus, that the place, where these primitive writings were buried, was a certain city named Sippara or Sisparnis: and we learn from the legend of Satyavrata, that Vishnou, who recovered the lost writings, transformed himself into a fish denominated Saphari. Such a coincidence of names in relating what is certainly the same history can hardly be esteemed casual: I conclude therefore without hesitation, that Sippara and Saphari must both have received their appellations from the same circumstance and therefore with the same idea. Now, if the writings in question were actually preserved, they must have been preserved in the interior of the symbolical fish Saphari, or by the sovereign prince (as the Hindoos speak) who dwelt in the belly of the fish, that is to say, in the Ark; not underground in the city Sippara. What then is the import of the term? The Hindoos may have naturalized it: but, since it occurs in Chaldea as well as in Hindostan, there is at least as much probability that the word is Babylonic as that it is Sanscrit. I think with Bochart, that, when viewed in connection with the story relative to it, Sippara is plainly derived from Sepher which denotes a book. The antediluvian books were deposited in the mystic fish, from them denominated Saphari: after the flood, was built the town of Sippara, so called in honour of them; just as the towns of Theba, Argos, and Berytus, received their names from

Theba, Argha, and Baris or Barit: hence the books, which were really preserved in the fish, were fabled to have been preserved in the city.

The town mentioned by Berosus appears to have been situated in the neighbourhood of Babylon:' and some place it near mount Sephar, which Moses styles a mountain of the east; though Wells fixes that mountain yet more eastward, and Bochart places it in Arabia Felix. Whatever may have been the true scite of the hill, it was, I believe, an arkite mountain; and, like Sippara, it received its name from the sacred antediluvian writings. It is probable, that there were several mount Sephars, just as there were many mountains of the Moon: for, as the descendants of Noah carried with them in all directions memorials of the deluge; so, wherever they settled, they consecrated the loftiest hill as the mountain of that floating lunette which was thought to have preserved the holy volumes. This humour will account for the existence of other cities of the book, as well as the Babylonian Sippara: for they, who called themselves Sepharim or Book-men, were as much attached to their name as the Ionim, the Arghim, the Arcadim, the Thebim, the Albanim, or the Baritim. One of these biblic cities we seem to recognize in the town of the Sepharvaim: if indeed it be not the same as the Sippara of Berosus; which is rendered probable by the names of the other Babylonian cities, mentioned along with it by the author of the second book of kings. Another of them we find in Palestine, within the limits of the tribe of Judah: for we are told by the writer of Joshua, that, in ancient times, Debir was called Kirjath-Sepher or the city of the book.* This then was its primitive name: but the Israelites called it Debir, the import of which is nearly similar. What those books were from which it received its appellation, we may collect from its Chaldee name Kirjath-Archi. Bochart thinks, that this signifies the city of the archives: but I am rather inclined to believe, that it means the city of the Arkim or Arkites, who were

'Bochart. Phaleg. lib. i. c. 4. p. 22.

2 Gen. x. 30. Wells's Geog. of O. Test. part. i. c. iii. sect. 3. § 12. Boch. Phaleg. lib. ii. c. 30. p. 144, 145, 146.

3 12 Kings xvii. 24. Ptolemy calls it Sipphara. See Wells's Geog, of the Old Test. vol. ii. p. 91, 92.

✦ Josh. xv. 25. See also Judg. i. 11, 12.

Pag. Idol.

VOL. II.

U

CHAP. V..

BOOK III.

otherwise distinguished by the name of Sepharim. It was likewise called Kirjath-Sannah or the city of the Sun: for San, Zan, or Zoan, was one of the oriental names of that luminary; whence the Greek Zen and the English Sun.3 I take it, that the great father was worshipped there in conjunction with the Sun: and it is probable, that the antediluvian writings were thought to have been preserved in that town as well as in the Babylonian Sippara; for the same spirit of local appropriation, that fixed the appulse of the Ark to so many different regions, would claim for as many different cities the honour of having preserved the sacred books. It is said, that the word Bokhara signifies the country of the book. If this be the case, I should have no doubt that the same holy book was still alluded to in the appellation. The Bactrians were Scythians or Chasas: and their territory forms a part of that high mountainous tract, which coincides with the Indian Meru, and which by the Brahmens is esteemed the land both of Paradise and of the Ark.

2. From these observations we may, I think, venture to conclude, that the fable of the sacred books existed prior to the invasion of Palestine by the Israelites for, when they made themselves masters of that country, they found there a city, which bore the very same appellation as the Babylonian town, where the sacred writings were thought to have been deposited before the deluge; and, since the one clearly received its name from those writings, the presumption is that the other did also. We may likewise conclude, that Berosus is perfectly accurate in representing the fable as known to the Babylonians from the earliest period of their history: because we find, that, long previous to the days of Moses, a celebrated mountain of the east was known by the name of mount Sephar or the mountain of the book. Such appellations plainly refer to the fable; and therefore prove its existence at the time when they were bestowed. But, if the fable be older

1

Bochart. Phaleg. lib. i. c. 4. p. 22.

2 Compare Josh. xv. 15. with ver. 47.

3 Thus we read of a town called Beth-Shan, because San or the Sun was worshipped in its principal beth or temple. 1 Sam. xxxi. 10. I believe, that neither Shan nor Sannah are Hebrew words any more than On; though they have all been very absurdly translated, as if such were indisputably the case.

than the time of Moses, I see not what date we can reasonably assign to it CHAP. V. except that of the apostasy at Babel.

3. There is a curious part of the fable, as it is sometimes detailed, which yet remains to be accounted for: and the desired explanation will be furnished by the mythology of Egypt.

Typhon, though properly the deluge, was occasionally confounded or rather identified with the god of the deluge. Hence he was sometimes pronounced the same as Osiris, and denominated Priapus or Peor-Apis : and hence likewise he bore another appellation, which (strictly speaking) did not belong to him. He was called Seth, and by that name was worshipped in Egypt under the symbol of an ass." But Seth, as a masculine title, which was variously expressed Set, Siton, Said, Saidi, Soth, Zeuth, Tath, and Thoth, was a name of the great father while Setha, as a feminine title, which was also variously expressed Sita, Saida, Sida, Sidda, Sidee, Sito, Shittah, and Titèa, was a name of the great mother. From a misprision of this appellation, various traditions, which properly belong to the deluge, have been strangely misapplied to Seth the son of Adam. Thus, as we have seen, Josephus tells us, that the children of Seth were great astronomers, and that they engraved their discoveries on two pillars in the land of Seriad, in order that they might escape the ravages of a deluge either of fire or of water and thus the Mohaminedans have a notion, that some of the sacred antediluvian writings were composed by Seth. In both these legends, Seth, I conceive, is not the son of Adam; but Menu or Xisuthrus or Thoth (as Seth was sometimes written), to whom the sacred books which were preserved from the flood are properly ascribed.

It is worthy of note, that Josephus further informs us, that the pillars of Seth were erected near mount Siderus or (as Glycas writes the word) Sidirus. This is not a Greek name, neither has it any thing to do with iron. Siderus or Sid-Ira was an arkite mountain, one of the high places of the great father and the great mother or of the lunar Seth and Sida: hence the notion of the writings of Seth being engraved on two pillars, those primeval

'Plut. de Isid. p. 367. Epiph. adv. Hær. vol. ii. p. 1093.