i. 223, a curious additional instance of the same word having

connections with "boat" and arc (_tobe_) might be discovered in Kibotos, the name of a mountain in Phrygia, where the ark is said to have rested (Gainet, i. 220). Also we have almost the same words--ark and arc--to express (though according to a different etymology) these dissimilar objects.

"The words oar and rudder can be traced back to Sanskrit, and the name of the ship is identically the same in Sanscrit (naus, nâvas), in Latin (navis), in Greek (naus), and in Teutonic, Old High Germ. (nachs), Anglo-Saxon (naca)."--Max Müller, "Comp. Mythol.," p. 49.

I may draw attention, as having reference to other branches of this inquiry, to a possible affinity with the name of the patriarch, in the term _Noaaids_, applied by the Laplanders to their magicians (Pinkerton, i. 459, &c.); and to the term Koader_nicks_, applied by the Samoids to the same (_id._ 532). I own there might be danger in pushing the inquiry further, as I might even bring the patriarch Noah into contact and connection with Old Nick!

I may also refer to the term "Janna" (Janus), as applied to the officer "who had the office of entertaining ambassadors" at the court of Kenghis Khan (_id._ v. 7, p. 40; Rubruquis's Embassy, A.D. 1253, also 56).

In the above extract from Rawlinson, although Hoa is said not to be "the true fish-god," yet he is called "the intelligent fish," and is associated with that mystic animal, half man half fish, which came up from the Persian Gulf to teach astronomy and letters to the first settlers on Euphrates and Tigris.

Let us compare this information with the following "History of the Fish," which the Abbé Gainet, i. 199, has translated from the Mahâbhârata. The same history has been translated from the Bhagavad Pourana by Sir W. Jones ("Asiatic Researches"). Indeed, as the Abbé Gainet argues, as this same history is found in all the religious poems of India, there is a certain security that it would not have been taken from the Hebrews.

I shall merely attempt to give the drift of the legend from the Abbé Gainet's original translation of that portion of the Matysia Pourana which has reference to Noah:--

"The son of Vaivaswata (the sun) was a king, and a great sage, a prince of men, resembling Pradjapati in _eclat_. In his strength, splendour, prosperity, and above all, his penitence, Manou surpassed his father and his grandfather.[156]... One day a small fish approached him, and begged him to remove him from the water where he was, 'because the great fish always eat the little fish--it is our eternal condition.' Manou complies, and the fish promises eternal gratitude. After several such migrations, through the intervention of Manou, the fish at each removal increasing in bulk, he is at length launched in the ocean. The fish then holds this discourse with Manou:--'Soon, oh blessed Manou, everything that is by nature fixed and stationary in the terrestrial world, will undergo a general immersion and a complete dissolution. This temporary immersion of the world is near at hand, and therefore it is that I announce to you to-day what you ought to do for your safety.' He instructs him to build a strong and solid ship, and to enter it with the _seven_ richis or sages.[157] He instructs him also to take with him all sorts of seeds, according to certain Brahminical indications. 'And when you are in the vessel you will perceive me coming towards you, oh well-beloved of the saints, I will approach you with a _horn_ on my head, by which you will recognise me.' Manou did all that was prescribed to him by the fish, and the earth was submerged accordingly, as he had predicted. 'Neither the earth, nor the sky, nor the intermediate space, was visible; all was water.' 'In the middle of the world thus submerged, O Prince of Bharatidians, were seen the seven richis or sages, Manou, and the fish. Thus, O King, did this fish cause the vessel to sail' (with a rope tied to its horn), 'for many years, without wearying, in this immensity of water.' At length the ship was dragged by the fish on to the highest point of the Himalaya. 'That is why the highest summit of the Himaran (Himalaya) was called _Nan_bundhanam, or the place to which the ship was attached, a name which it bears to this day--_Sache cela, O Prince des Bharatidians._' Then _le gracieux_, with placid gaze, thus addressed the richis--'I am Brahma, the ancestor (_l'ancestre_) of all creatures. No one is greater than I. Under the form of a fish I came to save you from the terrors of death. From Manou, now, shall all creatures, with the gods, the demons (_au souras_), and mankind, be born.... This is the ancient and celebrated history which bears the name of the 'History of the _Fish_.'"[158]

[156] Comp. "Traditions of the New Zealanders."

[157] Do not the seven richis or sages correspond to the seven (or eight) (Phoenician) Kabiri. (There were seven or eight persons in the ark, accordingly as we take separate account or not of Noah.) As regards the Kabiri, their number (seven or eight, accordingly as we include "Æsculapius") must be the clue to the solution of "the most obscure and mysterious question in mythology." Bunsen ("Egypt," iv. 229) says of an astral explanation:--"It does not enable us to explain the details of those representations which do not contain the number seven (or eight), and, in fact, seven brothers." It will suffice, from our point of view, if there are numerically seven persons. Bunsen (iv. p. 291) says--"It is quite clear that the fundamental number of the gods in the oldest mythologies of Phoenicia, and all Asia, as well as Egypt, was seven. There were seven Kabiri, with the seven Titans. There are also seven Titans mentioned in other genealogies of the race of Kronos. Of the latter, one dies a virgin and disappears." But as with the Kabiri we have seen the number seven, or eight, accordingly as Æsculapius is included or not, so (vide p. 314) we see the primitive gods of Egypt either seven or eight, accordingly as Thoth, "the eighth," or Horus, figure as the "last divine king" (p. 319). When Horus so figures, "_he_ is frequently represented as _the eighth, conducting the bark of the gods_, with _the seven great gods_," &c. Moreover, it is elsewhere (p. 347) said that "the Phoenicians, in their sacred books, stated that the Kabiri _embarked in ships_, and landed near Mount Kaison. This legend was corroborated by the existence of a shrine on that coast in historic times." [_Query_, The tradition of the Deluge localised, and the shrine commemorative of that catastrophe (_vide_ Boulanger, &c., _infra_, p. 244); and supposing that the tradition of the number saved in the Flood had been preserved down to a certain date, we should then expect that the number would become rigid and fixed. But that if the tradition of the actual survivors had become indistinct, what more natural than that the eight principal characters of ante-diluvian, or even post-diluvian, history should be substituted for them, and that the same confusion and agglomeration of legend should take place as we shall see occurring in the tradition of Noah?]

In the Persian or Iranian legend of Shâh-nâmeh, "the three sons of Ferêdûn--Ireg, Tur, and Selm--are mentioned as their patriarchs, and among them the _whole earth was divided_." But in the more ancient Gâthâs there is mention of "the _seven_-surfaced or _seven_-portioned earth." [_Query_--apportioned by _the eighth_?] _Vide_ Bunsen's "Egypt," iii. 478.

For the Indian tradition compare the following from Hunter's "Bengal" (i. p. 151)--"Another coincidence--I do not venture to call it an analogy--is to be found in the number of children born to the first pair. As the Santal legend immediately divides the human species into _seven_ families, so the Sanscrit tradition assigns the propagation of _our race after the flood_ to _seven rishis_." I also find in F. Schlegel's "Philosophy of History" (p. 150, Robertson's trans.)--"The Indian traditions acknowledge and revere the succession of the first ancestors of mankind, or the holy patriarchs of the primitive world, under the name of the _seven great rishis_, or sages of hoary antiquity, though they invest their history with a cloud of fictions."

[158] Syncellus, quoting Berosus (_vide_ Abbé de Tressan, "Mythology," p. 10), says that _Oannes_ (the mysterious fish, _vide ante_) left some _writings_ upon the origin of the world. These, no doubt, correspond to the "Liber Noachi." I do not disguise that this statement is probably derived from what is called the false Berosus. The reference, however, which I have made to these writings at p. 139 may raise doubt whether they did not embody true traditions.

Here we seem to see what looks like the commencement of the legendary origin of the fish symbol; and here also we see it unmistakeably in connection with Noah. We have, moreover, seen the connection of Hoa with the fish.[159]

[159] I fancy it might be traced also in the Phoenician fish-god, Dagon. The _Saturday Review_ (June 4, 1870) in its review of Cox's "Mythology," says--"Dagon cannot be divided Dag-on, the fish 'On,' for a Semitic syllable cannot begin with a vowel; and if the necessary breathing 'aleph' were inserted (which it is very unsafe to do), it would then mean 'the fish of On,' which is not the signification required." But it is the signification which would fit in here; moreover, might not the terminal "aon," or "_haon_," suggested, have been originally, _i.e._ before displacement by "boustrophedon"--Noa or Noa_h_? I give this suggestion with all proper diffidence, and with some genuine misgiving as to the "breathing aleph." I find that Bryant ("Mythology," iii. p. 116) makes a similar suggestion.

Bunsen ("Egypt," iv. 243) says--"Dagon is Dagan, _i.e._ corn. This is also implied by the Greek form of it--Sitôn, wheat-field (comp. p. 219). We have in the Bible, Dagon, a god of the Philistines, a name usually supposed to be derived from 'dag,' fish; the god has a human form ending in a fish, like the fish-shaped goddess, Derketo-Atergatis. It is clear, from Philo's own account, that the Phoenician Poseidon was a god of this kind, and it is difficult to find any other name for him. Yet we cannot say that Dagon is very clearly explained. Here is a god of agriculture, well authenticated, both linguistically and documentally, Dagan, _i.e._ wheat, and he is the _Zeus of agriculture_." _Vide_ p. 219. P. 261 says Dagon must not be confounded with "Dagan," but without reconciling it with the above at p. 243, on the contrary, we find "Dagon, Dagan = corn (the fish-man)." At p. 241, quoting from the _text_ of Philo, it is said still more pointedly--"Dagon, after he _had discovered corn and the plough_, was called Zeus Arotnios." Comp. p. 204.

Believing (_vide_ ch. xii.) in the tradition of mythology, even among savages, I could not but be much struck on coming upon the following passage in Roggeveen's voyage, to find--in his account of the Eastern Islanders--the same conjunction of the bull and fish implied in the traditional names of their idols:--"The name of the largest idol was called _Taurico_, and the other _Dago_; at least, these were the words they called to them by, and wherewith they worshipped them. These savages had great respect for the two idols, _Taurico_ and _Dago_, and approached them with great reverence ... and to supplicate for help against us, and to call upon with a frightful shout and howling of _Dago! Dago!_" ("Historical Account of Voyages Round the World," 1774, i. 469, 470.)

After showing the resemblance of a feast at Argos to other commemorative feasts of the Deluge, Boulanger (_vide infra_,