LEGENDS OF THE DELUGE.
Such wide-spread desolation as is accredited to the deluge of Noah must have made an indelible impression upon the human mind. We would naturally look for references to it in Aryan, Phoenecian, Greek and Hebrew history. They were the guardians of civilization. It is not difficult to co-link even the rudest form of the flood traditions with the terrible visitation so graphically related by Moses. Its shadow will never pass from the historic page.
Men may criticise and ridicule the narrative given by Moses, yet the fact remains that a self-sustaining history is there; and the combined sophistry of all time cannot shake it.
An account of that great catastrophe is found in the mythological narratives and traditional history of nearly or quite every people and tribe of Adam’s race.
It is found among the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Greeks, Scythians and Celtic tribes. It has been discovered among the Peruvians and Mexicans; the aborigines of Cuba, of North America and the South Sea Islands. Even the inhabitants of Alaska preserve a tradition of the deluge; and all point unmistakably to the deluge of Noah.
Recent investigations in the ruins of Nineveh, Babylon and in ancient cities of Egypt confirm it by tablets preserved as veritable books.
Tradition as she sits amidst the crumbling ages of the past sings it in our ears, while the sound of a universal deluge has gone out through all the earth. It would require volumes to present these traditions alone.