[49] 432,000 is also the figure to which Berosus extends the Assyrian chronology. Thus the Indian fabrication commences at the point where Berosus ends.
[50] Bunsen (“Egypt,” iii. 405) says, “Systematic Chinese history and chronology hardly go back as far as the year 2000 B.C., i.e. to the reign of Yü (1991).” Yet upon indirect philological conclusions, he would really take their history back beyond the Egyptian—iii. p. 379. “An explanation must be given why it (the Chinese history) commences at a later period (as above) than Egyptian chronology; much later, indeed, than is generally supposed. Search must be made in other quarters than the regular extant chronology for proofs of that vast antiquity, which the numerous records of language compel us to assign to the origines of the Chinese.” This vast antiquity may be measured by the fact that, ex hypothesi, it transcends the Egyptian, and for the Egyptian in his theory of progress and development, he requires at least 20,000 years before the Christian era.
[51] Martini (“Historia Sinica,” p. 14, edit. Monac.) asserts that the Egyptians computed by the era of sixty years of Hoangho. See De Vignolle’s “Miscellanea Berolinensia,” I. iv. 37, on the cycle of months. Compare Ideler, App. ix., note from Bunsen, iii. 385. Humboldt (“Vues des Cordillères”, p. 149; Prescott, Mex., i. 105) seems to say that, “among the Chinese, Japanese, Moghols, Mantchous, and other families of the Tartar race” (compare Mexican, do.), “their series was composed of symbols of their five elements, and the twelve zodiacal signs, making a cycle of sixty years duration.” This is not incompatible with, the allegation that it is “the era of sixty years of Hoangho.”
[52] This tradition would seem to confirm Bryant’s (“Mythology,” iii. 584) conjecture that Hoang-ti was Ham. But Hoang-ti as Ham, may absorb and incorporate, as we have seen in other instances, the history of his progenitors; and, moreover, whether he is Noah or Ham, would scarcely affect the chronological argument.
[53] On the worship of the pigeon in Cashmere, vide “Travels in Kashmir,” by G. G. Vigne, Esq., F.G.S., ii. p. 11, 13. 1844.
[54] The reduplication may have occurred in this way. Hoang-ti being Noah, Yao or Yu may have been his descendant under whom they settled in China at the termination of their migration. This is confirmed by Bunsen’s view, iii. 405 (iv. and v.) In which case it would not be at all unnatural to suppose that the traditions appertaining to the remote progenitor, would in time settle down upon the head of the actual founder. Chevalier de Paravey (vide Gainet, i. 93), “a trouvé un hieroglyphe chinois qui nomme la femme de Hoang-ti ‘Adamon’ terre jaune, et si non signifie celle qui entraîne les autres dans son propre mal.” This would merely be the confusion between Noah and Adam which we have seen to occur in almost every instance. Is not the Japanese god Amida = Adima, or perhaps to Adamon—i.e., confused in relationship to Hoang-ti or Noah? what confirms the impression is, that Adima’s son is Canon. Query, Chanaan.
[55] Klaproth says:—“The only Sanscrit history deserving the name of the chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, Radja Paringin’i, translated by W. H. Wilson.”—Klaproth, Mem. Relatif à L’Asie.
[56] Compare the following account of existing customs in Cashmir with the above extract from Klaproth and ch. xi., with commemorative festivals of the Deluge. Mr G. G. Vigne (“Travels in Kashmir,” ii. 93) says:—“What has been poetically termed the feast of roses, has of late years been rather the feast of signaras or water-nuts. It is held, I believe, about the 1st May, when plum-trees and roses are in full bloom, and is called the Shakergal, from the Persian shakergan, to blow a blossom [the Mandan ceremony took place when the willow flowered.—Catlin, p. 6]. The richer classes come in boats to the foot of the Tukt, ascend it, and have a feast upon the summit, eating more particularly of signaras (water-nuts). The feast of the No-warh (new place) takes place at the vernal equinox [compare Noah, Taurus], at which period the valley is said to have been drained. It is held chiefly at the But or idol stone on Hari parbut.” Query—Can this be “the ark or big canoe” in the Mandan celebration? Considering the prominence of boats in all these mysteries, and considering the resemblance of but to boat, and the like analogies in so many languages (Sanskrit, pota = boat) (vide Vicomte d’Anselme, infra, [p. 196]), may we be permitted the conjecture until corrected. Compare also p. 268, Ogilby’s “Japan,” Cook. &c., p. 271.
[57] I have since found this identical tradition (vide [p. 325]) among the Mozca Indians. “Boshicha,” it is said, “taught them to build and to sow, formed them into communities, GAVE AN OUTLET TO THE WATERS OF THE GREAT LAKE, &c.” This seems demonstratively to prove, either that the Mozca Indians (South America) came from China, India, or Egypt—which I have contended for at [p. 266]—or else, which makes the argument I have in hand stronger, they have transmitted an identical tradition by a different channel.
[58] “The Chinese who migrated before the Deluge (sic) have no reminiscences, any more than the Egyptians, of the great catastrophe which we know by the name of the Flood of Noah” (Bunsen’s “Egypt,” iii. 397). Palmer (“Egypt. Chron.,” i. p. 38) says, with reference to a certain date—“This is only for such as know the true date of the flood, the end of the old world—an epoch by no means to be named, nor even directly alluded to, by any Egyptian.”