“Chaos was placed at the commencement of all things in the Phœnician cosmogony (Euseb. Præp. Evan. l. i.), as in that of Hesiod (Theog., p. 5). The latter calls upon the Muses to tell him what were the beings that appeared first in existence, and he replies—‘At the commencement of all things was Chaos, and from Chaos was born Erebus and dark night.’
“Thus, in the order of existence, as in the order of time, there is a concurrence of profane tradition to place night before day. This is the reason why the Scandinavians, the Gauls, the Germans, the Kalmucks, the Numidians, the Egyptians, and Athenians, according to Varro and Macrobius, count their days, commencing with sunset and not with sunrise.”
Curiously enough, in another chapter on a different subject, Mr Max Müller enables me to clinch this argument against himself. In an article on the “Norsemen in Iceland,” he says—in proof of the genuineness of the Edda—“There are passages in the Edda which sound like verses from the Veda.” But what are these verses from the ends of the earth which are identical? Let us listen—
“’Twas the morning of time
When yet naught was,
Nor sand nor sea were there,
Nor cooling streams;
Earth was not formed,
Nor Heaven above;