A yawning gap there was,
And grass nowhere.”[140]
Under these conditions, I think it will be conceded that there was also darkness—and therefore, that the tradition of the precedence of chaos and darkness is confirmed.
“A hymn,” continues Mr Max Müller, “of the Veda begins in a very similar way—
“Nor aught, nor naught existed; yon bright sky
Was not, nor Heaven’s broad roof outstretch’d above,
What cover’d all? what shelter’d? what conceal’d?
Was it the waters’ fathomless abyss?;” &c
Mr Max Müller adds, “There are several mythological expressions common to the Edda and Homer. In the Edda, man is said to have been created out of an ash tree. In Hesiod, Zeus created the third race of men out of ash trees, and that this tradition was not unknown to Homer we learn from Penelope’s address to Ulysses—“Tell me thy family from whence thou art: for thou art not sprung from the olden trees, or from the rocks;” (Max Müller, ii. 195).
The tradition about the ash tree in Hesiod, Homer, and the Edda,[141] is curious but inexplicable: the general drift of the tradition may be determined by the recollection of two facts—that man was created, and that a tree was inseparably connected with his history from its earliest commencement. But I have quoted the passage more especially with reference to its confirmation of the extract from Gainet, which attests the wide-spread tradition—so exactly in accordance with the cosmogony of Scripture—that Chaos was at the commencement of all things, and that darkness existed before light.[142] I conclude by asking why this should be? When we are in the midst of solar and astral systems and legends, it seems natural that a theory of cosmogony should commence with light rather than darkness—at least, as well that it should commence with light as with darkness. But no, the universal tradition seems against it. Much more strange is this if we connect the solar and astral legends with any system of Sabaism. These considerations make it plain to me that the solar and astral legends embodied anterior traditions.