"Of good red clay,
Haply from Mount Aornus, beyond sweep
Of the black eagle's wing."
The cave-temples of India-the oldest temples, probably, on earth--are a reminiscence of this cave-life.
We shall see hereafter that Lot and his daughters "dwelt in a cave"; and we shall find Job bidden away in the "narrow-mouthed bottomless" pit or cave.
[1. "Myths of the New World," p. 244.]
{p. 208}
CHAPTER VIII.
LEGENDS OF THE AGE OF DARKNESS.
ALL the cosmogonies begin with an Age of Darkness; a damp, cold, rainy, dismal time.
Hesiod tells us, speaking of the beginning of things
"In truth, then, foremost sprung Chaos. . . . But from Chaos were born Erebus and black Night; and from Night again sprang forth Æther and Day, whom she bare after having conceived by union with Erebus."