he flood gradually
subsided, and first the mountains, and next the plains, appeared once
more." In the Scandinavian Edda, between whose wild fables and those of
the sacred books of the Parsees there has been a resemblance traced by
accomplished antiquaries such as Mallet, the tradition of the deluge
takes a singularly monstrous form. On the death of the great giant Ymir,
whose flesh and bones form the rocks and soils of the earth, and who was
slain by the early gods, his blood, which now constitutes the ocean,
rushed so copiously out of his wounds, that all the old race of the
lesser giants, his offspring, were drowned in the flood which it
occasioned, save one; and he, by escaping on board his bark with his
wife, outlived the deluge. The tradition here is evidently allegorized,
but it is by no means lost in the allegory.

Sir William Jones, perhaps the most learned and accomplished man of his
age (such at least was the estimate of Johnson), and the first who
fairly opened up the great storehouse of eastern antiquities, describes
the tradition of the deluge as prevalent also in the vast Chinese
empire, with its three hundred millions of people. He states that it was
there believed that, just ere the appearance of Fohi in the mountains, a
mighty flood, which first "flowed abundantly, and then subsided, covered
for a time the whole earth, and separated the higher from the lower age
of mankind." The Hindu tradition, as related by Sir William, though
disfigured by strange additions, is still more explicit. An evil demon
having purloined the sacred books from Brahma, the whole race of men
became corrupt except the seven Nishis, and in especial the holy
Satyavrata, the prince of a maritime region, who, when one day bathing
in a river, was visited by the god Vishnu in the shape of a fish, and
thus addressed by him:--"In seven days all creatures who have offended
me shall be destroyed by a deluge; but thou shalt be secured in a
capacious vessel, miraculously formed. Take, therefore, all kinds of
medicinal herbs, and esculent grain for food, and, together with the
seven holy men, your respective wives, and pairs of all animals, enter
the ark without fear: then shalt thou know God face to face, and all thy
questions shall be answered." The god then disappeared; and after seven
days, during which Satyavrata had conformed in all respects to the
instructions given him, the ocean began to overflow the coasts, and the
earth to be floo