f his ribs.

Among the Otaheitans and various tribes of Indians, the belief prevails
that all created things have proceeded from a triplicated deity who was
saved from the ravages of a flood in an ark or ship.

The fact is observed that the Theogonies and Kosmogonies of all
peoples have reference to a flood or to the renewal of life after the
destruction of the world, and that the Great Father who is preserved,
and who comes forth from an ark or ship with the seeds of a former
world, represents the beginning of a new era. Adam with his three sons,
Cain, Abel, and Seth, Noah with his triad, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Menu
and his triple offspring, and so on, all mean exactly the same thing,
namely, the renewal of life at the close of a cycle, or manwantara.

From the traditions extant in nearly every quarter of the globe, it
would seem that, prior to the so-called flood in the time of Noah,
man, as a Creator, had not to any extent been worshipped, but, on the
contrary, that the great universal dual principle which pervades Nature
and which is back of matter and force, for instance Tien among the
Chinese, Iav among the Hebrews, and Aum among the Hindoos, had been the
Deity adored; but with the decline of virtue and knowledge, this God
was gradually abandoned for a lesser one, a deity better suited to the
comprehension of "fallen" man.

In the Elohistic narrative of creation which appears in the first
chapter of Genesis, a dual or triune God, female and male, says, Let
us make man in our own image, and accordingly a male and a female are
created. In the Jehovistic account, however, in the second chapter of
the same book, a document of much later date, man is made first and
afterward woman. In fact, in the latter narrative she appears as an
afterthought and is created simply for his use; she is taken from
his side and is wholly dependent upon him for existence. This fact is
recognized by Bishop Colenso in the following words:

"Thus in the second account of creation, the man is APPARENTLY created
first, and the woman is CERTAINLY created the last, of all living
creatures; whereas, in the older story the man and woman are
created last of all, as the crowning work of Elohim, and are created
together--'and Elohim created man in His own image, in the image of
Elohim created He him; male and female created He them.' This ancient
Elohistic narrative, then, the Jehovist had before him; and he
enlarged and enlivened it by introdu