p. 423

CHAPTER VIII

THE OLDEST SON OF NOAH

THAT eminent authority, Dr. Max Müller, says, in his "Lectures on the Science of Religion,"

"If we confine ourselves to the Asiatic continent, with its important peninsula of Europe, we find that in the vast desert of drifting human speech three, and only three, oases have been formed in which, before the beginning of all history, language became permanent and traditional--assumed, in fact, a new character, a character totally different from the original character of the floating and constantly varying speech of human beings. These three oases of language are known by the name of Turanian, Aryan, and Semitic. In these three centres, more particularly in the Aryan and Semitic, language ceased to be natural; its growth was arrested, and it became permanent, solid, petrified, or, if you like, historical speech. I have always maintained that this centralization and traditional conservation of language could only have been the result of religious and political influences, and I now mean to show that we really have clear evidence of three independent settlements of religion--the Turanian, the Aryan, and the Semitic--concomitantly with the three great settlements of language."

There can be no doubt that the Aryan and another branch, which Müller calls Semitic, but which may more properly be called Hamitic, radiated from Noah; it is a question yet to be decided whether the Turanian or Mongolian is also a branch of the Noachic or Atlantean stock.

To quote again from Max Müller:

"If it can only be proved that the religions of the Aryan nations are united by the same bonds of a real relationship

p. 424

which have enabled us to treat their languages as so many varieties of the same type--and so also of the Semitic--the field thus opened is vast enough, and its careful clearing, and cultivation will occupy several generations of scholars. And this original relationship, I believe, can be proved. Names of the principal deities, words also expressive of the most essential elements of religion, such as prayer, sacrifice, altar, spirit, law, and faith, have been preserved among the Aryan and among the Semitic nations, and these relies admit of one explanation only. After that, a comparative study of the Turanian religions may be approached with better hope of success; for that there was not only a primitive Aryan and a primitive Semitic religion, but likewise a primitive Turanian religion, before each of these primeval races was broken up and became separated in language, worship and national sentiment, admits, I believe, of little doubt. . . . There was a period during which the ancestors of the Semitic family had not yet been divided, whether in language or in religion. That period transcends the recollection of every one of the Semitic races, in the same way as neither Hindoos, Greeks, nor Romans have any recollection of the time when they spoke a common language, and worshipped their Father in heaven by a name that was as yet neither Sanscrit, nor Greek, nor Latin. But I do not hesitate to call this Prehistoric Period historical in the best sense of the word. It was a real period, because, unless it was real, all the realities of the Semitic languages and the Semitic religions, such as we find them after their separation, would be unintelligible. Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic point to a common source as much as Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin; and unless we can bring ourselves to doubt that the Hindoos, the Greeks, the Romans, and the Teutons derived the worship of their principal deity from their common Aryan sanctuary, we shall not be able to deny that there was likewise a primitive religion of the whole Semitic race, and that El, the Strong One in heaven, was invoked by the ancestors of all the Semitic races before there were Babylonians in Babylon, Phœnicians in Sidon and Tyrus--before there were Jews in Mesopotamia or Jerusalem. The evidence of the Semitic is the same as that of the Aryan languages: the conclusion cannot be different....

"These three classes of religion are not to be mistaken--as little as the three classes of language, the Turanian, the Semitic,

p. 425

and the Aryan. They mark three events in the most ancient history of the world, events which have determined the whole fate of the human race, and of which we ourselves still feel the consequences in our language, in our thoughts, and in our religion."

We have seen that all the evidence points to the fact that this original seat of the Phœnician-Hebrew family was in Atlantis.

The great god of the so-called Semites was El, the Strong One, from whose name comes the Biblical names Beth-el, the house of God; Ha-el, the strong one; El-ohim, the gods; El-oah, God; and from the same name is derived the Arabian name of God, Al-lah.

Another evidence of the connection between the Greeks, Phœnicians, Hebrews, and Atlanteans is shown in the name of Adonis.

The Greeks tell us that Adonis was the lover of Aphrodite, or Venus, who was the offspring of Uranus--"she came out of the sea;" Uranus was the father of Chronos, and the grandfather of Poseidon, king of Atlantis.

Now We find Adonâi in the Old Testament used exclusively as the name of Jehovah, while among the Phœnicians Adonâi was the supreme deity. In both cases the root Ad is probably a reminiscence of Ad-lantis.

There seem to exist similar connections between the Egyptian and the Turanian mythology. The great god of Egypt was Neph or Num; the chief god of the Samoyedes is Num; and Max Müller established an identity between the Num of the Samoyedes and the god Yum-ala of the Finns, and probably with the name of the god Nam of the Thibetians.

That mysterious people, the Etruscans, who inhabited part of Italy, and whose bronze implements agreed exactly in style and workmanship with those which we think were derived from Atlantis, were, it is now claimed, a branch of the Turanian family.

p. 426

"At a recent meeting of the English Philological Society great interest was excited by a paper on Etruscan Numerals, by the Rev. Isaac Taylor. He stated that the long-sought key to the Etruscan language had at last been discovered. Two dice had been found in a tomb, with their six faces marked with words instead of pips. He showed that these words were identical with the first six digits in the Altaic branch of the Turanian family of speech. Guided by this clew, it was easy to prove that the grammar and vocabulary of the 3000 Etruscan inscriptions were also Altaic. The words denoting kindred, the pronouns, the conjugations, and the declensions, corresponded closely to those of the Tartar tribes of Siberia. The Etruscan mythology proved to be essentially the same as that of the Kalevala, the great Finnic epic."

According to Lenormant ("Ancient History of the East," vol. i., p. 62; vol. ii., p. 23), the early contests between the Aryans and the Turanians are represented in the Iranian traditions as "contests between hostile brothers . . . the Ugro-Finnish races must, according to all appearances, be looked upon as a branch, earlier detached than the others from the Japhetic stem."

If it be true that the first branch originating from Atlantis was the Turanian, which includes the Chinese and Japanese, then we have derived from Atlantis all the building and metalworking races of men who have proved themselves capable of civilization; and we may, therefore, divide mankind into two great classes: those capable of civilization, derived from Atlantis, and those essentially and at all times barbarian, who hold no blood relationship with the people of Atlantis.

Humboldt is sure "that some connection existed between ancient Ethiopia and the elevated plain of Central Asia." There were invasions which reached from the shores of Arabia into China. "An Arabian sovereign, Schamar-Iarasch (Abou Karib), is described by Hamza, Nuwayri, and others as a powerful ruler and conqueror, who carried his arms successfully far into Central Asia; he occupied Samarcand and invaded China. He erected an edifice at Samarcand, bearing an inscription, in

p. 427

[paragraph continues] Himyarite or Cushite characters, 'In the name of God, Schamar-Iarasch has erected this edifice to the sun, his Lord." (Baldwin's "Prehistoric Nations," p. 110.) These invasions must have been prior to 1518 B.C.

Charles Walcott Brooks read a paper before the California Academy of Sciences, in which be says:

"According to Chinese annals, Tai-Ko-Fokee, the great stranger king, ruled the kingdom of China. In pictures he is represented with two small horns, like those associated with the representations of Moses. He and his successor are said to have introduced into China 'picture-writing,' like that in use in Central America at the time of the Spanish conquest. He taught the motions of the heavenly bodies, and divided time into years and months; be also introduced many other useful arts and sciences.

"Now, there has been found at Copan, in Central America, a figure strikingly like the Chinese symbol of Fokee, with his two horns; and, in like manner, there is a close resemblance between the Central American and the Chinese figures representing earth and heaven. Either one people learned from the other, or both acquired these forms

from a common source. Many physico-geographical facts favor the hypothesis that they were derived in very remote ages from America, and that from China they passed to Egypt. Chinese records say that the progenitors of the Chinese race came from across the sea."

The two small horns of Tai-Ko-Fokee and Moses are probably a reminiscence of Baal. We find the horns of Baal represented in the remains of the Bronze Age of Europe. Bel sometimes wore a tiara with his bull's horns; the tiara was the crown subsequently worn by the Persian kings, and it became, in time, the symbol of Papal authority.

The Atlanteans having domesticated cattle, and discovered

p. 428

their vast importance to humanity, associated the bull and cow with religious ideas, as revealed in the oldest hymns of the Aryans and the cow-headed idols of Troy, a representation of one of which is shown on the preceding page. Upon the head of their great god Baal they placed the horns of the bull; and these have descended in popular imagination to the spirit of evil of our day. Burns says:

"Clootie" is derived from the cleft hoof of a cow; while the Scotch name for a bull is Bill, a corruption, probably, of Bel. Less than two hundred years ago it was customary to sacrifice a bull on the 25th of August to the "God Mowrie" and "his devilans" on the island of Inis Maree, Scotland. ("The Past

in the Present," p. 165.) The trident of Poseidon has degenerated into the pitchfork of Beelzebub!

And when we cross the Atlantic, we find in America the horns of Baal reappearing in a singular manner. The first cut on page 429 represents an idol of the Moquis of New Mexico: the head is very bull-like. In the next figure we have a representation of the war-god of the Dakotas, with something like a

p. 429

trident in his hand; while the next illustration is taken from Zarate's "Peru," and depicts "the god of a degrading worship." He is very much like the traditional conception of the European devil-horns, pointed ears, wings, and poker. Compare this last figure, from Peru, with the representation on page 430 of a Greek siren, one of those cruel monsters who, according to Grecian mythology, sat in the midst of bones and blood, tempting men to ruin by their sweet music. Here we have the same bird-like legs and claws as in the Peruvian demon.

Heeren shows that a great overland commerce extended in

ancient times between the Black Sea and "Great Mongolia;" he mentions a "Temple of the Sun," and a great caravansary in the desert of Gobi. Arminius Vámbéry, in his "Travels in Central Asia," describes very important ruins near the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, at a place called Gömüshtepe; and connected with these are the remains of a great wall which he followed "ten geographical miles." He found a vast aqueduct one hundred and fifty miles long, extending to the Persian mountains. He reports abundant ruins in all that country, extending even to China.

The early history of China indicates contact with a superior

p. 430

race. "Fuh-hi, who is regarded as a demi-god, founded the Chinese Empire 2852 B.C. He introduced cattle, taught the people how to raise them, and taught the art of writing." ("American Cyclopædia," art. China.) He might have invented

his alphabet, but he did not invent the cattle; he must have got them from some nation who, during many centuries of civilization, had domesticated them; and from what nation was he more likely to have obtained them than from the Atlanteans, whose colonies we have seen reached his borders, and whose armies invaded his territory! "He instituted the ceremony of marriage." (Ibid.) This also was an importation from a civilized land. "His successor, Shin-nung, during a reign of one hundred and forty years, introduced agriculture and medical science. The next emperor, Hwang-ti, is believed to have invented weapons, wagons, ships, clocks, and musical instruments, and to have introduced coins, weights, and measures." (Ibid.) As these various inventions in all other countries have been the result of slow development, running through many centuries, or are borrowed from some other more civilized people, it is certain that no emperor of China ever invented them all during a period of one hundred and sixty-four

p. 431

years. These, then, were also importations from the West. In fact, the Chinese themselves claim to have invaded China in the early days from the north-west; and their first location is placed by Winchell near Lake Balkat, a short distance east of the Caspian, where we have already seen Aryan Atlantean colonies planted at an early day. "The third successor of Fuh-hi, Ti-ku, established schools, and was the first to practise polygamy. In 2357 his son Yau ascended the throne, and it is from his reign that the regular historical records begin. A great flood, which occurred in his reign, has been considered synchronous and identical with the Noachic Deluge, and to Yau is attributed the merit of having successfully battled against the waters."

There can be no question that the Chinese themselves, in their early legends, connected their origin with a people who were destroyed by water in a tremendous convulsion of the earth. Associated with this event was a divine personage called Niu-va (Noah?).

Sir William Jones says:

"The Chinese believe the earth to have been wholly covered with water, which, in works of undisputed authenticity, they describe as flowing abundantly, then subsiding and separating the higher from the lower ages of mankind; that this division of time, from which their poetical history begins, just preceded the appearance of Fo-hi on the mountains of Chin. ("Discourse on the Chinese; Asiatic Researches," vol. ii., p. 376.)

The following history of this destruction of their ancestors vividly recalls to us the convulsion depicted in the Chaldean and American legends:

"The pillars of heaven were broken; the earth shook to its very foundations; the heavens sunk lower toward the north; the sun, the moon, and the stars changed their motions; the earth fell to pieces, and the waters enclosed within its bosom burst forth with violence and overflowed it. Man having rebelled against Heaven, the system of the universe was totally

p. 432

disordered. The sun was eclipsed, the planets altered their course, and the grand harmony of nature was disturbed."

A learned Frenchman, M. Terrien de la Couperie, member of the Asiatic Society of Paris, has just published a work (1880) in which he demonstrates the astonishing fact that the Chinese language is clearly related to the Chaldean, and that both the Chinese characters and the cuneiform alphabet are degenerate descendants of an original hieroglyphical alphabet. The same signs exist for many words, while numerous words are very much alike. M. de la Couperie gives a table of some of these similarities, from which I quote as follows:

This surprising discovery brings the Chinese civilization still nearer to the Mediterranean head-quarters of the races, and increases the probability that the arts of China were of Atlantean origin; and that the name of Nai Hoang-ti, or Nai Korti, the founder of Chinese civilization, may be a reminiscence of Nakhunta, the chief of the gods, as recorded in the Susian texts, and this, in turn, a recollection of the Deva-Nahusha of the Hindoos, the Dionysos of the Greeks, the king of Atlantis, whose great empire reached to the "farther parts of India," and embraced, according to Plato, "parts of the continent of America."

Linguistic science achieved a great discovery when it established the fact that there was a continuous belt of languages from Iceland to Ceylon which were the variant forms of one

p. 433

mother-tongue, the Indo-European; but it must prepare itself for a still wider generalization. There is abundant proof--proof with which pages might be filled--that there was a still older mother-tongue, from which Aryan, Semitic, and Hamitic were all derived--the language of Noah, the language of Atlantis, the language of the great "aggressive empire" of Plato, the language of the empire of the Titans.

The Arabic word bin, within, becomes, when it means interval, space, binnon; this is the German and Dutch binnen and Saxon binnon, signifying within. The Ethiopian word aorf, to fall asleep, is the root of the word Morpheus, the god of sleep. The Hebrew word chanah, to dwell, is the parent of the Anglo-Saxon inne and Icelandic inni, a house, and of our word inn, a hotel. The Hebrew word naval or nafal signifies to fall; from it is derived our word fall and fool (one who falls); the Chaldee word is nabal, to make foul, and the Arabic word nabala means to die, that is, to fall. From the last syllable of the Chaldee nasar, to saw, we can derive the Latin serra, the High German sagen, the Danish sauga, and our word to saw. The Arabic nafida, to fade, is the same as the Italian fado, the Latin fatuus (foolish, tasteless), the Dutch vadden, and our to fade. The Ethiopic word gaber, to make, to do, and the Arabic word jabara, to make strong, becomes the Welsh word goberu, to work, to operate, the Latin operor, and the English operate. The Arabic word abara signifies to prick, to sting; we see this root in the Welsh bar, a summit, and pâr, a spear, and per, a spit; whence our word spear. In the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic zug means to join, to couple; from this the Greeks obtained zugos, the Romans jugum, and we the word yoke; while the Germans obtained jok or jog, the Dutch juk, the Swedes ok. The Sanscrit is juga. The Arabic sanna, to be old, reappears in the Latin senex, the Welsh hen, and our senile. The Hebrew banah, to build, is the Irish bun, foundation, and the Latin fundo, fundare, to found. The Arabic baraka, to bend the knee, to fall on the breast, is probably the

p. 434

Saxon brecau, the Danish bräkke, the Swedish bräcka, Welsh bregu, and our word to break. The Arabic baraka also signifies to rain violently; and from this we get the Saxon rœgn, to rain, Dutch regen, to rain, Cimbric rœkia, rain, Welsh rheg, rain. The Chaldee word braic, a branch, is the Irish braic or raigh, an arm, the Welsh braic, the Latin brachium, and the English brace, something which supports like an arm. The Chaldee frak, to rub, to tread out grain, is the same as the Latin frico, frio, and our word rake. The Arabic word to rub is fraka. The Chaldee rag, ragag, means to desire, to long for; it is the same as the Greek oregw, the Latin porrigere, the Saxon rœccan, the Icelandic rakna, the German reichen, and our to reach, to rage. The Arabic rauka, to strain or purify, as wine, is precisely our English word rack, to rack wine. The Hebrew word bara, to create, is our word to bear, as to bear children: a great number of words in all the European languages contain this root in its various modifications. The Hebrew word kafar, to cover, is our word to cover, and coffer, something which covers, and covert, a secret place; from this root also comes the Latin cooperio and the French couvrir, to cover. The Arabic word shakala, to bind under the belly, is our word to shackle. From the Arabic walada and Ethiopian walad, to beget, to bring forth, we get the Welsh llawd, a shooting out; and hence our word lad. Our word matter, or pus, is from the Arabic madda; our word mature is originally from the Chaldee mita. The Arabic word amida signifies to end, and from this comes the noun, a limit, a termination, Latin meta, and our words meet and mete.

I might continue this list, but I have given enough to show that all the Atlantean races once spoke the same language, and that the dispersion on the plains of Shinar signifies that breaking up of the tongues of one people under the operation of vast spaces of time. Philology is yet in its infancy, and the time is not far distant when the identity of the languages of all the Noachic races will be as clearly established and as universally

p. 435

acknowledged as is now the identity, of the languages of the Aryan family of nations.

And precisely as recent research has demonstrated the relationship between Pekin and Babylon, so investigation in Central America has proved that there is a mysterious bond of union connecting the Chinese and one of the races of Mexico. The resemblances are so great that Mr. Short ("North Americans of Antiquity," p. 494) says, "There is no doubt that strong analogies exist between the Otomi and the Chinese." Señor Najera ("Dissertacion Sobre la lingua Othomi, Mexico," pp. 87, 88) gives a list of words from which I quote the following:

Recently Herr Forchhammer, of Leipsic, has published a truly scientific comparison of the grammatical structure of the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee, and Seminole languages with the Ural-Altaic tongues, in which be has developed many interesting points of resemblance.

It has been the custom to ascribe the recognized similarities between the Indians of America and the Chinese and Japanese to a migration by way of Behring's Strait from Asia into America; but when we find that the Chinese themselves only

p. 436

reached the Pacific coast within the Historical Period, and that they came to it from the direction of the Mediterranean and Atlantis, and when we find so many and such distinct recollections of the destruction of Atlantis in the Flood le(rends of the American races, it seems more reasonable to conclude that the resemblances between the Othomi and the Chinese are to be accounted for by intercourse through Atlantis.

We find a confirmation in all these facts of the order in which Genesis names the sons of Noah:

"Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and unto them were sons born after the flood."

Can we not suppose that those three sons represent three great races in the order of their precedence?

The record of Genesis claims that the Phœnicians were descended from Ham, while the Hebrews were descended from Shem; yet we find the Hebrews and Phœnicians united by the ties of a common language, common traditions, and common race characteristics. The Jews are the great merchants of the world eighteen centuries after Christ, just as the Phœnicians were the great merchants of the world fifteen centuries before Christ.

Moreover, the Arabians, who are popularly classed as Semites, or sons of Shem, admit in their traditions that they are descended from "Ad, the son of Ham;" and the tenth chapter of Genesis classes them among the descendants of Ham, calling them Seba, Havilah, Raamah, etc. If the two great so-called Semitic stocks--the Phœnicians and Arabians--are Hamites, surely the third member of the group belongs to the same "sunburnt" race.

If we concede that the Jews were also a branch of the Hamitic stock, then we have, firstly, a Semitic stock, the Turanian, embracing the Etruscans, the Finns, the Tartars, the Mongols, the Chinese, and Japanese; secondly, a Hamitic family,

p. 437

[paragraph continues] "the sunburnt" race--a red race--including the Cushites, Phœnicians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Berbers, etc.; and, thirdly, a Japhetic or whiter stock, embracing the Greeks, Italians, Celts, Goths, and the men who wrote Sanscrit-in other words, the entire Aryan family.

If we add to these three races the negro race--which cannot be traced back to Atlantis, and is not included, according to Genesis, among the descendants of Noah--we have the four races, the white, red, yellow, and black, recognized by the Egyptians as embracing all the people known to them.

There seems to be some confusion in Genesis as to the Semitic stock. It classes different races as both Semites and Hamites; as, for instance, Sheba and Havilah; while the race of Mash, or Meshech, is classed among the sons of Shem and the sons of Japheth. In fact, there seems to be a confusion of Hamitic and Semitic stocks. "This is shown in the blending of Hamitic and Semitic in some of the most ancient inscriptions; in the facility of intercourse between the Semites of Asia and the Hamites of Egypt; in the peaceful and unobserved absorption of all the Asiatic Hamites, and the Semitic adoption of the Hamitic gods and religious system. It is manifest that, at a period not long previous, the two families had dwelt together and spoken the same language." (Winchell's "Pre-Adamites," p. 36.) Is it not more reasonable to suppose that the so-called Semitic races of Genesis were a mere division of the Hamitic stock, and that we are to look for the third great division of the sons of Noah among the Turanians?

Francis Lenormant, high authority, is of the opinion that the Turanian races are descended from Magog, the son of Japheth. He regards the Turanians as intermediate between the white and yellow races, graduating insensibly into each. "The Uzbecs, the Osmanli Turks, and the Hungarians are not to be distinguished in appearance from the most perfect branches of the white race; on the other hand, the Tchondes almost exactly resemble the Tongouses, who belong to the yellow race.

p. 438

The Turanian languages are marked by the same agglutinative character found in the American races.

The Mongolian and the Indian are alike in the absence of a heavy beard. The royal color of the Incas was yellow; yellow is the color of the imperial family in China. The religion of the Peruvians was sun-worship; "the sun was the peculiar god of the Mongols from the earliest times." The Peruvians regarded Pachacamac as the sovereign creator. Camac-Hya was the name of a Hindoo goddess. Haylli was the burden of every verse of the song composed in praise of the sun and the Incas. Mr. John Ranking derives the word Allah from the word Haylli, also the word Halle-lujah. In the city of Cuzco was a portion of land which none were permitted to cultivate except those of the royal blood. At certain seasons the Incas turned up the sod here, amid much rejoicing, and many ceremonies. A similar custom prevails in China: The emperor ploughs a few furrows, and twelve illustrious persons attend the plough after him. (Du Halde, "Empire of China," vol. i., p. 275.) The cycle of sixty years was in use among most of the nations of Eastern Asia, and among the Muyscas of the elevated plains of Bogota. The "quipu," a knotted reckoning-cord, was in use in Peru and in China. (Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. v., p. 48.) In Peru and China "both use hieroglyphics, which are read from above downward." (Ibid.)

"It appears most evident to me," says Humboldt, "that the monuments, methods of computing time, systems of cosmogony, and many myths of America, offer striking analogies with the ideas of Eastern Asia--analogies which indicate an ancient communication, and are not simply the result of that uniform condition in which all nations are found in the dawn of civilization." ("Exam. Crit.," tom. ii., p. 68.)

"In the ruined cities of Cambodia, which lies farther to the east of Burmah, recent research has discovered teocallis like those in Mexico, and the remains of temples of the same type and pattern as those of Yucatan. And when we reach the sea

p. 439

we encounter at Suku, in Java, a teocalli which is absolutely identical with that of Tehuantepec. Mr. Ferguson said, 'as we advance eastward from the valley of the Euphrates, at every step we meet with forms of art becoming more and more like those of Central America.'" ("Builders of Babel," p. 88.)

Prescott says:

The coincidences are sufficiently strong to authorize a belief that the civilization of Anahuac was in some degree influenced by that of Eastern Asia; and, secondly, that the discrepancies are such as to carry back the communication to a very remote period." ("Mexico," vol. iii., p. 418.)

"All appearances," continues Lenormant ("Ancient History of the East," vol. i., p. 64), "would lead us to regard the Turanian race as the first branch of the family of Japheth which went forth into the world; and by that premature separation, by an isolated and antagonistic existence, took, or rather preserved, a completely distinct physiognomy. . . . It is a type of the white race imperfectly developed."

We may regard this yellow race as the first and oldest wave from Atlantis, and, therefore, reaching farthest away from the common source; then came the Hamitic race; then the Japhetic.