And all this time the rain fell. There could be no return of the sun until all the mass of moisture sucked up by the comet's heat had been condensed into water, and falling on the earth had found its way back to the ocean; and this process had to be repeated many times. It was the age of the great primeval rain.. In the Andes, Humboldt tells us of a somewhat similar state of facts: "A thick mist during a particular season obscures the firmament for many months. Not a planet, not the most brilliant stars of the southern hemisphere-Canopus, the Southern Cross, nor the feet of Centaur-are visible. It is frequently almost impossible to discover the position of the moon. If by chance the outlines of the sun's disk be visible during the day, it appears devoid of rays." Says Croll: "We have seen that the accumulation of snow and ice on the ground, resulting from the long and cold winters, tended to cool the air and produce fogs, which cut off the sun's rays." The same writer says: "Snow and ice lower the temperature by chilling the air and condensing the rays into thick fogs. The great strength of the sun's rays during summer, due to his nearness at that season, would, in the first place, tend to produce an increased amount of evaporation. But the presence of snow-clad mountains and an icy sea would chill the atmosphere and condense the vapors into thick fogs. The thick fogs and cloudy sky would effectually prevent the sun's rays from reaching the earth, and the snow, in consequence, would remain unmelted during the entire summer. In fact, we have this very condition of things exemplified in some of the islands of the Southern Ocean at the present day. Sandwich Land, which is in the same parallel of latitude as the north of Scotland, is covered with ice and snow the entire summer; and in the Island of South Georgia, which is in the same parallel as the center of England, the perpetual snow descends to the very sea-beach. The following is Captain Cook's description of this dismal place: We thought it very extraor dinary,' he says, 'that an island between the latitudes of 54° and 55° should, in the very height of summer, be almost wholly covered with frozen snow, in some places many fathoms deep. . . . The head of the bay was terminated by ice-cliffs of considerable height, pieces of which were continually breaking off, which made a noise like cannon. Nor were the interior parts of the country less horrible. The savage rocks raised their lofty summits "Climate and Time," p. 75. till lost in the clouds, and valleys were covered with seemingly perpetual snow. Not a tree nor a shrub of any size was to be seen.'"* I return to the legends. The Gallinomeros of Central California also recollect the day of darkness and the return of the sun : "In the beginning they say there was no light, but a thick darkness covered all the earth. Man stumbled blindly against man and against the animals, the birds clashed together in the air, and confusion reigned everywhere. The Hawk happening by chance to fly into the face of the Coyote, there followed mutual apologies, and afterward a long discussion on the emergency of the situation. Determined to make some effort toward abating the public evil, the two set about a remedy. The Coyote gathered a great heap of tules" (rushes), "rolled them into a ball, and gave it to the Hawk, together with some pieces of flint. Gathering all together as well as he could, the Hawk flew straight up into the sky, where he struck fire with the flints, lit his ball of reeds, and left it there whirling along all in a fierce red glow as it continues to the present; for it is the sun. In the same way the moon was made, but as the tules of which it was constructed were rather damp, its light has always been somewhat uncertain and feeble." † The Algonquins believed in a world, an earth, "anterior to this of ours, but one without light or human inhabitants. A lake burst its bounds and submerged it wholly." This reminds us of the Welsh legend, and the bursting of the lake Llion (see page 135, ante). The ancient world was united in believing in great cycles of time terminating in terrible catastrophes : * Captain Cook's "Second Voyage," vol. ii, pp. 232-235; “Cimate and Time," Croll, pp. 60, 61. Powers's Pomo MS., Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 86. "Hence arose the belief in Epochs of Nature, elaborated by ancient philosophers into the Cycles of the Stoics, the great Days of Brahm, long periods of time rounding off by sweeping destructions, the Cataclysms and EkpySome thought in these all things rauses of the universe. perished, others that a few survived. . . . For instance, Epictetus favors the opinion that at the solstices of the great year not only all human beings, but even the gods, are annihilated; and speculates whether at such times Jove feels lonely.* Macrobius, so far from agreeing with him, explains the great antiquity of Egyptian civilization by the hypothesis that that country is so happily situated between the pole and the equator, as to escape both the deluge and conflagration of the great cycle." f In the Babylonian Genesis tablets we have the same references to the man or people who, after the great disaster, divided the heavens into constellations, and regulated, that is, discovered and revealed, their movements. In the Fifth Tablet of the Creation Legend ‡ we read : "1. It was delightful all that was fixed by the great gods. 2. Stars, their appearance (in figures) of animals he arranged. 3. To fix the year through the observation of their constellations, 4. Twelve months or signs of stars in three rows he arranged, 5. From the day when the year commences unto the close. 6. He marked the positions of the wandering stars to shine in their courses, 7. That they may not do injury, and may not trouble any one." That is to say, the civilized race that followed the great cataclysm, with whom the history of the event was "Discourses," book iii, chapter xiii. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 215. yet fresh, and who were impressed with all its horrors, and who knew well the tenure of danger and terror on which they held all the blessings of the world, turned their attention to the study of the heavenly bodies, and sought to understand the source of the calamity which had so recently overwhelmed the world. Hence they "marked," as far as they were able, " the positions of the 'comets,"""that they might not " again "do injury, and not trouble any one." The word here given is Nibir, which Mr. Smith says does not mean planets, and, in the above account, Nibir is contradistinguished from the stars; they have already been arranged in constellations; hence it can only mean comets. And the tablet proceeds, with distinct references to the Age of Darkness: "8. The positions of the gods Bel and Hea he fixed with him, 9. And he opened the great gates in the darkness shrouded. 10. The fastenings were strong on the left and right. 11. In its mass, (i. e., the lower chaos,) he made a boiling. 12. The god Uru (the moon) he caused to rise out, the night he overshadowed, 13. To fix it also for the light of the night until the shining of the day. 14. That the month might not be broken, and in its amount be regular, 15. At the beginning of the month, at the rising of the night, 16. His (the sun's) horns are breaking through to shine on the heavens. 17. On the seventh day to a circle he begins to swell, 18. And stretches toward the dawn further, 19. When the god Shamas, (the sun,) in the horizon of heaven, in the east, 20. . . formed beautifully and . . 21. to the orbit Shamas was perfected." |