Stability of
the ark.
Swelling of
the waters.
Noah is said to have obeyed the Divine admonition ; but the
vessel which he constructed is described as having been five
stadia in length, by two stadia in breadth, whereas the dimensions
given by Moses are much less.1
In a subsequent part of this work it will be seen2 that this
floating habitation might have been prepared in Upper Mesopotamia,
even by a single family, without any serious difficulty :
the decks with the firm walls and roofs braced with crossbeams,3
in addition to those dividing and supporting the necessary compartments,
would give sufficient stability, particularly as the
structure was to be floated without being launched ; and the
coating of pitch within as well as without, perfected the work.
The Muhammedan writer^ tell us, that during the progress
of his operations, Noah was tauntingly charged with having
become a carpenter ; and that he was constantly reviled for his
useless labour in preparing a vessel, where it could not by any
possibility be conveyed to the water.4 But his task being
accomplished, the increase of the waters commenced, according
to the Babylonian records quoted by Berossus,5 on the 15th of
the Chaldean month,6 Jiar or Jar, the second from the vernal
equinox ; and the swelling floods having raised the Ark fifteen
cubits above the culminating point of Mount Ararat, the
triumph of faith was complete, when the patriarch of the old,
and the progenitor of the new world, sailed upon what has been
happily called a shoreless ocean,’ which covered the remains of
the animal and human inhabitants of the former world.8 From
the accounts handed down by the Chaldean writers, it appears
1 Gen., chap. VI., v. 15.
3 See Chapter on the Arts and Sciences of I ’ran at the end o f the volume.
3 Jos. Ant., lib. I ., c. iii., s. 2.
4 Bibliothèque Orientale, Noah ; also p. 9 French translation of Miihammed
Tabari’s Chronicles, translated by M. Dubeux.
5 Cory’s Anc. Fragments, p. 33.
6 Apud Syncel., pp. 30, 38.
7 The Ju st ones toiled on the sea, which had no land. From the Elegy of
Aeddon : see Mythology and Bites of the British Druids, by Edward Davies,
p. 495. J . Booth, London. 1809.
8 Bishop Burnet, in his Theory of the Earth, states that there were
10,737,413,240 souls ; but the number of antediluvians have been computed
a t 519,755,813,889.
that, when the flood had been some time upon the earth, and ^®c[pe3“rs[f
was again abated, Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel,
which, not finding any food, nor any place whereupon they
might rest their feet, returned to him again.1 After an interval
of some days, he sent them forth a second time, and they now
returned with their feet tinged with mud. He then made a
trial with these birds for the third time, when they returned to
him no more; from this he judged, that the surface of the
earth had appeared above the waters.2 He now made an opening
in the vessel, and upon looking out, found that it was
stranded upon the side of some mountain: he immediately
quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the pilot.
Having paid his adoration to the earth, and constructed an Noah’s altar
altar, he offered sacrifices to the gods ;3 and disappeared, after
admonishing his family to pay due regard to religion, and
return to Babylonia, in order that they might search for the
writings deposited in Sippara, also called Pantibibla,4 which
they were to make known to all mankind: he informed them
that the place where they were was the land of Armenia.5 It in Armenia,
was pretended that some part of the vessel remained till recent
times in the Corcyreean mountains of Armenia, where the
people of the country used to scrape off the bitumen, with
which it was outwardly coated, and make use of it as an
alexipharmic and amulet. The story related by Berossus is
given nearly in the same words by other profane writers,
particularly Abydenus and Apollodorus,6 and it agrees with
that given by Moses. Indeed, the express mention of a coating
of bitumen by the ancient authors, and the place of descent
being generally fixed in Armenia, are remarkable circumstances.
We find in this part of the country the mountain
Baris, or Barit, i. e., of the ark or s h ip a l s o Masis and
1 Cory, pp. 27, 28. W. Pickering, 1832.
3 Cory’s Ancient Fragments, p. 2 8 ; Gen. chap. V I I I ., v. 11, 12.
3 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, Gen. chap. I I I . , v. 20.
4 Probably from the Chaldee Sephar, a book, or record.
5 Cory’s Anc. Fragments, pp. 28, 29.
e Ibid., p. 30-35.
7 Valpy’s edition o f Stephanus’ Thesaurus, p. 322 ; Jos. Ant., lib. I ., cap. iii.
s. 6 ; and Bryant’s Mythology, vol. I I . p. 357.