We shall find, as we proceed, that the Phoenicians were unquestionably identified with Atlantis, and that it was probably from Atlantis they derived their god Baal, or Bel, or El, whose name crops out in the Bel of the Babylonians, the Elohim, and the Beelzebub of the Jews, and the Allah of the Arabians.  And we find that this great deity, whose worship extended so widely among the Mediterranean races, was known and adored also upon the northern and western coasts of Europe.  Professor Nilsson finds traces of Baal worship in Scandinavia; he tells us that the festival of Baal, or Balder, was celebrated on midsummer’s night in Scania, and far up into Norway, almost to the Loffoden Islands, until within the last fifty years.  The feast of Baal, or Beltinne, was celebrated in Ireland to a late period.  I argue from these facts, not that the worship of Baal came to Ireland and Norway from Assyria or Arabia, but that the same great parent-race which carried the knowledge of Baal to the Mediterranean brought it also to the western coasts of Europe, and with the adoration of Baal they imported also the implements of bronze now found in such abundance in those regions.

The same similarity of form exists in the bronze knives from Denmark and Switzerland, as represented in the illustrations on p. 254.

In the central figure we have a representation of an Egyptian-looking man holding a cup before him.  We shall see, as we proceed, that the magnetic needle, or “mariner’s compass,” dates back to the days of Hercules, and that it consisted of a bar of magnetized iron floating upon a piece of wood in a cup.  It is possible that in this ancient relic of the Bronze Age we have a representation of the magnetic cup.  The magnetic needle must certainly have been an object of great interest to a people who, through its agency, were able to carry on commerce on all the shores of Europe, from the Mediterranean to the Baltic.  The second knife represented above has upon its handle a wheel, or cross surrounded by a ring, which, we shall see here after, was pre-eminently the symbol of Atlantis.

If we are satisfied that these implements of bronze were the work of the artisans of Atlantis—­of the antediluvians—­they must acquire additional and extraordinary interest in our eyes, and we turn to them to earn something of the habits and customs of “that great, original, broad-eyed, sunken race.”

We find among the relics of the Bronze Age an urn, which probably gives us some idea of the houses of the Atlanteans:  it is evidently made to represent a house, and shows us even the rude fashion in which they fastened their doors.  The Mandan Indiana built round houses very much of this appearance.

The museum at Munich contains a very interesting piece of pottery, which is supposed to represent one of the lake villages or hamlets of the era when the people of Switzerland dwelt in houses erected on piles driven into the bottom of the lakes of that country.  The accompanying illustration represents it.  The double spiral ornament upon it shows that it belongs to the Bronze Age.