We are thus driven to one of two alternative conclusions:  either the Deluge record of the Bible is altogether fabulous, or it relates to some land other than Europe, Asia, Africa, or Australia, some land that was destroyed by water.  It is not fabulous; and the land it refers to is not Europe, Asia, Africa, or Australia—­but Atlantis.  No other land is known to history or tradition that was overthrown in a great catastrophe by the agency of water; that was civilized, populous, powerful, and given over to wickedness.

That high and orthodox authority, Francois Lenormant, says ("Ancient Hist. of the East,” vol. i., p. 64), “The descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japhet, so admirably catalogued by Moses, include one only of the races of humanity, the white race, whose three chief divisions he gives us as now recognized by anthropologists.  The other three races—­yellow, black, and red—­have no place in the Bible list of nations sprung from Noah.”  As, therefore, the Deluge of the Bible destroyed only the land and people of Noah, it could not have been universal.  The religious world does not pretend to fix the location of the Garden of Eden.  The Rev. George Leo Haydock says, “The precise situation cannot be ascertained; bow great might be its extent we do not know;” and we will see hereafter that the unwritten traditions of the Church pointed to a region in the west, beyond the ocean which bounds Europe in that direction, as the locality in which “mankind dwelt before the Deluge.”

It will be more and more evident, as we proceed in the consideration of the Flood legends of other nations, that the Antediluvian World was none other than Atlantis.

CHAPTER III.

The deluge of the Chaldeans.

We have two versions of the Chaldean story—­unequally developed, indeed, but exhibiting a remarkable agreement.  The one most anciently known, and also the shorter, is that which Berosus took from the sacred books of Babylon, and introduced into the history that he wrote for the use of the Greeks.  After speaking of the last nine antediluvian kings, the Chaldean priest continues thus.

“Obartes Elbaratutu being dead, his son Xisuthros (Khasisatra) reigned eighteen sares (64,800 years).  It was under him that the Great Deluge took place, the history of which is told in the sacred documents as follows:  Cronos (Ea) appeared to him in his sleep, and announced that on the fifteenth of the month of Daisios (the Assyrian month Sivan—­a little before the summer solstice) all men should perish by a flood.  He therefore commanded him to take the beginning, the middle, and the end of whatever was consigned to writing, and to bury it in the City of the Sun, at Sippara; then to build a vessel, and to enter it with his family and dearest friends; to place in this vessel provisions to eat and drink, and to cause animals, birds, and quadrupeds to enter it; lastly, to prepare everything, for navigation.  And when Xisuthros inquired in what direction he should steer his bark, he was answered, ’toward the gods,’ and enjoined to pray that good might come of it for men.