The great discharges of interplanetary force are commemorated in the traditions, legends, and mythology of all the peoples of the world. The god—Zeus of the Greeks, Odin of the Icelanders, Ukko of the Finns, Perun of the Russian pagans, Wotan (Woden) of the Germans, Mazda of the Persians, Marduk of the Babylonians, Shiva of the Hindus—is pictured with lightning in his hand and described as the god who threw his thunderbolt at the world overwhelmed with water and fire.
1 Exodus 14 : 19 ff.
2 Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel (transl. Gifford), Bk. ix, Chap, xxvii. Calmet, Commentaire, VExode, p. 154, correctly understood the passage in Artapanus because he paraphrases it as follows: "Artapanus dans Eusebe dit que les Egyptiens furent frappes de la foudre, et abbatus par le feu du ciel dans le meme temps que l'eau de la mer vint tomber sur eux."
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^Similarly, many psalms of the Scriptures commemorate the great discharges. "Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken. . . . He bowed the heavens also, and came down ... he did fly upon the wings of the wind. . . . At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds passed, hail stones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave his voice; hail stones and coals of fire . . . and he shot out lightnings. . . . Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered." 3 "The voice of the Lord is powerful. . . . The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars.
. . . The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness; the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh."4 "The kingdoms were moved; he uttered his voice, the earth melted."5 "The waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled . . . the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings lightened the universe: the earth trembled and shook."
6 "Clouds and darkness are round about him ... a fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies round about. . . . His lightnings enlightened the world: the earth saw, and trembled."7
^Nothing is easier than to add to the number of such quotations from other parts of the Scriptures—Job, the Song of Deborah, the Prophets.
With the fall of the double wall of water, the Egyptian host was swept away. The force of the impact threw the pharaoh's army into the air. "Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men. He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot. . . . Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water." 8
This tossing of the Egyptian host into the air by an avalanche of
8 Psalms 18 : 7-15. * Psalms 29 : 4-8. » Psalms 46 : 6.
6 Psalms 77 : 16-19. Tevel is the universe, but the King James Version translates "world"; world is olam.
7 Psalms 97 : 2-4.
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8 Psalms 66 : 5-12. On cosmic discharges see infra the Sections, ^gnis e Coelo" and "Synodos."
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water is referred to also in the Egyptian source I quoted before: on the shrine found in el-Arish the story is told of a hurricane and of a prolonged darkness when nobody could leave the palace, and of the pursuit by the pharaoh Taoui-Thom of the fleeing slaves whom he followed to Pi-khiroti, which is the biblical Pi-ha-khiroth. "His Majesty leapt into the place of the whirlpool."
Then it is said that he was 'lifted by a great force." 9
Although the larger part of the Israelite fugitives were already out of the reach of the falling tidal waves, a great number of them perished in this disaster, as in the previous ones of fire and hurricane of cinders. That Israelites perished at the Sea of Passage is implied in Psalm 68 where mention is made of "my people" that remained in "the depths of the sea."
These tidal waves also overwhelmed entire tribes who inhabited Tehama, the thousand-mile-long coastal region of the Red Sea.
"God sent against the Djorhomites swift clouds, ants, and other signs of his rage, and many of them perished. ... In the land of Djohainah an impetuous torrent carried off all of them in a night.
The scene of this catastrophe is known by the name of Idam (fury)." The author of this passage, Masudi, an Arab author of the tenth century, quotes an earlier author, Omeyah, son of Abu-Salt:
"In days of yore the Djorhomites settled in Tehama, and a violent flood carried all of them away."10
Likewise the tradition related in Kitab Alaghaniu is familiar with the plague of insects (ants of the smallest variety) that forced the tribe to migrate from Hedjaz to their native land, where they were destroyed by "Toufan"—a deluge. In my reconstruction of ancient history, I endeavor to establish the synchronism of these events and the Exodus.
9 Griffith, The Antiquities of Tel-el-Yahudiyeh; Goyon, "Les travaux de Chou et les tribulations de Geb," Kemi (1936).
10 EI-Macoudi, Les Prairies d'or (transl. C. Barbier and P. de Courteille, 1861), III, Chap. 39. An English translation is by A. Sprenger (1841): El-Mas'udi, Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems.
11 F. Fresnel, "Sur l'Histoire des Arabes avant I'lslamisme (Kitab alaghaniyy)," Journal asiatique (1838).
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The Collapsed Sky
The rain of meteorites and fire from the sky, the clouds of dust of exogenous origin that drifted low, and the displacement of the world quarters created the impression that the sky had collapsed.
The ancient peoples of Mexico referred to a world age that came to its end when the sky collapsed and darkness enshrouded the world.1
Strabo relates, in the name of Ptolemaeus, the son of Lagus, a general of Alexander and founder of the Egyptian dynasty called by his name, that the Celti who lived on the shores of the Adriatic were asked by Alexander what it was they most feared, to which they replied that they feared no one, but only that the sky might collapse.2
The Chinese refer to the collapse of the sky which took place when the mountains fell.3 Because mountains fell or were leveled at the same time when the sky was displaced, ancient peoples, not only the Chinese, thought that mountains support the sky.
"The earth trembled, and the heavens dropped . . . the mountains melted," says the Song of Deborah.4 "The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved," says the psalmist.5
The tribes of Samoa in their legends refer to a catastrophe when "in days of old the heavens fell down." The heavens or the clouds were so low that the people could not stand erect without touching them.6
The Finns tell in their Kalevala that the support of the sky gave way and then a spark of fire kindled a new sun and a new moon.7 The Lapps make offerings accompanied by the prayer that the sky
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1 Seler, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, II, 798.
2 Strabo, The Geography, vii, 3, 8.
8 A. Forke, The World Conception of the Chinese (1925), p. 43.
4 Judges 5 : 4-5.
5 Psalms 68 : 8. On periodic collapses of the firmament see also Rashi's commentary on Genesis 11:1, referred to in the Section, "World Ages."
6 Williamson, Religious and Cosmic Beliefs of Central Polynesia, I, 41.
7 See Section, "The Darkness," note 8.
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should not lose its support and fall down.8 The Eskimos of Greenland are afraid that the support of the sky may fail and the sky fall down and kill all human beings; a darkening of the sun and the moon will precede such a catastrophe.9
The primitives of Africa, in eastern as well as western provinces of the continent, tell about the collapse of the sky in the past. The Ovaherero tribesmen say that many years ago "the Greats of the sky" (Eyuru) let the sky fall on the earth; almost all the people were killed, only a few remained alive. The tribes of Kanga and Loanga also have a tradition of the collapse of the sky which annihilated the human race. The Wanyoro in Unyoro likewise relate that the sky fell on the earth and killed everybody: the god Kagra threw the firmament upon the earth to destroy mankind.10