suthros, only differently exhibited. He was a man of the sea, and bequeathed to mankind all kind of instruction; accounts of every thing that had passed in the world, which were supposed to have been buried in Sippara. They were to be universally known, and consequently abounded with every thing that could be beneficial. But there was no occasion for this care and information, if such a person as Oannes had gone before; for, according to Berosus, he had been so diffuse in his instructions, and comprehended so completely every useful art, that nothing afterwards was ever added. So that Oannes is certainly the emblematical character of Sisuthrus, the great instructor and benefactor. Oannes is the same in purport as the Grecian Ovas, Oinas; and as the Iönas of the Babylonians and Chaldeans, Hẹ was represented under different symbols, and had various titles, by which means his character has been multiplied; and he has, by the Grecian writers, who treat of him above, been introduced several times. In one of his introductions they call him Odacon, which is certainly a corruption for ὁ Δακών, Οι Δαγων, the God Dagon. He was represented variously in different places, but consisted always of a human personage, in some degree blended with a " fish. He sometimes ap

35 The Indian representation of Ixora, and Vish-Nou.

pears alone; sometimes with three other personages similar to himself, to whom he gave instructions, which they imparted to the rest of the world. He is said to have shewn himself EV WOWTW EVIAUTY, in the first year; which is an imperfect, yet intelligible, piece of history. The first year, mentioned in this manner absolute, must signify the first year in time, the year of the renewal of the world. He appeared twice, and discoursed much with mankind, but would not eat with them. This, I imagine, was in his antediluvian state, when there is reason to think that men in general fed upon raw flesh; nay, eat it crude, while the life was in it. This we may infer from that positive injunction given by the Deity to Noah after the deluge. 3o Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you——but flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat. Such a custom had certainly prevailed: and a commemoration of it was kept up among the Gentiles, in all the rites and mysteries of Dionusus and 37 Bacchus.

36 Genesis. c. 9. v. 3. 4.

37 Hence Bacchus was called ωμοφαγος, ώμησης. Virum laniant dentibus taurum. Jul. Firmicus of the rites of Crete.

Διονυσον Μαινολήν· εργάζεσι Βακχοι, ωμοφαγία την Γερμανίαν άγοντες και τελέσκεσι τας κρεονομίας των ερίφων, ανεδεμμενοι τους ορεσιν. Clemens Alexandr. Cohort. P. 11.

Yet

From what has been said, I flatter myself, it will appear, that Berosus borrowed his history from two different sources; and in consequence of it has introduced the same person under two different characters. With this clue his history will appear more intelligible; and a further insight may be gained into the purport of it by considering it in this light. We may be able to detect and confute the absurdity of Abydenus and Apollodorus, who pretend, upon the authority of this writer, to produce ten antediluvian kings, of whom no mention was made by him: for what are taken by those writers for antediluvians, are expressly referred by him to another æra. have these writers been followed in their notions by Eusebius, and some other of the antients; and by almost every modern who has written upon the subject. Their own words, or at least the words which they quote from Berosus, are of themselves sufficient to confute the notion: for they speak of the first king who reigned to have been a Chaldean, and of Babylon, and to have been called Alorus. Now, it is certain that Nimrod built Babel, which is Babylon, after the flood. He was a Chaldean, and the first king upon earth; and he was called by many nations 38 Orion and Alorus. Yet, by these writers,

38 The Persians called Nimrod, Orion: and Orion in Sicily, and other places was named Alorus. See this volume, p. 23. 50.

Alorus is made an antediluvian prince; and being raised ten generations above. Sisuthrus, or Noah, he stands in the same degree of rank as the Protoplast; and many in consequence of it have supposed him to be Adam. We are much indebted to Alexander Polyhistor for giving us, not only a more copious, but a more genuine extract from Berosus, than has been transmitted by the other two writers. We know from him that there were of that author 39 two books, of the first of which he has transmitted to us a curious epitome. In this book, after having given an account of the country, and its produce, he proceeds to the history of the people; and the very first occurrence is the appearance of Oannes, ( Aaywv) the man of the sea. He is introduced, εν πρωτῳ ενιαυτῷ, in the first year of the history, which is no other than the first year of the world after the flood, when there was a renewal of time, and the earth was in its second infancy. At this period is Oannes introduced. But the other two writers, contrary to the tenor of the original history, make him subsequent in time. This embarrasses the account very much; for, as he is placed the very first in the prior treatise of Berosus, it is hard to conceive how any of these ten kings

39 There were in all three.

could have been before him, especially as the author had expressly said, Εν τη δευτερα της Τ Bariλeas. In the second book I shall give an account of the ten kings of Babylon. It is manifest from hence, that they were posterior to Oannes, and to all the circumstances of the first book. The Grecians, not knowing, or not attending to the eastern mode of writing, have introduced these ten kings in the first book, which 40 Berosus expressly refers to the second. They often inverted the names of persons, as well as of places, and have ruined whole dynasties through ignorance of arrangement. What the Orientals wrote from right to left, they were apt to confound by a wrong disposition, and to describe in an inverted series. Hence these supposed kings, who, according to Berosus, were subsequent to the deluge, and to the Patriarch, are made prior to both; and he who stood first is made later by ten generations, through a reversion of the true order. Those who have entertained

40 Abydenus begins the history of the ten kings with these words; Χαλδαίων μεν της σοφίας περι τοσαυτα : So much concerning the wisdom of the Chaldeans. Is it not plain that this could not be the beginning of the first book? and may we not be assured, from the account given by Alexander Polyhistor, that this was the introduction to the second treatise, in which Berosus had promised to give a history of the Chaldean kings?