Page:Atlantis - The Antediluvian World (1882).djvu/449

Rh years. These, then, were also importations from the West. In fact, the Chinese themselves claim to have invaded China in the early days from the north-west; and their first location is placed by Winchell near Lake Balkat, a short distance east of the Caspian, where we have already seen Aryan Atlantean colonies planted at an early day. "The third successor of Fuh-hi, Ti-ku, established schools, and was the first to practise polygamy. In 2357 his son Yau ascended the throne, and it is from his reign that the regular historical records begin. A great flood, which occurred in his reign, has been considered synchronous and identical with the Noachic Deluge, and to Yau is attributed the merit of having successfully battled against the waters."

There can be no question that the Chinese themselves, in their early legends, connected their origin with a people who were destroyed by water in a tremendous convulsion of the earth. Associated with this event was a divine personage called Niu-va (Noah?).

Sir William Jones says:

"The Chinese believe the earth to have been wholly covered with water, which, in works of undisputed authenticity, they describe as flowing abundantly, then subsiding and separating the higher from the lower ages of mankind; that this division of time, from which their poetical history begins, just preceded the appearance of Fo-hi on the mountains of Chin. ("Discourse on the Chinese; Asiatic Researches," vol. ii., p. 376.)

The following history of this destruction of their ancestors vividly recalls to us the convulsion depicted in the Chaldean and American legends:

"The pillars of heaven were broken; the earth shook to its very foundations; the heavens sunk lower toward the north; the sun, the moon, and the stars changed their motions; the earth fell to pieces, and the waters enclosed within its bosom burst forth with violence and overflowed it. Man having rebelled against Heaven, the system of the universe was totally