Thus we see that the Chinese are no strangers to the doctrine of original sin. It is their invariable belief that man is a fallen being; admitted by them from time immemorial. The inhabitants of _Madagascar_ had a legend similar to the Eden story, which is related as follows: "The first man was created of the _dust of the earth_, and was placed in a _garden_, where he was subject to none of the ills which now affect mortality; he was also free from all bodily appetites, and though surrounded by delicious _fruit_ and limpid _streams_ yet felt no desire to taste of the fruit or to quaff the water. The Creator had, moreover, _strictly forbid him either to eat or to drink_. The great enemy, however, came to him, and painted to him, in glowing colors, the sweetness of the apple, and the lusciousness of the date, and the succulence of the orange." After resisting the temptations for a while, he at last ate of the fruit, and consequently _fell_.[15:2] A legend of the Creation, similar to the Hebrew, was found by Mr. Ellis among the _Tahitians_, and appeared in his "Polynesian Researches." It is as follows: After Taarao had formed the world, he created man out of aræa, red earth, which was also the food of man until bread was made. Taarao one day called for the man by name. When he came, he caused him to fall asleep, and while he slept, he took out one of his _ivi_, or bones, and with it made a woman, whom he gave to the man as his wife, and they became the progenitors of mankind. The woman's name was _Ivi_, which signifies a bone.[15:3] The prose Edda, of the ancient _Scandinavians_, speaks of the "Golden Age" when all was pure and harmonious. This age lasted until the arrival of _woman_ out of Jotunheim--the region of the giants, a sort of "land of Nod"--who corrupted it.[15:4] In the annals of the _Mexicans_, the first woman, whose name was translated by the old Spanish writers, "the woman of our flesh," is always represented as accompanied by a great male serpent, who seems to be talking to her. Some writers believe this to be the _tempter_ speaking to the primeval mother, and others that it is intended to represent the _father_ of the human race. This Mexican Eve is represented on their monuments as the mother of twins.[15:5] Mr. Franklin, in his "Buddhists and Jeynes," says: "A striking instance is recorded by the very intelligent traveler (Wilson), regarding a representation of the Fall of our first parents, sculptured in the magnificent temple of Ipsambul, in Nubia. He says that a very exact representation of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden is to be seen in that cave, and that the _serpent_ climbing round the tree is especially delineated, and the whole subject of the tempting of our first parents most accurately exhibited."[16:1]