The oldest civilizations of the world are, respectively, those of Egypt, Babylon, Phenicia, the Hindu and the Greek. Among each of these the traditions of the early events referred to above are found. Almost, though not quite, all the nations of the world try to give some account of the origin of the world and of nations. Many of the uncivilized peoples, as the Indians of America, the Mexicans and the Pacific Islanders, have some popular stories of the deluge. We propose to place side by side some of these, that they may be compared with each other. The traditions of the creation are often mixed up with those of the deluge or the re-creation, and we give of them the versions accepted by the best scholars. TRADITIONS OF CREATION. Among many peoples is found the teaching that man was made of the dust of the earth. The Greeks represent Prometheus as moulding from clay the first human beings, and giving them life by means of fire which he stole from heaven. The Peruvians called the first man Alpa Camasca, or “animated earth.” The Mandans, a tribe of Indians of North America, believed that the Great Spirit formed two figures of clay, which he dried and animated by the breath of his mouth. To the one was given the name of the “first man,” to the other, “companion.” The Otaheitans said that God made man of red earth, and the Dyacks of Borneo, that he had been made of common dust. The Zoroastrians (or Parsees) in the Bundehesh, a book containing none but ancient traditions, have many traditions regarding the creation and fall of man. The garden of Eden was undoubtedly in southern Persia, or near by, hence these are traditions which have lingered around the spot where the events happened. According to the Parsees, there was a garden where the first human beings lived, and in it two trees, the one bearing “Haoma,” supposed to give immortality to those who drank its juice. (Haoma and the Hindu word “Soma” are probably different forms of one word. The Hindu Soma was possessed of the same properties as the Parsee Haoma). Then follows a story of the first temptation of man, bearing the closest resemblance to the Bible story, even in the incident of the tempter having taken the form of a serpent. The inhabitants of the Caroline Islands, a group in Micronesia, said: “In the beginning there was no death, but a certain Erigiregers, who was one of the evil spirits, and who was sorry to see the happiness of the human race, contrived to get for them a sort of death from which they should never wake.” The Hottentots said that “their first parents had committed so great a fault, and so grievously offended the Supreme God, that he had cursed both them and their children.”