In the _Hari-purana_, in the _Bagaved-gitta_, as well as in several other books, the god Vishnu is shown as having assumed the form of a fish with a human head, in order to reclaim the _Vedas_ lost during the deluge. Having enabled Visvamitra to escape with all his tribe in the ark, Vishnu, pitying weak and ignorant humanity, remained with them for some time. It was this god who taught them to build houses, cultivate the land, and to thank the unknown Deity whom he represented, by building temples and instituting a regular worship; and, as he remained half-fish, half-man, all the time, at every sunset he used to return to the ocean, wherein he passed the night. “It is he,” says the sacred book, “who taught men, after the diluvium, all that was necessary for their happiness. “One day he plunged into the water and returned no more, for the earth had covered itself again with vegetation, fruit, and cattle. “But he had taught the Brahmas the secret of all things” (_Hari-purana_). So far, we see in this narrative the _double_ of the story given by the Babylonian Berosus about Oannes, the fish-man, who is no other than Vishnu--unless, indeed, we have to believe that it was Chaldea which civilized India! We say again, we desire to give nothing on our sole authority. Therefore we cite Jacolliot, who, however criticised and contradicted on other points, and however loose he may be in the matter of chronology (though even in this he is nearer right than those scientists who would have all Hindu books written since the Council of Nicea), at least cannot be denied the reputation of a good Sanscrit scholar. And he says, while analyzing the word _Oan_, or Oannes, that _O_ in Sanscrit is an interjection expressing an invocation, as O, Swayambhuva! O, God! etc; and _An_ is a radical, signifying in Sanscrit a spirit, a being; and, we presume, what the Greeks meant by the word _Dæmon_, a semi-god. “What an extraordinary antiquity,” he remarks, “this fable of Vishnu, disguised as a fish, gives to the sacred books of the Hindus; especially in presence of the fact that the _Vedas_ and _Manu_ reckon more _than twenty-five thousand years of existence_, as proved by the most serious as the most authentic documents. Few peoples, says the learned Halhed, have their annals more authentic or serious than the Hindus.”[535]