Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various SourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends
In one of the writings of the disciples of Tao-tse, the tradition
takes a fuller form. Kung-Kung, a bad spirit, enraged at having been
overcome in war, gave such a blow against one of the pillars of the sky
with his head that he broke it; and the vault of heaven fell in, and a
tremendous flood overwhelmed the earth. But Niu-Noa overcame the water
with wood, and made a boat to save himself, which could go far; and he
polished a stone of five colors--the rainbow--and therewith he fastened
the heavens, and lifted them up on a tortoise shell. Then he killed the
black dragon Kong-Kong, and choked the holes in heaven with the ashes
of a pumpkin.[224] In the story of Jao there is also a faint trace
of his connection with the rainbow, for he is said to have eyebrows
colored and shaped like rainbows.[225]
The Kamskadales say, “that in the remote ages when their great ancestor
and God, Kutka, lived in Kamschatka, there was a mighty deluge. Many
men were drowned therein, but some tried to save themselves in boats,
but the waves overwhelmed them. Those who were saved were rescued on
great rafts made of trees bound together, to which they retreated,
taking food and their property with them. And that they might not
drift out to sea, they anchored themselves with great stones, which
they tied to the edges and let down into the water. And when the flood
abated, they rested on the top of a high mountain.”[226]
A Lapp tradition is that God once submerged the world, saving only one
brother and sister alive, whom He placed on Mount Passeware. When the
water disappeared, the children separated to wander over the earth,
and see whether they alone remained alive. They met after three years,
and then separated again, for they recognized one another as brother
and sister. After three years they met, but turned their backs on one
another once more for the same reason. Again they met after the lapse
of three years, and again they parted; but when they met again, after
three years’ further absence, they no longer recognized each other, and
so they took one another in marriage; and of them all generations of
men are come.[227]
Among the Kelts, the Deluge formed a prominent feature, and the ark was
connected with their most sacred religious rites.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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