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
This is the tradition of the Tamanaks. “At the time of our ancestors
the whole earth was overflowed. Then two persons alone were saved, a
man and a woman, who remained on Mount Tamanaku, which is not far from
the Cucivero river, where our ancestors formerly dwelt. They lamented
sore over the loss of their friends and relations, and as they wandered
sadly about the mountain they heard a voice which told them to cast
the kernels of the nuts of the _Palma Mauritia_ back-wards over their
shoulders. They did so, and out of the nuts cast by the woman rose
females, and out of those cast by the man sprang males.”[243]
The Peruvians related that their first king and founder of their
nation, Manco Capak, along with his wife Mama Ocllo, after the great
deluge left their land, and came from the holy island in the lake
Titicaca, on which the sun cast its first beam when the flood drained
away.[244]
A Brazilian legend is that the Evil Spirit Arbomoku, and the spirits of
the air, made a compact together to destroy mankind. The former opened
all the fountains of the earth, the latter poured the clouds upon the
ground and inundated it, so that only one mountain-top appeared above
the water, and on that took refuge two persons, a brother and a sister,
from whom all the new generations sprang.[245]
XVI.
THE PLANTING OF THE VINE.
Bowed under his toil, dripping with perspiration, stood the patriarch
Noah, laboring to break the hard clods. All at once Satan appeared and
said to him,--
“What new undertaking have you in hand? What new fruit do you expect to
extract from these clods?”
“I plant the grape,” answered the patriarch.
“The grape! proud plant, most precious fruit! joy and delight to men!
Your labor is great; will you allow me to assist you? Let us share the
labor of producing the vine.”
The patriarch in a fit of exhaustion consented.
Satan hastened, got a lamb, slaughtered it, and poured its blood over
the clods of earth. “Thence shall it come,” said Satan, “that those who
taste of the juice of the grape, shall be soft-spirited and gentle as
this lamb.”
But Noah sighed; Satan continued his work; he caught a lion, slew that,
and poured the blood upon the soil prepared for the plant. “Thence
shall it come,” said he, “that those who taste the juice of the grape
shall be strong and courageous as the lion.”
Noah shuddered. Satan continued his work; he seized a pig and
slaughtered it, and drenched the soil with its blood. “Thence shall
it come,” said he, “that those who drink of the juice of the grape in
excess, shall be filthy, degraded, and bestial as the swine.”[246]
The Mussulman tradition is somewhat similar.
“When Ham had planted the vine, Satan watered it with the blood of a
peacock. When it thrust forth leaves, he sprinkled it with the blood of
an ape; when it formed grapes, he drenched it with the blood of a lion;
when the grapes were ripe, he watered it with the blood of a swine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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