Ragnarok : the Age of Fire and GravelDonnelly, Ignatius
Science
Ragnarok : the Age of Fire and Gravel
Donnelly, Ignatius
Atlantis (Legendary place); Comets; Drift
"When he would promulgate his decrees, his herald proclaimed them
from Tzatzitepec, the hill of shouting, with such a mighty voice that
it could be heard a hundred leagues around. The _arrows which he
shot_ transfixed great trees; _the stones he threw leveled forests;_
and when he laid his hands on the rocks the _mark was indelible_."[3]
"His symbols were the bird, the serpent, the cross, and _the
flint_."[4]
In the Aztec calendar the sign for the age of fire is the _flint_.
In the Chinese Encyclopædia of the Emperor Kang-hi, 1662, we are told:
"In traveling from the shores of the Eastern Sea toward Che-lu,
neither brooks nor ponds are met with in the country, although it is
intersected by mountains and valleys. Nevertheless, there are found
in the sand, very far away from the sea, oyster-shells and the
shields of crabs. The tradition of the Mongols who inhabit the
country is, that it has been said from time immemorial that in a
[1. Tyler's "Early Mankind," p. 224.
2. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 197.
3. Ibid., p. 197.
4. Ibid., p. 198.]
{p. 260}
remote antiquity the waters of the deluge flooded the district, and
when they retired the places where they had been made their
appearance covered with sand. . . . This is why these deserts are
called the 'Sandy Sea,' which indicates that they were not always
covered with sand and gravel."[1]
In the Russian legends, a "golden ship sails across the heavenly sea;
it breaks into fragments, which neither princes nor people can put
together again,"--reminding one of Humpty-Dumpty, in the
nursery-song, who, when he fell from his elevated position on the
wall--
"Not all the king's horses,
Nor all the king's men,
Can ever make whole again."
In another Russian legend, Perun, the thunder-god, destroys the
devils with _stone_ hammers. On Ilya's day, the peasants offer him a
roasted animal, which is cut up and _scattered over the fields_,[2]
just as we have seen the great dragon or serpent cut to pieces and
scattered over the world.
Mr. Christy found at Bou-Merzoug, on the plateau of the Atlas, in
Northern Africa, in a bare, deserted, stony place among the
mountains, a collection of fifteen hundred tombs, made of rude
limestone slabs, set up with one slab to form a roof, so as to make
perfect dolmens--closed chambers--where the bodies were packed in.
"Tradition says that a wicked people lived there, and for their sins
_stones were rained upon them from heaven;_ so they built these
chambers to creep into."[3]
In addition to the legend of "Phaëton," already given, Ovid derived
from the legends of his race another story,
[1. Tylor's "Early Mankind," p. 328.
2. Poor, "Sanskrit Literature," p. 400.
3. Tylor's "Early Mankind," p. 222.]
{p. 261}
which seems to have had reference to the same event. He says (Fable
XI):
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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