After showing the resemblance of a feast at Argos to other commemorative feasts of the Deluge, Boulanger (_vide infra_, i. 83) says--"Les Argiens avoient encore une autre fête pendant laquelle ils précipitoent dans un abîme un agneau.... ils étoient armés de javelines, ils appelloient _Bacchus_ au son des trompettes et l'invitoient _à semontrer hors de l'eau_; cette apparition n'arrivoit pas fréquemment sans doute" (comp. _supra_, 197, and 237). "Plutarque remarque que lors qu'ils précipitoient l'agneau, ils avoient soin de cacher leurs trompettes et leurs javelines. Nous ne prétendons point expliquer tous ces mystères." Is it that they feared, with armed weapons in their hands, to evoke the apparition of the old man "whose conquests were all peaceful" (p. 216), and who, as Manco Capac (p. 326), "shut his ears when they spoke to him of war." Let us now turn to his reduplication, as I conceive, in Nin, or Ninip, who is said to be "the true fish god." "His names, Bar and Nin, are respectively a Semitic and a Hamitic term, signifying 'Lord,' or 'Master,'" (p. 166). Astronomically Nin "should be Saturn." However, a set of epithets which _seem to point_ to his stellar character are very difficult to reconcile with the notion that, as a celestial luminary, he was (the dark and distant) Saturn. We find him called, "the light of heaven and earth," "he who, _like_ the sun, the _light_ of the _gods_, irradiates the _nations_." All this is very difficult to reconcile with legends arising out of the simple worship of a celestial luminary, but perfectly consistent with the supposition of the patriarch Noah, after deification, being located in the planetary system. The phrase, "he who, like the sun, the light of the gods, irradiates the nations," is perfectly applicable to him who, as Oannes, we have ever regarded as "the god of science and of knowledge;" and who "taught astronomy and letters to the first settlers on the Euphrates and Tigris." Let us glance at the other epithets applied to Nin in the inscriptions. He is the "lord of the brave," "the champion," "the warrior who subdues foes," "_he who strengthens the hearts of his followers_." [The Scripture mentions the repeated assurances of the Almighty to Noah, that there should not be another Deluge; and the above is in keeping with the tradition that the early inhabitants long hesitated to quit the mountains for the plains, and only did so incited by the example of the patriarch.] "The destroyer of enemies," "_the reducer of the disobedient_," "the exterminator of rebels," "he whose sword is good." Like Nergal, or Mars, he is a god of battle and the chase. (I shall refer later on to these warlike epithets as applied to Noah.) At the same time he has qualities which seem wholly unconnected with any that have been hitherto mentioned.