convenient altogether to ignore in reference to this subject. In this class are the various institutions among different nations to preserve the memory of the Deluge, as for instance, the "Hydrophories ou la fête du Deluge à Athenes," and at Ægina, the feast of the goddess of Syria at Hierapolis, both having strange resemblances with the Jewish feasts of "Nisue ha Mâim, or the effusion of waters," and the tabernacles, in their traditional aspects, _i.e._ in their observances _not_ commanded by Moses; the "effusion des eaux a Ithome ... et de Siloe;" the feast of the Deluge (of Inachus) at Argos; a feast, the effusion of water, in Persia, anterior to its Mahometanism; similar festivals in Pegu, China, and Japan; in the mysteries of Eleusis; in the "peloria," "anthisteria," and "_Saturnalia_;" and finally in the pilgrimages to rivers in India[201] and other parts of the world; "of the multitude of traditions preserved in the diluvian festivals and commemorative usages of the gulphs, apertures, and abysses which have at one time or another vomited forth or absorbed waters" (i. 84); again, the pilgrimages to the summits of mountains in India, China, Tartary, the Caucasus,[202] Peru, &c. "It is easy to see," he adds (p. 320), "that this veneration is based upon a corrupted tradition, which has taught these people that their fathers formerly took refuge on the top of this mountain at the time of the Deluge, and subsequently descended from it to inhabit the plains." [201] Dionysius Periegesis says the women of the British Amnitæ celebrated the rites of Dionysos:-- "As the Bistonians on Apsinthus banks Shout to the clamorous Eiraphiates; Or as the Indians on dark-rolling Ganges Hold revels to Dionysos the noisy, So do the British women shout Evoë." (v. 375.) (_Qy_. Enoë.) _Vide_ "The Bhilsa Topes," by Major A. Cunningham, p. 6. [202] I would specially draw attention to the instances of temples constructed upon the model of ships, concerning which _vide_ Bryant's "Mythology," ii. 221, 226, 227, 240; and compare with Plate XVIII. in Montfauçon, ii. I shall have occasion to refer again more in detail to some of these customs[203] when drawing attention to the resemblances which I shall presently point out; but I wish previously to give, more _in extenso_, his description of the Hydrophoria at Athens:--