Page:The chronology of ancient nations (IA chronologyofanci00biru).djvu/50

extend beyond the peak of Ḥulwân, and did not reach the empires of the east. Further, they relate, that the inhabitants of the west, when they were warned by their sages, constructed buildings of the kind of the two pyramids which have been built in Egypt, saying: "If the disaster comes from heaven, we shall go into them; if it comes from the earth, we shall ascend above them." People are of opinion, that the traces of the water of the Deluge, and the effects of the waves are still visible on these two pyramids half-way up, above which the water did not rise. Another report says, that Joseph had made them a magazine, where he deposited the bread and victuals for the years of drought.

It is related, that Tahmûrath on receiving the warning of the Deluge—231 years before the Deluge—ordered his people to select a place of good air and soil in his realm. Now they did not find a place that answered better to this description than Ispahân. Thereupon, he ordered all scientific books to be preserved for posterity, and to be buried in a part of that place, least exposed to obnoxious influences. In favour of this report we may state that in our time in Jay, the city of Ispahân, there have been discovered hills, which, on being excavated, disclosed houses, filled with many loads of that tree-bark, with which arrows and shields are covered, and which is called Tûz, bearing inscriptions, of which no one was able to say what they are, and what they mean.

These discrepancies in their reports, inspire doubts in the student, and make him inclined to believe what is related in some books, viz. that Gayômarth was not the first man, but that he was Gomer ben Yaphet ben Noah, that he was a prince to whom a long life was given, that he settled on the Mount Dunbâwand, where he founded an empire, and that finally his power became very great, whilst mankind was still living in (elementary) conditions, similar to those at the time of the creation, and of the first stage of the development of the world. Then he, and some of his children, took possession of the κλίματα of the world. Towards the end of his life, he became tyrannical, and called himself Âdam, saying: " If anybody calls me by another name than this, I shall cut off his head." Others are of opinion that Gayômarth was Emîm (אימִֽים?) ben Lûd ben 'Arâam ben Sem ben Noah.

The astrologers have tried to correct these years, beginning from the first of the conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter, for which the sages among the inhabitants of Babel, and the Chaldæans have constructed astronomical tables, the Deluge having originated in their country. For people say, that Noah built the ark in Kûfa, and that it was there that "the well poured forth its waters" (Sûra xi. 42; xxiii. 27); that the ark rested upon the mountain of Aljûdi, which is not very far from those regions. Now this conjunction occurred 229 years 108 days before the Deluge. This date they studied carefully, and tried by that to correct the subsequent times. So they found as the interval between the Deluge and the beginning of the reign of the first Nebukadnezar (Nabonassar),