Tradition : Principally with Reference to Mythology and the

THE TRADITION OF THE HUMAN RACE. 137
too, the tribes who said they were created " under the
water " probably held the tradition that the creation of
the race preceded the Deluge.
The tradition which connects the creation with " the
rocky caverns of the mountains " is more recondite
may it possibly be a recollection of the commencement
f civil life after the Deluge, when Noah led them, acording
to tradition, from the mountains to the plains ?
M. L'Abbe Gainet says (i. 176)-" The Lord repeated
four times the promise that He would not send
ther deluge. . . . The children of Noah were long
*ed by the recollection of the dreadful calamity. . . .
It is probable that they did not decide upon leaving the
ateaux' of the mountains till quite late. Moreover,
caverns have been found in the mountains of the Himalaya,
and in many other elevated regions of Asia, which
they suppose to have been formed by the first generations
of man after the Delude. The works of the learned
M. de Paravey make frequent mention of them." This
tradition is supported by the lines of Virgil referring to
Saturn (vide infra, p. 210).
" Is genus indocile, ac dispersum montibus alt is
Composuit; legesque dedit."-j&n. viii. 315.
I give these suggestions for what they may be worth. 33
38 It occurs to me as possible that these various traditions may have
had their foundation in the recollection of hardship, at some early period
of their subsequent migration, which were transferred back and connected
with their tradition of the altered state of things after the Deluge, arising
out of the substitution of animal for vegetable food-of which the notion
that man once lived on acorns may have been only an extreme form of
expression. The following tradition of Saturn (vide infra, Saturn, p. 210),
seems to tend in this direction : "Diodorus Siculus gives the same history
of Saturn as is by Plutarch above given of Janus-ef dyptov SWUTIJS
*iov fieraprjaa dvdpwwovs.-Diodorus, 1. 5, p. 334. He brought
mankind from their foul and savage way of feeding to a more mild and
rational diet"-Bryant, ii. 261.