ions there was a tendency to change the
original conception of divine powers; to misunderstand the
many names given to these powers, and to misinterpret the
praises addressed to them. In this manner some of the divine
names were changed into half-divine, half-human heroes, _and
at last the myths which were true and intelligible as told
originally of the Sun, or the Dawn, or the Storms, were turned
into legends or fables too marvellous to be believed of common
mortals_. This process can be watched in _India_, in _Greece_,
and in _Germany_. The same story, or nearly the same, is told
of gods, of heroes, and of men. The _divine myth_ became an
_heroic legend_, and the _heroic legend_ fades away into a
_nursery tale_. Our nursery tales have well been called the
modern _patois_ of the ancient sacred mythology of the Aryan
race."[81:1]

How striking are these words; how plainly they illustrate the process by
which the story, that was true and intelligible as told originally of
the _Day_ being swallowed up by _Night_, or the _Sun_ being swallowed up
by the _Earth_, was transformed into a legend or fable, too marvellous
to be believed by common mortals. How the "_divine myth_" became an
"_heroic legend_," and how the heroic legend faded away into a "_nursery
tale_."

In regard to Jonah's going to the city of Ninevah, and preaching unto
the inhabitants, we believe that the old "Myth of Civilization," so
called,[82:1] is partly interwoven here, and that, in this respect, he
is nothing more than the Indian _Fish Avatar of Vishnou_, or the
Chaldean _Oannes_. At his first Avatar, _Vishnou_ is alleged to have
appeared to humanity in form like a fish,[82:2] or half-man and
half-fish, just as Oannes and Dagon were represented among the Chaldeans
and other nations. In the temple of _Rama_, in India, there is a
representation of _Vishnou_ which answers perfectly to that of
_Dagon_.[82:3] Mr. Maurice, in his "Hist. Hindostan," has proved the
identity of the Syrian _Dagon_ and the Indian Fish Avatar, and concludes
by saying:

"From the foregoing and a variety of parallel circumstances, I
am inclined to think that the Chaldean _Oannes_, the Phenician
and Philistian _Dagon_, and the _Pisces_ of the Syrian and
Egyptian Zodiac, were the same deity with the Indian
_Vishnu_."[82:4]

In the old mythological remains of the Chaldeans, compiled by Be