ht.[101:1]

Eating of the forbidden fruit was simply a figurative mode of expressing
the performance of the act necessary to the perpetuation of the human
race. The "Tree of Knowledge" was a Phallic tree, and the fruit which
grew upon it was Phallic fruit.[101:2]

In regard to the story of "_The Deluge_," we have already seen[101:3]
that "Egyptian records tell nothing of a cataclysmal deluge," and that,
"the land was _never_ visited by other than its annual beneficent
overflow of the river Nile." Also, that "the Pharaoh Khoufou-cheops was
building his pyramid, according to Egyptian chronicle, when the whole
world was under the waters of a universal deluge, according to the
Hebrew chronicle." This is sufficient evidence that the Hebrews did not
borrow the legend from the Egyptians.

We have also seen, in the chapter that treated of this legend, that it
corresponded in all the principal features with the _Chaldean_ account.
We shall now show that it was taken from this.

Mr. Smith discovered, on the site of Ninevah, during the years 1873-4,
cylinders belonging to the early Babylonian monarchy, (from 2500 to 1500
B. C.) which contained the legend of the flood,[101:4] and which we gave
in Chapter II. _This was the foundation for the Hebrew legend, and they
learned it at the time of the Captivity._[101:5] The myth of Deucalion,
the Grecian hero, was also taken from the same source. The Greeks
learned it from the Chaldeans.

We read in Chambers's Encyclopaedia, that:

"It was at one time extensively believed, even by intelligent
scholars, that the myth of Deucalion was a corrupted
tradition of the _Noachian_ deluge, but this _untenable_
opinion is now all but universally abandoned."[102:1]

This idea was abandoned after it was found that the Deucalion myth was
older than the Hebrew.

What was said in regard to the Eden story not being mentioned in other
portions of the Old Testament save in Genesis, also applies to this
story of the Deluge. _Nowhere_ in the other books of the Old Testament
is found any reference to this story, except in Isaiah, where "the
waters of Noah" are mentioned, and in Ezekiel, where simply the _name_
of Noah is mentioned.

We stated in Chapter II. that some persons saw in this story an
_astronomical_ myth. Although not generally admitted, yet there are very
strong reasons for believing this to be the case.

According to the _Chaldean_ account--which is the oldest one
k