Noah and his family, and every beast after his kind, and all the
cattle after their kind, the fowls of the air, and every creeping thing,
had entered the ark, the Lord shut them in. Then "were all the fountains
of the great deep broken up, _and the windows of heaven were opened_.
And the rain was upon the earth _forty days and forty nights_. . . . .
And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the hills,
that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upwards
did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh
died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl and of cattle, and of
beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and
every man. And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in
the ark."[21:1] The object of the flood was now accomplished, "_all
flesh died that moved upon the earth_." The Lord, therefore, "made a
wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. The fountains of
the deep, and the windows of heaven, were stopped, and the rain from
heaven was restrained. And the waters decreased continually. . . . . And
it came to pass at the end of _forty days_, that Noah opened the window
of the ark, which he had made. And he sent forth a raven, which went
forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. He
also sent forth a dove, . . . but the dove found no rest for the sole of
her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark." . . .

At the end of _seven_ days he again "sent forth the dove out of the ark,
and the dove came in to him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an
olive leaf, plucked off."

At the end of another _seven_ days, he again "sent forth the dove, which
returned not again to him any more."

And the ark rested in the _seventh_ month, on the seventeenth day of the
month, upon the mountains of Ararat. Then Noah and his wife, and his
sons, and his sons' wives, and every living thing that was in the ark,
went forth out of the ark. "And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord,
. . . and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a
sweet savour, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the
ground any more for man's sake."[21:2]

We shall now see that there is scarcely any considerable race of men
among whom there does not exist, in some form, the tradition of a great
deluge, which destroyed all the human race, except _their own_
progenitors.

The first of these which