The Antediluvian World

I >> Ignatius Donnelly >> The Antediluvian World

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The resemblance between the Quichua and Mandan words for I or
me--mi--will here be observed.

Very recently Dr. Rudolf Falb has announced (Neue Freie Presse, of
Vienna) that he has discovered that the relation of the Quichua and
Aimara languages to the Aryan and Semitic tongues is very close; that,
in fact, they "exhibit the most astounding affinities with the Semitic
tongue, and particularly the Arabic", in which tongue Dr. Falb has been
skilled from his boyhood. Following, up the lines of this discovery, Dr.
Falb has found (1) a connecting link with the Aryan roots, and (2) has
ultimately arrived face to face with the surprising revelation that "the
Semitic roots are universally Aryan." The common stems of all the
variants are found in their purest condition in Quichua and Aimara, from
which fact Dr. Falb derives the conclusion that the high plains of Peru
and Bolivia must be regarded as the point of exit of the present human
race.

[Since the above was written I have received a letter from Dr. Falb,
dated Leipsic, April 5th, 1881. Scholars will be glad to learn that Dr.
Falb's great work on the relationship of the Aryan and Semitic languages
to the Quichua and Aimara tongues will be published in a year or two;
the manuscript contains over two thousand pages, and Dr. Falb has
devoted to it ten years of study. A work from such a source, upon so
curious and important a subject, will be looked for with great interest.]

But it is impossible that the Quichuas and Aimaras could have passed
across the wide Atlantic to Europe if there had been no stepping-stone
in the shape of Atlantis with its bridge-like ridges connecting the two
continents.

It is, however, more reasonable to suppose that the Quichuas and Aimaras
were a race of emigrants from Plato's island than to think that Atlantis
was populated from South America. The very traditions to which we have
referred as existing among the Peruvians, that the civilized race were
white and bearded, and that they entered or invaded the country, would
show that civilization did not originate in Peru, but was a
transplantation from abroad, and only in the direction of Atlantis can
we look for a white and bearded race.

In fact, kindred races, with the same arts, and speaking the same tongue
in an early age of the world, separated in Atlantis and went east and
west--the one to repeat the civilization of the mother-country along the
shores of the Mediterranean Sea, which, like a great river, may be said
to flow out from the Black Sea, with the Nile as one of its tributaries,
and along the shores of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; while the
other emigration advanced up the Amazon, and created mighty nations upon
its head-waters in the valleys of the Andes and on the shores of the
Pacific.

CHAPTER VI.

THE AFRICAN COLONIES.

Africa, like Europe and America, evidences a commingling of different
stocks: the blacks are not all black, nor all woolly-haired; the
Africans pass through all shades, from that of a light Berber, no darker
than the Spaniard, to the deep black of the Iolofs, between Senegal and
Gambia.

The traces of red men or copper-colored races are found in many parts of
the continent. Prichard divides the true negroes into four classes; his
second class is thus described:

"2. Other tribes have forms and features like the European; their
complexion is black, or a deep olive, or a copper color approaching to
black, while their hair, though often crisp and frizzled, is not in the
least woolly. Such are the Bishari and Danekil and Hazorta, and the
darkest of the Abyssinians.

"The complexion and hair of the Abyssinians vary very much, their
complexion ranging from almost white to dark brown or black, and their
hair from straight to crisp, frizzled, and almost woolly." (Nott and
Gliddon, "Types of Mankind," p. 194.)

"Some of the Nubians are copper-colored or black, with a tinge of red."
(Ibid., p. 198.)

Speaking of the Barbary States, these authors further say (Ibid., p.
204):

"On the northern coast of Africa, between the Mediterranean and the
Great Desert, including Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, and Benzazi,
there is a continuous system of highlands, which have been included
under the general term Atlas--anciently Atlantis, now the Barbary
States. . . . Throughout Barbary we encounter a peculiar group of races,
subdivided into many tribes of various shades, now spread over a vast
area, but which formerly had its principal and perhaps aboriginal abode
along the mountain slopes of Atlas. . . . The real name of the Berbers
is Mazirgh, with the article prefixed or suffixed--T-amazirgh or
Amazirgh-T--meaning free, dominant, or 'noble race.' . . . We have every
reason to believe the Berbers existed in the remotest times, with all
their essential moral and physical peculiarities. . . . They existed in
the time of Menes in the same condition in which they were discovered by
Phoenician navigators previously to the foundation of Carthage. They are
an indomitable, nomadic people, who, since the introduction of camels,
have penetrated in considerable numbers into the Desert, and even as far
as Nigritia. . . . Some of these clans are white, others black, with
woolly hair."

Speaking of the Barbary Moors, Prichard says:

"Their figure and stature are nearly the same as those of the southern
Europeans, and their complexion, if darker, is only so in proportion to
the higher temperature of the country. It displays great varieties."

Jackson says:

"The men of Temsena and Showiah are of a strong, robust make, and of a
copper color; the women are beautiful. The women of Fez are fair as the
Europeans, but hair and eyes always dark. The women of Mequinas are very
beautiful, and have the red-and-white complexion of English women."

Spix and Martins, the German travellers, depict the Moors as follows:

"A high forehead, an oval countenance, large, speaking, black eyes,
shaded by arched and strong eyebrows, a thin, rather long, but not too
pointed nose, rather broad lips, meeting in an acute angle,
brownish-yellow complexion, thick, smooth, and black hair, and a stature
greater than the middle height."

Hodgson states:

"The Tuarycks are a white people, of the Berber race; the Mozabiaks are
a remarkably white people, and mixed with the Bedouin Arabs. The
Wadreagans and Wurgelans are of a dark bronze, with woolly hair."

The Foolahs, Fulbe (sing. Pullo), Fellani, or Fellatah, are a people of
West and Central Africa. It is the opinion of modern travellers that the
Foolahs are destined to become the dominant people of Negro-land. In
language, appearance, and history they present striking differences from
the neighboring tribes, to whom they are superior in intelligence, but
inferior, according to Garth, in physical development. Golbery describes
them as "robust and courageous, of a reddish-black color, with regular
features, hair longer and less woolly than that of the common negroes,
and high mental capacity." Dr. Barth found great local differences in
their physical characteristics, as Bowen describes the Foolahs of Bomba
as being some black, some almost white, and many of a mulatto color,
varying from dark to very bright. Their features and skulls were cast in
the European mould. They have a tradition that their ancestors were
whites, and certain tribes call themselves white men. They came from
Timbuctoo, which lies to the north of their present location.

The Nubians and Foolahs are classed as Mediterraneans. They are not
black, but yellowish-brown, or red-brown. The hair is not woolly but
curly, and sometimes quite straight; it is either dark-brown or black,
with a fuller growth of beard than the negroes. The oval face gives them
a Mediterranean type. Their noses are prominent, their lips not puffy,
and their languages have no connection with the tongues of the negroes
proper. ("American Cyclopaedia," art. Ethnology, p. 759.)

"The Cromlechs (dolmens) of Algeria" was the subject of an address made
by General Faidherbe at the Brussels International Congress. He
considers these structures to be simply sepulchral monuments, and, after
examining five or six thousand of them, maintains that the dolmens of
Africa and of Europe were all constructed by the same race, during their
emigration from the shores of the Baltic to the southern coast of the
Mediterranean. The author does not, however, attempt to explain the
existence of these monuments in other countries--Hindostan, for
instance, and America. "In Africa," he says, "cromlechs are called tombs
of the idolaters"--the idolaters being neither Romans, nor Christians,
nor Phoenicians, but some antique race. He regards the Berbers as the
descendants of the primitive dolmen-builders. Certain Egyptian monuments
tell of invasions of Lower Egypt one thousand five hundred years before
our era by blond tribes from the West. The bones found in the cromlechs
are those of a large and dolichocephalous race. General Faidherbe gives
the average stature (including the women) at 1.65 or 1.74 metre, while
the average stature of French carabineers is only 1.65 metre. He did not
find a single brachycephalous skull. The profiles indicated great
intelligence. The Egyptian documents already referred to call the
invaders Tamahu, which must have come from the invaders' own language,
as it is not Egyptian. The Tuaregs of the present day may be regarded as
the best representatives of the Tamahus. They are of lofty stature, have
blue eyes, and cling to the custom of bearing long swords, to be wielded
by both hands. In Soudan, on the banks of the Niger, dwells a negro
tribe ruled by a royal family (Masas), who are of rather fair
complexion, and claim descent from white men. Masas is perhaps the same
as Mashash, which occurs in the Egyptian documents applied to the
Tamahus. The Masas wear the hair in the same fashion as the Tamahus, and
General Faidherbe is inclined to think that they too are the descendants
of the dolmen-builders.

These people, according to my theory, were colonists from
Atlantis--colonists of three different races--white, yellow, and
sunburnt or red.

CHAPTER VII.

THE IRISH COLONIES FROM ATLANTIS.

We have seen that beyond question Spain and France owed a great part of
their population to Atlantis. Let us turn now to Ireland.

We would naturally expect, in view of the geographical position of the
country, to find Ireland colonized at an early day by the overflowing
population of Atlantis. And, in fact, the Irish annals tell us that
their island was settled prior to the Flood. In their oldest legends an
account is given of three Spanish fishermen who were driven by contrary
winds on the coast of Ireland before the Deluge. After these came the
Formorians, who were led into the country prior to the Deluge by the
Lady Banbha, or Kesair; her maiden name was h'Erni, or Berba; she was
accompanied by fifty maidens and three men--Bith, Ladhra, and Fintain.
Ladhra was their conductor, who was the first buried in Hibernia. That
ancient book, the "Cin of Drom-Snechta," is quoted in the "Book of
Ballymote" as authority for this legend.

The Irish annals speak of the Formorians as a warlike race, who,
according to the "Annals of Clonmacnois," "were a sept descended from
Cham, the son of Noeh, and lived by pyracie and spoile of other nations,
and were in those days very troublesome to the whole world."

Were not these the inhabitants of Atlantis, who, according to Plato,
carried their arms to Egypt and Athens, and whose subsequent destruction
has been attributed to divine vengeance invoked by their arrogance and
oppressions?

The Formorians were from Atlantis. They were called Fomhoraicc,
F'omoraig Afraic, and Formoragh, which has been rendered into English as
Formorians. They possessed ships, and the uniform representation is that
they came, as the name F'omoraig Afraic indicated, from Africa. But in
that day Africa did not mean the continent of Africa, as we now
understand it. Major Wilford, in the eighth volume of the "Asiatic
Researches," has pointed out that Africa comes from Apar, Aphar, Apara,
or Aparica, terms used to signify "the West," just as we now speak of
the Asiatic world as "the East." When, therefore, the Formorians claimed
to come from Africa, they simply meant that they came from the West--in
other words, from Atlantis--for there was no other country except
America west of them.

They possessed Ireland from so early a period that by some of the
historians they are spoken of as the aborigines of the country.

The first invasion of Ireland, subsequent to the coming of the
Formorians, was led by a chief called Partholan: his people are known in
the Irish annals as "Partholan's people." They were also probably
Atlanteans. They were from Spain. A British prince, Gulguntius, or
Gurmund, encountered off the Hebrides a fleet of thirty ships, filled
with men and women, led by one Partholyan, who told him they were from
Spain, and seeking some place to colonize. The British prince directed
him to Ireland. ("De Antiq. et Orig. Cantab.")

Spain in that day was the land of the Iberians, the Basques; that is to
say, the Atlanteans.

The Formorians defeated Partholan's people, killed Partholan, and drove
the invaders out of the country.

The Formorians were a civilized race; they had "a fleet of sixty ships
and a strong army."

The next invader of their dominions was Neimhidh; he captured one of
their fortifications, but it was retaken by the Formorians under "Morc."
Neimhidh was driven out of the country, and the Atlanteans continued in
undisturbed possession of the island for four hundred years more. Then
came the Fir-Bolgs. They conquered the whole island, and divided it into
five provinces. They held possession of the country for only
thirty-seven years, when they were overthrown by the Tuatha-de-Dananns,
a people more advanced in civilization; so much so that when their king,
Nuadha, lost his hand in battle, "Creidne, the artificer," we are told,
"put a silver hand upon him, the fingers of which were capable of
motion." This great race ruled the country for one hundred and
ninety-seven years: they were overthrown by an immigration from Spain,
probably of Basques, or Iberians, or Atlanteans, "the sons of Milidh,"
or Milesius, who "possessed a large fleet and a strong army." This last
invasion took place about the year 1700 B.C.; so that the invasion of
Neimhidh must have occurred about the year 2334 B.C.; while we will have
to assign a still earlier date for the coming of Partholan's people, and
an earlier still for the occupation of the country by the Formorians
from the West.

In the Irish historic tales called "Catha; or Battles," as given by the
learned O'Curry, a record is preserved of a real battle which was fought
between the Tuatha-de-Dananns and the Fir Bolgs, from which it appears
that these two races spoke the same language, and that they were
intimately connected with the Formorians. As the armies drew near
together the Fir-Bolgs sent out Breas, one of their great chiefs, to
reconnoitre the camp of the strangers; the Tuatha-de-Dananns appointed
one of their champions, named Sreng, to meet the emissary of the enemy;
the two warriors met and talked to one another over the tops of their
shields, and each was delighted to find that the other spoke the same
language. A battle followed, in which Nunda, king of the Fir-Bolgs, was
slain; Breas succeeded him; he encountered the hostility of the bards,
and was compelled to resign the crown. He went to the court of his
father-in-law, Elathe, a Formorian sea-king or pirate; not being well
received, he repaired to the camp of Balor of the Evil Eye, a Formorian
chief. The Formorian head-quarters seem to have been in the Hebrides.
Breas and Balor collected a vast army and navy and invaded Ireland, but
were defeated in a great battle by the Tuatha-de-Dananns.

These particulars would show the race-identity of the Fir-Bolg and
Tuatha-de-Dananns; and also their intimate connection, if not identity
with, the Formorians.

The Tuatha-de-Dananns seem to have been a civilized people; besides
possessing ships and armies and working in the metals, they had an
organized body of surgeons, whose duty it was to attend upon the wounded
in battle; and they had also a bardic or Druid class, to preserve the
history of the country and the deeds of kings and heroes.

According to the ancient books of Ireland the race known as "Partholan's
people," the Nemedians, the Fir-Bolgs, the Tuatha-de-Dananns, and the
Milesians were all descended from two brothers, sons of Magog, son of
Japheth, son of Noah, who escaped from the catastrophe which destroyed
his country. Thus all these races were Atlantean. They were connected
with the African colonies of Atlantis, the Berbers, and with the
Egyptians. The Milesians lived in Egypt: they were expelled thence; they
stopped a while in Crete, then in Scythia, then they settled in Africa
(See MacGeoghegan's "History of Ireland," p. 57), at a place called
Gaethulighe or Getulia, and lived there during eight generations, say
two hundred and fifty years; "then they entered Spain, where they built
Brigantia, or Briganza, named after their king Breogan: they dwelt in
Spain a considerable time. Milesius, a descendant of Breogan, went on an
expedition to Egypt, took part in a war against the Ethiopians, married
the king's daughter, Scota: he died in Spain, but his people soon after
conquered Ireland. On landing on the coast they offered sacrifices to
Neptune or Poseidon"--the god of Atlantis. (Ibid., p. 58.)

The Book of Genesis (chap. x.) gives us the descendants of Noah's three
sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. We are told that the sons of Japheth were
Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and
Tiras. We are then given the names of the descendants of Gomer and
Javan, but not of Magog. Josephus says the sons of Magog were the
Scythians. The Irish annals take up the genealogy of Magog's family
where the Bible leaves it. The Book of Invasions, the "Cin of
Drom-Snechta," claims that these Scythians were the Phoenicians; and we
are told that a branch of this family were driven out of Egypt in the
time of Moses: "He wandered through Africa for forty-two years, and
passed by the lake of Salivae to the altars of the Philistines, and
between Rusicada and the mountains Azure, and he came by the river
Monlon, and by the sea to the Pillars of Hercules, and through the
Tuscan sea, and he made for Spain, and dwelt there many years, and he
increased and multiplied, and his people were multiplied."

From all these facts it appears that the population of Ireland came from
the West, and not from Asia--that it was one of the many waves of
population flowing out from the Island of Atlantis-and herein we find
the explanation of that problem which has puzzled the Aryan scholars. As
Ireland is farther from the Punjab than Persia, Greece, Rome, or
Scandinavia, it would follow that the Celtic wave of migration must have
been the earliest sent out from the Sanscrit centre; but it is now
asserted by Professor Schleicher and others that the Celtic tongue shows
that it separated from the Sanscrit original tongue later than the
others, and that it is more closely allied to the Latin than any other
Aryan tongue. This is entirely inexplicable upon any theory of an
Eastern origin of the Indo-European races, but very easily understood if
we recognize the Aryan and Celtic migrations as going out about the same
time from the Atlantean fountain-head.

There are many points confirmatory of this belief. In the first place,
the civilization of the Irish dates back to a vast antiquity. We have
seen their annals laying claim to an immigration from the direction of
Atlantis prior to the Deluge, with no record that the people of Ireland
were subsequently destroyed by the Deluge. From the Formorians, who came
before the Deluge, to the Milesians, who came from Spain in the Historic
Period, the island was continuously inhabited. This demonstrates (1)
that these legends did not come from Christian sources, as the Bible
record was understood in the old time to imply a destruction of all who
lived before the Flood except Noah and his family; (2) it confirms our
view that the Deluge was a local catastrophe, and did not drown the
whole human family; (3) that the coming of the Formorians having been
before the Deluge, that great cataclysm was of comparatively recent
date, to wit, since the settlement of Ireland; and (4) that as the
Deluge was a local catastrophe, it must have occurred somewhere not far
from Ireland to have come to their knowledge. A rude people could
scarcely have heard in that day of a local catastrophe occurring in the
heart of Asia.

There are many evidences that the Old World recognized Ireland as
possessing a very ancient civilization. In the Sanscrit books it is
referred to as Hiranya, the "Island of the Sun," to wit, of sun-worship;
in other words, as pre-eminently the centre of that religion which was
shared by all the ancient races of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. It
is believed that Ireland was the "Garden of Phoebus" of the Western
mythologists.

The Greeks called Ireland the "Sacred Isle" and "Ogygia."

"Nor can any one," says Camden, "conceive why they should call it
Ogygia, unless, perhaps, from its antiquity; for the Greeks called
nothing Ogygia unless what was extremely ancient." We have seen that
Ogyges was connected by the Greek legends with a first deluge, and that
Ogyges was "a quite mythical personage, lost in the night of ages."

It appears, as another confirmation of the theory of the Atlantis origin
of these colonies, that their original religion was sun-worship; this,
as was the case in other countries, became subsequently overlaid with
idol-worship. In the reign of King Tighernmas the worship of idols was
introduced. The priests constituted the Order of Druids. Naturally many
analogies have been found to exist between the beliefs and customs of
the Druids and the other religions which were drawn from Atlantis. We
have seen in the chapter on sun-worship how extensive this form of
religion was in the Atlantean days, both in Europe and America.

It would appear probable that the religion of the Druids passed from
Ireland to England and France. The metempsychosis or transmigration of
souls was one of the articles of their belief long before the time of
Pythagoras; it had probably been drawn from the storehouse of Atlantis,
whence it passed to the Druids, the Greeks, and the Hindoos. The Druids
had a pontifex maximus to whom they yielded entire obedience. Here again
we see a practice which extended to the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Hindoos,
Peruvians, and Mexicans.

The Druids of Gaul and Britain offered human sacrifices, while it is
claimed that the Irish Druids did not. This would appear to have been a
corrupt after-growth imposed upon the earlier and purer sacrifice of
fruits and flowers known in Atlantis, and due in part to greater cruelty
and barbarism in their descendants. Hence we find it practised in
degenerate ages on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Irish Druidical rites manifested themselves principally in sun
worship. Their chief god was Bel or Baal--the same worshipped by the
Phoenicians--the god of the sun. The Irish name for the sun, Grian, is,
according to Virgil, one of the names of Apollo--another sun-god,
Gryneus. Sun-worship continued in Ireland down to the time of St.
Patrick, and some of its customs exist among the peasantry of that
country to this day. We have seen that among the Peruvians, Romans, and
other nations, on a certain day all fires were extinguished throughout
the kingdom, and a new fire kindled at the chief temple by the sun's
rays, from which the people obtained their fire for the coming year. In
Ireland the same practice was found to exist. A piece of land was set
apart, where the four provinces met, in the present county of Meath;
here, at a palace called Tlachta, the divine fire was kindled. Upon the
night of what is now All-Saints-day the Druids assembled at this place
to offer sacrifice, and it was established, under heavy penalties, that
no fire should be kindled except from this source. On the first of May a
convocation of Druids was held in the royal palace of the King of
Connaught, and two fires were lit, between which cattle were driven, as
a preventive of murrain and other pestilential disorders. This was
called Beltinne, or the day of Bel's fire. And unto this day the Irish
call the first day of May "Lha-Beul-tinne," which signifies "the day of
Bel's fire." The celebration in Ireland of St. John's-eve by watch-fires
is a relic of the ancient sun-worship of Atlantis. The practice of
driving cattle through the fire continued for a longtime, and Kelly
mentions in his "Folk-lore" that in Northamptonshire, in England, a calf
was sacrificed in one of these fires to "stop the murrain" during the
present century. Fires are still lighted in England and Scotland as well
as Ireland for superstitious purposes; so that the people of Great
Britain, it may be said, are still in some sense in the midst of the
ancient sun-worship of Atlantis.

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