Chapter VI: Prehistoric Traditions

Short Duration of Tradition--No Recollection of Stone
Age--Celts taken for Thunderbolts--Stone Age in Egypt--Palæolithic
Implements--Earliest Egyptian Traditions--Extinct Animals
forgotten--Their Bones attributed to Giants--Chinese and American
Traditions--Traditions of Origin of Man--Philosophical Myths--Cruder
Myths from Stones, Trees, and Animals--Totems--Recent Events soon
forgotten--Autochthonous Nations--Wide Diffusion of Prehistoric
Myths--The Deluge--Importance of, as Test of Inspiration--More
Definite than Legend of Creation--What the Account of the Deluge
in Genesis really says--Date--Extent--Duration--All Life
destroyed except Pairs preserved in the Ark--Such a Deluge
impossible--Contradicted by Physical Science--By Geology--By
Zoology--By Ethnology--By History--How Deluge Myths arise--Local
Floods--Sea Shells on Mountains--Solar Myths--Deluge
of Hasisadra--Noah's Deluge copied from it--Revised
in a Monotheistic Sense at a comparatively Late
Period--Conclusion--Rational View of Inspiration 178