Page:Atlantis - The Antediluvian World (1882).djvu/447

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THE OLDEST SON OF NOAH.
429

trident in his hand; while the next illustration is taken from Zarate's "Peru," and depicts "the god of a degrading worship." He is very much like the traditional conception of the European devil—horns, pointed ears, wings, and poker. Compare this last figure, from Peru, with the representation on page 430 of a Greek siren, one of those cruel monsters who, according to Grecian mythology, sat in the midst of bones and blood, tempting men to ruin by their sweet music. Here we have the same bird-like legs and claws as in the Peruvian demon.

Heeren shows that a great overland commerce extended in

moqui idol. dakota idol. peruvian devil.

ancient times between the Black Sea and "Great Mongolia;" he mentions a "Temple of the Sun," and a great caravansary in the desert of Gobi. Arminius Vámbéry, in his "Travels in Central Asia," describes very important ruins near the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, at a place called Gömüshtepe; and connected with these are the remains of a great wall which he followed "ten geographical miles." He found a vast aqueduct one hundred and fifty miles long, extending to the Persian mountains. He reports abundant ruins in all that country, extending even to China.

The early history of China indicates contact with a superior