MYSTERY OF NOAH

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1929, Page 17 (Supplement)

MYSTERY OF NOAH

LEGEND OF MARQUESAS

(By

“Endymion.”)

History, that portion of ascertained fact which traces the development of civilised man within the last two or three thousand years, reveals after all only a fold or two of the vast and wonderful , fabric of events that constitute life. Written records. are comparatively few, and it is in the myths and traditions of a race, usually so distinctive and characteristic and often so romantic, that a careful investigator may often find the brightest colouring in the picture of the world’s, past. Most of these traditions have very strong foundations on real fact, but in many cases they have become -so .gilded by the fancies of those who passed them oil as to be almost unrecognisable. There are a few, however, that stand shorn of trimmings as on the day ■on which the events took place. They pass among the peoples and from .nation to nation without change. Cycles of tales .-may form around them, but fundamentally they are so firmly embedded in the lore of mankind as to forbid alteration. Who would have thought, for instance, of meeting Noah iii the Pacific Ocean, centuries before Cook or \Tasinan set but on their travels ? . The story of Noah, essentially the same as all the old world knows it, forms one of the most picturesque legends in the history of the Marquesas Islands. . ; In Lieutenant-Colonel. St. Johnston’s book on the Pacific he traces, more or less convincingly, the migration of the Polynesians from the Mediterranean. He, quotes a fragment of one of the oldest dramatic poems —a ritual chant from a festal dance! It was given to FornandOr more than 50 years previously by Lawson, who was believed to be. the first white man to live in the Marquesas. The very old priest who recited ‘it verse by verse to Lawson, told him it was one of the legends of the Islands. There * can be no question of missionary influence, as it was taken down long before the missionaries came to the Marquesas, and from a very old man; also Fornander was hardly the man to be deceived on a matter- of Pacific tradition. It is the tale of Noah’s flood. It begins with prophecy: “The. Lord Ocean is. going to pass over the Ayhole earth; .who. would have thought to hgve buried the great Earth in a roaring flood.” • - Then .they collect the animals; ,‘Ho! ho! in the enclosure, Ho! ho! the twisted ropes! The generations (differentkinds) of animals.” . ’ • • ; : There is-.a- cry from the animals: Oh we are the kind, Oh, we are the kind, ho, we are reserved from the flood; oh, the flood! the roaring flood.” The flood waters rising through-the .valleys and covering the hills is described but all through thp story there ,is the recurring line, “Oh, the flood,, the roaring flood.” It is the turgid background on which the action is superimposed —a kind of a bass chord rumbling an accompaniment. . The’ ark (the long deep Wood) is made, and the entry begins: “One man before, with the offerings, O! Fetunioana! One man behind, clinging to tlie offerings, 0! Fetu-tau-aui! The . animals between, making gredt noise, 0! the-flood! the roaring flood.” Then there is 'the roll-call, beginning democratically with the animals and the ark, which answer “Here,” aud,paSs- : iiig from them to the God .of -Destruction, who also,answers “Here,” leaving a pleasant doubt. in one’s mind as to who is calling the roll. Unlike the Biblical story, the four women are called by their names. Finally Fetumoana and liis three sons answer. The storm bursts: “Noise! God! Noise with God arise! A storm.that is great, and manifest, and.. it is roaring and it is working. A rain like' a solid cloud, shaken up and mixed up in the earth.” In the second part of the poem “The Lord Ocean consents that the dry land appear.” The ark is represented as being paddled towards • the mountaintops, and grounding when the voice of the Lord Ocean comes .up from the depths.' .... ■The story finishes with the appearance of the “great -mountain, ridges, ridges of Havaii. Great mountain ridges, ridges of Matahau, whereupon to stamp 1 and tread.” “ ' \ Lieutenant-Colonel .St. Johnston describes it as a voice, direct fropi the flood-. ’There can be ’no doubt: its form is Polynesian, and it is unquestionably very -.old: -Discoveries' made at Ur this year byt Mr,. C.. L. Woolley confirm the reality* cf the great prehistoric flood in Southern Babylonia. In his opinion this is identical xf'ith the famous Flood of Babylon legend (long’known to scholars of the cuneiform script) which must also have been the original of the Biblical account of the Deluge. It has been surmised by some students of Polynesian history that the Polynesian migrations passed across the south of India, so it is quite possible that at least tales of the Babylonian cataclysm may have been retailed among them by travellers. - Still, one cannot help thinking of' all the ships that have gone away and have never been heard of. again. What if some castaway in early times had lived and died among the people of the Marquesas? There is one thing which seems to l point to a period between the 12th and 15th centuries. The miracle plays were very popular in England and ontlie Continent, 'and in niost of these dealing with the flood Mrs... Noah supplies the comic relief, refusing to go on board till “I have spon a space on my rok (distaff).” Or she complains that she canpot cook on board owing to the personal atmosphere of tlje- cooped-up animals. . . In this poem a voice complains: inis is a bad house to cook food for the God,” and again “All the heaven-fed animals” are described as a stinking crowd.” Is seems as if it might be the voice of Mrs. Noah of the miracle plays. Also the arrangement of the poem bears a striking resemblance to a play such as the “Towneley Play of Noah. It is the kind of tale which should meet with, instant approval among a /sea-faring people, especially if retailed by a seaman or a shipwright who had actually participated in one of these festivals oi Old England.