Ragnarok : the age of fire and gravel

372 CONCLUSIONS.

people of Asgard that the wandering Gylfe learns all that he tells about Ragnarok, just as Solon learned from the priests of Sais the story of Atlantis. And it is here in Asgard that, as we have seen, “during Surt’s fire two persons, called Lif and Lifthraser, a man and a woman, concealed themselves in Hodmimer’s holt,’ and afterward repeopled the world.

We leave Europe and turn to India.

In the Bagaveda-Gita Krishna recalls to the memory of his disciple Ardjouna the legend as preserved in the sacred books of the Veda.

We are told:

“The earth was covered with flowers ; the trees bent under their fruit ; thousands of animals sported over the plains and in the air; white elephants roved unmolested under the shade of gigantic forests, and Brahma perceived _ that the time had come for the creation of man to inhabit this dwelling-place.” *

This is a description of the glorious world of the Tertiary Age, during which, as scientific researches haye proved, the climate of the tropics extended to the Arctic Circle.

Brahma makes man, Adima, (Adam,) and he makes a companion for him, Héya, (Eve).

They are upon an island. Tradition localizes the legend by making this the Island of Ceylon.

“ Adima and Hévya lived for some time in perfect happiness—no suffering came to disturb their quietude ; they had but to stretch forth their hands and pluck from surrounding trees the most delicious fruits—but to stoop and gather rice of the finest quality.”

This is the same Golden Age represented in Genesis, when Adam and Eve, naked, but supremely happy, lived

* Jacolliet, “ The Bible in India,” p, 195.