DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.638#0178
ii2 INDIAN MYTH AND LEGEND
formed into a black boar; afterwards he was a vulture,
and in the end he became a fish. When he had existed
as a fish for twenty years he was caught by a fisherman.
The queen had Tuan for herself, and ate his fish form,
with the result that she gave birth to the sage as her son.
In similar manner Bata of the Egyptian Anpu-Bata
story,1 after existing as a blossom, a bull, and a tree,
became the son of his unfaithful wife, who swallowed
a chip of wood.
Tuan MacCarell assured St. Finnen, "in the presence
of witnesses ", as we are naively informed, that he re-
membered all that happened in Ireland during the period
of 1500 years covered by his various incarnations.
Another, and apparently a later version of the legend,
credits the Irish sage, the fair Fintan, son of Bochra, with
having lived for 5550 years before the Deluge, and 5500
years after it. He fled to Ireland with the followers of
Cesara, granddaughter of Noah, to escape the flood.
Fintan, however, was the only survivor, and, according
to Irish chronology, he did not die until the sixth century
of the present era.
One of the long-lived Indian sages was named Mar-
kandeya. In the Vana Parva section of the Mahdbhdrata
he visits the exiled Pandava brethren in a forest, and
is addressed as "the great Muni, who has seen many
thousands of ages passing away. In this world", says
the chief exile, " there is no man who hath lived so long
as thou hast. . . . Thou didst adore the Supreme Deity
when the Universe was dissolved, and the world was
without a firmament, and there were no gods and no
demons. Thou didst behold the re-creation of the four
orders of beings when the winds were restored to their
places and the waters were consigned to their proper
1 See Egyptian Myth and Legend.
formed into a black boar; afterwards he was a vulture,
and in the end he became a fish. When he had existed
as a fish for twenty years he was caught by a fisherman.
The queen had Tuan for herself, and ate his fish form,
with the result that she gave birth to the sage as her son.
In similar manner Bata of the Egyptian Anpu-Bata
story,1 after existing as a blossom, a bull, and a tree,
became the son of his unfaithful wife, who swallowed
a chip of wood.
Tuan MacCarell assured St. Finnen, "in the presence
of witnesses ", as we are naively informed, that he re-
membered all that happened in Ireland during the period
of 1500 years covered by his various incarnations.
Another, and apparently a later version of the legend,
credits the Irish sage, the fair Fintan, son of Bochra, with
having lived for 5550 years before the Deluge, and 5500
years after it. He fled to Ireland with the followers of
Cesara, granddaughter of Noah, to escape the flood.
Fintan, however, was the only survivor, and, according
to Irish chronology, he did not die until the sixth century
of the present era.
One of the long-lived Indian sages was named Mar-
kandeya. In the Vana Parva section of the Mahdbhdrata
he visits the exiled Pandava brethren in a forest, and
is addressed as "the great Muni, who has seen many
thousands of ages passing away. In this world", says
the chief exile, " there is no man who hath lived so long
as thou hast. . . . Thou didst adore the Supreme Deity
when the Universe was dissolved, and the world was
without a firmament, and there were no gods and no
demons. Thou didst behold the re-creation of the four
orders of beings when the winds were restored to their
places and the waters were consigned to their proper
1 See Egyptian Myth and Legend.