Genealogy is the favourite source from which popular legends are mostly derived, and particularly in the East. Crime and violence became prevalent with the increase of the human race: the sons of God descended upon the earth, associated with the daughters of men, and created a powerful race of giants. Noah received the command to build an ark, for himself and his family, and to enter into it, together with a pair of every kind of animals and with a stock of provisions. Lastly, at the conclusion of this beautiful description, God made a covenant with Noah, that he would not again destroy the earth; and he set the rainbow in the heavens, to confirm his covenant with man, and as a sign of peace. The Hindoo fiction was formerly known to Europe only through Christian missionaries, and it received imperceptibly a Biblical colouring from them, as well as from the Persian translations made by Mahometans.