Page:The History of Armenia - Avdall - Volume 1.djvu/50

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FOUNDATION OF ARMENIA
5

events which happened during the erection of the Tower of Babel; the confusion of languages that ensued; the building of the city of Nineveh; and the foundation of sovereign power in Assy-
ria by Belus. During this time, his descendants rapidly increased, and his sons Armenac, Ma-
navaz and Core had already distinguished themselves by their wisdom and virtue.

The authority which Belus had succeeded in establishing over the country of Mesopotamia proving burthensome, Haicus, with his family, amounting to 300 persons, exclusive of ser-
vants, sought another place of abode. He first proceeded northward to the country round about Ararat, and here incorporated with his followers a number of individuals whom he found living in a state destitute of all form and order. These people spoke the original lan-
guage of their ancestor Noah, but they had for a long time been almost entirely secluded from civilized intercourse with their fellow creatures. Haicus settled his grandson Cadmus, the son of Armenac, near Mount Ararat, and then pro-
ceeded with the rest of his family to the north-
west. After a few days journey, he arrived on an extensive plain, to which he gave the name of Harc (fathers;) that his posterity might re-
collect that the founder and father of their nation was of the race of Torgomah, and the first who