Africa.

Soon, however, religion began to lose its purity, and it then began to
degenerate very fast. Men began to repair to the tops of mountains,
lonely caves and grottoes, where they thought resided their gods. To
honour them they erected altars and performed their vows. Amongst the
Ancients their Mythology went no further than the epoch of the Deluge,
and in honour of which, and also of the Ark, they erected many temples
called Aren, Theba, Argus (from whence was probably derived the Argo of
the Argonauts, and the sacred ship of Osiris), Cibotus, Toleus, and
Baris.

The symbol by which the Mythologists represented the Ark was an immense
egg. This was supposed to have been produced by Ether and Chaos, at the
bidding of Time, the one ethereal being who created the universe. By Nox
(Night) the egg was hatched, which, being opened into two parts, from
the upper part was formed heaven, and the lower earth.

In the sacred rites of Osiris, Isis, and the Dionysia of Bacchus, the
Ark or Ship was introduced. The Dove, by many nations, in their
celebrations, was looked upon as a special emblem of peace and
good-will. Theba, in Egypt, was originally one of the temples dedicated
to the Ark. Both priests and sooth-sayers were styled Ionah or Doves. To
Dodona, in Epirus, was brought this and the first Grecian oracle all the
rites and history of the Thebans. The priestesses of this temple were
known in the Latin as _Columbae_. It is from this word that we derive
the name Columbine, which means, in the Italian, "little dove." Homer
alludes to the priestesses as doves, and that they administered to Zeuth
(Noah). Nonnus speaks of Cadmus, and others of Orpheus, as introducing
into Greece the rites of Dionysus or Bacchus.