3. Not infrequently, and sometimes in con- nexion with one or more of the causes already mentioned, the Flood story appears to have originated in an attempt to account for some otherwise unexplained fact, as — (a) The dispersion of peoples and difference of language. This is especially frequent among, if not indeed peculiar to, the Indian tribes of N. America. Among the Thlinkeets in the North West the diflerence of speech between them and the rest of mankind is naively accounted for by the breaking of the ark in two, their ancestors having been in one half, those of all otlier races in the other ! More frequently, the dispersion is the result of the boats drifting away in the waters of the Deluge, as, e.g., with the Bella Coola Indians (between 52° and 53° N. lat. on the coast of the Pacific). The ancient rock-carvings found among the aborigines of Mexico, in which, as it is said, a dove is depicted distributing gifts of speech in the form of tongues to the survivors of the Flood, would be a striking illustration of this kind of Flood story, could we be certain that this interpretation of it is correct ; but it is at least doubtful, (h) The red colour of some of the N. American tribes. This colour is, according to the Crees, the direct consequence of the Flood, the Red Indians of to-day being the descendants of the single woman who was rescued, when the waters had all but covered her (see below, III. 9). On the other hand, the Herero, a native tribe of South Africa, relate that it was the Flood that brought to tlieir ancient home the white man and woman from whom tliey are descended ; hence their pale colour. (r) The existence of fossil remains on dry land, and even on hills. It is curious that tlie same evidence which, from the days of Tertullian at any rate, has been frequently adduced as evitlence of the Bible Flood has been appealed to by several different peoples as evidence of their own Flood stories ; and if the remains did not in every, or perhaps in any, case actually give rise to the story, they certainly helped to give it credence and permanence. ^V'ith the Leeward islanders the mussels and corals on their hills are a standing proof of an ancient flood, in which all
• See, e.g., "The Ori^n of Chinese Oultare and CMviiization,* Lippincott'a Monthly .Magazine, June 1S90 ; De Lacouperie, 'The old Babylonian Chara'^ters and their Chinese Derivatives, in Bab. and Oriental Record, March 18S3 ; and 'New Accadian Papers by Ball in PSBA, Nov., Dec., 1889 ; Feb., Jane. 1890.
FLUUU
lint one small coral island were immersed. The Samoan islanders call attention to the fish whieli have been turned into stone ; and the central Eskimos of N. America can still see the outer shells of many mussels, fish, sea-dogs, and whales which M ere left upon the dry land by the Flood. (d) The same Eskimo tribes give a similar ex- planation of glaciers. They are the icebergs left on the tops of the mountains by the receding waters.
It is also important to observe that the cause of the Flood story has very often a special connexion with the locality to which it belongs. Thus we notice tliat the melting of the ice is a frequent cause with the extreme northernly tribes of N. American Indians. Eartliquakes are a common feature in the Flood legends of tribes on those coastlands of America where they frequently occur. The submergence or emergence of islands accounts for those of tribes inhabiting volcanic districts. In China the Flood stories are associated with the bursting of the banks of the great rivers where such events occur, and are accompanied with great loss ot life and propert}'. Still more remarkable is it, on the other hand, that in Africa, where the over- flow of the great rivers is a regular and expected phenomenon, and, in fact, has become necessary to cultivation, and therefore cannot be considered as the result of special divine agency. Flood stories are singularly rare, and never of this kind.
iii. Very frequently an old mj'th has Tjecome mixed up with, or at any rate coloured by, the Babylonian or Bible story. Thus the account of the Grecian Flood (Deucalion's) as given in the de Ded Syrd of the pseudo-Lucian, a writer of tlie 2nd cent. A.D., differs from the earlier form of the story as contained in Ovid (Met. i. 163-437), for instance, by the addition of several details belong- ing to the Babylonian and biblical stories, such as the name Sisythes ( = Xisuthros), the buUding of a chest, the saving in it of Deucalion's family and pairs of every animal. Plutarch similarly intro- duces Deucalion's sending out the dove to ascertain the u'C'tthcr ( !), according as it returned or remained behind. This colouring is probably, however, in most cases due to the teaching of Christian mission- aries, who would naturally emphasize and uncon- sciously, or perhaps even intentionally, exaggerate points of resemblance between native folk-lore and Bible stories. Andree (see Literature below) quotes a story to show how easily the Bible Flood could find its way into the folk-lore of an imaginative people. A missionary heard a Flood story from a native Hottentot which bore a suspicious resemblance to th.'it of the Bible, and yet he was assured that it had been handed down from early ages. Sliortly after he met another missionary, who told him that he had liimself taught the native the Bible story. It is not always easy to say positively that a legend has been influenced by the Bible Hood, but in the following cases it maj' be considered highly prolialile: — (a) When the legend resembles the Bible story in one or more definite particulars, but in general drift or in its more important features ditiers widely from it. In that of the Mandari (a branch of the Kohls, East India), the flood out of which a brother and sister only liad lieen rescued under a tree, is put an end to by the serpent Lurbing, in con7iexinn vHh whom appears the rainbow. In the Lithuanian story the rainbow is sent to comfort a pair of wretched survivors, and counsels them to oiitain <ills|iring by jumping over the bones of the earth. The Lummi Indians (north of Wasliington Territory) liave a story that an old man escaped on a raft to a mountain, and thence twice sent forth a crow, which returned the »econd time with a leaf, ih) When the parta