(2) The reasons for the Flood AreA\Sex&DX\j ^ve.n. Very frequently to get rid of these monstrous forms of life (in the Bundehesh a second Flood is necessary to purifv the world of the poison which the monsters still left behind them) ; as in the Bible, to punish men for their wickedness (An- damanese) ; or, more frequently, for some definite crime or offence, as the refusal to wasli and work (Mandari) ; killing and eating a huge serpent (Dyaks of Borneo) ; cooking a fish in violation of a sacred promise (Gipsies of the Sieben Gebirge) ; the crime of the demigod Menaboshu against the water-serpents in kUIing their king and three sons in revenge for the destruction of his little pet wolf (Ojibways) ; the in hospitality of a local S. African chieftain towards a woman who, in con- sequence, brought about a local flood through her in- cantation (Dilolo Lake) ; the insult perpetrated on a sea-god by a fisherman who fished in sacred waters and caught the god by his hair (Leeward Islands) ; the injury done to the raven by ' the wise man,' who had punished it by throwing it into the fire (Hare Indians, North America). In one case, as already noticed, the Flood is the result of a quarrel between the gods of the nether and upper world (the Sac and Fox Indians).
(3) The direct cause of the Flood is usually the rise and overflow of the sea, or of some river or lake ; rather less frequently a prodigious storm and rainfall. An exceptional case is the melting of the winter snow (Chippewas, see above, II. 2 B c). Once it is occasioned by the blood flowing from a slaughtered giant (later Edda). Occasionally, the Flood consists of hot water (Finns). In the legend of the Quiche there is a second Flood of resin after one of water, and occasionally fire takes the place of water (so with the Yuracar^s in Bolivia, among wliom a legend of this sort has many parallels with the Flood stories of other peoples). In an Eskimo story the people are destroyed by heat as well as by the water. In one case the Flood is caused by the accidental breaking of a jar (examined through curiosity) containing the waters of the ocean (Haiti Island). Similarly, a flood is caused by an inquisitive ape taking away the mat placed in a hollow tree to stop up the water which communi- cated with the water beneath the earth (Acawoio, Britiih Guiana).
(4) The Flood generally seems to have come
unexpectedly ; but sometimes the survivors wer* forewarned, as a rule by a god, but occasionally through the medium of animals. In the sacred books of India it is the fish, which is no other than the incarnate Vishnu, or, in one form of the legend, even the great Brahma himself. In the legend of the Cherokee Indians (N. America) it is a dog whicli tells liis master, having first attracted his attention by standing up to his neck in the water and refusing to stir. In one of the Peruvian stories it is the llamas which warn their sheplierd. He had noticed that they looked sad and gazed at the stars, upon which he inquired the cause, and was told of the coming Flood.
(5) Tlie Flood is generallj' represented as uni- versal, though originating in sonv- '■"finite place ; but sometimes it is purely loi.u^
(6) Men are usually drowned, t>i«. .«• uue legend some of them are devoured by sea-monsters ( Algon- quins). In several of the Peruvian Flood stories tliey are changed into fish, and in one instance the dead bodies become salmon and frogs (Maidu, near Sacramento).
(7) The number of survivors varies very greatly in the different stories. Where the inhabit-ants of the world are monsters, they are, of course, all destroyed. Sometimes even men are all destroyed, and a new set of men created. Sometimes, on the other hand, they appear to Iiave all escaped (Kabadi, a south-east district of New Guinea). As a rule, the survivors are very few, most frequently a single family, or even less ; in several cases only one man or woman. Once it is only the coyote (prairie-wolf) of all living beings (Wappo, Cali- fornia) ; in another story it is the coyote and the demigod Montezuma (Papagos); in another the raven and his mother (Thlinkeets, Indian tribe of N. America, see below, III. 9).
(8) The reason why the particular survivors were permitted to escape is generally left unexplained. But when it is explained, it is usually, of course, because tliey had no part in the cause for which the Flood was sent. Thus in the Gipsy legend (see above. III. 2), while the wife who cooked the fish is struck by tlie lirst lightning flash of the storm which preceded the Flood, the husband, who was faithful to his promise, was saved. In the legend of the Leeward Islands (see above. III. 2), however, by a strange want of poetic justice, the penitent fisherman succeeds in appeasing the wrath of the god, and he and his family alone escape.
(9) The methods of escape exhibit also great variety. In many cases it is by fleeing to a moun- tain or an island, the latter generally being left unimmersed by the rising water, not so much from its elevation as from its sacred character (AJgon- quins, Victoria, Leeward Islands, Greece, etc.). Sometimes the place of refuge is the top of a tree (Karens in Burmah, Tupi in Brazil, Acawoio in British Guiana), or underneath (!) a tree (Mandari), or in caves (Mexicans of Cholula) ; once in the hole of a huge crawfish in a rice field ( Uraus, a branch of Kohls) ; in a tower expressly buUt for the purpose (Mandans, see above, II. iii. c). The most usual method of escape, however, is by a boat or raft of some kind. In one of the Fiji stories, two gods themselves come in a boat, and fish the drowning bodies out of the water. The raft or ship is usually allowed to drift, but sometimes, as in the Accadian story, it is regularly steered. In the legends of India it is towed by the god-fish with a rope tied to his horn. Sometimes, to prevent its drifting awa}', it is secured by a rope, fastened either to a stone acting as an anchor (Kamtschatka), or, more frequently, to a tree (Pelew islanders, Twanas of Puget Sound, AVashlngton Territory). Occasion- ally, as in the Bible story, the means of escape is a floating ches', (Banar in Cambodia) ; in one legend