FLOOD
FLOOD
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% nnt-shell, which conveniently fell from a god, who was eating nuts in heaven during the Flood, on to the topmost peak of a mountain, whither men had fled for refuge (Lithuanians). Usually, as in the Accadian and Bible stories, the ark lands on a mountain ; but, curiously enough, in some of the Persian legends the mountain of refuge itself floats like a boat. Other means of escape are still more quaint. In one legend the raven and his mother, presumably in a pre-raven state of exist- ence, put on birds' skins and fly up to heaven, which the former, in his impetuosity, hits so violently that his beak gets stuck. In this pre- dicament he is obliged to wait till the waters reach him (Thlinkeets). In another the single surviving maiden succeeds in catching hold of a bird, which flies up with her to a rock of safety (Crees).
(10) The Flood usually disappears by subsidence or evaporation ; but, in isolated instances, it flows away do^vn a hole (Deucalion's Flood, Tinney Indians), or into a rift in a mountain, and so linds its way into the sea (Maidu).
(11) The survivors in several legends send out aniTnals from their various retreats, usually to dive down into the waters, that they may get earth, out of which new land is created. Of this we have a characteristic example in the story of the Ojibways, in which the surviving Menaboshu, after having stood on the topmost peak of a mountain for five days, with the water up to his mouth, in despair prays a passing sea-"ull to dive do>vn and discover whether the land has been entirely washed away. After the guU has dived several times to no purpose, Menaboshu sees the stiffened body of a musk-rat floating by. Having restored it to life, he sends it down on a similar quest. After a long while the dead body of the musk-rat appears on the surface with a few grains of sand in its claws. These Menaboshu throws on the water, and they become little islands, which grow and join together until they form habitable earth. In the stories of the Sac and Fox Indians, it is a fish which returns with its huge mouth full of earth ; in that of the Chippewas, the beaver, otter, musk-rat, and northern diver, all dive down, and the last returns with mud in its webbed feet. Sometimes, as in the Bible, and presumably the Accadian stories, the animals are sent forth to dis- cover whether or where the land is dry (Papagos, etc., see above, II. iii. e).
(12) The survivors, hard put to it for food, some- times feed on fish, which they either cook by putting them under their armpits (!) (Tolowa in California), or with fire procured by rubbing sticks together, at which the god is angry, and turns tlie fisli into dogs (an old Alexican story in the Codex Chimalpopoca). Fire is obtained in a similar way in the legend of the Dyaks of Borneo. In the Andamanesian story an arctic bird sends down a firebrand from heaven. In one of the Peruvian legends, meals are provided for the two surviving brothers by two parrots.
(13) There is a very curious variety with regard to the methods by which the world was re-peopled after the Deluge. When all the inhabitants were destroyed, tliere was, of necessity, a new creation. Most frequently, as in the Bible, the new men were simply the ofl'spring of the few survivors, but in severfu legends they appear as propagated in some strange and miraculous manner, as by stones thrown over the survivors' heads (Deucalion's Flood, Acawoio and other Indian tribes on the Upntr Orinoco). In one story cocoa-nuts are tlirown Willi a similar result (Maypuri and neighbouring tribes of .S. America). In the Lithuanian story men come into being by the survivors leaiiing over the bones of the earth. According to tlie Pelew Islanders, it wis by intercourse of the gods with a
woman whose dead body was brought to life, and indwelt for a time by a goddess. Another legend ascribes it to the union between the single surviv- ing maiden and a great eagle (Crees). Still mor« curious is the legend of the Wappo, who ascribe the re-peopling of the world to the coyote, which planted the tail feathers of various birds in the places where wigwams formerly stood. According to the Tinney Indians, it was brought about by the gods changing animals into men.
(14) The deification of Xisuthros after the Flood in tlie Accadian story has hardly a parallel in the myths of other peoples. Sometimes the survivor is already a sort of god (Papagos). In the story of the Pelew islanders the gods wish to deify the last woman, whom they had already restored to life, but are prevented by the malice of the bird Tariit (Rallus pectoralis).
If we now examine these legends in connexion with their locality, we shall find that features which repeat themselves (leaving out of considera- tion what has been borrowed from the Bible story) in several legends are of two kinds : (a) those which characterize the legends of neighbouring or related tribes ; and (b) those which appear sporadic- ally, so to speak, in far separated peoples. As examples of the first we may notice, generally, the tendency to combine Flood stories with animal fables common to almost all tribes of American Indians, and more especially the fables of the coyote, the jackal, and the raven, each of which marks off a definite group of tribes. We may instance also the floating mountain, which is confined to the neighbourhood of Peru. In many cases the second class belongs to the form which the legend would be most likely to take. It is more likely that men would escape a flood by going up into a mountain, or by means of a boat or raft, than in any other way, and therefore we find this to be most fre- quently the case. But when we consider the great multiplicity of stories, it is not at all surprising that, in a few isolated cases, the imagination of different peoples should independently hit upon the same idea. Where so many methods of escape suggested themselves, it mi^ht easily have occurred to more than one people that the boat of safety was like a chest, or, again, that the boat was tied by a rope. In the same way we may account for the really far stranger incident, the subsequent creation of men out of stones.