There being no written records among them,
all that can be ascertained of their history previous to their becoming
known to the whites, must be gathered from the dim light of tradition,
from their symbolic representations, from antique remains of their art,
and from their legends and myths. These present in an obscure and shadowy
form, a few materials of history, whose value is to be measured by the
consideration, that they are all we have to tell the story of a noble and
interesting race of men.
Their traditions speak of the creation of the world, the formation of man,
and the destruction of the world by a deluge. They suppose the existence
originally of two worlds, an upper and lower. The upper completed and
filled with an intelligent order of beings, the lower unformed and
chaotic, whose surface was covered with water, in which huge monsters
careered, uncontrolled and wild. From the upper there descended to the
lower a creating spirit, in the form of a beautiful woman. She alighted on
the back of a huge tortoise, gave birth to a pair of male twins and
expired. Thereupon the shell of the tortoise began to enlarge, and grew
until it became a "_big island_" and formed this continent.
These two infant sons became, one the author of _good_, the other of
_evil_. The creator of _good_ formed whatever was praiseworthy and useful.
From the head of his deceased mother he made the sun, from the remaining
parts of her body, the moon and stars.
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