In effect a myth of creation is nowhere found among primitive nations.
It seems repugnant to their reason. Dry land and animate life had a
beginning, but not matter. A series of constructions and demolitions may
conveniently be supposed for these. The analogy of nature, as seen in
the vernal flowers springing up after the desolation of winter, of the
sapling sprouting from the fallen trunk, of life everywhere rising from
death, suggests such a view. Hence arose the belief in Epochs of Nature,
elaborated by ancient philosophers into the Cycles of the Stoics, the
Great Days of Brahm, long periods of time rounded off by sweeping
destructions, the Cataclysms and Ekpyrauses of the universe. Some
thought in these all beings perished; others that a few survived.[200-1]
This latter and more common view is the origin of the myth of the
deluge. How familiar such speculations were to the aborigines of America
there is abundant evidence to show.
The early Algonkin legends do not speak of an antediluvian race, nor of
any family who escaped the waters.
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