There are no more common heirlooms in the traditional lore of the red
race. Nearly every old author quotes one or more of them. They present
great uniformity of outline, and rather than engage in repetitions of
little interest, they can be more profitably studied in the aggregate
than in detail.
By far the greater number represent the last destruction of the world to
have been by water. A few, however, the Takahlis of the North Pacific
coast, the Yurucares of the Bolivian Cordilleras, and the Mbocobi of
Paraguay, attribute it to a general conflagration which swept over the
earth, consuming every living thing except a few who took refuge in a
deep cave.[202-1] The more common opinion of a submersion gave rise to
those traditions of a universal flood so frequently recorded by
travellers, and supposed by many to be reminiscences of that of Noah.
There are, indeed, some points of striking similarity between the deluge
myths of Asia and America. It has been called a peculiarity of the
latter that in them the person saved is always the first man.
Pages:
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336