_, p. 114. In the year 1600, Onate found on the coast of
California a tribe whose idol held in one hand a shell containing three
eggs, in the other an ear of maize, while before it was placed a cup of
water. Vizcaino, who visited the same people a few years afterwards,
mentions that they kept in their temples tame ravens, and looked upon
them as sacred birds (Torquemada, _Mon. Ind._, lib. v. cap. 40 in Waitz).
Thus, in all parts of the continent do we find the bird, as a symbol of
the clouds, associated with the rains and the harvests.
[214-1] The deluge was called _hun yecil_, which, according to Cogolludo,
means _the inundation of the trees_, for all the forests were swept away
(_Hist. de Yucathan_, lib. iv. cap. 5). Bishop Landa adds, to
substantiate the legend, that all the woods of the peninsula appear as if
they had been planted at one time, and that to look at them one would say
they had been trimmed with scissors (_Rel. de las Cosas de Yucatan_, 58,
60).
[215-1] _Vues des Cordilleres_, p.
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