It is true that a writer whose
personal veracity is above all doubt, Mr. Adam Hodgson, relates an
ancient tradition of the Choctaws, to the effect that the present world
will be consumed by a general conflagration, after which it will be
reformed pleasanter than it now is, and that then the spirits of the
dead will return to the bones in the bone mounds, flesh will knit
together their loose joints, and they shall again inhabit their ancient
territory.[261-1]
There was also a similar belief among the Eskimos. They said that in the
course of time the waters would overwhelm the land, purify it of the
blood of the dead, melt the icebergs, and wash away the steep rocks. A
wind would then drive off the waters, and the new land would be peopled
by reindeers and young seals. Then would He above blow once on the bones
of the men and twice on those of the women, whereupon they would at once
start into life, and lead thereafter a joyous existence.[261-2]
But though there is nothing in these narratives alien to the course of
thought in the native mind, yet as the date of the first is recent
(1820), as they are not supported (so far as I know) by similar
traditions elsewhere, and as they may have arisen from Christian
doctrines of a millennium, I leave them for future investigation.
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