Much the same notion preafter full inquiry and consi ing the appellation of Time on the great father. VIII. The same belief in the occurrence of an universal deluge prevailed in the western as well as in the eastern continent. 1. At the time of the conquest of America, the inhabitants of Mechoaca, Tlascala, and Achagna, still preserved a tradition, that the world was once overwhelmed by water in consequence of the prevailing wickedness of the age. The Mechoacans believed, that a priest called Tezpi was preserved along with his wife and children in a great box of wood, into which he had also collected a variety of animals and excellent seeds of every description. After the waters had retreated, he sent out a bird named Aura, which did not reLast turn. He next sent out several others, which likewise did not return. of all he sent out a bird much smaller than the former ones, but which the natives esteemed the most. This soon appeared again with the branch of a tree in its mouth.* The same tradition is given, with a slight variation, by Herrera. According to this writer, the Mechoacans supposed, that a single family was formerly ■ Asiat. Res. vol. ii. p. 376. CHAP. IV. BOOK III, preserved in an ark from the waters of an universal deluge, and that a num ber of animals sufficient to stock the new world was saved with them. During the time that they were shut up in the ark, several ravens were sent out, one of which brought back the branch of a tree.' 2. The Peruvians, as we are informed by Gomara, believed, in a similar manner, that it once rained so violently as to inundate all the lower parts of the country. In consequence of this, an universal destruction of the human species took place, a few persons only excepted, who escaped into caves situated on the tops of mountains. To these elevated retirements they had previously conveyed a sufficient stock of provisions and a number of living animals; lest, when the waters abated, the whole race should become extinct. As soon as the rain ceased, they sent out two dogs, which returned to them besmeared with mud and slime. Hence they concluded, that the flood had not yet subsided. After a certain interval they sent out more dogs, which, coming back dry, convinced them that the earth was now habitable. Upon this they left the places into which they had retired, and became the progenitors of the present race of men. The number of persons, whom they supposed to have been thus saved, is seven. But this is the precise number of the Noëtic family, exclusive of its head: whence that number became so famous in the diluvian mythology of the ancients. The Peruvian seven are doubtless the same as the seven Cabiri, the seven Titans, the seven Hindoo Rishis, and the seven arkite companions of the British Arthur." In this account no mention is made of the Ark: but, if we may believe Herrera, the deficiency was supplied by the more accurate tradition of the mountaineers of Peru. They affirmed, that all perished in the deluge, except six persons who were saved in a float. From thein descended the inhabitants of that country. 3 3. The Brazilians likewise had their account of a general flood. When that event took place, all mankind perished, one person and his sister only excepted, who escaped on a Janipata. From this pair the Brazilians deduced their origin. Lerius informs us, that he was present at one of their 'Herrer. Hist. of Amer. trans. by Stevens. vol. iii. p. 250. assemblies, when, in a solemn chorus, they chaunted a kind of requiem to the souls of their ancestors. In the course of the song, they did not fail to notice the catastrophè of the deluge, in which the whole world perished, except some of their progenitors who escaped by climbing high trees.' According to Thevet, the Brazilians on the sea-coast were somewhat more circumstantial in their detail. The deluge, says he, which these savages tulk so much about, and of which they spoke so often to me, was in their opinion universal. They say, that Sommay, a Carribee of great dignity, had two children: the name of the one was Tamendonare; the name of the other, Ariconte. These were of different dispositions, and therefore mortally hated each other. The peaceful Tamendonare delighted in the cultivation of the earth: but Ariconte, despising agriculture, was solely bent on war, and intent on the subjugation of his neighbours not excepting his own brother. It happened, as this warrior returned one day from the battle, that he brought to Tamendonare the arm of his enemy, and haughtily reproached him as not having sufficient courage to defend his wife and children. Tamendonare, hearing his brother speak thus, was much grieved at his pride, and said to him; If thou wert as valiant as thou boastest, thou wouldest have brought thine enemy entire. Incensed at this reproach, Ariconte threw the arm against the door of his brother's house: but, at the same instant, the whole village where they were was carried up into the sky, and they remained on earth. Tamendonare seeing this, either from astonishment or passion, struck the ground so violently, that out of it issued a vast stream of water. The stream rose so high, that in a short time it reached the hills and mountains, and seemed to exceed the height of the very clouds. It continued to flow, until the earth was entirely covered. The two brothers, solicitous to save themselves, ascended the highest mountains of the country, and there with their wives climbed into the trees. Tamendonare took refuge with one of his wives in a tree named Pindona; Ariconte with his wife, in a tree named Genipar. Whilst they were there, in order that they might see if the waters were abated, Ariconte offered some of the fruit of his tree to his wife, saying, Break off a piece of this, and let it fall down. This being done, they knew CHAP. IV. BOOK III. that it was not yet time to descend into the vallies, the waters being still very high. They assert, that in this deluge all mankind and all animals were drowned, except the two brothers and their wives; from whom afterwards sprang two different races of people." Besides an express mention of the flood, I think we may discover in the present legend a manifest allusion to the two different antediluvian families of Seth and Cain, whose place was supplied after the deluge by the peaceful and the warlike descendants of Noah. 4. So again, we learn from Peter Martyr, that, when the Spaniards first discovered Nicaragua, they attempted to persuade the prince of the country to embrace Christianity. Upon this he immediately inquired, whether those, who professed the religion of Jesus, had any knowledge of the flood; which, according to traditional accounts received from his predecessors, had once covered the whole earth, and had destroyed both men and beasts.* 5. A similar belief prevailed in the Terra-Firma of South America. It was the tradition of the inhabitants of Castilla del Oro, that, when the universai deluge happened, one man with his wife and children escaped in a canoe, and that from them the world was repeopled. They further believed, that there was one lord in heaven, who sent the rain, and who caused the motions of the celestial bodies; and likewise that there was in heaven a very beautiful woman with a child.' From the symbolical mode of worship, which prevailed throughout the old continent and which the Americans had by no means forgotten, I am inclined to ascribe the last particular to the arkite astronomical superstition. The ship of Noah was typified by a female; who was supposed to have emerged from the sea, who was deemed the receptacle and common mother of the hero-gods, and who nevertheless was elevated to the sphere and identified with the Moon. Of this female Noah was reckoned sometimes the husband or father, and sometimes the offspring. In the former character, he was represented as a venerable old man; in the latter, as a new-born infant. Thus the Egyptians, on account of his allegorical birth from the Ark, depicted him as a child sitting in the calix of the aquatic lotos which was a type of the ship Argo or Argha; and yet esteemed him the most ancient Eros or Cupid. The child in the arms of the woman, as exhibited in the mythology of the Americans, is the very same as the infant Crishna in the arms of Devaki, as the infant Horus in the arms of Isis, as the infant Apollo in the arms of Latona, and as the infant Dionusus in the arms of Hippa or Ceres. 6. But, according to Herrera, the tradition, preserved by the inhabitants of Cuba, was yet more definite and particular. He informs us, that they were not ignorant of the creation of the Universe, and that they possessed much information concerning the flood. The world, they said, had been destroyed by water, through the agency of three persons that came three several ways. At this time, an old man, foreseeing the deluge, built a great ship, and went into it with his family and abundance of animals. After he had been shut up many days, he sent out a crow, which did not return, but stayed to feed on the dead bodies: at length however it came back with a green branch in its mouth. They related moreover, that this ancient man lay uncovered in consequence of intoxication, and that one of his sons scoffed at him while in that state, but that the others spread their garments over him. They added, that they themselves were descended from the former son; whence they had no raiment to cover their nakedness: and they argued, that the Spaniards must have sprung from a different son, from one of those that spread their garments over their father; because they had both cloathes and horses. Herrera asserts, that this narrative was communicated by a Cuban more than seventy years of age to Gabriel de Cabrera, who in a quarrel had called him dog. Wherefore, he asked in reply, dost thou abuse me, since we are brethren? Do we not spring from two sons of him, who built the great ship to save himself from the waters?' 7. Nay even the inhabitants of Otaheite, secluded as they long were from the rest of the world, preserved no indistinct remembrance of the deluge, of the patriarch Noah, and of his three sons. They have a tradition, we are Herrer. Hist. of Amer. Decad. i. b. ix. c. 11. CHAP. IV. Pag. Idol. VOL. II. T |