Zeus sent a flood to destroy the men of the Bronze Age. Prometheus
advised his son Deucalion to build a chest. All other men perished except
for a few who escaped to high mountains. The mountains in Thessaly were
parted, and all the world beyond the Isthmus and Peloponnese was overwhelmed.
Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha (daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora), after
floating in the chest for nine days and nights, landed on Parnassus. When
the rains ceased, he sacrificed to Zeus, the God of Escape. At the bidding
of Zeus, he threw stones over his head; they became men, and the stones
which Pyrrha threw became women. That is why people are called laoi,
from laas, "a stone." [Apollodorus 1.7.2]
An older version of the story told by Hellanicus has Deucalion's ark landing on Mount Othrys in Thessaly. Another account has him landing on a peak, probably Phouka, in Argolis, later called Nemea. [Gaster, p. 85]
The Megarians told that Megarus, son of Zeus, escaped Deucalion's flood by swimming to the top of Mount Gerania, guided by the cries of cranes. [Gaster, p. 85-86]
An earlier flood was reported to have occurred in the time of Ogyges, founder and king of Thebes. The flood covered the whole world and was so devastating that the country remained without kings until the reign of Cecrops. [Gaster, p. 87]
"Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years" since Athens and Atlantis were preeminent. Destruction by fire and other catastrophes was also common. In these floods, water rose from below, destroying city dwellers but not mountain people. The floods, especially the third great flood before Deucalion, washed away most of Athens' fertile soil. [Plato, "Timaeus" 22, "Critias" 111-112]
Jupiter, angered at the evil ways of humanity, resolved to destroy
it. He was about to set the earth to burning, but considered that that
might set heaven itself afire, so he decided to flood the earth instead.
With Neptune's help, he caused storm and earthquake to flood everything
but the summit of Parnassus, where Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha came by
boat and found refuge. Recognizing their piety, Jupiter let them live and
withdrew the flood. Deucalion and Pyrrha, at the advice of an oracle, repopulated
the world by throwing "your mother's bones" (stones) behind them; each
stone became a person. [Ovid, book 1]
Jupiter and Mercury, traveling incognito in Phrygia, begged for food and shelter, but found all doors closed to them until they received hospitality from Philemon and Baucis. The gods revealed their identity, led the couple up the mountains, and showed them the whole valley flooded, destroying all homes but the couple's, which was transformed into a marble temple. Given a wish, the couple asked to be priest and priestess of the temple, and to die together. In their extreme old age, they changed into an oak and lime tree. [Ovid, book 8]
Oden, Vili, and Ve fought and slew the great ice giant Ymir, and
icy water from his wounds drowned most of the Rime Giants. The giant Bergelmir
escaped, with his wife and children, on a boat. Ymir's body became the
world we live on. [Sturluson, p. 35]
Heaven and Earth were great giants, and Heaven lay upon the Earth
so that their children were crowded in the darkness between them. One of
their sons led his brothers in cutting up Heaven into many pieces. From
his skull they made the firmament. His spilling blood caused a great flood
which killed all humans except a single pair, who were saved in a ship
made by a beneficent Titan. The waters settled in hollows to become the
oceans. [Sproul, pp. 172-173]
The lake of Llion burst, flooding all lands. Dwyfan and Dwyfach
escaped in a mastless ship with pairs of every sort of living creature.
They landed in Prydain (Britain) and repopulated the world. [Gaster, pp.
92-93]
From his heavenly window, the supreme god Pramzimas saw nothing
but war and injustice among mankind. He sent two giants, Wandu and Wejas
(water and wind), to destroy earth. After twenty days and nights, little
was left. Pramzimas looked to see the progress. He happened to be eating
nuts at the time, and he threw down the shells. One happened to land on
the peak of the tallest mountain, where some people and animals had sought
refuge. Everybody climbed in and survived the flood floating in the nutshell.
God's wrath abated, he ordered the wind and water to abate. The people
dispersed, except for one elderly couple who stayed where they landed.
To comfort them, God sent the rainbow and advised them to jump over the
bones of the earth nine times. They did so, and up sprang nine other couples,
from which the nine Lithuanian tribes descended. [Gaster, p. 93]
A louse and a flea were brewing beer in an eggshell. The louse fell
in and burnt herself. This made the flea weep, which made the door creak,
which made the broom sweep, which made the cart run, which made the ash-heap
burn, which made the tree shake itself, which made the girl break her water-pitcher,
which made the spring begin to flow. And in the spring's water everything
was drowned. [Grimm 30]
Iskender-Iulcarni (Alexander the Great), in the course of his conquests,
demanded tribute from Katife, Queen of Smyrna. She refused insultingly
and threatened to drown the king if he persisted. Enraged at her insolence,
the conqueror determined to punish the queen by drowning her in a great
flood. He employed Moslem and infidel workmen to make a strait of the Bosphorus,
paying the infidel workmen one-fifth as much as the Moslems got. When the
canal was nearly completed, he reversed the pay arrangements, giving the
Moslems only one-fifth as much as the infidels. The Moslems quit in disgust
and left the infidels to finish the canal. The Black Sea swept away the
last dike and drowned the workmen. The flood spread over Queen Katife's
country (drowning her) and several cities in Africa. The whole world would
have been engulfed, but Iskender-Iulcarni was prevailed upon to open the
Strait of Gibraltar, letting the Mediterranean escape into the ocean. [Gaster,
pp. 91-92]
After seven years of drought, the Great Woman said to the Great
Man that rains had come elsewhere; how should they save themselves. The
Great Man counselled the other giants to make boats from cut poplars, anchor
them with ropes of willow roots 500 fathoms long, and provide them with
seven days of food and with pots of melted butter to grease the ropes.
Those who did not make all the preparations perished when the waters came.
After seven days, the waters sank. But all plants and animals had perished,
even the fish. The survivors, on the brink of starvation, prayed to the
great god Numi-târom, who recreated living things. [Gaster, pp. 93-94]
In this region, it is common to believe that the earth was originally
covered with water, and that there is now a layer of water beneath the
earth. Hebrews also have a layer of water above the earth.
People have become rebellious. Atum said he will destroy all he
made and return the earth to the Primordial Water which was its original
state. Atum will remain, in the form of a serpent, with Osiris. [Faulkner,
plate 30] (Unfortunately the version of the papyrus with the flood story
is damaged and unclear. See also Budge, p. ccii.)
The gods, led by Enlil, agreed to cleanse the earth of an overpopulated
humanity, but Utnapishtim was warned by the god Ea in a dream. He and some
craftsmen built a large boat (one acre in area, seven decks) in a week.
He then loaded it with his family, the craftsmen, and "the seed of all
living creatures." The waters of the abyss rose up, and it stormed for
six days. Even the gods were frightened by the flood's fury. Upon seeing
all the people killed, the gods repented and wept. The waters covered everything
but the top of the mountain Nisur, where the boat landed. Seven days later,
Utnapishtim released a dove, but it returned finding nowhere else to land.
He next returned a sparrow, which also returned, and then a raven, which
did not return. Thus he knew the waters had receded enough for the people
to emerge. Utnapishtim made a sacrifice to the gods. He and his wife were
given immortality and lived at the end of the earth. [Sandars, chpt. 5]
In a Sumerian tradition, the hero was a priest-king named Ziusudra ("Long of Life"). [Hammerly-Dupuy, p. 56]
Sharur destroyed Asag, demon of sickness and disease, by flooding his abode. In the process, "The primeval waters of Kur rose to the surface, and as a result of their violence no fresh waters could reach the fields and gardens." [Kramer, p. 105]
God, upset at mankind's wickedness, resolved to destroy it, except
Noah found favor with Him. God told Noah to build an ark, 450 x 75 x 45
feet, with three decks. Noah did so, and took aboard his family (8 people
in all) and pairs of all kinds of animals (7 of the clean ones). For 40
days and nights, floodwaters came from the heavens and from the deeps,
until the highest mountains were covered. The waters flooded the earth
for 150 days and then receded, and the ark came to rest in Ararat. After
40 days, Noah sent out a raven, which kept flying until the waters had
dried up. He next sent out a dove, which returned without finding a perch.
A week later he set out the dove again, and it returned with an olive leaf.
The next week, the dove didn't return. After a year and 10 days from the
start of the flood, everyone and everything emerged from the ark. Noah
sacrificed some clean animals and birds to God, and God, pleased with this,
promised never again to destroy all living creatures. [Genesis 6-8]
The Koran [11:25-48] refers to the same event, adding that the earth swallowed the water, the boat came to rest on the mountain Al-Judi, and one of Noah's disbelieving sons drowned in the flood.
A woman "clothed with the sun" gave birth to a man child who was taken up by God. The woman then lived in the wilderness, where the Devil-dragon, cast down to earth, persecuted her. At one time he cast a flood of water from his mouth trying to wash her away, but the earth helped the woman and swallowed the flood. [Revelation 12]
Three times (every 1200 years), the gods were distressed by the
disturbance from human overpopulation. The gods dealt with the problem
first by plague, then by famine. Both times, the god Enki advised men to
bribe the god causing the problem. The third time, Enlil advised the gods
to destroy all humans with a flood, but Enki had Atrahasis build an ark
and so escape. Also on the boat were cattle, wild animals and birds, and
Atrahasis' family. After the flood, the gods regretted their action, and
Enki established barren women and stillbirth to avoid the problem in the
future. [Dalley, pp. 23-35]
The god Chronos warned Xisuthrus of a coming flood, ordered him
to write a history, and told him to build a vessel (5 stadia by 2 stadia)
for himself, his friends and relations, and all kinds of animals, all of
which he did. After the flood had come and abated somewhat, he sent out
some birds, which returned. Later, he tried again, and the birds returned
with mud on their feet. On the third trial, the birds didn't return. He
disembarked and, with his wife, daughter, and pilot, offered sacrifices
to the gods. Those four were translated to live with the gods. [Smith,
pp. 42-43]
"After Ahura Mazda has warned Yima that destruction in the form
of winter, frost, and floods, subsequent to the melting of the snow, are
threatening the sinful world, he proceeds to instruct him to build a vara,
'fortress or estate,' in which specimens of small and large cattle, human
beings, dogs, birds, red flaming fires, plants and foodstuffs will have
to be deposited in pairs." [Dresden, p. 344]
"Beneath this earth there is water everywhere." [Dresden, p. 339]
Chameleon, hearing a strange noise in a tree, cut open its trunk.
Water came out in a great flood that spread all over the earth. The first
human couple emerged with the water. [Parrinder, pp. 46-47]
A beautiful but mysterious woman agreed to marry a man on the condition
that he never ask about her family. He agreed, and they lived happily together
until it was time for their oldest son's circumcision, and the man asked
his wife why her family couldn't attend the ceremony. With that, the wife
bounced into the air and made a hole seven miles deep when she landed.
She called upon her ancestors, who came as spirits from Mt. Kenya. The
spirits raised a thunder and hailstorm as they came. They brought food,
goats, cattle, and beer with them and, while the people took shelter in
caves, flooded the countryside with beer, turning it into a lake. When
the spirits left, they took the couple and their children with them into
Mt. Kenya. [Abrahams, pp. 336-338]
The rivers began flooding. God told two men to go into a ship, taking
with them all sorts of seed and animals. The flood rose, covering the mountains.
Later, to check whether the waters had dried up, the man sent out a dove,
and it came back to the ship. He waited and sent out a hawk, which did
not return because the waters had dried. The men then disembarked with
the animals and seeds. [Gaster, pp. 120-121]
A god, Ifa, tired of living on earth and went to dwell in the firmament.
Without his assistance, mankind couldn't interpret the desires of the gods,
and one god, in a fit of rage, destroyed nearly everybody in a great flood.
[Kelsen, p. 135]
Zebra married Ngolle Kakesse, granddaughter of God, but broke his
promise not to allow her to work. From her stretched-out legs ran water
which flooded the land, and Ngolle herself drowned. [Kelsen, p. 135]
Etim 'Ne (Old Person) and his wife Ejaw came to earth from the sky.
At first, there was no water on earth, so Etim 'Ne asked the god Obassi
Osaw for water, and he was given a calabash with seven clear stones. When
Etim 'Ne put a stone in a small hole in the ground, water welled out and
became a broad lake. Later, seven sons and seven daughters were born to
the couple. Etim 'Ne gave stones to the good sons that shared their food
with their father. The children married and had children of their own.
When they all had established new homes, Etim 'Ne sent for all the children
and told them each to take seven stones from the streams of their parents,
and to plant them to create new streams. All did so except one son who
collected a basketful and emptied all his stones in one place. Waters came,
covered his farm, and threatened to cover the whole earth. Everyone ran
to Etim 'Ne, fleeing the flood. Etim 'Ne prayed to Obassi, who stopped
the flood but let a lake remain covering the farm of the bad son. [Courlander,
pp. 267-269]
A charitable man gave away everything he had. The god Ouende rewarded
him with riches, advised him to leave the area, and sent six months of
rain to destroy his selfish neighbors. The descendants of the rich man
became the present human race. [Kelsen, pp. 135-136]
An old lady, weary and covered with sores, arrived in a town called
Sonanzenzi and sought hospitality, which was denied her at all homes but
the last she came to. When she was well and ready to depart, she told her
friends to pack up and leave with her, as the place was accursed and would
be destroyed by Nzambi. The night after they had left, heavy rains came
and turned the valley into a lake, drowning all the inhabitants of the
town. The sticks of the houses can still be seen deep in the lake. [Feldmann,
p. 50; Kelsen, p. 137]
The sun once met the moon and threw mud at it, making it dimmer.
There was a flood when this happened. Men put their milk stick behind them
and were turned into monkeys. The present race of men is a recent creation.
[Fauconnet, p. 481]
Ilet, the spirit of lightning, came to live, in human form, in a
cave high on the mountain named Tinderet. When he did so, it rained incessantly
and killed most of the hunters living in the forest below. Some hunters,
searching for the cause of the rain, found him and wounded him with poison
arrows. Ilet fled and died in a neighboring country. When he died, the
rain stopped. [Kelsen, p. 137]
A girl let a goat eat some of her flour, and in return for the kindness,
the goat told her there will be a flood. Only she and her brother escaped.
After the flood, they couldn't find mates. The goat reappeared and said
they could marry themselves, but they would have to put a clay pot with
a broken bottom on their roof to signify that they are relatives. [Kahler-Meyer,
pp. 251-252]
A man and his wife had a pot which never ran out of water. They
told their daughter-in-law only never to touch it, but she grew curious
and touched it. It shattered, and the resulting flood drowned everything.
[Kahler-Meyer, pp. 253-254]
None. The very idea is ludicrous.
Manu, the first human, found a small fish in his washwater. The
fish begged protection from the larger fishes, in return for which it would
save Manu. Manu kept the fish safe, transferring it to larger and larger
reservoirs as it grew, and later the fish saved Manu from a deluge by warning
him to build a boat and letting him tie the craft to the fish's horn. The
fish led him to a mountain and told Manu to tie the ship's rope to a tree
to prevent it from drifting. Manu, alone of all creatures, survived. He
made offerings of clarified butter, sour milk, whey, and curds. From these,
a woman arose, calling herself Manu's daughter. Through her, he generated
this race. [Kelsen, p. 128; Brinton, pp. 227-228]
"The Lord of the Universe," to preserve king Satyavarata from dangers of the depravity of the age, sent him a large ship, and told him to gather himself, medicinal herbs, and pairs of brute animals aboard it to save them from a flood. Seven days later, the three worlds were flooded and darkened. The god appeared in the ocean as an enormous fish, a million leagues long, and Satyavarata tied the ark to its horn with a huge sea serpent. [Howey, pp. 389-390]
Out of gratitude for humanity feeding fish, a fish told a dhobi
(a pious man) that a great deluge was coming. The man prepared a large
box in which he embarked with his sister and a cock. After the flood, a
messenger of Rama discovered the box by the cock's crowing. Rama had the
box brought to him and questioned the man. Facing north, east, and west,
the man swore that the woman was his sister; facing south, the man said
she was his wife. Told that the fish gave the warning, Rama had the fish's
tongue removed, and fish have been tongueless since. Rama ordered the man
to repopulate the world, so he married his sister, and they had seven daughters
and seven sons. [Gaster, pp. 95-96]
A boy and girl were born to the first man and woman. God sent a
deluge to destroy a jackal which had angered him. The man and woman heard
it coming, so they shut their children in a hollow piece of wood with provisions
to last until the flood subsides. The deluge came, and everything on earth
was drowned. After twelve years, God created two birds and sent them to
see if the jackal had been drowned. They saw nothing but a floating log
and, landing on it, heard the children inside, who were saying to each
other that they had only three days of provisions left. The birds told
God, who caused the flood to subside, took the children from the log, and
heard their story. In due time they were married, and all people are descended
from them. [Gaster, p. 96]
The first people became incestuous and unheedful of God or their
betters. Sirma Thakoor, or Sing Bonga, the creator, destroyed them, some
say by water and others say by fire. He spared sixteen people. [Gaster,
p. 96]
A couple escaped a great flood on the top of a mountain called Tendong,
near Darjeeling. [Gaster, p. 96]
Tibet was almost totally inundated, until the god Gya took compassion
on the survivors, drew off the waters through Bengal, and sent teachers
to civilize the people, who until then had been little better than monkeys.
[Gaster, p. 97]
Mankind was once destroyed because they had neglected the proper
sacrifices as the slaughter of buffaloes and pigs. Two men, Khun litang
and Chu liyang, survived with their wives and, dwelling on Singrabhum hill,
became humanity's ancestors. [Gaster, p. 97]
The king of the water demons fell in love with the woman Ngai-ti
(Loved One). She rejected him and ran away. He pursued, and surrounded
the whole human race with water on the hill Phun-lu-buk, said to be in
the far northeast. The people threw Ngai-ti into the flood, which then
receded. The receding water carved great valleys; until then, the earth
had been level. [Gaster, p. 97]
A flood once covered the whole world and drowned everyone except
for one couple, who climbed up a tree on the highest peak of the Leng hill.
In the morning, they discovered that they had been changed into a tiger
and tigress. Seeing the sad state of the world, Pathian, the creator, sent
a man and a woman from a cave on the hill. But as they emerged from the
cave, they were terrified by the sight of the tigers. They prayed to the
Creator for strength and killed the beasts. After that, they lived happily
and repopulated the world. [Gaster, p. 97]
Hailibu, a hunter, saved a white snake from a crane which attacked
it. Next day, he met the same snake with a retinue of other snakes. The
snake told him that she was the Dragon King's daughter, and the Dragon
King wished to reward him. She advised Hailibu to ask for the precious
stone that the Dragon King keeps in his mouth. With that stone, she told
him, he could understand the language of animals, but he would turn to
stone if he ever divulged its secret to anyone else. Hailibu went to the
Dragon King, turned down his many other treasures, and was given the stone.
Years later, Hailibu heard some birds saying that the next day the mountains
would erupt and flood the land. He went back home to warn his neighbors,
but they didn't believe him. To convince them, he told them how he had
learned of the coming flood and told them the full story of the precious
stone. When he finished his story, he turned to stone. The villagers, seeing
this happen, fled. It rained all the next night, and the mountains erupted,
belching forth a great flood of water. When the people returned, they found
the stone which Hailibu had turned into and placed it at the top of the
mountain. For generations, they have offered sacrifices to the stone in
honor of Hailibu's sacrifice. [Elder & Wong, pp. 75-77]
The Supreme Sovereign ordered the water god Gong Gong to create
a flood as punishment and warning for human misbehavior. Gong Gong extended
the flood for 22 years. The supernatural hero Gun stole Growing Soil from
heaven to dam the waters, but he was executed for his theft before he finished.
However, his body didn't decay, and when it was cut apart three years later,
his son Yu emerged in the form of a horned dragon. Yu drove away Gong Gong
and finished damming the floodwaters. [Walls, pp. 94-98]
A kite once quarrelled with the crab and pecked a hole in its skull.
In revenge, the crab caused the sea and rivers to swell until the waters
reached the sky. The only survivors were a brother and sister who took
a pair of all kinds of animals with them in a huge chest. They floated
for seven days and nights. Then the brother heard a cock crowing outside,
sent by the spirits to signal that the flood had abated. All disembarked.
The brother and sister did not know how they would live, for they had eaten
all the rice that was stored in the chest. However, a black ant brought
two grains of rice. The brother planted them, and the plain was covered
with a rice crop the next morning. [Gaster, p. 98]
In primeval times, men were wicked. The patriarch Tse-gu-dzih sent
a messenger down to earth, asking for some flesh and blood from a mortal.
Only one man, Du-mu, complied. In wrath, Tse-gu-dzih locked the rain-gates,
and the waters mounted to the sky. Du-mu was saved in a log hollowed out
of a Pieris tree, together with his four sons and otters, wild ducks,
and lampreys. The civilized peoples who can write are descended from the
sons; the ignorant races are descendants of wooden figures whom Du-mu constructed
after the deluge. [Gaster, pp. 99-100]
A flood covered the whole land in the early days of the world. A
few people saved themselves on rafts made from bound-together tree trunks.
They carried their property and provisions and used stones tied to straps
as anchors to prevent being swept out to sea. They were left stranded on
mountains when the waters receded. [Gaster, p. 100]
Some time after their creation, men grew disobedient. In anger,
Puluga, the Creator, sent a flood which covered the whole land, except
perhaps Saddle Peak where Puluga himself resided. Of all creatures, the
only survivors were two men and two women who had the fortune to be in
a canoe when the flood came. The waters sank and they landed, but they
found themselves in a sad plight. Puluga recreated birds and animals, but
the world was still damp and without fire. The ghost of one of the peoples'
friends took the form of a kingfisher and tried to steal a brand from Puluga's
fire, but he dropped in on the Creator. Incensed, Puluga hurled the brand
at the bird, but it missed and landed where the four flood survivors were
seated. After the people had warmed themselves and had leisure to reflect,
they began to murmur against the Creator and even plotted to murder him.
However, the Creator warned them away from such rash action, explained
that men had brought the flood on themselves by their disobedience, and
that another such offense would likewise be met with punishment. That was
the last time the Creator spoke with men face to face. [Gaster, pp. 104-105]
When the deluge came, Pawpaw Nan-chaung and his sister Chang-hko
saved themselves in a large boat. They took with them nine cocks and nine
needles. When the storm and rain had passed, they each day threw out one
cock and one needle to see whether the waters were falling. On the ninth
day, they finally heard the cock crow and the needle strike bottom. They
left their boat, wandered about, and came to a cave home of two nats
or elves. The elves bade them stay and make themselves useful, which they
did. Soon the sister gave birth, and the old elfin woman minded the baby
while its parents were away at work. The old woman, who was a witch, disliked
the infant's squalling, and one day took it to a place where nine roads
met, cut it to pieces, and scattered its blood and body about. She carried
some of the tidbits back to the cave, made it into a curry, and tricked
the mother into eating it. When the mother learned this, she fled to the
crossroads and cried to the Great Spirit to return her child and avenge
its death. The Great Spirit told her he couldn't restore her baby, but
he would make her mother of all nations of men. Then, from each road, people
of different nations sprang up from the fragments of the murdered babe.
[Gaster, pp. 97-98]
A brother and sister, warned of the upcoming flood by a mouse, sealed
themselves inside a drum, and emerged again after the flood receded. They
looked far and wide for mates, but they were the only survivors. A malcoha
cuckoo sang to them, "brother and sister should embrace one another." They
slept together. After seven years, the child was born as a gourd. A little
later, hearing noises from the gourd, they burnt a hole in its shell, and
people of the different races came out, first Rumeet, then Kammu, Thai,
Westerner, and Chinese. [Lindell et. al., pp. 268-270]
The ground we stand on is merely a skin covering an abyss of water.
Long ago, Pirman, the deity, broke up this skin, flooding and destroying
the world. However, Pirman had created a man and woman and placed them
in a completely closed ship of pulai wood. When at last this ship
came to rest, the couple nibbled their way out through its side, and they
saw land stretching to the horizon in all directions. The sun had not yet
been created, so it was dark; when it grew light, they saw seven small
rhododendron shrubs and seven clumps of sambau grass. The couple
bemoaned their lack of children, but in time the woman conceived in the
calves of her legs, a male child coming from the right calf and a female
from the left. That is why offspring from the same womb may not marry.
All mankind are descended from that first pair. [Gaster, p. 99]
One day a feast was made for a circumcision, during which all manner
of beasts were pitted to fight one another. The last fight was between
dogs and cats. During this fight, a great flood came down from the mountains,
drowning everyone except two or three menials who had been sent to the
hills to gather firewood. Then the sun, moon, and stars were extinguished.
When light returned, there was no land, and all the abodes of men had been
overwhelmed. [Gaster, p. 99]
A brother and sister escaped a great deluge in a wooden mortar.
They landed on a high mountain, married, had children, and founded the
village of Popkok in a hollow of the hills, where they thought themselves
safe from another deluge. [Gaster, p. 104]
A great drought dried up all the rivers. The old men suggested digging
in a river bed to find the soul of the river. After three days of digging,
a great spring gushed forth, but while the Ifugaos celebrated, a storm
came, the river kept rising, and the elders advised people to run for the
mountains. Only two people made it to safety, a brother and sister, on
separate mountains. After six months, the waters receded. The sister later
found herself with child and ran away in shame, but the god Maknongan assured
her that her shame had no foundation. [Demetrio, p. 262]
Only a brother and sister named Wigam and Bugan survived a primeval flood, on Mount Amuyas. [Gaster, p. 104]
Water covered the whole earth, and all the Atás drowned except
two men and a woman who were carried far to sea. They would have perished,
but a great eagle offered to carry them on its back to their homes. One
man refused, but the other two people accepted and returned to Mapula.
[Gaster, pp. 103-104]
Naga-Padoha, the giant snake on which the earth rests, grew tired
of its burden and shook it off into the sea. But the god Batara-Guru caused
a mountain to fall into the water to preserve his daughter. From her, the
human race is descended. Later, the earth was replaced onto the head of
the snake. [Kelsen, p. 133]
Debata, the Creator, sent a flood to destroy every living thing when the earth grew old and dirty. The last pair of humans took refuge on the highest mountain, and the flood had already reached their knees, when Debata repented his decision to destroy mankind. He tied a clod of earth to a thread and lowered it. The last pair stepped onto it and were saved. As the couple and their descendants multiplied, the clod increased in size, becoming the earth we inhabit today. [Gaster, p. 100]
The mountains quarrelled over which of them was the highest. In
vexation, their great ancestor Baluga Luomewona caused the oceans to rise
by throwing into a sea a comb which became a giant crab which stopped up
the ocean's outlet sluices. The water rose to cover all but the tops of
two or three mountains. The people who had escaped to these mountains with
their cattle survived. [Kelsen, p. 133, Gaster, p. 100]
The tide rose so high it overflowed the island. All drowned except
one woman, who survived through the fortunate chance that her hair got
caught in a thorny tree as she drifted along on the tide. When the flood
sank, she came down from the tree and found herself alone. Hungry, she
went to the beach hoping to catch a fish. She found a fish, but it hid
in one of the corpses left by the flood. She picked up stone and hit the
corpse, but the fish escaped and headed inland. She followed, but soon
met a living man. The man told her that he had to returned to life as a
consequence of somebody knocking on his dead body. The woman told him her
story, and they returned to the beach and restored the population by knocking
on the drowned people. [Gaster, pp. 100-101]
Some women gathered bamboo shoots, sat on a log, and began paring
them. But they noticed the trunk exuded drops of blood with each cut of
their knives. Some men came by and saw that the trunk was actually a giant,
torporous boa constrictor. They killed it, cut it up, and took it home
to eat. While they were frying the pieces, strange noises came from the
frying pan and a torrential rain began. The rain continued until only the
highest hill remained above water. Only a woman, dog, rat, and a few small
creature survived. The woman noticed that the dog had found shelter under
a creeper warmed by the rubbing between the creeper and a tree in the wind.
She took the hint, rubbed the creeper against a hard piece of wood, and
produced fire for the first time. The woman took the fire-drill for her
mate and gave birth to a son called Simpang-impang. He was only half a
man, with only one arm, one leg, etc. Some time later, the Spirit of the
Wind carried off some rice which Simpang-impang had spread out to dry.
Simpang-impang demanded compensation. The Spirit of the Wind refused but
was vanquished in a series of contests and restored Simpang-impang's missing
parts. [Gaster, pp. 101-102]
When the flood came, a man named Trow made a boat from a large wooden mortar previously used for pounding rice. He took with him his wife, a dog, pig, cat, fowl, and other animals, and rode out the flood. Afterwards, to repeople the earth, Trow fashioned additional wives out of a log, stone, and anything else handy. Soon he had a large family which became the ancestors of the various Dyak tribes. [Gaster, p. 102]
A great deluge once drowned many people. A few people survived by
escaping in boats to the one mountain peak remaining above water. They
dwelt there for three months until the flood subsided. [Gaster, p. 102]
A flood once covered everything but the summit of Mount Wawom Pebato
(seashells on the hills are evidence). Only a pregnant woman and a pregnant
mouse escaped in a pig's trough, paddling with a pot-ladle. After the waters
had descended, the woman saw a sheaf of rice hanging from an uprooted tree.
The mouse got it down for her, but demanded in recompense that mice should
thereafter have the right to eat part of the harvest. The woman gave birth
to a son, took him for her husband, and by him had a son and daughter who
became mankind's ancestors. [Gaster, p. 102]
As a great worldwide flood receded, the mountain Noesake emerged
with its sides clothed with trees whose leaves were shaped like female
genitalia. Only three people survived on the top of the mountain. The sea-eagle
brought tidings of other mountains emerging from the waters, and the people
went thither. By means of the remarkable leaves, they repopulated the world.
[Gaster, p. 103]
In former times, the sea flooded the earth; only the peak of Lakimola
remained above water. A man, with his wife and children, took refuge there,
but the tide kept slowly rising for some months. They prayed to the sea
to return to its old bed. The sea answered, "I will do so, if you give
me an animal whose hairs I cannot count." A pig, goat, and dog failed this
test, but when the man threw in a cat, the sea sank abashedly. An osprey
appeared and sprinkled some dry earth on the waters, and the family descended
to a new home. The Lord commanded that the osprey bring all kinds of seed
to the man for him to cultivate. After harvests on Rotti, people still
set up a sheaf of rice as an offering to Mount Lakimola. [Gaster, p. 103]
Dooy, the forefather of the Nages, was saved from a great flood
in a ship. His grave occupies the center of the public square at Boa Wai,
their capital, and is the center of their harvest festival. [Gaster, p.
103]
Lohero and his brother were angry with their neighbors, so they
put a human bone into a small stream. Soon a great flood came forth, and
the people had to retreat to the highest peaks until the sea receded. Some
people descended, and others made their homes on the ridges. [Kelsen, pp.
130-131; Gaster, p. 105]
The wife of a very good man saw a very big fish. She called her
husband, but he couldn't see it until he hid behind a banana tree and peeked
through its leaves. When he finally saw it, he was horribly afraid and
forbade his family to catch and eat the fish. But other people caught the
fish and, heedless of the man's warning, ate it. When the good man saw
that, he hastily drove a pair of all kinds of animals into trees and climbed
into a cocoanut tree with his family. As soon as the wicked men ate the
fish, water violently burst from the ground and drowned everyone on it.
As soon as the water reached the treetops, it sank rapidly, and the good
man and his family came down and laid out new plantations. [Gaster, p.
105]
A rising river caused a flood which overwhelmed Mount Vanessa. Only
a man and his wife, a pig, a cassowary, a kangaroo, and a pigeon escaped.
These became the ancestors of humans and other species. The bones of the
drowned animals can still be found on Mount Vanessa. [Gaster, pp. 105-106]
Grumuduk, a medicine man who lived in the hills, had the power to
bring rain and to make plants and animals plentiful. A plains tribe kidnapped
him, wanting his power, but Grumuduk escaped and decreed that wherever
he walked in the country of his enemies, salt water would rise in his footsteps.
[Flood, p. 179]
During the Dreamtime flood, woramba, the Ark Gumana carrying Noah, Aborigines, and animals, drifted south and came to rest in the flood plain of Djilinbadu (about 70 km south of Noonkanbah Station, just south of the Barbwire Range and east of the Worral Range), where it can still be seen today. The white man's claim that it landed in the Middle East was a lie to keep Aborigines in subservience. [Kolig, pp. 242-245]
In one version of the myth of the Wawalik sisters, the sisters,
with their two infant children, camped by the Mirrirmina waterhole. Some
of the older sister's menstrual blood fell into the well. The rainbow serpent
Yurlunggur smelled the blood and crawled out of his well. He spit some
well water into the sky and hissed to call for rain. The rains came, and
the well water started to rise. The women hurriedly built a house and went
inside, but Yurlunggur caused them to sleep. He swallowed them and their
sons. Then he stood very straight and tall, reaching as high as a cloud,
and the flood waters came as high as he did. When he fell, the waters receded
and there was dry ground. [Buchler, pp. 134-135]
Two orphaned children were left in the care of a man called Wirili-up, who shirked the responsibility. The children, always hungry, cried so much that a ngaljod (rainbow serpent) rose from his waterhole and flooded the countryside. Wirili-up fled, but the children drowned. [Mountford, p. 74]
When a storm came up, two sisters who were gathering shellfish swore
at Namarangini, the spirit man who sang up the rain. He heard, grabbed
the younger sister, and tried unsuccessfully to copulate with her. He took
her to his camp and tried again, but discovered there was a cycad nut grinding
stone in her vagina. After he removed it, he copulated with her easily.
When they had finished, she made herself into a fly and returned to her
husband. Her husband discovered the stone was missing, and he killed her
by pushing a heated stick through her vagina into her stomach. The next
morning, the other sister discovered that she was dead and knew that her
husband had killed her. The Fly and Sandfly women cried for their sister
and beat her husband, driving him away. When they cried, rain fell heavily
and continued falling for several weeks. They made bark rafts. A rush of
water from inland washed them out to sea, to Elcho and other islands. [Berndt
& Berndt, pp. 287-289]
People dividing fish always gave the man Crow the poor quality ones.
Crow cut down a big paperbark tree, which fell across a creek. Crow sat
on the tree crying out, "Waag. . . Waag!" As he did, the creek grew wider
and wider, dividing the island into two islands. Crow turned into a bird
and flew over the people. The splash from the tree caused the water to
rise, and the people, who were all on the bank of the creek, all drowned.
[Berndt & Berndt, p. 40]
The woman Gulbin killed a snake, began cooking it, and slept while
it cooked. But the snake was the daughter of She who lives underground.
That snake made water rise, drowned the woman, and at last came up and
ate her. Later the Snake vomited her bones, which became like rock. [Berndt
& Berndt, pp. 84-85; see also p. 280]
The first people were living in what is now the middle of the sea. In ignorance, some of them knocked a maar rock, a dangerous Dreaming rock. After they went home, rain fell for a long time, and fresh water came running in search of them. In panic, the people swam around trying to get to dry land. There was no place they could go except for the rock Aragaladi, but Aragaladi was not a real rock; Snake had made it rise up for them. Snake came looking for the people, urinating salt water. A man came from the mainland in a canoe, but he drowned in the middle of the sea. Snake came and swallowed the people and later vomited their bones. She made the place deep with sea water. Those first people became rocks. Nobody goes to Aragaladi now. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 88-89]
An orphan boy was crying because the people in the community were preoccupied with a ritual and didn't feed him well. When his brother returned from hunting and saw him, he told the people, "I'm very sorry for my little brother. I'll finish all of you!" He took Rainbow eggs and broke them, and water "jumped out" and spread. The man took his brother up a hill, where they both became rocks. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 93-94]
Some people came from north and danced the nyalaidj ceremony. While they danced, one girl climbed a pandanus palm and was calling out, and an orphan boy was crying. The people kept dancing. The crying and calling upset the place, and water came up from underneath. The people cried in fear, but they couldn't run away because the ground became soft, and the water covered them. Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent ate them, first the people who were calling out and the orphan who was crying. The name of the place is Gaalbaraya; it is still a taboo place. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 96-97]
All the honeycombs that a Honey djang man cut out were no good. He went on and cut and ate a palm tree. He heard bees talking, saying "Gu-gu" ["water"]. He ran back to others and told them that he had unknowingly done wrong to a djang palm tree. They tried to burn the tree, but water came up. One girl ran up a hill calling out; the others climbed a manbaderi tree. The tree fell, and those in it drowned. The girl became a rock. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 100-101]
Two were traveling during the Dreamtime. One fell sick, and the Wuraal bird came up. The other heard it and said, "Maybe we're making ourselves wrong, coming into Dreaming." That night, the bird repeatedly struck the dying one, killing him. Water came up where it struck him. The other tried to outrun the rising water, but he fell in a hole, and all three went underwater and came into Dreaming. [Berndt & Berndt, p. 194]
Crow got into an argument with two other men because he accidentally
let green ants contaminate their fish. They fought. Crow defeated them
and left saying they'd fight again. Crow went to his mother's tribe. When
the other two men appeared, the tribe put on a ceremony rather than quarrelling
more. When everyone else had fallen asleep, Crow climbed a tree and chopped
off a branch, which fell and killed the two men. Then he poured out a bag
of honey which came down so heavily it flooded the area. All the people
turned into birds. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 185-187]
Gabidji, Little Wallaby, traveled east carrying a full waterbag.
Djunbunbin, Thunder or Storm man, followed him, angry because Gabidji had
water. At Dagula, Djunbunbin's thunder chant grew stronger, and a deluge
of rain swept away Gabidji's hut and some other Dreaming men who were with
him. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 42-43]
Yaul was thirsty, but his brother Marlgaru refused to let him have any water from his own full kangaroo-skin waterbag. While Marlgaru was out hunting, Yaul sought and found the bag. He jabbed it with a club, tearing it. Water poured out, drowning both brothers and forming the sea. It was spreading inland, too, but Bird Women came from the east and restrained the waters with a barrier of roots of the ngalda kurrajong tree. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 44-45]
Djinta-djinta (Willy Wagtail) weathered a heavy rain for many days, but at last a heavy deluge swept him and his hut into a waterhole, where he remains. [Berndt & Berndt, p. 188]
Djunban was hunting kangaroo rat with his magic boomerang, but he
hit his "sister" Mandjia instead and wounded her leg. Some time later he
taught his people how to make rain. The next day Mandjia died from her
injury. Djunban performed the rain-making ceremony again, but he was grieving
his sister and not concentrating on his task, and the rain came too heavily.
He tried to warn his people, but the flood came and washed away all the
people and their possessions. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 297-300]
Bunjil, the creator, was angry with people because of the evil they
did, so he caused the ocean to flood by urinating into it. All people were
destroyed except those whom Bunjil loved and fixed as stars in the sky,
and a man and a woman who climbed a tall tree on a mountain, and from whom
the present human race is descended. [Gaster, p. 114]
A giant frog once swallowed all the water, and no one else could
get anything to drink. After many animals failed, eel, with his remarkable
contortions, made the frog laugh, releasing the water. Many were drowned
in the flood. The whole of mankind would have perished if the pelican had
not picked up survivors in his canoe. [Roheim, p. 156; Gaster, p. 114]
Long ago, a great flood covered the country. All drowned except
a man and two or three women who took refuge on a mud island near Port
Albert. Pelican came by in his canoe and went to help them. He fell in
love with one of the women. He ferried the others to the mainland, but
left her for last. Afraid of being alone with him, woman dressed a log
in her opossum rug so it looked like her, left it by the fire, and swam
to the mainland. The pelican returned and flew into a passion when the
log dressed as a woman wouldn't answer him. He kicked it, which only hurt
his foot and made him angrier. He began to paint himself white so that
he might fight the woman's husband. Another pelican came up when he was
halfway through with these preparations, but not knowing what to make of
the strange half black and half white creature, pecked him and killed him.
That is why pelicans are now black and white. [Gaster, pp. 113-114]
Long ago, there were a great many different tribes, and they quarrelled
and made war on each other. The worship of Tane, the creator, was being
neglected. Two prophets, Para-whenua-mea and Tupu-nui-a-uta, taught the
true doctrine about the separation of heaven and earth, but others just
mocked them, and they became angry. So they built a large raft at the source
of the Tohinga River, built a house on it, and provisioned it with fern-root,
sweet potatoes, and dogs. Then they prayed for abundant rain to convince
men of the power of Tane. Two men named Tiu and Reti, a woman named Wai-puna-hau,
and other women also boarded the raft. Tiu was the priest on the raft,
and he recited the prayers and incantations for rain. It rained hard for
four or five days, until Tiu prayed for the rain to stop. But the waters
still rose and bore up the raft. In the eighth month, the waters began
to thin; Tiu knew this by the signs of his staff. At last they landed at
Hawaiki. The earth had been much changed by the flood, and the people on
the raft were the only survivors. They worshipped Tane, Rangi (Heaven),
Rehua, and all the gods, each at a separate alter. Today, only the chief
priest may go to those holy spots. [Gaster, pp. 110-112; Kelsen, p. 133]
Two brothers-in-law of the hero Tawhaki attacked him and left him for dead. He recovered, and retired with his own warriors and their families to a high mountain, where he built a fortified village. Then he called to the gods, his ancestors, for revenge. The floods of heaven descended and killed everyone on earth. This event was called "The overwhelming of the Mataaho." [Gaster, p. 112]
In another version of the story, Tawhaki once, in a fit of anger, stamped on the floor of heaven, breaking it and releasing the celestial waters which flooded the earth. In another version, the flood was caused by the copious weeping of Tawhaki's mother. [Gaster, p. 112]
The stars are the shining eyes of the gods. A man once went into
the sky and stole one of the eyes. (The Pelew Islanders' money is made
from it.) The gods were angry at this and came to earth to punish the theft.
They disguised themselves as ordinary men and went door-to-door begging
for food and lodging. Only one old woman received them kindly. They told
her to make a bamboo raft ready and, on the night of the next full moon,
to lie down on it and sleep. This she did. A great storm came; the sea
rose, flooded the islands, and destroyed everyone else. The woman, fast
asleep, drifted until her hair caught on a tree on the top of Mount Armlimui.
The gods came looking for her again, but they found her dead. So one of
the women-folk from heaven entered the body and restored it to life. The
gods begat five children by the old woman and then returned to heaven,
as did the goddess who restored her to life. The present inhabitants of
the islands are descendants of those five children. [Gaster, pp. 112-113]
Before humans, one of the Kaliths (deities) visited an unfriendly village and was killed by its inhabitants. His friends, searching for him, were met with unkindness except from the woman Milathk, who told them of the death. They resolved vengeance by flooding the village, and suggested Milathk save herself on a raft. Milathk perished in the flood, but was recalled to life and became the mother of mankind. [Kelsen, p. 132]
Naareau the Elder created the earth, but the sky and the earth clove
together, with no separation between them. Naareau the Younger, with a
spell, created a slight cleft. He created the First Creature, a bat, and
told it to look around. The Bat reported finding a Company of Fools and
Deaf Mutes. Naareau told them to push up, and the sky was lifted a little,
but they could lift it only so high since the sky was rooted to the land.
Naareau sent for Riiki, the conger eel, and told it to push up on the sky
against the land. While Riiki pushed, Great Ray, Turtle, and Octopus tore
at the roots of the sky. The Company of Fools and Deaf Mutes stood by laughing.
The roots of the sky were torn loose. They sky was pushed high and the
land sank. The Company of Fools and Deaf Mutes were left swimming in the
sea; they became the sea creatures. [von Franz, pp. 151-154, 170]
Tilik and Tarai, who lived near a sacred spring where they were making the land, discovered that their mother had been urinating in their food. They exchanged the food and ate hers. In anger, she rolled away the stone which had confined the sea, and the sea poured out in a great flood. [Roheim, p. 152]
The legendary hero Qat made a great canoe out of one of the largest trees in the center of the island of Gaua. While he worked on it, his brothers jeered at him for building a canoe so far from the sea. When the canoe was finished, he gathered into his canoe his family and some of all the living creatures, down to the smallest ant. A great deluge of rain came; the hollow in the center of the island filled with water which broke through the hills and carried the canoe out to sea. The natives say Qat took the best of everything with him and look forward to his return. [Gaster, p. 107]
The natives laughed at the old man Nol for making a canoe far inland,
but he declared that he would need no help getting it to the sea; the sea
would come to it. When he had finished, rain fell in torrents, flooding
the island and drowning everybody. Nol's canoe was lifted by the water.
It struck a rock that was still out of water and split in two. (These two
rocks can still be seen.) The waters then rushed back into the sea. [Gaster,
p. 107]
The great god Ndengei had a favorite bird, called Turukawa, which
would wake him every morning. His two grandsons killed the bird and buried
it to hide the crime, but Ndengei discovered their guilt. Rather than apologizing,
they fled to the mountains and took refuge with some carpenters, who built
a strong stockade to keep Ndengei at bay. In their fortress, the rebels
withstood Ndengei's armies for three months, but they were finally overwhelmed
when Ndengei caused the earth to be flooded with rain. They prayed to another
god for direction, and they were brought canoes by Rokoro, the god of carpenters,
and his foreman Rokola. They floated around picking up other survivors.
The receding tide left a total of eight survivors on the island of Mbengha.
Two tribes were destroyed completely--one consisting entirely of women
and the other with tails like dogs. The natives of Mbengha claim to rank
highest of all the Fijians. [Kelsen, p. 131; Gaster, p. 106]
In a battle between Fire and Water (offspring of the primeval octopus),
everything was overwhelmed by a 'boundless sea', and the god Tangaloa had
the task of re-creating the world. [Poignant, p. 30]
A fisherman carelessly let his hooks get entangled in the hair of
the sea god Ruahatu and angered the god when wrenching them out. The fisherman
prostrated himself before the god and apologized profusely. Moved by his
penitence, Ruahatu told him to go with his wife and child to Toamarama,
a small low island (not more than two feet above sea level) on the east
side of Raiatea. This he did, taking also some domesticated animals. As
the sun set, the ocean waters began to rise and continued rising all night.
At last even the mountaintops were covered, and everyone on Raiatea perished.
When the waters receded, the fisherman and his family returned to the mainland
and became progenitors of its present inhabitants. [Roheim, p. 157; Gaster,
pp. 109-110]
Tahiti was destroyed by the sea. Even the trees and stones were
carried away by the wind. But two people were saved. The wife took up her
young chicken, her young dog, and her kitten, and the husband took up his
young pig. The husband said they should escape to Mount Orofena, but the
wife said the flood would reach even there, and they should go to Mount
Pita-hiti instead, which they did. They watched ten nights till the sea
ebbed. The land, though, remained without produce. When the wind died away,
stones and trees began to fall from the heavens. To escape this new danger,
the couple dug a hole and covered it over with stones and earth. By and
by, the falling stones stopped, but to be safe they waited another night
before coming out. The woman brought forth two children, a son and a daughter,
but grieved about the lack of food. Again the mother brought forth, but
still there was no food. Then in three days all the trees bore fruit. [Gaster,
pp. 108-109]
All the land was once overflowed by the sea, except for the peak
of Mauna Kea, where two humans survived. The event is called kai a Kahinarii
(sea of Kahinarii). [Gaster, p. 110]
The primordial environment is for almost all tribes a watery one,
from which different beings bring up mud to make the earth. [Erdoes &
Ortiz, p. 75]
A flood killed all animals and humans except for two Shaman. They
copulated, and their offspring included the world's first women. [Balikci]
The giant Inugpasugssuk waded into the ocean to hunt seals. His penis stuck up out of the water so far away that he thought it was a seal putting its head up, and he struck it by mistake. He fell backwards in pain, and that raised a wave that flooded the whole district of Arviligjuaq. [Norman, p. 233]
In the first days, all the earth was flooded except for a very high
mountain in the middle. A few animals escaped to this mountain, and a few
people survived in a boat, subsisting on fish. The people landed on the
mountain as the water subsided and followed the retreating water to the
coast. [Gaster, p. 120]
People were saved from a universal deluge in a giant ark. The ark
struck a rock and split in two. The Tlingits were in one half of the ark,
and all other people were in the other half. This explains why there is
a diversity of languages. [Gaster, p. 119]
Kunyan ("Wise Man"), foreseeing the possibility of a flood, built
a great raft. He told other people, but they laughed at him and said they'd
climb trees in the event of a flood. Then came a great flood, with water
gushing from all sides, rising higher than the trees and drowning all people
but the Wise Man and his family on his raft. As he floated, he gathered
pairs of all animals and birds he met with. Some time later, the musk-rat
dived into the water looking for the bottom, but he couldn't find it. He
dived a second time and smelled the earth but didn't reach it. Next beaver
dived. He reappeared unconscious but holding a little mud. The Wise Man
breathed on it, making it grow. He placed it on the water and continued
breathing on it, making it larger and larger. He put a fox on the island,
but it ran around the island in just a day. Six times the fox ran around
the island, by the seventh time, the land was as large as it was before
the flood, and everyone disembarked. To lower the flood waters, the bittern
swallowed them all. Now there was too little water. Plover, pretending
sympathy, passed his hand over the bittern's stomach, but suddenly scratched
it. The waters flowed out into the rivers and lakes. [Gaster, pp. 117-118]
The deluge was caused by a heavy snowfall one September. One man
foresaw the flood and warned his fellows, but in vain; the flood covered
their intended mountain escape. The one man survived in a canoe, and he
rescued animals from the waters as he sailed about. In time, he sent the
beaver, otter, muskrat, and arctic duck to dive into the water in search
of earth, but only the duck succeeded. The man spread the slime on the
water and breathed on it to make it grow. For six days he embarked animals
upon the new island; then the land was large enough for he himself to go
ashore. [Gaster, p. 118]
A strange, funny-looking woman came to a village and sat by the
water's edge at low tide. As the tide rose, she moved up a little and sat
down again. The tide kept rising, following the woman, until it covered
the whole island. The people saved themselves on rafts. The various rafts
landed in different places, which is how the tribes became dispersed. [Erdoes
& Ortiz, pp. 472-473]
A great flood came; people survived it on rafts and canoes. Darkness
and high winds came, which scattered the vessels. When the flood subsided,
people were scattered all over the world, and when they met again long
afterwards, they spoke different languages. [Gaster, p. 119]
When the Squamish saw the great flood coming, they made a giant
canoe and a long rope of cedar fibers with which they fastened the canoe
to a giant rock. Into the canoe, they put every baby, a young man and woman
to be their guardians, and food and water. The waters rose and drowned
everyone else. After several days, the man saw Mount Baker in the distance.
He cut the rope and paddled south to it, and made a new home there. The
outline of the canoe can still be seen halfway up the slope of Mount Baker.
[Clark, pp. 42-43]
The flood was sent by the god Laxha, who had become annoyed by the
noise of boys at play. [Gaster, p. 119]
The Creator made the earth and gave four names for it -- for the
sun, waters, soil and forests. He said only a few people, with special
preparation for the knowledge, should know all four names, or the world
would change too suddenly. After a while, everyone learned the four names.
When people started talking to the trees the change came in the form of
a flood. When the people saw the flood coming, they made a giant canoe
and filled it with five people and a male and female of all plants and
animals. Water covered everything but the summit of Kobah and Takobah (Mts.
Baker and Ranier). The canoe landed on the prairie. Doquebuth, the new
Creator, was born of a couple from the canoe. He delayed getting his spirit
powers, but finally did so after his family deserted him. At the direction
of the Old Creator, he made people again from the soil and from the bones
of the people who lived before the flood. [Clark, pp. 139-140]
The Great Spirit, angry with the wickedness of people and animals,
decided to rid the earth of all but the good animals, one good man, and
his family. At the Great Spirit's direction, the man shot an arrow into
a cloud, then another arrow into that arrow, and so on, making a rope of
arrows from the cloud to the ground. The good animals and people climbed
up; the man broke off the rope to keep the bad animals from climbing up
after them. Then the Great Spirit caused many days of rain, flooding up
to the snow line of Takhoma (Mount Ranier). After all the bad people and
animals were drowned, the Great Spirit stopped the rain, the waters slowly
dropped, and the good people and animals climbed down. [Clark, pp. 31-32]
Once a big flood came. People made ropes of twisted cedar limbs and used them to fasten their canoes to mountains. The flood covered the Olympic Mountains. Some of the ropes broke, and the canoes drifted to the country of the Flatheads. That is why the Skokomish and the Flatheads speak the same language. [Clark, p. 44]
Thunderbird was once so angry that he sent the ocean over the land.
When it reached the village of the Quillayute, they got into their canoes.
The water rose for four days, covering the mountains. The boats were scattered
by the wind and waves. Then the water receded for four days, and people
settled in many areas. [Clark, p. 45]
The people became so numerous that they ate all the fish and game
and started to eat each other. They were so wicked that Dokibatl, the Changer,
flooded the earth. All living things were destroyed except one woman and
one dog, which survived atop Tacobud (Mt. Ranier). From them the next race
of people were born. They lived like animals until the Changer sent a Spirit
Man to teach them civilization. [Clark, p. 136]
Twice, a great flood came. Afraid that another might come, the people
made a giant canoe from a big cedar. When they saw a third flood coming,
they put the bravest young men and fairest young women in the canoe, with
plenty of food. Then the flood, bigger and deeper than the earlier ones,
swallowed the land. It rained for many days and nights, but when the clouds
finally parted for the third time, the people saw land (Mount Jefferson)
and landed on it. When the water receded, they made their home at the base
of the mountain. The canoe was turned to stone and can be seen on Mount
Jefferson today. [Clark. pp. 14-15]
In the beginning, there was no land, and Xowalaci (The Giver) and
his companion lived in a sweat house on the water. One day land appeared.
Xowalaci made it solid, and he made more solid land by dropping five mud
cakes into the ocean and telling them to expand when they hit the bottom.
He looked on the sand of the new land and saw a man's tracks. This worried
him, and he told the water to overflow the land and recede again. But he
found more tracks again after that, so he caused a second flood. He repeated
the process five times with no different results. Finally he gave up and
said, "This is going to make trouble in the future!" and there has been
trouble in the world since then. Later, Xowalaci made animals, and his
companion made a woman from smoke and married her. [Sproul, pp. 232-236;
von Franz, p. 174]
Coyote encountered an evil water spirit who caused water to rise
until it covered Coyote. After the water receded, Coyote shot the water
spirit with a bow and ran away, but the water followed him. He ran to the
top of Mount Shasta; the water followed but didn't quite reach the top.
Coyote made a fire, and all the other animal people swam to it and found
refuge there. After the water receded, they came down and found new homes.
[Clark, p. 12]
As people slept, it rained day and night. Humans and animals were
all washed away by a flood which covered everything. Later, the gods recreated
them. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 108]
One day, the Thunder People found trout in their spring. At first,
the people were afraid of them, but driven by hunger, the people ate them,
except for three children who were warned by their grandmother not to eat
them. The next morning, all but those three children had been transformed
into deer. The children went to a very high mountain. Rain came and flooded
all but the mountaintop. The children asked an old man what he could do;
he said he didn't know, but he dug all night while the children slept.
In the morning, he woke the children. The flood was gone, and the world
was beautiful. [Roheim, pp. 153-154]
Everybody abused the two little boys that Coyote lived with, so he decided to set the world on fire. He dug a tunnel at the east end of the world, filled it with fir bark, and lit it. With his two children in a sack, he called for rescue from the sky. Spider descended and took Coyote back up through the gates of the sky. When they came back, everything was roasted. Coyote drank too much water and got sick. Kusku the medicine man jumped on his belly, and water flowed out and covered the land. [Roheim, p. 154]
The old woman of the sea, jealous of Eagle's power, came with her
basket in which she carried the sea. She continually poured out water until
it covered the land, almost to the top of Santa Lucia Peak where the animals
gathered. Eagle borrowed Puma's whiskers, made a lariat from them, and
lassoed the basket. The sea stopped rising, and the old woman died. Eagle
told Dove to fetch up some mud, and he made the world from it. Eagle made
the first people from elder-wood. [Sproul, p. 236]
A great flood covered high mountains and drowned most people. A
few saved themselves on a knoll called Mora by the Spaniards and Katuta
by the Indians. The hill still has stones, ashes, and heaps of seashells
showing where the Indians cooked their food. [Gaster, pp. 115-116]
A small gray bird, despite the prohibition of her husband (a chicken
hawk), bathed in a certain lake. There she was seized and raped by a giant
in the lake. The bird's husband shot the monster, who swallowed up all
the water. The woman pulled out the arrow, and the water rushed forth in
a torrent. [Kelsen, pp. 147-148]
In early times, many people had gone to war with other tribes, but
there were still some good people. One of the good men heard from the Land
Above that a big water was coming. He told the other good people and decided
they would make a dugout boat from the largest cedar they could find. Soon
after the canoe was finished, the flood came, filling the valleys and covering
the mountains. The bad people were drowned; the good people were saved
in the boat. We don't know how long the flood stayed. The canoe can still
be seen where it came down on Toppenish Ridge. The earth will be destroyed
by another flood if people do wrong a second time. [Clark, p. 45]
These tribes also have traditions of a flood in which one man and
his wife survived on a raft. Each tells of a different mountain where the
raft landed. [Gaster, pp. 119-120]
Long ago, when men had become evil, the powerful serpent Maskanako
came and fought with them. The serpent brought the snake-water rushing,
spreading everywhere, destroying everything. Then the waters ran off, and
the great evil went away through a cave. [Kelsen, pp. 146-147]
The Sun, the Moon, and their two children "Old Man" and "Apistotoki
God" began creating the world. They were given sand, stone, water, and
the hide of a fisher with which to complete the creation. A flood came,
and they could save only those four things. Later, they create an old man,
a dog, a man, and a woman. After a second flood, only those four are left
on earth, and they create the rest of the world. [von Franz, p. 163]
Kuloscap defeated the cruel Ice Giants at various contests. Then
he stomped on the ground, and foaming water rushed down from the mountains.
He sang a song which changed how everyone looks, and the Ice Giants became
large fish. [Norman, p. 115]
When the world was flooded, some people were turned into fiery spirits;
all the rest drowned but one. Afterwards, he smote the ground with his
stick, a woman sprung out, and the two of them repopulated the world. Proof
of the flood is found in the form of sea fossils on high mountains. [Gaster,
p. 120]
Messou was hunting with his dogs, when his dogs got caught in a
large lake. Messou entered the lake to rescue them, but the lake overflowed,
covered the land, and destroyed the world. Messou sent a raven to find
a piece of earth, but the bird could find none. He next sent down a muskrat,
which dived and returned with just a tiny amount of land, but enough for
Messou to form the land we are on. Messou restored branches to the trees
and took revenge on those who had detained his dogs. He married the muskrat
and by it peopled the world. [Brinton, p. 225]
Being angry with giants, God commanded a man to build a large canoe. The man did so, and when he embarked, the water rose till no land was visible anywhere. Weary of seeing nothing but water, the man threw an otter into it. The otter dived and brought up a little mud, which the man breathed on and caused to expand. He placed the earth on the water and prevented it from sinking. After awhile, he placed reindeer on the new island, but they completed a circuit of the island quickly, so he concluded it wasn't yet large enough. He continued to blow on it and grow it, then he disembarked. [Gaster, p. 117]
While the medicine man Wis-kay-tchach was hunting, his young wolf
was killed by some water lynxes. Wis tried to kill one of the lynxes to
get revenge. First, he turned himself into a stump at the edge of a lake.
Frogs and snakes tried to pull the stump down, but Wis kept himself upright.
The lynx, suspicions lulled, went to sleep. Wis returned to normal shape
and, though warned to shoot the lynx's shadow, forgot and shot its body.
He shot a second arrow at the shadow, but the lynx escaped into a river,
which then overflowed and flooded the whole country. Wis escaped in a canoe.
[Kelsen, p. 147, Roheim, p. 157]
The evil serpent Meshekenabek carried off Manobozho's cousin into a deep lake. Manobozho caused the sun to shine fiercely on the lake to drive out Meshekenabek and his companions. When they emerged, Manobozho shot an arrow into the serpent's heart. The serpent, in his dying rage, stirred up the waters of the lake and spread waves over the land. Fleeing, Manobozho warned the Indians also to retreat to a mountain top. The waters still rose, though, and Manobozho made a raft for them to take refuge on. However, Manobozho couldn't disperse the flood without some earth to use as a nucleus. Muskrat finally succeeded in diving for some dirt, and Manobozho used it to make the waters recede. [Howey, pp. 291-293]
A wolf which Wenebojo considered his nephew and which hunted for him was captured and killed by the manidog, evil underwater spirits. To get revenge, Wenebojo turned himself to a stump and waited for the manidog to sun themselves. When they emerged, the king was suspicious of the stump and had a snake squeeze it and a bear claw it, but Wenebojo withstood these attacks. When the manidog slept, Wenebojo shot and wounded the king and the next to the king, then he ran away as the water was rising behind him. Woodchuck saved him by digging a shelter until the water receded. Later, Wenebojo encountered an old woman who was treating the wounded manidog. He killed and skinned her, put on her skin, and disguised as her went to the wigwam of the wounded manidog and killed them. As he ran away, he heard a roar of water behind him. He climbed a pine tree on a hill, and the tree stretched higher, saving Wenebojo from the flood. Wenebojo asked loon to dive down to get some dirt, but the loon died in the attempt. Otter and beaver failed similarly. Muskrat, however, was able to get a few grains of dirt before he passed out. Wenebojo used this dirt to recreate land. Wenebojo cut up the body of the king manido and made a lake of fat from it. The animals that ate or touched it acquired fat in their bodies. [Barnouw, pp. 64-69]
One particularly hard winter had "great floods" in addition to earthquakes
and volcanoes. The people spent the long winter in caves. [Erdoes &
Ortiz, p. 113]
A dog stood at the river bank and howled piteously. Rebuked by his
master, the dog said a flood was coming, and he must build a boat. Furthermore,
the dog said, he must throw him, the dog, into the water. For a sign that
he spoke the truth, the dog showed the back of his neck, which was raw
and bare with flesh and bone showing. The man followed directions, and
he and his family survived; from them, the present population is descended.
[Gaster, pp. 116-117]
Unktehi, a water monster, fought the people and caused a great flood.
The people retreated to a hill, but the water swept over them, killing
them all. The blood gelled and turned to pipestone. Unktehi was also turned
to stone; her bones are in the Badlands now. A giant eagle, Wanblee Galeshka,
swept down, saved one girl from the flood, and made her his wife. [Erdoes
& Ortiz, pp. 93-95]
In another version, the thunderbirds fought and defeated Unktehi and her children before the waters washed over the highest mountain. [Erdoes & Ortiz, pp. 220-221]
Four monsters grew large and powerful until they were high enough
to touch the sky. One man heard a voice telling him to plant a hollow reed.
He did so, and it quickly grew very big. He, his wife, and pairs of all
good animals entered the reed. Waters rose to cover everything but the
top of the reed and the heads of the monsters. Turtle destroyed the monsters
by digging under them and uprooting them. The waters subsided, and winds
dried the earth. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 120-121]
A man and his wife went up the hills to hunt marmots. There, they
saw that the water was still rising. They enclosed their children, along
with supplies, in hollow trees. All other people drowned. [Roheim, pp.
159-160]
A prophet was sent by the high god to warn of a coming flood, but
nobody took notice. When the flood came, the prophet took to a raft. After
several months, he saw a black bird. He signaled it, but it just cawed
and flew away. Later, he sighted and signaled a bluish bird. The bird flapped,
moaned dolorously, and guided the raft towards where the sun was breaking
through. Next morning, he landed on an island with all kinds of animals.
He cursed the black bird (a crow) and blessed the bluish one (a dove).
[Gaster, p. 116]
A great rain fell so abundantly that it extinguished all fires and
caused a flood which drowned all but a few people who saved themselves
on a high mountain. A little bird named Coüy-oüy (a cardinal)
brought fire from heaven again. [Gaster, p. 116]
For their sins, the gods expelled the Insect People from the first
world by sending a wall of water from all directions. The Insect People
flew up into the second world. Later, in the fourth world, descendants
of these people were likewise punished. They escaped the floodwaters by
climbing into a fast-growing reed. Cicada dug an entrance into the fifth
world, where people live today. [Capinera, pp. 226-228]
Komashtam'ho caused a great rain and started to flood out the large
dangerous animals, but he was persuaded that people needed some of the
animals for food. He evaporated the waters with a great fire, turning the
land to desert in the process. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 81]
Three times the great eagle told a seer to warn the people about
a great flood that would soon come, but the seer ignored him. Scarcely
had the bird gone for the third time when a tremendous clap of thunder
was heard, the earth trembled, and a great green wall of water roared down
the valley and destroyed everything in it. Szeukha, Earth maker's son,
saved himself by floating on a ball of gum. He rescued a few people from
the great eagle, who had kidnapped them earlier and kept them in his nest.
[Erdoes & Ortiz, pp. 473-475; Gaster, p. 115]
Back when the sun was closer to the earth, Coyote foresaw the coming
of a flood, gnawed down a great cane, entered it, and sealed the opening.
Montezuma also took warning an prepared a boat for himself. Only they survived
the flood, which covered all the land. They met again on the top of Monte
Rosa, which rose above the flood waters. To ascertain how much dry land
was left, the man sent Coyote to explore. Coyote reported that there was
sea to the west, south, and east, but seemingly endless land to the north.
The Great Spirit, with the help of Montezuma, restocked the earth with
men and animals. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 487; Gaster, pp. 114-115]
The people repeatedly became distant from Sotuknang, the creator.
Twice he destroyed the world (by fire and by cold) and recreated it while
the few people who still lived by the laws of creation took shelter underground
with the ants. When people became corrupt and warlike a third time, Sotuknang
guided them to Spider Woman, who cut down giant reeds and sheltered the
people in the hollow stems. Sotuknang caused a great flood, and the people
floated in their reeds for a long time. They emerged after coming to rest
on a small piece of land. They still had as much food as they started with.
Guided by their inner wisdom (which comes from Sotuknang through the door
at the top of their head), the people traveled on, using the reeds as canoes.
They went northeast, finding progressively larger islands, until they came
to the Fourth World. When they reached it, they saw the islands sink into
the ocean. [Waters, pp. 12-20]
Before the Apaches emerged from the underworld, there were other
people on the earth. Dios told an old man and old woman that it would rain
forty days and nights. People were warned to go to the tops of four mountains
(Tsisnatcin, Tsabidzilhi, Becdilhgai, and another whose identity isn't
known), and not to look at the flood or sky. The people didn't believe
the old couple. When the rains came, only a few people made it to the mountain
tops and shut their eyes. Those who looked at the flood turned into a fish
or frog (as did some who were caught in the flood); if they looked at the
sky, they turned into a bird. After eighty days, Dios told the 24 people
remaining to open their eyes and come down. These 24 people went into mountains.
Eight other people survived the flood who were able to travel by looking
where they wanted to go, and they were there. These people told the Apaches
about the flood before going into two mountains themselves. Around the
turn of the millennium, the surface of the earth will again be destroyed,
this time by fire. [Opler, pp. 111-113]
When people still lived in the underworld, the chief, after an argument with his mother-in-law, decided that men and women should live apart for awhile, so the men all moved to the other side of a river, and the chief prayed to Kogulhtsude (a water spirit) to widen the river. After a long time, Coyote found a baby in a whirlpool in the river and took it out to raise himself. But the baby was Kogulhtsude's child, and he sent water out to draw it back. Some people were drowned and turned into frogs and fish; the other men and women escaped together to a tall mountain. Coyote used his magic to make the mountain grow, but the waters kept rising, finally overflowing onto this world. The people suspected Coyote was causing the trouble and found the baby hidden under his coat. They threw the baby into the water, and the water receded. The people went down into the underworld again. When they later emerged, the surface of the earth was covered with water from that flood. The four Holy Ones made black, blue, yellow, and glittering hoops and threw them in each compass direction, and the water receded. They commanded the winds to dry the land further. [Opler, p. 20, 265-268]
The deluge overwhelmed mankind. Only a man named Coxcox (some call
him Teocipactli) and a woman named Xochiquetzal survived in a small bark.
They landed on a mountain called Colhuacan and had many children. These
children were all born dumb until a dove from a lofty tree gave them languages,
but different languages so that they couldn't understand each other. [Gaster,
p. 121]
People were once fighting among themselves, and Father God (Tata
Dios) sent much rain, drowning everyone. After the flood, God sent
three men and three women to repopulate the earth. They planted three kinds
of corn which still grow in the country. [Gaster, p. 124]
When the flood waters began to rise, a man named Tezpi entered into
a great vessel, taking with him his wife and children and diverse seeds
and animals. When the waters abated, the man sent out a vulture, but the
bird found plenty of corpses to eat and didn't return. Other birds also
flew away and didn't return. Finally, he sent out a hummingbird, which
returned with a green bough in its beak. [Gaster, p. 122]
One of the Tezcatlipocas (sons of the original dual god)
transformed himself into the Sun and created the first humans to show up
his brothers. The other gods, angry at his audacity, had Quetzalcoatl destroy
the people, which he did with a flood. The people became fish. [Leon-Portilla,
p. 450]
The wooden people, an early version of humanity, were imperfect
because there was nothing in their hearts and minds, and they did not remember
Heart of Sky. So Heart of Sky destroyed them with a flood. He sent down
a black rain of resin; animals came into their houses and attacked them;
and even pots and stones crushed them. Today's monkeys are a sign of these
people. [Tedlock, p. 83-86]
A man clearing fields found the trees regrown overnight. He found
that his grandmother Nakawe, goddess of the earth, did this, and she told
him that he was working in vain because a flood was coming in five days.
Per her instructions, he built a box from the fig tree and entered it with
five grains of corn and beans of each color, fire with five squash stems
to feed it, and a black bitch. She closed him in and caulked the cracks,
and he floated in the flood for five years, first floating south, then
north, then west, then east, then rising upward on the flood. Finally the
box came to rest on a mountain near Santa Cantarina, where it can still
be seen. The world was still under water, but parrots and macaws pulled
up mountains and created valleys to drain the water, and the land dried.
The man lived with the bitch in a cave. Every evening he would return home
from work to find meals prepared. He spied one day and found that the bitch
took off her skin and became a woman to do the work. He threw her skin
into the fire and bathed her in nixtamal water. They repopulated the earth.
[Horcasitas, pp. 203-204; Gaster, pp. 122-123]
In the Coras version of the Huichol myth, the man is bidden to take
the woodpecker, sandpiper, and parrot with him, as well as the bitch. When
the flood subsided, he sent out the sandpiper, which came back and cried,
"Ee-wee-wee", indicating the earth was too wet to walk upon. He waited
five days and sent out the woodpecker, which found the trees too soft and
returned saying "Chu-ee, chu-ee!" He waited five days more and sent out
the sandpiper, who reported back that the ground was hard, and the man
ventured out. [Gaster, p. 124]
Survivors of the flood escaped in a canoe. God sent the vulture out to see if the earth was dry enough, but the vulture didn't return because it was devouring the drowned corpses. God cursed the vulture and made it black, leaving its wingtips white to remind people of its former color. Next, God sent the ringdove, who reported that the land was dry but the rivers were in spate. So God commanded the animals to drink the rivers dry. All came and drank except the weeping dove, which today still goes to drink at nightfall because she is ashamed to be seen drinking by day. [Gaster, p. 124]
People in three previous ages were destroyed by being devoured by
jaguars, turned into monkeys, and transformed into birds in a rain of fire.
The sun of 4 Water lasted 676 years; then the heavens came down in one
day, and the people were inundated and transformed into fish. In the next
age, Titlacahuan (Tezcatlipoca) told a man known as "Our Father" and his
consort Nene to hollow out a log and enter it during the vigil of Toçoztli,
when the heavens would come crashing down. He sealed them in with a single
ear of corn apiece to eat. When they had finished eating, they heard the
water declining. They exited the log, found a fish, and made a fire to
cook it. The gods Citlallinicue and Citlallatonac complained that someone
was smoking up the heavens. Tezcatlipoca descended, struck off the people's
heads, and reattached them over their buttocks; they became dogs. [Markman,
pp. 132-133]
A man, warned by God, survived the flood in a tree he had hollowed
out. After the deluge, he was hungry and built a fire. God smelled the
smoke and sent buzzard down to investigate, but buzzard stayed to eat the
dead animals, and God condemned him to eat only rotten flesh thereafter.
God told Saint Michael to go down, and Saint Michael reversed the man's
face and hind parts and turned him into a monkey. [Horcasitas, p. 184]
The world was once destroyed by a deluge. After its destruction,
the gods created all things afresh. [Gaster, p. 121]
One man, with his wife and children, escaped the flood in a canoe.
Mankind are descended from them. [Gaster, p. 121]
In olden times before the moon existed, the Muyscas lived as savages.
A bearded old man with the names Botschika, Nemquetheba, Zuhe came and
taught them agriculture, crafts, religion, and government. His wife, though,
was malicious. To destroy the good works of her husband, she magically
caused the river Funza (Rio Bogota) to flood the whole plateau. Only a
few people escaped to the mountain tops. Botschika banished her from earth
and changed her into the moon. Then he opened a pass, and the water poured
down in the Tequendama waterfall. [Kelsen, p. 140]
Offended by people's wickedness, Chibchachun, the tutelary god, sent a flood. The people appealed to the culture-hero Bocicha. Appearing as a rainbow, he struck the mountain with his staff and provided an outlet for the waters. Chibchachun was driven underground. [Gaster, p. 131]
In the time of the great flood, "the Age of Water," the sea broke
against the Encamarada mountain chain, and people were forced into canoes.
One man and one woman were saved on the high mountain called Tamanacu,
on the banks of the Asiveru. After the flood, as they descended the mountain
grieving the destruction of mankind, they heard a voice telling them to
throw the fruits of the Mauritia palm over their heads behind them. People
sprung from the kernels of these fruits, men from those thrown by the man,
and women from those thrown by the woman. (This tradition occurs also in
neighboring tribes.) [Gaster, p. 127]
The Star people listened to Jaguar and killed and ate a woman. Kuamachi
wanted to punish them, but they were too many and too powerful. He invited
them to help in picking dewaka fruit. They came, and while they
were eating fruit, Kuamachi dropped one fruit. Water came out of it, spread,
and caused a flood. Kuamachi and his grandfather stayed in a canoe; they
got bows and arrows and shot the people who were helpless in the trees.
The people fell down into the water below, which was infested with dangerous
animals. Kuamachi and his grandfather ran out of arrows before shooting
Wlaha, the leader of the Star people. He had caught seven arrows. He shot
them into heaven, making a ladder which he, the surviving Star people,
and finally Kuamachi ascended to become stars. [de Civrieux, pp. 109-116]
The son of Omauwa (one of the first beings) became very thirsty.
Omauwa and his brother dug a hole for water, but they dug so deep that
water gushed forth and covered the jungle. Many drowned. Some of the first
beings survived by cutting down trees and floating on them. They became
foreigners and floated away. The Yanomamo survived by climbing mountains.
Raharariyoma painted red dots all over her body and plunged into the lake,
causing it to recede. Omauwa then caused her to be changed into a rahara,
a dangerous snake-like monster that lives in large rivers. [Chagnon, p.
47]
Shortly after people arrived on earth, all crops grew on a single
tree. Makunaima and his four brothers cut down the tree, and water immediately
poured from the stump, and with it came fish. One of the brothers made
a basket to stop the water, but Makunaima wanted a few more fish for the
rivers. When he lifted the basket just a little, water came out full force,
flooding the earth. [Bierhorst, pp. 79-80]
In some Guyana and Venezuela tree and flood myths, the water from the stump merely forms rivers; in other versions, the entire earth is flooded, and survivors stay in canoes or climb tall palms until the waters subside. [Bierhorst]
Since its creation, the world has been destroyed twice, once by
fire and once by flood, by the great god Aiomun Kondi because of the wickedness
of mankind. The pious and wise chief Marerewana was informed of the coming
of the flood and saved himself and his family in a large canoe. He tied
the canoe to a tree with a long cable of bushrope to prevent drifting too
far from his old home. [Gaster, p. 126]
Once upon a time, people heard a rumbling above and below the ground;
the sun and moon turned red, blue, and yellow; and wild beasts mingled
fearlessly with man. A month later, they saw darkness ascending from the
earth to the sky, accompanied by a roar and by thunder and heavy rain.
Some people lost themselves. Some died without knowing why. Everything
was in dreadful confusion. The water rose to cover the earth, and people
took refuge in trees. There they perished from cold and hunger, for it
continued to be dark and rainy. Only Uassu and his wife survived. When
they came down after the flood, they could not find even a sign of a single
corpse. Today, the Pamarys build their houses on the river, so that when
the water rises, they may rise with it. [Gaster, pp. 125-126]
Mayuruberu, chief of the storks, caused a flood by making a kettle
of water boiling in the sun overflow. Mankind survived, but all plants
were destroyed except the cassia. Mayuruberu appeared with many new plants,
and the Ipurina began tilling their fields. Mayuruberu ate anyone who would
not work. [Kelsen, p. 139]
A flood once covered the whole earth except for the top of the coastal
range Serra do Mar. Members of the three tribes Coroados, Cayurucres, and
Cames, swam for the mountains holding lighted torches between their teeth.
The Cayurucres and Cames wearied and drowned, and their souls went to dwell
in the heart of the mountain. The Coroados made it and stayed there, some
on the ground and some in the branches of trees. Several days passed without
food and without the water lowering. Then some saracuras, a species
of waterfowl, flew to them with baskets of earth. The birds began throwing
the earth into the water, and the water sank. The people urged the birds
to hurry, so the birds called the ducks to help them. When the flood subsided,
the Coroados descended, except for the ones which had climbed into trees,
who became monkeys. The souls of the Cayurucres and Cames burrowed their
way out of the mountain and kindled a fire. From the ashes of the fire,
one of the Cayurucres molded jaguars, tapirs, ant-bears, bees, and many
other animals; he made them live and told them what they should eat. But
one of the Cames similarly made pumas, poisonous snakes, and wasps to fight
the other animals. [Gaster, p. 125]
Two boys found that a snake had been stealing their food. They built
a fire to drive the snake out of a hollow in a tree, where it lived. The
snake fell in the fire, and one of the brothers ate some of its roasted
flesh. He became very thirsty and went to the lake. He was transformed
first into a frog, then a lizard, and finally into a snake, which grew
rapidly; and the lake began to overflow. The snake told his brother that
the lake would continue to grow and all the people would perish unless
they made their escape. The brother told his people what was happening,
but they didn't believe him. He fled to the top of a palm tree on the top
of a mountain and returned many days later when the waters had subsided.
Vultures were eating the dead people in the valley. He went to the lake
and carried away his brother in a calabash. [Kelsen, pp. 140-141; also
Roheim, p. 156]
A great cloud fell from heaven, turned to rain, and killed all the inhabitants of earth. Only a man and his two sons were saved. One of the sons was cursed by his father; the Jivaros are descended from him. [Gaster, p. 126]
In one version of the story, the two brothers went looking for food after the flood, and when they returned, found food set out for them. To find its source, one of the brothers hid himself and saw two parrots with the faces of women enter their hut and prepare the food. He jumped out, seized one of the birds, and married it. From this union came three boys and three girls from whom the Jivaros are descended. [Gaster, p. 126]
In a tobacco-induced dream, a hunter was told by the daughter of
the water spirit Tsunki to return to a river. He did so, met the
woman, followed her to her father's house, and became her husband. When
he returned to his home on earth, she took the form of a snake. Once while
he was off hunting, though, his two earthly wives tormented her, and she
returned to her father. Tsunki, in a rage, flooded the earth, drowning
everyone but the hunter and one of his daughters, who escaped to a mountaintop.
These two repopulated the world. [Bierhorst, p. 218]
The world wanted to come to an end. A llama, knowing this, was depressed.
When its human owner complained that it wouldn't eat, the llama told him
of the imminent flood and suggested they go to Villca Coto mountain. They
arrived there to find the peak already filled with all kinds of animals.
The flood came as soon as they arrived and lasted five days. Afterwards,
the man began to multiply once more. [Salomon & Urioste, pp. 51-52]
The water rose above the highest mountain in the world. All created
things perished, except for a man and woman who floated in a box. When
the flood subsided, the box was taken by the wind to Tiahuanacu, about
200 miles from Cuzco. [Gaster, p. 127]
The evil supernatural being Aguara-Tunpa declared war against the
god Tunpaete, Creator of the Chiriguanos. He set fire to the prairies,
destroying all the plants and land animals. The people nearly died of hunger,
but they retreated to the banks of rivers and survived on fish. Seeing
people still surviving, Aguara-Tunpa caused a torrential rain. Acting on
a hint given them by Tunpaete, the Chiriguanos placed two babies, a boy
and a girl, on a large mate leaf and set it afloat on the water. The flood
rose, covering the land and killing the rest of the Chiriguanos, but the
two babies survived and eventually landed on solid ground when the flood
sank. There, they found fish to eat, but they had no way to cook it. Fortunately,
before the flood, a frog had taken some hot coals in his mouth, and it
kept them alight during the flood by blowing on them. He gave the fire
to the children, and they were able to roast their fish. In time, they
grew up, and the Chiriguanos are descended from them. [Gaster, pp. 127-128]
In a former time when there were a great many people, the earth
sank. Then water began to seep out. It kept rising until it became a flood.
Some boys were saved by a white bird; all other people drowned. [Bierhorst,
p. 142]
Rainbow does not like menstruating women to enter the water, or
even to drink from it. One day a young woman broke this taboo because her
mother and sisters didn't leave her any drinking water when they left for
the day. Driven by thirst, she went to the lagoon. When she had returned,
Rainbow, full of anger, caused a strong wind, accompanied by whirlwinds
and heavy rain. All were drowned in the ensuing flood. [Bierhorst, pp.
142-143]
Lexuwakipa, the rusty brown spectacled ibis, felt offended by the
people, so she let it snow so much that ice came to cover the entire earth.
When it melted, it rapidly flooded all the earth except five mountaintops,
on which a few people escaped. Signs of the floodwaters still show up on
those mountains. [Wilbert, p. 27-28]
In another version, the moon-woman Hanuxa caused the flood because she was full of hatred against the people, especially the men, who had taken over the women's secret kina ceremony and made it their own. A few people survived on five mountaintops. [Wilbert, p. 29]
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