length, with true Hindoo peculiarities; but the account is remarkable for making eight persons the number of those who were preserved. It is also noticed in others of their venerated Puranas.*

Mohammed has preserved the traditions of the old ARABIANS about it in his Koran, in which it is mentioned in several chapters, and as sent from Heaven as a punishment to mankind.t The Turkish writers have also their peculiar narrations about it.‡

We know as yet but little of the AFRICAN mind, or ancient history of AFRICA. Yet in one of its nations, the memory

of a deluge has been found to have been preserved.§

As the American continent had been possessing for ages a variety of populations in different states of civilized and savage life, unknown to the rest of mankind, and maintaining no relations with them before Columbus revealed the new world to the old one; it is a natural inquiry of our curiosity if any traditions of the deluge existed there. To our surprise we find them in every part. Yet I would correct this expression, because the awful event being an actual

Paris, 1788. This is the 18th Purana, chiefly on the life of Chrishna. The Puranas are stated to have been composed by Vyasa. 1 Asiatic Researches, p. 341.

The Brehme Pooran alludes to it in its second Adhyaye. In the period of the Varahekelp the whole earth was covered with water, and all the keeshees, or holy persons, with great affliction addressed their god Vishnou, who recovered the earth from beneath the water.-Br. P. p. 75.

In the 23d chap." And we revealed our orders to him (Noah), Make the ark in our sight: and when our decree cometh, and the oven shall boil, carry into it one pair of every species of animals: and speak not unto me in behalf of those who have been unjust, for they shall be drowned."-Sale's Koran, p. 282. In the 11th chap. "We said, Carry into the ark one pair of every species, and thy family, except him on whom a previous sentence has passed. And the ark swam with them between waves like mountains, and Noah called to his son, who was separated from him, 'Embark with us, my son and stay not with the unbelievers.' He answered, 'I will get on a mountain, which will secure me from the water.""-Ib. p. 179. Jallaloddin and two other of the Mohammedan commentators make Noah's wife, Waila, to have been an infidel, and to have perished with this son. It is also the subject of chap. 71.

D'Herbelot quotes these from the Turkish book entitled Thirazalmancousch.-Bib. Orient. p. 677.

Thus among the Magagines of Darbia, three miles S. W. of Darfour, the history of a deluge is mentioned in their traditions, in which all human beings perished; but they add, that the Deity was therefore obliged afterward to create mankind anew.--Bull. Univ. 1830, p. 127-9.

truth, it would be surprising if no intimation of it could be traced there. It is therefore quite natural, and it indicates to us the reality of the catastrophe, that both in South and North America traditions prevail about it, sometimes whimsical indeed in the circumstances, but decided as to the fact. The ancient inhabitants of Chili, the Araucanians, make the flood a part of their historical remembrances.* The Cholulans, who were in the equinoctial regions of New Spain before the Mexicans arrived there, preserved the idea of it in a fantastic form in their hieroglyphical pictures. The Indians of Chiapa, a region in those parts, had a simpler narrative about it. The Mexicans, in their peculiar paintings, which constituted their books and written literature, had an expressive representation of the catastrophe.ģ The

* Molini, in his history of Chili, states, "the Araucanians have a tradition of a great deluge, in which only a few persons were saved, who took refuge upon a high mountain called Thegtheg, or the Thundering, which had three points, and the property of moving upon water."-Mol. Chili, v. ii. p. 82. A more recent authority also mentions of this country, "the Araucanian Indians have preserved the tradition of a universal deluge which drowned the human race."-Bul. Univ. 1330, p. 510.

Humboldt has quoted from the MSS. of Pedro de Los Reos, who, in 1566, copied on the spot all the hieroglyphical paintings he could procure; "before the great inundation, which took place 4800 years after the creation of the world, the country of Anahuac was inhabited by giants. All those who did not perish were transformed into fishes, save seven, who fled into caverns. When the waters subsided, one of these giants, Xelhua, surnamed the Architect, went to Cholo!lan; where, as a memo rial of the mountain Tlaloc, which had served for an asylum to himself and his six brethren, he built an artificial hill in the form of a pyramid." -Humboldt's Researches, v. i. p. 96.

"According to the ancient traditions collected by the Bishop F. N. de la Vega, the Wodan of the Chiampanese (one of their celebrated chiefs) was grandson of that illustrious old man, who, at the time of the great deluge, in which the greater part of the human race perished, was saved on a raft, together with his family."-Ib. p. 320.

The Mexicans made four cycles of past time. Among their paintings in the Vatican Library, copied by Humboldt in his 26th plate, the last period is depicted, which he thus describes: "Fourth Cycle. The age of water, Atonatiuh, the duration of which is 4008 years. A great inundation, which began the year ce calli, the day for water, nahui alt, destroyed mankind. This is the last of the great revolutions which the world has undergone. Men were transformed into fish, except one man and one woman, who saved themselves in the trunk of an ahahuete, or

cupressus disticha. The drawing represents the goddess of water, called Matlalcueje, and considered as the companion of Tlaloc, descending towards the earth. Coxcox, the Noah of the Mexicans, and his wife Xochiquetzal, are seated in a trunk of a tree, covered with leaves and floating amid the waters."-Ib. v. ii. p. 23.

nations contiguous to them, or connected with them, had similar records of it,* and depict the mountain on which the navigating pair who escaped were saved. It is still more interesting to us to find, that the natives of the province of Mechoacan had their own distinct account of it, which contained the incident of the birds that were let out from the ark, to enable Noah to judge of the habitable condition of the earth. These people had also applied another name to the preserved individual, Tezpi, which implies a different source of information for what they narrated. The belief of a flood has also been found to exist in the province of ' Guatimala. It was also in Peru and Brazil.

We learn from Humboldt, to whom we owe so much knowledge of all sorts of the natives of South America, that the belief prevailed among all the tribes of the Upper Oroonoko, that at the time of what they call "the GREAT WATERS," their fathers were forced to have recourse to their boats to escape the general inundation. The Tamanaiks add to their notions of this period, their peculiar ideas of the manner in which the earth was repeopled. Upon the rocks of En

"Of the different nations that inhabit Mexico, paintings representing the deluge of Coxcox are found among the Aztecks, the Miztecks, the Zapotecks, the Tlascallans, and the Mechoacacanese."--Humb. v. ii p. 64.

†The painting represents Coxcox in the midst of the water, lying in a bark. The mountain, the summit of which, crowned by a tree, rises above the waters, is the Peak of Colhuacan, the Ararat of the Mexicans. The horn which is represented on the left is the phonetic hieroglyphic of Colhuacan. At the foot of the mountain appear the heads of Coxcox and his wife. The latter of these is known by the two tresses in the form of horns, which denote the female sex."--Ib. 64.

Humboldt's description is: "The people of Mechoacan preserved a tradition, according to which Coxcox, whom they called Tezpi, embarked in a spacious acalli with his wife, his children, several animals, and grain. When the Great Spirit Tezcatlipoca ordered the waters to withdraw, Tezpi sent out from his bark a vulture, the zopilote (vultur aura). This bird, which feeds on dead flesh, did not return, on account of the great number of carcasses with which the earth, recently dried up, was strewed. Tezpi sent out other birds, one of which, the hummingbird, alone returned, holding in its beak a branch covered with leaves. Tezpi, seeing that fresh verdure began to clothe the soil, quitted his bark near the Mountain of Colhuacan."--Humb. Res. v. ii. p. 65. Clavigero's account corresponds in substance with this--Hist. Mex. v. i. p. 204.

"In the kingdom of Guatimala, the inhabitants of Teochiapan had préserved traditions that went back to the epocha of a great deluge."Humb. v. i. p. 173.

Humboldt's Personal Narrative, vol. iv. p. 470.

"They stated, that in this great deluge a man and woman saved

camarada figures of stars, of the sun, of tigers, and of crocodiles are traced, which the natives connected with the period of this deluge.* Humboldt appropriately remarks, that similar traditions exist among all the nations of the earth, and, like the relics of a vast shipwreck, are highly interesting in the philosophical study of our species.†

Ideas of the same sort existed in the Island of Cuba,‡ and Kotzebue found them among the rude Pagans of Kamtschatka, at the extremity of the Asian continent. The Peruvians preserved the memory of a general destruction, as far as their own country was concerned, which their neigh

themselves on a high mountain, called Pamanaca, situated on the banks of the Asiveru; and casting behind them, over their heads, the fruit of the Mauritia palm-tree, they saw the seeds contained in those fruits produce men and women, who repeopled the earth."--Humb. ib. 471.

"A few leagues from Encamarada, a rock, called Tepumereme, or the painted rock, rises in the midst of the Savannah. It displays resemblances of animals and symbolic figures resembling those we saw in going down the Oroonoko, at a small distance below Encamarada, near the town Caycara. Between the banks of the Cassiquiare and the Oroonoko, between Encamarada, the Capuchino, and Caycara, these hieroglyphic figures are often placed at great heights on the walls of rock, that could be accessible only by constructing very lofty scaffolds. When the natives were asked how these figures could have been sculptured, they answered, that at the period of the GREAT WATERS their fathers went to that height in boats."-Humb. Pers. Nar. p. 472, 3. The substance of the traditions respecting the destroyed races and the renovation of nature, is everywhere almost the same, although each nation gives it a local colouring. In the great continents, as in the smallest islands of the Pacific Ocean, it is always on the highest and nearest mountain that the remains of the human race were saved.-Humb. Trav. † Humboldt adds, with great truth, "The traditions respecting the primitive state of the globe among all nations present a resemblance that fills us with astonishment. So many different languages belonging to branches which appear to have no connexion with each other, transmit the same fact to us."

The Indians of Cuba related an account of an old man embarking in a canoe to escape a deluge.-1 Clav. Mex. p. 204. One of them told De Cabrera, that an old man, knowing that a flood was to come, built a vessel, and went into it, with his family and many animals. That he sent out a crow, which first stayed to feed on the dead animals; but afterward returned with a green branch.--Herrera.

Kotzebue informs us, "That they have a tradition of a universal deluge, and to this day point out the spot, on a lofty mountain, where Kutka is said to have stepped out of a boat, and peopled the world with human beings."-Kotz. 2d Voy. round the World. St. Peters, 1830.

Herrera states, that the Peruvians mentioned as an account received from their ancestors, that long before their Yncas a great deluge came from the sea. The land was overwhelmed, and all the people perished.

bours, the Guancas and others, also entertained.* In Brazil, there were also various traditions of the diluvian catastrophe, which, though agreeing in fact, differed in the circumstances attending it. In Terra Firma it was also floating in the popular memory, and equally so among the Iroquois in Canada, and at the mouth of the St. Lawrence.

The Arrawak Indians, near the Essequibo and Mazaworry rivers, have preserved traditions both of the separate creation of the first male and female, and also of the deluge; and describe it as caused by the demoralization of mankind.||

In North America we find in the various Indian tribes or

*The same author notices that the Guancas of the vale of Xausea and the natives of Chiquito added, that some persons survived in the caves of the mountains and repeopled the country according to one account; but others thought that all perished except six persons, who saved themselves on a float, and renewed the population.-Herr. Hist. Ind.

† Nieuhoff, in his Voyage to Brazil, narrates, that though the most barbarous of the inland Brazilians scarcely knew any thing of a Deity, they had notions of a universal deluge. These were, that the whole race of mankind was extirpated, except a man and his sister, who repeopled the world. Mr. Thevet from others heard a more detailed and fantastic account, ascribing it to the hatred and warfare of two brothers against each other. The whole village was carried up into the sky, and on one of them striking the ground the flood burst out, covered all the earth, and destroyed all mankind but the two brothers, who, with their wives, ascended the highest mountains, aud, as the waters came to them, saved themselves on the highest trees on their summit, and afterward formed two nations that peopled the world.

Herrera notices the account of the inhabitants of Castilla del Ora, in Terra Firma, that when the universal deluge came, one man with his wife and children escaped in a canoe, and by them the world was replenished.

Hennepin informs us of their account, that their Messou or Otkon hunting one day, his dogs lost themselves in a great lake. The waters immediately flowed over the country, and soon covered the earth and overwhelmed all who were living on it.

Capt. Alexander, in his account of Mr. Hillhouse's Expedition up these rivers in 1830, states that the tradition of the origin of things among these Indians is, that the Great Spirit sat on a silk cotton tree and cut off pieces of bark, which he threw into the stream below him, and these becoming animated, took the form of the various animals; that man was last of all created; that a deep sleep fell upon him, but on being touched by the Deity he awoke, and found a wife by his side.

Their traditions also were, that the world becoming desperately wicked, was drowned by a flood; that only one man was saved in a canoe, and that he sent out a rat to discover if the waters had subsided, which returned with a head of Indian corn.-Journ. Roy. Geo. Soc. v. ii. p. 70.

VOL. II.-Y