Zoological Society. 67 



fauna, have reached to the present time ; and what is true in this 

 respect of one species in a tribe, may be equally true of every 

 other placed under the same circumstances. We have as yet no di- 

 rect evidence to the point, from remains dug out of recent alluvial 

 deposits ; nor is there any historical testimony confirming it ; but 

 there are traditions connected with the cosmogonic speculations of 

 almost all Eastern nations having reference to a tortoise of such gi- 

 gantic size, as to be associated in their fabulous accounts with the 

 elephant. Was this tortoise a mere creature of the imagination, or 

 was the idea of it drawn from a reality, like the Colossochelys ? 



" Without attempting to follow the tortoise tradition through all 

 its ramifications, we may allude to the interesting fact of its exist- 

 ence even among the natives of America. The Iroquois Indians 

 believed that there were originally, before the creation of the globe, 

 six male beings in the air, but subject to mortality. There was no 

 female among them to perpetuate their race ; but learning that there 

 was a being of this sort in heaven, one of them undertook the dan- 

 gerous task of carrying her away. A bird (like the Garuda of Vishnoo 

 or the Eagle of Jupiter) became the vehicle. He seduced the female 

 by flattery and presents : she was turned out of heaven by the supreme 

 deity, but was fortunately received upon the back of a tortoise, when 

 the otter (an important agent in all the traditions of the American 

 Indians) and the fishes disturbed the mud at the bottom of the ocean, 

 and drawing it up round the tortoise formed a small island, which 

 increasing gradually became the earth. We may trace this tradition 

 to an Eastern source, from the circumstance that the female is said 

 to have had two sons, one of whom slew the other ; after which she 

 had several children, from whom sprung the human race. 



" In this fable we have no comparative data as to the size of the 

 tortoise, but in the Pythagorean cosmogony the infant world is repre- 

 sented as having been placed on the back of an elephant, which was 

 sustained on a huge tortoise. It is in the Hindoo accounts, however, 

 that we find the fable most circumstantially told, and especially in 

 what relates to the second Avatar of Vishnoo, when the ocean was 

 churned by means of the mountain Mundar placed on the back of the 

 king of the tortoises, and the serpent Asokee used for the churning- 

 rope. Vishnoo was made to assume the form of the tortoise and 

 sustain the created world on his back to make it stable. So com- 

 pletely has this fable been impressed on the faith of the country, that 

 the Hindoos to this day even believe that the world rests on the back 

 of a tortoise. Sir William Jones gives the following as a translation 

 from the great lyric poet Jyadeva : ' The earth stands firm on thy 

 immensely broad back, which grows larger from the callus occasioned 

 by bearing that vast burden. O Cesava ! assuming the body of a tor- 

 toise, be victorious ! Oh ! Hurry, Lord of the Universe ! ' 



" The next occasion in Indian mythology where the tortoise figures 

 prominently is in the narratives of the feats of the bird- demigod 

 ' Garuda,' the carrier of Vishnoo. After stating the circumstances of 

 his birth, and the disputes between his mother Viniita and * Kudroo,' 



