Tregear. — Myths of Observation. 583 



Monau carried into the heaven. He, seeing all things destroved, 

 spoke thus to Monau : ' Wilt thou also destroy the heavens 

 and their garniture ? x\las ! henceforth where will be our 

 home? Why should I live, since there is none other of my 

 kind '? ' Then Monau was so filled with pity that he poured a 

 deluging rain upon the earth, which quenched the fire, and 

 flowed on all sides, forming the ocean, which we call par ana, 

 the great water.''* If we travel from Brazil thousands of 

 miles north to the tribes of British Columbia, the Tacullies, 

 they inform us that when the earth had been made, and " be- 

 came afterwards peopled in every part, it remained until a 

 fierce fire of several days' duration swept over it, destroying 

 all life with two exceptions. One man and one woman hid 

 themselves in a deep cave in the heart of a mountain, and 

 from these two the world has since been re-peopled, "t The 

 natives in the vicinity of Lake Tahoe ascribe its origin to a 

 great natural convulsion. There was a time, they say, when 

 their tribe possessed the whole earth, and were strong, 

 numerous, and rich ; but a day came when a people rose up 

 stronger than they, and defeated and enslaved them. " After- 

 wards the Great Spirit sent an immense wave across the 

 continent from the sea, and this wave engulfed both the 

 oppressors and the oppressed, all but a very small remnant. 

 Then the taskmasters made the remaining people raise up a 

 great temple so that they of the ruling caste should have a 

 refuge in case of another flood. . . . Half a moon had 

 not elapsed, however, before the earth was again troubled, 

 this time with strong convulsions and thunderings, upon 

 which the masters took refuge in their great tower, closing 

 the people out. The poor slaves fled to the Humboldt Eiver, 

 and, getting into canoes, paddled for life from the awful sight 

 behind them, for the land w r as tossing like a troubled sea, and 

 casting up fire, smoke, and ashes. The flames went up to 

 the very heavens, and melted many stars, so that they rained 

 down in molten metal on the earth, forming the ore that 

 white men seek."]: The Indians of Utah and California have 

 legends of a time when the sun -god came too near the earth, 

 and scorched the people with his fierce heat. The god Tawats 

 determined to deliver humanity from this great trouble, so he 

 came to " the brink of the earth, and there watched long and 

 patiently, till at last, the sun-god coming out, he shot an 

 arrow at his face. The fierce heat consumed the arrow ere it 

 had finished its intended course ; then another arrow was sped, 

 but that also was consumed; and another, and still another, 



* Brinton's " Myths of the New "World," p. 227. 

 t Bancroft's " Native Races," vol. iii., p. 98. 

 I Bancroft, vol. iii., p. 89. 



