Chapter 2 

 ABOUT THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. 



Do not let the reader think that I wish to give here an account 

 of that which Moses relates in the first chapter of Genesis. I do not 

 intend any such thing, but to set forth the belief which these Indians 

 had in their gentile state about the beginning of the world. And 

 although one encounters in the narration many contradictions, we 

 should not be surprised that certain crude Indians, without knowledge 

 of the true God, without faith, without law or king, governed so 

 long by the Father of Lies, without writings or characters, but having 

 everything by mere tradition — we should not be surprised, I repeat, 

 at their extravagancies and the little discernment in their acts, for 

 since they were so ignorant, without being able to distinguish the 

 true from the false, they did not know the path of light, and con- 

 tinually walked in darkness. 



The belief which these Indians had concerning the origin of the 

 world was thus : they relate that formerly there was nothing, only 

 one above and another below ; these two were brother and sister, 

 man and woman, the one above, a man, which is properly the Heaven, 

 and the one below, a woman, which is the Earth, but it was not the 

 Heaven and the Earth as they are seen now, but of another nature 

 which they do not know how to explain, and it was continually very 

 dark night, without sun, moon, or stars. The brother came to the 

 sister, and brought the light, which is the sun, telling her that he 

 wanted to do many things with her ; it meant that he wanted to 

 cohabit with her. But the sister resisted declaring to him that they 

 were brother and sister, and that therefore it was impossible to 

 consent to what he desired, and that for that reason he should go 

 back and leave her in peace. 



Note: And the Indians of these parts pay such faithful observance to the 

 first degree of consanguinity that I have never heard that brothers with sisters, 

 or fathers with daughters, or sons with mothers, have been seen at all, nor 

 even with first cousins, for being first cousins they are treated the same as 

 brothers ; but not so with the relatives by affinity, for there were many married 

 to two sisters, as they also had the custom that if a woman died and she had 

 a sister, the latter entered as a wife in place of the deceased woman. Here is 

 seen the Alosaic law. 



But at last in spite of all the resistance that she made, the sister 

 became pregnant, and what she brought forth was earth and sand. 



