70 BAVBNPOUT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCaENCES. 



wf)ul(l have danced and sliouted durino^ the annihilation of tlic last 

 remains ol" their relations. Besides, the skeletfjns found in the same 

 sej^iilchres record the fact that the same Iowa Indians did not burn 

 their corpses. 



Plate II. 



It is a well known fact that the history of the delug'e has lieen pre- 

 . served among- the most different nations of America, and the univer- 

 sality of the Xoachian inundation of our globe has been placed be- 

 yond the reach of controversy by an excellent treatise of Pojana.* 

 He has collected nearly all the respective traditions and discussed his 

 ai-g-ument so carefully that he had a right to conclude with the follow- 

 ing words : " Douljting this universal catastrophe would show how 

 far voluntary stupid incredulity is capal)le to go, both in believing 

 what is incrediVjle and in denying what is credible. "f 



In short, the event of the deluge, even many of its particular fea- 

 tures, are to l^e found not only in Genesis, in SN'ria, Egypt, Central 

 Africa, Ph(jenicia, Greece, Italy, Scandinavia, Persia, India, Babylonia, 

 China and Japan, but also among the ancient Mexicans, Cubani, Mit- 

 echi, Zapotechi, Micuocanesi, and other nations of South America, men- 

 tioned Ijy Humboldt. On a Mexican temple the deluge was repre- 

 sented by the image of an immense ocean, bearing only one boat, oc- 

 cuj)ied only by a male and female. Instead of a dove, already for- 

 gotten by the ancient Mexicans, a humming-bird returns with the 

 olive leaf. Now, is it not probable in advance, that the Indians of 

 North America, — the relations of the Mexicans, — must have ])reserved 

 the same history of the same deluge of the year 3446 B. C.?J 



In contemplating our Davenport slal), what do we notice V First, 

 we distinguish thirty or more animals well known in the present 

 world, of which the most. interesting is the elephant, not at all domes- 

 tic in America. A number of these animals a])pear included in two 

 large cages, intersected with lattice work. In the midst of these ani- 

 mals we see a patriarch with the scepter in his hand, and behind him 

 a sitting woman. Apart from these we notice three other men, aiid 

 three other likewise sitting women, but scattered among th(; animals. 

 Quer\': Who are these eight persons — these four men and four wo- 

 men y Why are they connected with thirty different animals, of 



* Delhi universalita del Diluvio. < Poliirmpho di Verona, Vol. xi, p. 145. 



f Die Allaemeinheit der Simdfluth uacli Pojana und neueren Hullsmit- 

 tehi. Pilger Buchliandhuig, Reading, Pa.. 1881. 



ifSeethe writer's: Unser Alphabet, ein Abbikl des Thierkreises vom 

 Jahre 3446 B. C. Leipzig, 1834. 



