58 Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 



Vedic Indra. He tells me that in the later Vedas Indra 

 took over a number of the attributes which originally were 

 associated with Soma, who in addition to being a drink- 

 god, /.., an Asiatic Dionysos, was also a moon-god. Indra 

 also assumed many of the characters of Varuna ; and it 

 affords further confirmation of the identity of Indra with 

 Chac or 77<?/0to find the same elements of confusion also 

 in America. Each divinity is presented in Maya codices 

 in numerous phases closely associated with the serpent, 

 the tortoise, or the conch-shell, recalling forcibly the 

 several incarnations of the popular Hindu deity, Vishnu. 

 The fundamental conception is, in fact, typically Brahmani- 

 cal. In order to make this quite clear let us turn to the 

 points of similitude which we find in India. The avataras 

 ["descents"] of Vishnu are ten in number, the first of 

 which, Matsya^vs fish, is said to have reference to the uni- 

 versal deluge from the waters of which Vishnu in this 

 form recovered the Vedas, or Sacred writings of the 

 Hindus. 102 In a work published in 1731, Picart 108 gives a 

 picture and the following interesting and quaint account 

 of Vishnu s exploits : " He first assumed the shape of a 

 fish, in order to search for the Vedam at the bottom of the 

 sea, whither it had been carried by an evil Genius, who 

 had forc'd it away from the Deutas. Wistnou at the urgent 

 request of the Daitas, plung'd into the sea, kill'd this evil 

 Genius, and returned with the Vedam, which he found in a 

 shell. The figure [see Fig. I, plate facing p. 62] represents 

 Wistnou coming out of the fish, whose form he had assum'd ; 

 his two right hands hold the Ved(U>i open, and a ring ; his 

 two left, a sabre, and the shell in which the Vedam was 



10-2 Bird wood, "The Industrial Arts of India,'" Part I, p. 57 (South 

 Kensington Museum Handbook). 



los n, Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the several Nations of the 

 known World, 5 ' vol. iii., 1731, p. 415, pi. 101. 



