THE ABORIGINES OF NORTH AMERICA. 247 
the Bible. We only say that these events are recorded in the 
native traditions of America and in Bible history. The 
cosmogonies in America are generally local, or associated with 
local surroundings. ‘The imagery is local, the deluge is also 
local. There are mountains which have traditions of the 
Deluge connected with them—American Ararats. But the 
persons saved were the ancestors of particular tribes. There 
are also ‘“‘arks,’ but they are the ‘‘big canoes” in which 
the ‘‘ medicine-man”’ came over during the flood. There are 
traditions of the world being repeopled, but it is repeopled by 
the ancestors of particular tribes. 
The truths which are embodied in the native traditions 
are very similar to those found in Bible history, proving, 
perhaps, some common origin long ago, but the imagery is in 
great contrast. One of the most remarkable coincidences 
which we have noticed is found in the Tale of Incest, which 
has just come to light as a tradition of the Navajoes. This 
story has been published in the American Antiquarian. 
The story is adapted to the Indian customs in its details, but 
the general purport of it and the reproach which was brought 
upon the Utes as the fruits of the incest remind us of the re- 
proach which the Jews brought upon the Moabites because of 
the incest of Lot. Dr. Washington Matthews, who has furnished 
me with a copy of the myth, says there is no doubt of its pre- 
Columbian or prehistoric character, and has referred to the 
remarkable resemblance which exists between it and the story 
in the Bible. The fashion is to explain away all these resem- 
blances to Bible stories, but they seem to be accumulating 
more and more; and it is among the possibilities that by- 
and-by the evidence will be so overwhelming that it will 
convince the most sceptical. For the present we only refer to 
the general resemblances and the correlation between the 
facts and truths found in the traditions of America, and those 
which are so marked in the Bible record, and leave others 
to decide whether these coincidences could be produced by 
any law of ethnic development, or by any other cause than 
that of an historic connexion. 
Tue Presivent (Professor G. G. Stokes, M.A., D.C.L., P.R.S.).—I have to 
ask you to accord your thanks to the Author of the paper and also to Dr. 
Thornton, for having delighted us all by the manner in which he has kindly 
read it. 
Rev. R. Tuornton, D.D., V.P.—I have read Mr. Peet’s paper with very 
great satisfaction, because it is one which asserts most definitely, and proves 
most convincingly, the great truth that there was a primeval revelation given 
to our first parents and handed oie more or less authoritatively— 
U 
