ccBHiNQ] BIRTH OF THE BELOVED TWAIN. 381 



water, so shall seed-grains like to them, yet numberless, spring up 

 from thy bosom when touched by my waters, to nourish our children," 

 Thus and in other ways many devised they for their ofifspriug. 



THE GESTATION OF MEN AND THE CREATURES. 



Anon in the nethermost of the four cave- wombs of the world, the seed 

 of men and the creatures took form and increased ; even as within eggs 

 in warm places worms speedily appear, which growing, presently burst 

 their shells and become as may happen, birds, tadpoles or serpents, so 

 did men and all creatures grow manifoldly and multiply in many kinds. 

 Thus the lowermost womb or cave-world, which was Anosin t^huli 

 (the womb of sooty depth or of growth-generation, because it was the 

 place of first formation and black as a chimney at night time, foul too, 

 as the internals of the belly), thus did it become overfilled with being. 

 Everywhere were unfinished creatures, crawling like reptiles one over 

 another in filth and black darkness, crowding thickly together and tread- 

 ing each other, one spitting on another or doing other indecency, inso- 

 much that loud became their murmurings and lamentations, until many 

 among them sought to escape, growing wiser and more manlike. 



THE FORTHCOMING FROM EARTH OF THE FOREMOST OF MEN. 



Then came among men and the beings, it is said, the wisest of wise 

 men and the foremost, the all-sacred master, Poshaiyaijk'ya, he who 

 appeared in the waters below, even as did the Sun-father in the wastes 

 above, and who arose from the nethermost sea, and pitying men still, 

 won upward, gaining by virtue of bis (innate) wisdom-knowledge issu- 

 ance from that first world- womb through ways so dark and narrow that 

 those who, seeing somewhat, crowded aftei-, could not follow, so eager 

 were they and so mightily did they strive with one another ! Alone, 

 then, he fared upward from one womb (cave) to another out into the 

 great breadth of dayhght. There, the earth lay, like a vast island in 

 the midst of the great waters, wet and unstable. And alone fared he 

 forth dayward, seeking the Sun-father and supplicating him to deliver 

 mankind and the creatures there below. 



THE BIRTH FROM THE SEA OF THE TWAIN DELIVERERS OF 



MEN. 



Then did the Sun-father take counsel within himself, and casting his 

 glance downward espied, on the great waters, a Foam-cap near to the 

 Earth-mother. With his beam lie impregnated and with his heat 

 incubated the Foam cap, whereupon she gave birth to tJanani Achi 

 Piahkoa, the Beloved Twain who descended; flr.st, TJanam Ehkona, 

 the Beloved Preeeder, then iJanam Yaluna, the Beloved Follower, 

 Twin brothers of Light, yet Elder and Younger, the Right and the 

 Left, like to question and answer in deciding and doing. To them the 



