376 FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



sufficiently examined to justify a confident affirmation of 

 identity at present. There is no direct evidence from history 

 or from remains dug out of recent alluvial deposits that the 

 Colossochelys has recently ceased to be a tenant of the globe ; 

 but there are traditions connected with the cosmogonic 

 speculations of almost all Eastern nations having reference 

 to a Tortoise of such gigantic size as to be associated in their 

 fabulous accounts with the Elephant. Was this Tortoise 

 merely a creature of the imagination, or was the idea of it 

 drawn from a reality like the ' Colossochelys ? ' 



Besides a tradition current among the Iroquois Indians, 

 in regard to the important share which the Tortoise had in 

 the formation of the earth, there are several cases in ancient 

 history bearing on the same point. In the Pythagorean 

 cosmogony the infant world is represented as having been 

 placed on the hack of an Elephant which was sustained on a 

 huge Tortoise, In the Hindoo accounts of the second Avator 

 of Vishnoo the ocean is stated to have been churned by 

 means of the mountain Mundar placed on the back of the 

 King of the Tortoises, and the Serpent Asokee used as the 

 churning-rope. Yishnoo was made to assume the form of 

 the Tortoise, and sustain the created world on his back to 

 make it stable. So completely has this fable been impressed 

 on the faith of the country, that the Hindoos to this day 

 even believe that the world rests on the back of a Tortoise. 

 Again, the Tortoise figures prominently in the narratives of 

 the feasts of the bird-demigod Garuda, who is represented on 

 one occasion to have appeased his hunger at a certain lake 

 where an Elephant and a Tortoise were fighting. The dimen- 

 sions are given in the extravagant style of cosmogony. 



In these three instances there is distinct reference to a 

 gigantic form of Tortoise comparable in size with the Elephant. 

 Hence arises the question, are we to regard the idea as a mere 

 fiction of the imagination, like the Minotaur, the Chimsera, the 

 Griffin, Dragon, and Cartazonon, &c., or as founded on some 

 justifying reality. The Greek and Persian monsters are 

 composed of wild and fanciful combinations of different por- 

 tions of known animals into impossible forms, and are merely 

 the progeny of uncurbed imagination. But in the Indian 

 cosmogonic forms there is an image of congruity which may 

 be traced through the maze of exaggeration with which they 

 are invested. We have the Elephant then, as at present, the 

 largest of land animals, a fit suj)porter of the infant world ; 

 and the Colossochelys would supply a consistent representative 

 of the Tortoise which sustained the Elephant and the world 

 together. Bu.t if we are to suj)pose that the mythological 

 idea of the Tortoise was derived as a symbol of strength, 



