332 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTETBUTION OF MYTHS. 



regions are united, if not by tlie tie of common descent and 

 relationship by bloody at least by intercourse, direct or indirect, 

 in past times. Of this evidence, tlie similarity of tlie chro- 

 nological calendars is perhaps the strongest point. Not only 

 are series of names like our signs of the zodiac used to re- 

 cord periods of time, but such series are combined together, or 

 with numbers, in both countries, in a complex, perverse, and 

 practically purposeless manner, which, whatever its origin, can 

 hardly by any stretch of probability be supposed to have come 

 up independently in the minds of two different peoples. The 

 theory of the successive destructions and renovations of the 

 world, at the end of long cycles of years, was pointed out by 

 Humboldt as another bond of connexion between Mexico and 

 the Old World ; and these agreements between North America 

 and Asia can hardly be read but as indications of a deep-rooted 

 connexion, which ought to have left many other traces beside 

 these. Of customs, the occurrence of which in America as 

 well as in the Old World would be well explained by such a 

 view, something has already been said. Of the North or South 

 American myths which closely resemble tales current in Asia, 

 Polynesia, and elsewhere in the world, eight are discussed here, 

 the World-Tortoise, the Man swallowed by the Fish, the Sun- 

 Catcher, the Ascent to Heaven by the Tree, the Bridge of the 

 Dead, the Fountain of Youth, the Tail-Fisher, and the Diable 

 Boiteux. 



In the Old World, the Tortoise Myth belongs especially to 

 India, and the idea is developed there in a variety of forms. 

 The Tortoise that upholds the earth is called in Sanskrit 

 Kurmaraja, " King of the Tortoises," and the Hindoos believe 

 to this day that the world rests upon its back. Sometimes the 

 snake Sesha bears the world on its head, or an elephant carries 

 it upon its back, and both snake and elephant are themselves 

 supported by the great tortoise. The earth, rescued from the 

 deluge which destroys mankind, is set up with the snake that 

 bears it resting on the floating tortoise, and a deluge is again to 

 pour over the face of the earth when the world-tortoise, sink- 

 ing under its load, goes down into the great waters. When 

 the Daityas and Danavas churned the Sea of Milk to make the 



