58 Shells as evidettce of the Migiations. 



Vedic Indi-a. 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, z.e., an Asiatic Dionysos, was also a moon-god. Indra 

 also assumed many of the characters of Varuna\ and it 

 afifords further confirmation of the identity of Indra with 

 Chac or Tlnloc to 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, or 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.'"^ In a work published in 1731, Picart'"* 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 J^edam 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 Deutas, plung'd into the sea, kill'd this evil 

 Genius, and return'd 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 Vedam open, and a ring ; his 

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



'»•- Birchvood, "The Industrial Arts of India," Part I, p. 57 f'JOKrt 

 Kensington Mitsenni Handbook). 



10s "Religious Ceremonies and Customs of llie several Nations of the 

 known World," vol. iii., 1731, p. 415, pi. loi. 



