The First Men. 



213 



harmony with the teachings of science, in order to show how fully they 

 coincide therewith . 



" There was not yet a single man; not an animal; neither birds, 

 nor fishes, nor crabs, nor wood, nor stone, nor ravine, nor herbs, nor 

 forests — only the sky existed. The face of the land was not seen; 

 there was only the silent sea and the sky. Tiierc was not yet a body ; 

 naught to attach itself to another; naught that balanced itself; 

 naught that made a sound in the sky. There was nothing that stood 

 upright; naught there was but the peaceful sea — the sea silent and 

 solitary in its limits, for there was nothing that was." This will 

 answer very Avell as a picture of the Eocene waters, as tliey stretched 

 from India to England, Aviien furaminifera were engaged in laying 

 the foundations of the earth in nuramulitic limestone. 



The record continues: Tliose who fecundate, those who give 

 being, are upon the Avaters, like a growing light. h« * * "While 

 they consulted, the day broke, and at the moment of dawn man ap- 

 peared. * * * They then consulted Avhile the earth grew. Thus, 

 verily, took place the creation, as the earth came into being. ' Earth/ 

 said they, and the earth existed. Like a fog, like a cloud [the mist of 

 Genesis] was its formation ; as huge fishes rise in the water so rose the 

 mountains ; and in a moment the high mountains existed." Can we 

 desire a more vivid description of the elevation of the mighty ranges 

 which skirted what was called the earth in ancient times, — the 

 Ilimalayas, the Kuen-Liin, the Caucasus, and other mountains — 

 which were raised toward the close of the Eocene age, and during the 

 Miocene ? 



Hear, now, when it was first thought of man, and of what man 

 should be formed. At that time spake He who gives life and He who 

 gives form, the Maker and the Moulder, named Tapen G-ucumatz. 

 The day draws near ; the work is done ; the supporter, the servant, is 

 ennobled; he is the son of light, the child of whiteness; man is 

 honored ; the race of man is on the earth ; so they spoke. * * * 

 Immediately they began to speak of making our first mother and our 

 father. Only of yellow corn and of white corn were their flesh, and the 

 substance of the arms and legs of man. They were called simply beings, 

 formed and fashioned ; they had neither mother nor father ; we call 

 them simply men. Woman did not bring them forth, nor were they 

 born of the Builder and Moulder, of Him who fecundates and Him 

 who gives being. But it was a miracle, an enchantment worked by the 

 !Maker and Mouhler, by Him who fecundates and Him who gives 

 being. Thought was in them ; they saw ; they looked around; tlieir 

 vision took in all things; they perceived the world; they cast their 

 eyes from the sky to the earth. Then they were asked by the Builder 



