travels in North America. 297 



counts, whkh will ferve as a Supplement to what I have already 

 faid of the Savages in gene'^al, and which I learnt on my Routei 

 from the River St, Jofeph to this Place. 



You may have obferved in the Fable of Atahentfec driven from 

 ' ^ J, . ■ ^ , Heaven, fome Traces of the Story of the 

 iradittomoj tbe Woman, banifhed from the terrelîrial 



^inofthefirftWo^ Paradife, in Punilhment of her .Difobedi- 

 7r^n, and of the ^^^^ . Tradition of the Deluge, aï 



«^^* well as of the Ark, in which Noah i^c^tà, 



himfelf with his Family. This Circumilance does not hinder 

 me from adhering to the Opinion of F\ dc Acofia, who thinks 

 that this Tradition does not relate to the univerfal Deluge, but 

 a particular Deluge in A7nerica, In Fad, the Algonqums, and 

 almoll all the People who fpeak their Langaage, taking for 

 granted the Creation of the firll: Man, fay that his Pollerity be- / 

 ing almoft all entirely deflroyed by a general Inundation, one 

 named Meffou, others call him Saketchak^ who faw all the Earth 

 deeply covered with Waters by the overflowing of a Lake, fent 

 a Raven to the Bottom, of this Abyfs, to fetch him fome Earth : 

 That this Raven not having well executed his CommiiTien, he 

 fent a Mufk Rat on the fame Errand, who fucceeded better : 

 That out of this little Earth, which the Animal brought him, hé 

 rellored the World to its iirft State : That' he fnot Arrows into 

 the Trunks of the Trees vv^hich ftill appeared, and that thefe 

 Arrows turned into Branches : That he v/rought many other 

 Miracles ; and that, in Acknowledgment of the Service which 

 the Mulk Rat had done him, he married a Female of that Spe- 

 cies, by which he had Children, which re-peopled the Vv orld t 

 That he communicated his Immortality to a certain Savage, and 

 gave it him in a little Pacquet, with Orders not to open it, on 

 the Penalty of lofmg fuch a precious Gift. 



The Huro7is and the Iroquois fay that TaronhiacuagoJt,- Ûit King" 

 of Heaven, gave his Wife a Kick, fo violent, that' it threw her 

 from Heaven to the Earth : That this Woman fell upon the 

 Back of a Tortoife ; which beating off the Waters of the De- 

 luge with his Feet, he at lad difcovered the Earth, and car-^ 

 ried the Woman, to the Foot of a Tree, where llie lay-in of 

 Twins ; and that the Elder killed the Younger* 



It is not Turpriziug that thefe People, who are fo indifrerent 



cr? ' \T r about Things paft, and who are very little 



u heir Notions of ^ ^ 



.7 Q. J n/ concernea about 1 hmas to come, iliould 



ihe btars ana r la- , Tr ^ ^ r i tt i 



^^^^ nave no Knowleage of thg Heavens, and 



fliould make no Diiference between the Pla- 

 nets and fixed Stars ; unlefs it be that they divide the laft, as we 

 do, into Coniiellations. They call Ûi^. Pleiades, the Male and 

 Female Da?2cer s * They give the Name of the Bear to the four 



Q^q firft 



