C 229 ) 



whole world overwhelmed by the waters from 

 the overflowing of a lake, fent a raven to the 

 bottom of the abyfs in order to bring him fome 

 earth ; that this raven having failed to execute 

 his commiffion, he fent a mufk rat which had 

 better fuccefs; with the fmall quantity of earth 

 which this animal brought him, he reilored the 

 world to its former ftate and condition ; that 

 he (hot arrows into the trunks of trees which 

 ftill appear, and that thofe arrows were chan- 

 ged into branches : that he performed feveral 

 other wonders ^ and that out of gratitude for the 

 fervice the mufk-rat had done him, he married 

 a female of his fpecies, by whom he had children 

 who repeOj>led the earth : _ that he had com- 

 municated his immortality to a certain favage, 

 which he gave him in a little packet, forbidding 

 him, at the fame time to open it, under the penal- 

 ty of lofing fo precious a gift. 



The. Hurons and the Iroquois fay, that T'a- 

 ronhinagon^ the king of heaven, gave his wife fo 

 rude a blow with his foot, that it ma'de her 

 tumble down from heaven to earth •, that this wo- 

 man fell upon the back of a tortoife, who by re- 

 moving the waters of the deluge with his 

 feet, at laft difcovered the earth, and carried 

 the woman to the foot of a tree, where me 

 brought forth twins, and that the elder whom 

 they call Tahouifiaron, killed his younger bro- 

 ther. 



It is not at all furprifing, that thefe people fo 

 indifferent about the paft, and to whom the con- 

 fideration of the future gives fo little uneafinefs, 

 fhoul.d know almoft nothing of the heavens, and 



3 make 



1 



