298 
yet subsided. After a certain interval, they sent out more 
dogs , which, coming hack dry , convinced them that the earth 
was now habitable. Upon this they left their hiding-places, 
and became the progenitors of the present race of men.” * * * § The 
tradition found among the natives of the island of Cuba refers 
the rescue of a man and his family to the friendly aid of a 
ship, into which he took many animals. It states that “ when 
the flood ceased, he sent out a raven , which, because it found 
food suited to its nature, never returned. He then sent out a 
pigeon , which soon returned, bearing a branch of the Hoba 
tree.” t Let us now come to Mexico. Humboldt tells us J 
that, of the different nations which inhabited Mexico previous 
to its discovery by the Spaniards, five had paintings repre- 
senting the great deluge of Coxcox, or Tezpi. The tradition 
of one of these was that “ Coxcox embarked in a spacious 
canoe with his wife and children , several animals, and grain. 
When the Great Spirit ordered the waters to withdraw, 
Tezpi, or Coxcox, sent out a vulture. This bird did not return 
on account of the carcases with which the earth was strewed. 
He then sent out other birds, one of which, the humming bird, 
alone returned, holding in its beak a branch with leaves. 
From another source § we learn that in some of these Mexi- 
can pictures the canoe, or raft, is depicted at the foot of a 
mountain, “ while a dove, from the top of a tree, is distributing 
languages to the men born after the deluge.” Scarcely less 
interesting is the Mandan' tradition which Mr. Catlin found 
when he lived with that tribe on the northern banks of the 
Mississippi. It was illustrated by a festival kept once a year, 
and at one of which he was present. This festival was called 
“ The Subsiding of the Flood.” Singularly enough, this 
ceremony “ began at a season of the year,” says Mr. Catlin, 
“ when the willow leaves are fully out ; in allusion to a tra- 
dition they have that the twig which the bird brought home was 
a willow bough, and had full-grown leaves on it. The bird 
to which they allude is the dove, which they call the medicine 
bird, and will not allow to be destroyed by any one. The 
ceremony begins by the sudden entrance into the village of 
one who personates the first or only man. Descending from 
the western prairie, he runs into the village, where all stand 
ready to receive him. His body is chiefly naked, but painted 
with white clay, so as to resemble at a little distance a white 
man. During the whole of the day he went through the 
* See Faber’s Horce Mosaicm, vol. i., p. 116. 
t See Appendix to Norman’s Rambles in Yucatan. 
X Humboldt’s Vues des Cordilleris. 
§ See Priest’s American Antiquities. 
