237 
cases 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. Then, seeing that 
fresh verdure covered the soil, he quitted the bark near the 
mountain of Colluacan.”* 
11. Kegarding these traditions as anterior to the contact of 
modern civilization with the native American race, I venture 
to adduce them as a reasonable testimony, however distorted 
in some respects, to the main outline of history recorded by 
the pen of Moses. I am aware that doubts have been thrown 
upon their authenticity, as being inventions of the Spanish 
priests. Humboldt, however, no mean authority, having fully 
examined the question, and credited their aboriginal character, 
I offer no apology here for presenting them as part of my 
present argument. 
12. Whether the following is equally trustworthy, it is, per- 
haps, impossible to say. A Spanish Dominican priest, at any 
rate, affirms that he committed it to writing from the natives 
of Mexico, in 1566 ; and it is certainly by no means an impos- 
sible recollection of the ancient Asiatic record imported from 
the plains of Babel. “ Before the great inundation, the country 
of Anahuac was inhabited by giants. All those who did not 
perish were transformed to fishes, except seven, who fled into 
a cavern. When the waters subsided, one of the giants, 
Xelhua, went to Cholula, where, as a memorial of the moun- 
tain which had served for an asylum, he built an artificial hill 
in the form of a pyramid. The gods beheld with wrath this 
edifice, the top of which was to reach the clouds. They 
hurled fire upon it. Numbers of the workmen perished ; the 
work was discontinued, and the monument was afterwards 
dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, the god. of the air.”"j* It is worthy 
of notice, also, that this pyramid of Cholula was constructed in 
the direction of the four cardinal points, and is still called 
“ the mountain of unbaked bricks,” J Much might be said 
also of the more modern tribes— of the unfortunate Mandans, 
for instance, who celebrated an annual festival in honour of 
the deluge, when they used to assemble round a large canoe, 
one man dramatically running from the mountains, and per- 
sonating the last man of the old world ; § and of the Cree 
Indians and others, who believe that the great spirit created 
* Humboldt’s Vues des Cordilleres. 
t Humboldt’s Besearches, vol. i. pp. 95, 96. 
X Idem , pp. 86-92. 
§. Ik i® curious fact that this tribe was found by Mr. Catlin in actual pos- 
session of the tradition of forty days’ rain. c 
