?"

He will reply, "Indians, and just the trees, and animals, and fishes,
and a few birds."

So you are prepared to accept the animal world as intelligent
co-habitants of the Pacific slope, but he will not lead you to think he
regards them as equals, much less superiors. But to revert to "mine
own people": they hold the intelligence of wild animals far above that
of man, for perhaps the one reason that when an animal is sick it
effects its own cure; it knows what grasses and herbs to eat, what to
avoid, while the sick human calls the medicine man, whose wisdom is not
only the result of years of study, but also heredity; consequently any
great natural event, such as the Deluge, has much to do with the wisdom
of the creatures of the forests and the rivers.

Iroquois tradition tells us that once this earth was entirely submerged
in water, and during this period for many days a busy little muskrat
swam about vainly looking for a foothold of earth wherein to build his
house. In his search he encountered a turtle also leisurely swimming,
so they had speech together, and the muskrat complained of weariness;
he could find no foothold; he was tired of incessant swimming, and
longed for land such as his ancestors enjoyed. The turtle suggested
that the muskrat should dive and endeavor to find earth at the bottom
of the sea. Acting on this advice the muskrat plunged down, then arose
with his two little forepaws grasping some earth he had found beneath
the waters.

"Place it on my shell and dive again for more," directed the turtle.
The muskrat did so, but when he returned with his paws filled with
earth he discovered the small quantity he had first deposited on the
turtle's shell had doubled in size. The return from the third trip
found the turtle's load again doubled. So the building went on at
double compound increase, and the world grew its continents and its
islands with great rapidity, and now rests on the shell of a turtle.

If you ask an Iroquois, "And did no men survive this flood?" he will
reply, "Why should men survive? The animals are wiser then men; let
the wisest live."

How, then, was the earth re-peopled?

The Iroquois will tell you that the otter was a medicine man; that in
swimming and diving about he found corpses of men and women; he sang
his medicine songs and they came to life, and the otter brought them
fish for food until they were strong enough to provide for themselves.
Then the Iroquois wil