n. This boat was
supposed to have been built by the "Heavenly Lord," and it received into
it a pair of every kind of beasts.[27:2]

The ancient _Scandinavians_ had their legend of a deluge. The _Edda_
describes this deluge, from which only one man escapes, with his family,
by means of a bark.[27:3] It was also found among the ancient Mexicans.
They believed that a man named Coxcox, and his wife, survived the
deluge. Lord Kingsborough, speaking of this legend,[27:4] informs us
that the person who answered to Noah entered the ark with six others;
and that the story of sending birds out of the ark, &c., is the same in
general character with that of the Bible.

* * * * *

Dr. Brinton also speaks of the _Mexican_ tradition.[27:5] They had not
only the story of sending out the _bird_, but related that the ark
landed _on a mountain_. The tradition of a deluge was also found among
the Brazilians, and among many Indian tribes.[27:6] The mountain upon
which the ark is supposed to have rested, was pointed to by the
residents in nearly every quarter of the globe. The mountain-chain of
Ararat was considered to be--by the _Chaldeans_ and _Hebrews_--the place
where the ark landed. The _Greeks_ pointed to Mount Parnassus; the
_Hindoos_ to the Himalayas; and in Armenia numberless heights were
pointed out with becoming reverence, as those on which the few survivors
of the dreadful scenes of the deluge were preserved. On the Red River
(in America), near the village of the Caddoes, there was an eminence to
which the Indian tribes for a great distance around paid devout homage.
The Cerro Naztarny on the Rio Grande, the peak of Old Zuni in New
Mexico, that of Colhuacan on the Pacific coast, Mount Apoala in Upper
Mixteca, and Mount Neba in the province of Guaymi, are some of many
elevations asserted by the neighboring nations to have been places of
refuge for their ancestors when the fountains of the great deep broke
forth.

The question now may naturally be asked, How could such a story have
originated unless there was some foundation for it?

In answer to this question we will say that we do not think such a story
could have originated without some foundation for it, and that most, if
not all, legends, have a basis of truth underlying the fabulous,
although not always discernible. This story may have an _astronomical_
basis, as some suppose,[28:1] or it may not. At any rate, it would be
very easy to tran