hold my head in heaven, and spread my
branches over all the earth, and gather all men together under my
shadow, and protect them, and prevent them from separating.' But Brahma,
to punish the pride of the tree, cut off its branches and cast them down
on the earth, when they sprang up as _Wata trees, and made differences
of belief, and speech, and customs_, to prevail on the earth, to
disperse men over its surface."[36:1]

Traces of a somewhat similar story have also been met with among the
_Mongolian Tharus_ in the north of India, and, according to Dr.
Livingston, among the Africans of Lake _Nganu_.[36:2] The ancient
_Esthonians_[36:3] had a similar myth which they called "The Cooking of
Languages;" so also had the ancient inhabitants of the continent of
_Australia_.[36:4] The story was found among the ancient Mexicans, and
was related as follows:

Those, with their descendants, who were saved from the deluge which
destroyed all mankind, excepting the few saved in the ark, resolved to
build a tower which would reach to the skies. The object of this was to
see what was going on in Heaven, and also to have a place of refuge in
case of another deluge.[36:5]

The job was superintended by one of the _seven_ who were saved from the
flood.[36:6] He was a _giant_ called Xelhua, surnamed "the
Architect."[36:7]

Xelhua ordered bricks to be made in the province of Tlamanalco, at the
foot of the Sierra of Cocotl, and to be conveyed to _Cholula_, where the
tower was to be built. For this purpose, he placed a file of men
reaching from the Sierra to Cholula, who passed the bricks from hand to
hand.[36:8] The gods beheld with wrath this edifice,--the top of which
was nearing the clouds,--and were much irritated at the daring attempt
of Xelhua. They therefore hurled fire from Heaven upon the pyramid,
which threw it down, and killed many of the workmen. The work was then
discontinued,[36:9] as each family interested in the building of the
tower, _received a language of their own_,[36:10] and the builders could
not understand each other.

Dr. Delitzsch must have been astonished upon coming across this legend;
for he says:

"_Actually_ the Mexicans had a legend of a _tower-building_ as
well as of a _flood_. Xelhua, one of the _seven giants_
rescued from the flood, built the great pyramid of Cholula, in
order to reach heaven, until the gods, angry at his audacity,
threw fire upon the building and broke it dow