stern Canada asserted that a raven, whose eyes were fire,
whose glances were lightning, and the clapping of whose wings was
thunder, descended to the ocean. Instantly, the earth arose and
remained floating on the surface of the waters. It was from this Being
that the tribe traced its descent. We must remember how near akin are
animals and men at this stage of human development. Once throw oneself
into the atmosphere of myth and it is not difficult to comprehend how
such stories grew up.

But we are more interested in tracing the development of stories of
creation from primitive types to subtler and more abstract forms; and a
collection of savage folk-lore on the subject would, therefore, be of
little value. Let us pass, then, to the accounts given by races which
have played a part in history.

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The Egyptian account is as follows: In the beginning was the primitive
ocean, a wild waste of waters. From this tossing chaos sprang land and
sky, and it was from their embrace that other things arose. The
general idea present in this account was probably derived from the Nile
floods or from glimpses of the ocean. The lifting of the watery mists
which are seen rising each morning from the Nile, the parting of them
from the earth and the raising of them to the sky was a work variously
attributed to Ra (the sun) or Shu (the atmosphere). Gradually the
Egyptians developed ideas of various deities all of whom derive from
objects and activities in nature. To these were then assigned the work
of creation. At first this work was thought of as a shaping or
fashioning in a literal sense. Ptah, the Great Artificer, shapes the
sun and moon eggs on his potter's wheel; Osiris, the god of vegetation,
formed with his hand the earth, its waters, its air, its plants, all
its cattle, all its birds, all its winged fowl, all its reptiles, all
its quadrupeds. Is this view very far different from the account given
in the so-called second story of creation beginning with verse four of
Genesis? There it is written: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust
of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man became a living soul."

Somewhat later developed the more priestly, or theological, account;
just as it did for the Hebrews. Creation was then conceived more
mystically as an act of will issuing in a word of command. We should
remember that, for primitive thought, words were not mere verbal signs,
useful