d a
beginning, but not matter. A series of constructions and demolitions may
conveniently be supposed for these. The analogy of nature, as seen in
the vernal flowers springing up after the desolation of winter, of the
sapling sprouting from the fallen trunk, of life everywhere rising from
death, suggests such a view. Hence arose the belief in Epochs of Nature,
elaborated by ancient philosophers into the Cycles of the Stoics, the
Great Days of Brahm, long periods of time rounded off by sweeping
destructions, the Cataclysms and Ekpyrauses of the universe. Some
thought in these all beings perished; others that a few survived.[200-1]
This latter and more common view is the origin of the myth of the
deluge. How familiar such speculations were to the aborigines of America
there is abundant evidence to show.

The early Algonkin legends do not speak of an antediluvian race, nor of
any family who escaped the waters. Michabo, the spirit of the dawn,
their supreme deity, alone existed, and by his power formed and peopled
it. Nor did their neighbors, the Dakotas, though firm in the belief that
the globe had once been destroyed by the waters, suppose that any had
escaped.[201-1] The same view was entertained by the Nicaraguans[201-2]
and the Botocudos of Brazil. The latter attributed its destruction to
the moon falling to the earth from time to time.[201-3]

Much the most general opinion, however, was that some few escaped the
desolating element by one of those means most familiar to the narrator,
by ascending some mountain, on a raft or canoe, in a cave, or even by
climbing a tree. No doubt some of these legends have been modified by
Christian teachings; but many of them are so connected with local
peculiarities and ancient religious ceremonies, that no unbiased student
can assign them wholly to that source, as Professor Vater has done, even
if the authorities for many of them were less trustworthy than they are.
There are no more common heirlooms in the traditional lore of the red
race. Nearly every old author quotes one or more of them. They present
great uniformity of outline, and rather than engage in repetitions of
little interest, they can be more profitably studied in the aggregate
than in detail.

By far the greater number represent the last destruction of the world to
have been by water. A few, however, the Takahlis of the North Pacific
coast, the Yurucares of the Bolivian Cordilleras, and the Mbocobi of
Paraguay, attri