"For this reason they adored him as their maker. He it was, they
thought, who produced the thunder and the lightning by _hurling
stones with his sling;_ and the thunder-bolts that fall, said they,
are his children. Few villages were willing to be without one or more
of these. They were in appearance _small, round, smooth stones_, but
had the admirable properties of securing fertility to the fields,
protecting from lightning," etc.[1]
I shift the scene again; or, rather, group together the legends of
three different localities. I quote:
"The Takahlis" (the Tacullies already referred to) "of the North
Pacific coast, the Yurucares of the Bolivian Cordilleras, and the
Mbocobi of Paraguay, each and all attribute the destruction of the
world to a _general conflagration_, which swept over the earth,
consuming everything living _except a few who took refuge in a deep
cave_."[2]
The Botocudos of Brazil believed that the world was once destroyed by
the moon falling upon it.
Let us shift the scene again northward:
There was once, according to the Ojibway legends, a boy; the sun
burned and spoiled his bird-skin coat; and he swore that he would
have vengeance.
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