When the soft mud had hardened into elastic
flesh and firm bone, he _banished the waters to their channels and
beds_, and gave the dry land to his creatures."[2]
Here, again, we have the beginnings of the present race of men in a
cave, surrounded by clay and water, which covered the earth, and we
have the water subsiding into its channels and beds, and the dry land
appearing, whereupon the men emerged from the cave.
A parallel to this Southern legend occurs among the Six Nations of
the North. They with one consent looked to a mountain near the falls
of the Oswego River, in the State of New York, as the locality where
their forefathers saw the light of day; and their name, Oneida,
signifies _the people of the stone_.
[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 217.
2. Ibid., p. 242.]
{p. 202}
The cave of Pacarin-Tampu, already alluded to, the Lodgings of the
Dawn, or the Place of Birth of the Peruvians, was five leagues
distant from Cuzco, surrounded by a sacred grove, and inclosed with
temples of great antiquity.
"From its hallowed recesses the mythical civilizers, of Peru, tile
first of men, emerged, and in it, during the time of the flood, the
remnants of the race escaped the fury of the waves.
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