'
"'Now this was in the year Ce Tecpatl, One _Flint_, it was the day
_Nahui-Quiahuitl_, Fourth Rain. Now, in this day in which men were
lost and destroyed _in a rain of fire_, they were transformed into
goslings.'"[1]
We find also many allusions in the legends to the clay.
When the Navajos climbed up from their cave they found the earth
covered with clay into which they sank mid-leg deep; and when the
water ran off it left the whole world full of mud.
In the Creek and Seminole legends the Great Spirit made the first
man, in the primeval cave, "from the clay around him."
[1. "North Americans of Antiquity," p. 499.]
{p. 266}
Sanchoniathon, from the other side of the world, tells us, in the
Phœnician legends (see page 209, _ante_), that first came
chaos, and out of chaos was generated _m?t_ or mud.
In the Miztec (American) legends (see page 214, _ante_), we are told
that in the Age of Darkness there was "nothing but _mud and slime_ on
all the face of the earth."
In the Quiche legends we are told that the first men were destroyed
by fire and _pitch_ from heaven.
Pages:
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381