Parallel Myths (22 page)

Mojave-Apache

NOTE:
Do you remember the emergence myths in the last chapter? This myth is both an emergence myth and a flood story.

M
any years ago, people lived under the ground. There came a time when there was no food, when the people sent a hummingbird up to see what he could find for them to eat. He saw the deep roots of a grapevine, which he followed up to the surface of the earth. The people went up through the hole and began living above ground.

One day a man looked down into the hole made by the vine,
through which the people had entered the upper world, and saw that water was rising up through it. The wise ones knew that a great flood was coming and that something had to be done to save humankind.

They then cut down a great tree and hollowed it out to make a canoe, placing a young girl in it. The tree-trunk canoe floated high on the waters until nothing but water could be seen in any direction. The wise ones had warned the girl not to leave the vessel until it touched land, even if she heard the waters going down.

Finally, the tree-trunk canoe touched ground. When the girl emerged, all the world had been drowned. She wondered whether she would always be alone. She went up to the mountains to rest. As she lay down, the sun shone on her, warming water that dripped down on her body from the rocks. This magic water impregnated her and she later gave birth to a daughter who conceived in the same way. All of us are descended from her.

Cree

W
isagatcak the Trickster built a dam across a stream in an attempt to capture the Great Beaver as it left its lodge. He waited all day until finally, at dusk, the huge creature swam toward him. Now, the Great Beaver possesses powerful magic and, as Wisagatcak prepared to spear it, created a spell that caused a muskrat to bite Wisagatcak in the behind, making him miss the target. Though spared, the Great Beaver was angry and wanted revenge.

The next morning Wisagatcak was dumfounded. After being bitten, he had dismantled his dam, but the water level had not gone down even though the stream was now flowing freely through the spot where the dam had been. Even more strange—the water level continued to rise higher and higher. The Great Beaver had worked powerful magic indeed; the entire world was flooding. For two weeks, the Great Beaver and the little beavers kept busy making all the waters of earth to rise until not one spot of dry land could be found. In great
haste, Wisagatcak built a raft of logs and took many animals aboard with him.

The water continued to rise for yet another two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, the muskrat left the raft to search for land, but even the muskrat, who is accustomed to living between earth and water, drowned. Then a raven left the raft. He flew around the entire world, but found no land, only water. Then Wisagatcak made his own magic with the help of a wolf on his raft.

During the next two weeks on the raft, moss grew all over its surface. The wolf ran around and around on the raft, causing the moss to become magically expanding earth, until the raft was a vast land mass. However, to this very day, water springs up through holes in the ground—cracks in that original raft.

Algonquin

NOTE
: In the stories of Noah, Utnapishtim, Wisagatcak, and this one, a raven is sent out to find land.

T
he god Michabo was hunting with his pack of trained wolves one day when he saw the strangest sight—the wolves entered a lake and disappeared. He followed them into the water to fetch them and as he did so, the entire world flooded. Michabo then sent forth a raven to find some soil with which to make a new earth, but the bird returned unsuccessful in its quest. Then Michabo sent an otter to do the same thing, but again to no avail.

Finally he sent the muskrat and she brought him back enough earth to begin the reconstruction of the world. The trees had lost their branches in the flood, so Michabo shot magic arrows at them that immediately became new branches covered with leaves.

Then Michabo married the muskrat and they became the parents of the human race.

O
nce there was a period called the Pachachama, when humankind was cruel, barbaric, and murderous. Human beings did whatever they pleased without any fear. They were so busy planning wars and stealing that they completely ignored the gods. The only part of the world that remained uncorrupted was the high Andes.

In the highlands of Peru there were two shepherd brothers who were of impeccable character. They became very concerned when their llamas acted strangely. The llamas stopped eating and spent the night gazing sadly up at the stars. When the brothers asked the llamas what was going on, they replied that the stars had told them that a great flood was coming that would destroy all creatures on earth.

The two brothers and their families decided to seek safety in the caves in the highest mountain. They took their flocks with them into a cave and then it began to rain. It rained for months without end. Looking down from the mountains, they saw that the llamas were right: The entire world was being destroyed. They could hear the cries of the miserable dying humans below. Miraculously, the mountain grew taller and taller as the waters rose. Even so, the waters began to lap at the door of their cave. Then the mountain grew still higher.

One day they saw that the rain had ceased and that the waters were subsiding. Inti, the sun-god, appeared once again and smiled, causing the waters to evaporate. Just as their provisions were running out, the brothers looked down to see that the earth was dry. The mountain then returned to its usual height, and the shepherds and their families repopulated the earth.

Human beings live everywhere; llamas, however, remember the flood and prefer to live only in the highlands.

T
he sun-god Ra, was warned by his father, the Watery Abyss, that humankind had grown too wicked and was on the verge of full rebellion against the gods. So Ra took his eye, the goddess Hathor, and sent her to investigate and punish the evildoers.

Hathor went to earth and began slaying thousands of humans, then millions. She was so terrible that the streets of the town of Chetenuten ran like a river with blood. So much blood poured into the Nile that it overflowed its banks, and the mixture of blood and water inundated the land, destroying everything in its path. The mixture even met the sea, which, in turn, overflowed its banks. Hathor had become literally bloodthirsty, drinking this gory liquid.

Ra’s original intention was to punish, but not destroy, humankind. So he called Thoth, the wisest of the gods, for advice. Ra then sent the goddess Sektet and told her to grind a great volume of the dada [perhaps the date] fruit and mix it with barley to make strong beer. Then the beer would be mixed with the blood of hapless humans to attract Hathor.

Ra then instructed his servants to take the jugs of beer and pour them out near Hathor on whatever dry land remained. The beer formed a great sea. Hathor was drawn by the smell of the blood and began to drink the beer until she was so drunk that she could not even stand. Completely intoxicated, she could no longer identify the few humans left and she staggered off to sleep.

From that remnant, humankind repopulated the earth.

Ra was tired of dealing with human beings, Hathor, and the other problems on earth. So he went off to rest on the back of the great cow of heaven, appointing Thoth as his governor on earth. This was an excellent choice, as Thoth taught people how to write, compose poetry, and govern themselves.