Flood Stories From Around The World
Index by region
Europe
Greek
Roman
Scandinavian
Celtic
Welsh
Lithuanian
German
Turkey
Vogul
Near East
Middle Eastern Generally
Egypt
Assyrian
Hebrew
Babylonian
Chaldean
Zoroastrian
Africa
Pygmy
Kikuyu (Kenya)
Southwest Tanzania
Yoruba (southwest Nigeria)
Basonge
Ekoi (Nigeria)
Mandingo (Ivory Coast)
Bakongo (west Zaire)
Lower Congo
Komililo Nandi
Cameroon
Kwaya (Lake Victoria)
!Kung
Far East
Hindu
Bhil (central India)
Kamar (Raipur District, Central India)
Ho (southwestern Bengal)
Lepcha (Sikkim)
Tibet
Singpho (Assam)
Lushai (Assam)
Assam
Mongolia
China
Bahnar (Cochin China)
Lolo (southwestern China)
Kamchadale (northeast Siberia)
Andaman Islands (Bay of Bengal)
Chingpaw (Upper Burma)
Kammu (northern Thailand)
Benua‑Jakun (Malay Peninsula)
Kelantan (Malay Peninsula)
Ami (eastern Taiwan)
Ifugao (Philippines)
Atá (Philippines)
Batak (Sumatra)
Nias (an island west of Sumatra)
Engano (another island west of Sumatra)
Dyak (Borneo)
Ot‑Danom (Dutch Borneo)
Toradja (central Celebes)
Alfoor (between Celebes and New Guinea)
Rotti (southwest of Timor)
Nage (Flores)
Australasia and Pacific Islands
Kabadi (New Guinea)
Valman (northern New Guinea)
Mamberao River (Irian Jaya)
Australian
Arnhem Land (northern Northern Territory)
Gumaidj (Arnhem Land)
Maung (Goulburn Islands, Arnhem Land)
Gunwinggu (northern Arnhem Land)
Manger (Arnhem Land)
Andingari (South Australia)
Wiranggu (South Australia)
Victoria
Lake Tyres (Victoria)
Kurnai (Gippsland, Victoria)
Maori (New Zealand)
Palau Islands (Micronesia)
New Hebrides
Lifou (one of the Loyalty Islands)
Fiji
Samoa
Raiatea (Leeward Group, French Polynesia)
Tahiti
Hawaii
North and Central America
North America generally
Netsilik Eskimo
Norton Sound Eskimo
Tlingit (southern Alaska coast)
Hareskin (Alaska)
Tinneh (Alaska)
Haida (Queen Charlotte Is., British Columbia)
Kaska (northern inland British Columbia)
Squamish (British Columbia)
Tsimshian (British Columbia)
Skagit (Washington)
Skokomish (Washington)
Quillayute (Washington)
Nisqually (Washington)
Warm Springs (Oregon)
Joshua (southern Oregon)
Shasta (northern California interior)
Northern California Coast
Pomo (north central California)
Salinan (California)
Luiseño (Southern California)
Kootenay (southeast British Columbia)
Yakima (Washington)
Spokana, Nez Perce, Cayuse (eastern Washington)
Algonquin (upper Ottowa River)
Blackfoot (Alberta and Montana)
Micmac (eastern Maritime Canada)
Greenlander
Montagnais (northern Gulf of St. Lawrence)
Chippewa (Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin)
Cheyenne (Minnesota)
Cherokee (Great Lakes area; eastern Tennessee)
Dakota
Caddo (Oklahoma, Arkansas)
Tsetsaut
Choctaw (Mississippi)
Natchez (Lower Mississippi)
Navajo (Four Corners area)
Yuma (western Arizona, southern California)
Pima (southwest Arizona)
Papago (Arizona)
Hopi (northeast Arizona)
Jicarilla Apache (northeastern New Mexico)
Mexico
Tarahumara (Northern Mexico)
Michoacan (Mexico)
Toltec (Mexico)
Mayan
Huichol (western Mexico)
Cora (east of the Huichols)
Nahua (central Mexico)
Totonac (eastern Mexico)
Nicaragua
Panama
South America
Muysca (Colombia)
Tamanaque (Orinoco)
Makiritare (Venezuela)
Yanomamo (southern Venezuela)
Arekuna (Guyana)
Arawak (Guyana)
Pamary, Abedery, and Kataushy (eastern Peru)
Ipurina (Upper Amazon)
Coroado (south Brazil)
Jivaro (eastern Ecuador)
Shuar (Andes)
Quechua
Inca (Peru)
Chiriguano (southeast Bolivia)
Chorote (Eastern Paraguay)
Toba (Northern Argentina)
Yamana (Tierra del Fuego)
References
Europe
Greek:
Zeus sent a flood to destroy the men of the Bronze Age. Prometheus advised his son Deucalion to build a chest. All
other men perished except for a few who escaped to high mountains. The mountains in Thessaly were parted, and all the
world beyond the Isthmus and Peloponnese was overwhelmed. Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha (daughter of Epimetheus
and Pandora), after floating in the chest for nine days and nights, landed on Parnassus. When the rains ceased, he
sacrificed to Zeus, the God of Escape. At the bidding of Zeus, he threw stones over his head; they became men, and the
stones which Pyrrha threw became women. That is why people are called laoi, from laas, "a stone." [Apollodorus
1.7.2]
An older version of the story told by Hellanicus has Deucalion's ark landing on Mount Othrys in Thessaly. Another
account has him landing on a peak, probably Phouka, in Argolis, later called Nemea. [Gaster, p. 85]
The Megarians told that Megarus, son of Zeus, escaped Deucalion's flood by swimming to the top of Mount Gerania,
guided by the cries of cranes. [Gaster, p. 85‑86]
An earlier flood was reported to have occurred in the time of Ogyges, founder and king of Thebes. The flood covered
the whole world and was so devastating that the country remained without kings until the reign of Cecrops. [Gaster, p.
87]
"Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years" since Athens and Atlantis were preeminent.
Destruction by fire and other catastrophes was also common. In these floods, water rose from below, destroying city
dwellers but not mountain people. The floods, especially the third great flood before Deucalion, washed away most of
Athens' fertile soil. [Plato, "Timaeus" 22, "Critias" 111‑112]
Roman:
Jupiter, angered at the evil ways of humanity, resolved to destroy it. He was about to set the earth to burning, but
considered that that might set heaven itself afire, so he decided to flood the earth instead. With Neptune's help, he
caused storm and earthquake to flood everything but the summit of Parnassus, where Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha
came by boat and found refuge. Recognizing their piety, Jupiter let them live and withdrew the flood. Deucalion and
Pyrrha, at the advice of an oracle, repopulated the world by throwing "your mother's bones" (stones) behind them; each
stone became a person. [Ovid, book 1]
Jupiter and Mercury, traveling incognito in Phrygia, begged for food and shelter, but found all doors closed to them until
they received hospitality from Philemon and Baucis. The gods revealed their identity, led the couple up the mountains,
and showed them the whole valley flooded, destroying all homes but the couple's, which was transformed into a marble
temple. Given a wish, the couple asked to be priest and priestess of the temple, and to die together. In their extreme old
age, they changed into an oak and lime tree. [Ovid, book 8]
Scandinavian:
Oden, Vili, and Ve fought and slew the great ice giant Ymir, and icy water from his wounds drowned most of the Rime
Giants. The giant Bergelmir escaped, with his wife and children, on a boat. Ymir's body became the world we live on.
[Sturluson, p. 35]
Celtic:
Heaven and Earth were great giants, and Heaven lay upon the Earth so that their children were crowded in the darkness
between them. One of their sons led his brothers in cutting up Heaven into many pieces. From his skull they made the
firmament. His spilling blood caused a great flood which killed all humans except a single pair, who were saved in a ship
made by a beneficent Titan. The waters settled in hollows to become the oceans. [Sproul, pp. 172‑173]
Welsh:
The lake of Llion burst, flooding all lands. Dwyfan and Dwyfach escaped in a mastless ship with pairs of every sort of
living creature. They landed in Prydain (Britain) and repopulated the world. [Gaster, pp. 92‑93]
Lithuanian:
From his heavenly window, the supreme god Pramzimas saw nothing but war and injustice among mankind. He sent two
giants, Wandu and Wejas (water and wind), to destroy earth. After twenty days and nights, little was left. Pramzimas
looked to see the progress. He happened to be eating nuts at the time, and he threw down the shells. One happened to
land on the peak of the tallest mountain, where some people and animals had sought refuge. Everybody climbed in and
survived the flood floating in the nutshell. God's wrath abated, he ordered the wind and water to abate. The people
dispersed, except for one elderly couple who stayed where they landed. To comfort them, God sent the rainbow and
advised them to jump over the bones of the earth nine times. They did so, and up sprang nine other couples, from which
the nine Lithuanian tribes descended. [Gaster, p. 93]
German:
A louse and a flea were brewing beer in an eggshell. The louse fell in and burnt herself. This made the flea weep, which
made the door creak, which made the broom sweep, which made the cart run, which made the ash‑heap burn, which
made the tree shake itself, which made the girl break her water‑pitcher, which made the spring begin to flow. And in the
spring's water everything was drowned. [Grimm 30]
Turkey:
Iskender‑Iulcarni (Alexander the Great), in the course of his conquests, demanded tribute from Katife, Queen of
Smyrna. She refused insultingly and threatened to drown the king if he persisted. Enraged at her insolence, the conqueror
determined to punish the queen by drowning her in a great flood. He employed Moslem and infidel workmen to make a
strait of the Bosphorus, paying the infidel workmen one‑fifth as much as the Moslems got. When the canal was nearly
completed, he reversed the pay arrangements, giving the Moslems only one‑fifth as much as the infidels. The Moslems
quit in disgust and left the infidels to finish the canal. The Black Sea swept away the last dike and drowned the workmen.
The flood spread over Queen Katife's country (drowning her) and several cities in Africa. The whole world would have
been engulfed, but Iskender‑Iulcarni was prevailed upon to open the Strait of Gibraltar, letting the Mediterranean escape
into the ocean. [Gaster, pp. 91‑92]
Vogul:
After seven years of drought, the Great Woman said to the Great Man that rains had come elsewhere; how should they
save themselves. The Great Man counselled the other giants to make boats from cut poplars, anchor them with ropes of
willow roots 500 fathoms long, and provide them with seven days of food and with pots of melted butter to grease the
ropes. Those who did not make all the preparations perished when the waters came. After seven days, the waters sank.
But all plants and animals had perished, even the fish. The survivors, on the brink of starvation, prayed to the great god
Numi‑târom, who recreated living things. [Gaster, pp. 93‑94]
Near East
Middle Eastern generally:
In this region, it is common to believe that the earth was originally covered with water, and that there is now a layer of
water beneath the earth. Hebrews also have a layer of water above the earth.
Egypt:
People have become rebellious. Atum said he will destroy all he made and return the earth to the Primordial Water
which was its original state. Atum will remain, in the form of a serpent, with Osiris. [Faulkner, plate 30] (Unfortunately
the version of the papyrus with the flood story is damaged and unclear. See also Budge, p. ccii.)
Assyrian:
The gods, led by Enlil, agreed to cleanse the earth of an overpopulated humanity, but Utnapishtim was warned by the
god Ea in a dream. He and some craftsmen built a large boat (one acre in area, seven decks) in a week. He then loaded
it with his family, the craftsmen, and "the seed of all living creatures." The waters of the abyss rose up, and it stormed for
six days. Even the gods were frightened by the flood's fury. Upon seeing all the people killed, the gods repented and
wept. The waters covered everything but the top of the mountain Nisur, where the boat landed. Seven days later,
Utnapishtim released a dove, but it returned finding nowhere else to land. He next returned a sparrow, which also
returned, and then a raven, which did not return. Thus he knew the waters had receded enough for the people to
emerge. Utnapishtim made a sacrifice to the gods. He and his wife were given immortality and lived at the end of the
earth. [Sandars, chpt. 5]
In a Sumerian tradition, the hero was a priest‑king named Ziusudra ("Long of Life"). [Hammerly‑Dupuy, p. 56]
Sharur destroyed Asag, demon of sickness and disease, by flooding his abode. In the process, "The primeval waters of
Kur rose to the surface, and as a result of their violence no fresh waters could reach the fields and gardens." [Kramer, p.
105]
Hebrew:
God, upset at mankind's wickedness, resolved to destroy it, except Noah found favor with Him. God told Noah to build
an ark, 450 x 75 x 45 feet, with three decks. Noah did so, and took aboard his family (8 people in all) and pairs of all
kinds of animals (7 of the clean ones). For 40 days and nights, floodwaters came from the heavens and from the deeps,
until the highest mountains were covered. The waters flooded the earth for 150 days and then receded, and the ark came
to rest in Ararat. After 40 days, Noah sent out a raven, which kept flying until the waters had dried up. He next sent out
a dove, which returned without finding a perch. A week later he set out the dove again, and it returned with an olive leaf.
The next week, the dove didn't return. After a year and 10 days from the start of the flood, everyone and everything
emerged from the ark. Noah sacrificed some clean animals and birds to God, and God, pleased with this, promised
never again to destroy all living creatures. [Genesis 6‑8]
The Koran [11:25‑48] refers to the same event, adding that the earth swallowed the water, the boat came to rest on the
mountain Al‑Judi, and one of Noah's disbelieving sons drowned in the flood.
A woman "clothed with the sun" gave birth to a man child who was taken up by God. The woman then lived in the
wilderness, where the Devil‑dragon, cast down to earth, persecuted her. At one time he cast a flood of water from his
mouth trying to wash her away, but the earth helped the woman and swallowed the flood. [Revelation 12]
Babylonian:
Three times (every 1200 years), the gods were distressed by the disturbance from human overpopulation. The gods
dealt with the problem first by plague, then by famine. Both times, the god Enki advised men to bribe the god causing the
problem. The third time, Enlil advised the gods to destroy all humans with a flood, but Enki had Atrahasis build an ark
and so escape. Also on the boat were cattle, wild animals and birds, and Atrahasis' family. After the flood, the gods
regretted their action, and Enki established barren women and stillbirth to avoid the problem in the future. [Dalley, pp.
23‑35]
Chaldean:
The god Chronos warned Xisuthrus of a coming flood, ordered him to write a history, and told him to build a vessel (5
stadia by 2 stadia) for himself, his friends and relations, and all kinds of animals, all of which he did. After the flood had
come and abated somewhat, he sent out some birds, which returned. Later, he tried again, and the birds returned with
mud on their feet. On the third trial, the birds didn't return. He disembarked and, with his wife, daughter, and pilot,
offered sacrifices to the gods. Those four were translated to live with the gods. [Smith, pp. 42‑43]
Zoroastrian:
"After Ahura Mazda has warned Yima that destruction in the form of winter, frost, and floods, subsequent to the melting
of the snow, are threatening the sinful world, he proceeds to instruct him to build a vara, 'fortress or estate,' in which
specimens of small and large cattle, human beings, dogs, birds, red flaming fires, plants and foodstuffs will have to be
deposited in pairs." [Dresden, p. 344]
"Beneath this earth there is water everywhere." [Dresden, p. 339]
Africa
Pygmy:
Chameleon, hearing a strange noise in a tree, cut open its trunk. Water came out in a great flood that spread all over the
earth. The first human couple emerged with the water. [Parrinder, pp. 46‑47]
Kikuyu (Kenya):
A beautiful but mysterious woman agreed to marry a man on the condition that he never ask about her family. He
agreed, and they lived happily together until it was time for their oldest son's circumcision, and the man asked his wife
why her family couldn't attend the ceremony. With that, the wife bounced into the air and made a hole seven miles deep
when she landed. She called upon her ancestors, who came as spirits from Mt. Kenya. The spirits raised a thunder and
hailstorm as they came. They brought food, goats, cattle, and beer with them and, while the people took shelter in caves,
flooded the countryside with beer, turning it into a lake. When the spirits left, they took the couple and their children with
them into Mt. Kenya. [Abrahams, pp. 336‑338]
Southwest Tanzania:
The rivers began flooding. God told two men to go into a ship, taking with them all sorts of seed and animals. The flood
rose, covering the mountains. Later, to check whether the waters had dried up, the man sent out a dove, and it came
back to the ship. He waited and sent out a hawk, which did not return because the waters had dried. The men then
disembarked with the animals and seeds. [Gaster, pp. 120‑121]
Yoruba (southwest Nigeria):
A god, Ifa, tired of living on earth and went to dwell in the firmament. Without his assistance, mankind couldn't interpret
the desires of the gods, and one god, in a fit of rage, destroyed nearly everybody in a great flood. [Kelsen, p. 135]
Basonge:
Zebra married Ngolle Kakesse, granddaughter of God, but broke his promise not to allow her to work. From her
stretched‑out legs ran water which flooded the land, and Ngolle herself drowned. [Kelsen, p. 135]
Ekoi (Nigeria):
Etim 'Ne (Old Person) and his wife Ejaw came to earth from the sky. At first, there was no water on earth, so Etim 'Ne
asked the god Obassi Osaw for water, and he was given a calabash with seven clear stones. When Etim 'Ne put a stone
in a small hole in the ground, water welled out and became a broad lake. Later, seven sons and seven daughters were
born to the couple. Etim 'Ne gave stones to the good sons that shared their food with their father. The children married
and had children of their own. When they all had established new homes, Etim 'Ne sent for all the children and told them
each to take seven stones from the streams of their parents, and to plant them to create new streams. All did so except
one son who collected a basketful and emptied all his stones in one place. Waters came, covered his farm, and
threatened to cover the whole earth. Everyone ran to Etim 'Ne, fleeing the flood. Etim 'Ne prayed to Obassi, who
stopped the flood but let a lake remain covering the farm of the bad son. [Courlander, pp. 267‑269]
Mandingo (Ivory Coast):
A charitable man gave away everything he had. The god Ouende rewarded him with riches, advised him to leave the
area, and sent six months of rain to destroy his selfish neighbors. The descendants of the rich man became the present
human race. [Kelsen, pp. 135‑136]
Bakongo (west Zaire):
An old lady, weary and covered with sores, arrived in a town called Sonanzenzi and sought hospitality, which was
denied her at all homes but the last she came to. When she was well and ready to depart, she told her friends to pack up
and leave with her, as the place was accursed and would be destroyed by Nzambi. The night after they had left, heavy
rains came and turned the valley into a lake, drowning all the inhabitants of the town. The sticks of the houses can still be
seen deep in the lake. [Feldmann, p. 50; Kelsen, p. 137]
Lower Congo:
The sun once met the moon and threw mud at it, making it dimmer. There was a flood when this happened. Men put
their milk stick behind them and were turned into monkeys. The present race of men is a recent creation. [Fauconnet, p.
481]
Komililo Nandi:
Ilet, the spirit of lightning, came to live, in human form, in a cave high on the mountain named Tinderet. When he did so, it
rained incessantly and killed most of the hunters living in the forest below. Some hunters, searching for the cause of the
rain, found him and wounded him with poison arrows. Ilet fled and died in a neighboring country. When he died, the rain
stopped. [Kelsen, p. 137]
Cameroon:
A girl let a goat eat some of her flour, and in return for the kindness, the goat told her there will be a flood. Only she and
her brother escaped. After the flood, they couldn't find mates. The goat reappeared and said they could marry
themselves, but they would have to put a clay pot with a broken bottom on their roof to signify that they are relatives.
[Kahler‑Meyer, pp. 251‑252]
Kwaya (Lake Victoria):
A man and his wife had a pot which never ran out of water. They told their daughter‑in‑law only never to touch it, but
she grew curious and touched it. It shattered, and the resulting flood drowned everything. [Kahler‑Meyer, pp. 253‑254]
!Kung:
None. The very idea is ludicrous.
Far East
Hindu:
Manu, the first human, found a small fish in his washwater. The fish begged protection from the larger fishes, in return for
which it would save Manu. Manu kept the fish safe, transferring it to larger and larger reservoirs as it grew, and later the
fish saved Manu from a deluge by warning him to build a boat and letting him tie the craft to the fish's horn. The fish led
him to a mountain and told Manu to tie the ship's rope to a tree to prevent it from drifting. Manu, alone of all creatures,
survived. He made offerings of clarified butter, sour milk, whey, and curds. From these, a woman arose, calling herself
Manu's daughter. Through her, he generated this race. [Kelsen, p. 128; Brinton, pp. 227‑228]
"The Lord of the Universe," to preserve king Satyavarata from dangers of the depravity of the age, sent him a large ship,
and told him to gather himself, medicinal herbs, and pairs of brute animals aboard it to save them from a flood. Seven
days later, the three worlds were flooded and darkened. The god appeared in the ocean as an enormous fish, a million
leagues long, and Satyavarata tied the ark to its horn with a huge sea serpent. [Howey, pp. 389‑390]
Bhil (central India):
Out of gratitude for humanity feeding fish, a fish told a dhobi (a pious man) that a great deluge was coming. The man
prepared a large box in which he embarked with his sister and a cock. After the flood, a messenger of Rama discovered
the box by the cock's crowing. Rama had the box brought to him and questioned the man. Facing north, east, and west,
the man swore that the woman was his sister; facing south, the man said she was his wife. Told that the fish gave the
warning, Rama had the fish's tongue removed, and fish have been tongueless since. Rama ordered the man to repopulate
the world, so he married his sister, and they had seven daughters and seven sons. [Gaster, pp. 95‑96]
Kamar (Raipur District, Central India):
A boy and girl were born to the first man and woman. God sent a deluge to destroy a jackal which had angered him.
The man and woman heard it coming, so they shut their children in a hollow piece of wood with provisions to last until
the flood subsides. The deluge came, and everything on earth was drowned. After twelve years, God created two birds
and sent them to see if the jackal had been drowned. They saw nothing but a floating log and, landing on it, heard the
children inside, who were saying to each other that they had only three days of provisions left. The birds told God, who
caused the flood to subside, took the children from the log, and heard their story. In due time they were married, and all
people are descended from them. [Gaster, p. 96]
Ho (southwestern Bengal):
The first people became incestuous and unheedful of God or their betters. Sirma Thakoor, or Sing Bonga, the creator,
destroyed them, some say by water and others say by fire. He spared sixteen people. [Gaster, p. 96]
Lepcha (Sikkim):
A couple escaped a great flood on the top of a mountain called Tendong, near Darjeeling. [Gaster, p. 96]
Tibet:
Tibet was almost totally inundated, until the god Gya took compassion on the survivors, drew off the waters through
Bengal, and sent teachers to civilize the people, who until then had been little better than monkeys. [Gaster, p. 97]
Singpho (Assam):
Mankind was once destroyed because they had neglected the proper sacrifices as the slaughter of buffaloes and pigs.
Two men, Khun litang and Chu liyang, survived with their wives and, dwelling on Singrabhum hill, became humanity's
ancestors. [Gaster, p. 97]
Lushai (Assam):
The king of the water demons fell in love with the woman Ngai‑ti (Loved One). She rejected him and ran away. He
pursued, and surrounded the whole human race with water on the hill Phun‑lu‑buk, said to be in the far northeast. The
people threw Ngai‑ti into the flood, which then receded. The receding water carved great valleys; until then, the earth
had been level. [Gaster, p. 97]
Assam:
A flood once covered the whole world and drowned everyone except for one couple, who climbed up a tree on the
highest peak of the Leng hill. In the morning, they discovered that they had been changed into a tiger and tigress. Seeing
the sad state of the world, Pathian, the creator, sent a man and a woman from a cave on the hill. But as they emerged
from the cave, they were terrified by the sight of the tigers. They prayed to the Creator for strength and killed the beasts.
After that, they lived happily and repopulated the world. [Gaster, p. 97]
Mongolia:
Hailibu, a hunter, saved a white snake from a crane which attacked it. Next day, he met the same snake with a retinue of
other snakes. The snake told him that she was the Dragon King's daughter, and the Dragon King wished to reward him.
She advised Hailibu to ask for the precious stone that the Dragon King keeps in his mouth. With that stone, she told him,
he could understand the language of animals, but he would turn to stone if he ever divulged its secret to anyone else.
Hailibu went to the Dragon King, turned down his many other treasures, and was given the stone. Years later, Hailibu
heard some birds saying that the next day the mountains would erupt and flood the land. He went back home to warn his
neighbors, but they didn't believe him. To convince them, he told them how he had learned of the coming flood and told
them the full story of the precious stone. When he finished his story, he turned to stone. The villagers, seeing this happen,
fled. It rained all the next night, and the mountains erupted, belching forth a great flood of water. When the people
returned, they found the stone which Hailibu had turned into and placed it at the top of the mountain. For generations,
they have offered sacrifices to the stone in honor of Hailibu's sacrifice. [Elder & Wong, pp. 75‑77]
China:
The Supreme Sovereign ordered the water god Gong Gong to create a flood as punishment and warning for human
misbehavior. Gong Gong extended the flood for 22 years. The supernatural hero Gun stole Growing Soil from heaven to
dam the waters, but he was executed for his theft before he finished. However, his body didn't decay, and when it was
cut apart three years later, his son Yu emerged in the form of a horned dragon. Yu drove away Gong Gong and finished
damming the floodwaters. [Walls, pp. 94‑98]
Bahnar (Cochin China):
A kite once quarrelled with the crab and pecked a hole in its skull. In revenge, the crab caused the sea and rivers to
swell until the waters reached the sky. The only survivors were a brother and sister who took a pair of all kinds of
animals with them in a huge chest. They floated for seven days and nights. Then the brother heard a cock crowing
outside, sent by the spirits to signal that the flood had abated. All disembarked. The brother and sister did not know how
they would live, for they had eaten all the rice that was stored in the chest. However, a black ant brought two grains of
rice. The brother planted them, and the plain was covered with a rice crop the next morning. [Gaster, p. 98]
Lolo (southwestern China):
In primeval times, men were wicked. The patriarch Tse‑gu‑dzih sent a messenger down to earth, asking for some flesh
and blood from a mortal. Only one man, Du‑mu, complied. In wrath, Tse‑gu‑dzih locked the rain‑gates, and the waters
mounted to the sky. Du‑mu was saved in a log hollowed out of a Pieris tree, together with his four sons and otters, wild
ducks, and lampreys. The civilized peoples who can write are descended from the sons; the ignorant races are
descendants of wooden figures whom Du‑mu constructed after the deluge. [Gaster, pp. 99‑100]
Kamchadale (northeast Siberia):
A flood covered the whole land in the early days of the world. A few people saved themselves on rafts made from
bound‑together tree trunks. They carried their property and provisions and used stones tied to straps as anchors to
prevent being swept out to sea. They were left stranded on mountains when the waters receded. [Gaster, p. 100]
Andaman Islands (Bay of Bengal):
Some time after their creation, men grew disobedient. In anger, Puluga, the Creator, sent a flood which covered the
whole land, except perhaps Saddle Peak where Puluga himself resided. Of all creatures, the only survivors were two
men and two women who had the fortune to be in a canoe when the flood came. The waters sank and they landed, but
they found themselves in a sad plight. Puluga recreated birds and animals, but the world was still damp and without fire.
The ghost of one of the peoples' friends took the form of a kingfisher and tried to steal a brand from Puluga's fire, but he
dropped in on the Creator. Incensed, Puluga hurled the brand at the bird, but it missed and landed where the four flood
survivors were seated. After the people had warmed themselves and had leisure to reflect, they began to murmur against
the Creator and even plotted to murder him. However, the Creator warned them away from such rash action, explained
that men had brought the flood on themselves by their disobedience, and that another such offense would likewise be
met with punishment. That was the last time the Creator spoke with men face to face. [Gaster, pp. 104‑105]
Chingpaw (Upper Burma):
When the deluge came, Pawpaw Nan‑chaung and his sister Chang‑hko saved themselves in a large boat. They took
with them nine cocks and nine needles. When the storm and rain had passed, they each day threw out one cock and one
needle to see whether the waters were falling. On the ninth day, they finally heard the cock crow and the needle strike
bottom. They left their boat, wandered about, and came to a cave home of two nats or elves. The elves bade them stay
and make themselves useful, which they did. Soon the sister gave birth, and the old elfin woman minded the baby while
its parents were away at work. The old woman, who was a witch, disliked the infant's squalling, and one day took it to a
place where nine roads met, cut it to pieces, and scattered its blood and body about. She carried some of the tidbits
back to the cave, made it into a curry, and tricked the mother into eating it. When the mother learned this, she fled to the
crossroads and cried to the Great Spirit to return her child and avenge its death. The Great Spirit told her he couldn't
restore her baby, but he would make her mother of all nations of men. Then, from each road, people of different nations
sprang up from the fragments of the murdered babe. [Gaster, pp. 97‑98]
Kammu (northern Thailand):
A brother and sister, warned of the upcoming flood by a mouse, sealed themselves inside a drum, and emerged again
after the flood receded. They looked far and wide for mates, but they were the only survivors. A malcoha cuckoo sang
to them, "brother and sister should embrace one another." They slept together. After seven years, the child was born as a
gourd. A little later, hearing noises from the gourd, they burnt a hole in its shell, and people of the different races came
out, first Rumeet, then Kammu, Thai, Westerner, and Chinese. [Lindell et. al., pp. 268‑270]
Benua‑Jakun (Malay Peninsula):
The ground we stand on is merely a skin covering an abyss of water. Long ago, Pirman, the deity, broke up this skin,
flooding and destroying the world. However, Pirman had created a man and woman and placed them in a completely
closed ship of pulai wood. When at last this ship came to rest, the couple nibbled their way out through its side, and they
saw land stretching to the horizon in all directions. The sun had not yet been created, so it was dark; when it grew light,
they saw seven small rhododendron shrubs and seven clumps of sambau grass. The couple bemoaned their lack of
children, but in time the woman conceived in the calves of her legs, a male child coming from the right calf and a female
from the left. That is why offspring from the same womb may not marry. All mankind are descended from that first pair.
[Gaster, p. 99]
Kelantan (Malay Peninsula):
One day a feast was made for a circumcision, during which all manner of beasts were pitted to fight one another. The last
fight was between dogs and cats. During this fight, a great flood came down from the mountains, drowning everyone
except two or three menials who had been sent to the hills to gather firewood. Then the sun, moon, and stars were
extinguished. When light returned, there was no land, and all the abodes of men had been overwhelmed. [Gaster, p. 99]
Ami (eastern Taiwan):
A brother and sister escaped a great deluge in a wooden mortar. They landed on a high mountain, married, had children,
and founded the village of Popkok in a hollow of the hills, where they thought themselves safe from another deluge.
[Gaster, p. 104]
Ifugao (Philippines):
A great drought dried up all the rivers. The old men suggested digging in a river bed to find the soul of the river. After
three days of digging, a great spring gushed forth, but while the Ifugaos celebrated, a storm came, the river kept rising,
and the elders advised people to run for the mountains. Only two people made it to safety, a brother and sister, on
separate mountains. After six months, the waters receded. The sister later found herself with child and ran away in
shame, but the god Maknongan assured her that her shame had no foundation. [Demetrio, p. 262]
Only a brother and sister named Wigam and Bugan survived a primeval flood, on Mount Amuyas. [Gaster, p. 104]
Atá (Philippines):
Water covered the whole earth, and all the Atás drowned except two men and a woman who were carried far to sea.
They would have perished, but a great eagle offered to carry them on its back to their homes. One man refused, but the
other two people accepted and returned to Mapula. [Gaster, pp. 103‑104]
Batak (Sumatra):
Naga‑Padoha, the giant snake on which the earth rests, grew tired of its burden and shook it off into the sea. But the god
Batara‑Guru caused a mountain to fall into the water to preserve his daughter. From her, the human race is descended.
Later, the earth was replaced onto the head of the snake. [Kelsen, p. 133]
Debata, the Creator, sent a flood to destroy every living thing when the earth grew old and dirty. The last pair of humans
took refuge on the highest mountain, and the flood had already reached their knees, when Debata repented his decision
to destroy mankind. He tied a clod of earth to a thread and lowered it. The last pair stepped onto it and were saved. As
the couple and their descendants multiplied, the clod increased in size, becoming the earth we inhabit today. [Gaster, p.
100]
Nias (an island west of Sumatra):
The mountains quarrelled over which of them was the highest. In vexation, their great ancestor Baluga Luomewona
caused the oceans to rise by throwing into a sea a comb which became a giant crab which stopped up the ocean's outlet
sluices. The water rose to cover all but the tops of two or three mountains. The people who had escaped to these
mountains with their cattle survived. [Kelsen, p. 133, Gaster, p. 100]
Engano (another island west of Sumatra):
The tide rose so high it overflowed the island. All drowned except one woman, who survived through the fortunate
chance that her hair got caught in a thorny tree as she drifted along on the tide. When the flood sank, she came down
from the tree and found herself alone. Hungry, she went to the beach hoping to catch a fish. She found a fish, but it hid in
one of the corpses left by the flood. She picked up stone and hit the corpse, but the fish escaped and headed inland. She
followed, but soon met a living man. The man told her that he had to returned to life as a consequence of somebody
knocking on his dead body. The woman told him her story, and they returned to the beach and restored the population
by knocking on the drowned people. [Gaster, pp. 100‑101]
Dyak (Borneo):
Some women gathered bamboo shoots, sat on a log, and began paring them. But they noticed the trunk exuded drops of
blood with each cut of their knives. Some men came by and saw that the trunk was actually a giant, torporous boa
constrictor. They killed it, cut it up, and took it home to eat. While they were frying the pieces, strange noises came from
the frying pan and a torrential rain began. The rain continued until only the highest hill remained above water. Only a
woman, dog, rat, and a few small creature survived. The woman noticed that the dog had found shelter under a creeper
warmed by the rubbing between the creeper and a tree in the wind. She took the hint, rubbed the creeper against a hard
piece of wood, and produced fire for the first time. The woman took the fire‑drill for her mate and gave birth to a son
called Simpang‑impang. He was only half a man, with only one arm, one leg, etc. Some time later, the Spirit of the Wind
carried off some rice which Simpang‑impang had spread out to dry. Simpang‑impang demanded compensation. The
Spirit of the Wind refused but was vanquished in a series of contests and restored Simpang‑impang's missing parts.
[Gaster, pp. 101‑102]
When the flood came, a man named Trow made a boat from a large wooden mortar previously used for pounding rice.
He took with him his wife, a dog, pig, cat, fowl, and other animals, and rode out the flood. Afterwards, to repeople the
earth, Trow fashioned additional wives out of a log, stone, and anything else handy. Soon he had a large family which
became the ancestors of the various Dyak tribes. [Gaster, p. 102]
Ot‑Danom (Dutch Borneo):
A great deluge once drowned many people. A few people survived by escaping in boats to the one mountain peak
remaining above water. They dwelt there for three months until the flood subsided. [Gaster, p. 102]
Toradja (central Celebes):
A flood once covered everything but the summit of Mount Wawom Pebato (seashells on the hills are evidence). Only a
pregnant woman and a pregnant mouse escaped in a pig's trough, paddling with a pot‑ladle. After the waters had
descended, the woman saw a sheaf of rice hanging from an uprooted tree. The mouse got it down for her, but demanded
in recompense that mice should thereafter have the right to eat part of the harvest. The woman gave birth to a son, took
him for her husband, and by him had a son and daughter who became mankind's ancestors. [Gaster, p. 102]
Alfoor (between Celebes and New Guinea):
As a great worldwide flood receded, the mountain Noesake emerged with its sides clothed with trees whose leaves
were shaped like female genitalia. Only three people survived on the top of the mountain. The sea‑eagle brought tidings
of other mountains emerging from the waters, and the people went thither. By means of the remarkable leaves, they
repopulated the world. [Gaster, p. 103]
Rotti (southwest of Timor):
In former times, the sea flooded the earth; only the peak of Lakimola remained above water. A man, with his wife and
children, took refuge there, but the tide kept slowly rising for some months. They prayed to the sea to return to its old
bed. The sea answered, "I will do so, if you give me an animal whose hairs I cannot count." A pig, goat, and dog failed
this test, but when the man threw in a cat, the sea sank abashedly. An osprey appeared and sprinkled some dry earth on
the waters, and the family descended to a new home. The Lord commanded that the osprey bring all kinds of seed to the
man for him to cultivate. After harvests on Rotti, people still set up a sheaf of rice as an offering to Mount Lakimola.
[Gaster, p. 103]
Nage (Flores):
Dooy, the forefather of the Nages, was saved from a great flood in a ship. His grave occupies the center of the public
square at Boa Wai, their capital, and is the center of their harvest festival. [Gaster, p. 103]
Australasia and Pacific Islands
Kabadi (New Guinea):
Lohero and his brother were angry with their neighbors, so they put a human bone into a small stream. Soon a great
flood came forth, and the people had to retreat to the highest peaks until the sea receded. Some people descended, and
others made their homes on the ridges. [Kelsen, pp. 130‑131; Gaster, p. 105]
Valman (northern New Guinea):
The wife of a very good man saw a very big fish. She called her husband, but he couldn't see it until he hid behind a
banana tree and peeked through its leaves. When he finally saw it, he was horribly afraid and forbade his family to catch
and eat the fish. But other people caught the fish and, heedless of the man's warning, ate it. When the good man saw
that, he hastily drove a pair of all kinds of animals into trees and climbed into a cocoanut tree with his family. As soon as
the wicked men ate the fish, water violently burst from the ground and drowned everyone on it. As soon as the water
reached the treetops, it sank rapidly, and the good man and his family came down and laid out new plantations. [Gaster,
p. 105]
Mamberao River (Irian Jaya):
A rising river caused a flood which overwhelmed Mount Vanessa. Only a man and his wife, a pig, a cassowary, a
kangaroo, and a pigeon escaped. These became the ancestors of humans and other species. The bones of the drowned
animals can still be found on Mount Vanessa. [Gaster, pp. 105‑106]
Australian:
Grumuduk, a medicine man who lived in the hills, had the power to bring rain and to make plants and animals plentiful. A
plains tribe kidnapped him, wanting his power, but Grumuduk escaped and decreed that wherever he walked in the
country of his enemies, salt water would rise in his footsteps. [Flood, p. 179]
During the Dreamtime flood, woramba, the Ark Gumana carrying Noah, Aborigines, and animals, drifted south and
came to rest in the flood plain of Djilinbadu (about 70 km south of Noonkanbah Station, just south of the Barbwire
Range and east of the Worral Range), where it can still be seen today. The white man's claim that it landed in the Middle
East was a lie to keep Aborigines in subservience. [Kolig, pp. 242‑245]
Arnhem Land (northern Northern Territory):
In one version of the myth of the Wawalik sisters, the sisters, with their two infant children, camped by the Mirrirmina
waterhole. Some of the older sister's menstrual blood fell into the well. The rainbow serpent Yurlunggur smelled the
blood and crawled out of his well. He spit some well water into the sky and hissed to call for rain. The rains came, and
the well water started to rise. The women hurriedly built a house and went inside, but Yurlunggur caused them to sleep.
He swallowed them and their sons. Then he stood very straight and tall, reaching as high as a cloud, and the flood waters
came as high as he did. When he fell, the waters receded and there was dry ground. [Buchler, pp. 134‑135]
Two orphaned children were left in the care of a man called Wirili‑up, who shirked the responsibility. The children,
always hungry, cried so much that a ngaljod (rainbow serpent) rose from his waterhole and flooded the countryside.
Wirili‑up fled, but the children drowned. [Mountford, p. 74]
Gumaidj (Arnhem Land):
When a storm came up, two sisters who were gathering shellfish swore at Namarangini, the spirit man who sang up the
rain. He heard, grabbed the younger sister, and tried unsuccessfully to copulate with her. He took her to his camp and
tried again, but discovered there was a cycad nut grinding stone in her vagina. After he removed it, he copulated with her
easily. When they had finished, she made herself into a fly and returned to her husband. Her husband discovered the
stone was missing, and he killed her by pushing a heated stick through her vagina into her stomach. The next morning, the
other sister discovered that she was dead and knew that her husband had killed her. The Fly and Sandfly women cried
for their sister and beat her husband, driving him away. When they cried, rain fell heavily and continued falling for several
weeks. They made bark rafts. A rush of water from inland washed them out to sea, to Elcho and other islands. [Berndt
& Berndt, pp. 287‑289]
Maung (Goulburn Islands, Arnhem Land):
People dividing fish always gave the man Crow the poor quality ones. Crow cut down a big paperbark tree, which fell
across a creek. Crow sat on the tree crying out, "Waag. . . Waag!" As he did, the creek grew wider and wider, dividing
the island into two islands. Crow turned into a bird and flew over the people. The splash from the tree caused the water
to rise, and the people, who were all on the bank of the creek, all drowned. [Berndt & Berndt, p. 40]
Gunwinggu (northern Arnhem Land):
The woman Gulbin killed a snake, began cooking it, and slept while it cooked. But the snake was the daughter of She
who lives underground. That snake made water rise, drowned the woman, and at last came up and ate her. Later the
Snake vomited her bones, which became like rock. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 84‑85; see also p. 280]
The first people were living in what is now the middle of the sea. In ignorance, some of them knocked a maar rock, a
dangerous Dreaming rock. After they went home, rain fell for a long time, and fresh water came running in search of
them. In panic, the people swam around trying to get to dry land. There was no place they could go except for the rock
Aragaladi, but Aragaladi was not a real rock; Snake had made it rise up for them. Snake came looking for the people,
urinating salt water. A man came from the mainland in a canoe, but he drowned in the middle of the sea. Snake came
and swallowed the people and later vomited their bones. She made the place deep with sea water. Those first people
became rocks. Nobody goes to Aragaladi now. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 88‑89]
An orphan boy was crying because the people in the community were preoccupied with a ritual and didn't feed him well.
When his brother returned from hunting and saw him, he told the people, "I'm very sorry for my little brother. I'll finish all
of you!" He took Rainbow eggs and broke them, and water "jumped out" and spread. The man took his brother up a
hill, where they both became rocks. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 93‑94]
Some people came from north and danced the nyalaidj ceremony. While they danced, one girl climbed a pandanus
palm and was calling out, and an orphan boy was crying. The people kept dancing. The crying and calling upset the
place, and water came up from underneath. The people cried in fear, but they couldn't run away because the ground
became soft, and the water covered them. Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent ate them, first the people who were calling out
and the orphan who was crying. The name of the place is Gaalbaraya; it is still a taboo place. [Berndt & Berndt, pp.
96‑97]
All the honeycombs that a Honey djang man cut out were no good. He went on and cut and ate a palm tree. He heard
bees talking, saying "Gu‑gu" ["water"]. He ran back to others and told them that he had unknowingly done wrong to a
djang palm tree. They tried to burn the tree, but water came up. One girl ran up a hill calling out; the others climbed a
manbaderi tree. The tree fell, and those in it drowned. The girl became a rock. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 100‑101]
Two were traveling during the Dreamtime. One fell sick, and the Wuraal bird came up. The other heard it and said,
"Maybe we're making ourselves wrong, coming into Dreaming." That night, the bird repeatedly struck the dying one,
killing him. Water came up where it struck him. The other tried to outrun the rising water, but he fell in a hole, and all
three went underwater and came into Dreaming. [Berndt & Berndt, p. 194]
Manger (Arnhem Land):
Crow got into an argument with two other men because he accidentally let green ants contaminate their fish. They fought.
Crow defeated them and left saying they'd fight again. Crow went to his mother's tribe. When the other two men
appeared, the tribe put on a ceremony rather than quarrelling more. When everyone else had fallen asleep, Crow
climbed a tree and chopped off a branch, which fell and killed the two men. Then he poured out a bag of honey which
came down so heavily it flooded the area. All the people turned into birds. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 185‑187]
Andingari (Southern Australia):
Gabidji, Little Wallaby, traveled east carrying a full waterbag. Djunbunbin, Thunder or Storm man, followed him, angry
because Gabidji had water. At Dagula, Djunbunbin's thunder chant grew stronger, and a deluge of rain swept away
Gabidji's hut and some other Dreaming men who were with him. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 42‑43]
Yaul was thirsty, but his brother Marlgaru refused to let him have any water from his own full kangaroo‑skin waterbag.
While Marlgaru was out hunting, Yaul sought and found the bag. He jabbed it with a club, tearing it. Water poured out,
drowning both brothers and forming the sea. It was spreading inland, too, but Bird Women came from the east and
restrained the waters with a barrier of roots of the ngalda kurrajong tree. [Berndt & Berndt, pp. 44‑45]
Djinta‑djinta (Willy Wagtail) weathered a heavy rain for many days, but at last a heavy deluge swept him and his hut into
a waterhole, where he remains. [Berndt & Berndt, p. 188]
Wiranggu (South Australia):
Djunban was hunting kangaroo rat with his magic boomerang, but he hit his "sister" Mandjia instead and wounded her
leg. Some time later he taught his people how to make rain. The next day Mandjia died from her injury. Djunban
performed the rain‑making ceremony again, but he was grieving his sister and not concentrating on his task, and the rain
came too heavily. He tried to warn his people, but the flood came and washed away all the people and their possessions.
[Berndt & Berndt, pp. 297‑300]
Victoria:
Bunjil, the creator, was angry with people because of the evil they did, so he caused the ocean to flood by urinating into
it. All people were destroyed except those whom Bunjil loved and fixed as stars in the sky, and a man and a woman
who climbed a tall tree on a mountain, and from whom the present human race is descended. [Gaster, p. 114]
Lake Tyres (Victoria):
A giant frog once swallowed all the water, and no one else could get anything to drink. After many animals failed, eel,
with his remarkable contortions, made the frog laugh, releasing the water. Many were drowned in the flood. The whole
of mankind would have perished if the pelican had not picked up survivors in his canoe. [Roheim, p. 156; Gaster, p.
114]
Kurnai (Gippsland, Victoria):
Long ago, a great flood covered the country. All drowned except a man and two or three women who took refuge on a
mud island near Port Albert. Pelican came by in his canoe and went to help them. He fell in love with one of the women.
He ferried the others to the mainland, but left her for last. Afraid of being alone with him, woman dressed a log in her
opossum rug so it looked like her, left it by the fire, and swam to the mainland. The pelican returned and flew into a
passion when the log dressed as a woman wouldn't answer him. He kicked it, which only hurt his foot and made him
angrier. He began to paint himself white so that he might fight the woman's husband. Another pelican came up when he
was halfway through with these preparations, but not knowing what to make of the strange half black and half white
creature, pecked him and killed him. That is why pelicans are now black and white. [Gaster, pp. 113‑114]
Maori (New Zealand):
Long ago, there were a great many different tribes, and they quarrelled and made war on each other. The worship of
Tane, the creator, was being neglected. Two prophets, Para‑whenua‑mea and Tupu‑nui‑a‑uta, taught the true doctrine
about the separation of heaven and earth, but others just mocked them, and they became angry. So they built a large raft
at the source of the Tohinga River, built a house on it, and provisioned it with fern‑root, sweet potatoes, and dogs. Then
they prayed for abundant rain to convince men of the power of Tane. Two men named Tiu and Reti, a woman named
Wai‑puna‑hau, and other women also boarded the raft. Tiu was the priest on the raft, and he recited the prayers and
incantations for rain. It rained hard for four or five days, until Tiu prayed for the rain to stop. But the waters still rose and
bore up the raft. In the eighth month, the waters began to thin; Tiu knew this by the signs of his staff. At last they landed
at Hawaiki. The earth had been much changed by the flood, and the people on the raft were the only survivors. They
worshipped Tane, Rangi (Heaven), Rehua, and all the gods, each at a separate alter. Today, only the chief priest may go
to those holy spots. [Gaster, pp. 110‑112; Kelsen, p. 133]
Two brothers‑in‑law of the hero Tawhaki attacked him and left him for dead. He recovered, and retired with his own
warriors and their families to a high mountain, where he built a fortified village. Then he called to the gods, his ancestors,
for revenge. The floods of heaven descended and killed everyone on earth. This event was called "The overwhelming of
the Mataaho." [Gaster, p. 112]
In another version of the story, Tawhaki once, in a fit of anger, stamped on the floor of heaven, breaking it and releasing
the celestial waters which flooded the earth. In another version, the flood was caused by the copious weeping of
Tawhaki's mother. [Gaster, p. 112]
Palau Islands (Micronesia):
The stars are the shining eyes of the gods. A man once went into the sky and stole one of the eyes. (The Pelew Islanders'
money is made from it.) The gods were angry at this and came to earth to punish the theft. They disguised themselves as
ordinary men and went door‑to‑door begging for food and lodging. Only one old woman received them kindly. They
told her to make a bamboo raft ready and, on the night of the next full moon, to lie down on it and sleep. This she did. A
great storm came; the sea rose, flooded the islands, and destroyed everyone else. The woman, fast asleep, drifted until
her hair caught on a tree on the top of Mount Armlimui. The gods came looking for her again, but they found her dead.
So one of the women‑folk from heaven entered the body and restored it to life. The gods begat five children by the old
woman and then returned to heaven, as did the goddess who restored her to life. The present inhabitants of the islands
are descendants of those five children. [Gaster, pp. 112‑113]
Before humans, one of the Kaliths (deities) visited an unfriendly village and was killed by its inhabitants. His friends,
searching for him, were met with unkindness except from the woman Milathk, who told them of the death. They resolved
vengeance by flooding the village, and suggested Milathk save herself on a raft. Milathk perished in the flood, but was
recalled to life and became the mother of mankind. [Kelsen, p. 132]
New Hebrides:
Naareau the Elder created the earth, but the sky and the earth clove together, with no separation between them.
Naareau the Younger, with a spell, created a slight cleft. He created the First Creature, a bat, and told it to look around.
The Bat reported finding a Company of Fools and Deaf Mutes. Naareau told them to push up, and the sky was lifted a
little, but they could lift it only so high since the sky was rooted to the land. Naareau sent for Riiki, the conger eel, and
told it to push up on the sky against the land. While Riiki pushed, Great Ray, Turtle, and Octopus tore at the roots of the
sky. The Company of Fools and Deaf Mutes stood by laughing. The roots of the sky were torn loose. They sky was
pushed high and the land sank. The Company of Fools and Deaf Mutes were left swimming in the sea; they became the
sea creatures. [von Franz, pp. 151‑154, 170]
Tilik and Tarai, who lived near a sacred spring where they were making the land, discovered that their mother had been
urinating in their food. They exchanged the food and ate hers. In anger, she rolled away the stone which had confined the
sea, and the sea poured out in a great flood. [Roheim, p. 152]
The legendary hero Qat made a great canoe out of one of the largest trees in the center of the island of Gaua. While he
worked on it, his brothers jeered at him for building a canoe so far from the sea. When the canoe was finished, he
gathered into his canoe his family and some of all the living creatures, down to the smallest ant. A great deluge of rain
came; the hollow in the center of the island filled with water which broke through the hills and carried the canoe out to
sea. The natives say Qat took the best of everything with him and look forward to his return. [Gaster, p. 107]
Lifou (one of the Loyalty Islands):
The natives laughed at the old man Nol for making a canoe far inland, but he declared that he would need no help getting
it to the sea; the sea would come to it. When he had finished, rain fell in torrents, flooding the island and drowning
everybody. Nol's canoe was lifted by the water. It struck a rock that was still out of water and split in two. (These two
rocks can still be seen.) The waters then rushed back into the sea. [Gaster, p. 107]
Fiji:
The great god Ndengei had a favorite bird, called Turukawa, which would wake him every morning. His two grandsons
killed the bird and buried it to hide the crime, but Ndengei discovered their guilt. Rather than apologizing, they fled to the
mountains and took refuge with some carpenters, who built a strong stockade to keep Ndengei at bay. In their fortress,
the rebels withstood Ndengei's armies for three months, but they were finally overwhelmed when Ndengei caused the
earth to be flooded with rain. They prayed to another god for direction, and they were brought canoes by Rokoro, the
god of carpenters, and his foreman Rokola. They floated around picking up other survivors. The receding tide left a total
of eight survivors on the island of Mbengha. Two tribes were destroyed completely‑‑one consisting entirely of women
and the other with tails like dogs. The natives of Mbengha claim to rank highest of all the Fijians. [Kelsen, p. 131;
Gaster, p. 106]
Samoa:
In a battle between Fire and Water (offspring of the primeval octopus), everything was overwhelmed by a 'boundless
sea', and the god Tangaloa had the task of re‑creating the world. [Poignant, p. 30]
Raiatea (Leeward Group, French Polynesia):
A fisherman carelessly let his hooks get entangled in the hair of the sea god Ruahatu and angered the god when
wrenching them out. The fisherman prostrated himself before the god and apologized profusely. Moved by his penitence,
Ruahatu told him to go with his wife and child to Toamarama, a small low island (not more than two feet above sea level)
on the east side of Raiatea. This he did, taking also some domesticated animals. As the sun set, the ocean waters began
to rise and continued rising all night. At last even the mountaintops were covered, and everyone on Raiatea perished.
When the waters receded, the fisherman and his family returned to the mainland and became progenitors of its present
inhabitants. [Roheim, p. 157; Gaster, pp. 109‑110]
Tahiti:
Tahiti was destroyed by the sea. Even the trees and stones were carried away by the wind. But two people were saved.
The wife took up her young chicken, her young dog, and her kitten, and the husband took up his young pig. The husband
said they should escape to Mount Orofena, but the wife said the flood would reach even there, and they should go to
Mount Pita‑hiti instead, which they did. They watched ten nights till the sea ebbed. The land, though, remained without
produce. When the wind died away, stones and trees began to fall from the heavens. To escape this new danger, the
couple dug a hole and covered it over with stones and earth. By and by, the falling stones stopped, but to be safe they
waited another night before coming out. The woman brought forth two children, a son and a daughter, but grieved about
the lack of food. Again the mother brought forth, but still there was no food. Then in three days all the trees bore fruit.
[Gaster, pp. 108‑109]
Hawaii:
All the land was once overflowed by the sea, except for the peak of Mauna Kea, where two humans survived. The
event is called kai a Kahinarii (sea of Kahinarii). [Gaster, p. 110]
North and Central America
North America generally:
The primordial environment is for almost all tribes a watery one, from which different beings bring up mud to make the
earth. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 75]
Netsilik Eskimo:
A flood killed all animals and humans except for two Shaman. They copulated, and their offspring included the world's
first women. [Balikci]
The giant Inugpasugssuk waded into the ocean to hunt seals. His penis stuck up out of the water so far away that he
thought it was a seal putting its head up, and he struck it by mistake. He fell backwards in pain, and that raised a wave
that flooded the whole district of Arviligjuaq. [Norman, p. 233]
Norton Sound Eskimo:
In the first days, all the earth was flooded except for a very high mountain in the middle. A few animals escaped to this
mountain, and a few people survived in a boat, subsisting on fish. The people landed on the mountain as the water
subsided and followed the retreating water to the coast. [Gaster, p. 120]
Tlingit (southern Alaska coast):
People were saved from a universal deluge in a giant ark. The ark struck a rock and split in two. The Tlingits were in one
half of the ark, and all other people were in the other half. This explains why there is a diversity of languages. [Gaster, p.
119]
Hareskin (Alaska):
Kunyan ("Wise Man"), foreseeing the possibility of a flood, built a great raft. He told other people, but they laughed at
him and said they'd climb trees in the event of a flood. Then came a great flood, with water gushing from all sides, rising
higher than the trees and drowning all people but the Wise Man and his family on his raft. As he floated, he gathered
pairs of all animals and birds he met with. Some time later, the musk‑rat dived into the water looking for the bottom, but
he couldn't find it. He dived a second time and smelled the earth but didn't reach it. Next beaver dived. He reappeared
unconscious but holding a little mud. The Wise Man breathed on it, making it grow. He placed it on the water and
continued breathing on it, making it larger and larger. He put a fox on the island, but it ran around the island in just a day.
Six times the fox ran around the island, by the seventh time, the land was as large as it was before the flood, and
everyone disembarked. To lower the flood waters, the bittern swallowed them all. Now there was too little water.
Plover, pretending sympathy, passed his hand over the bittern's stomach, but suddenly scratched it. The waters flowed
out into the rivers and lakes. [Gaster, pp. 117‑118]
Tinneh (Alaska):
The deluge was caused by a heavy snowfall one September. One man foresaw the flood and warned his fellows, but in
vain; the flood covered their intended mountain escape. The one man survived in a canoe, and he rescued animals from
the waters as he sailed about. In time, he sent the beaver, otter, muskrat, and arctic duck to dive into the water in search
of earth, but only the duck succeeded. The man spread the slime on the water and breathed on it to make it grow. For
six days he embarked animals upon the new island; then the land was large enough for he himself to go ashore. [Gaster,
p. 118]
Haida (Queen Charlotte Is., British Columbia):
A strange, funny‑looking woman came to a village and sat by the water's edge at low tide. As the tide rose, she moved
up a little and sat down again. The tide kept rising, following the woman, until it covered the whole island. The people
saved themselves on rafts. The various rafts landed in different places, which is how the tribes became dispersed.
[Erdoes & Ortiz, pp. 472‑473]
Kaska (northern inland British Columbia):
A great flood came; people survived it on rafts and canoes. Darkness and high winds came, which scattered the vessels.
When the flood subsided, people were scattered all over the world, and when they met again long afterwards, they
spoke different languages. [Gaster, p. 119]
Squamish (British Columbia):
When the Squamish saw the great flood coming, they made a giant canoe and a long rope of cedar fibers with which
they fastened the canoe to a giant rock. Into the canoe, they put every baby, a young man and woman to be their
guardians, and food and water. The waters rose and drowned everyone else. After several days, the man saw Mount
Baker in the distance. He cut the rope and paddled south to it, and made a new home there. The outline of the canoe
can still be seen halfway up the slope of Mount Baker. [Clark, pp. 42‑43]
Tsimshian (British Columbia):
The flood was sent by the god Laxha, who had become annoyed by the noise of boys at play. [Gaster, p. 119]
Skagit (Washington):
The Creator made the earth and gave four names for it ‑‑ for the sun, waters, soil and forests. He said only a few
people, with special preparation for the knowledge, should know all four names, or the world would change too
suddenly. After a while, everyone learned the four names. When people started talking to the trees the change came in
the form of a flood. When the people saw the flood coming, they made a giant canoe and filled it with five people and a
male and female of all plants and animals. Water covered everything but the summit of Kobah and Takobah (Mts. Baker
and Ranier). The canoe landed on the prairie. Doquebuth, the new Creator, was born of a couple from the canoe. He
delayed getting his spirit powers, but finally did so after his family deserted him. At the direction of the Old Creator, he
made people again from the soil and from the bones of the people who lived before the flood. [Clark, pp. 139‑140]
Skokomish (Washington):
The Great Spirit, angry with the wickedness of people and animals, decided to rid the earth of all but the good animals,
one good man, and his family. At the Great Spirit's direction, the man shot an arrow into a cloud, then another arrow into
that arrow, and so on, making a rope of arrows from the cloud to the ground. The good animals and people climbed up;
the man broke off the rope to keep the bad animals from climbing up after them. Then the Great Spirit caused many days
of rain, flooding up to the snow line of Takhoma (Mount Ranier). After all the bad people and animals were drowned,
the Great Spirit stopped the rain, the waters slowly dropped, and the good people and animals climbed down. [Clark,
pp. 31‑32]
Once a big flood came. People made ropes of twisted cedar limbs and used them to fasten their canoes to mountains.
The flood covered the Olympic Mountains. Some of the ropes broke, and the canoes drifted to the country of the
Flatheads. That is why the Skokomish and the Flatheads speak the same language. [Clark, p. 44]
Quillayute (Washington):
Thunderbird was once so angry that he sent the ocean over the land. When it reached the village of the Quillayute, they
got into their canoes. The water rose for four days, covering the mountains. The boats were scattered by the wind and
waves. Then the water receded for four days, and people settled in many areas. [Clark, p. 45]
Nisqually (Washington):
The people became so numerous that they ate all the fish and game and started to eat each other. They were so wicked
that Dokibatl, the Changer, flooded the earth. All living things were destroyed except one woman and one dog, which
survived atop Tacobud (Mt. Ranier). From them the next race of people were born. They lived like animals until the
Changer sent a Spirit Man to teach them civilization. [Clark, p. 136]
Warm Springs (Oregon):
Twice, a great flood came. Afraid that another might come, the people made a giant canoe from a big cedar. When they
saw a third flood coming, they put the bravest young men and fairest young women in the canoe, with plenty of food.
Then the flood, bigger and deeper than the earlier ones, swallowed the land. It rained for many days and nights, but
when the clouds finally parted for the third time, the people saw land (Mount Jefferson) and landed on it. When the
water receded, they made their home at the base of the mountain. The canoe was turned to stone and can be seen on
Mount Jefferson today. [Clark. pp. 14‑15]
Joshua (southern Oregon):
In the beginning, there was no land, and Xowalaci (The Giver) and his companion lived in a sweat house on the water.
One day land appeared. Xowalaci made it solid, and he made more solid land by dropping five mud cakes into the
ocean and telling them to expand when they hit the bottom. He looked on the sand of the new land and saw a man's
tracks. This worried him, and he told the water to overflow the land and recede again. But he found more tracks again
after that, so he caused a second flood. He repeated the process five times with no different results. Finally he gave up
and said, "This is going to make trouble in the future!" and there has been trouble in the world since then. Later,
Xowalaci made animals, and his companion made a woman from smoke and married her. [Sproul, pp. 232‑236; von
Franz, p. 174]
Shasta:
Coyote encountered an evil water spirit who caused water to rise until it covered Coyote. After the water receded,
Coyote shot the water spirit with a bow and ran away, but the water followed him. He ran to the top of Mount Shasta;
the water followed but didn't quite reach the top. Coyote made a fire, and all the other animal people swam to it and
found refuge there. After the water receded, they came down and found new homes. [Clark, p. 12]
Northern California Coast:
As people slept, it rained day and night. Humans and animals were all washed away by a flood which covered
everything. Later, the gods recreated them. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 108]
Pomo (north central California):
One day, the Thunder People found trout in their spring. At first, the people were afraid of them, but driven by hunger,
the people ate them, except for three children who were warned by their grandmother not to eat them. The next morning,
all but those three children had been transformed into deer. The children went to a very high mountain. Rain came and
flooded all but the mountaintop. The children asked an old man what he could do; he said he didn't know, but he dug all
night while the children slept. In the morning, he woke the children. The flood was gone, and the world was beautiful.
[Roheim, pp. 153‑154]
Everybody abused the two little boys that Coyote lived with, so he decided to set the world on fire. He dug a tunnel at
the east end of the world, filled it with fir bark, and lit it. With his two children in a sack, he called for rescue from the
sky. Spider descended and took Coyote back up through the gates of the sky. When they came back, everything was
roasted. Coyote drank too much water and got sick. Kusku the medicine man jumped on his belly, and water flowed out
and covered the land. [Roheim, p. 154]
Salinan (California):
The old woman of the sea, jealous of Eagle's power, came with her basket in which she carried the sea. She continually
poured out water until it covered the land, almost to the top of Santa Lucia Peak where the animals gathered. Eagle
borrowed Puma's whiskers, made a lariat from them, and lassoed the basket. The sea stopped rising, and the old
woman died. Eagle told Dove to fetch up some mud, and he made the world from it. Eagle made the first people from
elder‑wood. [Sproul, p. 236]
Luiseño (Southern California):
A great flood covered high mountains and drowned most people. A few saved themselves on a knoll called Mora by the
Spaniards and Katuta by the Indians. The hill still has stones, ashes, and heaps of seashells showing where the Indians
cooked their food. [Gaster, pp. 115‑116]
Kootenay (southeast British Columbia):
A small gray bird, despite the prohibition of her husband (a chicken hawk), bathed in a certain lake. There she was
seized and raped by a giant in the lake. The bird's husband shot the monster, who swallowed up all the water. The
woman pulled out the arrow, and the water rushed forth in a torrent. [Kelsen, pp. 147‑148]
Yakima (Washington):
In early times, many people had gone to war with other tribes, but there were still some good people. One of the good
men heard from the Land Above that a big water was coming. He told the other good people and decided they would
make a dugout boat from the largest cedar they could find. Soon after the canoe was finished, the flood came, filling the
valleys and covering the mountains. The bad people were drowned; the good people were saved in the boat. We don't
know how long the flood stayed. The canoe can still be seen where it came down on Toppenish Ridge. The earth will be
destroyed by another flood if people do wrong a second time. [Clark, p. 45]
Spokana, Nez Perce, Cayuse (eastern Washington):
These tribes also have traditions of a flood in which one man and his wife survived on a raft. Each tells of a different
mountain where the raft landed. [Gaster, pp. 119‑120]
Algonquin (upper Ottowa River):
Long ago, when men had become evil, the powerful serpent Maskanako came and fought with them. The serpent
brought the snake‑water rushing, spreading everywhere, destroying everything. Then the waters ran off, and the great
evil went away through a cave. [Kelsen, pp. 146‑147]
Blackfoot (Alberta and Montana):
The Sun, the Moon, and their two children "Old Man" and "Apistotoki God" began creating the world. They were given
sand, stone, water, and the hide of a fisher with which to complete the creation. A flood came, and they could save only
those four things. Later, they create an old man, a dog, a man, and a woman. After a second flood, only those four are
left on earth, and they create the rest of the world. [von Franz, p. 163]
Micmac (eastern Maritime Canada):
Kuloscap defeated the cruel Ice Giants at various contests. Then he stomped on the ground, and foaming water rushed
down from the mountains. He sang a song which changed how everyone looks, and the Ice Giants became large fish.
[Norman, p. 115]
Greenlander:
When the world was flooded, some people were turned into fiery spirits; all the rest drowned but one. Afterwards, he
smote the ground with his stick, a woman sprung out, and the two of them repopulated the world. Proof of the flood is
found in the form of sea fossils on high mountains. [Gaster, p. 120]
Montagnais (northern Gulf of St. Lawrence):
Messou was hunting with his dogs, when his dogs got caught in a large lake. Messou entered the lake to rescue them,
but the lake overflowed, covered the land, and destroyed the world. Messou sent a raven to find a piece of earth, but
the bird could find none. He next sent down a muskrat, which dived and returned with just a tiny amount of land, but
enough for Messou to form the land we are on. Messou restored branches to the trees and took revenge on those who
had detained his dogs. He married the muskrat and by it peopled the world. [Brinton, p. 225]
Being angry with giants, God commanded a man to build a large canoe. The man did so, and when he embarked, the
water rose till no land was visible anywhere. Weary of seeing nothing but water, the man threw an otter into it. The otter
dived and brought up a little mud, which the man breathed on and caused to expand. He placed the earth on the water
and prevented it from sinking. After awhile, he placed reindeer on the new island, but they completed a circuit of the
island quickly, so he concluded it wasn't yet large enough. He continued to blow on it and grow it, then he disembarked.
[Gaster, p. 117]
Chippewa (Ontario, Minnesota, Wisconsin):
While the medicine man Wis‑kay‑tchach was hunting, his young wolf was killed by some water lynxes. Wis tried to kill
one of the lynxes to get revenge. First, he turned himself into a stump at the edge of a lake. Frogs and snakes tried to pull
the stump down, but Wis kept himself upright. The lynx, suspicions lulled, went to sleep. Wis returned to normal shape
and, though warned to shoot the lynx's shadow, forgot and shot its body. He shot a second arrow at the shadow, but the
lynx escaped into a river, which then overflowed and flooded the whole country. Wis escaped in a canoe. [Kelsen, p.
147, Roheim, p. 157]
The evil serpent Meshekenabek carried off Manobozho's cousin into a deep lake. Manobozho caused the sun to shine
fiercely on the lake to drive out Meshekenabek and his companions. When they emerged, Manobozho shot an arrow
into the serpent's heart. The serpent, in his dying rage, stirred up the waters of the lake and spread waves over the land.
Fleeing, Manobozho warned the Indians also to retreat to a mountain top. The waters still rose, though, and Manobozho
made a raft for them to take refuge on. However, Manobozho couldn't disperse the flood without some earth to use as a
nucleus. Muskrat finally succeeded in diving for some dirt, and Manobozho used it to make the waters recede. [Howey,
pp. 291‑293]
A wolf which Wenebojo considered his nephew and which hunted for him was captured and killed by the manidog, evil
underwater spirits. To get revenge, Wenebojo turned himself to a stump and waited for the manidog to sun themselves.
When they emerged, the king was suspicious of the stump and had a snake squeeze it and a bear claw it, but Wenebojo
withstood these attacks. When the manidog slept, Wenebojo shot and wounded the king and the next to the king, then
he ran away as the water was rising behind him. Woodchuck saved him by digging a shelter until the water receded.
Later, Wenebojo encountered an old woman who was treating the wounded manidog. He killed and skinned her, put
on her skin, and disguised as her went to the wigwam of the wounded manidog and killed them. As he ran away, he
heard a roar of water behind him. He climbed a pine tree on a hill, and the tree stretched higher, saving Wenebojo from
the flood. Wenebojo asked loon to dive down to get some dirt, but the loon died in the attempt. Otter and beaver failed
similarly. Muskrat, however, was able to get a few grains of dirt before he passed out. Wenebojo used this dirt to
recreate land. Wenebojo cut up the body of the king manido and made a lake of fat from it. The animals that ate or
touched it acquired fat in their bodies. [Barnouw, pp. 64‑69]
Cheyenne (Minnesota):
One particularly hard winter had "great floods" in addition to earthquakes and volcanoes. The people spent the long
winter in caves. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 113]
Cherokee (Great Lakes area; eastern Tennessee):
A dog stood at the river bank and howled piteously. Rebuked by his master, the dog said a flood was coming, and he
must build a boat. Furthermore, the dog said, he must throw him, the dog, into the water. For a sign that he spoke the
truth, the dog showed the back of his neck, which was raw and bare with flesh and bone showing. The man followed
directions, and he and his family survived; from them, the present population is descended. [Gaster, pp. 116‑117]
Dakota:
Unktehi, a water monster, fought the people and caused a great flood. The people retreated to a hill, but the water swept
over them, killing them all. The blood gelled and turned to pipestone. Unktehi was also turned to stone; her bones are in
the Badlands now. A giant eagle, Wanblee Galeshka, swept down, saved one girl from the flood, and made her his wife.
[Erdoes & Ortiz, pp. 93‑95]
In another version, the thunderbirds fought and defeated Unktehi and her children before the waters washed over the
highest mountain. [Erdoes & Ortiz, pp. 220‑221]
Caddo (Oklahoma, Arkansas):
Four monsters grew large and powerful until they were high enough to touch the sky. One man heard a voice telling him
to plant a hollow reed. He did so, and it quickly grew very big. He, his wife, and pairs of all good animals entered the
reed. Waters rose to cover everything but the top of the reed and the heads of the monsters. Turtle destroyed the
monsters by digging under them and uprooting them. The waters subsided, and winds dried the earth. [Erdoes & Ortiz,
p. 120‑121]
Tsetsaut:
A man and his wife went up the hills to hunt marmots. There, they saw that the water was still rising. They enclosed their
children, along with supplies, in hollow trees. All other people drowned. [Roheim, pp. 159‑160]
Choctaw (Mississippi):
A prophet was sent by the high god to warn of a coming flood, but nobody took notice. When the flood came, the
prophet took to a raft. After several months, he saw a black bird. He signaled it, but it just cawed and flew away. Later,
he sighted and signaled a bluish bird. The bird flapped, moaned dolorously, and guided the raft towards where the sun
was breaking through. Next morning, he landed on an island with all kinds of animals. He cursed the black bird (a crow)
and blessed the bluish one (a dove). [Gaster, p. 116]
Natchez (Lower Mississippi):
A great rain fell so abundantly that it extinguished all fires and caused a flood which drowned all but a few people who
saved themselves on a high mountain. A little bird named Coüy‑oüy (a cardinal) brought fire from heaven again. [Gaster,
p. 116]
Navajo (Four Corners area):
For their sins, the gods expelled the Insect People from the first world by sending a wall of water from all directions. The
Insect People flew up into the second world. Later, in the fourth world, descendants of these people were likewise
punished. They escaped the floodwaters by climbing into a fast‑growing reed. Cicada dug an entrance into the fifth
world, where people live today. [Capinera, pp. 226‑228]
Yuma (western Arizona, southern California):
Komashtam'ho caused a great rain and started to flood out the large dangerous animals, but he was persuaded that
people needed some of the animals for food. He evaporated the waters with a great fire, turning the land to desert in the
process. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 81]
Pima (southwest Arizona):
Three times the great eagle told a seer to warn the people about a great flood that would soon come, but the seer
ignored him. Scarcely had the bird gone for the third time when a tremendous clap of thunder was heard, the earth
trembled, and a great green wall of water roared down the valley and destroyed everything in it. Szeukha, Earth maker's
son, saved himself by floating on a ball of gum. He rescued a few people from the great eagle, who had kidnapped them
earlier and kept them in his nest. [Erdoes & Ortiz, pp. 473‑475; Gaster, p. 115]
Papago (Arizona):
Back when the sun was closer to the earth, Coyote foresaw the coming of a flood, gnawed down a great cane, entered
it, and sealed the opening. Montezuma also took warning an prepared a boat for himself. Only they survived the flood,
which covered all the land. They met again on the top of Monte Rosa, which rose above the flood waters. To ascertain
how much dry land was left, the man sent Coyote to explore. Coyote reported that there was sea to the west, south, and
east, but seemingly endless land to the north. The Great Spirit, with the help of Montezuma, restocked the earth with
men and animals. [Erdoes & Ortiz, p. 487; Gaster, pp. 114‑115]
Hopi:
The people repeatedly became distant from Sotuknang, the creator. Twice he destroyed the world (by fire and by cold)
and recreated it while the few people who still lived by the laws of creation took shelter underground with the ants.
When people became corrupt and warlike a third time, Sotuknang guided them to Spider Woman, who cut down giant
reeds and sheltered the people in the hollow stems. Sotuknang caused a great flood, and the people floated in their reeds
for a long time. They emerged after coming to rest on a small piece of land. They still had as much food as they started
with. Guided by their inner wisdom (which comes from Sotuknang through the door at the top of their head), the people
traveled on, using the reeds as canoes. They went northeast, finding progressively larger islands, until they came to the
Fourth World. When they reached it, they saw the islands sink into the ocean. [Waters, pp. 12‑20]
Jicarilla Apache (northeastern New Mexico):
Before the Apaches emerged from the underworld, there were other people on the earth. Dios told an old man and old
woman that it would rain forty days and nights. People were warned to go to the tops of four mountains (Tsisnatcin,
Tsabidzilhi, Becdilhgai, and another whose identity isn't known), and not to look at the flood or sky. The people didn't
believe the old couple. When the rains came, only a few people made it to the mountain tops and shut their eyes. Those
who looked at the flood turned into a fish or frog (as did some who were caught in the flood); if they looked at the sky,
they turned into a bird. After eighty days, Dios told the 24 people remaining to open their eyes and come down. These
24 people went into mountains. Eight other people survived the flood who were able to travel by looking where they
wanted to go, and they were there. These people told the Apaches about the flood before going into two mountains
themselves. Around the turn of the millennium, the surface of the earth will again be destroyed, this time by fire. [Opler,
pp. 111‑113]
When people still lived in the underworld, the chief, after an argument with his mother‑in‑law, decided that men and
women should live apart for awhile, so the men all moved to the other side of a river, and the chief prayed to
Kogulhtsude (a water spirit) to widen the river. After a long time, Coyote found a baby in a whirlpool in the river and
took it out to raise himself. But the baby was Kogulhtsude's child, and he sent water out to draw it back. Some people
were drowned and turned into frogs and fish; the other men and women escaped together to a tall mountain. Coyote
used his magic to make the mountain grow, but the waters kept rising, finally overflowing onto this world. The people
suspected Coyote was causing the trouble and found the baby hidden under his coat. They threw the baby into the
water, and the water receded. The people went down into the underworld again. When they later emerged, the surface
of the earth was covered with water from that flood. The four Holy Ones made black, blue, yellow, and glittering hoops
and threw them in each compass direction, and the water receded. They commanded the winds to dry the land further.
[Opler, p. 20, 265‑268]
Mexico:
The deluge overwhelmed mankind. Only a man named Coxcox (some call him Teocipactli) and a woman named
Xochiquetzal survived in a small bark. They landed on a mountain called Colhuacan and had many children. These
children were all born dumb until a dove from a lofty tree gave them languages, but different languages so that they
couldn't understand each other. [Gaster, p. 121]
Tarahumara (Northern Mexico):
People were once fighting among themselves, and Father God (Tata Dios) sent much rain, drowning everyone. After the
flood, God sent three men and three women to repopulate the earth. They planted three kinds of corn which still grow in
the country. [Gaster, p. 124]
Michoacan (Mexico):
When the flood waters began to rise, a man named Tezpi entered into a great vessel, taking with him his wife and
children and diverse seeds and animals. When the waters abated, the man sent out a vulture, but the bird found plenty of
corpses to eat and didn't return. Other birds also flew away and didn't return. Finally, he sent out a hummingbird, which
returned with a green bough in its beak. [Gaster, p. 122]
Toltec (Mexico):
One of the Tezcatlipocas (sons of the original dual god) transformed himself into the Sun and created the first humans to
show up his brothers. The other gods, angry at his audacity, had Quetzalcoatl destroy the people, which he did with a
flood. The people became fish. [Leon‑Portilla, p. 450]
Mayan:
The wooden people, an early version of humanity, were imperfect because there was nothing in their hearts and minds,
and they did not remember Heart of Sky. So Heart of Sky destroyed them with a flood. He sent down a black rain of
resin; animals came into their houses and attacked them; and even pots and stones crushed them. Today's monkeys are a
sign of these people. [Tedlock, p. 83‑86]
Huichol (western Mexico):
A man clearing fields found the trees regrown overnight. He found that his grandmother Nakawe, goddess of the earth,
did this, and she told him that he was working in vain because a flood was coming in five days. Per her instructions, he
built a box from the fig tree and entered it with five grains of corn and beans of each color, fire with five squash stems to
feed it, and a black bitch. She closed him in and caulked the cracks, and he floated in the flood for five years, first
floating south, then north, then west, then east, then rising upward on the flood. Finally the box came to rest on a
mountain near Santa Cantarina, where it can still be seen. The world was still under water, but parrots and macaws
pulled up mountains and created valleys to drain the water, and the land dried. The man lived with the bitch in a cave.
Every evening he would return home from work to find meals prepared. He spied one day and found that the bitch took
off her skin and became a woman to do the work. He threw her skin into the fire and bathed her in nixtamal water. They
repopulated the earth. [Horcasitas, pp. 203‑204; Gaster, pp. 122‑123]
Cora (east of the Huichols):
In the Coras version of the Huichol myth, the man is bidden to take the woodpecker, sandpiper, and parrot with him, as
well as the bitch. When the flood subsided, he sent out the sandpiper, which came back and cried, "Ee‑wee‑wee",
indicating the earth was too wet to walk upon. He waited five days and sent out the woodpecker, which found the trees
too soft and returned saying "Chu‑ee, chu‑ee!" He waited five days more and sent out the sandpiper, who reported back
that the ground was hard, and the man ventured out. [Gaster, p. 124]
Survivors of the flood escaped in a canoe. God sent the vulture out to see if the earth was dry enough, but the vulture
didn't return because it was devouring the drowned corpses. God cursed the vulture and made it black, leaving its
wingtips white to remind people of its former color. Next, God sent the ringdove, who reported that the land was dry but
the rivers were in spate. So God commanded the animals to drink the rivers dry. All came and drank except the weeping
dove, which today still goes to drink at nightfall because she is ashamed to be seen drinking by day. [Gaster, p. 124]
Nahua (central Mexico):
People in three previous ages were destroyed by being devoured by jaguars, turned into monkeys, and transformed into
birds in a rain of fire. The sun of 4 Water lasted 676 years; then the heavens came down in one day, and the people
were inundated and transformed into fish. In the next age, Titlacahuan (Tezcatlipoca) told a man known as "Our Father"
and his consort Nene to hollow out a log and enter it during the vigil of Toçoztli, when the heavens would come crashing
down. He sealed them in with a single ear of corn apiece to eat. When they had finished eating, they heard the water
declining. They exited the log, found a fish, and made a fire to cook it. The gods Citlallinicue and Citlallatonac
complained that someone was smoking up the heavens. Tezcatlipoca descended, struck off the people's heads, and
reattached them over their buttocks; they became dogs. [Markman, pp. 132‑133]
Totonac (eastern Mexico):
A man, warned by God, survived the flood in a tree he had hollowed out. After the deluge, he was hungry and built a
fire. God smelled the smoke and sent buzzard down to investigate, but buzzard stayed to eat the dead animals, and God
condemned him to eat only rotten flesh thereafter. God told Saint Michael to go down, and Saint Michael reversed the
man's face and hind parts and turned him into a monkey. [Horcasitas, p. 184]
Nicaragua:
The world was once destroyed by a deluge. After its destruction, the gods created all things afresh. [Gaster, p. 121]
Panama:
One man, with his wife and children, escaped the flood in a canoe. Mankind are descended from them. [Gaster, p. 121]
South America
Muysca (Colombia):
In olden times before the moon existed, the Muyscas lived as savages. A bearded old man with the names Botschika,
Nemquetheba, Zuhe came and taught them agriculture, crafts, religion, and government. His wife, though, was malicious.
To destroy the good works of her husband, she magically caused the river Funza (Rio Bogota) to flood the whole
plateau. Only a few people escaped to the mountain tops. Botschika banished her from earth and changed her into the
moon. Then he opened a pass, and the water poured down in the Tequendama waterfall. [Kelsen, p. 140]
Offended by people's wickedness, Chibchachun, the tutelary god, sent a flood. The people appealed to the culture‑hero
Bocicha. Appearing as a rainbow, he struck the mountain with his staff and provided an outlet for the waters.
Chibchachun was driven underground. [Gaster, p. 131]
Tamanaque (Orinoco):
In the time of the great flood, "the Age of Water," the sea broke against the Encamarada mountain chain, and people
were forced into canoes. One man and one woman were saved on the high mountain called Tamanacu, on the banks of
the Asiveru. After the flood, as they descended the mountain grieving the destruction of mankind, they heard a voice
telling them to throw the fruits of the Mauritia palm over their heads behind them. People sprung from the kernels of
these fruits, men from those thrown by the man, and women from those thrown by the woman. (This tradition occurs
also in neighboring tribes.) [Gaster, p. 127]
Makiritare (Venezuela):
The Star people listened to Jaguar and killed and ate a woman. Kuamachi wanted to punish them, but they were too
many and too powerful. He invited them to help in picking dewaka fruit. They came, and while they were eating fruit,
Kuamachi dropped one fruit. Water came out of it, spread, and caused a flood. Kuamachi and his grandfather stayed in
a canoe; they got bows and arrows and shot the people who were helpless in the trees. The people fell down into the
water below, which was infested with dangerous animals. Kuamachi and his grandfather ran out of arrows before
shooting Wlaha, the leader of the Star people. He had caught seven arrows. He shot them into heaven, making a ladder
which he, the surviving Star people, and finally Kuamachi ascended to become stars. [de Civrieux, pp. 109‑116]
Yanomamo (southern Venezuela):
The son of Omauwa (one of the first beings) became very thirsty. Omauwa and his brother dug a hole for water, but they
dug so deep that water gushed forth and covered the jungle. Many drowned. Some of the first beings survived by cutting
down trees and floating on them. They became foreigners and floated away. The Yanomamo survived by climbing
mountains. Raharariyoma painted red dots all over her body and plunged into the lake, causing it to recede. Omauwa
then caused her to be changed into a rahara, a dangerous snake‑like monster that lives in large rivers. [Chagnon, p. 47]
Arekuna (Guyana):
Shortly after people arrived on earth, all crops grew on a single tree. Makunaima and his four brothers cut down the
tree, and water immediately poured from the stump, and with it came fish. One of the brothers made a basket to stop the
water, but Makunaima wanted a few more fish for the rivers. When he lifted the basket just a little, water came out full
force, flooding the earth. [Bierhorst, pp. 79‑80]
In some Guyana and Venezuela tree and flood myths, the water from the stump merely forms rivers; in other versions,
the entire earth is flooded, and survivors stay in canoes or climb tall palms until the waters subside. [Bierhorst]
Arawak (Guyana):
Since its creation, the world has been destroyed twice, once by fire and once by flood, by the great god Aiomun Kondi
because of the wickedness of mankind. The pious and wise chief Marerewana was informed of the coming of the flood
and saved himself and his family in a large canoe. He tied the canoe to a tree with a long cable of bushrope to prevent
drifting too far from his old home. [Gaster, p. 126]
Pamary, Abedery, and Kataushy (eastern Peru):
Once upon a time, people heard a rumbling above and below the ground; the sun and moon turned red, blue, and
yellow; and wild beasts mingled fearlessly with man. A month later, they saw darkness ascending from the earth to the
sky, accompanied by a roar and by thunder and heavy rain. Some people lost themselves. Some died without knowing
why. Everything was in dreadful confusion. The water rose to cover the earth, and people took refuge in trees. There
they perished from cold and hunger, for it continued to be dark and rainy. Only Uassu and his wife survived. When they
came down after the flood, they could not find even a sign of a single corpse. Today, the Pamarys build their houses on
the river, so that when the water rises, they may rise with it. [Gaster, pp. 125‑126]
Ipurina (Upper Amazon):
Mayuruberu, chief of the storks, caused a flood by making a kettle of water boiling in the sun overflow. Mankind
survived, but all plants were destroyed except the cassia. Mayuruberu appeared with many new plants, and the Ipurina
began tilling their fields. Mayuruberu ate anyone who would not work. [Kelsen, p. 139]
Coroado (south Brazil):
A flood once covered the whole earth except for the top of the coastal range Serra do Mar. Members of the three tribes
Coroados, Cayurucres, and Cames, swam for the mountains holding lighted torches between their teeth. The Cayurucres
and Cames wearied and drowned, and their souls went to dwell in the heart of the mountain. The Coroados made it and
stayed there, some on the ground and some in the branches of trees. Several days passed without food and without the
water lowering. Then some saracuras, a species of waterfowl, flew to them with baskets of earth. The birds began
throwing the earth into the water, and the water sank. The people urged the birds to hurry, so the birds called the ducks
to help them. When the flood subsided, the Coroados descended, except for the ones which had climbed into trees, who
became monkeys. The souls of the Cayurucres and Cames burrowed their way out of the mountain and kindled a fire.
From the ashes of the fire, one of the Cayurucres molded jaguars, tapirs, ant‑bears, bees, and many other animals; he
made them live and told them what they should eat. But one of the Cames similarly made pumas, poisonous snakes, and
wasps to fight the other animals. [Gaster, p. 125]
Jivaro (eastern Ecuador):
Two boys found that a snake had been stealing their food. They built a fire to drive the snake out of a hollow in a tree,
where it lived. The snake fell in the fire, and one of the brothers ate some of its roasted flesh. He became very thirsty and
went to the lake. He was transformed first into a frog, then a lizard, and finally into a snake, which grew rapidly; and the
lake began to overflow. The snake told his brother that the lake would continue to grow and all the people would perish
unless they made their escape. The brother told his people what was happening, but they didn't believe him. He fled to
the top of a palm tree on the top of a mountain and returned many days later when the waters had subsided. Vultures
were eating the dead people in the valley. He went to the lake and carried away his brother in a calabash. [Kelsen, pp.
140‑141; also Roheim, p. 156]
A great cloud fell from heaven, turned to rain, and killed all the inhabitants of earth. Only a man and his two sons were
saved. One of the sons was cursed by his father; the Jivaros are descended from him. [Gaster, p. 126]
In one version of the story, the two brothers went looking for food after the flood, and when they returned, found food
set out for them. To find its source, one of the brothers hid himself and saw two parrots with the faces of women enter
their hut and prepare the food. He jumped out, seized one of the birds, and married it. From this union came three boys
and three girls from whom the Jivaros are descended. [Gaster, p. 126]
Shuar (Andes):
In a tobacco‑induced dream, a hunter was told by the daughter of the water spirit Tsunki to return to a river. He did so,
met the woman, followed her to her father's house, and became her husband. When he returned to his home on earth,
she took the form of a snake. Once while he was off hunting, though, his two earthly wives tormented her, and she
returned to her father. Tsunki, in a rage, flooded the earth, drowning everyone but the hunter and one of his daughters,
who escaped to a mountaintop. These two repopulated the world. [Bierhorst, p. 218]
Quechua:
The world wanted to come to an end. A llama, knowing this, was depressed. When its human owner complained that it
wouldn't eat, the llama told him of the imminent flood and suggested they go to Villca Coto mountain. They arrived there
to find the peak already filled with all kinds of animals. The flood came as soon as they arrived and lasted five days.
Afterwards, the man began to multiply once more. [Salomon & Urioste, pp. 51‑52]
Inca (Peru):
The water rose above the highest mountain in the world. All created things perished, except for a man and woman who
floated in a box. When the flood subsided, the box was taken by the wind to Tiahuanacu, about 200 miles from Cuzco.
[Gaster, p. 127]
Chiriguano (southeast Bolivia):
The evil supernatural being Aguara‑Tunpa declared war against the god Tunpaete, Creator of the Chiriguanos. He set
fire to the prairies, destroying all the plants and land animals. The people nearly died of hunger, but they retreated to the
banks of rivers and survived on fish. Seeing people still surviving, Aguara‑Tunpa caused a torrential rain. Acting on a hint
given them by Tunpaete, the Chiriguanos placed two babies, a boy and a girl, on a large mate leaf and set it afloat on the
water. The flood rose, covering the land and killing the rest of the Chiriguanos, but the two babies survived and
eventually landed on solid ground when the flood sank. There, they found fish to eat, but they had no way to cook it.
Fortunately, before the flood, a frog had taken some hot coals in his mouth, and it kept them alight during the flood by
blowing on them. He gave the fire to the children, and they were able to roast their fish. In time, they grew up, and the
Chiriguanos are descended from them. [Gaster, pp. 127‑128]
Chorote (Eastern Paraguay):
In a former time when there were a great many people, the earth sank. Then water began to seep out. It kept rising until
it became a flood. Some boys were saved by a white bird; all other people drowned. [Bierhorst, p. 142]
Toba (Northern Argentina):
Rainbow does not like menstruating women to enter the water, or even to drink from it. One day a young woman broke
this taboo because her mother and sisters didn't leave her any drinking water when they left for the day. Driven by thirst,
she went to the lagoon. When she had returned, Rainbow, full of anger, caused a strong wind, accompanied by
whirlwinds and heavy rain. All were drowned in the ensuing flood. [Bierhorst, pp. 142‑143]
Yamana (Tierra del Fuego):
Lexuwakipa, the rusty brown spectacled ibis, felt offended by the people, so she let it snow so much that ice came to
cover the entire earth. When it melted, it rapidly flooded all the earth except five mountaintops, on which a few people
escaped. Signs of the floodwaters still show up on those mountains. [Wilbert, p. 27‑28]
In another version, the moon‑woman Hanuxa caused the flood because she was full of hatred against the people,
especially the men, who had taken over the women's secret kina ceremony and made it their own. A few people
survived on five mountaintops. [Wilbert, p. 29]
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