�� 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)

�� At� (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)

�� Luise�o (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‑t�rom, 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]

�� At� (Philippines):

�� Water covered the whole earth, and all the At�s 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]

��Luise�o (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 Co�y‑o�y (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 To�oztli, 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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