ArchTale 44. The Great Flood

Avatar image for spareheadone
SpareHeadOne

12237

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By SpareHeadOne
No Caption Provided

Time passed and the condition of The-Woman was worsening. The-Man had to kill off her disease so that she would still conceive.

This procedure took the form of a great deluge that flooded the whole earth.

Only that part of humanity that was one with the seed of The- Woman was saved from this flood while those who would have dominated and killed off the seed of The-Woman were themselves dominated and killed off.

Avatar image for spareheadone
SpareHeadOne

12237

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

#1  Edited By SpareHeadOne

Humanity is saved from the great deluge.

It is here that we see the Ark, the symbol of The-Woman’s seed floating on the chaotic waters of her womb.

The Ark is a seed containing all the genetic information for humanity and her needs.

Lisu of northwest Yunnan, China

After death came into the world as a result of a macaque’s curse, sky and earth longed for human souls and bones. That is how the flood began. An orphaned brother and sister lived in squalor in a village. A pair of golden birds flew down to them one day, warned them that a huge wave would flood the earth, and told them to take shelter in a gourd and not to come out until they heard the birds again. The two children warned their neighbours, but the people didn’t believe them. The children sawed off the top of a gourd and went inside. For ninety-nine days, there was no wind or rain, and the earth became parched. Then torrents of rain fell, and the resulting flood washed everything away. The brother and sister occasionally could hear the gourd bump against the bottom of heaven. After long waiting, they heard the birds calling, left the gourd, and found they had landed atop a mountain, and the flood had receded. Brother and sister then went in search of other people, exploring north and south respectively. They found nobody else, and the golden birds appeared again and urged them to marry. They refused, but the birds told them it was the will of heaven. They had six sons and six daughters which travelled different directions and became the ancestors of different races.

-L. Miller, pp. 78-84

No Caption Provided

Altaic of central Asia

Tengys (Sea) was once lord over the earth. Nama, a good man, lived during his rule with three sons, Sozun-uul, Sar-uul, and Balyks. Ülgen commanded Nama to build an ark (kerep), but Nama’s sight was failing, so he left the building to his sons. The ark was built on a mountain, and from it were hung eight 80-fathom cables with which to gauge water depth. Nama entered the ark with his family and the various animals and birds which had been driven there by the rising waters. Seven days later, the cables gave way from the earth, showing that the flood had risen 80 fathoms. Seven days later, Nama told his eldest son to open the window and look around, and the son saw only the summits of mountains. His father ordered him to look again later, and he saw only water and sky. At last the ark stopped in a group of eight mountains. On successive days, Nama released a raven, a crow, and a rook, none of which returned. On the fourth day, he sent out a dove, which returned with a birch twig and told why the other birds hadn’t returned; they had found carcasses of a deer, dog, and horse respectively, and had stayed to feed on them. In anger, Nama cursed them to behave thus to the end of the world. When Nama became very old, his wife exhorted him to kill all the men and animals he had saved so that they, transferred to the other world, would be under his power. Nama didn’t know what to do. Sozun-uul, who didn’t dare to oppose his mother openly, told his father a story about seeing a blue-black cow devouring a human so only the legs were visible. Nama understood the fable and cleft his wife in two with his sword. Finally, Nama went to heaven, taking with him Sozun-uul and changing him into a constellation of five stars.

-Holmberg, pp. 364-368

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 and Budge, p. ccii.

Chiriguano of southeast Bolivia

The evil supernatural being Aguara-Tunpa declared war against the god Tunpaete, Creator of the Chiriguanos. He set fire to the prairies in autumn, destroying all the plants and land animals. The people, who had not then begun farming, 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 sibling babies, a boy and a girl, on a large leaf and set it afloat on the water. The flood rose, covering the earth 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

Maori of 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 and his doctrines denied. 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 though the rain stopped, the waters still rose and bore the raft down the Tohinga river and onto the sea. 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. After making fire by friction, they made thanks-offerings of seaweed for their rescue. Today, only the chief priest may go to those holy spots.

-Gaster, pp. 110-112; Kelsen, p. 133

Hindu

At the end of the past kalpa, the demon Hayagriva stole the sacred books from Brahma, and the whole human race became corrupt except the seven sages, and Manu, the first human. He found a small fish in his wash water. 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, eventually taking it to the ocean. Upon being released into the ocean, the fish told Manu that soon all terrestrial objects would be dissolved in the time of the purification. The fish warned Manu of a coming deluge and told him to build a ship and to embark with all kinds of seeds, medicinal herbs, food esculant grains, the seven Nishis and their wives, and pairs of brute animals, and to then watch for the fish, since the waters could not be crossed without it. Manu embarked as enjoined and thought on the fish. The fish, knowing his desire, came, and Manu fastened the ship’s cable to its horn. The oceans began to overflow the coasts and constant rain began flooding the earth. The large vessel floated in on the rising waters. The fish dragged the ship through rolling waters for many years, at last bringing it to the highest peak of Himavat, which is still known as Naubandhana (“the Binding of the Ship”). The fish then revealed itself as Parjapati Brahma and said Manu shall create all living things and all things moving and fixed. He made offerings of clarified butter, sour milk, whey, and curds. From these, a woman arose, calling herself Manu’s daughter. Whatever blessings he invoked through her were granted him. Through her, he generated this race.

-Gaster, pp. 94-95; Kelsen, p. 128; Brinton, pp. 227-228 Frazer, pp. 185-193 H. Miller, pp. 289-290; Howey, pp. 389-390

Avatar image for spareheadone
SpareHeadOne

12237

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

#2  Edited By SpareHeadOne

The daughter is saved from the deluge.

Here we shall see the one pregnant maiden saved from the flood.

The maiden is humanity, the remainder of the daughter bough of the World-Tree.

The boy child in her womb is symbolic of the coming Embryo of The-Son, the coming result of the seed of The-Woman and The-Seed of The-Man uniting.

Mandaya of the Philippines.

A great flood once drowned all the world’s inhabitants except one pregnant woman. She prayed that her child would be a boy. 647

Toradja the central Celebes

A flood once covered everything but the summit of Mount Wawom Pebato (seashells on the hills are evidence). Only a woman pregnant with a son 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 which drifted ashore where she was standing. The mouse got it down for her, but demanded in recompense that mice should thereafter have the right to eat part of the harvest. 648

Havasupai of the lower Colorado River

Two brothers feuded, and Hokomata angrily sent a deluge which destroyed the world. Before it came, though, Tochopa sealed his daughter Pukeheh in a hollow log. She emerged when the flood subsided. She bore a son, fathered by the sun, and a daughter, fathered by a waterfall. 649

Sioux

There was one person who managed to escape the flood. She was a fine young girl; she was rescued by Wanblee, an eagle, and taken to the highest spot in the Black Hills, the tall tree that was the eagle’s home. There the girl became Wanblee’s wife and gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl, who later became the parents of the Sioux nation. The eagle was, of course, the messenger of the Great Mystery, and the Sioux are proud to be called eagle people. 650

647 Frazer, p. 225

648 Gaster, p. 102

649 Alexander, 1916, p. 180

650 Leeming. D. A.p. 244. CMW.