The following tradition was current among the Indians of the Great Lakes:
"In former times the father of the Indian tribes dwelt toward the rising
sun. Having been warned in a dream that a deluge was coming upon the
earth, he built a raft, on which he saved himself, with his family and
all the animals. He floated thus for several months. The animals, who at
that time spoke, loudly complained and murmured against him. At last a
new earth appeared, on which he landed with all the animals, who from
that time lost the power of speech, as a punishment for their murmurs
against their deliverer."
According to Father Charlevoix, the tribes of Canada and the valley of
the Mississippi relate in their rude legends that all mankind was
destroyed by a flood, and that the Good Spirit, to repeople the earth,
had changed animals into men. It is to J. S. Kohl we owe our
acquaintance with the version of the Chippeways--full of grotesque and
perplexing touches--in which the man saved from the Deluge is called
Menaboshu. To know if the earth be drying, he sends a bird, the diver,
out of his bark; then becomes the restorer of the human race and the
founder of existing society.
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