Native American Legends
Noah's Flood
A Thompson and Tlingit Legend
God came down to the Earth, and found it was very dirty, and full
of bad things, bad people, mysteries, and cannibals. He thought
he would make a flood to clean the Earth, and drown all the bad
people and monsters.
The flood covered the tops of the mountains; and all the people
were drowned, except one man and his two daughters, who escaped
in a canoe. When the water receded, they came ashore and found that
the Earth was clean. They were starving, and looked for food, but
nothing edible could they see. No plants grew near by, only some
trees of several varieties.
They crushed a piece of fir with stones, and soaked it in water.
They tried to eat it, and to drink the decoction; but it was too
nasty, and they threw it away. Thus they tried pine, alder, and
other woods, and at last they tried service-berry wood, which tasted
much better. The women drank the decoction, and found that it made
them tipsy. They gave some to their father, and he became quite
drunk. Now they thought to themselves, "How is the Earth to
be peopled!"
And they each had connection with their father without his knowing
it. As the water receded, they became able to get more and more
food; but they still continued to drink the service-berry decoction,
and, as their father was fond of it, they frequently made him drunk,
and had connection with him. Thus they bore many children, and their
father wondered how they became pregnant.
These children, when they grew up, married one another, and thus
was the Earth re-peopled. The animals and birds also became numerous
again.
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