Pygmy:
Chameleon heard a strange noise, like water running, in a tree, but at that time there was no water
in the world. He cut open the trunk, and 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]
Ekoi (Nigeria):
The first people 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. After the sons and daughters married and had children of their own, Etim 'Ne gave each
household a river or lake of its own. He took away the rivers of three sons who were poor hunters
and didn't share their meat, but he restored them when the sons begged him to. When the
grandchildren had grown and 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 at intervals 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. Etim 'Ne told the others the names of the rivers and streams
which remained and told them to remember him as the bringer of water to the world. Two days later
he died. [Courlander, pp. 267-269]
Efik-Ibibio (Nigeria):
The sun and moon are man and wife, and their best friend was flood, whom they often visited. They
often invited flood to visit them, but he demurred, saying their house was too small. Sun and moon
built a much larger house, and flood could no longer refuse their invitation. He arrived and asked,
"Shall I come in?" and was invited in. When flood was knee-deep in the house, he asked if he should
continue coming and was again invited to do so. The flood brought many relatives, including fish and
sea beasts. Soon he rose to the ceiling of the house, and the sun and moon went onto the roof. The
flood kept rising, submerging the house entirely, and the sun and moon made a new home in the sky.
[Eliot, pp. 47-48]
Mandingo (Ivory Coast):
A charitable man gave away everything he had to the animals. His family deserted him, but when he
gave his last meal to the (unrecognized) god Ouende, Ouende rewarded him with three handfuls of
flour which renewed itself and produced even greater riches. Then Ouende 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]
Bachokwe? (southern Zaire):
A chieftainess named Moena Monenga sought food and shelter in a village. She was refused, and
when she reproached the villagers for their selfishness, they said, in effect, "What can you do about
it"? So she began a slow incantation, and on the last long note, the whole village sank into the
ground, and water flowed into the depression, forming what is now Lake Dilolo. When the village's
chieftain returned from the hunt and saw what had happened to his family, he drowned himself in the
lake. [Vitaliano, pp. 164-165; Kelsen, p. 136]
Bena-Lulua (Congo River, southeast Zaire):
The old water woman only gave water to him who sucks her sores. One man did so, and water
flowed and drowned almost everybody. He continued his disgusting task, and the water stopped
flowing. [Kelsen, p. 136]
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; Kelsen, p. 136]
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:
As a girl was grinding flour, a goat came to lick it. She first drove it away, but when it came back, she
allowed it to lick as much as it could. In return for the kindness, the goat told her there will be a
flood that day and advised her and her brother to run elsewhere immediately. They escaped with a
few belongings and looked back to see water covering their village. After the flood, they lived on
their own for many years, unable to find mates. The goat reappeared and said they could marry
themselves, but they would have to put a hoe-handle and a clay pot with a broken bottom on their
roof to signify that they are relatives. [Kahler-Meyer, pp. 251-252]
Kwaya (Lake Victoria):
The ocean was once enclosed in a small pot kept by a man and his wife under the roof of their hut
to fill their larger pots. The man told his daughter-in-law never to touch it because it contained their
sacred ancestors. But she grew curious and touched it. It shattered, and the resulting flood
drowned everything. [Kahler-Meyer, pp. 253-254]
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. 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]
"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 the dhobi feeding it, 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 sent to find the state of affairs 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. God gave each of their children the name of a different caste, 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. Those people repopulated the land. [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]
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]
Mongolia:
Hailibu, a kind and generous 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, and people had to live
in high mountain caves and in trees, fighting with wild animals for scarce resources. Unable to
persuade the Supreme Sovereign to stop the flood, and told by an owl and a turkey about _Xirang_
or Growing Soil, the supernatural hero Gun stole Growing Soil from heaven to dam the waters. Before
Gun was finished, however, the Supreme Sovereign sent the fire god Zhu Rong to execute him for his
theft. The Growing Soil was taken back to heaven, and the floods continued. However, Gun's body
didn't decay, and when it was cut apart three years later, his son Yu emerged in the form of a
horned dragon. Gun's body also transformed into a dragon at that time and thenceforth lived quietly
in the deeps. The Supreme Sovereign was fearful of Yu's power, so he cooperated and gave Yu the
Growing Soil and the use of the dragon Ying. Yu led other gods to drive away Gong Gong, distributed
the Growing Soil to remove most of the flood, and led the people to fashion rivers from Ying's tracks
and thus channel the remaining floodwaters to the sea. [Walls, pp. 94-100]
The goddess Nu Kua fought and defeated the chief of a neighboring tribe, driving him up a mountain. The chief, chagrined at being defeated by a woman, beat his head against the Heavenly Bamboo with the aim of wreaking vengeance on his enemies and killing himself. He knocked it down, tearing a hole in the sky. Floods poured out, inundating the world and killing everyone but Nu Kua and her army; her divinity made her and her followers safe from it. Nu Kua patched the hole with a plaster made from stones of five different colors, and the floods ceased. [Werner, p. 225; Vitaliano, p. 163]
Korea:
A son was borne to a fairy and a laurel tree; the fairy returned to heaven when the boy was seven
years old. One day, rains came and lasted for many months, flooding the earth with a raging sea. The
laurel, in danger of falling, told his son to ride him when it came uprooted by the waves. The boy did
so, floating on the tree for many days. One day a crowd of ants floated by and cried out to be
saved. After asking the tree for permission, the boy gave them refuge on the branches of the laurel.
Later, a group of mosquitoes flew by and also asked to be saved. Again, the boy asked the tree for
permission, was granted it, and gave the mosquitoes rest. Then another boy floated by and asked
to be saved.
This time the tree refused permission when its son asked. The son asked twice more, and after the third time the tree said, "Do what you like," and the son rescued the other boy. At last the tree came to rest on the summit of a mountain. The insects expressed their gratitude and left.
The two boys, being very hungry, went and found a house where an old woman lived with her own daughter and a foster-daughter. As everyone else in the world had perished and the subsiding waters allowed farming again, the woman decided to marry her daughters to the boys, her own going to the cleverer boy. The second boy maliciously told the woman that the other boy could quickly gather millet grains scattered on sand.
The woman tested this claim, and the first boy despaired of ever succeeding, when the ants came to his aid, filling the grain bag in a few minutes. The other boy had watched, and he told the woman that the task hadn't been done by the first boy himself, so the woman still couldn't decide which daughter to marry to which boy. She decided to let the boys decide by chance, going to one room or another in total darkness. A mosquito came and told the Son of the Tree which room the old woman's daughter was in, so those two were married, and the second boy married the foster-daughter. The human race is descended from those two couples. [Zong, pp. 16-18]
Young Gim's father was killed by robbers, and Gim set out to track them and get revenge. On the way, he met another bereaved boy hunting the same robbers. They became sworn brothers, but they were separated when a storm upset their ferry as they were crossing a river. Gim was rescued by another boy who had been orphaned by the same robbers. They too swore to be brothers but were separated when their ferry sank in a storm. Gim was rescued and hidden by an old woman; he was on the island of the robbers but was helpless from his injuries. One day a mysterious man came by and asked Gim to go with him. Gim lived with the man in the mountains studying magic until he was sixteen, whereupon the man told him to go and rescue the king from the robbers, and that he would meet Gim again in three years exactly.
Gim set out, finding a magic horse, arms, and armor along the way, and arrived at the king's castle when it was on the point of surrender. In the enemy camp, he found a black face belching fire at the castle, a genii studying astrology, a rat whose swinging tail produced a flood which threatened the castle, and a giant who hurled flames at the King's camp. Gim fought them with his magic but was overwhelmed by their numbers. He fled with the king to an island, but the rat tried to submerge it with an even greater flood from its tail. A butterfly led Gim to a cavern in a distant mountain, where he met the first boy he had encountered. They went back to fight together, but the other boy was killed and the island submerged, and Gim and the King retreated to a second island.
Gim was led by a crow to another cavern in the mountains where he met his other friend. They returned to fight, but again the friend was killed, the island submerged, and Gim and the King had to retreat. When a third island was threatened with the flood, they took refuge on a ship. Gim's mentor then came (three years having elapsed) and with his magic called down thunderbolts which destroyed all of the enemy. Gim went to the enemy island, found his mother, and married the sister of his second friend. [Zong, pp. 62-66]
The River Dedong flooded the countryside. An old man in Pyongyang, rowing about in a boat, found and rescued a deer, a snake, and a boy from the waters. He carried them to shore and released them, but the boy had lost his parents in the flood and so became the man's adopted son. One day the deer came and led the man to a buried treasure of gold and silver, and the man became rich. The foster-son became reckless with the money, and he and his father argued. The boy accused the man of theft, and the man was imprisoned. The snake came to him in his cell and bit his arm, which then swelled painfully. But then the snake returned with a small bottle. The man applied the medicine to his arm, which cured it at once. In the morning, he heard that the magistrate's wife was dying of a snakebite, so he sent word that he could cure her. This he did with the snake's ointment. He was released, and the foster-son was arrested and punished. [Zong, pp. 94-95]
A foundling infant grew up incredibly fast and soon showed signs of fantastic strength. He earned the name "Iron-shoes" from the footwear he needed. He set out on a journey and met with and joined three other extraordinary men--"Nose-wind", who had extraordinarily powerful breath; "Long-rake", who crumbled mountains with his rake, and "Waterfall", who made rivers by pissing. They went to an old woman's home and were invited to spend the night, but the woman locked them in, and the men realized that she and her four sons were tigers in disguise. The tigers tried to kill them by roasting the room, but Nose-wind kept it cool by his blowing. The next day, the woman challenged them to a contest of gathering pine trees while her sons stacked them. When it became clear that the four brothers ripped up the trees faster than the tigers could stack them, the woman set fire to the logs. Waterfall, though, made water which not only put out the fire, but created a flood that nearly drowned the tigers. Nose-wind blew on the water and froze it. Iron-shoes skated out and kicked the heads off the tigers, and Long-rake broke up the ice and threw it far and wide, eliminating any trace of the flood. [Zong, pp. 162-166]
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 for their use, 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 accidentally dropped it 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 tried to dig out a bamboo rat, but it told them it was digging to escape a
coming flood and instructed them to seal themselves inside a drum to save themselves. They did so.
Some richer people took refuge on rafts, but the rafts overturned when the waters receded, and
those people died. The brother and sister made a hole, saw water, sealed the drum again, and
waited longer. The second time they made a hole, they saw dry land and emerged. (In another
version, they took along a needle and knew the flood was over when no water leaked in the hole
they poked.) 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. They put it behind their house and went about their
work. 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. The Rumeet are darker
because they rubbed off charcoal around the hole. At first, none of those people could not speak.
They sat down in a row on a tree trunk, it broke, and they all cried out, and with that they were able
to speak. Later, the different people all learned different ways of writing. [Lindell et. al., pp.
268-278]
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 rapidly enough to kill many of
the diggers. While the Ifugaos celebrated the waters, a storm came, the river kept rising, and the
elders advised people to run for the mountains, as the river gods were angry. Only two people made
it to safety, a brother and sister, Wigan and Bugan, on the separate mountains Amuyao and
Kalawitan. Both had enough food on the summits, but only Bugan had fire. After six months, the
waters receded. Wigan traveled to his sister on Mt. Kalawitan, and they settled in the valley. The
sister later found herself with child and ran away in shame, following the course of the river. The god
Maknongan, appearing as an old man, assured her that her shame had no foundation, since she and
her brother would repopulate the world. [Demetrio, p. 262]
Only a brother and sister named Wigam and Bugan survived a primeval flood, on Mount Amuyas. [Gaster, p. 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
Puti-orla-bulan. She had three sons and daughters from whom the human race is descended. Later,
the earth was replaced onto the head of the snake, and there has been a constant struggle
between the snake, wanting to be free of its burden, and the deity. [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]
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