| The Flood |
| The Ancient One became unhappy with mankind for not honoring him appropriately, and he decided to destroy them all. At the last minute, he decided to save one man, along with his wife and children, because they were such hard workers. So the Ancient One went to this family and said, "You need to stop working in the maize field and do what I tell you because I am going to destroy all the people in the world except for you." Then he told them to find the biggest cedar tree in the forest, cut it down and hollow out a huge canoe, then to fill the canoe with food and water-for soon the Ancient One would make it rain harder than it had ever rained before, and the family needed a boat or they would surely drown. In a few days, after much hard work, the canoe was ready. That night, the family crawled into the boat and pulled mats over the top to keep out the rain. At dusk the rain started, and just before dawn the man felt the canoe lurch. He looked out from under the mats and saw that the boat had broken loose from the ground and was floating. All day the family watched the water rise, and by nightfall their craft was floating among the branches of the highest trees. They ate some food and went to sleep. When they woke the next morning, there was nothing but water as far as the eye could see. They floated for days, and before long they had eaten all their food and drunk all their water. When they were near starvation, however, the Ancient One remembered them and ordered the water to go down. The waters of the earth went back into their natural streams, lakes, and oceans. But many of the world's fish did not make it, and the ground was covered with dead fish. The man picked up some fish and ate them. Then he decided that he would build a fire to cook them. But the Ancient One came to him and said, "Do not build a fire." When the Ancient One left, the woman and children began to cry and wail for a fire to cook the fish, so the man disobeyed his god. When the Ancient One smelled the smoke and the delicious odor of cooked fish, he came to the family in an ugly mood for he would not tolerate being disobeyed. He changed the man and his wife into stupid monkeys who sat all day and chattered about nothing. He changed the children into buzzards that ate nothing but dead meat. Then he created new and better people. |