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The American Society for Ethnohistory

The Earth-Diver (Th. A 812)Author(s): Elli Kaija KöngäsReviewed work(s):Source: Ethnohistory, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Spring, 1960), pp. 151-180Published by: Duke University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/480754 .

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THE EARTH-DIVER (Th. A 812)

Elli Kaija K6ngas

Indiana University

Earth-Diver, Th. A 812, has been referred to as "the most

widely distributed of all North American Indian myths." 1 The

distribution of this myth extends far beyond North America,however. As the German folklorist Will-Erich Peuckert ob-

serves, Earth-Diver occurs not only in native North America

and in part of native South America, but also in the Pacific Is-

lands, Australia, and in eastern Europe. Its most westerly

distribution in Europe, Peuckert points out, is among certain

groups in East Prussia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia,

and Slovakia; there are also numerous Finnish variants.2

This wide distribution of Earth-Diver has often been dis-

cussed. Later in this paper some interpretations of the myth's

dissemination will be briefly reviewed. Earlier scholars were

inclined to treat versions from different culture areas as par-

allelisms. Yet the versions show striking similarities both in

essential and secondary traits. The essence of the myth seems

always the same, notwithstanding geographical and cultural

distances; even small details correspond in different areas,

and the distribution, although wide, is continuous. Observa-

tions like these make the investigator doubt the probability

of parallelism.

Various problems arise from the study of Earth-Diver:

problems relating to its origin and diffusion, to the noticeable

influence of "book religions" in some of its subtypes, to the

'function" of the myth and its connection with rites. Such

151



152 Ethnohistory

topics as these, however, will not be treated herein; I will

only try to point out the traits of the myth, briefly review

the long discussion about it, and offer a possible explanation

of the primary development of Earth-Diver.

Earth-Diver in North America

The Traits of the Myth. The essence of the Earth-Diver

myth in North America has been described thus:

In North American Indian myths of the originof the world, the culture hero has a succession of

animals dive into the primeval waters, or flood of

waters, to secure bits of mud or sand from which

the earth is to be formed. Various animals, birds,and aquatic creatures are sent down into the waters

that cover the earth. One after another animal

fails; the last one succeeds, however, and floats

to the surface, half dead, with a little sand or dirt

in his claws. Sometimes it is Muskrat, sometimes

Beaver, Hell-diver, Crawfish, Mink who succeeds,after various other animals have failed, in bring-

ing up the tiny bit of mud which is then put on the

surface of the water and magically expands to be-

come the world of the present time. 3

Some variants will be given in extenso to illustrate how

the myth is told. In a Shoshone Indian variant the story goes:

The whole earth was covered with water.Onlyon a high mountain there was a dry spot. Our

Father sent the Crow to get earth in order to make

land. Then the Crow came back stinking. 'You

are crazy,' said the Father; 'you have eaten the

drowned people. Now, go back, and go around

homeless. You will eat whatever any one has

killed. Go, now! You will be black.' Then he

said to the small birds, 'Come, I will now hear

which one of you has a good heart and good sense.'

He found that the Chickadee was the only one that

had any sense and was good-hearted. Then hebade it bring earth. It brought it. Our Father

made the earth out of it. 'It will be small,' he

said, 'for little hands brought it. You will have



154 Ethnohi story

egg (Th. A 641). An interesting detail is the notion that the

birds became weary of solitude; this is a basic situation in

various creation myths. 8

Primeval water is a feature of both the Shoshone and

Yokuts variants above. It also appears in a Cheyenne var-

iant telling how a person floated on water which covered the

whole earth. Water birds - swans, geese, ducks, and

other birds that swim - already existed and were all about

the person. He called to some of these birds and asked

them to look for some earth. The birds said that they would

dive and see if they could find earth at the bottom of the

water. Larger birds dived and came up without anything

for they could not reach the bottom, but there was one small

duck that returned with some mud in its bill. This duck

swam to the man and put the mud in his hand. The man

took the wet earth and worked it with his fingers until it

was dry. They he sprinkled it over the water - made

little piles of it on the water - and it formed land and

grew and spread until as far as he could see all was solid

land. Thus the dry land - the earth - was created.9

Coyote as creator and primeval water appear in the

following Crow variant:

The earth was all covered with water. Old-Man Coyote alone was going around on the water.Then a little coyote met him. 'I am alone, I am

looking for a companion, I'll meet one,' he said.Then they met. There was no living thing then.

They went around together. 'We are alone, it is

bad; let us make the earth.' 'All right, how shallwe make it?' After some time ducks came flying.'You dear younger brothers, dive here,' he said.

'How shall we do it?' 'Dive into the water, bringearth, we'll make the world,' he said. Theybrought some. 'Is there any?' 'Yes.' 'Go, bringsome.' Four times they brought some, he took itand made the earth ... 10



Earth-Diver 155

Instead of primeval water we have the deluge in a

Sarcee Indian variant:

Once on a time two young men from abovevisited the people of the earth. Two sisters,

daughters of a chief, fell in love with the youngmen and wanted to marry them, but the people de-

sired that the sisters marry two bright stars above,which they refused to do; so the two young men

were murdered by the people, which vexed the

Creator, and to punish the people of the earth he

caused the water to rise and to drown all of them,save one old man, who saved himself by buildinga raft, on which he gathered all the animals and

birds.

After many days, when the water had risen

very high, the old man became lonesome and wanted

to see land again, so he sent various diving animalsdown in the water to bring up some earth from the

bottom, but as each rose to the surface the old

man saw that they were drowned. He examined

the paws of each to see if they had any earth, but

he found none until he came to the last animal that

had been sent down. This was a muskrat, in whose

paws was some earth which the old man took andrubbed between his hands, then blew up to increaseits size; and after it had increased to such an ex-tent that when the ringed-neck plover was sentaround it and returned old and tired, and did notwish to be sent again, the old man was satisfiedwith the size of the world; so he then began to

make rivers, to plant trees, and to distribute theanimals he had saved. 1

The deluge motif here seems Biblical: a raft is built,

and animals are gathered to be saved.

The diving animals are drowned or almost die when

they return to the surface of the water, in many North

American Indian variants. The measuring of the grown

earth appears in the deluge story of the Bible. However,

it could be an independently-invented trait; e. g., the Cree-

Ojibwa tell about the measuring of the new earth by a wolf. 12



156 Ethnohistory

The myth necessarily always begins with the water. It

is hard to tell which is more common, primeval water or

the deluge, 13 but there is good reason to suppose that pri-

meval water is the original trait. 14 The beings who exist

are sometimes only animals. 15 Manibozho, 16(var., Nani-

bozhu,17 Wa'n-lbozhil 8) is the culture hero in many Algon-

quian versions of the myth; it is he who organizes the div-

ing for earth. 19 Other named beings occur in other versions;

for example, Siina'wavi in Shoshonean variants 20 and Wesa-

kaychak in Cree variants. 21 In the variants quoted above,

four different types of locale in which these beings were on

the water occur; a mountain, a tree, a raft, and - partic-

ularly when the first beings are ornithomorphic - merely

the surface of the water. The diver is often Muskrat, alone;

he may dive several times. When a series of divers is

presented, the animals are, e. g., a raven, an otter, and a

muskrat; 22 a kingfisher, a duck, and a turtle;23 swans,

geese, ducks, and other birds that swim. 24 The last of

these series shows how easily the divers can be changed;

the essential point is that the diver must be able to dive.

Wilhelm Schmidt in his monumental work, Der Ursprung der

Gottesidee, emphasizes the importance of the turtle as the

earth-diver: he gives examples from Maidu, 25 Wintun, 26

and Yokuts 27 traditions. He also presents many other Cali-

fornia variants in which the duck successfully dives for

earth. In most of these versions of Earth-Diver the creator

is ornithomorphic: he is the eagle or the hawk. 28 This is

extremely interesting, for in several Asian, and even Euro-

pean, e. g., Finnish variants, there is only one earth-diver,

a duck, and the creator also appears in the form of a bird.

Could some of the California versions represent the oldest

American variants ?



Earth-Diver 157

The number of animal-divers, and the number of times

one or several of them may dive varies, but it is always the

last attempt that is the successful one. Even though the last

animal dies while diving, a handful of earth is taken from

its feet, 29 or a little sand is found under its fingernails.30

The earth or sand is placed on a raft, increases in size,

and becomes a new earth. 31 In Wyandot versions the earth

may be rubbed on the edges of the Big Turtle's shell; "And

from this small amount soon there was the Great Island

upon the Big Turtle's back." 3 Some variants tell that a

ball is made from the mud by the creator; then he blows

upon it, 'whereupon it seemed to grow rapidly.'33 In a

Carrier myth the earth is kneaded together to form an

island and finally the world as it is today.34

Here, again,

we have a trait which also appears in East European vari-

ants. 3

The Distribution of the Myth. It is more illuminating

to mention those areas in North America in which Earth-

Diver does not appear, than to list those in which it does.

As the American anthropologist Earl W. Count states, the

myth 'covers most of North America, excepting the Eskimo,

the Northwest Pacific coast, the Southwest and most of theSoutheast [areas]." 36 It is told "from California through

the Great Basin, Plains, and Eastern Woodlands to the

Atlantic Coast." 37 Of all the North American areas in

which Earth-Diver appears, the California one is the most

interesting: here more examples have been recorded than

elsewhere in North America, and often the variants are

rather similar to the Eurasiatic ones. Probably there is

no definite split between the two continents. Count has

recently stressed this point. He writes:



158 Ethnohistory

North American mythology cannot ever be under-

stood in terms confined to this continent alone, be-

cause much of it is a part of a larger area which

includes so much of Eurasia; and the cultural tide

has been prevailingly from west to east - Eurasia

the donor, North America the recipient. 38

Count also comments that most American scholars have been

unaware that Earth-Diver occurs elsewhere than on the North

American continent, and that European scholars also have

overlooked its total distribution.

39

This is partly true, butthe history of Earth-Diver studies shows how the Eurasiatic-

American problem occasionally emerges.

Earth-Diver in Eurasia

The Traits of the Myth. In the Eurasian area many

traits of the Earth-Diver myth show a striking similarity

to North American traits. The following Yenisei Ostyak

variant resembles the Cheyenne variant previously noted:

In the beginning, water flowed everywhere, and Doh,

the great shaman, was gliding above the waters, accom-

panied by swans, red-throated divers, loons, and other

water birds. When he could find no place to rest, he asked

the red-throated diver to dive into the water and bring a

bit of earth from the bottom of the sea. The bird tried

twice, but only on the third attempt did he succeed in bring-

ing up any earth. From the earth the red-throated diver

brought up under his bill, Doh made an island in the sea.40

This Yenesei Ostyak variant, which opens with many

water birds accompanying the culture hero, begins like

several North American variants. Such an opening, how-

ever, is not usual in Eurasia, where only one bird, a div-

ing bird,41 a duck,42 a swan,43 or a swallow44 appears,

and is said to be the devil in disguise.45 Of course, the



Earth-Diver 159

group of birds may not be an original trait, although it ap-

pears on two continents. Nevertheless comparison of the

American and Eurasiatic traditions shows that one water

bird, at least, was original in the myth.

Both the creator and his helper appear in ornithomor-

phic form in the following Yezids variant, which details the

creation of a reflection-helper.

In the beginning the world was an ocean, in the midst of

which was a tree created by divine power. God lived in this

tree in the form of a bird, for many centuries.

After that, the Lord created from his own reflection the

Archangel Gabriel, also in the form of a bird, and placed

him beside himself on the tree. After a little while he

asked him, "Who are you and who am I ?" Gabriel answered,

"You are you, and I am I." With this proud answer the arch-

angel wished God to understand that each of them had a

special importance and that he, Gabriel, could consider

himself the peer of his creator. When the Lord heard Gab-

riel's answer he became angry and pecked the archangel

and drove him from the tree. 46

The two birds and the tree in the midst of the ocean are

traits which also appear in the California Yokuts version of

the myth. The Yokuts tell that these birds became weary

of solitude; in the Yezids variant, something of the same

atmosphere can be found, e. g., "for many centuries...."

In a Russian version the two birds are a white and a

black duck; the black duck which is the devil, brings earth,

and the white duck then forms the earth. 47 The variant is

interesting not only because there are two birds, but be-

cause these birds are described in color terms: in the be-

ginning, there were the "black and white" elements of the

world. All the East European and Northern Asian variants



160 Ethnohistory

show this strong and seemingly Christian dualism. The

name of the earth diver is Satan, or Satanail, even when he

appears as a bird. Mikhailo Dragomanov, Ukrainian

academician who wrote a distinguished study of dualistic

creation myths, gives interesting variants which represent

the early ornithomorphic persons as Christianized; these

tales are transcripts of an apocryphal text titled, 'About

the Tiberian Sea."

In the beginning, according to this text, there was no

heaven or earth, but only a Tiberian sea with no shores to

it in which the Lord and a goldeneye were swimming. The

goldeneye was Satanail, and the text tells how the Lord

asked him,

"Who are you?"

"I am (a) God."

"And who am I ?

"Thou art God of God(s)."

God said again: "Whence art you ?"

The bird answered, 'Ego ex infimis."

And the Lord said, 'And whence am I?"

The bird answered, 'De superis."

And the Lord said, 'Da mihi ex infimis."

And the bird dived into the sea .... 48

In this text the dualism does not appear very distinctly,

but it is emphasized in numerous variants. These latter

tell how the devil saved a bit of earth in his mouth; when

God expanded the earth, the stolen bit grew in the mouth

of the devil and, as he spat it out, mountains formed.49

The devil not only helped God, but also spoiled his creation.

A Finnish variant, typically enough, describes how the

devil caused the uneven formations on the earth, spitting

his mouthful of earth toward the significant direction of north.



Earth-Diver 161

In the beginning when the earth did not exist,God was on a

golden pillarin the middle of the sea.

As he saw his image there, he said, 'Arise what-

ever you are!' He arose, and it was the devil.Then God asked: 'How could the earth come into

being?' The devil said, 'It will come, if one dives

for earth into the bottom of the sea, three times.'God asked him to dive, and the devil did so, but

on the third time, stole a little earth and hid it in

his mouth. Then, God moulded that bit of earth

with his hands, and the earth grew. And the earthin the mouth of the devil grew, and, at the same

time, his pain grew. He came to tell God that hestole earth, and it caused pain. Well, God then

took the earth from the mouth of the devil, and

threw it to the North; it became stones and rocks. 50

The following Bulgarian variant represents the Christian-

ized type of the myth rather well.

At first there was no earth and people. Every-where was water. There were only the Lord and

the devil, who at that time lived together.

Once the Lord said to the devil:

' Let us make the earth and people.'

'Let us do so,' answered the devil, 'but where

shall we get dirt?'

'There is dirt under the water,' said the Lord.

'Go down and get some.'

'All right,' answered the devil.'But before you go down,' said the Lord to the

devil, 'Say: With God's power and mine ! Then youwill reach the bottom and find dirt.'

The devil went down, but he did not say first,'With God's power and mine!' but: 'With my pow-er and God's power.' Therefore he did not reach bot-

tom. The second time he did the same and again he

did not reach bottom. Finally the third time he said,'With God's power and mine !' And then he reached

bottom and with his nails he grasped a little dirt.

That dirt the Lord put on the water and it be-

came a little earth.



162 Ethnohistory

When the devil saw that, he thought up this

pieceof deceit: he

proposedthat

they sleep; then,when the Lord had fallen asleep, he would push him

into the water, and thus he (the devil) would be left

alone, and he could take credit for having made the

earth. The Lord knew this, but he lay down and

pretended to sleep. Then the devil gets up, takes

the Lord in his hands, and starts for the water, to

throw him in. He walks towards the water, but theearth grows. As he did not reach the water, he

turned in the other direction, but again he did notreach the water. Then he turned in the third direc-

tion and when he again did not reach the water, he

put the Lord down and lay down also. When he had

slept a bit, it occurred to him that there was stilla fourth direction. He picked up the Lord and car-ried him toward the water, but still he could notreach it.

Then the devil rouses the Lord, 'Get up, Lord,let us bless the earth! Look how it has grown whilewe were sleeping!'

'When you were carrying me in all four direc-tions, to throw me into the water, and made a crosswith me, I blessed the earth,' said the Lord.

The devil got mad at this, left the Lord andran away from him. 51

To summarize briefly, the Earth-Diver of Eurasia is

rather Christianized: God and the devil tend to be substi-

tuted for the two animals, or, more often, for the culture

hero-creator and his helper-animal. This, of course,

changes the whole atmosphere of the myth: quarrels between

God and the devil take place; all kinds of harm is done by

the devil, who wants to have a portion of the earth, or credit

for having created it. In this connection, it may be said

that an entire East-European and Asiatic myth cycle involv-

ing the creation of certain members of the animal kingdom,

develops from the Eurasiatic version of Earth-Diver. S2

The Distribution of the Myth. The area of dissemina-

tion of Earth-Diver in Eurasia is, again, a very wide one:



164 Ethnohistory

the primary appearance of the bird-divers, and the effects

of the 'heightening" influence of book-religions.

Discussion

Alexander Veselovski, a Russian scholar who wrote

two studies of the dualistic myths, was aware of Earth-

Diver's American variants, although his main concern was

with the distribution and origin of Eurasiatic versions. 55

He shared the opinion of the Finnish folklorist Julius Krohn

that the base of these stories had been elaborated by the

Finno-Magyar or Ural-Altaic tribes;56 he also admitted

that Gnosticism had influenced "these Finnic legends" as

they traveled toward the Slavs. He saw some similarity

between North American Indian and Slavic legends, but was

not inclined to see any primary connection between them. 57

Following Veselovski, Dragomanov definitely stated: 'these

traditions must be placed in the category of completely in-

dependent tales." 58

Dragomanov had a thorough knowledge of the medieval

Gnostic sects. We can say that he proved the thesis that

the 'Christian" character of the tales is due to the influence

of these sects, which, in their turn, were modified by Irano-

Chaldean religions. 59 His thesis was then accepted by

Oskar Dihnhardt, who compiled an outstanding collection of

the variants. 60 We must here stress the point that the in-

fluence of the book religions is a secondary development

and has nothing to do with the original myth, however obvious

such influence is in the late recordings.

The American anthropologist Robert H. Lowie was con-

cerned with the probable genetic connection of the North

American and Eurasian variants and noted that if they really

were variants of the same myth, the distribution of this



Earth- Diver 165

myth would be enormous. He treated Earth-Diver as part

of the deluge story. 61

Walter Anderson, the Estonian folklorist, showed that

the deluge was secondary and primeval water original. 62

Uno Harva, who thoroughly discussed a great number of the

variants, saw the connection between the American and

Eurasian myths, but doubted the dualistic character of the

latter; he posed the question whether it could be possible

that the medieval Bogomil creation story had traveled so

far. Independently, Harva suggested that the devil was a

late substitution for the original bird. 63

In the 1920's and 1930's several studies relating to

Earth-Diver were published. The American anthropologist

Gladys Reichard summarized the North American Indian

variants of the myth in 1923;64 a doctoral thesis was written

in California; 65 and two European scholars dealt with the

theme from the non-American point of view. 66 Count's

thesis emphasizes the intercontinental connections of the

myths. He was not the first to do so; Schmidt had listed

similar traits in Algonkian and Yurak Samoyed myths.67

One could say that all these scholars attempted to develop

a synthesis of the history and distribution of the myth.

How difficult this task is, is indicated in a statement of

Count's in 1952:

I have assembled from the literature about 230

specimens of the tale. Their scrutiny quicklybroadens into a far greater study, one of a com-

parative mythology as yet scarcely touched. This

study awaits the combined efforts of a host ofscholars who would view the mythological systems

of northern Eurasia and of North America simul-taneously and comprehensively, noting the simi-larities and differences of total pattern, and relatethe mythopoea to the social processes and religiousand political evolution of the peoples of these two



166 Ethnohistory

continents. This study would work from the hypoth-esis that mythology is the cultural philosophy of the

folk, expressed symbolically and pragmatically,and therefore it is an integral part of their culture. 68

The last of these thoughts - that mythology is a cultur-

al philosophy - is highly debatable, but I agree that myths

are an integral part of a culture. I would express the thought

in a slightly different way: studying Earth-Diver we learn

how myths, when they are accepted, become integrated and

modified according to conceptions which already exist, or,

later, according to changes which are introduced by other

religious systems.

Conclusions

The Earth-Diver myth has a world-wide distribution.

It is told in various forms, but it always has four invariable

traits - earth covered with water, the creator, the diver,

and the making of the earth.

Wherever it occurs, the myth has been acculturated;

the creator is God for the Christianized peoples, Manibozho

for the Algonquians, Doh, the great shaman for the Ostyaks.

Such variation holds in regard to all of the traits; to discuss

the variations would be anhistorical-geographical problem.

At present, however, I am concerned with another kind

of problem.

In the Yezids variant, 'the Lord created from his own

reflection the Archangel Gabriel, also in the form of a

bird." In the Finnish variants the Earth-Diver, that is the

devil, has his origin in the reflected image of God on the

water.

69

All over the area of dissemination the earth-diverappears either as an animal, or as having formerly been

an animal: there is, for example, a clear development



Earth-Diver 167

from a bird to bird-Satanail, and finally to Satan, the

devil.

Let us forget the reflection-helper for a while, and

think of the animal as the constant factor. Which animal

then - the muskrat, the turtle, the duck? The duck is

mentioned all over the area where the myth is known.

I would like to suggest an interpretation, which has

not appeared in the many studies of the Earth-Diver myth.

First we have the creator, alone. Then we have the creator

and a bird or some other being who is with him, or whom

he summons to help him when he sees his image in the water.

What does this indicate?

There is an old and wide-spread notion of something

which is with a person even when he is alone. This some-

thing is the soul, or spirit. The soul can take the form of

an animal, mostly the form of a bird; actually the term

"bird soul," Seelenvogel, is the terminus technicus for the

wandering soul in folklore literature. The distribution of

this concept is widespread;70 it is especially prevalent in

the Arctic area where shamanistic practice presupposes

the concept - where the shaman sends his soul away to

fulfil difficult tasks. As the German scholar Ad. E. Jensen

states,

wherever shamanistic practice is found, it is inconnection with this dualistic world-concept, as a

part of the characteristic capacities of the shaman,that his soul is able to leave his body. 71

The bird soul, for example, can move independently of the

owner's body, fulfil tasks which are not possible for the

person himself, wander over seas, and visit the other world.

Could we not think that the helpful animal in the Earth-Diver

is the bird soul of the creator? In shamanistic terms, the



168 Ethnohi story

soul is the helping- spirit. In the Earth-Diver myth the cre-

ator needs earth: he sends his spirit helper to fulfil the dif-

ficult task.

The variations in form of the spirit-helper are numerous:

the diver appears in many shapes, and there are even several

divers in a single variant. This, naturally, is not in accord

with my explanation, but the important point is that there are

variants which do accord with it, and that these variants were

collected in different parts of the whole area of distribution.

We cannot expect that the original meaning of the myth sur-

vived the changes it suffered when traveling from one culture

to another. A myth is a narrative, and the Earth-Diver myth

has had the common history of a narrative, undergoing change

after change.

Scholars have stressed the fact that religious dualism is

not original in the myth. I agree with this, for good reason:

the dualistic 'disguise" is a late development, with roots in

medieval Christian doctrines, as Dragomanov and others

have shown. I suggest another kind of dualism for the inter-

pretation of Earth-Diver: psycho-physical dualism, the con-

cept of the soul being separable from the body.

The notion that the helper was originally the reflection

of the creator on the water is an additional proof of such a

dualism; also the reflected image is a form of the soul. 72

That is why it is believed that a person can lose his soul

looking in a mirror, or into water. Thus, when the first

being on primeval water saw his image and summoned it to

help, he "became aware of himself," as one variant beauti-

fully states.

A very familiar parallel illustrates my interpretation.

We all remember the beginning of the creation story of the

Bible: the spirit of God moved upon the primeval water. I



Earth- Diver 169

do not mean to suggest genetic identity, but I cannot help

seeing a similar notion in the Earth-Diver myth. The helper

of the creator was not the Devil; it was not any occasional

animal, but a very definite kind of animal - "the spirit of

the god," the soul of the creator.

Notes

1.Wheeler-Voegelin, Creation,

vol.1, p.

260.

2. Peuckert, Sch6pfung, vol. 9, p. 279; Haavio, Uber

orientalische Legenden; Folklore Archives of the Finnish

Literature Society (Helsinki).

3. Wheeler-Voegelin, Earth Diver, vol. 1, p. 334.

4. St. Clair and Lowie, Shoshone and Comanche Tales,

vol. 22, p. 273.

5. Count, The Earth Diver and the Rival Twins, pp. 59-60.

6. Dragomanov, Notes, pp. 13-14; Count, The Earth

Diver and the Rival Twins, p. 58; Harva, Altain suvun

uskonto, pp. 62-67.

7. Haavio, Suomalaisen muinaisrunouden maailma,

pp. 244- 245.

8. See Th. A 73, Lonely creator.

9. Grinnell, Some Early Cheyenne Tales, vol. 20,

p. 170.

10. Count, The Earth Diver and the Rival Twins, p. 60.

11. Simrnms, Traditions of the Sarcee Indians, vol. 17,

pp. 180- 181.



170 Ethnohistory

12. Dixon, Mythology of Central and Eastern Algonquians,

vol. 22, p. 7.

13. Reichard, Literary Types, vol. 34, p. 274 presents

about an equal number of each.

14. Anderson, Nordasiatische Flutsagen, pp. 756-757.

15. Jenness, Myths of the Carrier Indians, vol. 48,

p. 143; Gifford, Western Mono Myths, vol. 36, pp. 305-306;

Swindlehurst, Folk-Lore of the Cree Indians, vol. 18, pp. 139ff.

16. Sykes, Dictionary, p. 7.

17. Chamberlain, Nanibozhu, vol. 4, p. 193.

18. Chamberlain, Tales of the Missisaguas, vol. 3,

p. 150.

19. See e. g., Sykes, Dictionary, p. 7.

20. Lowie, Shoshonean Tales, vol. 37, pp. 1-4.

21. Ahenakew, Cree Trickster Tales, vol. 42, p. 326.

22. Sykes, Dictionary, p. 7.

23. Schmidt, Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, vol. 2,pp. 292-293.

24. Grinnell, Some Early Cheyenne Tales, vol. 20,

p. 170.

25. Schmidt, Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, vol. 2,

pp. 109-111, 138-139, 178, 845.

26. Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 249, 258, 845.

27. Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 275-277, 850.



Earth- Diver 171

28. Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 274, 277 (Yokuts); pp. 288-289

(Salinan); p. 312.

29. Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 688-689.

30. Rogers and Gayton, Twenty-seven Chukchansi Yokuts

Myths, vol. 57, p. 192; Gifford, Western Mono Myths,

vol. 36, pp. 305-306.

31. Potts, Creation Myth, vol. 5, p. 73.

32. Connelley, Notes, vol. 12, p. 122.

33. Ahenakew, Cree Trickster Tales, vol. 42, pp. 326-327.

34. Jenness, Myths of the Carrier Indians, vol. 48, p. 43.

35. Cf. Kuusi, Suomalaisen luornistarun jainteiti, p. 63

(Finnish: God kneads the earth from the mud which thedevil had dived for and brought up from the bottom of the

sea.)


37. Wheeler-Voegelin, Creation, vol. 1, p. 260.


39. Ibid., p. 55.

40. K6ngis, Luoja ja vasta-luoja, p. 11.

41. E. g., Russian and Vogul variants: Walk, Die Ver-

breitung des Tauchmotivs, pp. 66, 70.

42. Russian, Mountain Cheremis,Vogul:

Walk, ibid.,

pp. 66-75.

43. Russian and Lebed-Tatar: Walk, ibid., pp. 66, 72.



172 Ethnohistory

44. Yakut: Walk, ibid., p. 72.

45. An essential trait in Eurasia. See among others

Count, The Earth Diver and the Rival Twins, pp. 58-59;

Haavio, TUber orientalische Legenden; Dragomanov, Notes.


47. Walk, Die Verbreitung des Tauchmotivs, pp. 66-67.

48. Dragomanov, Notes, pp. 89-93.

49. Peuckert, Schopfung, p. 280; Dihnhardt, Natursagen,

pt. 1, pp. 1-89; Kuusi, Suomalaisen luomistarun jaanteita,

p. 63; Haavio, IUber orientalische Legenden, pp. 12-13;

Walk, Die Verbreitung des Tauchrnotivs, p. 69.

50. Mustakallio, Ms. No. 72.


52. K6ngas, Luoja ja vasta-luoja, deals with this cycle.

See, initially, Th. A 1750, and Dahnhardt, vol. 1.

53. Peuckert, Sch6pfung, p. 279.

54. Dragomanov, Notes, p. 110.

55. See Harva, Altain suvun uskonto, and Dragomanov,

Notes.

56. Krohn, Suomalaisen kirjallisuuden historia, vol. 1.


58. Ibid., p. 23.

59. Ibid., p. 112.

60. D'ihnhardt, Natursagen, pt. 1, pp. 1-89.



Earth-Diver 173

61. Lowie, Zur Verbreitung der Flutsagen, pp. 615-616.

62. Anderson, Nordasiatische Flutsagen.

63. Harva, Altain suvun uskonto, pp. 73-74.

64. Reichard, Literary Types.

65. Count, The Earth-Diver: An Attempt at an Asiatic-

American Correlation.

66. Walk, Die Verbreitung des Tauchmotivs; Harva,

Altain suvun uskonto; Harva, Siberian Mythology.

67. Schmidt, Der Ursprung der Gottesidee, vol. 3, p. 353.


69. Haavio, Uber orientalischeLegenden,

vol. 2,p.

12;

Suomalaisen muinaisrunouden maailma, pp. 244-245.

70. See, for example, Frazer, The Golden Bough, pt. 2,

pp. 33-36; Haavio, Der Seelenvogel, vol. 8, pp. 61-81.

Haavio gives a rich number of references on pp. 230-232.

71. Jensen, Mythos, p. 301.

72. Frazer, The Golden Bough, pt. 2, pp. 77-100.Hultkrantz, Conceptions of the Soul, pp. 302-316, discusses

the reflection-soul and gives references.

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