The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

IN AMERICA. 205
water; the second by giants; the third by fire, and the
fourth by a tempest of wind, which was succeeded by a
darkness of twenty-five years' duration. The sun which
now enlightens the world they held to be the fifth smd
;
he was the object of their adoration. 53
They spake of
Tonacateuctli, the great father, and Cihuacohuatl, the
great mother of 54
mankind, and her serpent, which was
ultimately crushed by the mighty spirit Teotl ; they
taught that, in the early ages, long before the Incas
began to reign, the sea overflowed its banks, covered
the whole continent with water, and drowned all the
inhabitants except one family who were enclosed in a
box. 55
After a confinement of some length, they sent
the procession, were stationed on the terraces of houses, or the tops
of the teocallis, or the hills that arose in the middle of the lake; their
eyes were fixed on the spot where the flame was to appear, a certain
presage of the benevolence of the gods, and of the preservation of
mankind during the course of a new cycle. Messengers posted at
respective distances, holding branches of the wood of a very resinous
pine, carried the new fire from village to village, to the distance of
fifteen or twenty leagues; it was deposited in every temple, whence it
was distributed to every private dwelling. When the sun began to
appear on the horizon, the acclamations redoubled. The procession
returned to the city, and the people thought that they beheld their
gods return to their sanctuaries. The women were now released from
went on in its
prison ; every one put on new dresses, and everything
usual course." (Humb. Res., vol. i., p. 380.)
53 The Floridans worshipped the sun in a deep cavern, under the
form of a cone or phallus. (Ban. Myth., vol. i., p. 144.)
54 Humb. Res., vol. i., p. 195. Evidently referring to our first parents
in paradise, and the serpent tempter.
55 The cosmogony of the North American savages is thus given by
Hennepin in his voyage to a country larger than "
Europe. The
world was created by a spirit to which the Iroquois have given the
name of Otkon, those of Virginia, Okee, and other savages, who inhabit
the mouth of St. Lawrence's river, Atahauta, and that one Messou
destroyed it after the Flood. They tell us that, as Messou was one
day hunting, his dogs lost themselves in a great lake, which happening
to overflow, soon spread itself over all the earth. They add that, by
the help of some animals, he restored the world. The savages that
inhabit the head of St. Lawrence's river, and the Mississippi, tell us,
that a woman descended from heaven, and hovered some time in the
air, seeking where to rest her foot ; tnat the tortoise offered his back,
which she accepted, and chose that place for her residence; that
afterwards the filth of the sea gathered itself about the tortoise, and
insensibly expanded itself to a great extent of ground. However, as
this woman did not delight in solitude, a spirit descended from above j
who, finding her asleep, drew near to her ; that the result of his approach
was, her being with child that she was delivered of two sons.
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