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to Tezcalipoca, {_Tezcatlipoca--jbh_} given on page 186, _ante_, many
references to some material substances falling from heaven; we read:
"Thine anger and indignation has _descended upon us_ in these days, .
. . coming down even as _stones, spears, and darts upon the wretches
that inhabit_ the earth; this is the pestilence by which we are
afflicted and _almost destroyed_." The children die, "broken and
dashed to pieces _as against stones_ and a wall. . . . Thine anger
and thy indignation does it delight in _hurling the stone and arrow
and spear_. The _grinders of thy teeth_" (the dragon's teeth of
Ovid?) "are employed, and thy bitter whips upon the miserable of
[1. "Cosmos," vol. i, p. 115.
2. Ibid., p. 115.
3. "Frost and Fire," vol. ii, p. 190.]
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thy people.... Hast thou verily determined that it utterly perish; .
. . that the peopled place become a wooded hill and _a wilderness of
stones?_ . . . Is there to be no mercy nor pity for us until the
_arrows of thy fury are spent?_ . . . Thine arrows and _stones have
sorely hurt this poor people_."
In the legend of the Indians of Lake Tahoe (see page 168, _ante_), we
are told that the stars were melted by the great conflagration, and
they rained down molten metal upon the earth.
In the Hindoo legend (see page 171, _ante_) of the great battle
between Rama, the sun-god, and Ravana, the evil one, Rama persuaded
the monkeys to help him build a bridge to the Island of Lanka, "and
_the stones which crop out through Southern India are said to have
been dropped by the monkey builders_."
In the legend of the Tupi Indians (see page 175, _ante_), we are told
that God "swept about the fire in such way that in _some places he
raised mountains and in others dug valleys_."
In the Bible we have distinct references to the fall of matter from
heaven. In Deuteronomy (chap. xxviii), among the consequences which
are to follow disobedience of God's will, we have the following:
"22. The Lord shall smite thee . . . with an extreme burning, and
with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall
pursue thee until thou perish.
"23. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the
earth that is under thee shall be iron.
"24. _The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from.
heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed_. . . .
"29. And thou shalt _grope at noonday_, as the blind gropeth in
darkness."
And even that marvelous event, so much mocked at by modern thought,
the standing-still of the sun, at the
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command of Joshua, may be, after all, a reminiscence of the
catastrophe of the Drift. In the American legends, we read that the
sun stood still, and Ovid tells us that "a day was lost." Who shall
say what circumstances accompanied an event great enough to crack the
globe itself into immense fissures? It is, at least, a curious fact
that in Joshua (chap. x) the standing-still of the sun was
accompanied by a fall of stones from heaven by which multitudes were
slain.
Here is the record
"11. And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were
in the going down to Beth-horon, that _the Lord cast down great
stones from heaven upon them_ unto Azekah, and they died: there were
more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel
slew with the sword."
"13. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people
had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the
book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and
hasted not to go down _about a whole day_.
"14. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the
Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for
Israel."
The "book of Jasher" was, we are told, a very ancient work, long
since lost. Is it not possible that a great, dim memory of a terrible
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