The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-07-13
One Of the Strange Legends
Of the Yuma Indians.
CAUSE OF GREAT STORM.
The Tipping Up of the Earth Caused the
Deluge Which developed the World
The Mysterious Ark and the Es-
cape of the Chosen Few.

/ To this day the great deluge recorded
in the Bible is mystery to the North
! American Indian. He will not be led
I to believe that the food was brought
about by the sins OF man. He is
4 equally unwilling to believe that 1t was
the work of an angry God, as he could
not see how the Almighty should be so
unjust as to punish the Indians Of
America for the naughty things of a
race OF people across the ocean. An
other reason which makes it still more
difficult for the Indian to believe that
the food was punishment to the
world Is the fact that with him there
Is no sin. In his language there is no
such word, nor does he expect to be
punished for any of his acts.
But though there is no equivalent to
the word sin In the Indian language
(nor in the Indian mind until the
Christians came), the Indians have
their philosophy in regard to what is
teachers (most of whom claimed to
have been taught the philosophy Of
life and its laws directly by dlsem-
bodied spirits or by ethereal beings
from other planets taught that as
man lives here so is his life hereafter.
II he is quarrelsome or warlike here,
so he will be In the more spiritual life.
If he is serene and contented here, so
he will be there, etc.
The deluge, as described by the few
who were miraculously saved, was the
more grandly terrible In that 1t came
on suddenly. From the highlands oc-
cupied by the Indians they saw the
waves of the sea sweep in upon the
land and recede, only to advance with
Immensely increased volume and stu
pendously huge breakers. Then there
came a terrific storm that seemed to
blow from all and in all directions.
The storm caused huge waterspouts
which appeared over the wild ocean
as far as the eye could see. The terri
fed people fed to the mountains, but
these were all soon to be submerged,
with the exception Of one. This noun
tain which alone remained uncovered
by the food is called Avee-heilah
(Mountain Of the Noon, yet today it is
not very high mountain.
For awhile before the mountains be-
came submerged there was a great
calm, and dense fog covered the
earth. Then suddenly mighty boat
appeared to the awed view of the In
dams. 1t approached and stopped at
the several mountains still uncovered
by the waters, and at each point where
1t touched, as if guided by Invisible In
telligence, the Indians, as if obeying
an unspoken but potent command, en-
tered the boat.
The boat rested first at place called
Avee-qua-lul mountain peak, now Pi-
lot Knob, on the border OF Mexico.
There was a mesa on the top Of this
though at this day It does
not exist. and on this mesa the Indians
first celebrated their delivery. This
they did by playing sacred games.
sacred songs, etc. On rocks
at the foot of this peak there are hero
glyphics in an unknown language,
which some of the Indians believe were
made by these who survived the feed
Petrifed driftwood is stiIl TO be seen
two-thirds the distance up the sides Of
Avee- heilah. which drift. the Indians
say, was deposited by the waves Of the
great flood
The. Indians, having rested fer a time