Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-06
H|MALAYA FLOOD
STORY DEC|PHERED
Primitive Photograph Nara
tive Also Resembles Bibli-
cal Account of Eve.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

BY THOMAS r. HENRY.
To an isolated. primitive folk dwell
! ing in high Himalaya valleys sometime
and somehow came the story of a great
flood back in the dawn of time, which
is strikingly similar to the Babylonian
flood story of the Bible.
This story, told in photographs, prob
| ably the most primitive form of writing.
is one of the gems in the Nashi litera-
ture brought out of the mountains TO
the outside world by DR.. Joseph Rock
of the National Geographic Society and
now preserved at the Library of Con-
gresS.
Whether there was any common origin
for the two flood accounts is unknown.
The Nashi photographs. as they have
been translated for the Library Of Con-
ress by DR.. Rock, give the following
account:
God Warned Man of Flood.
"Ndzu laa P'u Ca god said to Tso
DE lug "a mani: There will be a
great flow when all the people will be
drowned and ! advise you to take a
small needle and large thread and
make of yak skins large raftr This
| now came upon the people and all men
persisted. except Tso. Later there was
a rumbling in the earth, which he could
hear as he fioated on the waters and
ne said, The earth must not be far.
There was lightning and thunder. 80 he
| thought the SKY must be clearing
so he opened his yak skin and looked
out. He saw high mountains. where
there were plains and valleys All had
persisted, men and animals, except flies.
The grass had grown tall and he did
not know whether he was looking on his
former land or a strange one AS ne
mad nothing to do, he made bow and
arrow to amuse himself
Then NdZu laa P'u called from
Heaven and said: If you want to buy
a wife buy one who has eyes which a
horizontal, not one with vertical eyes,
One day he saw a girl on a stream bed
washing hemp fiber. He went to her
and they arranged TO marry But as
he spoke to her she vanished, as she
was the daughter of Ndzu.
Daughter Denied as wife.
"One day he saw in the meadow tree
full OF beautiful flowers and he went
to see them. There came flying from
the sky a crane on which the woman
rode to see the flowers. When they met
the man squeezed the cranes wing un-
der his arm, while the woman rode on
the crane, and both few to the home of
Ndzu. After three days NdZu told him:
Now you must return to earth. MY
daughter you cannot take to wife
The day he returned to earth on the
crane 1t rained. He said to the girl.
When the sky is clear come down and
cook my food. If it rains come and make
the bitches for the fields He called her,
making a ladder of knives, to come
down to him, saying he had made q
house. After this the woman came and
later her father came and said: There
are nine mountains in your land Cut
| a ha nd hf1rV aV1I w.
fields, for there are none as yet
Girl Concealed Grain and Cat.
"He did as required Ndzu gave him
grain, and all he required, but not
grain that could be pressed into oil, nor
seeds Of the round turnip. The girl
concealed some, however, under her
flngernails. A cat also, which NdZu
would not give her, she concealed IN
her sleeve. When Ndzu saw that these
things had sprouted he said: 'Whece
did you get them. have not given
them to you And he scolded them,
saying: These turnips, when you cook
them, shall turn to water, and when
you carry them from the fields they
shall be heavy as rocks And this is
the case, even today.
"Of the oil seeds. which gave de-
licious oil, he said: This plant shall be
\ everywhere, for you like it. Today it Is
q most peSt1ferouS weed, and can be
found everywhere. It is a pest. and IL
stinkS. OF the cat, which could catch
rats, he said 1T shall now sit and purr.
and scare all rats away"
Bride Resembles Biblical Eve.
fTso and his heavenly bride, some
what similar to the biblical Eve, the
Nashi regard as the ancestors of their
! race. The story presumably was passed
down by mouth for centuries before 1t
finally was set down in the form of pic
lures to aid the memory of the priests
who recited 1t. But this is not the story
the Nashi tell of their strange litera-
ture. They have a Photograph book,
now in the national library, telling of
| its origin. This has not been trans
lated, but is about bat who new to
Heaven and received all the books from
one Of the gods.