The god Michabo was hunting with his pack of trained wolves one day when he saw the strangest sight-the wolves entered a lake and disappeared.  He followed them into the water to fetch them and as he did so, the entire world flooded.

Michabo then sent forth a raven to find some soil with which to make a new earth, but the bird returned unsuccessful in its quest.  Then Michabo sent an otter to do the same thing, but again to no avail.

Finally he sent the muskrat and she brought him back enough earth to begin the reconstruction of the world.

The trees had lost their branches in the flood, so Michabo shot magic arrows at them that immediately became new branches covered with leaves.

Then Michabo married the muskrat and they became the parents of the human race.
 

As people grew in numbers, they became selfish and greedy.  As the situation on Earth became worse, the Earth Maker decided to drown all evil ones from the face of the Earth, but not without warning.  He asked all to listen to the voice of the north wind as it called to them to be honest and live in peace.  Few listened to the north wind.  The next night another warning echoed from a distant thunderstorm to the east.  When the prophet Suhu spoke, he was called a fool, and the people continued to ignore the warning of the wind.  On the third night, the wind came from the west.  They were cautioned again to listen to the voice of the prophet Suhu.  On the fourth night, the wind came from the south, and only Suhu heard its mournful cry.  "Suhu," said Earth Maker, "Take your people who are good to the summit of Kakatak Tamai, for all the land will soon be covered with water, and all the evil will perish."  The prophet Suhu gathered the good from all corners of the land and led them to the top of Crooked Top Mountain.  Then the roar of thunder and lightning enveloped the land.  From the east the rains came, and for two moons it fell.  All of the land except Crooked Top Mountain was covered with water.  The Earth Maker spoke once again from the thunder clouds atop Kakatak Tamai.  "All good people will return to the desert valley to till the fertile soil, and all evil ones will be turned to stone," he said.  And so it was.  The stone people are clearly visible in the mountains, giant rock structures imploring the gods for release from their fate.  And the white stratum line which appears near the top is the high water mark from the flood.
 

The Andaman Islanders talk of their Supreme Being, Puluga, who lives in the sky.  It was Puluga who created the world and man.  However, when man began to forget his creator, Puluga became annoyed and sent a flood which covered the whole earth and wiped out the race.  Four people escaped and so Puluga had mercy on them.
 

In the Huarochiri area of Peru, the Quechua-speaking people have a myth of a deluge caused by a god whose presence was not recognized by the people.  He sent a flood which wiped all of the villages away except for one woman who had befriended the god and was given instructions to take refuge on a high mountain.
 

The Miao and Yao people of the Guizhou province of South China relate the story of Fu Xi and his sister Nu Gua (meaning melon).  They befriended the thunder god who gave them a gourd seed.  As the deluge began, the two survived inside the gourd, the only two survivors.  They later married and bore a ball of flesh which they sliced into several pieces.  The wind carried the pieces all over the globe to reestablish humanity everywhere.
 

A sea god, angered because a fisherman had lowered hooks which got entangled in his hair, caused a flood which covered all but the tops of the mountains.
 

In a battle between Fire and Water (offspring of the primeval octopus), everything was overwhelmed by a "boundless sea," and the god Tangaloa had the task of re-creating the world.
 

The people became so numerous that they ate all the fish and game and started to eat each other.  They were so wicked that Dokibatl, the Changer, flooded the earth.  All living things were destroyed except one woman and one dog, which survived atop Tacobud (Mt. Rainier).  From them the next race of people were born.  They lived like animals until the Changer sent a Spirit to teach them civilization.
 

Chameleon heard a strange noise, like water running, in a tree, but at that time there was no water in the world.  He cut open the trunk, and water came out in a great flood that spread all over the earth.  The first human couple emerged with the water.
 

The sun once met the moon and threw mud at it, making it dimmer.  There was a flood when this happened.  Men put their milk stick behind them and were turned into monkeys.  The present race of men is a recent creation.
 

A god, Ifa, tired of living on earth and went to dwell in the firmament with Obatala.  Without his assistance, mankind couldn't interpret the desires of the gods, and one god, Olokun, in a fit of rage, destroyed nearly everybody in a great flood.
 

A charitable man gave away everything he had to the animals.  His family deserted him, but when he gave his last meal to the (unrecognized) god Ouende, Ouende rewarded him with three handfuls of flour which renewed itself and produced even greater riches.  Then Ouende advised him to leave the area, and sent six months of rain to destroy his selfish neighbors.  The descendants of the rich man became the present human race.
 

Some men of Kampong Tudu, looking for wood for a fence, came upon what seemed to be a great tree trunk lying on the ground.  They began to cut it, but blood came from the cuts, and, following it to one end, they found it was a giant snake.  They staked it to the ground, killed it, and skinned it.  They went home, feasted on its flesh, and made a great drum from the skin, but the drum produced no sound.  In the middle of the night, the drum began sounding "Duk Duk Kagu" on its own.  Then a great hurricane came and swept away all the houses, with the people in them.  Some were carried out to sea; others settled in various places and gave rise to present villages.
 

Crow got into an argument with two other men because he accidentally let green ants contaminate their fish.  They took back their fish, and Crow took back the goose eggs he had brought.  They fought.  Crow defeated them and left saying they'd fight again.  Crow went to his mother's tribe.  When the other two men appeared, the tribe put on a ceremony rather than quarrelling more.  When everyone else had fallen asleep, Crow climbed a tree and chopped off a branch, which fell and killed the two men.  Then he poured out a bag of honey which came down so heavily it flooded the area.  All the people turned into birds.
 

Long ago, there were a great many different tribes, and they quarrelled and made war on each other.  The worship of Tane, the creator, was being neglected and his doctrines denied.  Two prophets, Para-whenua-mea and Tupu-nui-a-uta, taught the true doctrine about the separation of heaven and earth, but others just mocked them, and they became angry.  So they built a large raft at the source of the Tohinga River, built a house on it, and provisioned it with fern-root, sweet potatoes, and dogs.  Then they prayed for abundant rain to convince men of the power of Tane.  Two men named Tiu and Reti, a woman named Wai-puna-hau, and other women also boarded the raft.  Tiu was the priest on the raft, and he recited the prayers and incantations for rain.  It rained hard for four or five days, until Tiu prayed for the rain to stop.  But though the rain stopped, the waters still rose and bore the raft down the Tohinga river and onto the sea.  In the eighth month, the waters began to thin; Tiu knew this by the signs of his staff.  At last they landed at Hawaiki.  The earth had been much changed by the flood, and the people on the raft were the only survivors.  They worshipped Tane, Rangi (Heaven), Rehua, and all the gods, each at a separate altar.  After making fire by friction, they made thanks-offerings of seaweed for their rescue.  Today, only the chief priest may go to those holy spots.
 

The world was flooded, and one man and one woman survived on a raft on which they collected all kinds of animals and birds.  The man sent a beaver (or, some say, a muskrat) diving to the bottom, and it brought up a little mud.  The man shaped this to form a new world.  It was at first so small that a little bird could walk around it, but it grew and grew.
 

Story 1: The flood was sent by the god Laxha, who had become annoyed by the noise of boys at play.

Story 2: All people except for a few were destroyed by a flood, which was sent by heaven to punish man's ill behavior.  Later, people were devastated by fire.  The earth had no mountains or trees before the flood.  Leqa created them after the deluge.

Story 3: Long ago the waters swelled.  A few people escaped to the tops of high mountains, but more were saved in their canoes.  They were scattered and, when the waters went down, they landed and settled in various spots.  Thus Indians are spread all over the country, but their common songs and customs show that they are one people.
 

The Great Spirit, angry with the wickedness of people and animals, decided to rid the earth of all but the good animals, one good man, and his family.  At the Great Spirit's direction, the man shot an arrow into a cloud, then another arrow into that arrow, and so on, making a rope of arrows from the cloud to the ground.  The good animals and people climbed up.  Bad animals and snakes started to climb up, but the man broke off the rope.  Then the Great Spirit caused many days of rain, flooding up to the snow line of Takhoma (Mount Rainier).  After all the bad people and animals were drowned, the Great Spirit stopped the rain, the waters slowly dropped, and the good people and animals climbed down.  To this day there are no snakes on Takhoma.
 

The Creator made the earth and gave four names for it -- for the sun, waters, soil and forests.  He said only a few people, with special preparation for the knowledge, should know all four names, or the world would change too suddenly.  After a while, everyone learned the four names.  When people started talking to the trees the change came in the form of a flood.  When the people saw the flood coming, they made a giant canoe and filled it with five people and a male and female of all plants and animals.  Water covered everything but the summit of Kobah and Takobah (Mts. Baker and Rainier).  The canoe landed on the prairie.  Doquebuth, the new Creator, was born of a couple from the canoe.  He was told to go to a lake (Lake Campbell) and swim and fast to get his spirit powers, but he delayed.  Finally he did so after his family deserted him.  The Old Creator came to him in dreams.  First he told Doquebuth to wave his blanket over the water and the forest and name the four names of the earth; this created food for everyone.  Next, at the direction of the Old Creator, he gathered the bones of the people who lived before the flood, waved the blanket over them and named the four names, and made people again.  These people couldn't talk, so he similarly made brains for them from the soil.  Then they spoke many different languages, and Doquebuth blew them back to the places they lived before the flood.  Someday, another flood will come and change the world again.
 

People came into existence and dwelt a long, long time.  Then one of them dreamed of a whirlwind, and the others said he had dreamed something bad.  After that it blew, and the wind increased.  The world was going bad.  At noon they all went into an earth lodge.  It blew terribly.  Trees fell down westward.  The one who had dreamed stayed outside and told the others it was raining, the water was coming, the earth will be destroyed.  All the other houses were blown away.  He came into the earth lodge and leaned against the pole.  At last the pole came loose too.  The one who dreamed was the last destroyed of all the people.  The world was destroyed and water alone was left.  After some time, Olelbes (He-Who-Is-Above) looked down all around and finally saw something barely visible in the north in the middle of the water.  It swam around a little.  It was lamprey eel, the first to come into existence, and it lay on the bedrock.  On the rocks lay a little mud.  No one knows how long the waters sat there.  At last it receded to the south, turning into numerous creeks.  A little earth came into being, and it turned into all kinds of trees.
 

Story 1: A fight between the great forces of Good and Evil was followed by an immense flood.  It wiped out all traces of the previous world and covered all the earth except two islands.  Coyote, the only living thing in the world, stood on one of the islands (Mount Diablo or Pico Blanco).  One day, he saw a feather floating on the water.  It turned into Eagle as it reached the island.  Later, they were joined by Hummingbird.  This trio created a new race of people.  Eagle told Coyote how to find a wife but did not tell him how to make children.  Coyote told the girl to louse him and to swallow the woodtick she found.  She became pregnant from this.  Afraid, she ran away to the ocean and turned into a sand flea.  Coyote found another wife and with her went out over the world, founding five tribes with five different languages.

Story 2: Coyote dreamed that water would soon cover the world, but nobody believed him.  It rained, and the water started rising.  The people climbed trees because there were no mountains to escape to.  Coyote and a number of people escaped on a log.  With the help of Mole, Coyote created mountains; then he created people for the new world.

Story 3: Everyone but Gopher was killed in a flood.  He climbed to the top of Mt. Kanaktai, and just as the water was about to wash him off, it receded.  He had no fire, so he dug into the mountain until he found fire inside, thus bringing fire again to the world.
 

A great flood covered the earth and drowned every living creature except the coyote.  He collected tail-feathers of owls, hawks, eagles, and buzzards and traveled with them all over the earth.  Wherever a wigwam had stood before the flood, he planted a feather.  The feathers sprouted and flourished, turning into men and women.  Thus coyote repopulated the world.
 

The sky fell and hit the water, causing high breakers that flooded all the land.  That is why one can find shells and redwood logs on the highest ridges.  Two women and two men jumped into a boat when they saw the water coming, and they were the only people saved.  Sky-Owner gave them a song, and many days later the water fell when they sang it.  Sky-Owner sent a rainbow to tell them the water would never cover the world again.
 

The first people on the earth were giants, very big and strong.  They did not believe in the creator Ti-ra-wa.  They thought nothing could overcome them.  They grew increasingly worse.  At last Ti-ra-wa grew angry and raised the water to the level of the land so that the ground became soft.  The giants sank into the mud and drowned.  Their bones can still be found today.  Ti-ra-wa then created a man and woman, like people of today, and gave them corn.  The Pawnees are descended from them.
 

Wissaketchak was an old magician.  A certain sea monster hated him and, when the old man was paddling his canoe, the monster lashed the sea with its tail, causing waves that flooded the land.  Wissaketchak, though, built a great raft and gathered on it pairs of all animals and birds.  The sea monster continued its exertions, and the water continued to rise, until even the highest mountain was covered.  Wissaketchak sent a duck to dive for earth, but the duck could not reach the bottom and drowned.  He then sent the muskrat, which, after a long time, returned with its throat full of slime.  Wissaketchak moulded this slime into a disk and floated it on the water; it resembled a nest such as muskrats make on ice.  The disk swelled, and Wissaketchak made it grow more by blowing on it.  As it grew and hardened, he sent the animals onto it.  It became the land we now inhabit.
 

When the earth was first made, all was under water.  The Creator sent Crawfish to bring up a little earth.  The mud he brought up spread out, and dry earth appeared.
 

People came who hunted for sport, burned and cleared forests, and didn't think of the animals as their brothers.  The Great Spirit was sad and let the people's smoke from their fires lie in the valleys.  The people coughed and choked but continued their evil ways.  The Great Spirit sent rains to extinguish the fires and destroy the people.  The people moved to the hills as the waters rose.  Spotted Bear, the medicine man, said they would be safe as long as they had buffalo, but there were no buffalo around.  The young men went hunting for buffalo, revising their treatment of nature as they went.  The waters rose, and people climbed to the mountains.  Finally, two men came back with the hide of a white bull buffalo which had tried to climb to the mountains but had drowned in the floodwaters, though a cow and young buffalo survived.  Spotted Bear announced that, since the people were no longer destroying the world, that buffalo would save those who were left.  With help from other medicine men, he scraped and stretched the hide, stretching it over the whole village.  Each day the wet hide stretched farther, until it covered all of Yellowstone Valley.  Rain no longer fell in the valley, and people and animals moved back there.  The hide began to sag, but Spotted Bear raised the west end to catch the West Wind, which made the skin a dome over the valley.  The Great Spirit, seeing that people were living at peace with the earth, stopped the rain.  The sun shone on the hide, shrinking it until all that was left was a rainbow arch.