LEGENDS OF VANCOUVER

that the muskrat should dive and endeavor to
find earth at the bottom of the sea. Acting
on this advice the muskrat plunged down, then
arose with his two little forepaws grasping
some earth he had found beneath the waters.

“Place it on my shell and dive again for
more,” directed the turtle. The muskrat did
so, but when he returned with his paws filled
with earth he discovered the small quantity
he had first deposited on the turtle's shell had
doubled in size. The return from the third
trip found the turtle’s load again doubled. So
the building went on at double compound in-
crease, and the world grew its continents and
its islands with great rapidity, and now rests
on the shell of a turtle.

If you ask an Iroquois, “And did no men
survive this flood?” he will reply, “Why
should men survive? The animals are wiser
then men; let the wisest live.”

How, then, was the earth re-peopled?

The Iroquois will tell you that the otter
was a medicine man; that in swimming and
diving about he found corpses of men and
women; he sang his medicine songs and they
came to life, and the otter brought them fish
for food until they were strong enough to pro-
vide for themselves. Then the Iroquois will
conclude his tale with, “You know well that
the otter has greater wisdom than a man."

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