siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

SWANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL AND CEREMONIAL. LIFE 203
destroy the human race ; therefore sent a great prophet to them who proclaimed
from tribe to tribe, and from village to village, the fearful tidings that the
human race was soon to be destroyed. None believed his words, and [they]
lived on in their wickedness as if they did not care, and the seasons came agaiu
and went. Then came the autumn of the year, followed by many succeeding
cloudy days and nights, during which the sun by day and the moon and stars
by night were concealed from the earth ; then succeeded a total darkness, and
the sun seemed to have been blotted out; while darkness and silence with a
cold atmosphere took possession of the eartli. Mankind, wearied and preplexed,
but not repenting or reforming, slept in darkness but to awake in darkness ;
theii
the mutterings of distant thunder began to be heard, graduUy becoming inces-
sant, until it reverberated in all parts of the sky and seemed to echo back even
from the deep center of the earth. Then fear and consternation seized upon
every heart and all believed the sun would never return. The Magi of the
Choctaws spoke despondently in reply to the many interrogations of the alarmed
people, and sang their death-songs which were but faintly heard in the mingled
confusion that arose amid the gloom of the night that it seemed would have no
i-eturning morn. Mankind went from place to place only by torch-light ; their
food stored away became mouldy and unfit for use ; the wild animals of tlie
forests gathered around their fires bewildered and even entered their towns
and villages, seeming to have lost all fear of man. Suddenly u fearful crash
of thunder, louder than ever before heard, seemed to shake the earth, and
immediately after a light was seen glimmering seemingly far away to the
North. It was soon discovered not to be the light of the returning sun, but the
gleam of great waters advancing in mighty billows, wave succeeding wave as
they onward rolled over the earth destroying everything in their path.
Tlien the wailing cry was heard coming from all directions. Oka Falamah,
Oka Falamah; (The returned waters). Stretching from horizon to horizon, it
came pouring its massive waters onward. " The foundations of the Great Deep
were broken up." Soon the earth was entirely overwhelmed by the miglity
and irresistible rush of the waters wliich swept away the human race and all
animals leaving the earth a desolate waste. Of all mankind only one was saved,
and that one was the mysterious prophet who had been sent by the Great
Spirit to warn the human race of their near approaching doom. This prophet
savetl himself by making a raft of sassafras logs by the direction of the Great
Spirit, upon which he floated upon the great waters that covered the earth, as
various kinds of fish swam around him, and twined among the branches of the
submerged trees, while upon the face of the waters he looked upon the dead
bodies of men and beasts, as they rose and fell upon the heaving billows.
After many weeks floating he knew not where, a large black bird came to the
raft flying in circles above his head. He called to it for assistance, but it only
replied in loud, croaking tones, then flew away and was seen no more. A few
days after a bird of bluish color, with red eyes and beak came and hovered over
the raft, to which the prophet spoke and asked if there were a spot of dry land
anywhere to be seen in the wide waste of waters. Then it flew around his head
a few moments fluttering its wings and uttering a mournful cry, then flew away
in the direction of that part of the sky where the new sun seemed to be sinking
into the rolling waves of the great ocean of waters. Immediately a strong wind
sprang up and bore the raft rapidly in that direction. Soon nicht came on. and
the moon and stars again made their appearance, and the next morning the
sun arose in its former splendor ; and the prophet looking around saw an island
in the distance toward which the raft was slowly drifting, and before the sun
had gone down seemingly again into the world of waters, the raft had touched