μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Earth Diver. From a raft in the primeval sea, the creator sends down animals to try to bring up earth. After a number of animals have failed, one (often the muskrat) succeeds. The earth is made from the bit brought up.

Mythological motifs. · Cosmogony and cosmology. · –A899. The earth. · –A839. Creation of the earth. · Primeval water. · view the constellation · filed as A812

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“One of the friends of the chief had a dream, in which he was advised to tell the chief that in order to cure his daughter he must lay her beside this tree, and that he must have the tree dug up. This advice was carried out to the letter. While the people were at work and the young woman lay there, a young man came along. He was very angry and said: “It is not at all right to destroy this tree. Its fruit is all that we have to live on.”””

— Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 5 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
Scholars’ trail — 3references

The index’s own references — the collections where scholars sighted this story-shape, tradition by tradition. Titles on our shelf are live links; the rest is the frontier, not yet shelved.

  • general **E. W. Count The Earth Diver and the Rival Twins (Proceedings 29th International Congress of Americanists [Chicago, 1952] 55–62)
  • general Walk "Die Verbreitung des Tauchmotivs in den Urmeerschöpfungs- (und Sintflut-) Sagen" Mitteil. d. anthrop. Gesellschaft Wien LXIII (1933) 60–76. – Siberian: Holmberg Siberian 318, *322ff.
  • general Hatt Asiatic Influences 12–36, India: *Thompson-Balys. – N. Am. Indian: *Thompson Tales 279 n. 30, (Calif. Indian): Gayton and Newman 53.
Within the index

Filed under Primeval water: In the beginning everything is covered with water.

3 finer motifs beneath it
Devil as Earth Diver. Satan dives for earth at instance of God. Succeeds only third time (by use of right formula). He hides the earth under his tongue. It swells, and he must be rescued by GodEarth from egg from bottom of sea recovered by birdCreator sends crow, after creating her, to scout for earth-nucleus
Filed beside it
God and Devil fly together over primeval waterPrimeval water to subside in a specified timeEarth brought up from bottom of primeval water. (Cf. A812.)Raft in primeval sea. Creator is on the raft and there creates the earth. (Cf. A812.)Earth from object thrown on primeval waterEarth from turtle's back. Earth erected on back of a turtle floating in primeval water. (Cf. A844.1.)Earth rises from seaEarth let down from sky on to primeval ocean
Travels with
Earth brought up from bottom of primeval water. (Cf. A812.)Raft in primeval sea. Creator is on the raft and there creates the earth. (Cf. A812.)
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Woman who fell from the sky. – Daughter of the sky-chief falls from the sky, is caught by birds, and lowered to the surface of the water. She becomes the creatorPrimeval water: In the beginning everything is covered with waterEarth from turtle's back. Earth erected on back of a turtle floating in primeval water. (Cf. A844.1.)

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