[141] Westcott, Symbolism of Numbers, p. 7. I have given several examples of triple or triune deities in America in Myths of the New World, pp. 84, 187, 188. From other fields I may note the triad Kane, Ku, and Lono of Hawaii (Fornander, Polynesian Race, vol. i., p. 61); that on the Marquesas objectively represented by three sticks tied together (Dr. Tautain, in L’Anthropologie, tom. vii., p. 544); the triad of Tangaloa, Creator, Maui, Sustainer, and Tiki, Revealer, elsewhere in Polynesia (Hale, Ethnog. and Philol., p. 24).
[142] Numerous examples are collected in L. L. Conant, The Number Concept, chap. ii.
[143] In the Quiche and Tzental dialects.
[144] From the verb tumpa, to forge. Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak, vol. i., p. 165.
[145] The Tinné of British America have the word Nayéweri, he who creates by thought (Petitot, Les Dené Dindjie, p. 63); the Algonquian Kitché Manito created the world “by an act of his will” (Schoolcraft, Oneóta, p. 342). For the Zuñians, see Cushing, Zuñi Creation Myths, p. 379; for the Polynesians, Hale, Ethnography of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, p. 399, and Fornander, The Polynesian Race, vol. i., p. 62.
There is no distinction between these opinions and that of the Christian church, so beautifully expressed by St. Ephrem the Syrian: “At the nod of His will, noiseless and gentle, out of nothing He created all.” (Select Works, Translated by Rev. J. B. Morris, p. 185.)
[146] Fornander, The Polynesian Race, vol. i., p. 67; Rel. de la Nouv. France, 1634, p. 13.
[147] In Myths of the New World, ch. vii. (first ed., 1868). Numerous writers, Klee, Andree, Lucas, etc., have treated the deluge myth with fulness. It is found even among the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands (Man, u. s.) and is quite common throughout Polynesia (Fornander, u. s., vol. i., pp. 88, sq.). Various Australian tribes record it in detail, Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, vol. i., p. 430.
[148] Fornander (u. s., vol. i., p. 79, sq.) discusses it in Polynesia. Their “tree of life” was a sacred “tabooed” bread-fruit tree. For America, see Myths of the New World, pp. 103-106.
[149] For this reason the works of Delitsch, Haupt, etc., on the question, Wo lag das Paradies?, are much less to the point than if their writers had studied the comparative mythology of the subject.