"Isn't it funny that the tribes here, as well as some on Wonder Island have an idea that the dark moon is caused by the Great Spirit trying to hide it in anger?" asked George.
"It is singular when it is considered that the same[p. 41] superstition is found in many, many tribes, on different continents, and it induces the belief that this idea had one common origin, and that the people all sprang from one source, or, that the different peoples worked out the ideas independently of each other."
This statement caused considerable discussion, the natives being of the opinion that the idea was worked out by the different peoples and could not have been spread broadcast by one set of people.
"Why do you think it could not have come from one race?" asked George, as Uraso urged.
"Because," he answered, "how did the people in olden times cross the big ocean? Even now, people like my own, dare not venture on the sea, for any distance from shore."
"But," said John, "the surface of the earth was not originally like it is now. In many places over the earth, new lands have appeared,—that is, they come up out of the sea, and other lands have disappeared. We have records of islands, and parts of continents, hundreds of times larger than Wonder Island, which have disappeared in a single day. One of those, near Japan, sank, and engulfed over 200,000 people."
"You surprise me," said Muro.
"Furthermore, there is pretty conclusive evidence that the continents of Europe and America, were once joined, or that there was an immense continent, called Atlantis between the eastern and western hemispheres."
"I read something on that subject some time ago, in which the writer denied that such a thing was possible," said Harry.