Velikovsky 1950:186-191 Primitive peoples often are bound by inflexible customs and beliefs that date back hundreds of generations. The traditions of many primitive peoples speak of a "lower sky" in the past, a "larger sun," a swifter movement of the sun across the firmament, a shorter day that became longer after the sun was arrested on its path.

World conflagration is a frequent motif in folklore. According to the Indians of the Pacific coast of North America the "shooting star" and the "fire drill" set the world aflame. In the burning world one "could see nothing but waves of flames; rocks were burning, the ground was burning, everything was burning. Great rolls and piles of smoke were rising; fire blew up toward the sky in flames, in great sparks and brands. . . The great fire was blazing, roaring all over the earth, burning rocks, earth, trees, people, burning everything. . . Water rushed in . . . it rushed in like a crowd of rivers, covered the earth, and put out the fire as it rolled on toward the south . . . Water rose mountain high." A celestial monster flew with "a whistle in his mouth; as he moved forward he blew it with all his might, and made a terrible noise . . . He came flowing and blowing; he looked like an enormous bat with wings spread. . . [his] feathers waved up and down, [and] grew till they could touch the sky on both sides."

The shooting star that made the earth into a sea of flames, the terrible noise, the water that rose mountain high, and the appearance of a monster in the sky, like Typhon or a dragon, all these elements were not brought together in this Indian narriative by sheer invention; they belong together.

The Wichita, an Indian tribe of Oklahoma, tell the following story of "The Deluge and the Repeopling of the Earth":

"There came to the people some signs, which showed that there was something in the north that looked like clouds; and the fowl of the air came, and the animals of the plains were seen. All of this indicated that something was to happen. The clouds that were seen in the north were a deluge. The deluge was all over the face of the earth."

The water monsters succumbed. Only four giants remained, but they fell, too, each on his face. "The one in the south as he was falling said that the direction he fell should be called south." The other giant said that "the direction in which he was falling should be called west--Where-the-sun-goes." The third fell and named the direction of his fall north; the last called his direction "east--Where-the-sunrises."

Only a few men survived. The wind also survived on the face of the earth; everything else was destroyed. A child was born to a woman (from the wind), a Dream-girl. The girl grew rapidly. A boy child was born to her. "He told his people that he would go in the direction of the east, and he was to become the Morning Star."

. . . The Indians of the Chewkee tribe on the Gulf Coast tell: "It was too hot. The sunwas put'a handbredth' higher in the air, but it was still too hot. Seven times the sun was lifted higher and higher in the air, but it was still too hot. Seven times the sun was lifted higher and higher under the sky arch, until it became cooler."

In eastern Africa we can trace the same tradition. "In very old times the sky was very close to the earth."

The Kaska tribe in the interior of British Columbia relate: "Once a long time ago the sky was very close to the earth." The sky was pushed up and the weather changed. The sun, after being stopped on its way across the firmament, "became small, and small it has remained since then"

Here is a story, told to Shelton by the Snohomish tribe on Puget Sound, about the origin of the exclamation "Yahu," to which I have already referred briefly. "A long time ago, when all the animals were still human beings, the sky was very low. It was so low tht the people could not stand erect. . . They called a meeting together and discussed how they could raise the sky. But they were at a loss to know how to do so. No one was strong enough to lift the sky. Finally the idea occurred to them that possibly the sky might be moved by the combined efforts of the people, if all of them pushed against it at the same time. But then the question arose of how it would be possible to make all the people exert their efforts at exactly the same moment. For the different peoples would be far away from one another, some would be in this part of the world, others in another part. What signal could be given that all people would lift at precisely the same time? Finally, the word 'Yahu!' was invented for this purpose. It was decided that all the people should shout 'Yahu!' together, and then exert their whole strength in lifting the sky. In accordance with this, the people equipped themselves with poles, braced them against the sky, and then all shouted 'Yahu!' in unison. Under their combined efforts the sky rose a little. Again the people shouted 'Yahu!' and lifted the heavy weight. They repeated this until the sky was sufficiently high." Shelton says that the word "Yahu" is used today when some heavy object like a large canoe is being lifted.

It is easy to recognize the origin of this legend. Clouds of dust and gases enveloped the earth for a long time; it seemed that the sky had descended low. The earth groaned repeatedly because of the severe twisting and dislocation it had experienced. Only slowly and gradully did the clouds lift themselves from the ground.

The clouds that enveloped the Israelites in the desert, the trumpet-like sounds that they heard at Mount Sinai, and the gradual lifting of the clouds in the years of the Shadow of Death are the same elements that we find in this Indian legend.

Because the same elements can be recognizedin very different settings, we can affirm that there was no borrowing from one people by another. A common experience created the stories, so dissimilar at first, and so much alike on second thought.

The story of the end of the world, as related by the Pawnee Indians, has an important content. It was written down from the mouth of an old Indian: "We are told by the old people that the Morning Star ruled over all the minor gods in the heavens. . .The old people told us that the Morning Star said that when the time came for the world to end, theMoon would turn red, . . .that when the Moon should turn red, the people would know that the world was coming to an end.

...

"When the time comes for the ending of the world, the stars will again fall to the earth."

. . .

The ceremony of sacrifice to the Morning Star is the main ritual of the Pawnee Indians. It is a "dramatization of the acts performed by the Morning Star." A human offering was sacrificed when Venus "appeared especially bright or in years when there was a comet in the sky." The act of appeasing Venus when a comet was seen in the sky takes on clearer meaning in the light of the present research.

The sacrificial procedure took the following form. A captive girl was turned over by her captor to a man who would howl like a wolf. She was kept by the guardian until the day of the sacrifice. "Her guardian then painted her whole body red and dressed her in a black skirt and robe. His face and hair were painted red, and a fan-shaped headdress of twelve eagle feathers was attached to his hair." "This was the costume in which the Morning Star usually appeared in visions."

The Scaffold was erected between four poles that pointed to the four quarters (northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest). A few words were pronounced about the darkness that threatened to endure forever, and in the name of the Morning Star a command was addressed to the poles to keep upright "so that you will always hold up the heavens."

The chief priest then "painted the right half of her body red and the left half black. A headdress of twelve black-tipped eagle feathers, arranged like a fan, was fastened on her head."

"At the moment the Morning Star appeared, two men came forward bearing firebrands." The breast of the girl was cut open and the heart taken out, and "the guardian thrust his hand into the thoracic cavity and painted his face with the blood." The people around shot arrows into the body of the victim. "Boys too young to draw a bow were helped by their fathers or mothers." Four bundles were laid northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest of the scaffold and were ignited.

"There seem to have been astronomical beliefs connected with the sacrifices."

These human sacrifices, as described by Dorsey, were executed by the Indians only a few decades ago. They recall the Mexican sacrifices to the Morning Star described by the authors of the sixteenth century.