The marvellous country, or, Three years in Arizona and New Mexico.: Containing an authentic history of this wonderful country and its ancient civilization ... together with a full and complete history of the Apache tribe of Indians .../ By Samuel Woodworth Cozzens. Illustrated by more than one hundred engravings.

LEGEND OF THE DELUGE.
of the plateau on which we stood, each covered with what, at
first sight, appeared to be human figures, of colossal size.
Of these remarkable formations our guide gave us the
following history, which I shall here relate, hoping that it
may prove as interesting to the reader as it did to us.
,,Ages before the first appearance of the white man, a
dreadful flood visited the earth. Water fell from the
heavens, gushed forth from the earth, and rolled in from
the east and from the west, until the whole earth was submerged, destroying not only man and beast, but the wild
Apache and the tawny coyote as well.
"Many of the people of Zuni rushed to the top of this
lofty mesa; but by far the greater part, being unable to
reach it, miserably perished in the surging waters.
"In the midst of all this terrible flood, darkness came
upon the earth. The sun forgot to rise, and gloom and
desolation reigned supreme.
"Still the waters rose higher and higher, the Great Spirit
thus showing himself to be exceedingly wroth with his
children, who must offer him a fitting sacrifice, in order to
appease his anger, and induce him to abate the flood that he
lhial so suddenly and disastrously visited upon them.
"After much hesitation, and many forebodings of evil,
they at last determined to offer the only son and daughter
of their cacique, the most beautiful youth and maiden in the
tribe, as a propitiatory sacrifice.
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