Thursday, September 2, 2010

Noah's...Raft?

I previously posted the Inupiaq legend of the first disaster and how it's suspiciously similar to a story found in 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon. The second disaster, in Inupiaq legend, is an age-old classic that can be found in virtually every culture on earth, it seems.

A certain man had a dream one night that he was standing on the top of a tall mountain surrounded by water. He couldn't see anything or anyone else but water. He called for help, and he heard a voice call to him. He saw himself come across the water to where he was. The apparition of himself told him that there was going to be a great flood and that he needed to warn everyone and to build a great raft.

When he woke up, he began to do just that. Everyone laughed at him and called him crazy, except for four men. They helped him to build the raft. When the rains started to come down, they put their tents on the raft, and the waters rose. Eventually the waters covered everything. After the flood began to subside, the people saw a rainbow, which they had never seen before. They took it as a sign that the flood was over.

The man later saw another vision in which he heard a great Voice call to him and tell him that all people would descend from him and that they would think great things of him.

Unfortunately, this story doesn't end happily. While pondering where a man's spirit goes when you die, or what a spirit is, he ends up gaining two familiar spirits and becomes the first sorcerer. He becomes evil and has many people killed. He is later outdone, however, by another sorcerer.

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