| They say that before
the world and the mountains, humans, and animals had come into
existence God was with the woman who dwells with him, and no one
knows when that was or where they had come from. Water was all there
was or at any rate water covered and overran everything. Even if an
eye had existed at that time it could not have seen anything but
water wherever it might have been, for all was water or covered by
water. What then happened, they say, was that the aforementioned
beautiful woman or idol descended from heaven into the water. She
was gross and big like a woman who is pregnant of more than one
child. Touching down gently, she did not sink deep, for at once a
patch of land began to emerge under her at the spot where she had
come down, and there she came to rest and remained. The land waxed
greater so that some areas became visible around the place where she
sat, like someone standing on a sandbar in three or four feet of
water while it ebbs away and eventually recedes so far that it
leaves him entirely on dry land. That is how it went with the
descended goddess, they say and believe, the land ever widening
around her until its edge disappeared from view. |
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Gradually grass and other vegetation sprang up and in time
also fruit-bearing, and other trees, and from this, in brief, the
whole globe came into being such as it appears to this day. Now
whether the world you speak of and originally came from was then
created as well, we are unable to say. At the time when all that had
been accomplished the high personage went into labor and, being
confined, gave birth to three different creatures: the first was in
every respect like a deer as they are today, the second resembled a
bear, and the third a wolf. The woman suckled those creatures to
maturity and remained on earth for a considerable time during which
she cohabited with each of the said animals and was delivered a
number of times of various creatures in multiple births. Thus were
bred all humans and animals of the several kinds and species that
can still be seen in our day. In due course they began to segregate
according, to the families and species still existing, both from an
innate urge and for the sake of propriety. When all those things had
thus been disposed and made self-perpetuating the universal mother
ascended again to heaven rejoicing at having accomplished her task.
There she continues to dwell forever, finding her entire happiness
and delight in keeping and fostering the supreme Lord’s love for
her. To that she is devoted and from it derives her complete
enjoyment and satisfaction; therefore, God vouchsafes her his
fondest love and highest esteem. Here below meanwhile humans and
animals of all the various species that were the result of
miscegenation increase and multiply, as does all creation the way we
find it still. That is why human beings of whatever condition still
exhibit the innate characters of one or other of the three animals
mentioned, for they are either timid and harmless in the nature of
deer, or vindictive, cruel, bold, and direct in the nature of bears,
or bloodthirsty, greedy, subtle, and treacherous like wolves.
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