sterile, but Ioskeha destroyed the gigantic frog which
had swallowed all the waters, and guided the torrents into smooth
streams and lakes.(1)

(1) Relations de la Nouvelle France, 1636, p. 103 (Paris, Cramoisy,
1637).

Now where, outside of North America, do we find this frog who swallowed
all the water? We find him in Australia.

"The aborigines of Lake Tyers," remarks Mr. Brough Smyth, "say that at
one time there was no water anywhere on the face of the earth. All the
waters were contained in the body of a huge frog, and men and women
could get none of them. A council was held, and... it was agreed that
the frog should be made to laugh, when the waters would run out of his
mouth, and there would be plenty in all parts."

To make a long story short, all the animals played the jester before
the gigantic solemn frog, who sat as grave as Louis XV. "I do not like
buffoons who don't make me laugh," said that majestical monarch. At last
the eel danced on the tip of his tail, and the gravity of the prodigious
Batrachian gave way. He laughed till he literally split his sides,
and the imprisoned waters came with a rush. Indeed, many persons were
drowned, though this is not the only Australian version of the Deluge.

The Andaman Islanders dwell at a very considerable distance from
Australia and from the Iroquois, and, in the present condition of the
natives of Australia and Andaman, neither could possibly visit the
other. The frog in the Andaman version is called a toad, and he came to
swallow the waters in the following way: One day a woodpecker was eating
honey high up in the boughs of a tree. Far below, the toad was a witness
of the feast, and asked for some honey. "Well, come up here, and you
shall have some," said the woodpecker. "But how am I to climb?" "Take
hold of that creeper, and I will draw you up," said the woodpecker; but
all the while he was bent on a practical joke. So the toad got into a
bucket he happened to possess, and fastened the bucket to the creeper.
"Now, pull!" Then the woodpecker raised the toad slowly to the level of
the bough where the honey was, and presently let him down with a run,
not only disappointing the poor toad, but shaking him severely. The toad
went away in a rage and looked about him for revenge. A happy thought
occurred to him, and he drank up all the water of the rivers and lakes.
Birds and beasts were perishing, woodpeckers among them, of thirst. The
toad, overjoyed at his s