This long-trailing object in the skies was probably the origin of that primeval serpent-worship found all over the world. And hence the association of the serpent in so many religions with the evil-one. In itself, the serpent should no more represent moral wrong than the lizard, the crocodile, or the frog; but the hereditary abhorrence with which he is regarded by mankind extends to no other created thing. He is the image of the great destroyer, the wronger, the enemy. Let us turn to another legend. An ancient authority[1] gives the following legend of the Tupi Indians of Brazil: "Monau, without beginning or end, author of all that is, seeing the ingratitude of men, and their contempt for him who had made them thus joyous, withdrew from them, and sent upon them _tata_, the divine _fire, which burned all that was on the surface of the earth_. He [1. "Une Fête Brésilienne célébré à Rouen en 1550," par M. Ferdinand Denis, p. 82.] {p. 176} swept about the fire in such a way that _in places he raised mountains, and in others dug valleys_. Of all men one alone, Irin Magé, was saved, whom Monau carried into the heaven. He, seeing all things destroyed, spoke thus to Monau: 'Wilt thou also destroy the heavens and their garniture? Alas! henceforth where will be our home? Why should I live, since there is none other of my kind? Then Monau was so filled with pity that he _poured a deluging rain on the earth, which quenched the fire_, and flowed on all sides, forming the ocean, which we call the _parana_, the great waters."[1] The prayer of Irin Magé, when he calls on God to save the garniture of the heavens, reminds one vividly of the prayer of the Earth in Ovid. It might be inferred that heaven meant in the Tupi legend the heavenly land, not the skies; this is rendered the more probable because we find Irin asking where should he dwell if heaven is destroyed. This could scarcely allude to a spiritual heaven. And here I would note a singular coincidence: The fire that fell from heaven was the divine _tata_. In Egypt the Dame of deity was "ta-ta," or "pta-pta," which signified father. This became in the Hebrew "ya-ya," from which we derive the root of Jah, Jehovah. And this word is found in many languages in Europe and America, and even in our own, as, "da-da," "daddy," father. The Tupi "_tata_" was fire from the supreme father. Who can doubt the oneness of the human race, when millions of threads of tradition and language thus cross each other through it in all directions, like the web of a mighty fabric? We cross from one continent to another, from the torrid part of South America to the frozen regions of North America, and the same legend meets us. [1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 227.] {p. 177}