"The Rabbit in the past time moving came where the Winter was. The Winter said: 'You have not been here lately; sit down.' The Rabbit said he came because his grandmother had altogether _beaten the life out of him_" (the fallen _débris_?). "The Winter went hunting. It was _very cold: there was a snow-storm_. The Rabbit seared up a deer. 'Shoot him,' said the Rabbit. 'No; I do not hunt such things as that,' said the Winter. They came upon some men. That was the Winter's game. He killed the men and _boiled them for supper_," (cave-cannibalism). "The Rabbit refused to eat the human flesh. The Winter went hunting again. The Rabbit found out from the Winter's wife that the thing the Winter dreaded most of all the world was the head of a Rocky Mountain sheep. The Rabbit procured one. _It was dark_. He threw it suddenly at the Winter, saying, 'Uncle, that _round thing_ by you is the head of a Rocky Mountain [1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 185.] {p. 206} sheep.' The Winter became altogether dead. Only the woman remained. _Therefore from that time it has not been very cold_." Of course, any attempt to interpret such a crude myth must be guess-work. It shows, however, that the Indians believed that there was a time when the winter was much more severe than it is now; it was very cold and dark. Associated with it is the destruction of men and cannibalism. At last the Rabbit brings a round object, (the Sun?), the head of a Rocky Mountain sheep, and the Winter looks on it, and perishes. Even tropical Peru has its legend of the Age of Ice. Garcilaso de la Vega, a descendant of the Incas, has preserved an ancient indigenous poem of his nation, which seems to allude to a great event, the breaking to fragments of some large object, associated with ice and snow. Dr. Brinton translates it from the Quichua, as follows "Beauteous princess, Lo, thy brother _Breaks thy vessel Now in fragments_. From the blow come Thunder, lightning, Strokes of lightning And thou, princess, Tak'st the water, With it raineth, And _the hail_, or _Snow dispenseth_. Viracocha, World-constructor, World-enlivener, To this office Thee appointed, Thee created."[1] [1. "Myths of the New World," p. 167.] {p. 207} But it may be asked, How in such a period of terror and calamity--as we must conceive the comet to have caused-would men think of finding refuge in caves? The answer is plain: either they or their ancestors had lived in caves. Caves were the first shelters of uncivilized men. It was not necessary to fly to the caves through the rain of falling _débris_; many were doubtless already in them when the great world-storm broke, and others naturally sought their usual dwelling-places. "The cavern," says Brinton, "dimly lingered in the memories of nations." Man is born of the earth; he is made of the clay like Adam, created--