So general a tradition that man was created, and created out of the ground,[112] is so completely in accordance with the text of Genesis, that one can hardly see what more can be demanded; yet Catlin says[113]--"Though there is not a tribe in America but what has _some_ theory of man's _creation_, there is not one amongst them all that bears the _slightest resemblance_ to the Mosaic account." Catlin instances the traditions of the Mandans, Choctaws, and the Sioux--_1st_, The Mandans (who have the ceremony commemorative of _the Deluge_ referred to, ch. xi.), believe that they were created "under the ground." _2d_, The Choctaws assert that they "were created crawfish, living alternately under the ground and above it as they chose; and, creeping out at their little holes in the earth to get the warmth of the sun one sunny day, a portion of the tribe was driven away and could not return; they built the Choctaw village, and the remainder of the tribe are still living under the ground." The Iroquois, however, believe that they "came out of the ground," which is identical with the Greek notion of their being "autochthones" (_vide_ Colden, ii. 103), where one of their chiefs speaks thus--"For we must tell you that long before one hundred years our ancestors _came out of this very ground_.... You _came out of the ground_ in a country that lies beyond the seas." Now, even if we consent to detach the Iroquois tradition, there is still in both the Mandan and Choctaw tradition, a common idea of their having come from "under the ground," which seems to me the tradition that they were created out of the ground at one remove. To this it would seem the Choctaws have super-added their recollection of some incident of their tribe, possibly that they were an offshoot of the Esquimaux, or were at one period in their latitude and lived their life, which would be in accordance with the theory of their migrations from Asia by Behring's Straits. 3_d_, About the Sioux, the third instance of contrariety adduced by Catlin, it seems to me that there is no room for argument, the Sioux having the tradition referred to above, that the Great Spirit _told_ them that "The red stone was their flesh." To these three instances Mr Catlin adds--"Other tribes were created under the water, and at least _one half of the_ tribes in America represent that man was created _under the ground_ or in the rocky caverns of the mountains. Why this diversity of theories of the Creation if these people brought their traditions of the Deluge from the land of inspiration?"[114]