According to the Ashanti, the Sky Once was Close to the Earth...

[...] a woman [...] was pounding yams, and the sky [God?] got in the way so that her wooden pestle hit it continually, till it grew so angry that it withdrew out of her reach.

Cardinall, Allan Wolsey, The Natives of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast; their customs, religion and folklore, London: George Routledge & Sons; New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1920, p. 23.

According to the Kassena, the Sky Once was Close to the Earth...

The Kassena relate that in the beginning the sky [God?] was close to the ground. An old woman was about to cook, but the sky was in the way, so, in her temper, she cut off a piece and made it into soup. The sky, angered, went away to its present place.

Cardinall, Allan Wolsey, The Natives of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast; their customs, religion and folklore, London: George Routledge & Sons; New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1920, pp. 22-23.

Lugbara Tower of Babel

  At the beginning of the world men and God were in a direct relation, and men could move up and down from the sky. Some say they were linked by a rope, others by a bamboo tower, and I have once heard it said it was by a tall tree. This bridge between heaven and earth was broken and men fell down, scattering into their present distinct groups each with its different language; before that all men spoke the same language, said either to have been Lugbara or Kakwa. Since that time all peoples have been separate, their constituent groups having their own ancestors and with them forming traditionally and ideally self-contained spheres of social relations, conceived and structured by agnatic kinship.

Middleton, John, Lugbara Religion: Ritual and Authority among an East African People, London, New York, Toronto: Published for the International African Institute by the Oxford University Press, 1960, p. 270.

The Fall in Egyptian Religion: the Serpent (2)

Lanzone, Ridolfo V., Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, Torino: Litografia Fratelli Doyen, 1881, vol. 1, pl. civ (bet. pp. 432-433), img. 3.

The Fall in Egyptian Religion: the Serpent

Lanzone, Ridolfo V., Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, Torino: Litografia Fratelli Doyen, 1881, vol. 1, pl. civ (bet. pp. 432-433), img. 1.

The Fall in Egyptian Religion: the Woman and the Tree

Lanzone, Ridolfo V., Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, Torino: Litografia Fratelli Doyen, 1881, vol. 1, pl. cli (bet. pp. 432-433), img. 2.

The Fall in Egyptian Religion

Lanzone, Ridolfo V., Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, Torino: Litografia Fratelli Doyen, 1881, vol. 1, pl. clxxii (bet. pp. 432-433).

The Hawaiian Devil and Fall

In his character as a culture god the name of Kane is generally coupled with that of Kanaloa. About Kanaloa as a god apart from Kane there is very little information. He is god of the squid, called in the Kumulipo Ka-he‘e-hauna-wela (The evil-smelling squid). [...] on the whole the squid is today looked upon with distrust as an aumakua.

This attitude is reflected in a tendency by Hawaiian antiquarians to equate Kanaloa with the Christian devil. His name is associated with various legends of strife against Kane in which Kanaloa and his spirits rebel and are sent down to the underworld. In the legend of Hawaii-loa belonging to the Kumu-honua epic account of the Kane tradition, Kanaloa is the leader of the first company of spirits placed on earth after earth was separated from heaven. These spirits are “spit out by the gods.” They rebel, led by Kanaloa, because they are not allowed to drink awa, but are defeated and cast down to the underworld, where Kanaloa, otherwise known as Milu, becomes ruler of the dead.

The legend places Kane and Kanaloa in opposition as the good and evil wishers of mankind. When Kane draws the figure of a man in the earth, Kanaloa makes one also; Kane’s lives but Kanaloa’s remains stone. Kanaloa is angry and curses man to die. He makes all kinds of poisonous things. It is he who seduces the wife of the first man in this version. Kanaloa of the great white albatross of Kane is the name given to him as responsible for driving the first man and the first woman out of the garden spot the gods have provided for them.

Beckwith, Martha Warren, Hawaiian Mythology, new intro. Katharine Luomala, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1970, pp. 60-61.

The Hawaiian Creation and Fall (version 4)

(d) Kamakau version. Kane, assisted by Ku and Lono and opposed by Kanaloa, makes the heaven and the earth. All is chaotic. Nothing exists but the upper regions and the spirit gods. Kane excels among the gods in wisdom and power. The triad of gods unite in forming the world. They begin on the twenty-sixth day of the month, the day dedicted to Kane, and in six days, including the days of Kane, Lono, Mauli, Moku, Hilo, Hoaka, form the heavens and the earth. The sabbath or holy day of Ku is established on the seventh day.

On Oahu between Kualoa and Kaneohe lies the first land planned by the gods. On the eastern flank of Mololani (a crater hill on Mokapu), at a place where fine red earth is mixed with bluish and blackish soil, the first man is formed by the three gods Kane, Ku, Lono. Kane draws a likeness of the gods with head, body, hands, and legs like themselves. Then he makes the image live and it becomes the first man. The gods place him in a house of kou wood and name him Huli-honua because he is “made out of earth.” The first man notices that his shadow always clings to him. While he sleeps the god makes a good-looking woman and when he awakes she lies by his side. He calls her Ke-aka-huli-lani (The shadow from the heavens).

Beckwith, Martha Warren, Hawaiian Mythology, new intro. Katharine Luomala, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1970, p. 45.

The Hawaiian Creation and Fall (version 3)

(c) Kepelino version. Kane as a triad, Kane, Kana (Ku), Lono, exists alone in the deep intense night which he has created, and brings about, first light, then the heavens, then the earth and the ocean, then sun, moon, and stars. Kane existing alone chants,

“Here am I on the peak of day, on the peak of night.
The spaces of air,
The blue sky I will make, a heaven,
A heaven for Ku, for Lono,
A heaven for me, for Kane,
Three heavens, a heaven.
Behold the heavens!
There is the heaven,
The great heaven,
Here am I in heaven, the heaven is mine.”

During the first five periods the heavens and earth are created and the sun, moon, and stars, and plants to clothe the earth. In the sixth period man is formed.

Kane, Ku, Lono, conceived as a single godhead, mold Kumuhonua, the first man, out of wet soil and he becomes living soil. They make him a chief to rule over the whole world and place him with his wife Lalo-honua in Ka-aina-nui-o-Kane (The great land of Kane), where they live happily until Lalo-honua meets the “Great seabird with white beak that stands fishing” (Aaia-nui-nukea-a-ku-lawaia) and is seduced to eat the sacred apples of Kane. She goes mad and becomes a seabird. The seabird carries them both away into the jungle, the trees part and make a path for them, but the trees return to their places and the path is lost, hence the name “Hidden land of Kane” for this first garden home. . . . Death is the penalty for Kumuhonua because he did not keep the command of the god. He gains the name Kane-la‘a-uli and is jeered at by the people as he goes weeping and lamenting along the highway. For countless years he dwells as a refugee on the hill called Pu‘u-o-honua, then he returns to Kahiki-honua-kele and is buried on a mountain called Wai-hon(u)a-o-Kumuhonua. There his descendants also are buried and the place is called “the heaping place of bones” (O-ke-ahuna-iwi).

Beckwith, Martha Warren, Hawaiian Mythology, new intro. Katharine Luomala, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1970, pp. 44-45.

The Hawaiian Creation and the Fall (version 2)

(b) Fornander version (2). The three gods Kane, Ku, Lono come out of the night (po) and create three heavens to dwell in, the uppermost for Kane, the next below for Ku, and the lowest for Lono, “a heaven for the parent (makua), a heaven for Ku, a heaven for Lono.” Next they make the earth to rest their feet upon and call it “The great earth of Kane” (Ka-honua-nui-a-Kane). Kane then makes sun, moon, and stars, and places them in the empty space between heaven and earth. He makes the ocean salt, in imitation of which the priests purify with salt water. Next an image of man is formed out of earth, the head out of white clay brought from the seas of the north, south, east, and west, the body out of red earth (apo ula) mixed with spittle (wai nao). The right side of the head is made of clay brought from the north and east, the left side is made of clay from the south and west. Man is formed after the image of Kane with Ku as the workman, Lono as general assistant. Kane and Ku spit (or breathe) into the nostrils, Lono into the mouth, and the image becomes a living being. “I have shaped this dirt (lepo); I am going to make it live,” says Kane. “Live! live!” respond Ku and Lono. The man rises and kneels. They name him Ke-li‘i-ku-honua (the chief Ku(mu)-honua) or Honua-ula because made out of “red earth.” They give him a delightful garden to live in called Kalana-i-hauola, but later Paliuli, situated in the land of Kahiki-honua-kele (The land that moved off), and fashion a wife for him out of his right side and call her Ke-ola-Ku-honua (or Lalo-hana). “Great Hawaii of the green back and mottled seas” this land is called. A law is given him but he breaks the law and is then known as Kane-la‘a-(kah)uli, “a god who fell because of the law.”

In the original garden of Kumuhonua and Lalo-hana his wife, are to be found the pig, dogs of various varieties, mo‘o of many sorts. A tapu tree, sacred apples which cause death if eaten by strangers, and tapu bark cloth forbidden to all but the high chiefs are spoken of. Some think that the laau (law or tree) which caused the expulsion of the pair from the garden refers to these things. The garden, which is very sacred, goes by a multiplicity of names. It is the great white albatross of Kane that drove them out of the garden (Ka Aaia-nukea-nui-a-Kane). Kumuhonua-mokupuni is the land to the eastward to which Kumuhonua retreats after he has broken the law, and he returns to Kapakapa-ua-a-Kane and is buried in a place called Kumu-honua-pu‘u, which was afterwards called Ka-pu‘u-po‘o-kanaka (the hill of human heads).

Beckwith, Martha Warren, Hawaiian Mythology, new intro. Katharine Luomala, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1970, pp. 43-44.

Hawaiian Creation and Fall (version 1)

(a) Fornander version (1). In the first era Kane dwells alone in continual darkness (i ka po loa); there is neither heaven nor earth. In the second era light is created and the gods Ku and Lono, with Kane, fashion the earth and the things on the earth. In the third era they create man and woman, Kumu-honua (Earth beginning) and Lalo-honua (Earth below). In the fourth era Kane, who has lived on earth with man, goes up to heaven to live and the man, having broken Kane’s law, is made subject to death.

Beckwith, Martha Warren, Hawaiian Mythology, new intro. Katharine Luomala, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1970, pp. 42-43.

The Fall's Curse Upon the Serpent Recorded in Egypt

Across the river from Thebes, in the Valley of the Kings, frescoes in the tomb of Sethos I (Seti) tell a strange story. Snakes on the wall have been painted with legs and scaly feet. They grin menacingly, and the accompanying hieroglyphs indicate an ancient knowledge that snakes were not always without legs. According to the Sethos I inscriptions, "the serpent's forebears possessed feet." [...]

The Sethos I inscriptions connect the snake's ancestors with an evil curse, which was cast upon them for one offense or another when the world was still very young. The nature of the offense is not described, but the punishment is clear: Their legs were taken away, and henceforth they were obliged to crawl upon their bellies.

Pellegrino, Charles, Return to Sodom and Gomorrah: Bible Stories from Archaeologists, New York: Random House, 1994, pp. 51-53.

Misery is Due to a Woman According to the Chinese

It is with a different spirit we find woman spoken of in the traditions of the Chinese; but perhaps it may be considered equally unflattering:—

Tien (the Creator) placed man upon a high mountain, which Tai-Wang (the first man) rendered fruitless by his own fault. He filled the earth with thorns and briers, and said: “I am not guilty, for I could not do otherwise. Why did he plunge us into so much misery? All was subjected to man at the first; but a woman threw us into slavery. The wise husband built up a bulwark of walls; but the woman, by an ambitious desire of knowledge, demolished them. Our misery did not come from heaven, but from a woman. She lost the human race. Ah, unhappy Pao See! [first woman] thou kindlest the fire that consumes us, and which is every day augmenting. Our misery has lasted many ages. The world is lost. Vice overflows all things like a mortal poison.” 

Emerson, Ellen Russell, Indian Myths or Legends, Traditions, and Symbols of the Aborigines of America, Boston: James R. Osgood and company, 1884, p. 129.

The Origin of Man According to the Taino of Hispaniola

They believed that mankind issued from another cavern, the large men from a great aperture, the small men from a little cranny. They were for a long time destitute of women, but, wandering on one occasion near a small lake, they saw certain animals among the branches of the trees, which proved to be women. On attempting to catch them, however, they were found to be as slippery as eels, so that it was impossible to hold them. At length they employed certain men, whose hands were rendered rough by a kind of leprosy. These succeeded in securing four of these slippery females, from whom the world was peopled.

Irving, Washington, A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 4 vols., London: John Murray, 1828, v. 2, pp. 117-118.

Echos of the Fall at Philae in Egypt?

Taylor, Richard, Te Ika a Maui or New Zealand and its Inhabitants, 2nd ed., London: William Macintosh, 1870, p. 61.

The Egyptian hieroglyphic given of Adam and Eve recently found in the temple of Philæ, represents most clearly our first parents, with the serpent at the base of the tree looking up to Eve. Adam seems to be returning from tilling the garden, with some tool or implement of husbandry in his hand; the fi rst work given him to do when placed in Paradise, was to dress it, and to keep it. This hieroglyphic is therefore singularly faithful, and establishes the fact that the Egyptians were early acquainted with the scriptural narrative, and it is not improbable also with its general outlines, before the time when Moses was inspired to write it, and that it forms a portion of the original tradition handed down to them from the patriarchal times.

Taylor, Richard, Te Ika a Maui or New Zealand and its Inhabitants, 2nd ed., London: William Macintosh, 1870, p. 662.

The Appearance of the First Man and the First Woman Involves a Tree According to the North American Indians

We asked him, where he believed he came from? He answered from his father. " And where did your father come from? " we said, "and your grandfather and great-grandfather, and so on to the first of the race?" He was silent for a little while, either as if unable to climb up at once so high with his thoughts, or to express them without help, and then took a piece of coal out of the fire where he sat, and began to write upon the floor. He first drew a circle, a little oval, to which he made four paws or feet, a head and a tail. " This," said he, " is a tortoise, lying in the water around it," and he moved his hand round the figure, continuing, "This was or is all water, and so at first was the world or the earth, when the tortoise gradually raised its round back up high, and the water ran off of it, and thus the earth became dry." He then took a little straw and placed it on end in the middle of the figure, and proceeded, " The earth was now dry, and there grew a tree in the middle of the earth, and the root of this tree sent forth a sprout beside it and there grew upon it a man, who was the first male. This man was then alone, and would have remained alone; but the tree bent over until its top touched the earth, and there shot therein another root, from which came forth another sprout, and there grew upon it the woman, and from these two are all men produced."

Danckaerts, Jasper, Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913, pp. 77-78.

The Fall and the Origin of Woman According to the North American Indians

The different tribes have very different traditions: some of them are truly ludicrous, and are related with a seriousness not very reputable to their credulity and understanding; of this nature is the following: it is often repeated by the women themselves. It states that the red men were furnished with long tails, but that, having offended the Great Spirit, he deprived them of these ornaments, and from them created the women. As an additional punishment, he sent large swarms of mosquitoes to prey upon them, which, when they were thus mutilated, could torment them with greater impunity.

Hunter, John D., Memoirs of a Captivity Among the Indians of North America, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1823, p. 306.

Chipewyan Creation and Fall

The notion which these people entertain of the creation, is of a very singular nature. They believe that, at the first, the globe was one vast and entire ocean, inhabited by no living creature, except a mighty bird, whose eyes were fire, whose glances were lightning, and the clapping of whose wings were thunder. On his descent to the ocean, and touching it, the earth instantly arose, and remained on the surface of the waters. This omnipotent bird then called forth all the variety of animals from the earth, except the Chepewyans, who were produced from a dog; and this circumstance occasions their aversion to the flesh of that animal, as well as the people who eat it. This extraordinary tradition proceeds to relate, that the great bird, having finished his work, made an arrow, which was to be preserved with great care, and to remain untouched; but that the Chepewyans were so devoid of understanding, as to carry it away; and the sacrilege so enraged the great bird, that he has never since appeared.

Mackenzie, Alexander, Voyages from Montreal, on the river St. Laurence, through the continent of North America, to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, London: , 1801, pp. cxvii-cxviii.

The Hindu Fall

Thus, it is said that Siva, as the Supreme Being, desired to tempt Brahmá (who had taken human form), and for this object he dropped from heaven a blossom of the sacred g-tree. Brahmá, instigated by his wife, Satarupa, endeavors to obtain this blossom, thinking its possession will render him immortal and divine; but when he has succeeded in doing so, he is cursed by Siva, and doomed to misery and degradation. Mr. Hardwicke, when commenting on this tradition, adds that the sacred Indian g is endowed by the Brahmans and Buddhists with mysterious significance, as the tree of knowledge or intelligence.

Westropp, Hodder M. and C. Staniland Wake, Ancient symbol worship: Influence of the phallic idea in the religions of antiquity, New York: J. W. Bouton, 1874, pp. 46-47.