‘Great diversity exists in the ways specific groups of people are said to have survived that ordeal.’ (the cataclysm) ‘Among these were people who deliberately constructed vessels (arks) before the onset of the Deluge – usually on the advice of others alleged to have superior or ‘divine’ advance knowledge of the impending disaster.’ (Could this have occurred before the vulcanism, conflagration, cosmic debris fall, and fire? It would have been too late to build anything once the catastrophe began.)
‘Several of the mountain-top survivors had … divine advice to seek safety on particular peaks.’ (Those advised included some Greeks, Assamese, Lithuanians, Andeans, Formosans and Polynesians.) ‘Almost all the accounts describe a combination of driving rain, furious winds and a thick gloom which for a long period obscured the Sun, Moon, and the stars.’ ‘The Caingang Indians described the darkness as “pitchy” and as punctuated by howls, piercing screeches and other unearthly sounds.’
‘Paralleling these flood traditions is another category recording how people and animals survived the disaster in caves.’ ‘It is obvious that deep caverns would have been ideal refuges from missiles and fires but extremely dangerous shelters against rampaging waters.’ ‘Some refugees became buried in caverns, as earth and rocks were piled up at the entrances by drift borne by the Deluge waters … but others … survived the ordeal by successfully digging their way out.’
‘On eventually receding, the water left everything covered in mud.’ Some of the survivors were reportedly helped almost immediately after the Deluge by white, tall and bearded strangers who imparted laws, crafts and other useful information. These ‘culture heroes’ have been included in the folk memories of quite a number of peoples. Surely, they had to have come from outside the planet. If so, had they observed what had happened?
The above extracts are from Allan & Delair’s ‘Cataclysm’.
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 