Flood Myth of the Totonac (eastern Mexico)

A man, warned by God, survived the flood in a tree he had hollowed out. After the deluge, he was hungry and built a fire. God smelled the smoke and sent buzzard down to investigate, but buzzard stayed to eat the dead animals, and God condemned him to eat only rotten flesh thereafter. God told Saint Michael to go down, and Saint Michael reversed the man's face and hind parts and turned him into a monkey. [Horcasitas, in Dundes]

to the Flood Myths page.

or

Back to the Know! home page.

References: Dundes, Alan (ed.) The Flood Myth, University of California Press, Berkeley and London, 1988.