I did a bit of research and discovered that there are more than 500
documented flood legends from every place on the earth.

Find a flood legend and post it here. We might learn something.
I will post a few of the ones I found. Most are quite simular though
far removed from each other and from times that make it hard to think
they were all influence by biblical flood references.
Africa
Southwest Tanzania
Once upon a time the rivers began to flood. The god told two people to
get into a ship. He told them to take lots of seed and to take lots of
animals. The water of the flood eventually covered the mountains.
Finally the flood stopped. Then one of the men, wanting to know if the
water had dried up let a dove loose. The dove returned. Later he let
loose a hawk which did not return. Then the men left the boat and took
the animals and the seeds with them.

Asia
China
The Chinese classic called the Hihking tells about "the family of Fuhi,"
that was saved from a great flood. This ancient story tells that the
entire land was flooded; the mountains and everything, however one
family survived in a boat. The Chinese consider this man the father of
their civilization. This record indicates that Fuhi, his wife, three
sons, and three daughters were the only people that escaped the great
flood. It is claimed, that he and his family were the only people alive
on earth, and repopulated the world.

One American Indian legend. (there are several from the natives in
Alaska to the natives in Central America, I have not gotten into South
America yet).
When the missionaries first came to the Choctaws in Mississippi in 1818,
this tradition was told them about as follows: In ancient times after
men had lived a long period upon the earth they became very corrupt and
wicked, and deluged the earth with so much blood and carnage that the
Great Spirit finally decided to utterly destroy them. He, therefore,
sent a prophet among them, who went from tribe to tribe and from village
to village proclaiming the fearful tidings that the race was soon to be
destroyed. No one paid any attention to him, however, and people went on
in their wickedness as carelessly as ever. But one year, with the coming
of autumn, mists and clouds gathered over the earth, so that there was
no sun shining by day nor did the moon and stars light up the gloom of
night. The situation grew gradually worse until the earth became
shrouded in total darkness. The air was chill and all animate nature
became silent. People too became silent and perplexed, but yet they gave
no evidence of repenting for their evil deeds. They were compelled to
find their way from place to place by light of torches.

The food that they had stored away became mouldy and unfit to eat. Soon
the silence of the skies was broken by muttering thunder. As time went
on, the thunderings grew louder and spread to almost every quarter of
the sky. The wild beasts, overcome with terror, lost their dread of man
and crept up around the village fires that gave the only relief from the
general darkness and cold. People grew despondent, and the death songs
were chanted everywhere. The Medicine Men could offer no explanation and
had no hope to offer the striken people. But yet there was no
repentance, no turning of a sinful people back to the Great Spirit -
only a sullen fatalism.

One day very suddenly there came a crash of thunder much louder than had
ever been heard before. The whole earth seemed to shake and tremble with
the reverberation. Then, as people looked towards the north, they seemed
to see a light - the first they had seen for many a long dark day. But
whatever hope may have been aroused in their breasts was dissipated. For
what they saw was not the return of the long lost sun, but it was the
gleam of a great mountain of water, advancing in great billows from the
north, covering the entire earth and destroying everything in its path.
With the cry, "Oka Falamah, Oka Falamah" (the returning waters, the
returning waters) the doomed people turned away in one last vain effort
to escape. But there was no escape. The whole earth was soon covered
even to the tops of the mountains by the vast flood, and men and animals
alike perished, leaving only a desolate wilderness of waters.

Of all mankind, only one remained, and that was the mysterious prophet
who had so faithfully yet vainly proclaimed the warnings of the Great
Spirit. This prophet had been directed by the Great Spirit to build a
raft of sassafras logs, upon which he floated safely above the
destroying flood, while he gazed sadly upon the dead bodies of men and
beasts as they floated past him in the dark waters.

The prophet floated aimlessly about for many weeks, until at last one
day he saw a large black bird circling over his raft. He cried to it for
help, but the bird only uttered a few harsh croaks and flew away to be
seen no more. Some days later the prophet saw a smaller bird, bluish in
color, with red beak and eyes, hovering over the raft. Again he asked
this bird if there was a spot of dry land to be found anywhere in the
waste of waters. It hovered over him for a few moments as if trying in
its soft mournful voice to give the desired information, and then flew
off towards the west where the new sun was again setting in splendor.
Almost at once a strong wind arose which carried the raft in the
direction in which the bird had gone. All night, it floated on under the
moon and stars which shone again with renewed brightness.

When the sun rose the next morning the prophet saw in the distance an
island towards which his raft seemed to be drifting. Before the sun went
down again, the raft had moved along until it touched the island, and
the tired prophet landed, and glad to be on the earth once more, he lay
down and slept until the sun rose the next day. Much refreshed, he then
began to look about the island, where to his surprise, he found every
variety of animal formerly found on the earth (except the mammoth), and
all the birds and fowl also. Among the birds he noticed the great black
bird that had visited and deserted him upon the waters. This bird he
named "fulushto" - the raven - always thereafter regarded as a bird of
ill omen by the Choctaws.

He was overjoyed also to find again the little bluish bird that had
hovered over him and caused the breeze to blow that brought his raft
safe to the pleasant island. Because of its beauty and of its kindly
deed he named this bird "Puchi Yushuba" (Lost Pigeon).

The prophet lived on this island for many days, until finally the waters
passed away, and the earth once more took its former appearance, with
hills, valleys, and grassy prairies. Then the strangest of all things
happened Puchi Yushuba was changed by the Great Spirit into a beautiful
young woman, who soon became the wife of the prophet, and by their
children the world was repeopled. But the Indian people never again
became so rashly disobedient to the Great Spirit, and never forgot the
lesson of Oka Falamah, the "Returning Waters."

That was a beautiful story of the Choctaw peoples

There is more information.

Their legends do not say it rained. Their legends say clouds gathered
and blotted out the sun and that a wall of water as large as many
mountians came from the north and blotted out mankind.

I am trying to imagine a great wall of water , I do not find it
difficult to do so.

Hey... cool thread!

Re: wall of water... There are a few people that contend that there
are records of big rocks falling from the sky, hitting the sea. A
meteor (or bunch of meteors) could likely make for one heck of a wave,
that could travel a fair piece inland... Sorta sounds a bit like a wall
of water.

It's not a scientific book by any stretch, but Uriel's Machine
(Knight/Lomas) discusses this possibility a bit. The suggestion there
is that 7 meteors hit the earth (10,000 ish years ago), giving rise to
many of the flood myths. They even suggest that Great Salt Lake, and
the salt flats in Utah came about because the basin they are in
(mountainous region) was filled with sea water that after evaporation
yielded a salt lake and flats. I'm skeptical, but an interesting
thought none the less.

M

The ****taw legend in one of its parts states that a long streak of
light came down in the north and turned into a wall of water.

love this stuff..thanks AB

One of the Alaskan stories of the flood.

I like ist simpicity.

Innuit:
An unusually high tide caused a global flood. Shellfish and such things
in the mountains are evidence of it. [Gaster, p. 120]

This Amerind story has it all.

Creation, Flood, and Babel in but a few words.

Skagit (Washington):
The Creator made the earth and gave four names for it -- for the sun,
waters, soil and forests. He said only a few people, with special
preparation for the knowledge, should know all four names, or the world
would change too suddenly. After a while, everyone learned the four
names. When people started talking to the trees the change came in the
form of a flood. When the people saw the flood coming, they made a giant
canoe and filled it with five people and a male and female of all plants
and animals. Water covered everything but the summit of Kobah and
Takobah (Mts. Baker and Ranier). The canoe landed on the prairie.
Doquebuth, the new Creator, was born of a couple from the canoe. He was
told to go to a lake (Lake Campbell) and swim and fast to get his spirit
powers, but he delayed. Finally he did so after his family deserted him.
The Old Creator came to him in dreams. First he told Doquebuth to wave
his blanket over the water and the forest and name the four names of the
earth; this created food for everyone. Next, at the direction of the Old
Creator, he gathered the bones of the people who lived before the flood,
waved the blanket over them and named the four names, and made people
again. These people couldn't talk, so he similarly made brains for them
from the soil. Then they spoke many different languages, and Doquebuth
blew them back to the places they lived before the flood. Someday,
another flood will come and change the world again. [Clark, pp. 139-141]

These stories are very interesting. Though the basics are the same, they
are very different.
I'd like to learn about some more to compare them.

You know that scientist have discovered a crater, most of which is under
the gulf of Mexico, that lies on the northern edge of the cancun
peninsula! They claim that it would have created something similar to
the Choctaw tale, and have timed it to the disappearance of the
dinosaurs. There are several more found along the ocean floors around
the world.

Yucatan,,

check out this site invisible...
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/SIC/impact_cratering/Chicxulub/Global_effects.html

Thanks Fanta, this is really interesting

An interesting thing about several of the Amerind legends. In most of
them a two birds come to the prophet of the great spirit.

One is most often refered to as the raven and does not help and has
allways been associated with the bringing of bad tidings.

The other is either called 'lost pigeon' or 'little dove' and rescues
the man from the water then turns into a beautiful woman.

And men are told to call their wifes in moments of tenderness 'lost
pigeon' or 'little dove' because of this.

But the lesson seems to be that our women will be there to the end to
rescue us.

I like concept much better than 'women are sinfull they must kneel and
be silent'.

Sometimes the simplest way is the best way.

I plugged 'Flood Legends' into my search engine.

I got 1,880,000 hits... Wow!

Most of the Amerind legends about the flood equate it also with
creation.

An Apache Legend
In the beginning nothing existed: no Earth, no Sky, no Sun, no Moon.
Only darkness was everywhere.

Suddenly from the darkness emerged a thin disc, one side yellow and the
other side white, appearing suspended in midair. Within the disc sat a
small bearded man, Creator, the One Who Lives Above.

As if waking from a long nap, he rubbed his eyes and face with both
hands.

When he looked into the endless darkness, light appeared above. He
looked down and it became a sea of light. To the East, he created yellow
streaks of dawn. To the West, tints of many colors appeared everywhere.
There were also clouds of different colors.

Creator wiped his sweating face and rubbed his hands together, thrusting
them downward. Behold! A shining cloud upon which sat a little girl.

"Stand up and tell me where are you going," said Creator. But she did
not reply. He rubbed his eyes again and offered his right hand to the
Girl-Without- Parents.

"Where did you come from?" she asked, grasping his hand.

"From the East where it is now light," he replied, stepping upon her
cloud.

"Where is the Earth?" she asked.

"Where is the sky?" he asked, and sang, "I am thinking, thinking,
thinking what I shall create next." He sang four times, which was the
magic number.

Creator brushed his face with his hands, rubbed them together, then
flung them wide open! Before them stood Sun-God. Again Creator rubbed
his sweaty brow and from his hands dropped Small-Boy.

Creator, Sun-God, Girl-Without-Parents, and Small-Boy sat in deep
thought upon the small cloud.

"What shall we make next?" asked Creator. "This cloud is much too small
for us to live upon."

Then he created Tarantula, Big Dipper, Wind, Lightning-Maker, and some
Western clouds in which to house Lightning-Rumbler, which he just
finished.

Creator sang, "Let us make Earth. I am thinking of the Earth, Earth,
Earth; I am thinking of the Earth," he sang four times.

All four gods shook hands. In doing so, their sweat mixed together and
Creator rubbed his palms, from which fell a small round, brown ball, not
much larger than a bean.

Creator kicked it, and it expanded. Girl-Without-Parents kicked the
ball, and it enlarged more. Sun-God and Small-Boy took turns giving it
hard kicks, and each time the ball expanded. Creator told Wind to go
inside the ball and to blow it up.

Tarantula spun a black cord and, attaching it to the ball, crawled away
fast to the East, pulling on the cord with all his strength. Tarantula
repeated with a blue cord to the South, a yellow cord to the West, and a
white cord to the North. With mighty pulls in each direction, the brown
ball stretched to immeasurable size--it became the Earth! No hills,
mountains, or rivers were visible; only smooth, treeless, brown plains
appeared.

Creator scratched his chest and rubbed his fingers together and there
appeared Hummingbird.

"Fly North, South, East, and West and tell us what you see," said
Creator.

"All is well," reported Hummingbird upon his return. "The Earth is most
beautiful, with water on the West side."

But the Earth kept rolling and dancing up and down. So Creator made four
giant posts--black, blue, yellow, and white to support the Earth. Wind
carried the four posts, placing them beneath the four cardinal points of
the Earth. The Earth sat still.

Creator sang, "World is now made and now sits still," which he repeated
four times.

Then he began a song about the sky. None existed, but he thought there
should be one. After singing about it four times, twenty- eight people
appeared to help make a sky above the Earth. Creator chanted about
making chiefs for the Earth and sky.

He sent Lightning-Maker to encircle the world, and he returned with
three uncouth creatures, two girls and a boy found in a turquoise shell.
They had no eyes, ears, hair, mouths, noses, or teeth. They had arms and
legs, but no fingers or toes.

Sun-God sent for Fly to come and build a sweat house.
Girl-Without-Parents covered it with four heavy clouds. In front of the
East doorway she placed a soft, red cloud for a foot-blanket to be used
after the sweat.

Four stones were heated by the fire inside the sweat house. The three
uncouth creatures were placed inside. The others sang songs of healing
on the outside, until it was time for the sweat to be finished. Out came
the three strangers who stood upon the magic red cloud-blanket. Creator
then shook his hands toward them, giving each one fingers, toes, mouths,
eyes, ears, noses and hair.

Creator named the boy, Sky-Boy, to be chief of the Sky-People. One girl
he named Earth-Daughter, to take charge of the Earth and its crops. The
other girl he named Pollen-Girl, and gave her charge of health care for
all Earth- People.

Since the Earth was flat and barren, Creator thought it fun to create
animals, birds, trees, and a hill. He sent Pigeon to see how the world
looked. Four days later, he returned and reported, "All is beautiful
around the world. But four days from now, the water on the other side of
the Earth will rise and cause a mighty flood."

Creator made a very tall pinion tree. Girl-Without-Parents covered the
tree framework with pinion gum, creating a large, tight ball.

In four days, the flood occurred. Creator went up on a cloud, taking his
twenty-eight helpers with him. Girl-Without-Parents put the others into
the large, hollow ball, closing it tight at the top.

In twelve days, the water receded, leaving the float-ball high on a
hilltop. The rushing floodwater changed the plains into mountains,
hills, valleys, and rivers. Girl-Without-Parents led the gods out from
the float-ball onto the new Earth. She took them upon her cloud,
drifting upward until they met Creator with his helpers, who had
completed their work making the sky during the flood time on Earth.

Together the two clouds descended to a valley below. There,
Girl-Without- Parents gathered everyone together to listen to Creator.

"I am planning to leave you," he said. "I wish each of you to do your
best toward making a perfect, happy world.

"You, Lightning-Rumbler, shall have charge of clouds and water.

"You, Sky-Boy, look after all Sky-People.

"You, Earth-Daughter, take charge of all crops and Earth-People.

"You, Pollen-Girl, care for their health and guide them.

"You, Girl-Without-Parents, I leave you in charge over all."

Creator then turned toward Girl-Without-Parents and together they rubbed
their legs with their hands and quickly cast them forcefully downward.
Immediately between them arose a great pile of wood, over which Creator
waved a hand, creating fire.

Great billowy clouds of smoke at once drifted skyward. Into this cloud,
Creator disappeared. The other gods followed him in other clouds of
smoke, leaving the twenty-eight workers to people the Earth.

Sun-God went East to live and travel with the Sun. Girl-Without-Parents
departed Westward to live on the far horizon. Small-Boy and Pollen-Girl
made cloud homes in the South. Big Dipper can still be seen in the
Northern sky at night, a reliable guide to all.