(6) Prajapati(c Lord of creatures') bethought himself: 'Come, let me provide him a firm basis! J So he created woman. When he had created her, he revered her below. — Therefore one should revere woman below. — He stretched out for him- self that stone which projects. With that he impregnated her.

(3) After the deluge sent by the gods to destroy mankind at the close of the Iron Age, only Deucalion and Pyrrha were left alive. Entering a ruined sanctuary to pray, they were directed by an oracle to depart from the temple and with heads veiled and garments unbound cast behind them the bones of their mother. Construing the cryptic message of the god to mean that the earth was the Great Mother of all creatures, Deucalion picked up loose rocks and, bidding Pyrrha do likewise, cast them behind him. From these rocks there sprang forth a new and stalwart race of human beings, the rocks thrown by Deucalion becoming men and those thrown by Pyrrha becoming women. In this allegory is epitomized the mystery of human evolution; for spirit, by ensouling matter, becomes that indwelling power which gradually but sequentially raises the mineral to the status of the plant; the plant to the plane of the animal; the animal to the dignity of man; and man to the estate of the gods.

(3) Having first created mankind together with sacrifices, the Prajapati said, "By this shall ye propagate; let this be to you the cow of plenty.