T: Tahiti to Tyche 261
version recounts that “the world was once a great tortoise, borne on the waters and
covered with earth. One day, in digging the soil, a tribe of white men who had made
holes in the earth to a great depth, digging for badgers, at length perceived the shell of
the tortoise. It sank, and the water covering it drowned all men with the exception of
one, who saved himself in a boat.” Donnelly wrote, “The holes dug to find badgers
were a savage’s recollection of mining operations; and when the great disaster came,
and the island sunk in the sea amid volcanic convulsions, doubtless men said it was
due to the deep mines, which had opened the ways to the central fires.”
Among the Arapaho, Turtle Woman is a creator-goddess, who dredged up
mud from the bottom of the universal deluge to remake the Earth.
(See Bronze Age)Tamil Sangham
In oral traditions from the south of India, an exclusive academy for spiritual
initiates located on a distant island of mountain ranges, beautiful rivers, lush veg-
etation, abundant animals and 49 provinces. Tamil Sangham was destroyed in a
sudden convulsion of nature that pulled the island to the bottom of the sea. Some
of its students survived, however, to pass their wisdom on to Hindu mystics.Ta-mu
Literally “the Man from Mu,” he was a deluge hero of the Carib Indians. Ta-mu
was described as a fair-complected, light-haired, and light-bearded “sorcerer,” who
escaped a terrible catastrophe at sea. It was Ta-mu with whom the 16th century
Spanish conquerors were compared by the natives.
(See Mu)Ta n g i s
According to the Berber scholar, Ouzzin, Tangiers was named after Tangis, a
princess who founded the Moroccan city before she was lost at sea. Later, her
husband was involved in the Greek war against Atlantis.Taprobane
Known to classical Greeks and Romans, the famous geographer Strabo described
it as the “beginning of another world.” They believed Taprobane was located, at
most, 20 days sail from the southern tip of India. A number of unspecified islands,
probably the Cocos, were supposedly passed en route to the large island with its
500 towns. Taprobane may have been Australia but was certainly not Mu, as some
modern investigators speculate.