162 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
greatness, but were mostly destroyed by a terrible flood, “the overturning of the
chiefs.” The Kumulipois a folk memory of the Pacific Ocean civilization over-
whelmed by natural catastrophe, as affirmed by repeated references to Mu.Kung-Kung
A flying dragon in the Chinese story of creation, which caused the Great
Flood by toppling the pillars of heaven with his fiery head. In the traditions of
other ancient peoples, most particularly the Babylonians, sky-borne dragons are
metaphors for destructive comets.
(See Asteroid Theory)Kurma
The avatar of Vishnu, in Vedic myth, as a turtle in the “second episode” of the
deluge story. Following the cataclysm, Kurma dove to the bottom of the sea, where
he found treasures lost during the Great Flood. He returned with them to the
surface, and led the survivors to life in a new land. Remarkably, his myth is virtually
identical to numerous Native American versions—Ho Chunk, Sioux, Sauk, and
so on—which refer to the North American Continent as “Turtle Island” after the
giant turtle that saved their ancestors from drowning in the Great Flood.Kusanagi
A magical sword originally belonging to Sagara, a dragon- or serpent-god living
in an opulent palace at the bottom of the sea. It passed for some time among
various members of Japan’s royal household, to whom it brought victory, but was
eventually returned to its rightful owner. The Kusanagi sword appears to have
been a mythic symbol for some technological heirloom from lost Lemuria. Sagara
also possessed the Pearl of Flood, able to cause a terrible deluge at his command.Kuskurza
Flood hero of the Hopi Indians in the American Southwest. He and his people
fled the cataclysmic destruction of their magnificent homeland formerly located
far out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. As the flood began to rise, Kuskurza
led them westward from island to sinking island until they reached safety on the
eastern shores of North America. The Hopi account of what appears to be the
Atlantean catastrophe reads in part, “Down on the bottom of the seas lie all the
proud virtue, and the flying patuwvotas, and the worldly treasures corrupted with
evil, and those people who found no time to sing praises to the Creator from the
tops of their hills.”
(See Hemet Maze Stone, Vimana)