Different cultures around the world have attempted to explain earthquakes in different ways. Here are some legends about what makes the ground shake!
India: The Earth is held up by four elephants that stand on the back of a turtle. The turtle is balanced on top of a cobra. When any of these animals move, the Earth trembles and shakes.
Assam (Between Bangladesh and China): There is a race of people living inside the Earth. From time to time, they shake the ground to find out if anyone is still living on the surface. When children feel a quake, they should shout "Alive, Alive!" so the people inside the Earth will know they are there and stop shaking.
Mexico: El Diablo, the devil, makes giant rips in the Earth from the inside. He and his devilish friends use the cracks when they want to come and stir up trouble on Earth.
Siberia: The Earth rests on a sled driven by a god named Tuli. The dogs who pull the sled have fleas. When they stop to scratch, the Earth shakes.
Japan: A great catfish, or namazu, lies curled up under the sea, with the islands of Japan resting on his back. A demigod, or daimyojin, holds a heavy stone over his head to keep him from moving. Once in a while, though, the daimyojin is distracted, the namazu moves, and the Earth trembles.
Mozambique: The Earth is a living creature, and it has the same kinds of problems people have. Sometimes, it gets sick with fever and chills and we can feel its shaking.
Greece: According to Aristotle, and also to William Shakespeare in a play called Henry IV, strong, wild winds are trapped and held in caverns under the ground. They struggle to escape, and earthquakes are the result of their struggle.
Belgium: When people on Earth are very, very sinful, God sends an angry angel to strike the air that surrounds our planet. The blows produce a musical tone that is felt on the Earth as a series of shocks.
American Indian: Once a Chickasaw chief was in love with a Choctaw princess. He was young and handsome, but he had a twisted foot, so his people called him Reelfoot. When the princess' father refused to give Reel foot his daughter's hand, the chief and his friends kidnapped her and began to celebrate their marriage. The Great Spirit was angry and stomped his foot. The shock caused the Mississippi River to overflow its banks and drown the entire wedding party. (Reel foot Lake, on the Tennessee side of the Mississippi River, was formed as a result of the New Madrid earthquake of 1812.)
West Africa: The Earth is a flat disk, held up on one side by an enormous mountain and on the other by a giant. The giant's wife holds up the sky. The Earth trembles when he stops to hug her.
India: Seven serpents share the task of guarding the seven sections of the lowest heaven. The seven of them also take turns holding up the Earth. When one finishes its turn and another moves into place, people on the Earth may feel a jolt.
Latvia: A god named Drebkuhls carries the Earth in his arms as he walks through the heavens. When he's having a bad day, he might handle his burden a little roughly. Then the Earth will feel the shaking.
Colombia: When the Earth was first made, it rested firmly on three large beams of wood. But one day the god Chibchacum decided that it would be fun to see the plain of Bogotá underwater. He flooded the land, and for his punishment he is forced to carry the world on his shoulders. Sometimes he's angry and stomps, shaking the Earth.
Scandinavia: The god Loki is being punished for the murder of his brother, Baldur. He is tied to a rock in an underground cave. Above his face is a serpent dripping poison, which Loki's sister catches in a bowl. From time to time, she has to go away to empty the bowl. Then the poison falls on Loki's face. He twists and wiggles to avoid it, and the ground shakes up above him.
New Zealand: Mother Earth has a child within her womb, the young god Ru. When he stretches and kicks as babies do, he causes earthquakes.
East Africa: A giant fish carries a stone on his back. A cow stands on a stone, balancing the Earth on one of her horns. From time to time, her neck begins to ache, and she tosses the globe from one horn to the other.
Central America: Square Earth is held up at its four corners by four gods. When they decide the Earth is becoming overpopulated, they tip it to get rid of surplus people.
Romania: The world rests on the divine pillars of faith, hope and charity. When the deeds of human beings make one of the pillars weak, the Earth shakes.
West Africa: A giant carries the Earth on his head. All the plants that grow on the Earth are his hair, and people and animals are the insects that crawl through his hair. He usually sits and faces the east, but once in a while he turns to the west and then back to the east, with a jolt that is felt as an earthquake.
Earthquakes have, for a long time, been the subjects of legends. Every society has turned to legends and myths to explain why the Earth, which is often referred to as the mother of all men, would destroy man’s habitations and claim so many lives.
Primitive peoples accredited the quaking of the Earth to the actions of great beasts. These beasts were similar to the creatures that exist today. Most early ideas used the principle that the Earth was a platform that was supported by someone or something.
The Hindu mythology of India described these supporters as eight mighty elephants, and when one grew tired it lowered its head and created an earthquake. To Mongolian lamas, the super being was a gigantic frog that carried the Earth on its back, and twitched periodically. Some ancient civilizations believed that the earth was situated in the middle of a circle made by a serpent that was trying to eat its own tail. This theory stated that the Earth was a giant, cracking egg and that inside it was probably another serpent. Native Americans believed that the world was on a turtle’s back. Another philosophy stated that the world was held on the horns of four bulls. When they grew restless, they tossed it back and forth, creating earthquakes.
The Celebs of the South Sea Islands believed that the Earth was perched unsteadily on the back of a hog. When a tremor occurred it was because the hog had an itch on its back and was rubbing it against the tree that grew in the cosmic grove where he lived. When loud rumbling accompanied the earthquakes they explained that the hog was grunting from the satisfaction of relieving his itch.
Many African storytellers said that all life sprouted from a living giant. Some said that life existed on the giant’s head. In this fable the plants, trees, flowers, and grasses were his hair and the animals and people living on him were the parasites that wandered around his scalp. Earthquakes occurred when the giant sneezed, twitched, or turned his head suddenly. Other storytellers explained that the Earth existed on the back of a foul –tempered giant. The Earth shook when he fought with his brother giants, who also had planets existing on their backs. Finally some of the wise elders of the African tribes believed that the giant was extremely gentle and affectionate. They prophesized that when he and his wife embraced, they had so
much vigor that the whole Earth shook during their times of passion.
Other cultures envisioned that the earth was suspended in an infinite sea. According to the Altaic Tartars, Ulgan, the god of creation, created the Earth by placing a large disk shaped piece of land on the endless ocean. Three great fish were placed under it for support. Their sudden movements cause the earthquakes that still rock some parts of Siberia today.
This idea was also strongly supported by the Japanese. They believed that a monstrous catfish kept the ground afloat. When he flipped the earth shook. This catfish was named Namazu. In different versions of this legend the catfish lived in the mud beneath the Earth. This catfish was wild, and could only be restrained from its thrashing by the Kashima god. He is the god that is believed to protect Japan from earthquakes. As long as Kashima kept the catfish pinned down by his "keystone", a mighty rock with divine powers, the Earth was still. But whenever the Kashima relaxed his guard, the Namazu would thrash and the Earth would shake.
In October 1855, a ruinous quake rocked the area of Edo; this is now known as Tokyo. The quake killed thousands of people. This disaster coincided with the ritual " a month without gods", the time every October when the gods were said to gather at a distant shrine. According to the superstitious citizens of Edo, the gods’ absence freed the Namazu to indulge in his fatal antics.
This proof of the ancient myth inspired artists to transform the legend into visual images with a series of popular wood- block prints referred to as Namazu-e. These pictures are included in this site. The prints and do not simply illustrate the legend, but they are created to cheer the survivors of past earthquakes. They are said to represent the cowardliness of the catfish in the presence of the all high and mighty Gods. When a print is hung in a home it is said to assure the homeowners of "ten thousand years of happiness".
Through evolution cultures spread out and as they did the societies that they met adopted their culture. When they did they also adapted it to fit their lifestyle. When Hinduism spread north from southern India, its traditional mythology was changed and so was the people view of how earthquakes were created. They developed the philosophy that that at one point in the distant past, the Earth was all water. The god Batara Guru created the existing land by sending a handful of dust to his daughter, who lived in the endless ocean that existed below him. When the dust was put into the ocean it made a large island. This made Naga Pahoho, the serpent who lived beneath the ocean, furious. He arched his mighty back and made the island float away. This angered Batara Guru, so he sent down more dust and a h