Tidilick

Research on ancient floods is turning up some astounding discoveries, including the myth of a giant frog who one day got very, very thirsty. The giant frog of the Australian Outback tells us a lot about the flood myth of the Aborigines, but the giant faith of Noah tells us even more about a loving and beneficent God.

Tidilick the Giant Frog. And Noah, the builder of a giant boat. What do they have in common?

Both got wet, according to ancient tales of cataclysmic floods.

Noah you know. But Tidilick?
In aboriginal mythology, Tidilick the Giant Frog is said to have drained every drop of water in the Outback. His friends, the kangaroos, grew thirsty, as you might expect they would, but they didn't know what to do.

Finally, one smart kangaroo thought to tickle Tidilick. When the frog laughed, his water broke, as it were, creating an enormous flood that washed everyone out of their homes. It was a wet, wild day.

It's just a story. It never really happened. A giant frog? Naah. But a giant flood? Absolutely.

The Outback, as you may know, is desert. Dry. Dusty. Flat. Big horizon. Nothing much there. But it wasn't always that way. Long ago there was water, and plenty of it. And a terrific flood once flowed out there in the Outback about 5,000 years ago.

Dr. Mary Bourke, a geomorphologist for the Smithsonian...