Nexus - 0802 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

3. The New World they also see these as subsequent cavern worlds, each one lower Native American cultures have similar beliefs in an extensive, than the next and each one eventually abandoned and destroyed in layered realm of caverns which is hidden beneath their feet. This turn. While still in the murky "third world", the Hopi ancestors murky world is believed to be inhabited by both human and came into contact with the mysterious "ant people", an ectomor- humanoid beings and by a variety of monsters and demons. phic race or species which greatly resembles the Gala of Sumerian Most tribes or nations have their own traditions of subterranean myth, and at some point they also came into conflict with the "ser- "little people", as well as other motifs pent people". Like other tribes, their under- including reptilian or serpent-like humanoid world mythos is filled with cataclysms and beings. In addition to this, many tribes floods. At least one of their previous worlds believe that they themselves emerged from a was said to have been "in the east". mythical underworld ages before. Combined with the flood element, this leg- The Mescalero Apache have many of end is very similar to Apache and Aztec tra- these beliefs. One of their oldest sacred tra- The underworld ditions. ditions states that they came from the dwellers were a The Choctaw (Cha'ta) people of Old Red Fire Land before the Great Flood. This land is said to have been in the distant eastern (Atlantic) sea but was destroyed by a combination of del- uge and volcanic cataclysms. Escaping through "great caverns" and tunnel sys- tems, the ancestors of the Apache came to high mountain lands far to the south, where they built new cities. A series of misfortunes there, however, eventually drove them northward. This legend is nearly identical to the origin story as related in the Chilam Bilaam of the Maya, and brings to Mississippi also have a myth of under- ground origins. They believe that their ancestors emerged from the Nanih Waiya cave mound, a 50-foot-tall nat- ural geological formation which is hid- den in a swampy forest area, approxi- mately one-and-a-half miles east of a better-known artificial mound and tourist site. The hill has several natural openings, some of which have been "sealed up" (the Park Service seems to have no good explanation for this), and it is said by the Choctaw to be the entrance to a vast underground realm. mixture of human, reptilian and other animal characteristics, and the rain-god Chac was a long-nosed, fanged, humanoid creature very similar to the Egyptian god Set. mind both Mayan and Aztec origin myths. One legend has it that in ancient times the The Aztecs say that they originated in a land Choctaw were invaded by a race of red- and called Aztlan, obviously synonymous with blond-haired, white-skinned giants who bore Atlan or Atlantis, the destruction of which "sharp clubs" (swords?) and axes and wore they also escaped. After this, they ended up an extra, thick skin (chain or leather mail?) in a cavern world called Chicomoztoc, or the which made them impervious to arrow, spear Seven Cavern Cities of Gold, where they lived for some time and warclub. Add the touch that some of these Nahullo, or giants, before emerging again into the surface world. had "horns", and these white invaders sound suspiciously like In addition to believing in a vast, nine-layered underworld filled wandering Norsemen. Whatever their origin or identity might with strange beings, the chief god of the Maya, called Itzamna have been, these invaders drove the Choctaw into hiding. (meaning "iguana house"), was depicted as an anthropomorphic The world beneath the cave mound where the Choctaw hid was lizard, snake, cayman or dragon. The underworld dwellers were a _a large series of caverns through which a river or rivers ran (the mixture of human, reptilian and other animal characteristics, and r the rain-god Chac was a long-nosed, fanged, humanoid creature very similar to the Egyptian god Set. The underworld, called Xibalba, is the location of most of the action in the Popol Vuh, a priestly epic of the Maya. In the Popol Vuh, two semi-divine brothers, Hunapuh and Xbalanque, have to journey into a realm of horrors beneath the earth in order to defeat those who are the enemies of their father and his family and who threaten their own ascendancy to power. In Xibalba, they come into conflict with Zipacna (a crocodile-headed monster), Seven Macaw (a bird-headed creature), the maker of earthquakes, and other familiar forms. An interesting event occurs when the vengeance-seeking brothers devise a way to pick out the 12 lords of Xibalba from identical "mannikins" or robotic Ushabti-like fig- ures, so as to destroy the lords of the underworld. The twins eventually defeat their rivals and take over the rulership them- selves, bringing an end to human sacrifice as part of the deal. These events preceded and made possible the "modern" epoch of time. The Hopi of the southwest desert, descendants of the mysteri- ous Anasazi people, have an equally strange tradition. They believe that as a people they migrated from a series of previously extant "worlds"—usually interpreted as "ages" or "epochs", but Tengu, Japanese bird-headed (reptilian) humanoids reptilian and other animal characteristics, a 1 ae was a long-nosed, fanged, humanoid creature very similar to the Egyptian god Set. NEXUS -63 3. The New World The underworld dwellers were a mixture of human, and the rain-god Chac FEBRUARY — MARCH 2001