Morningstar: Chapter 20: Birds, Snakes, and Dragons

 

Chapter 20: Birds, Snakes, and Dragons

         

          We played a quick game of Clue.  I could have won but just had so much fun talking and being with friends.  D’Lisa eventually won the game and when we told her about the next journal topic she was intrigued and wanted to look through it with us.

          As I was pulling the information back up on my computer, I asked; “I think I heard that The Shoshone are also called Snake. Is that true?”

          “Yeah, the Shoshone used to be called the Snake Indians; but I have no idea why. I think I’ve heard different things; but still don’t understand,” answered Amanda.

          “That’s partly because it’s kind of a… touchy subject,” continued D’Lisa. “Some people get really upset about it.  One of my uncles is really into Shoshone history and talks about history and ethnography all the time. … I only know that word because he uses it a lot.  Anyway, there’s lots of disagreement about where the name came from.   A lot of the traditional enemies of the Shoshone, like the Blackfeet, Cheyenne, and Sioux, called us the Snake.  When referring to us they used their word for Snake or Rattlesnake.  Some Blackfeet said it was because the Snake used to put snake heads on the end of sticks and carry them into Battle.

          There’s also an old story about this incredible snake who had four legs and feet like other animals.  The other snakes didn’t like him because he was different, so they chased him away.  He met some animals who helped him and some that wanted to kill him.  Finally, he found human beings who liked him, and they let him live with them.  While he was there he fell in love with a beautiful young woman and wanted to marry her; but he couldn’t because he was a snake.  The villagers respected him; but the whole snake marrying a person, thing wasn’t working out.  He became so depressed that he got sick and a medicine man in the village decided to help him. The medicine man went on a long journey and finally spoke to the sun and asked for a favor.  Because the medicine man was very good and wasn’t asking for anything for himself the sun granted his wish, and the snake was turned into a person.  After considering how greatly blessed the snake had been by the sun, the chief granted the snake/person’s wish and gave his daughter to the snake, who was now a man. They were married and loved each other very much.  They were very good to each other and had lots of children.  According to this legend, that was the beginning of the Snake People.”

          “A snake with four legs, sounds a little like a certain kind of Chinese dragon I’ve seen in some parades in San Francisco… but often with even more than four legs,”  I added.

          After a pause where we all seemed to be deep in thought, D’Lisa then continued again; “The most boring explanation is that a lot of the Shoshone, especially those in Nevada and the western parts of Utah lived in grass huts most of the time… Something I’m personally glad we don’t do any more.  Anyway, in Indian sign language, the sign for grass and the sign for Snake are pretty close.” D’Lisa then lifted her arm up with her hand pointing up moving her hand sort of like a hula dancer. “I’m not positive; but it’s sort of like this.”

          “That’s really cool D’Lisa… What about the snake river?  Is there any connection there?”

          “Maybe; but I don’t know anything about it if there is.” 

          There was another short pause, then wanting to move on to the journal…  “OK, let’s see what Bobby and the Lings had to say about Birds, Snakes, and Dragons. How bout if I print it out and we all read through it and see if we can summarize the most important parts.”

          “I don’t know how much I’ll understand, but I’ll give it a try;” responded D’Lisa

          “Me too, don’t know if I’ll do; but I’ll try;” added Amanda with a grin.

          I then printed out that portion of the journal from my previous scanning, and gave each of us a copy, plus a pencil and highlighter…

          After just a few minutes…

          “This is really interesting,” exclaimed Amanda, “Bobby and the lings were doing this research because they were looking for something to help Cara.  She was super sick, didn’t have long to live and they pretty much gave up on finding a cure with traditional medicine.  Sarah Teeples told us that part; but the thing is, Cara wasn’t the one really pushing to find another cure.  It looks like, as Bobby puts it here, she was ‘resigned to her fate’ however it turned out.  Alan was the one that seemed the most anxious about everything.”

          “Yeah, I noticed that too;” I made a note as Amanda was talking. 

          Amanda then continued. “Yeah, Bobby says there’s a big connection between snakes, medicine, life and death, from all over the world.  They must have been looking for some kind of supernatural power to help Cara.”

          “I don’t know if it was a supernatural power or what; but, Bobby talks a lot about mythical gods around the Mediterranean, Central America, and Egypt.” I was really struggling to understand what Bobby, and in some instances Alan, had written.  Most of this was way over my head. “Look here,” I pointed out. “There’s a Phoenician god, that’s from part of the area that’s now Lebanon and Israel, who was called Eshmun.  His symbol was a snake.  There’s another Greek god called Asclepius, he was associated with the Greek god Hermes.  And according to this the Romans changed the name of Hermes to Mercury… that’s one of the morning stars… which is one of the journal topics.  All of these gods seemed to have something to do with medicine and healing.

          Ya know, it’s kind of a coincidence that we’re in the middle of this mystery, reading all this stuff about supernatural extraordinary snakes … and it’s kind-a ironic, I‘m sitting here with two extraordinary Snakes.  Maybe you two have supernatural powers I don’t know about.”  I grinned as I gave both of them a little shove.

          “Very funny Anna,” responded Amanda.

          Followed by a slightly annoyed; “I don’t think so.” from D‘Lisa.  “Back to what we’re supposed to be talking about, do you think they wanted these gods to heal Cara?” D‘Lisa‘s face had a puzzled look.

          “I don’t think so.” I answered while questioning my answer.  “I think they were looking at them like clues.  Hoping they would lead to some other secret that might help Cara.  Maybe an original source, or power, or something.  There’s lots in and out of this world we don’t understand. … Some of this might be symbolic… representing something totally different.  It’s hard to tell, at least from what I get from reading this” 

          “Here’s something else interesting, the Romans changed the name of Asclepius to Aesculapius… however you say that.  His symbol was the Caduceus, like those two symbols on the outside of this house;” added Amanda.  “I thought the Caduceus was Hermes symbol.  I’m confused.”

          “That’s confusing to me too,” I admitted.

          We each continued to read in silence for a while.

          “Most of this stuff is way over my head,” D‘Lisa finally said; “but I know this word, Adonai, those Phoenicians called that Eshmun god, Adonai.  That’s one of the names the Israelites used for Jehovah in the Old Testament.  I guess I have learned something after all these years in church… or maybe I heard it in an Amy Grant song… anyway, I learned it some place.”

          Then after another pause while we read, Amanda pointed out; “there’s some other lion headed snake associated with that Hermes guy. Looks like one of the things that fascinated these people about snakes was how they could easily take life and it seemed to them like they were born again every time they slithered out of and lost their old skins.”

          “What are you talking about?” I asked. “Snakes lose their skin?”

          “Well, so do we silly, ours just kind of flakes off a little at a time. Snakes totally crawl out of theirs after they’ve grown a new one. Then they leave their old skin, wherever,” answered Amanda.

          “Well, aren’t both of you the smart ones.” I added. “I’ve never heard of Adonai,” and then shrugging my shoulders and looking at Amanda, “I had no idea snakes crawled out of their skins. Kind-a gross.”

          “Yeah, I hate snakes.” Said Amanda.

          “Me too, don’t like to be around them, don’t even like to watch them on TV;” added D’Lisa.

          We continued to read in silence for a few more minutes.

          “There’s a bunch of stuff here about Central America too. When I went to the library, I saw this name.  I looked it up a couple weeks ago on the internet.  Quetzalcoatl was a major god in Central America. They thought he was like this snake with feathers.  Bobby says he’s associated with the Morningstar.  If I remember right, he was also associated with the Quetzal bird.  It’s this really beautiful dainty looking multi-colored bird in Central America.  Let me show you, I’ll pull it up on the internet.”  I quickly pulled some pictures of Quetzal birds up on the internet.  After the three of us looked at the pictures on the internet, commenting on the ones we thought were the prettiest, I continued; “Bobby and Alan also write a little about this other creator god they called Gukumatz, or something like that. He was described as a really huge snake with blue-green feathers.  There seem to be some similarities between this Gukumatz guy and Quetzalcoatl.”

          “I wonder what snakes with feathers have to do with all of this.  It seems to come up a lot in here.” said D’Lisa.

          “I think it was like we talked about; they were looking for something to help Cara.  These were probably just clues they were gathering. … Or like I said before, maybe it’s all symbolic of something else.” I answered.

          “Do you think they might have found what they were looking for?” asked Amanda.

          All three of us paused for a minute or two, I was thinking about Amanda’s question, then she spoke again without waiting for an answer.

          “One of the things we were just talking about reminds me, have you ever shown D’Lisa what Charlie made you?  It has to be related, somehow.”

          After another long pause, I finally answered. “I’m sorry, I was thinking about your other question. … Yeah, I’ve wondered the same thing about Charlie’s gift.  Morningstar keeps coming up and it is one of the topics in Bobby’s journal.”  I pulled the Morningstar Charlie gave me from under my shirt.  As I did, I stroked it a couple of times with my index finger, thinking about my day with Charlie.  It seemed like a lifetime ago.  Then, holding it towards D‘Lisa; “Charlie gave me this to me.  It’s the Native American symbol for the Morningstar.  He must have known what was going on with the Lings and Bobby… And, he must have known I‘d be more involved than just asking a few questions.  There had to be a reason he made it for me.  The thing that really drives me crazy is that he made it before he ever met me.  Amanda’s right, somehow it has to be related to all of this.”

          “That is weird.” It was still around my neck being held there by a long, thin piece of leather tied at the back of my neck. D’Lisa reached out to handle it and look more closely.  She studied it, then turned it over to look at the Black Eagle on the back, then very slowly and deliberately said; “this really is cool! I’m glad you have something to help you remember Charlie.” … Then letting go of the carving and after another long pause, she returned our attention to the journal; “there’s something else I wanted to show you guys.  Some more things from the Old Testament.  Bobby talks about a brass serpent Moses made to heal people who had been bitten by the fiery serpents.  And there’s something else here.  He talks about how God cursed the snakes, or at least one snake, so it would have to slither around on its belly.  I wonder if snakes used to have legs and feet like in the legend… I sure hope we didn’t come from snakes.”

          “Oh, gross D’Lisa, we did not come from snakes,” insisted Amanda

          “Don’t worry, I’m sure nobody came from snakes; …but you know… legends usually do start with something that’s true.” I giggled to make sure they understood I was kidding.

          “Ok, enough of that,” interrupted Amanda, while also bringing us back to the subject of the journal. “Remember that Egyptian god we learned about? I think it was 5^th or 6^th grade. “Re?” Anyway, according to this, he had this girlfriend named Wadjet. She became the “eye of Re.” Anyway, she was a snake, and she was green. We’ve been reading a lot about the color green.  Like blue and green feathers for that other god in the journal… Remember that drawing you had from the library and the one T.J. had. There was a Jade stone. Well, isn’t Jade green?”

          “Yeah, Jade’s green.” I answered.

          “Well, remember, when we were outside digging up that box and that creepy Cid scared the bajebies out of us? There were some odd-looking stones on the wall. I didn’t think anything about it then, just that they were unusual.  Anyway, they’re all pretty dirty, but there’s one that’s kind of green and three that are a really dirty white, like in the drawing.”

          “Oh my gosh, you’re right. I’ll get my camera. Let’s go.”

          The three of us got on our coats and boots and I grabbed a camera as we ran outside. Amanda was right, just like in the drawings. I started pulling at the Ivy with my hands, but that hurt too much.

          “Amanda, would you go in the kitchen. Under the sink on the left is an old bucket with a rag.  Would you put hot water and some soap in the bucket and bring the rag and bucket out.  I’ll take the crowbar, we left out back to the shed and grab some clippers and a couple pairs of gloves. We’ll have to cut and pull the Ivy and some of these lilac branches so we can get a good picture. Sound good?”

          “What do you want me to do?” asked D’Lisa.

          “Come help me find the gloves and clippers.”

          In just a few minutes the three of us were back at the wall.  Amanda was washing the layers of dirt off the four stones and D’Lisa and I were clipping and pulling branches and vines so I could get a good picture.

          “Wow! This is amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen rocks this white… unless they were painted.  And this green one, it’s beautiful. Do you think it’s really jade? Isn’t jade worth a lot of money?” Asked Amanda.

          “Yeah, I think it‘s valuable; but I don’t think there’s any jade around here.  If this is all the original wall, where would the Johnson’s get a piece of jade? It must be something else,” I answered.

          I took a couple pictures of the wall.  The weather was slowly starting to warm up, but there was still some snow and it was cold enough to not want to stay outside any longer than we had to.

          “This is getting exciting;” said D’Lisa, let’s grab something to eat and get into the next section.  Maybe we’ll find something else.”

          “What about Dragons?” asked Amanda.  “I didn’t see anything about Dragons.”

          “There was just a little there, speculation and questions really.  Wondering if the legends about dragons came from walking snakes with wings.  I didn’t think it was anything important.”