 Most such monsters are cannibals
like Big Owl and Kicker-off-the-rocks. Child-of-the-Waters is the junior
twin; the helper of his elder bother. His name is a direct translation
of that of the Hindu Apam-Napat, himself an alias of Skanda, the Hindu
War-god. These two should be compared to the Twin War Gods of the Pueblo
Indians, as commented above.
The Exploits of the Twins
Navajo mythology hinges on
the exploits of the Twins in their quest of the mythical Center of Origin,
the Paradise they identify with the Whirling Mountain at the Center of
the World. In certain versions, this Paradise was reached by a man who
went down the Colorado River inside a hollow log. This myth can be understood
in the light of similar South American Indian myths.
The hollow log is really
a giant serpent (Anaconda) which is a sort of submarine, inside
which they came out from the underwater primordial abode. In other words,
the hollow log is an alias of the Ark, which is often likened to a giant
serpent both in the New and the Old Worlds.
South American Indian mythology
is presently far more complete than that of the North American Indians,
for down here many tribes still survive in their pristine state, and have
not yet been acculturated by the missionaries and other white influences.
But an in depth study of south American mythology clearly shows a fundamental
identity with that of their northern brothers, particularly insofar as
the myths of origin are concerned.
The Death and Resurrection of Wiyot
The Pueblo Indians and the
Luiseños turned migrants in imitation of the Twins. They thus attempted
to reach the Center of the Earth where their god, Wiyot, had hidden himself
after he died. Wiyot was the first of all men to die, and his death taught
his people the example. In fact, Wiyot later resurrected as the New Moon,
and became immortal.
The example of Wiyot is literally
copied from the Hindu one of Yama ("twin"). Yama is an alias of Varuna
as the lesser of the two Twins. Indeed, the stories of both Wiyot and Yama
anticipate that of Christ, who died and resurrected in order to teach his
worshippers that it can be done in practice. The death and resurrection
of Wiyot is an instance of those of the so-called Vegetation Gods of the
Old World. To this famous confrary also belong gods and heroes such as
Tammuz, Attis, Adonis, Agdistis, King Arthur, Hercules, and, of course,
Jesus Christ, Osiris and Dionysos.
What the story of Wiyot is
indeed telling is that the elder, the Solar Twin, dies and resurrects as the
lesser one, the Lunar Twin. In other words, what we have here is the alternance
of the eras and that of the ruling and ruled races with the passage of
time.
Even Plato seemed to believe
in this concept, as he held that we are sequentially born as males and
females (i.e. Solar and Lunar) in successive metempsychoses. Apparently,
victims and oppressors also change places. As one philosophical Indian
once said, "when we were on top, we stepped on the necks of the whites.
Now they re on top, and step on ours."
The Primordial Migration
The migrations of the Luiseños,
the Apaches and the Pueblos recall the identical ones of the Tupi-Guarani
Indians of Brazil. Even before the Portuguese arrived here, they knew their
world was doomed. So, they started migrating to the coast, awaiting for
the Saviour that would lead them safely across the Ocean, just as Moses,
Christ, and other such Tirthankaras ("Ford-makers" or, rather, "Saviours")
had done in Primordial times.
This mass migration precipitated
the downfall of the once mighty Tupi-Guarani nation. Out of their own bases,
these Indians became an easy prey for the Portuguese invaders, who cornered
them against the seas, and killed them off through starvation and purposefully
spread diseases such as smallpox and syphilis. More or less as happened
in North America, except that in a far larger scale, for the genocide there
was conducted by the government itself.
The pungent story of the
Tupi-Guarani migrations in quest of their Paradise, Yvymaraney (or "evil-less
land"), is one of the most touching dramas of the Amerindian saga in the
three Americas. We have told this sad story elsewhere, and will not return
to it here. Suffice it to say that the pilgrimages in quest of Paradise
and the Holy Land are perhaps the most prevalent of religious rituals in
the world.
Pilgrimages are done by the
Hindus and the Arabs, as well as by the Jews and the Christians alike.
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