Parentage Statements as Earthmen (Serpents)
vs Birdmen (Kawi'l-Cigar Head)
What did a "Cave" mean to the Olmecs? According to
the experts, caves were only the homes of very primitive peoples.
Yet, if people fled to the caves as protection when the comet passed close
to the earth and created a unimaginable (to us) heat wave,then it would have
been feasible for those people to live some time within the caves. When
the comet passed the first time, with its heat, it killed animals and humans
alike. Their companions within those confines were serpents, so it ws only
natural for them to portray their "Mother-Father" parentage as serpent people
(earthmen) with their lower extremities as snake tails. It is only a graphic
explanation of where these people came from, not an image of a mythical being.
Those who did not gain entrance to the caves died, or were killed outright so
they would not destroy the fragile existence of those who had reached the
safety of the caves with their limited supplies.
The time spent in the caves was fairly long. They had eaten all of
the livestock that they were able to bring and were reduced to using human excrement
for cooking fuel. People stood in the cool recesses of the caves, looking out,
yearning to return to their homes, to the sunlight and to their crops.
These things are known and recorded.When
the worst of the heat passed, two groups of men went out into the sunlight. The
first marked places where the dead bodies lay rotting. The second, came behind
and buried those bodies. When a large enough area was cleansed in this way, the
men returned to the caves and told their countrymen that the land was safe again.
The journey home was difficult. The "Mother-Fathers" had to teach the
young how to plant, how to weave, and how to survive on the land. Those that
descended from this group of people, apparently elected their ruler. He is shown
as a inhabitant of the caves.(See above) Apparently, there was also a group of people
who survived the heat but were not in the caves. These people decided that the
comet was the symbol of power: Kawi'l, the "great serpent" of the sky.
It was the son of Pacal, the astronomer, who became that first
transgovernmental ruler: Chan Balaam. He is shown with the leg of a serpent
and a mask of Kawi'l, with the cigar-torch in the forehead. The time for change
had come to the Maya and it was good.
