Prey For Me Ch. 11

"One more noteworthy series of events. While this Golden Wedge of Ophir may have had a traveled history, so did Cortes' remains. He was originally buried in 1547 in a vault in the city of San Isidro. In 1562 his remains were removed by order of his son, transported to New Spain and reburied in Tezcuco by the side of his mother and a daughter. In 1629 his remains were moved again to the church of St. Francis in Mexico City. In 1794 his bones were moved to the Hospital of Jesus of Nazareth. In 1823 the vault that contained his remains were desecrated by patriotic mobs celebrating national independence.

"Well, enough about Cortes. It is rather certain he did once possess the Golden Wedge of Ophir but lost it the night of 'noche triste' and was never able to recover it. It is also rather certain he attached some religious significance to it and suspected it was possibly of some Hebrew origin or influence, in that it was called 'leshonah' by Montezuma. Cortez had asked Montezuma from where it came from and was told it was of the Olmecs. One reason Montezuma parted with the object so readily was that it had no religious significance to him.

"Let's talk about the Olmec. Archaeologists and anthropologists agree they were the first civilization in Mesoamerica. But where did they come from? They just 'appeared' fully formed as a culture several thousand years ago. They were concentrated in the southern provinces of Mexico, Veracruz and Tabasco, but without question they also spent time in and around Mexico City.

"The Olmec influence, at the time of King Solomon ... yes, that's what I said ... at the time of King Solomon had spread into what is now Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras and elsewhere. Human sacrifice, cannibalism, was found to have existed wherever the Olmec were found to have been.

"The three most important evidences of Olmec culture are found in three ruins, at La Venta, at Tres Zapotes and at San Lorenso. In La Venta, which is on an island in the Mexican Tabasco Province, there is a large pyramid about 300 feet high. What is it with all these pyramids? Almost sounds like Egypt, 'eh?" This is where many of the huge jade heads are."

Kim added, "Caitlin, your friend Nathaniel was just telling us about those."

"Yeah, Kim, but don't believe everything he says. He tends to exaggerate. Anyway, San Lorenzo is in southern Veracruz and is considered to be the earliest ceremonial Olmec site. More of these gigantic heads had been buried there. The site at Tres Zapotes shows clear evidence of class structure and a society similar in complexity, to for example, that of Israel at the time of King Solomon.

"But perhaps the most impressive legacy of the Olmec is the great pyramid called Tlahchiualtepl which is in Cholula, about 60 miles southeast of Mexico City. It is about three times as large, in terms of mass, as the Great Pyramid at Giza. Actually, the archaeologists maintain it was begun by the Olmecs and added to by later civilizations including the Aztecs.

"Now, this is a theory I have heard. Let me reiterate. This is just a theory that is a possible explanation for the Olmec. Some say the Olmec came to Mesoamerica from Europe more than 3,000 years ago. And don't tell me the Atlantic couldn't be crossed back then if that is how they possibly arrived in the new world. I think it has been proven quite conclusively in recent years that the Atlantic can be crossed in rather primitive vessels.

"Spain was invaded by an army of Eqyptians and North African nations in 1883 BC. Gerion led this army. This Gerion was said to be the son of Arba, the father of the giants of Joshua 15:13. The giants! Gerion was slain and his army fled to the New World. According to anthropologists there were two distinct ethnic groups which made up the Olmec culture. I just mentioned one. My Native American friend Nathaniel may have told you about the Red Record and how his people, the Lenni Lanape, drove the Olmec out of North America.

"I personally believe the Lenni Lanape and the Iroquois were of the twelve tribes of Israel, specifically of the tribe of Dan. I personally believe that the other ethnic group of the Olmec were Canaanites. This explanation would explain the Hebrew word 'leshonah.' There is an incredible amount of evidence of the Hebrew language in the Americas thousands of years ago. There is no other explanation that makes sense to me other than Hebrews did come to the Americas way back when."

"Whew!" Jack exclaimed as Caitlin paused. "That is quite some story, Caitlin."

"Jack," Caitlin continued, "you once mentioned the Rosetta Stone. You mentioned it since Danel, one of our Harley riding 'locusts' mentioned it in conversations with the woman he persuaded to mysteriously disappear, Laurie Johnston, and her daughter Rachael and friend and neighbor Joshua.

"Napoleon's men discovered the Rosetta Stone in 1799 near the town of, what else, Rosetta, in lower Egypt near the sea. Now the Rosetta Stone is in London at the British Museum. It is made of black basalt and is older than Jesus Christ by two hundred years or thereabouts. The Rosetta Stone declares, three times, a royal decree praising the Egyptian king Ptolemy V. The proclamation is declared three times, once in Greek, one in hieroglyphic and once in demotic. By comparing the known Greek to the hieroglyphic and demotic, a French Egyptologist named Jean Francois Champollion and a British physicist named Thomas Young were able to decipher the hieroglyphic and demotic. Do you hear what I am saying? Until two hundred years ago not even the Egyptians could read what they wrote thousand of years ago in the Great Pyramid of Giza and elsewhere. A language lost for thousands of years."

"Caitlin?" Sam asked, "how in the world do you remember all this stuff? The names and everything?"

"Well hell, Sam," Caitlin replied cryptically, "I have a photographic memory. It's not my fucking fault."

"Well whatever," Kim added, "keep talking Caitlin. This is absolutely fascinating."

"If you insist, Kim. The Wallum Ollum, also known as the Red Record, like the Rosetta Stone, has unlocked many mysteries. It became known in the 1820's as its prayer sticks of wood and bark were interpreted by archaelogists and anthropologists. Just like the Rosetta Stone. An unknown language became known. Lenni Lenape means 'original people.' It was Captain Samuel Argall who sailed the Lenape River and named the people he found there and the river 'Delaware' after his mentor, Lord De La War.

"The Red Record is a history of almost one hundred generations of Native Americans. No doubt some of it is myth as all histories are. History is according to who wrote it just as truth is according to who tells it. But I have concluded some of it is how it really happened. Particularly of interest to me are the wars with the Talegwi, the giants, which raged over four generations. Finally the Lenni Lenape, with the help of my people the Iroquois, drove the Talegwi away, to the south to Mexico and beyond.

"You can read the Red Record for yourself, but here is an interesting excerpt from another work, Moundbuilders of Ancient America, by Robert Silverberg ... 'The Lenape discovered that the country east of the Mississippi was inhabited by a very powerful nation who had many large towns built on the great rivers flowing through their land. Those people called themselves Talegwi ... Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They are said to have been remarkably tall and stout, and there is a tradition that there were giants among them, people of a much larger size than the tallest of the Lenape.' Giants you say?

"Here is an excerpt from the Red Record itself. The Lenni Lenape asked to cross the Mississippi River and settle in Talegwi territory ... 'The Talegwi king denied this request, but promised to permit the Lenape to pass through his lands to find homes farther east. Peacefully, the Lenape began to cross the Mississippi. But when the Talegwi king saw how numerous the Lenape were, he became frightened, and ordered his warriors to attack. Talegwi war canoes swept across the river as armored Talegwi regiments massacred the Lenape who had already crossed. Enraged by this treachery, the Lenape voved to 'conquer or die!' and joined with their Iroquois allies in an epic war of vengeance.' Many Iroquois and Algonquin legends tell of the wars against the Moundbuilders, the Tallegwi, whom they called 'the snakes' among other less noble names.

"Here is another quote from Moundbuilders of Ancient America, 'Having thus united their forces the Lenape and Mengwe, the Iroquois, declared war against the Talegwi and great battles were fought in which many warriors fell on both sides ... No quarter was given, so that the Tallegwi at last, finding that their destruction was inevitable if they persisted in their obstinacy, abandoned the country to the conquerors and fled down the Mississippi River, from whence they never returned.' The legacy the Talegwi left the Iroquois and Lenni Lenape was one of cannibalism and torture of captives, including scalping."

"Caitlin?" Kim inquired, "What about the Incas and the Mayans? How do they fit into all this?"

"The story of the Mayan people is not that different than that of the Aztecs. Their culture appeared out of nowhere fully formed and functional and nobody can quite figure out how or why. The ancestors of both the Maya and the Aztec were the Olmec. The Maya and the Aztec shared many of the same gods. Quetzaloatl and others.

"Odin is a hero of Norse mythology. Worshipped by Scandinavians, Germans, Anglo-Saxons and more. Human sacrifices were often offered up to Odin who is also known as Dan, Wotan and Woden. And some say the first Dan founded Denmark and was of the 'Tuathe de Danaan' or the tribe of Dan. As Herman Hoek says in the Compendium of World History, 'It was from Thrace that Odin led the Agathyrsi and other tribes to northwestern Europe when he founded the Danish kingdom. Many of the warriors employed by the early princes of western Europe were fierce, or swarthy skin, naked and often tattooed and painted ... Jerome, writing in one of his letters in the fifth century, characterizes some of them as cannibals.' Oh my, tattooed and painted red men who were cannibals. Now just who does that sound like?

"One of my favorite books is The Two Babylons by Alexander Hislop. To quote, 'the Mexicans celebrated Wodan as the founder of their race, just as our own ancestors did. The Wodan or Odin of Scandinavia can be proved to be the same as the Wodan of Mexico ... the fact that the name had been borne by some illustrious hero among the supposed ancestors of the Mexican race, is put beyond all doubt by the singular circumstance that the Mexicans had one of their days called Wodansday, exactly as we ourselves have.' How interesting!

"I say Odin of Scandinavia introduced human sacrifice and idolatry to Mesoamerica a thousand years before Christ. You say what you want. I also say the Picts of Scotland came to the Americas long after Odin but long before Columbus and introduced a matriarchal society, totem poles, wigwams, tattoos and many other things to the Americas.

"I'm rambling. Let me get to the Incas and there are only a few points I want to make. If the Olmec and the others could cross the Atlantic do you really think they would have much difficulty migrating to Peru and thereabouts? I don't think so.

"The Incas, like the Aztecs, virtually appeared out of nowhere. In 1532 the Spaniards led by Franciso Pizzaro, took advantage of a civil war between factions led by the brothers Huascar and Atahuallpa. Huascar was murdered by Atahuallpa and he in turn was executed by Pizzaro; on July 26, 1533. The Spaniards then took control of the empire. That's all well documented history.

"Let's go back to the first Inca, Manco Capac around 1200 AD. This, of course, is more myth than history. Many legends associate Manco Capac with an object called the Golden Wedge of Ophir. Ophir de Espana, Memorias Historiales y Politicas del Peru is a work written by Fernando Montesinos who lived in Peru from 1629-1642. The theme of his much ridiculed work was that Peru was the land of Ophir referred to by Solomon. Montesinos maintained Peru was first settled by the grandson of Noah, who just happened to be named Ophir. Wild speculation? Perhaps. But we do have some evidence of the Golden Wedge of Ophir in Peru.

"The capital of the Inca empire was Cuzco, located in today's Peru, not far from the border of Brazil. Let's talk about Brazil. Remember Sir Richard Francis Burton and his connection to our case? In 1864 Burton was given a consular appointment to Brazil at his request. He spent the next three years exploring Brazil, often alone. He went beyond the borders of Brazil into Peru, and visited Cuzco. Why? What was he looking for? Not long after Burton's exploration of Brazil, caves were found deep in the Brazilian jungle which contained rocks with Phoenician inscriptions. Which means? Ancient visitors from Solomon's time? Perhaps.

"There are some who say Sir Richard Francis Burton's private papers and letters referred to the Golden Wedge of Ophir. Unfortunately the documents were burned by his wife Isabel after his death. Do you know where Burton was before he asked to be sent to Brazil?

"In 1860 Sir Richard Francis Burton visited the Mormon leader Brigham Young in Utah. The result of Burton's extensive research on polygamy was published in his City of the Saints in 1861. During the time of Burton's visit to the southwestern United States he became acquainted with Albert Pike, the Confederate general. Yes, the same Albert Pike who one of our women who mysteriously disappeared, Candace Pike Martin, claims to be descended from. Is all this coincidence? The same Albert Pike who is said to have been the founder of the Masonic movement in America. And on the subject of polygamy, we have another woman who mysteriously disappeared, Alicia Dunn, who was the third wife of a pseudo-Mormon polygamist and vanished from Salt Lake City with one of our Harley riding 'locusts.' Coincidence? I smell something here. On that note, I'm done. Stick a fork in me. I'm done talking."

"Does anybody have anything else to say?" Jack asked. There was silence. "I am going to talk to the yakuza tomorrow, the late Miyuki Huang's people, and find out where they got this Golden Wedge of Ophir."

Jack indicated he was going to get some sleep in that it had been more than forty-eight hours since he closed his eyes other than brief cat naps on the way to and from Reno. Sam and Jimmy DeDad left. Kim began to remove her clothes.

"What are you doing, Kim?"

"I'm taking a shower, Jack. Why don't you join me?" He did.

To Be Continued...