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pole had to be scouted for by a certain number warriors. His reasoning was
this: that if be #1 had traits A and B, tribe #2 had A and while tribe #3
had B and D, these scattered parts had once fit an entire ancient rite. Thus
the tribe which had the most and was the closest the center was certainly
nearer to the origin lint than the tribes which were apparently but fringe
contacts. Therefore he began; 1) the tree was scouted; 2) there had to be
a specified number of warriors doing this; 3) there must be a lovely young
girl in the party who was to be called "beautiful enemy". etc. The end of
this long piece of research was that although the Dacotah-Sioux were best
known for this colorful rite, the Algonkin speakers were closer to the center
and therefore he decided it was an early Algonkin ritual, while the Sioux
was an early contact. It interesting that my Siouan speaking friends deny
this, saying that it was theirs "way back at the dawn!" It is just as possible
that like the secondary burial rite, much was forgotten in the interceding
years of war and migration. However, the method is quite excellent in tracing
down people and their animals. For example, many races had domesticated animals.
Who had them first and what animals did each group have? Of course there
is the almost unanswerable argument that they were to be found wild at such
and such a location, but beyond that one has to I "peel back the onion",
as he once wrote to me - look at the previous people. Whatever culture traits
they had, or animals they had are theirs and become just contacts when taken
over by the conquerors. The conquerors are seldom the civilizers. They only
absorb the civilization which they find - unless is trait is not to be found
in the conquered people. Thus we do not become bogged down in an embarrassing
morass of culture traits. Especially when we are seeking the nation of the
greatest antiquity as we are attempting to do in the Atlantic puzzle. Who
first tamed the mysterious ibex and brought the animal itself or the memories
of it to the Americas? Where is it be found wild today? On the Atlas range
is a species, but the main animal is to be found on the Pyrenees mountains
(Greek - fire mountains) which extend to Switzerland and the Alps. Then which
was the earliest group in the Swiss Alps who had goats? Apparently the long
headed harmonics who lived in the Kitchen Midden villages above the lakes
during the Pleistocene. There is, however, a similar animal which as tamed
by the ancient Egyptians and kept in herds to be milked and used for meat.
This long horned elk today runs wild in herds above the Ah Hoggar mountains
of the Sahara. Coincidence? Not entirely. The Egyptian was a dolicephalic
harmonic. We must therefore place this as a doli tamed animal unless later
finds contradict this conclusion. The scimitar horned golden animal of the
Saharan desert is the oryx. Near it, and sometimes sharing the same desert
foliage, is the addax. This is a long horned animal also, except the horns
have waves in them. One of the most interesting and puzzling culture traits
of both the Cro Magnon type Atlantic tribes of the Amerind and the Azilian
- Egyptians is the circular medallion worn around the neck of the great sun,
or the emperor of the tribe. It is hereditary, and is passed down from generation
to generation from an unknown antiquity. It is usually fashioned of bronze.
After I had published my last book (He Walked the Americas - Amherst Press,
1963), 1 was fortunate enough to receive a letter from a woman living in
Texas who had found such a medallion on her land near what remained of an
Indian mound. Mrs. Frank Kidd, Box 950, Brady, Texas, wrote me along description
of the medallion and finally sent me two photographs. The most fascinating
aspect about this object is the writing which is similar to Egyptian hieratic
and also similar in the seated figure to some the war bonnet feathers streaming
down the back. The main figure is apparently seated in a chair with cat (or
tiger) arms and carries the sun disc enclosed within horns upon his head.
The other side of the medallion seems to resemble a sphinx-like animal with
three pyramids in the background, and a rainbow-like fire, perhaps the rising
sun, to the animal's back. The medallion was, as I had suspected, made of
bronze, Mrs. Kidd assured me. The only reason I could imagine for the medallion
being cast aside into the dirt was the fact that the young chieftain who
was wearing it, fearing death or capture, did not want to be found with it
upon his body and hurriedly cast it aside where he thought he might retrieve
it on a later date. it was found, I understand, well over half a century
ago. Now here is a puzzle - the medallion, claimed by both the Atlantic tribes
and by the Azilians, is the symbol of royalty. Which had it first? Is there
any way we can obtain even an educated guess? Let us go on farther into the
puzzle of the ante-diluvian world, and see if we can learn more.
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