The Wingham Advance-Times, 1984-09-05, Page 22b
I age a--Crossroads---Sept: lr, I i 4
PresColumbian contacts
Continued from Page 2
in the white setters Vikings
or Norsemen and it sounds
plausible, given the refer-
ence to "scales" or shields,
displayed along the sides of
their ships. Whatever the
truth of the intriguing story,
it served Cortes well in
imposing Spanish rule on the
credulous Mayas and Azfecs.
Only when it was too late
rnd the Spanish, by their
apacious behavior, had
made enemies of the con-
quered peoples, _did the
Indians realize that the
Spanish had but few, if any,
godlike qualities and none of
the reputed skin color of the
legendary Quetzalcoatl, who
in the meantime had become
the main god in the Aztec
pantheon.
The Aztec princess we re-
ferred to was later to become
the famous Dona Marina,
Cortes's true comrade and
trustworthy companion for
many years. From her he
learned with how much Not only among the Aztecs
earnestness and longing the and Incas could one find the
return of Quetzalcoatl and legend of a wise, fair-haired,
his companions had been blue-eyed, bearded stranger
awaited by the Aztecs.. The from unknown parts, whose
proud and fierce conquista- successor would return in
dor must have laughed at due time. Among other South
times about the trust placed American Indian tribes
in him as if he were a God. there appeared in the past,
Cortes knew better but it according to their tribal
helped him to overrun the traditions, white founders
country and that's what and preachers of a new
counted. We mentioned that religion. A total of six, such
from the "Wotan legend" it figures are known from the
- is generally concluded that legends of various tribes
Viking ships had appeared from Yucatan in Mexico,
on the coast of Yucatan and Peru, Brazil, Paraguay and
left'a colony on the shores of Colombia and from the
the peninsula, possibly in c. Aztecs in Central Mexico.
A.D. 1100 - 1200. Attempts at From all this we must cer-
Christianizing the Mayas tainly conclude that also in
apparently followed and the Americas there existed
some missionaries may have an early notion among the
penetrated into the interior Indians that across the big
and reached Aztec territory seas touching upon their
during their missionary lands in the direction of the
undertaking. rising sun, there lived people
LEGEND IN PERU different from themselves,
Among the Incas of Peru in people with white skins and
South America similar red hair. And right they
lengths were encountered by -wee e, just as Pausanias -v!as
the Spanish, who, under right in A.D. 150 when he
Francisco Pizarro and his spoke of red -skinned people
conquistadors, first set foot living across from the
in these regions in A.D. 1527. Western Ocean.
An old Inca myth relates how STRANGERS
the Incas found in Peru a IN BRAZIL
very ancient God, when they A remarkable man lived in
immigrated into the country: the Amazon region during
Thisancient deity was the latter part of the last
known as "Viracocha", century and the first three
which, according to some, decades of the present cen-
may mean something like tury. His name was Ber-
"Holy man from the sea". nardo Da Silva Ramos.
The legend related that this This man came from
"holy man" was an un-Manaos, in the interior of
known, bearded. man who Brazil. Originally he was a
had come from nobody knew simple rubber tapper or
where. Just like Quetzalcoatl
of the Wotan legend, Vira-
cocha was a preacher. He.
bore a cross and set it upon a
hill: He preached and wept
for the sins of the world. And
he did a very strange thing,
as i an Inca chronicler tells
us, for he splashed the head
of an Inca prince who
followed him with water to
baptize him.
But Viracocha was finally
driven out and many of his
followers slain, but not
before he had told that in due
time he would send back a$
messengers white -bearded
men who would conquer. the
land of the Incas. Then Vira
cocha "spread his cloak 'on
the sea, stood upon it with his,
followers and departed"
according to the mysterious
legend. Do we again have to
think of Viking adventurers
whose voyages even ex-
tended to the shores of South
America?
The, answer must remain
that we don't know. Nowhere
have such voyages been
recorded, even if the Vikings
succeeded in reaching these
unknown shores. It is, how the learned Rabbi of the
ever, intriguing to note that Jewish community of
Latin -speaking clerics who Manaos. The Jewish scholar
accompanied Pizarro on his declared that the inscrip-
travels made some interest-
ing observations. Some Semetic language, most
words in the Inca language likely Phoenician. With re -
for a led Latin words, as doubled zeal Ramos sear -
for example the word ched out hundreds of these
"Capac", "head or chief" in mysterious blocks with the
Indian and corresponding intriguing scratches.
with "Caput" (head) in At his death.in 1931 he left
Latin• behind a two volume work
Similarly the Inca word listing no fewer than 2800
"Sums" "best" was identi- historical inscriptions, most
cal with the Latin "sum of them according to Ramos
mus". The Inca word for in Greek or Phoenician.
flood was "uno"; the Latin The question is: was
"unda". When the Inca Ramos on the right track or
warriors gathered before did he waste his talent in
their officers they greeted erroneously recording some -
them, with a thunderous thing that was merely due to
"Raffia", perhaps cor- the effects of weather and
responding with the notor- time? Was he indeed in error
ious Germanic "Heil". in all his 2800 copies?
WHITE INDIANS Is it not possible that some
Perhaps it is somewhat were accurate representa-
ridiculous to seek ethnic tions of what a Phoenician or
connections between the Greek hand had engraved on
people of North Europe and the mysterious stones in a
the Incas, for most of the long forgotten past?
latter were of the American If so, then we must con -
Indian type. However it is a elude that Carthaginians or
fact' that, especially among perhaps Greeks • landed at
the ruling Inca caste, the
Spaniards found a large
number of fair and white -
skinned people. In particu-
lar, the "coyas'1, that is the
women of the highest classes
o1; the Inca empire, looked
exactly like European
ladies. .
Pedro Pizarro, a cousin of
the conqueror of Peru, wrote
a book, "The Story of the
Discovery and Conquest of
Peru". In it he states: "these
princesses were neat and
clean, stately and beautiful
to behold ... these people are
corn -blond ... some ... were
actually whiter than
Spaniards . .. The Indians
believe such people to be the
children of idols . . . the
Gods."
The Spanish conquistadors
almost fell over each other in
their haste to marry into the
Inca' aristocracy and pre-
sented their Inca brides on
their return with great pride
to their Spanish majesties at
court in Madrid.
one time in South America,
either voluntarily or against
their intention. Had the
Carthaginian fleet which set
out to sea when fleeing
before the Romans at the
destruction of Carthage in
142 B.C. brought the rem,'
nants of Punic civilization to
the shores of the New World?
Who shall say?
Ramos was, of course,
laughed at by some in the
world of historians and
scientists. Others ware not so
sure he was all wrong and
remembered, for example,
Heinrich Schlieman who was
greatly ridiculed when he
thought he had found ancient
Troy, or Don Marcelino de
Sautuola, the discoverer of
the famous Spanish cave
paintings of Altamira, who
was met with howls of deri-
sion by the historical , and
scientific establishment of
his day? ,
Time will tell, but the odds
are Ramos will be vindi-
cated.
In the meantime in
Manaos, where he died in
1931, his memory is still hon-
oured. We do well to
remember that the history of
mankind, just like the uni-
verse, yields more and more
of its ancient mysteries, so
that what was thought ab-
surd or impossible yester-
day, stands revealed today.
DAME SUTHERLAND
IS "ANNE BOLEYN"
SUNDAY, SEPT. 30
The wandering heart and
multiple marriages of King
Henry VIII have supplied
historians and storytellers
with countless tales of love
and intrigue. From this
wealth of scandal and
tragedy comes the operatic
tale, Anna Bolena, the story
of Anne Boleyn•and the cruel
end of her marriage to
Henry.
In May the Canadian
Opera Company, under the
leadership of General Dir-
ector Lotfi Mansouri mount-
ed a dazzling production of
this Gaetano Donizetti
masterpiece. Legendary
opera star Dame Joan Suth-
erland made her debut in the
taxing and complex role, a
performance that made one
critic suggest, "Anna Bolena
.. may turn out to be one of
her finest roles."
An internationally -re-
nowned cast and artistic
Staff was brought togethcr
on the stage of Toronto's
O'Keefe Centre by Canadian
Opera Company General
Director Lotfi Mansouri.
Mansourt directed the
production which was con-
ducted by the , distinguished
Ricllard Bonynge, Joan
utberrland,,. Lotfi Mansel 'i
and Richard nynge were
all • participants in .the
Canadian. Opera .Company's
acclaimed direction of Nor-
man Campbeik _ .
Making his Canadian
Opera Company. debut as
King Henry VIII is.the laud-
ed American bass James
Morris.. Canadian mezzo so-
prano Judith Forst will sing
the role of Jame Seymour.
Percy will be sung by
Michael Myers and Smeton
by Janet Stubbs.
This production is per-
formed in the Italian or-
iginal. Television viewers
will be provided with English
subtitles. The host for the
telecast will be noted CBC
newscaster Peter Kent.
Idling wastes fuel and $$L.
Nancy Travers was severely burned
last winter. She needed plasma, a
blood component.
She got that plasma
ti
BECAUSE PEOPLE
GAVE BLOOD friends for life
The Canadian Red Cross Society
"cauchero". A clever and
diligent man, he made, good
dn.his profession and became
a rubber industrialist. Just
before the crash in the
rubber industry in the be-
ginning of the 20th century,
Ramos sold out and became
a millionaire. His large
fortune enabled him to travel
to Greece, Syria and Egypt
and after several years he
returned to Amazonia: Home
is home!
Now it sohappens that
from time to time large
blocks of stone are found in
the premordial Amazonian
forests. These blocks were
known for a long time and
the strange thing was that
they seemed to bear some
kind of' inscription. Ramos
was convinced that the
remarkable signs had a
message to tell and it ap-
peared to him that they re-
sembled somewhat the
Phoenician script he had so
often seen during his travels
'in the Middle East.
He copied as many of the
inscriptions he saw on the
blocks of stone as he could
and laid the results before
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THAN QUACKGRASS. OR ATRAZINE CARRYOVER.
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Plowing only compounds the problem by
chopping up the quackgrass roots and spreading the
nodes around. This causes the quackgrass problem
to get progressively worse, A small patch soon
becomes an entire infested field. That can end up
costing you in less productive land and lower
'crop yields.
Roundup® isthe affordable, effective solution.
Roundup at one'litre per acre"` (2.5L/ha) this fall
will effectively control quackgrass through to
next year's harvest. It works on those nodes and
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And, unlike atrazine, Roundup leaves your
cropping options open. You're free to rotate to
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So, with gains of more productive land, choice
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• 2.5L of Roundup per hectare in 50 to 100L clear water per hectare.
ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW LABEL DIRECTIONS•
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Monsanto Canada Inc., registered user. C Monsanto Company, 1984. R-FET2-84
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