Page 190 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock
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Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS



                   Tezpi and his family went forth  from their ark,  multiplied and
                   repopulated the earth.
                                              10
                     Memories of a terrible flood resulting from divine displeasure are also
                   preserved in the Popol Vuh. According to this archaic text, the Great God
                   decided to create humanity soon after the beginning of time. It was an
                   experiment and he began it with ‘figures made of wood that looked like
                   men and talked like men’. These creatures fell out of favour because
                   ‘they did not remember their Creator’:

                      And so  a flood was brought  about by  the  Heart of  Heaven; a great flood was
                      formed which fell on the heads of the wooden creatures ... A heavy resin fell from
                      the sky ... the face of the earth was darkened and a black rain began to fall by day
                      and by night ... The wooden figures were annihilated, destroyed, broken up and
                      killed.’
                            11
                   Not    everyone      perished,     however.      Like    the    Aztecs     and     the
                   Mechoacanesecs, the Maya of the Yucatan and Guatemala believed that a
                   Noah figure and his wife, ‘the Great Father and the Great Mother’, had
                   survived the flood to populate the land anew, thus  becoming the
                   ancestors of all subsequent generations of humanity.
                                                                                 12


                   South America

                   Moving to South America, we encounter the Chibcas of central Colombia.
                   According to their myths, they had originally lived as savages, without
                   laws, agriculture or religion. Then one day there appeared among them
                   an old man of a different race. He wore a thick long beard and his name
                   was Bochica. He taught the Chibcas how to build huts and live together in
                   society.
                     His wife, who was very beautiful and named Chia, appeared after him,
                   but she was wicked and enjoyed thwarting her husband’s altruistic
                   efforts. Since she could not overcome his power directly, she used
                   magical means to cause a great flood in which the majority of the
                   population died. Bochica was very angry and exiled Chia from the earth to
                   the sky, where she became the moon given the task of lighting the
                   nights. He also caused the waters of the flood to dissipate and brought
                   down the few survivors from the mountains where they had taken refuge.
                   Thereafter he gave them laws, taught them to cultivate the land and
                   instituted the worship of the sun with periodic festivals, sacrifices and
                   pilgrimages. He then divided the power to govern among two chiefs and
                   spent the remainder of his days on earth living in quiet contemplation as




                   10  Lenormant, writing in Contemporary Review, cited in Atlantis: The Antediluvian World,
                   p. 99.
                   11  Popol Vuh, p. 90.
                   12  Ibid., p. 93.


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