(Stone Mother outcropping at Pyramid Lake, Nevada)
I spoke in a prior post about the kernel of truth in legends. Let's discuss these kernels. I will bold and underline things that are based on actual historic or verifiable details.
Stone Mother (Paiute Legend)
Thousands of years ago, the father of all Indians, “The Wolf” came to live on a mountain near Stillwater (a real place located in the Lohantan Valley). The Great Father was a wise and good ruler.
A woman, who lived with her husband in another part of Nevada, had heard about the great father. The woman became infatuated with him, and thought of nothing except to meet him someday. This made her husband very jealous and led them to fighting all the time. One day, while they were having another fight, the woman, in a rage, killed her husband. She began searching for the Great Father.
During her journey she had many adventures. One, while walking on the Shore of Mono Lake (actual lake in California near Nevada), a giant creature tried to eat her, but she was able to kill the giant and escape (in keeping with Lake Lohantan red-haired cannibalistic giants and skeletons found in Lovelock Cave and giants reported in Death Valley, CA)
She continued on her quest to find the Great Father. Until finally her journey brought her to Stillwater. Just as she arrived, she caught a glimpse of the Great Father. The woman couldn’t believe her eyes. She couldn’t believe how handsome he was.
The woman tried to hide from him for a time, but The Great Father noticed her tracks and called out to her and let her know that he knew she was there. He asked her to come out of hiding. The woman was scared and embarrassed but finally came out to meet him.
The Great Father knew she had traveled a long way and he took her to his camp. He fed her good food, and asked her to stay the night and she agreed with no hesitation.
After a few days together they fell in love with each other and they married on the eighth day. Soon afterwards they had children. The first child was a son, their second another son, and later several daughters. The oldest son was mean, troublesome and always fought with the other children, especially his brother. The fighting and bickering continued for many years.
The Great Father grew tired of all the fighting and had a meeting with all of his children to try to stop the fighting once and for all. He began by telling them that if they did not stop fighting, he would separate all of them. But before he could finish what he had to say, the children started fighting again.
The Great Father had had enough, and decided to separate all of them. He sent his oldest son and a girl to the west. They in turn became the Pit River Tribe (real tribe in Nevada). He sent his younger son with a girl to the east. They in turn became the Bannock Tribe (another great basin tribe). The other children remained at home and they became the Paiute Tribe (it might be interesting to test today whether these tribes are genetically related to secure yet another part of the tale as fact).
After shunning his children the Great Father was so distraught that he went to his home in the sky.
After a time, both brothers returned home, and the brothers brought many warriors for battle. They began fighting in a valley. When the mother saw her sons fighting she was so sad, it broke her heart. The mother climbed until she got to the top of a hill and sat there as she watched her sons fight. She soon started to cry. The sons continued to fight and the mother cried faster and harder. She cried so hard and for so long that her tears filled the land below. From her tears a lake started to form. After many moons her tears created a great lake, this lake is now called Pyramid Lake.
She continued on her quest to find the Great Father. Until finally her journey brought her to Stillwater. Just as she arrived, she caught a glimpse of the Great Father. The woman couldn’t believe her eyes. She couldn’t believe how handsome he was.
The woman tried to hide from him for a time, but The Great Father noticed her tracks and called out to her and let her know that he knew she was there. He asked her to come out of hiding. The woman was scared and embarrassed but finally came out to meet him.
The Great Father knew she had traveled a long way and he took her to his camp. He fed her good food, and asked her to stay the night and she agreed with no hesitation.
After a few days together they fell in love with each other and they married on the eighth day. Soon afterwards they had children. The first child was a son, their second another son, and later several daughters. The oldest son was mean, troublesome and always fought with the other children, especially his brother. The fighting and bickering continued for many years.
The Great Father grew tired of all the fighting and had a meeting with all of his children to try to stop the fighting once and for all. He began by telling them that if they did not stop fighting, he would separate all of them. But before he could finish what he had to say, the children started fighting again.
The Great Father had had enough, and decided to separate all of them. He sent his oldest son and a girl to the west. They in turn became the Pit River Tribe (real tribe in Nevada). He sent his younger son with a girl to the east. They in turn became the Bannock Tribe (another great basin tribe). The other children remained at home and they became the Paiute Tribe (it might be interesting to test today whether these tribes are genetically related to secure yet another part of the tale as fact).
After shunning his children the Great Father was so distraught that he went to his home in the sky.
After a time, both brothers returned home, and the brothers brought many warriors for battle. They began fighting in a valley. When the mother saw her sons fighting she was so sad, it broke her heart. The mother climbed until she got to the top of a hill and sat there as she watched her sons fight. She soon started to cry. The sons continued to fight and the mother cried faster and harder. She cried so hard and for so long that her tears filled the land below. From her tears a lake started to form. After many moons her tears created a great lake, this lake is now called Pyramid Lake.
The mother stayed on the hill crying for so long that she turned into stone and remains there to this day.
You can see the Stone Mother (there is, in fact, a stone that looks like a woman-photo above) sitting on the east Shore of Pyramid Lake with her basket by her side. Of course, this is not say the woman actually became a stone, but that the legend tries to explain an actual feature that does exist.
**I highly recommend the book "Stone Age In the Great Basin" by Emory Strong that gives lots of info on these tribes where the red-haired giants lived including stories of the giants. This region of the Great Basin was filled with waterways and lots of ancient tribes and much of Giant Territory. You will find many kernels in this book that will amaze!**
Supporting That Giants Existed: This legend supports the ancient giants of the Great Basin, including a Paiute legend of their ancestors fighting off cannibalistic red-haired giants and trapping them in a cave to burn them to death; a cave that as later found to hold the bones of ancient tall ones with red hair and a tale of giant skeleton finds in Death Valley caves.
Sami-Lapland, Scandinavia
One of the most famous Sami folktales is the story of "The Pathfinder." In it, a Sami village is attacked by a marauding tribe from the east called the Tjudes (aka Chudes)--ancestors of the Komi People. --***TRIBES FIGHTING IS A CLUE OFTEN OF GIANT SKIRMISHES*** In Russian folk legends, the Chudes were described as exalted and beautiful. One characteristic of the Chudes was 'white-eyed', which means lightly colored eyes, powerful and giant in size (a characteristic often attributed to finds of ancient giants with fair hair). The village fights as best it can, but the Tjudes vastly outnumber the Sami and soon kill all but one—a young boy. The Tjudes then force the young boy to lead them to the next village so they can attack and overtake it as well. The boy reluctantly agrees, leading the Tjudes by night through the mountains. At the top of one mountain, the Tjudes decide to wait until morning, fearing they will lose their way getting down the mountain. The Sami boy, however, urges them to follow him. He says he knows the mountain well and will lead them by torch. He suggests that they all tie themselves together by rope so none of them gets lost. The Tjudes agree, grateful that the Sami boy has become so loyal to them.
As they make their way down the mountain, however, the Sami boy leads them to a great cliff, stops at its edge and tosses his torch over the side, yelling, "Follow me!" The Tjudes, tied together, fall over the edge.
Supporting That Giants Existed: "The Seven Giants," as these pillars (above) are called. In the Northern Region of Russia in this territory of the Tjudes (Chudes - above story), comes a local legend Russian of their formation (called "Manpupuder" - one of Russia's 7 Wonders). How did something this massive come to be? An experienced climber once tried to climb them and could only manage one! Although scientists claim they are a natural stone destruction over time, there are interesting legends involving the stone pillars and giants.
"According to a local legend, the stone pillars were once an entourage of Samoyeds giants walking through the mountains to Siberia in order to destroy the Mansi people. However, upon seeing the holy Mansi mountains, the shaman of the giants dropped his drum and the entire team froze into the stone pillars."
(Giant skull found in Dmanisi Georgia)
**Incidentally, the Finnish have a giant called Koljo who was supposedly a carrier of disease and Pre-historic stone structures and large stone boulders that were thought to have been erected by Hiisis or giants. The Finnish term for a Bronze Age cairn grave (consisting of a pile of rocks) is still called a hiidenkiuas, Hiisi's pile of rocks. A giant's kettle is called a hiidenkirnu (literally, a hiisi's churn) in Finnish.n Christian-influenced later folklore, they are depicted as demonic or trickster-like entities, often the autochthonous, pagan inhabitants of the land, similar in this respect to mythological giants**
**Incidentally, the Finnish have a giant called Koljo who was supposedly a carrier of disease and Pre-historic stone structures and large stone boulders that were thought to have been erected by Hiisis or giants. The Finnish term for a Bronze Age cairn grave (consisting of a pile of rocks) is still called a hiidenkiuas, Hiisi's pile of rocks. A giant's kettle is called a hiidenkirnu (literally, a hiisi's churn) in Finnish.n Christian-influenced later folklore, they are depicted as demonic or trickster-like entities, often the autochthonous, pagan inhabitants of the land, similar in this respect to mythological giants**
HIMALAYAS
Raksha - source (incidentally, present day Yeti Territory)
"Demonic creatures who eat the flesh of man." (Here we go again with the cannibalistic tendencies of these giants-repeated too often to ignore). Described variously as " Rakshasa were most often depicted as ugly, fierce-looking and enormous creatures and with two fangs protruding down from the top of the mouth as well as sharp, claw-like fingernails. They are shown as being mean, growling like beasts and as insatiable cannibals who could smell the scent of flesh. Some of the more ferocious ones were shown with flaming red eyes and hair, drinking blood with their palms or from a human skull (red-haired and ferocious as reported by the Paiutes in America). Generally they could fly, vanish, and had Maya (magical powers of illusion), which enabled them to change size at will and assume the form of any creature.
Supporting That Giants Existed: Today in the Himalayas there are reports of Yeti, tall, hairy and often reportedly ferocious beings who walk on two legs.
A very high altitude lake in in the Himalayas called "Mystery Lake" had the remains of hundreds of bones surfacing in the early 1900s.
The local legend said that king of Kanauj, Raja Jasdhaval, with his pregnant wife Rani Balampa, servants, dance troupe and others went on a pilgrimage to Nanda Devi shrine and the group faced a hail storm with large hailstones, from which the entire party perished near Roopkund lake.
Guess what? For 60 years the skeletal remains of more than 200 people, discovered in 1942 close to the glacial Roopkund Lake in the remote Himalayan Gahrwal region, have puzzled historians, scientists and archaeologists. Were they soldiers killed in battle, royal pilgrims who lost their way and succumbed to hypothermia, or Tibetan traders who died of a mysterious illness? Now, the first forensic investigation of one of the area's most enduring mysteries has concluded that hundreds of nomads - whose frozen corpses are being disgorged from ice high in the mountain - were killed by one of the most lethal hailstorms in history.
Yet another legend proven to be true!
Want more mysteries of the Himalayas - you have to check out one of the most intriguing and amazing archaeological finds ever at this link.
Aborigines, Australia
A cannibal giant, ultimately defeated by the resourcefulness of the family of a hunter he killed.
A sinister Giant from the tales of the Native Australians. One day a man named Mummulbery hunted and caught a kangaroo. As he was taking this back to his two wives in his camp for dinner, Thardid Jimbo stepped in his way. He demanded to see the carcass that Mummulbery was holding. As Mummelbery turned round to show the kangaroo, Thardid Jimbo tore his head off. He then severed and ate the limbs carrying the head and torso back to Mumelbery’s camp (another cannibalistic giant) by following the footprints. When he got to the hut, he threw down to corpse he had carried and demanded that the two wives cook it for supper. The wives had been taught to be kind and resourceful so they took the body to cook. However instead of cooking they devised a plan to kill Thardid Jimbo. They told the Giant that a body of a man was not great enough for a magnificent Giant such as him. They told him to catch a female dingo that could be located in a cave. Thardid Jimbo took his nullanulla (club) *and ventured in to the far end of the cave. Whilst in there, the wives took some scrub at the entrance and set light to it. The fire spread inside the cave and Thardid Jimbo was caught in the flames (almost identical story to Paiutes at Lovelock Cave in Nevada). He tried to jump over the flames but being so big he hit his head against the ceiling an fell unconscious into the raging fire. Later the wives met with a wirinun (shaman) who used his powers to talk to Mummelbery. Mummelbery told his wives not to be sad and that if they missed him so much they could join him in the after life. The wives agreed and they hugged the golden light spirit of Mummelbery. They too turned into light and went into the after life.
Supporting That Giants Existed: Today's giant in Australia is the Yowie. Reportedly giant skeleton finds and giant footprints have been discovered here. More mythical support can be found in the Bible -
"For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof [13 to 14 feet], and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man."
Holy Bible, Deuteronomy 3:11
And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.
And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew him.
These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
Holy Bible, 2 Samuel 21:20-22
It is rather interesting that this 6-toes/6-fingers/double rows of teeth are repeatedly described from dig site finds and yet there are legends thousands of years ago that speak of these same traits which are odd features to elaborate a story upon.
PERU
Flesh-eating giants (incidentally, today the site of supposed hunchbacked red-haired giants reported by villagers and site of mummies of giant size with elongated skulls)
From Pedro de Cieza de Leon:
As there is in Peru a story of some giants who landed on the coast at the point of Santa Elena, in the vicinity of the city of Puerto Viejo, I have resolved to mention what I was told about them, as I understood it, without taking into account the opinions of the common people and their various anecdotes, for they usually magnify events larger than life. The natives, repeating a story received from their forefathers from very remote times, say that there came from across the sea on reed rafts that were as large as big ships some men that were so big that an ordinary man of good size scarcely reached up to their knees: their members were in proportion to the size of their bodies, and it a monstrous thing to see their enormous heads and their hair hanging down about their shoulders. Their eyes were as large as small plates. They say they had no beards and that some of them were clad in the skins of animals, and others only in the dress nature gave them. There were no women with them. (This red-haired population of giants were reported around the world, showing a tendency to be sea-based people who traveled, seashells were prominent in the dig sites of giants as ornamental and reed boats were described by the Paiutes of the red-haired giants in the Great Basin in Nevada. Interestingly, I will be talking more about them arriving without mates next Wednesday - harkens to the Biblical Nephilim) On reaching this point, they set up their camp like a village (and even in these times there is a memory of the site of their houses). As they found no supply of water they remedied the lack by making some very deep wells, a labor certainly worthy of record, being undertaken by such strong men as these must have been, to judge by their size. They dug these wells in the living rock until they came to the water, and afterwards they built the wells in stone from the water line upwards so that they would last for ages. In these wells the water is excellent and it is always so cold that it is very pleasant to drink. "When these great men or giants had thus made their settlement and dug these wells or cisterns, they destroyed and ate all the supplies they could find in the neighborhood. It is said that one of them ate more than fifty of the natives of the land; and as the supply of food was not sufficient for them to maintain themselves, they caught much fish with nets and gear that they had. They lived in continuous hostility with the natives, because they slew the latter's women in order to have them, and they also slew the men for other reasons. (yet more talk of mating up with local women and eating the Native People). But the Indians were not numerous enough to kill these newcomers who occupied their land and lorded it over them; and although they held great discussions about this, they never dared attack them.
"After some years the giants were still in this region, and as they had no women of their own and the Indian women of the neighborhood were too small for them, or else because the vice was habitual to them and inspired by the demon, they practised the unspeakable and horrible sin of sodomy, committing it openly and in public without fear of God or personal shame. The natives say that our Lord God, unwilling to conceal so wicked a sin, sent them a punishment suited to the beastliness of the crime, and when all the giants were together engaged in this accursed practice there came a fearful fire from heaven to the accompaniment of a great noise, in the midst of which a shining angel appeared holding a sharp, bright sword with which he slew them all at a single stroke, and the fire consumed them leaving only a few bones and skulls, which God allowed to remain unconsumed as a token of the punishment. This is the account they give of the giants, and we believe that it happened, for it is said that very large bones have been found and still are found thereabouts and I have heard Spaniards say they have seen pieces of teeth which they thought must have weighed half a pound when whole, and who had also seen a piece of a shin-bone of wonderful size, all of which bears witness to the truth of the incident. In addition to this one can see the places where the sites of their villages were, and also the wells or cisterns they made. I cannot state whence or how these giants came there.
"In the present year of 1550 when in the city of Lima, I heard that when his excellency Don Antonio de Mendoza was viceroy and governor of New Spain, certain bones of men as big as these giants, and even bigger, were found there. I have heard too that in an ancient sepulcher in the city of Mexico or somewhere else in that kingdom certain bones of giants have been found. Since so many people saw them and attest having done so, it can therefore be credited that such giants did exist and indeed they may all have been of the same race. "At this point of Santa Elena, which is as I have said on the coast of Peru and in the district of the city of Puerto Viejo, there is a remarkable phenomenon: the existence of certain wells or seams of pitch of such excellent quality that it would be possible to tar all the ships one wished with it, since it flows from the earth. This pitch must be from some seam passing through that place: it comes out very hot,etc. (more support of possible outsiders with advanced capabilities) "Thus far Pedro de Cieza, whose history we have followed to show the Indian tradition about the giants, and the well of pitch at the same place, for it too is remarkable."
Are you still wanting more cool and amazing discoveries? You know how much I love to stimulate your brain cells - check out this video below and ponder....
Supporting That Giants Existed: The Peruvian legend is in great detail and the finding of the skulls, bones, and wells all support this. As well, on Lake Titecaca, there is a tribe that lives on reed constructed islands and uses reed boats since long ago and still today. On Lake Lohantan in Nevada where Lovelock Cave is located - the site of the Paiute battle, these giants were reportedly using reed boats. In fact, in Lovelock Cave they unearthed amazing tightly woven reed containers that could hold water and duck decoys made of tule. The very name for the red-haired giants translated to "tule eaters." The giants of the Upper Midwest lived on lakes and waterways and coveted shells.
It would appear that cannibals with advanced technology took the world thousands of years ago and settled in where Natives were forced to deal with this race of troublemakers and try to kill them off once and for all. Nearly every indigenous culture around the world tells of slewing these giants and their bones are still found today to support that these fair-haired/fair-eyed monstrous beings could not survive the unwelcoming by Natives.
**Interestingly, the Yaghan Tribe from the tip of Argentina on DNA showed no halotype A or B that is shared with all natives in the Americas. What exactly did they mate with? And the tribes of Florida and Texas Coast that were unusually tall - might they have been the product of a giant and a Native woman? Well, these mysteries continue and hopefully we get off our collective butts, find more skeletons and get the proper DNA screening to learn the place of their origin and if they show up in modern day people.**
It would appear that cannibals with advanced technology took the world thousands of years ago and settled in where Natives were forced to deal with this race of troublemakers and try to kill them off once and for all. Nearly every indigenous culture around the world tells of slewing these giants and their bones are still found today to support that these fair-haired/fair-eyed monstrous beings could not survive the unwelcoming by Natives.
**Interestingly, the Yaghan Tribe from the tip of Argentina on DNA showed no halotype A or B that is shared with all natives in the Americas. What exactly did they mate with? And the tribes of Florida and Texas Coast that were unusually tall - might they have been the product of a giant and a Native woman? Well, these mysteries continue and hopefully we get off our collective butts, find more skeletons and get the proper DNA screening to learn the place of their origin and if they show up in modern day people.**
Are you still wanting more cool and amazing discoveries? You know how much I love to stimulate your brain cells - check out this video below and ponder....
These spirals were supposedly found in the Ural Mountains - area of those supposed Samoyed Giants in the legend of the "7 Giants."
