liberte@uiucdcs.UUCP (12/14/84)
I waited til the Christmas season for this reposting.
Perhaps there will be more response this time.
The following is from "He Walked the Americas" by L. Taylor Hansen,
published by Amherst Press, Amherst, WI 54406. I probably shouldnt
be copying quite so much, but I hope my review will interest you enough to
purchase it.
On the back cover it says:
This is a book that will back up the New Testament of the East
with the Christian Indian legends of the West. In this book is
proof that the Savior came not only to one continent, but to all
the world. This book will strengthen your faith as no other could.
The God Wakea
Once in the days long-vanished, with three great ships which had sailed from
the Sunset-lands, came white-robed Wakea - the Fair God who healed the
injured, raised the dead, and walked on water. He came to an outlying
island of the Tahitian group where two tribes were fighting bitterly.
...
Suddenly frozen to immobility were the warriors as the ships moved
around a jutting headland. "What manner of monsters are these with
the great wings?" "Perhaps they have come to devour the people!"
... The ships' oarsmen, whose paddles looked like a hundred centipede
legs touching the water, rested now from their task of moving the giant
monsters forward.
Then the islanders saw something white moving toward them. Apparently
it had come from the Great Birds, and it glided easily over the water
with the rhythmical ease of a man walking.
As the spot of white came closer, they saw in amazement that this was a
Fair God, man-like in form, but unlike their people. Soon they could
see Him clearly, the gold of the dawn-light shining behind and around Him,
making a halo of His long-curling hair and beard. They saw the
foam-like swish of His garments. As He came up on the wet sand, the
warriors stared in fright at His garments; they were dry. Now they knew that
a god stood among them, for none but gods can walk on water!
...
A god had come from the sea to walk among them and His first look was that
of anger! The warriors fell down as one man and began an old chant anciently
employed to a god for forgiveness. When they dared again to raise up their
eyes, they saw Him going among the injured and dying who arose from their
pain to find themselves well of body as soon as His hand or His garments
had touched them.
...
{The other strangers on the Great Birds came ashore and they all partied.}
{These strangers were sad to leave, off into the sunset.}
...
Very quickly Wakea learned Polynesian. The people were amazed at the speed
of his learning. As the long days passed, He began to teach the tribesmen.
He told them of the One God who ruled the Heavens, who spoke through the
volcanoes and who breathed on the ocean. To Him, war was not of His
making, for His law was Love One Another. For Wakea they gave up war
and the sacrifice of children which had kept down their populations so they
would not overeat their islands.
...
{They took Wakea around to the neighboring islands until everyone knew about
him and he taught them all. Then he planned to leave toward the Dawn Star.}
...
"Are we never again to see you Wakea?"
In His melodious voice the Fair God made answer:
"One day you will see me returning, even as I came through the light of
the dawning, if you remember to keep my commandments and always love one
another."
...
And since that day, through some have said that He is sometimes seen in
spirit, yet in the flesh they are still waiting for Him to come back to
His beloved islands of Polynesia.
The story is from Dr. Buck, director of the Bishop Museum who got it
from "an outlying island of the Tahitians where two old women can still
chant the ancestor-legends. ... Wakea, the Healer, lived in the first
century of the Christian Era, or generally speaking, in the time of Jesus."
There is much, much more. This is just the earliest visit. He traveled
all over North and South America, each tribe naming him, but his name went
before him.
"Always He was called the Feathered Serpent {Lord of Wind and Water},
Emeeshe-totl or Ee-see co-tl among the Algonkins (Tl means Lord). Always
He wore the long white togo, embroidered with black crosses along the
bottom, and walked through the dust with golden sandals. ... During each
of His visits He trained twelve disciples, and one to be their leader, who
would accede to His title after He had gone about "My Father's Business".
"After His visit the grieving tribesmen carved the hand with the T cross
upon the walls of canyons {He had T crosses engraved in both hands} so
that none would forget Him, and they could show to their children's
children the eternal emblem of His coming.
...
"The hot-springs of Tacobya mark the passage of the Healer, while in the
canyons of nearby Coso, where so lightly sleeps the Fire God, there is
a Canyon of Ancient Recording and in this long and silent gallery is the
hand with the T cross and near it the Great Cross - olden symbol of
the Master." {This is near Tacoma, WA}
To the Puan in Oklahoma, he told of his birth.
"He told them that He was born across the ocean, in a land where all
men were bearded. In this land He was born of a virgin on a night
when a bright star came out of the heavens and stood over His city.
Here, too, the heavens opened and down came winged beings singing chants
of exquisite beauty.
"When the U. of Oklahoma was digging in the Spiro Mound, much pottery was
discovered which showed winged beings singing, and here was also the hand
with the cross through the palm, about which the professors were deeply
puzzled, and still have no explanation as they stare at these things
in their museums.
"To this tribe, He was known as Chee-Zoos, the Dawn God, and they Whisper of
Him about the campfires on winter evenings when no white man can listen."
{Unless you are trusted and don't ridicule them.}
Daniel LaLiberte (ihnp4!uiucdcs!liberte)
U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Computer Science
{Peace on Earth ... Ho Ho Ho ... Merry Christmas}