DAVE TALBOTT: Stickman on Stone

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DAVID TALBOTT: Stickman on Stone | Thunderbolts Podcast

'Evidence gathered from around the world has made abundantly clear that intense electrical activity above observers on earth was the subject of massive collective endeavors to record the forms on stone. Especially compelling is the rock art theme called the “stickman.”

In the illustrations above, a well-documented electric discharge form in the laboratory (two graphics on the upper left) is compared to the remarkably similar rock art carvings from different parts of the world.

The rock art stickmen above are taken from Anthony Peratt’s 2003 paper in “Transactions on Plasma Science” of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Peratt states his conclusion forthrightly: “[The recurring petroglyph patterns] are reproductions of plasma phenomena in space.”'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBVFClsXJII&t=409s
CH: Thunderbolts Project
dur. 7:31

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Since my first encounter with the "Squatterman Petroglyph" in the Thunderbolts Project documentary, I like many others have done what any reasonable person would do. I have visited petroglyph sites around the country and enjoyed the sense of standing right next to an image put there so many, many generations ago. What did they see in the sky that made these witnesses carve these petroglyphs into stone? Why do they appear in such universal forms all over the world? At what peril did the artist view the sky-spanning plasma formation, before chipping the image on a rock wall from a protected spot? It has been a wonderful, crazy way to spend holidays.

But I have also enjoyed the myths and legends of the North American Indian tribes as well, noting the presence and centrality of lightning in many of the legends. Usually when we travel I have made an effort to listen to the descriptions of the local geographical features, and how these were formed according to myths and tales of the tribe who has the longest history in that region. It takes a bit of research, because sometimes the tribes who have a reservation in a certain state may have come from another geographical region entirely.

Always in the back of my mind has been this question about the Squatterman petroglyph. Does this plasma formation appear in the legends of the North American Indian Tribes? Is the Squatterman petroglyph plasma instability recognizable as a character in the Indian tales? Is it possibly linked to the Thunderbird who casts lightning snakes from under his wings, and can kill or throw lightning bolts with his eyes? But the Squatterman only looks like a Thunderbird from its lower half.

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As I have listened to Native American legends over the years, I have looked for any character that might correspond to the Squatterman petroglyph. In 2016, I came across a Cherokee legend that gave me a great sense that I had found the Squatterman in a tale, and that it went by the name of "the Little People" or "the Little Men," at least in this myth.

I had seen a lot of references to "the Little People" or "the Little Men," because many, perhaps a majority, of tribes have a name for the Little People. Not as many legends survive concerning the Little People. But very often a tribal name for them is passed down in each language. --And they are generally interpreted as literally "little people". Anthropologists usually liken them to some kind of dwarf or fairy-type creature. So that gives you an idea of the ambiguity I faced in looking for the Squatterman petroglyph in legends.

But as I said, in 2016 I found a Cherokee legend called "Daughter of the Sun" and it struck me like lightning because the Little People are clearly celestial characters in this tale.

I will share the tale here.

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It looks long, but only takes about five minutes to read. There are several touching themes that are interwoven with the celestial drama that I feel would be wrong to cut out. So enjoy.

DAUGHTER OF THE SUN
A Cherokee Legend

• The Sun lived on the other side of the sky vault, but her daughter lived in the middle of the sky, directly above the earth, and every day as the Sun was climbing along the sky arch to the west she used to stop at her daughter's house for dinner.
  
  Now, the Sun hated the people on the earth, because they could never look straight at her without screwing up their faces. She said to her brother, the Moon, "My grandchildren are ugly; they grin all over their faces when they look at me." But the Moon said, "I like my younger brothers; I think they are very handsome "--because they always smiled pleasantly when they saw him in the sky at night, for his rays were milder.
  
  The Sun was jealous and planned to kill all the people, so every day when she got near her daughter's house she sent down such sultry rays that there was a great fever and the people died by hundreds, until everyone had lost some friend and there was fear that no one would be left. They went for help to the Little Men, who said the only way to save themselves was to kill the Sun.
  
  The Little Men made medicine and changed two men to snakes, the Spreading-adder and the Copperhead, and sent them to watch near the door of the daughter of the Sun to bite the old Sun when she came next day. They went together and bid near the house until the Sun came, but when the Spreading-adder was about to spring, the bright light blinded him and he could only spit out yellow slime, as he does to this day when he tries to bite. She called him a nasty thing and went by into the house, and the Copperhead crawled off without trying to do anything.
  
  So the people still died from the heat, and they went to the Little Men a second time for help. The Little Men made medicine again and changed one man into the great Uktena and another into the Rattlesnake and sent them to watch near the house and kill the old Sun when she came for dinner. They made the Uktena very large, with horns on his head, and everyone thought he would be sure to do the work, but the Rattlesnake was so quick and eager that he got ahead and coiled up just outside the house, and when the Sun's daughter opened the door to look out for her mother, he sprang up and bit her and she fell dead in the doorway. He forgot to wait for the old Sun, but went back to the people, and the Uktena was so very angry that he went back, too. Since then we pray to the rattlesnake and do not kill him, because he is kind and never tries to bite if we do not disturb him. The Uktena grew angrier all the time and very dangerous, so that if he even looked at a man, that man's family would die. After a long time the people held a council and decided that he was too dangerous to be with them, so they sent him up to Gälûñ'lätï, and he is there now. The Spreading-adder, the Copperhead, the Rattlesnake, and the Uktena were all men.
  
  When the Sun found her daughter dead, she went into the house and grieved, and the people did not die any more, but now the world was dark all the time, because the Sun would not come out. They went again to the Little Men, and these told them that if they wanted the Sun to come out again they must bring back her daughter from Tsûsginâ'ï, the Ghost country, in Us'ûñhi'yï, the Darkening land in the west. They chose seven men to go, and gave each a sourwood rod a hand-breadth long. The Little Men told them they must take a box with them, and when they got to Tsûsginâ'ï they would find all the ghosts at a dance. They must stand outside the circle, and when the young woman passed in the dance they must strike her with the rods and she would fall to the ground. Then they must put her into the box and bring her back to her mother, but they must be very sure not to open the box, even a little way, until they were home again.
  
  They took the rods and a box and traveled seven days to the west until they came to the Darkening land. There were a great many people there, and they were having a dance just as if they were at home in the settlements. The young woman was in the outside circle, and as she swung around to where the seven men were standing, one struck her with his rod and she turned her head and saw him. As she came around the second time another touched her with his rod, and then another and another, until at the seventh round she fell out of the ring, and they put her into the box and closed the lid fast. The other ghosts seemed never to notice what had happened.
  
  They took up the box and started home toward the east. In a little while the girl came to life again and begged to be let out of the box, but they made no answer and went on. Soon she called again and said she was hungry, but still they made no answer and went on. After another while she spoke again and called for a drink and pleaded so that it was very hard to listen to her, but the men who carried the box said nothing and still went on. When at last they were very near home, she called again and begged them to raise the lid just a little, because she was smothering. They were afraid she was really dying now, so they lifted the lid a little to give her air, but as they did so there was a fluttering sound inside and something flew past them into the thicket and they heard a redbird cry, "kwish! kwish! kwish!" in the bushes. They shut down the lid and went on again to the settlements, but when they got there and opened the box it was empty.
  
  So we know the Redbird is the daughter of the Sun, and if the men had kept the box closed, as the Little Men told them to do, they would have brought her home safely, and we could bring back our other friends also from the Ghost country, but now when they die we can never bring them back.
  
  The Sun had been glad when they started to the Ghost country, but when they came back without her daughter she grieved and cried, "My daughter, my daughter," and wept until her tears made a flood upon the earth, and the people were afraid the world would be drowned. They held another council, and sent their handsomest young men and women to amuse her so that she would stop crying. They danced before the Sun and sang their best songs, but for a long time she kept her face covered and paid no attention, until at last the drummer suddenly changed the song, when she lifted up her face, and was so pleased at the sight that she forgot her grief and smiled.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120209121 ... ee_002.htm

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Now to give a respectful acknowledgement of the themes in this Cherokee tale.

• 1. It addresses the finality of death. It is beautiful because only a whimsical history is offered to give a reason for the finality of the last breath of life. No explanations or reasons can take away the sorrow, so it is kept in a simple form.
  
  2. It pictures the failure to keep a very straightforward instruction (that is, "Do not open the box until you arrive"), and the inescapable consequences that follow. This seems to be a universal theme and one we can all understand.
  
  3. It is one of many myths that talk about a change of suns, or the plan to "kill the old sun" and the appearance of a new sun. It also mentions a planetary or stellar body that rests in the center of the sky.
  
  4. It is one of the legends that talks about the sun coming too close to the earth, and burning things up. It is also a legend of the sun going dark. This, in Electric Universe terms, and as Wal Thornhill pointed out, is a universal theme reflecting a time when the Earth was on an elliptical orbit***. That is, the Earth followed a non-circular orbit temporarily, during capture. That elliptical orbit caused periods of intense heat but also of extreme cold, and also a time of darkness.
  
  5. It mentions the snakes, and in particular, a snake with horns. Uktena, he is called here, in the Cherokee language. I suggest as have others that this is simply understood in the Electric Universe model as a witness of the "return stroke" of an electric discharge. The return stroke is the other aspect of a lightning bolt. It is seen coming up from the earth in slow motion lightning videos, for example. It looks like a long bolt of lightning, but all of the dendritic branching extends upward, rather than downward. So it is -- a snake with antlers. These often are the enemies of the Thunderbird, which casts lightning down from high above in the sky. Their battles are famously handed down in many legends.
  
  6. It emphasizes the importance of the Sun Dance, which is a yearly meeting between clans in a tribe, and sometimes between the tribes. At these meetings agreements are made, cases adjudicated, marriages arranged, trading, games and competitions take place, food is shared, and stories are told. This is not unlike the Althing and Law Rock of the Vikings of Iceland. It is a tried-and-true means of keeping law and peace, and of passing on the basics of society to the next generation. It is an ancient type of stable society that is decidedly non-monumental and non-centralized.

These are very brief points to show how this legend may be interpreted in the Electric Universe model, in order to show why I think the "Little People" in "The Daughter of the Sun" are in fact descriptions of the plasma discharges attested in the Squatterman Petroglyph.

I have also found a northwest legend that seems to portray the "Little Men" involved in stupendous events in the Sky.






***I collected several more of the "too hot/too cold" legends, and the changing suns here: https://thunderbolts.info/wp/forum3/php ... php?t=1422

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As mentioned before, I would like to share a Northwest Indian legend that mentions not only the Stickman, but also another remarkable figure, well known to followers of the Thunderbolts Project and the Electric Universe. (I will leave you to see if you spot it yourself, for the moment.)

The following tale is set in more modern times.

It recounts a mountain-climbing mishap when the early settlers were exploring the Northwest. But I am very drawn to the words of these Wasco Indians, because of the visual power of their interpretation of events here in the Columbia Gorge, and the question it raises. Could these reflect much older traditions which have been handed down from times long since past?

Ah-Ton-O-Kah of She-Ko-An,
A Wasco Legend of Mount Hood

• There were five small people, old, short [dwarf] people called Es-cho-o-likes. They lived on Mount Hood [She-ko-un]. There was also a big woman, large, big with long breasts, living on that mountain. This woman was called Ah-ton-o-kah. If that woman liked you, she would take care of you.
  
  You went to the berry patch near Mount Hood, good berries. There you found out about this big woman. If you had lots of folks with you, if you got separated from your folks, you called. Your people maybe had gone to camp." He then describes how, after several calls for your party, she would take you to her lodge on Mt. Hood, and how she would take care of you, and all the plenty in her lodge. He continues:
  
  Three white men first came to the Mt. Hood country. They found out about that mountain, wanted to go to the top of Mt. Hood. They had nails in the bottom of their shoes for walking on snow, on ice. It was spring, maybe early summer. Three Indians, Ske-tush, Isaac and Yes-sum-you, went with the white men. They went half-way up the mountain. Fire commenced on top of Mt. Hood. That mountain shook, trembled big. It threw fire on the men. The white men were crazy, crazy like whiskey drinkers. They did not talk! They only cried! cried! cried! They rolled down Mt. Hood, all badly scared. The Indians said, "We go back now."
  
  They all came back, white men, Indians, all. The nails in the white man's howes were all worn off. The rocks were too sharp, too rough. The Es-cho-o-likes made that fire come, made Mt. Hood shake.They did not want people to come up there where they lived.
  ~Hines, Donald M., Celilo Tales, 1996.

I would like your patience as I draw attention to a couple of elements in this Wasco tale:

• 1. There is a name for the "Little People" preserved in their language. The word "dwarf" has been inserted by the person who recorded the story.
  
  2. The "Little People" are associated with a time of intense geological activity, with fire in the sky and with the mountain, and are also associated with the woman with long breasts, a big woman, who also has an ancient name in the Wasco tongue. Her name is Ah-ton-o-kah.
  
  • Could this be a manifestation of the "earliest form of artistic expression," as Dave Talbott presents here:
    Discourses on an Alien Sky #33 | The Prehistoric Mother Goddess
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_l810E ... B&index=35
    dur 11:17
  Is it possible that this is a rare appearance of a sort of North American version of the Venus of Willendorf, which also has figurines all over the world? And, is this significant to my own search for the Squatterman Petroglyph, alluded to by their names, the "Little People" ?

It may only be a coincidence, true. But I would like to share two other attestations by Northwest Indian tribes. In these accounts, the "Little Men" not only have names passed down from previous generations, but are also deeply connected to the Stickman in the rock art of the Columbia Plateau. In other words, the words for the "Little People" are connected to the Squatterman Petroglyphs by two tribes, the Salish and the Yakima.

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In a c.2011 interview with Peter Mungo Jupp, Wal Thornhill clarified that in the Electric Universe model there was a period of extreme auroral activity in earth's past. This period of intense auroral plasma discharges would have been accompanied by radiation that ranged from Extreme Ultraviolet to X-rays, and possibly beyond:

• Wal Thornhill: "...Looking at the kind of imagery that not only the aborigines but also all
  prehistoric peoples around the world recorded by chipping into stone, or their artwork on rock..."
  
  Peter Mungo Jupp: "...These petroglyphs."
  
  Wal Thornhill: "Yes petroglyphs, that's right, and the interesting thing is that we
  found that the shapes, these weird shapes which have been interpreted as stick men
  or even as astronauts you know because of the strange helmet-like protrudences..."
  
  Peter: "...and horns and so on..."
  
  Wal: "That's right. The fact that we can tie these in
  now to these high-energy discharge phenomena in plasma labs means that it gives a very strong
  argument for the fact that the ancients witnessed not only the super powerful auroras, but
  lived through a time when something strange was going on in the solar system."
  
  Peter: "So you're saying Wal, just to make sure
  I've got this right, that the shapes that they carved into the rock resembled the shapes you're seeing these
  plasma discharges in laboratories?"
  
  Wal: "Yes, and the interesting thing is that as
  this high energy discharge takes place in the laboratory, the shape changes over time,
  very quickly in the laboratory. But if you ah consider something on the scale of the earth,
  or an aurora, it takes place over a more extended period of time; and some
  of the shapes were very distinctive. One of them is known as the Squatter Man... "
  
  Peter: "Okay."
  
  Wal: "...which is a figure with the arms upraised like this at right angles and the legs also splayed at right angles.
  And the strange thing is that almost without exception around the world you find that
  these dots are drawn between the elbow and the knee, and this of course makes no sense
  according to the way we look at the world today. But in the plasma lab we find that this is precisely what you see:
  the figure with the arms -- the apparent arms -- up-raised and the legs out at right angles, and
  the two plasma dots (the plasma toroid), which is seen as two circles between the knees and the elbows,
  and also something that looks a bit like a head, or a shape at the top."
  
  Peter: "So we've actually got photographs of this phenomena in the laboratory. And tell me -- with...
  whatever caused this electromagnetic aurora -- what effects would be happening on earth
  once it reaches a certain point? Perhaps you could tell us at a certain point that it becomes, let's say, critical."
  
  Wal: "Okay well at those kinds of energies when the discharge is that powerful..."
  
  Peter: "-- and they do discharge..."
  
  Wal: "There's an electrical discharge. It's a cosmic discharge, if you like. The central part of the
  this apparition generates x-rays which can be lethal, so that people would
  have recognized that this object in the sky had a profound effect on animals and
  themselves. And also if the discharge to the ground was sufficiently powerful you would get super lightning bolts, which are quite destructive and can actually sculpt the landscape to some extent, so that it actually tears earth away from the landscape and pushes it up in the air..."
  
  Peter: "Yes okay yes."
  
  end

So an essential aspect of these events is that the intensity of the radiation from these Squatterman plasma formations was not only harmful, but also potentially deadly to look at. We will see this aspect of the "Little Men" in one of the testimonies I am about to share, given by two old Yakima Indian men in 1912. Wal Thornhill's descriptive remarks of super lightning discharges to and from the Squatterman Plasma Petroglyph also help to account for the mention of the snake-with-antlers characters, which were striking from below towards objects in the sky (as seen in the previous Cherokee legend).

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I have been away, but not for lack of interest in the topic!

My question has been, "Do the Squatterman Plasma Petroglyphs show up in any important Native American Indian legends, or are the "Little People" just a dwarf creature, like a faerie or a tiny hominid?"

There are certainly stories here and there about dwarf people who are rarely seen. What stands out to me in those folktales are the dangers of looking at them. Some of the bad things that befall the person who looks at one of these creatures are: a red, swollen face, death, or someone in your family dies. I was going to share some of those stories for the sake of being even-handed, but I think I will just let it stand. So: there are different stories surrounding the "Little People." But even in those legends in which they are not Sky People, they are often still associated with danger from even looking at them (remember the possible x-ray radiation emanating from these plasma z-pinches). Still other legends link the name of "Little People" to the petroglyphs, as well.

But I have found a very important link between the sand paintings of the Navaho/Dine and the Zunis and the Plasma Squatterman Petroglyphs. This link, I believe, illuminates the connection between the petroglyphs and some the most powerful characters of all: The Hero Twins.

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The Hero Twins appear in many Native American legends, across the entire contiguous United States.

Pictured here, in this Navaho/Dine sand painting, are the Twin Sons of Changing Woman.
https://ibb.co/tTfmXHGQ

Also Dine:
https://ibb.co/fdW2x33r

And here is a Zuni Thunderbird:
https://ibb.co/zhJw4bFk

Wal Thornhill described the events surrounding these sky-spanning plasma discharges in this way:

• "There's an electrical discharge. It's a cosmic discharge, if you like. The central part of the
  this apparition generates x-rays which can be lethal, so that people would
  have recognized that this object in the sky had a profound effect on animals and
  themselves.
  
  And also if the discharge to the ground was sufficiently powerful you would get super lightning bolts, which are quite destructive and can actually sculpt the landscape to some extent, so that it actually tears earth away from the landscape and pushes it up in the air..."

These entrancing and beautiful works of art are surrounded by many lightning bolts. The lightning bolts are represented by a zigzag line and an arrow showing the direction of the bolt, whether heavenward or downward to earth.

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The sand paintings of the Navajo and Zuni tribes represent the Hero Twins as dynamically geometric characters. If the Hero Twins, or in this case, the Twin Sons of Changing Woman, provide a way in which the Squatterman Plasma Petroglyphs were clearly and unequivocally embodied in the legends, then what events surround these characters?

Who were the Twin Sons of Changing Woman and what are they remembered for?

• "The Navajos envisioned a series of worlds that were destroyed before this world (the number varies). People escaped from each world, bringing a token from the previous era. As in the Zuni myth, the earlier, wet and muddy worlds were dominated by monsters, which were created before human beings and preyed on them.
  
  Some monsters even pursued people into successive worlds. But the Sun gave special lightning bolts to the twin sons of Changing Woman, so that they overcame the monsters. The twins became the heroic Monster Slayers." ~Adrienne Mayor

The Twins Sons of Changing Woman turned many of the monsters to stone.

Again, if the Twin Sons of Changing Woman, and by association and extension, the Hero Twins of other legends, are in fact a personification of the Squatterman Plasma Petroglyph, then a survey of these legends may lead to a more complete description of the planetary catastrophes that brought about such a powerful plasma z-pinch aurora, and the resulting changes to the landscape, and perhaps even to life.



ref: pg 119. In her book The Fossil Legends of the First Americans, A. Mayor examines traditions surrounding the fossil "monsters," and she speculates that the Native Americans must have created stories to explain the death and burial of the gigantic, extinct creatures.

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In his book on the rock art of the Columbia Plateau, James D Keyser has gathered a large collection of twin-figure petroglyphs. After discussing the beliefs of northwest tribes regarding the sometimes-awe-inspiring birth of human twins, he goes on to say this about the strange, otherworldly petroglyph forms:

• "Beliefs about twins are only one part of the duality characteristic of Columbia Plateau cosmology. Folk tales also tell of the 'Transformers,' a pair of culture heroes who figure prominently in some Salishan world creation myths.
  
  Though not twins, these men possessed the extraordinarily supernatural power and at the beginning had taught people many aspects of Salishan culture. Among their powers was the ability to turn evil persons to stone. At the end of the world, the Transformers were to return as judges for eternity....
  
  What these twin figures specifically meant to the artists who painted or carved them are lost in the mists of time, but undoubtedly they were made for supernatural purposes."

I'd love to share these twin-forms after I deal with some battery problems!



ref: Keyser, James D., Indian Rock Art of the Columbia Plateau, 1992.

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Keyser's preferred interpretation is that the petroglyphs are linked closely with "shamanism", a common thesis among anthropologists regarding petroglyphs. Dave Talbott addresses this view in "Stickman on Stone":

• "Evidence gathered from around the world has made abundantly clear that in the ancient times, intense electrical activity above observers on earth was the subject of massive collective endeavors to record the forms on stone. Especially compelling is the rock art theme called the Stickman. The illustrations shown here compare a well documented electric discharge form in the laboratory to the remarkably similar rock art carvings from different parts of the world."
  
  "Of course the majority of rock art authorities, particularly those with primary interest in Native American sources, argue that only the images of the Sun, Moon and stars reflect actual celestial phenomena. Apart from such associations most authorities claim that global patterns do not exist. Rather, they tell us, the ancient artists projected onto stone the subjective content of shamanistic trances. Peratt's investigations say the opposite, that the most fundamental patterns of rock art occur globally. Through massive labors...the artists carved onto stone observed electric discharge phenomena in the heavens."

https://youtu.be/JBVFClsXJII?si=8DFAaUfrHvEEstCE&t=149

From 2:17 to 6:45 Dave Talbott presents the plasma instabilities as they would have metamorphosed from one form to another in the sky, and their relation to the rock art seen worldwide. One of the briefest and most powerful instabilities is the many-legged Kayenta pictograph at 6:15.

In one particular Zuni legend I would like to share next, notice the role of the Old Man, Grandfather Centipede in helping the two brothers to steal the Thunderstone and the Lightning-shaft.

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There are 6 languages of the Pueblo Indians, and 21 Pueblo tribes. The Zunis are among them and constitute a distinct linguistic family. Zuni Native American tribes live in New Mexico. Visitors are welcome to come to some cultural events, but photos are usually only by permission of the tribe. Traditional basketry, weaving and pottery making as well as silver and turquoise jewelry making are still passed down through generations, as are the irrigation and growing methods learned from previous generations. Sheep herding is also still practiced by some Zuni, like with many of the SW tribes.

I am going to share a Zuni story called "How Ahaiyutaa and Matsailema stole the Thunderstone and the Lightning-Shaft."

It will appear long, but just imagine how much of a miracle it is that these stories have been passed down with so much detail. If Immanuel Velikovsky, Dave Talbott, Wal Thornhill, and others are correct, these stories have preserved events from an epoch of great plasma and electric discharges in the sky.

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How Ahaiyutaa and Matsailema stole the Thunderstoneand the Lightning-Shaft 
A Zuni Legend 


Áhaiyúta and Mátsailéma, with their grandmother, lived where now stands the ancient Middle Place of Sacrifice on Thunder Mountain. One day they went out hunting prairie-dogs, and while they were running about from one prairie-dog village to another, it began to rain, which made the trail slippery and the ground muddy, so that the boys became a little wrathful. Then they sat down and cursed the rain for a brief space. Off in the south it thundered until the earth trembled, and the lightning-shafts flew about the red-bordered clouds until the two brothers were nearly blinded with the beholding of it. Presently the younger brother smoothed his brow, and jumped up with an exclamation somewhat profane, and cried out: "Elder brother, let us go to the Land of Everlasting Summer and steal from the gods in council their thunder and lightning. I think it would be fine fun to do that sort of thing we have just been looking at and listening to."

The elder brother was somewhat more cautious; still, on the whole, he liked the idea. So he said "Let us take our prairie-dogs home to the grandmother, that she shall have something to eat meanwhile, and we will think about going tomorrow morning." The next morning, bright and early, they started out. In vain the old grandmother called rather crossly after them: "Where are you going now?" She could get no satisfaction, for she knew they lied when they called back: "Oh, we are only going to hunt more prairie-dogs." It is true that they skulked round in the plains about Thunder Mountain a little while, as if looking for prairie-dogs. 

Then, picking up their wondrously swift heels, they sped away toward that beautiful country of the corals, the Land of Everlasting Summer. At last --it may be in the mountains of that country, which are said to glow like shells of the sea or the clouds of the sunset -- they came to the House of the Beloved Gods themselves. And that red house was a wondrous terrace, rising wall after wall, and step after step, like a high mountain, grand and stately; and the walls were so smooth and high that the skill and power of the little War-gods availed them nothing; they could not get in. "What shall we do?" asked the younger brother. "Go home," said the elder, "and mind our own affairs." 

"Oh, no," urged the younger, "I have it, elder brother. Let us hunt up our grandfather, the Centipede." "Good!" replied the elder. "A happy thought is that of yours, my brother younger." Forthwith they laid down their bows and quivers of mountain-lion skin, their shields, and other things, and set about turning over all the flat stones they could find. Presently, lifting one with their united strength, they found under it the very old fellow they sought. He doubled himself, and covered his eyes from the sharpness of the daylight. He did not much like being thus disturbed, even by his grandchildren, the War-gods, in the middle of his noonday nap, and was by no means polite to them. But they prodded him a little in the side, and said: "Now, grandfather, look here! We are in difficulty, and there is no one in the wide world who can help us out as you will."

The old Centipede was naturally flattered. He unrolled himself and viewed them with a look which he intended to be extremely reproachful and belittling. "Ah, my grandchildren," said he, "what are you up to now? Are you trying to get yourselves into trouble, as usual? No doubt of it! I will help you all I can; but the consequences be on your own heads!"  "That's right, grandfather, that's right! No one in the world could help us as you can," said one of them. "The fact is, we want to get hold of the thunder-stone and the lightning-shaft which the Rain-gods up there in the tremendous house keep and guard so carefully, we understand. Now, in the first place, we cannot get up the wall; in the second place, if we did, we would probably have a fuss with them in trying to steal these things. Therefore, we want you to help us, if you will." "With all my heart, my boys! But I should advise you to run along home to your grandmother, and let these things alone." 

"Oh, pshaw, nonsense! We are only going to play a little while with the thunder and lightning." "All right," replied the old Worm; "sit here and wait for me." He wriggled himself and stirred about, and his countless legs were more countless than ever with rapid motions as he ran toward the walls of that stately terrace. A vine could not have run up more closely, nor a bird more rapidly; for if one foot slipped, another held on; so the old Centipede wriggled himself up the sides and over the roof, down into the great sky-hole; and, scorning the ladder, which he feared might creak, he went along, head-downward, on the ceiling to the end of the room over the altar, ran down the side, and approached that most forbidden of places, the altar of the gods themselves. The beloved gods, in silent majesty, were sitting there with their heads bowed in meditation so deep that they heard not the faint scuffle of the Centipede's feet as he wound himself down into the altar and stole the thunder-stone. He took it in his mouth--which was larger than the mouths of Centipedes are now--and carried it silently, weighty as it was, up the way he had come, over the roof, down the wall, and back to the flat stone where he made his home, and where, hardly able to contain themselves with impatience, the two youthful gods were awaiting him. "Here he comes!" cried the younger brother, "and he's got it! By my war-bonnet, he's got it!" 

The old grandfather threw the stone down. It began to sound, but Áhaiyúta grabbed it, and, as it were, throttled its world-stirring speech. "Good! good!" he cried to the grandfather; "thank you, old grandfather, thank you!" "Hold on!" cried the younger brother; "you didn't bring both. What can we do with the one without the other?" "Shut up!" cried the old Worm. "I know what I am about!" And before they could say any more he was off again. Ere long he returned, carrying the shaft of lightning, with its blue, shimmering point, in his mouth.

"Good!" cried the War-gods. And the younger brother caught up the lightning, and almost forgot his weapons, which, however, he did stop to take up, and started on a full run for Thunder Mountain, followed by his more deliberate, but equally interested elder brother, who brought along the thunder-stone, which he found a somewhat heavier burden than he had supposed. 

It was not long, you may well imagine, so powerful were these Gods of War, ere they reached the home of their grandmother on the top of Thunder Mountain. They had carefully concealed the thunder-stone and the shaft of lightning meanwhile, and had taken care to provide themselves with a few prairie-dogs by way of deception.

Still, in majestic reverie, unmoved, and apparently unwitting of what had taken place, sat the Rain-gods in their home in the mountains of Summerland. Not long after they arrived, the young gods began to grow curious and anxious to try their new playthings. They poked one another considerably, and whispered a great deal, so that their grandmother began to suspect they were about to play some rash joke or other, and presently she espied the point of lightning gleaming under Mátsailéma's dirty jacket. "Demons and corpses!" she cried. "By the moon! You have stolen the thunder-stone and lightning-shaft from the Gods of Rain themselves! Go this instant and return them, and never do such a thing again!" she cried, with the utmost severity; and, making a quick step for the fireplace, she picked up a poker with which to belabor their backs, when they whisked out of the room and into another. 

They slammed the door in their grandmother's face and braced it, and, clearing away a lot of rubbish that was lying around the rear room, they established themselves in one end, and, nodding and winking at one another, cried out: "Now, then!" The younger let go the lightning-shaft; the elder rolled the thunder-stone. The lightning hissed through the air, and far out into the sky, and returned. The thunder-stone rolled and rumbled until it shook the foundations of the mountain. "Glorious fun!" cried the boys, rubbing their thighs in ecstasy of delight. "Do it again!" 

And again they sent forth the lightning and rolled the thunder-stone. And now the gods in Summerland arose in their majesty and breathed upon the skies; and the winds rose, and the rains fell like rivers from the clouds, centering their violence upon the roof of the poor old grandmother's house.

Heedlessly those reckless wretches kept on playing the thunder-stone and lightning-shaft without the slightest regard to the tremendous commotion they were raising all through the skies and all over Thunder Mountain; but nowhere else as above the house where their poor old grandmother lived fell the torrent of the rain, and there alone, of course, burst the lightning and rolled the thunder. 

Soon the water poured through the roof of the house; but, move the things as the old grandmother would, she could not keep them dry; scold the boys as she would, she could not make them desist. No, they would only go on with their play more violently than ever, exclaiming: "What has she to say, anyway? It won't hurt her to get a good ducking, and this is fun!" 

By-and-by the waters rose so high that they extinguished the fire. Soon they rose still higher, so that the War-gods had to paddle around half submerged. Still they kept rolling the thunder-stone and shooting the lightning. The old grandmother scolded harder and harder, but after a while desisted and climbed to the top of the fireplace, whence,after recovering from her exertion, she began again. But the boys heeded her not, only saying: "Let her yell! Let her scold! This is fun!" At last they began to take the old grandmother's scolding as a matter of course, and allowed nothing but the water to interrupt their pastime. It rose so high, finally, that they were near drowning. Then they climbed to the roof, but still they kept on. "By the bones of the dead! why did we not think to come here before? 'Tis ten times as fine up here. See him shoot!" cried one to the other, as the lightning sped through the sky, ever returning. "Hear it mutter and roll!" cried the other, as the thunder bellowed and grumbled. 

But no sooner had the Two begun their sport on the roof, than the rain fell in one vast sheet all about them; and it was not long ere the house was so full that the old grandmother--locked in as she was--bobbed her poor pate on the rafters in trying to keep it above the water. She gulped water, and gasped, coughed, strangled, and shrieked to no purpose. "What a fuss our old grandmother is making, to be sure!" cried the boys. And they kept on, until, forsooth, the water had completely filled the room, and the grandmother's cries gurgled away and ceased. Finally, the thunder-stone grew so terrific, and the lightning so hot and unmanageable, that the boys, drawing a long breath and thinking with immense satisfaction of the fun they had had, possibly also influenced as to the safety of the house, which was beginning to totter, flung the thunder-stone and the lightning-shaft into the sky, where, rattling and flashing away, they finally disappeared over the mountains in the south. 

Then the clouds rolled away and the sun shone out, and the boys, wet to the skin, tired in good earnest, and hungry as well, looked around. "Goodness! the water is running out of the windows of our house! This is a pretty mess we are in! Grandmother! Grandmother!" they shouted. "Open the door, and let us in!" But the old grandmother had piped her last, and never a sound came except that of flowing water. They sat themselves down on the roof, and waited for the water to get lower. Then they climbed down, and pounded open the door, and the water came out with a rush, and out with a rush, too, their poor old grandmother--her eyes staring, her hair all mopped and muddied, and her fingers and legs as stiff as cedar sticks. "Oh, ye gods! ye gods!" the two boys exclaimed; "we have killed our own grandmother--poor old grandmother, who scolded us so hard and loved us so much! Let us bury her here in front of the door, as soon as the water has run away." 

So, as soon as it became dry enough, there they buried her; and in less than four days a strange plant grew up on that spot, and on its little branches, amid its bright green leaves, hung long, pointed pods of fruit, as red as the fire on the breast of the red-bird. "It is well," said the boys, as they stood one day looking at this plant. "Let us scatter the seeds abroad, that men may find and plant them. It seems it was not without good cause that in the abandonment to our sport we killed our old grandmother, for out of her heart there sprung a plant into the fruits of which, as it were, has flowed the color as well as the fire of her scolding tongue; and, if we have lost our grandmother, whom we loved much, but who loved us more, men have gained a new food, which, though it burn them, shall please them more than did the heat of her discourse please us. Poor old grandmother! Men will little dream when they eat peppers that the seed of them first arose from the fiery heart of the grandmother of Áhaiyúta and Mátsailéma."

Thereupon the two seized the pods and crushed them between their hands, with an exclamation of pleasure at the brisk odor they gave forth. They cast the seeds abroad, which seeds here and there took root; and the plants which sprang from them being found by men, were esteemed good and were cultivated, as they are to this day in the pepper gardens of Zuni. 

Ever since this time you hear that mountain wherein lived the gods with their grandmother called Thunder Mountain; and often, indeed, to this day, the lightning flashes and the thunder plays over its brows and the rain falls there most frequently. 

It is said by some that the two boys, when asked how they stole the lightning-shaft and the thunder-stone, told on their poor old grandfather, the Centipede. The beloved Gods of the Rain gave him the lightning-shaft to handle in another way, and it so burned and shriveled him that he became small, as you can see by looking at any of his numerous descendants, who are not only small but appear like a well-toasted bit of buckskin, fringed at the edges.  

[Brigit]

Now earlier I was noting that the sand paintings of the Navajo and Zuni tribes represent the Hero Twins as dynamically geometric characters. There is no doubt of the Squatterman Petroglyph forms in their representations in art of the Monster Slayer/Hero Twins. I shared legends and descriptions of what the Monster Slayer Twin Brothers are known for, one Zuni and one Navaho.

And the question that followed from that is, "If the Hero Twins, or in this case, the Twin Sons of Changing Woman, provide a way in which the Squatterman Plasma Petroglyphs were clearly and unequivocally embodied in the legends, then what events surround these characters?"

This is an intriguing inquiry, because, if it hasn't been openly stated here before in this topic, there are several scenarios that have been suggested for the source of the intense plasma discharge z-pinch auroras in the sky, in antiquity. One of the original suggestions is that the Sun released a solar flare of enormous magnitude. Others, including Dave Talbott and Wal Thornhill, have put forward an extensively documented alternative for the extraordinary duration and for the global appearance of these Plasma Petroglyph forms. This includes planets at close proximity in a time of planetary instability in the Solar System, within prehistoric memory.

So again, if the Twin Sons of Changing Woman, and by association and extension, the Hero Twins of other legends, are in fact a personification of the Squatterman Plasma Petroglyph, then a survey of these legends may lead to a more complete description of the planetary catastrophes that brought about such a powerful plasma z-pinch aurora, and possibly also to the resulting changes to the landscape, and perhaps even to life.

I remarked that the Hero Twins/Monster Slayers were a familiar theme in myths and legends of the Native Americans across the US. I would like to share a few examples from two regions of the United States to start with.