- HISTORY'S MYSTERIES DEPARTMENT -

Ancient Atlantis May Have Been Found in Spain

- STRANGE CREATURES FROM TIME AND SPACE DEPARTMENT -

Monsters on the Rio Grande

Most peoples of the world have myths and legends of monsters and other fanciful creatures that spring from humanity's fertile imagination. For a thousand years before Columbus, Europeans busily assembled a reservoir of lore about oneeyed beasts, dragons, giants, amazons and headless monsters that breathed through their stomachs.

These weird ideas and legends were quickly transferred to America. On many of the earliest maps, engravers included images of sea monsters and land dragons in those spaces still unexplored.

The Spaniards who settled New Mexico at the beginning of the colonial era brought with them their Old World notions of monsters and mythical beings.

For example, when Juan de Oñate led an expedition from the upper Rio Grande westward to Arizona in 1604, he was accompanied by Father Francisco de Escobar. The priest was an expert in Indian languages.

In speaking to natives along the Colorado River, he claimed they told him of curious beings who lived beyond the horizon, “monstrous and never seen in our time.”

Among them were humanlike creatures with large ears that dragged on the ground; others born with but a single leg and foot; a tribe of people that slept standing up; and another tribe that slept under water. These clearly were not Indian notions, but the friar's projection of European myths.

There exists a rare book written in French and published in Paris in 1784 containing engravings of monsters that are supposed to inhabit New Mexico. In its pages are several images of “harpies,” which are birds or animals with human heads and horns.

Author of this bizarre volume was a prince of the French royal household who later ascended to the throne as Louis XVIII. In the book credits, he gave himself the imaginative titles of Count of Barcelona and Viceroy of New Mexico.

In the folk culture along the Rio Grande, one finds persistent tales of a fabled monster known as the basilisk, or in Spanish, el basilisco. The legend originated in North Africa, was carried to Spain by the Moors and later transferred to the colonies in America.

The basilisk is variously described as a large lizard, serpent or dragon. In all cases, its breath or its look, when falling upon a human, is said to be fatal.

In Spanish myth, the creature is born from an egg laid by a rooster. But in our own Southwest, it is said to spring directly from the hen without benefit of an egg. As to the deadly effect of the monster's eye, the Rio Grande version of the story follows belief in other parts of the Hispanic world.

If the basilisk sees someone first, that person dies. But if the situation is reversed and the creature is caught unaware and observed by a human first, then it dies.

A basilisk once found a home in a magpie's nest in a tree that grew beside the Albuquerqueto-El Paso wagon road. Many an unsuspecting traveler was killed by its deadly gaze. Finally, a mirror was placed near the nest. The beast looked at its own reflection and perished.

The same story, with slight variations, occurs in such widely separated places as Spain, Guatemala and Chile.

Another common tale in New Mexico concerned a monster snake. This was a legend that arose from American Indians.

The oldest version comes from Pecos Pueblo. Lt. James Abert wrote in 1846 about a giant snake god that had once been kept in an underground kiva and fed infants for nourishment.

His large appetite contributed to the extinction of the pueblo by the late 1830s.

Of this beast, Santa Fe trader Josiah Gregg reported: “Once I met a New Mexican rancher who asserted that upon entering Pecos Pueblo one winter's morning, he saw the huge trail of the reptile in the snow, as large as that of an ox being dragged.”

The Indians of Taos Pueblo are also reputed to have possessed in the 19th century a giant rattlesnake that dined on their babies during important feast days. At the time of the 1847 uprising, American military forces attacked the pueblo.

In the midst of the battles, the “snake god” was seen to be in danger. So a brave Indian placed it under blankets in a handcart and rushed it to safety through a hail of bullets. But in the process, the rescuer was shot to pieces.

Source: The New Mexican
http://www.freenewmexican.com/story_print.php?storyid=35527

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A mysterious crystal skull thought to have belonged to Hitler’s SS chief Heinrich Himmler has been discovered in Germany.

The artefact, found resting on a beam beneath the roof of a house in a Bavarian village, has excited treasure hunters. They believe it may be part of a larger trove of bounty once owned by the most sinister man in Nazi Germany.

Indications are that it was part of a series worshipped by ancient Mayan cultures in what is now Mexico – where, legend has it, the skulls are vital to stop the world ending next year.

Himmler, who oversaw the extermination of Jews, was spellbound by myths and legends until his suicide after being captured by the British.

He financed expeditions all over the world by Indiana Jones-type SS men seeking proof of the “supremacy” of Aryan man.

The skull, which weighs nearly 20lbs, is of the same design as the death’s head on the uniforms of Himmler’s henchmen.

It was found in the home of an old lady once married to a high-ranking SS officer and is now in the hands of Swiss journalist Luc Burgin, who said: “I am 99% sure that this is one of the skulls of the Mayans, but we need clarity and all available tests will be carried out to ascertain authenticity.”

It is believed a list of 35 other missing Nazi treasures was found with it.

The Mayans shaped 13 crystal skulls, of which nine were coloured and represented the races of men and four were as clear as glass to represent “the beasts that walk, crawl, slide and fly”.

They were sent to their places of “birth” until such time when all were needed to avert the catastrophe man would wreak on the planet.

The Mayans, gifted astronomers and mathematicians, calculated a date for this “end of days” - the winter solstice, December 21, 2012.

Source: The Mirror
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/03/10/mayan-crystal-skull-believed-to-have-been-owned-by-ss-chief-heinrich-himmler-discovered-in-germany-115875-22978456/