Central America is comprised of a chain of countries
connecting North and South Americas. In the middle of this chain lays a country
of Honduras. Mostly mountainous with narrow lowlands along the coasts, where
climate is tropical and changes to temperate in the mountains. In those
spectacular regions once lived Mayan people. And this takes us to the story.
A long time ago, the gods created the crystal clear
waters, the lush green mountains, blooming flowers and chirping birds with
other animals to roam the forest, but the gods where still lonely. They wanted
something to love them. So they decided to create a man.
First they went to the river and out of its bank’s
clay they formed a man. The God of Water said, “We need to test him if he is
strong enough to live on his own.” He dipped the man under the river’s water
and in short time the figure dissolved.
Then the gods decided to go to the forest. Out of a piece
of wood they created a man. He passed the test under water. “But we need to
test him under fire,” announced the God of Fire. And that’s what they did. It
didn’t take long for the wood to turn into ashes.
Frustrated gods returned to heaven. The God of Gold
suggested, “Why don’t we make a man out of gold. He won’t dissolve in water or
burn in fire.” So they created a man out of gold and put him in a lush garden
on Earth.
A monkey offered a banana, but the golden man would
not eat it. A butterfly charmed everybody with its beautiful colors except the
golden man, who wouldn’t even blink an eye. A bird chirped his melodious songs,
but the golden man would not listen. The Gods were very disappointed.
Finally the Good-Hearted God spoke, “Maybe we need
to offer a part of us, so the man has feelings as we do.” Then he took out his
knife and cut off the fingers of his left hand. He did not worry about his
fingers as he knew they would grow back quickly. As soon as the fingers touched
the Earth, they turned into finger people.
The gods reached the Earth to test the finger
people, but they ran away quickly in all directions. They didn’t want to be
tested under water or fire. Dissatisfied gods left.
The finger people multiplied until they were in
every corner of the world. They reached the low and high lands and stumbled
upon the golden statue. It was cold. So the finger people covered him in
blankets. It was still cold. So they carried him home.
They cared for him until one day he spoke, “Thank
you for all your kindness.”
At the thunderous voice, the gods looked down at
Earth and saw what the finger people had done.
The God of Gold spoke, “We won’t punish them for
running away, but from now on, the descendants of the gold man will be rich and
the ones of the finger people will be poor and will work for the rich.”
The Good-Hearted God knew that the finger people
were kind and caring and didn’t see it fit for them to be poor. So he
responded, “The finger people will work for the gold people, but they must be
paid fairly for their honest work.”
“Once in heaven they all will be equal,” agreed the
gods.
Source: How the Gods Created the Finger People by
Elizabeth Moore and Alice Couvillon
No comments:
Post a Comment