| Next, we will read from a book printed in 1769, titled The History of Paraguay, in which we read about ”monstrous serpents” encountered there. They actually did discover something in the New World, whole new species of dragons, some of which breathed fire, some spit poison, and some could eat a man whole: “The governor, on entering the port, found there before him, a great number of Indians, who impatiently waited his arrival, and received him with the greatest demonstrations of joy. On his side, he treated them with the greatest kindness; and being informed that they adored idols, a thing that had not as yet been observed, among any of the other nations of this continent, he earnestly exhorted the secular and regular clergy, who accompanied him in his expedition, to omit nothing to open their eyes, and bring them over to the knowledge of the true God. He even spoke to them himself, of the weakness of these dumb and blind divinities; and at last prevailed on them, to give up the objects of their worship to the flames; notwithstanding the great apprehensions that they first seemed to be under, lest the devils should punish them severely for it. This done, Don Alvarez caused a cross to be erected, and built a chapel, where mass was sung with great solemnity, to the no small satisfaction of the Indians. After this ceremony he took possession of the whole country, for the crown of Spain.” Now Don Alvarez was embarking on the observance and takeover of another village and we read the following: “But, at the martial appearance of Don Alvarez’s forces, they immediately dispersed, leaving their town to the discretion of the Spaniards who immediately entered it, found it to consist of eight thousand cabins, in the center of which stood a tower terminating in a pyramid, built with large pieces of timber and covered, from top to bottom, with palm tree bark. “This was the temple and residence of a monstrous serpent whom the residents had chosen for their divinity and fed with human flesh. He was as thick as an ox and seven and twenty feet long, with a very large head, and very fiery though small eyes. His jaws, when extended, displayed two ranks of crooked fangs. The whole body, except the tail which was smooth, was covered with round scales of a great thickness. The Spaniards, though they could not be persuaded by the Indians that this monster delivered oracles, were exceedingly terrified at the first sight of him and their terror greatly increased when, on one of them having fired a blunderbuss at him, he gave a roar like that of a lion, and with a stroke of his tail shook the whole tower. However, they found it no hard matter to make an end of him.” (7) I think it’s probably safe to say that this story is not true and was used to promote the idea that the natives not only worshiped serpents but fed human flesh to them as well. It seems obvious to me if for only the reason being that the priesthood entering Paraguay and South America knew perfectly well about the rites of Delphi in Greece and the pythoness as an oracle seer. However, it’s extremely |
unlikely that the natives in South America would use a real serpent to be conducting oracles, which is a direct descent from a mythos about shamanism. If the natives were practicing mushroom consumption, which we know they were, then why on earth would they keep a serpent alive and feed him human flesh in order to have their oracle? That does not make one bit of sense to me. What does make a lot of sense to me, is that the missionaries had this story made up and added to their expedition in order to convince their population of Spain that the work being performed here was altruistic and for the good of God. There is just no other reasonable explanation I can think of for this story to exist. We hear very similar stories of serpent gods being encountered in Paraguay and also in Central America. Additionally, the story contains two other encoded words containing heavy symbolism. The size of the dragon was compared to that of an ox, (a bovine animal) and seven and twenty feet long, which is an occult number indicating 720, or 72, which divided by 2 and multiplied by 10, or multiplied by 5 equals the number of days in a year. What do you think the chances of this being a coincidence could be? Here is a comparable story which follows. Paraguay was an easy conquest for Spain due to its proximity, but the jungle tribal reaches of South America were quite different entirely. The missionaries had to be a lot more careful and they were met with more fierce resistance. Initially though, they were welcomed as friends in most cases. Diego Duran, (c. 1537 – 1588) was a Dominican friar best known for his authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs, The History of the Indies of New Spain. In this book, he chronicles the early discovery of Aztec temples in the jungles: “They led us to some large houses very well built of masonry, which were the Temples of their Idols, and on the walls were figured the bodies of many great serpents and snakes and other pictures of evil-looking idols. These walls surrounded a sort of Altar covered with clotted blood. On the other side of the idols were symbols like crosses, and all were colored. At all this we stood wondering, as they were things never seen or heard of, before.” “It seemed as though certain Indians had just offered sacrifices to their Idols so as to insure victory over us. However, many Indian women moved about us, laughing, and with every appearance of good will, but the Indians gathered in such large numbers that we began to fear that there might be some trap set for us as at Cotoche.” (7) The History of Paraguay, containing amongst many New, Curious and Interesting Particulars of that Country, A Full and Authentic Account of the Establishments formed there by the Jesuits from among the savage natives in the very center of Barbarism, Charlevoix, 1769 |