This old manuscript was found buried in the archives of the Riversleigh Mouseion. It appears to refer to the newly found cave in Lemuria and seems to have been written by someone who had explored the shaft at the back of the main gallery.
The text of the manuscript is as follows:
“Night is falling in the Neolithic era. A small group of women and men retreat to the safety of their cave, lit with stone lamps filled with animal fat and fires burning in pits. The people surround a woman who lies in the center of the cave, surrounded by piles of food offerings, flowers and animal sacrifices. This woman is about to give birth, and the people prepare themselves to participate in the mystery that is about to take place. The women pound the roots and seeds of plants into a liquid that will produce the trance state required by the shaman. As representatives of the Great Mother Earth who provides all, only women are allowed to perform the magic that transforms raw animal flesh into stews and jerky and seeds and grains into the life-sustaining breads. When the hallucinogenic liquid is ready, the people gather in a circle around the birthing woman and each takes a small sip. One young man, who is wearing a cape made of bird feathers and a bird mask, drinks the rest of the liquid left in the bowl.
Outside, the sky becomes dark as the earth enters the cave of night, the womb of the universe. The bird-man stands, and the women lead him down into the bowels of the cave. As they descend, the feeble lights of their lamps illuminate the huge representations of bison, horses, stags and elk that line the walls of the cave. The people begin to make sounds that, echoing off the damp walls, accurately reproduce the voices of the animals depicted here. The way is long and torturous. Finally, they reach a shaft that is sixteen feet deep. An old woman descends the shaft on a wooden ladder and, at the bottom, draws a rhinoceros and a huge bison. Then the bird-man descends and, deep in the trance produced by the liquid, draws a lance that passes through the body of the bison, eviscerating him. The bird-man depicts himself, as a man with a bird’s head, lying on the ground behind the rhino. As the man draws his death scene, the people let out a sigh that becomes a high, ululating trill like that of a flock of birds startled into flight.
Slowly, the people lead the man back the way they came. As they return, they hear the cries of the woman as the new life emerges, and rush to surround her and care for the baby. They wash the infant, carefully preserving the water now mixed with the blood of the woman. The people emerge from the cave as the sun emerges from the cave of night, the womb of the universe. The old woman feeds the bird-man the roots and seeds the women mashed earlier. As his heart stops, the women pour the water mixed with blood over his head. Buried in fetal position, the man is returned to the womb of the Great Mother, completing the cycle of birth and death. As the Goddess gives, so She takes away.”
If anyone can shed any light on this manuscript, please contact Mari Mann at the Riversleigh Mouseion. Photos by Rod Mann.
