To the Cacique of the Fire Clan
Third Mesa, Hopi

From a Bahana
Santa Fe, NM
 

I am writing to apologize to you and to inform you that our part of the tablet has been temporarily lost.  The sorceress who refused to go back down through the hole did have a great influence on us (just as we all had expected).  The power she gave us was great and caused us to see many new things and grow quickly in many directions.  We were greatly rewarded for our new knowledge especially when we could find the material causes of things and our knowledge with its rewards gave us a great power over others.  I must now say that the tablet eventually became insignificant to us because of our lust for power.

A very long time ago we believed that our fragment gave us power through a god whom we believed to be above all others.  We experienced His omnipotent presence in that tablet which we protected and kept in a gilded box.  No one was allowed to looked upon it for fear of death from God Himself.  Eventually either this god had forsaken us and/or withdrew His power from the fragment.  That which once gave us power over others seemed to become even a curse for us.   The tablet and its elaborate box now no longer belongs to any particular nation or priesthood.

Before the fragment was put in a box we lived freely with it and copied its bubble-headed image on rocks around our pueblos and sacred shrines.  The image is a bust (head and shoulders) with no mouth and with wavy lines radiating from around the head.  All of us (you and I) used to be like this head and did not need to talk so much.  More and more talking was required as we had a greater need to discuss the material causes of things.  Our talking also became a material cause and less of a prayer.  We still pray some but we no longer really understand why.  Our magic is now so strong that has destroyed all other magic as soon as they come in contact with each other.  You, yourself, have experienced this about us.

We are trying to learn how to use our magic in a new way so that we are not controlled by it.  Perhaps we would be helped by the two parts of the tablet coming together.  There are rumors that it has passed into Great Britain when Joseph of Arimethea brought the relics of the Bahana you would have liked to meet.  My ancestor used a seal with its image but even that is lost to us.

Perhaps, in the near future, the tablet will be made whole again and all of us will come to realize that we are one people.  Then we will be able to combine what we have learned with what we have preserved and will see another world in which we can emerge or see our world in a new way.  Then we may be able to experience the blessings from heaven once again.

Signed,

Bahana Bob
The Birdman