October 7th, 2005<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an age before civilisation, when mankind walked the deserts of Africa, a volcano erupted sending plumes of dark smoke high into the air. The gods were angry at mankind for once again failing to provide a large enough sacrifice, or not having enough sex in the idols presence, or perhaps maybe just for their bad personal hygiene. Who knows why gods got angry back then. The ill-fed, sickly men determined in their sorry excuse for a language to provide the gods with a human sacrifice – the son of the recently deceased chief. The son had taken to laying claim for a political position and the men were not above eliminating the boys life to both satisfy the gods and remove an irritant leadership hopeful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So in their fashion they sacrificed the youth to the gods. Bound and gagged, the boy was thrown into a crevice to what was hoped was his death. This was not to be. The boy landed hard on a ledge 30 feet below which dislodged and slid further into the chasm. The stone on which the boy landed slid down a gravelly slope before it itself became wedged on some rocks. The boy, unable to stop himself, slid off the rock and continued his fall further and further and deeper and deeper into the rocky depths until not even the blazing sun could be seen from its depths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually a rock caught the boy preventing any further descension. Blood and dirt covered his face and body but still the fall had not killed him. Using the sharp edges of the rocks on which he fell, he quickly freed his arms and legs from the ropes that bound him. Luck would have been to die right away from the fall. Now, the lingering slow death of thirst or hunger was the most probably outcome. With torn flesh and broken bones, the boy could barely move and did little else but moan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the gods were happy with the sacrifice. They looked upon this lucky youth with ever more pleasure and good fortune. In his hallucinations from pain and anguish, they decided to give him a very special gift. They said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arukua (for that is what the boy was named)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Son of Arachno (for that is what the chief was named)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You have been found worthy and strong<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the world of men have done injustice to you<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For you, the Green Eye of Africa will be yours<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with it you shall grow strong and ne\u2019er fear death<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For several years plus many more (the concept of numbers had not yet caught on)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so into his clutches, the boy grasped a stone whose shape and size resembled a human eye. As the hallucination faded, the boy became aware of a warm, healing glow that caused him to drop into a very deep sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he awoke his bones were now mended. His cuts and torn flesh were restored. The only pain came from his overwhelming hunger. Arukua had so tightly grasped the Eye that its shaped left an imprint in his flesh. Looking up, he willed himself to climb. He quickly realized he could easily climb up the smooth and steep walls within the crevice. Slowly he could jump from 10 feet, 20 feet at a time. Within hours he had risen from miles below to the surface. Once freed from his rocky prison, he lay in the cool grass as the sun broke over the horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou me same\u201d he grunted, looking at the sun. \u201cMe sun, sun me.\u201d And so the first god walked the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dirty stone was washed and polished. Millions of tonnes of coal had been compressed by the gods to form this small, shiny stone of immeasurable density and strength. Held to the sun, green specks of light flickered through its centre. Arukua was the possessor of the one and only Green Eye of Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The stone that gave him saved him from the chasm also brought him strength and long life. Arukua was invincible in battle. Blow that would kill another would hardly phase him. He was without equal. Under his rule his tribe grew powerful and rich. And always, the Eye hung from his neck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his hundredth year his death came quick and painlessly. He had outlived some of his grandsons his time on the earth was so great. To his first born\u2019s first born he gave up the secret of the Eye and bequeathed the gods promise to its power. And so for a thousand years Arukua\u2019s tribe prospered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then many generations later twins were born to the then tribal leader Surkatha. Unwilling to have his two sons kill each other for control of the tribe, he divided the lands into two. By this time the tribe had grown quite large and the lands it controlled were a hundred fold the size of Arukua\u2019s lands even at his peak. Both twins were satisfied with this arrangement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the question of the Eye caused the father grief. He had witnessed its strength but could not choose one son over the other. With a sharp stone he crushed the Eye into two pieces. To each son he gave half. In doing so much of the power had been reduced. No longer could its bearer jump the height of four men. No longer was the bearers invincible in battle. No longer were they invulnerable to sickness. And no longer could they live for a century. The power of the gods was almost completely destroyed by men barely able to speak or listen. Man\u2019s time had come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But yet both halves maintained but a small bit of its power. Both twins felt stronger on wearing the Eye but it was not from the stone the power came. It was from each other. If one twin was harmed in battle he would draw strength from the other twin, through the Eye. The Eye was now an equalizer of strength. Since neither had ever seen each other since their father\u2019s death, neither knew that when they felt tired or weak, it was from the other\u2019s mauling on the battle field. They only saw that when others died from similar wounds, they themselves remained alive and well – eventually. Miles away the other would suffer for a few days without any obvious cause – but would eventually would become restored and continue on stronger as before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is said that if the stones were ever reunited, the power of the Eye would also be completely restored. But that would never happen. Generations later, the descendants of the twins would eventually battle each other in a glorious, bloody battle on the lands of Egypt. Both bearers of the Eye were mortally wounded and were unable to draw strength from the other. On that day the secret of the Eye\u2019s strength was lost as both men perished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One half of the Eye was found by merchant passing through the battlefield days later. He noticed its polished sparkle and seeing his chance, took it for his mistress back home. The other half lay on the corpse it protected, in a burning pile with thousands of other who met the same fate on that very day. But without two men holding one half of the stone, the power of the merchants half was lost, or perhaps more accurately, lay in hiding til the other half was found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so the story of the Green Eyes may have ended if not for a archeological dig that happen many thousands of years later. It was not that the diggers who found the stone but in fact one of their daughters who ought not to have touched what was not hers, who ought not to have reached into the skull of one of the skeletons that was excavated, and who ought not to have pulled out the shiny, green speckled eye that was inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The girl had the thin and sickly statured of a child born with Polio that had left her bones warped and deformed. On finding the stone and holding it to the sun she immediately recognized its beauty and value. In her enthusiasm she carried it to her father who was over a mile away. He was the one of several archeological doctors huddled over the skeletal remains of fallen soldier whose race had yet to be identified. So powerful was the Eye, that on arriving to see her father, her limbs had already straightened, fingers had somehow regrown, and her eyesight had remarkably improved. Her father believed it to be miraculous. Oddly, the girl kept the Eye\u2019s discovery to herself. Thousands of miles away, a woman wearing a large green-speckled diamond set in gold fainted at her house party and had to be taken away for almost a weeks worth of rest. The cause was completely unknown, but luckily temporary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tale of the Green Eyes of Africa was not yet complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n