Secrets Of The Serpent's Heart (The Arkana Archaeology Mystery Series Book 6) by N. S. Wikarski Page B
Authors: N. S. Wikarski
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extortion racket,” Cassie said. “But that still doesn’t connect all the dots for me. Why are you so sure that the man in my vision was your Yellow Emperor?”
Jun seemed to take no offense at her dogged persistence. “There are many stories associated with the man known as Huang Di—the Yellow Emperor. Some have been dismissed as pure myth when they should have been viewed as clues to his real identity. Let’s start with the name itself, ‘Yellow Emperor’.”
“Perhaps an association with the river of the same name?” Griffin suggested.
“Or quite literally a description of the coloring of the man,” Jun countered. “Cassie said the man in her vision was blond. Myths tell us that the Yellow Emperor had four eyes. Two appeared shut at all times but he could always see what people were doing.”
“Now that has to be fiction,” Cassie objected.
“No,” Rou asserted quietly.
The two visitors glanced at her in puzzlement.
Jun smiled. “You need to consider how Caucasian eyes might appear to an Asian who had never seen such eyes before. The Caucasian eye is more deeply recessed in the skull than an Asian eye. It is the reason your eyelids have a fold and ours do not.”
Griffin peered at Cassie’s face and then at Jun’s, apparently noting the difference for the first time. “You’re quite right, of course.” His voice held a note of amazement.
“In Asia, there are women who have plastic surgery to create a double eyelid because this is considered more beautiful.”
“Get out!” Cassie exclaimed. “It’s the skin-bleaching issue from Africa and India all over again—everybody trying so hard not to look like themselves.”
“I imagine because the Western standard of beauty dominated so many colonized countries,” Griffin speculated. “A sad legacy of overlord values.”
“Perhaps now you can understand why an ancient historian might have interpreted double eyelids as another pair of eyes,” Jun continued. “A figurative way of saying that the Yellow Emperor had Caucasian eyes.”
His listeners offered no contradiction.
“But there is more evidence,” the trove-keeper went on. “Much more. The Yellow Emperor is frequently credited with inventing the spoke-wheeled war chariot. As we have just discussed, this is an invention brought to China by overlords. Any sort of wheeled conveyance would have been far more useful on the open plains of the steppes than in the mountains of China.
“Aside from the war chariot itself, Huang Di supposedly invented the south-pointing chariot. He is said to have won a decisive victory over an enemy on a foggy battlefield using this device to find his way. The most interesting fact about a south-pointing chariot is that it only works over flat terrain. If the wheels are forced to travel over mountains, the gears will not function properly. To those who insist this was a Chinese invention, I must ask what possible use it could be in our rugged landscape. A south-pointing chariot is very helpful in steppe terrain because it lacks any sort of natural landmarks to guide travelers. Frequent dust storms in the region could cause disorientation which would also make such a device useful. There is no doubt the south-pointing chariot must have come from the steppes as did the man who first brought it here.”
“Grandfather, tell them about his head,” Rou hinted in a voice barely above a whisper. She had seemingly relaxed enough to form full sentences so long as no one was paying her any attention.
Both Griffin and Cassie had learned by now not to react every time she spoke. They kept their eyes firmly focused on the trove-keeper.
“Ah, yes,” Jun said. “In some accounts, the Yellow Emperor is said to have had a deformed cranium.”
Cassie shrugged. “I couldn’t tell from my vision since he was wearing a battle helmet.”
“Deliberate cranial deformation was practiced by many overlord tribes,” Jun said.
The Pythia gasped in disbelief.
Jun seemed to take no offense at her dogged persistence. “There are many stories associated with the man known as Huang Di—the Yellow Emperor. Some have been dismissed as pure myth when they should have been viewed as clues to his real identity. Let’s start with the name itself, ‘Yellow Emperor’.”
“Perhaps an association with the river of the same name?” Griffin suggested.
“Or quite literally a description of the coloring of the man,” Jun countered. “Cassie said the man in her vision was blond. Myths tell us that the Yellow Emperor had four eyes. Two appeared shut at all times but he could always see what people were doing.”
“Now that has to be fiction,” Cassie objected.
“No,” Rou asserted quietly.
The two visitors glanced at her in puzzlement.
Jun smiled. “You need to consider how Caucasian eyes might appear to an Asian who had never seen such eyes before. The Caucasian eye is more deeply recessed in the skull than an Asian eye. It is the reason your eyelids have a fold and ours do not.”
Griffin peered at Cassie’s face and then at Jun’s, apparently noting the difference for the first time. “You’re quite right, of course.” His voice held a note of amazement.
“In Asia, there are women who have plastic surgery to create a double eyelid because this is considered more beautiful.”
“Get out!” Cassie exclaimed. “It’s the skin-bleaching issue from Africa and India all over again—everybody trying so hard not to look like themselves.”
“I imagine because the Western standard of beauty dominated so many colonized countries,” Griffin speculated. “A sad legacy of overlord values.”
“Perhaps now you can understand why an ancient historian might have interpreted double eyelids as another pair of eyes,” Jun continued. “A figurative way of saying that the Yellow Emperor had Caucasian eyes.”
His listeners offered no contradiction.
“But there is more evidence,” the trove-keeper went on. “Much more. The Yellow Emperor is frequently credited with inventing the spoke-wheeled war chariot. As we have just discussed, this is an invention brought to China by overlords. Any sort of wheeled conveyance would have been far more useful on the open plains of the steppes than in the mountains of China.
“Aside from the war chariot itself, Huang Di supposedly invented the south-pointing chariot. He is said to have won a decisive victory over an enemy on a foggy battlefield using this device to find his way. The most interesting fact about a south-pointing chariot is that it only works over flat terrain. If the wheels are forced to travel over mountains, the gears will not function properly. To those who insist this was a Chinese invention, I must ask what possible use it could be in our rugged landscape. A south-pointing chariot is very helpful in steppe terrain because it lacks any sort of natural landmarks to guide travelers. Frequent dust storms in the region could cause disorientation which would also make such a device useful. There is no doubt the south-pointing chariot must have come from the steppes as did the man who first brought it here.”
“Grandfather, tell them about his head,” Rou hinted in a voice barely above a whisper. She had seemingly relaxed enough to form full sentences so long as no one was paying her any attention.
Both Griffin and Cassie had learned by now not to react every time she spoke. They kept their eyes firmly focused on the trove-keeper.
“Ah, yes,” Jun said. “In some accounts, the Yellow Emperor is said to have had a deformed cranium.”
Cassie shrugged. “I couldn’t tell from my vision since he was wearing a battle helmet.”
“Deliberate cranial deformation was practiced by many overlord tribes,” Jun said.
The Pythia gasped in disbelief.
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