Down Portalville Way – Pictographs

2017-06-26T19:58:07Z

Let me Thread you a story…(1-24)
Rikiki Rocks, just outside town in the Rokoko Valley, is a special place.
The stones there have all kinds of fantastical shapes. There’s Old Man Mammoth, a massive piece of elephantine-shaped granite.
And Donut Rock, a modern name for a big circular thing with a hole in the middle. Local tradition says if a woman wishes to conceive,
she should pass through the hole in that rock under the light of the full moon. That’s why it’s also known as Mother Rock.
There’s many another fanciful shape with fanciful traditions, and I could spend days describing them all. Maybe I will someday.
But one thing to know about Rikiki Rocks is that sometime in the way back when somebody carved pictographs on ‘em.
These pictures show warriors, hunters, shamans, prey animals and such like. Some have red ochre added to the grooves.
Folks do say as how these rocks are sacred to the local Kintache Indians. Yaku Ravenwing, the Kintache story shaman, agrees.
Yaku’s legal name is Arturo, but nobody ever calls him that. Yaku means “blue tongue” in Kintache and he really can talk a blue streak.
One time when he was storytelling at a Kintache powwow, some folks swore they saw blue flames sprouting from his mouth.
Like any good narrator, Yaku swears his stories are mostly true so when he says Rikiki Rocks are not to be messed with, people listen.
No one in Portalville would ever desecrate them, but we do get the occasional drive-by tourist that can’t help themselves.
Yaku tells about two such good ol’ boys driving through from Talladega on their way to California.
They took a rest break at Daisy Mae’s Snack-a-Round out on Route 40. She had a picture of Rikiki Rocks behind the bar.
These boys asked about ‘em and Daisy Mae all innocently said how proud people were of ’em in these parts.
Well, you know, the devil is in some folks, and that ain’t no lie, no matter what else may be a story, no matter what else you believe.
These boys got a notion to go out to those rocks and add their names to ‘em. Stopped by Pedergreen’s Hardware for spray paint & chisels.
Way Yaku tells it, when they got to the rocks weren’t another human around ‘cept the hunters, shamans & warriors on the pictographs.
Guess they didn’t notice the sasquatch taking a rest beside The Bigtoes, some Rikikis shaped like 5 giant toes sticking out of the sand.
Sasquatch don’t usually get involved in human affairs, but those rocks is sacred to them, too. Yaku says Sasquatch took care of things.
Sheriff Limonada found the boys’ car abandoned near the Rikikis but didn’t never find a trace of them boys.
So I asked Yaku how he knew the sasquatch took care of them boys if nobody else was around?
He just grinned his big ol’ grin. “Sasquatch told me, of course.” Weren’t but a trace of blue flame & smoke on his lips when he said it.

This tale can also be found on Twitter @downportalville.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

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Down Portalville Way – Pictographs