Читать книгу Tale of the Taconic Mountains - Mike M.D. Romeling - Страница 4

Where do the Gods live? This is not a question that much concerns so-called modern man. But it certainly captured the interest and speculation of his ancestors. Where after all did these deities go after creating havoc with their lightning bolts, their roaring thunder and their shivery earthquakes? Some of them, it was decided, lived on the great mountains. Mount Olympus springs quickly to mind of course but there have been and still are many others. Egypt has Mount Sinai, Africa has Mount Kenya and Tibet has Kailas. Sacred Machupachare, perhaps the most beautiful peak in the Himalayas, has been closed forever to climbers and still holds the secrets of her summit.

Burial grounds and altars have been found at above twenty thousand feet in the high Andes, evidence that the Incas shared this same reverence and awe for their lofty peaks. Throughout the Alps in Europe are mountain names that tell us of the darker side of legends in high places: The Eiger (ogre) and Teufelberg (devil’s mountain) among many others. The spirits of the damned were said to bring down rock slides and that deadliest of all mountain calamities—avalanche. And if there were skeptics in those long-ago days—and there no doubt were—one good volcano would be enough to forever silence or convert them.