By the Waters of Babylon

1. By the Waters of Babylon pg. 110

2. Pay attention to the setting and ask yourself… Is this story set in… The past The present Or the future?

3. 1. Dead Places 2. The Great River 3. Old books & writings 4. Old Days 5. Place of the Gods 6. God-road 7. Ou-dis-sun 8. Bitter Water 9. UBTREAS 10. ASHING 11. The temple with the stars for a roof 12. The dead god Also, write these words down and after the story, see if you can figure out what they mean

4. The Dead Places were… Houses or dwellings of humans who died a long time ago…

5. The Great River, Ou-dis-sun was The Hudson River

6. Old Books and Writings were… Books written in English that existed before our society was destroyed The Old Days were…. The days before The Great Burning, our “present day”

7. The God Roads were… The Concrete roads we used to use…

8. The Bitter Water was… The Ocean

9. The Place of the Gods was…New York

10. UBTREAS was… The Sub Treasury in New York, now called Federal Hall National Memorial

11. Ashing was… A Statue of George Washington in Union Square, New York City

12. The temple with the stars for a roof was… The ceiling at Grand Central Station

13. Who do you think the dead god sitting in the chair was?

14. This was a fantasy story; but several things, although they sounded odd, were based in reality. Some examples are… 1. Priests, chants and spells 2. A purification process 3. Interpreting animals as signs 4. Cultures in the future having less knowledge than cultures in the past

15. Priests, Chants and Spells The Cherokee have similar chants, spells, and dances… The Cherokee had many lively dances. In the uka dance, the chief, or uka himself offered thanksgiving in a spirit of rejoicing

16. A Purification process Some Native Americans also have a purification process… The individual goes alone into the wilderness to a sacred place where he fasts, thirsts, smokes tobacco, prays, and meditates for a vision. Vision quests are mostly undertaken by males usually when entering puberty, but sometimes in childhood. They also have maturity rituals, sometimes called vision quests Young boys before or at puberty are encouraged to enter into a period of fasting, meditation and physical challenge. He separates himself from the tribe and go to a wilderness area. The goal is to receive a vision that will guide his development for the rest of his life. They also seek to acquire a guardian spirit who will be close and supportive for their lifetime.

17. Interpreting animals as signs In the Cherokee religion, The Eagle, flying toward the East, is a symbol of strength, endurance and vision. East signifies the renewal of life and the rebirth of Cherokee unity.

18. Also, Egyptians believed cats to be sacred When a cat died their former owners and occupants of the house would go into deep mourning and shave their eyebrows as a sign of grief. People are not the only mummies in Egypt, as the cat was also mummified significantly. Cats were not only protected by almost every occupant of Egypt, but also by the law. So extreme in fact was the devoutness of the Egyptian culture to the cat, that if a human killed a feline, either intentionally or unintentionally, that human was sentenced to death.

19. Cultures in the future having less knowledge than cultures in the past Examples: Roman bathrooms Bathhouses also had large public latrines, often with marble seats over channels whose continuous flow of water constituted the first “flush toilets

20. This was in 117 A.D. Let’s check out the early 1900’s

21. 2,000 years later, their toilets looked like this Usually the father of the family dug a new hole a few feet from the outhouse, moved it onto the new hole, then took the dirt and filled in the old hole. However, I know an uncle who got in there with a shovel because he didn't feel like digging a new hole.

22. What about the concept of flight? Between 1899 and 1905 A.D., the Wright brothers conducted a program of aeronautical research and experimentation that led to the first successful powered airplane in 1903

23. But the actual concept of flight is much, much older These are in ancient Egypt

24. Compare them… Helicopters…

25. Gliders

26. These carvings were made at least 3,000 years BEFORE the Wright Brothers took their first flight

27. What about homes?These were the homes built and used in early James town in the 1700’s

28. These, are the pyramids of Giza, constructed some time around 2600 B.C.

29. This is the construction of the inside

31. These pyramids are at least 4,000 OLDER than the Jamestown settlement