MayaDan

By Mister Bill

About 1200 B.C., a gentle warrior's soul was born. Follow Mayadan (my-a-dan) from boyhood to beyond the grave. He, his sister, mother and father are a family full of love and beauty.
Their lives were changed when tragedy, death and a quest for survival became reality. He moves from boy, to leader, to father, to peace keeper, as he traverses through jungles, barren land and rivers to another land where he finds his love and a new home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781662406669

Book preview

Chapter 1

A long time ago, what is now called AD 1200, I lived with my father, mother, two brothers, and three sisters. Our home and farm were in a land now called northeast South America. It was a beautiful place with fertile land and trees of all kinds that bore tasty grapes, coconuts, berries, and many kinds of fruit. Our farm was small, as was our house. The house had four rooms. There were three small bedrooms—one for the girls, one for the boys, and one for Father and Mother. The other room was our family room, where we lived during the day when we were not working. It was where Mother and my sisters prepared and cooked meals. We cooked, ate, talked, and lived together in this larger room, though most of our days were spent outside. It was too hot to want to stay inside the house most of the year, although weather and insects could force us inside before dark. Our house was made of stones and logs and was very sturdy, which made me feel safe when the weather was bad.

Mother’s name was Quec, pronounced U-C. Father was Paas, pronounced P-as. My sisters were called Caki (Ca-i), the oldest; Kahi (A-hi), the middle; and my youngest sister was Aayi (A-yi). My oldest brother, who I looked up to, was Uch (U-he), and my other brother was Yanti (Yan-ti). My name is MayaDan (My-a-dan).

I was the youngest of six children. They all watched out for me, and it made me feel special. All of us were learning the ways of those before us. Father said that it was the way to survive. My family was a great pleasure to me. I loved them all. Father said love comes with responsibility, and we all had our daily chores.

The farmland was small but ample to grow corn, beans, and squash. Crops would grow any time of the year. The weather was about the same all the time. Rain fell almost every day, and we welcomed the water’s coolness on our skin. We were thankful for it and knew we needed it to keep our crops growing all year-round. We survived on the food from our fields and the fish in the nearby sea. Our farm was about twenty miles from the big water, a place we loved to visit. The big water had white sand beaches, and the water was crystal clear.

Our gods were the sun, moon, and rain. They gave us life. We gave them thanks almost every day. We knew we needed them for growing our crops. Corn was the main crop we depended on for our food. Father would also hunt in the jungle from time to time, and those times we would have meat to eat, which was a treat for us all. We kept dogs in a pen beside the house which we raised for food. The dog pen usually held two or three dogs at one time. As we killed one for our food, we would try to get another puppy to fatten for more meat that we would need. Dad traded our corn or his labor for new puppies.

Among the crops, fish, and dogs, my family stayed well-fed. We even had enough to share with our neighbors and other family members when they had bad luck. It was understood that bad luck could strike anyone. Sometimes it was the result of bad judgment and poor planning in preparation of crops, but sometimes it was of no fault of the family because of bugs. We all understood sharing was important as crops would change from year to year. We usually shared our food with someone several times a year.

Father was a good farmer. He knew how to plant crops to produce the best results, and so our family never wanted for plenty of food. The forest surrounding our land grew delicious fruits, but as farmers cleaned their land to make more crops, they would destroy the trees in the forest. Even when some farmers tried to save the fruit-bearing trees as they cleared the land, they would destroy them with fire when they burned their fields trying to destroy insects.

Mother worked harder than anyone in the family. She made the meals for our large family, which was a never-ending day in and day out work. My mother taught my sisters the art of preparing meals for the family, so they helped as they learned. My brothers and I worked in the fields each day with my father. Father taught us how to survive on the land. He taught us how important it was to rotate crops each year to preserve the land we had and keep it good for growing crops the next year. He would bum small sections after we harvested the food before planting the next crop to kill the insects. He taught us how to keep bugs out of the corn and off other crops. This was a hard job. Everything our parents were teaching us would help us survive, and they were teaching us well.

Many small farms were nearby, and the families that owned them worked hard each day like us. Our village was a village of farmers—it was what we did and what we knew. Life in our village was good, and life with my family that loved me was great. I would wake up each morning ready to get started in a new day. I especially liked the days we would go to the sea to catch fish and play in the water. Usually, we did not go alone. Some relatives or neighbors would join us. We would travel together to the crystal-clear water of the big sea. The mothers and fathers would walk, but the children would run toward the water. The trips to the sea were fun for everyone, and even though we were fishing for food, it did not feel like work. Meals around the seashore were always plentiful and good.

The walk to the sea from where we lived was long. We would get up early in the morning and start walking. Sometime about midafternoon, the sea would come into view. As soon as we would see the water, all the hardships of the long walk and the chores we had done in the days before would fade away. Life in that moment was perfect. We would jump into the water as soon as we could and begin bathing ourselves with the warm water of the sea. We then swam and rested our bodies.

Eventually, Father and the older boys would start fishing so we would have food for supper. Mother and the older girls would start a fire to cook the fish. We usually enjoyed a delicious meal by sunset. After we ate, we would sit and talk—the men in one group and the women in another. The talk would die down slowly until it was quiet and everyone had fallen asleep on the white sands under the stars. I would dream until the morning sun woke me up with its warm rays. Sometimes, we only spent one night at the beach, but I liked it when we would spend two or three. No matter what, I always hated to leave the beautiful sea.

Home, visiting my relatives, and going to the sea were the only places I ever got to go, except for the palace. Our ruler lived in the palace, high on a mountain. Dad told me the ruler ruled over us. I did not understand why we had to have him rule over us; I thought that was Dad’s job. Anyway, it was a wild place. We would take the ruler a gift of food. Men would mark down that Dad had given this gift to the ruler, and then we would visit with other slaves or warriors before heading back home.

On one journey back home from the palace, I asked Dad about the ruler and all the other men living on the mountain. He explained that the ruler was our guide and protector who kept order in the valley. The men that lived in the houses around the palace were his warriors. Dad said that without the ruler, we might have our land taken away or be killed by someone in our own valley, or even people outside our valley who wanted our land. I was glad Dad told me this; it somehow reassured me that we would have our home forever. I felt that I was the luckiest boy in the world. I had everything—family, food, and now someone to keep me safe from people who might want to hurt me. As we walked, my eyes started exploring the beauty of our valley. I thought I must thank the sun, moon, and rain. Our gods were very good to me, my family, and our village.

Chapter 2

Every time we returned home from our visits to the ruler’s palace, life would return to the way it always was for as long as I could remember. But each time, it seemed as though the valley was not as large as it had been, and every year brought new changes with new farmland and new farmers. The land of milk and honey was becoming abuzz with people. No one seemed to mind the changes. We always had plenty for everyone, and no one ever thought about the possibility that this could ever come to an end. But eventually, the land grew so crowded that there was no more room for even one more farmer. When a young boy and girl would join together to make a new family, they would have to leave the valley so they could find land to farm elsewhere.

I heard my father and mother talking one night. They said, Maybe we should leave the valley and find a new land far away so our children can start their families near us with plenty of room for their families to grow.

My father said, I can help them clean the land and build their homes.

My sister Caki had been promised to a man that lived on a nearby farm, and Mother worried where they would be able to find land. My parents did not want my sister to leave the beautiful valley. They wanted to keep her close by with the rest of the family and begin life the same way they had once started theirs. But there was no land left to clean for new couples.

Mother said, They could stay with us because we have plenty of food.

The next day, my parents went to the young man’s house and asked the father what he planned for his son, Hiel (I-el), and their daughter. Hiel’s father said the valley was too full of people, so they would have to go north and clear the land that they needed for food. He said they could not stay in the valley. These words did not sit well with my father, so he asked his future son-in-law what he would like to do after he had taken his daughter as his mate. He told my father he had wanted to stay in the valley, but after talking it over with his father, he realized it would be best for them to leave the valley for the new land far away from this place.

The father of the young man would have the last say about where the couple would live. The two fathers laid out their plans for helping the couple get started in their life together. They had heard of a trail that stretched far into the forest. Other people also said there was good land near another sea. The father of the young man called his son and my sister into his house to tell them what he had decided. He explained they would have to go to the new land that was said to be as rich as this land in our valley. My sister began to cry. She did not want to leave her family. She ran out of the house and into the forest. The young man became upset and ran after her. He finally found her sitting up in a tree, high on a limb where she could look out on the valley below and see its beauty. The valley was all she had ever known, and she wanted to make her home here in this lovely place near her family.

The two sat together without saying a word; neither one wanted to leave the village. He liked his life here, just as she did. Although he did not cry as my sister did, you could see the sadness in him. They did not know I was watching them and listening the whole time they sat there. When I had seen my sister crying and running, I followed her. I was crying, too, because I did not want my sister to leave our home.

The young man said, Our parents have pledged us to one another. We are going to be as one. They talked of what they would do in their new life together and how they would take care of their children. Eventually, they agreed that they must go to the new land. They knew they could not live off their parents forever. The young man reassured my sister, The time will come when we will be glad we left our home in this valley.

Not long after that night, my sister and her chosen were joined together by a pledge of loyalty for each other and started living together. They stayed with his father until they were ready to move to the north country. They continued working the land and keeping house as they had done before they were married. This went on until the end of the harvest season. During this time, the two fathers were busy laying out plans for the trip. The two families had a big meeting and a large feast. They even killed one of the dogs for the special occasion. The men roasted it on an open fire while the women prepared the rest of the feast. The fathers spoke with the young couple, going over the details for the journey. Enough time had passed to allow us all to get used to the idea of our family being broken up and torn apart. So despite our inner thoughts of the impending separation, we all had a good time at the feast.

Family ties ran deep, and usually new couples would live on a new farm close by their parents, but the valley had changed as the crowding got worse. My sister and her husband were not the first new couple to leave. Others had gone before and returned for visits to the valley. We had heard them tell of the new fertile land they had found. They said