1 00:00:00,440 --> 00:00:12,119 Speaker 1: Fast food horror is an abby normal production. Greetings listen, editors, 2 00:00:12,439 --> 00:00:55,320 welcome to chapter four of The Shaft. My daughter's words 3 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:58,079 echoed in my head as I stared at the screen, 4 00:00:58,159 --> 00:01:01,000 now just showing just a chef and the empty night 5 00:01:01,119 --> 00:01:05,359 sky above. What was that thing? What made that cry 6 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:10,560 or the roar I heard? She clearly had information for 7 00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:13,959 me on my find and would be expecting a phone 8 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:18,200 call back. Do I share this with her? Though that 9 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:21,640 was easy, That's a hard no. How do I tell 10 00:01:21,719 --> 00:01:27,519 her or anyone that there's a giant thing a serpent 11 00:01:28,159 --> 00:01:31,400 living in a shaft along the river with a mysterious 12 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:36,120 door and text in verse. Oh, and don't forget the 13 00:01:36,159 --> 00:01:40,959 lines of angel statues guarding the path. I'd be locked up. Shoot, 14 00:01:41,319 --> 00:01:44,120 I saw it, and I don't believe me. Hollywood would 15 00:01:44,159 --> 00:01:47,040 make a movie just like this, starring Nicholas Cage as me. 16 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:50,159 Steph would have me back at the hospital before I 17 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:54,200 could say, but it's on my phone. This was one 18 00:01:54,239 --> 00:01:58,760 piece of information I'd be keeping for myself. A simple 19 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:01,480 text from my daughter popped up and brought me back 20 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:06,560 to the world Dad, followed by a second, then a third, 21 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:11,280 then a fourth, then a fifth. She was not going 22 00:02:11,319 --> 00:02:14,919 to sit quietly and wait. I hit the video call 23 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:17,800 from my little girl and waited. She picked up on 24 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:22,319 the first ring. Her face filled the screen, blue eyes, intent, 25 00:02:23,039 --> 00:02:26,680 eyebrows frowed, and a no nonsense look to complete the fit. 26 00:02:27,479 --> 00:02:29,719 No smile, no hint of happy. 27 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:37,000 Speaker 2: Oh Dan, what took you so long to call me back? 28 00:02:37,199 --> 00:02:40,159 Speaker 1: Really, I answered, I had to find my phone. 29 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:43,479 Speaker 2: I lied, you lost that phone more than Lenell has 30 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:44,639 lost her virginity. 31 00:02:45,159 --> 00:02:48,919 Speaker 1: A faint hey, I'm right here could be heard somewhere 32 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:52,800 in the background, playful displeasure from her college roommate. I'm 33 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:58,479 best friend, Linelle. All right, liv tm I TM I focus, focus, 34 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:02,439 I replied, as laughter filled her dorm room. What did 35 00:03:02,479 --> 00:03:03,240 you find out? 36 00:03:03,479 --> 00:03:07,919 Speaker 2: All right, Freddy, get comfortable. I did the Latin translation. 37 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:12,319 It fit the English verse, word for word. I hit 38 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:16,120 a Google Translate for the French again, word for word, 39 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:20,319 which brought me to the fourth mystery verse that, after 40 00:03:20,439 --> 00:03:24,479 much searching, was found to be early Seneca, the Native 41 00:03:24,479 --> 00:03:28,879 Americans that called this part of the continent home. Again 42 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:32,479 a word for word match. But that's not the exciting part. 43 00:03:32,759 --> 00:03:36,439 Speaker 1: Really, there's more, I asked, dripping with sarcasm. 44 00:03:36,639 --> 00:03:39,719 Speaker 2: Yes, I showed the picks to the tea of my 45 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:43,840 history class. He lost his mind. He said that not 46 00:03:43,919 --> 00:03:46,599 only could this be one of the earliest known writings 47 00:03:46,639 --> 00:03:50,000 of the Seneca on what is called the North American 48 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:54,759 Rosetta Stone, but the verse was referencing a story told 49 00:03:54,919 --> 00:03:59,800 verbally by the Atawandaran Trope, an Iroquoian speaking confederacy of 50 00:04:00,159 --> 00:04:04,000 Native American people that no longer exists, the. 51 00:04:05,560 --> 00:04:10,439 Speaker 1: Wanna sh Deah. 52 00:04:10,560 --> 00:04:12,599 Speaker 2: Questions will be answered at the end of the lesson. 53 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:17,199 The Adawandaran tribe predated the Senecas in the Niagara region. 54 00:04:17,879 --> 00:04:21,160 Long story short, the Senecas absorbed some of their people 55 00:04:21,319 --> 00:04:24,160 when they moved in and took over, and conversely absorbed 56 00:04:24,199 --> 00:04:27,639 some of their stories, the history and the culture. The 57 00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:30,279 verse referencing one of those stories. 58 00:04:30,759 --> 00:04:32,959 Speaker 1: But how did that story end up on the back 59 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:33,480 of a door? 60 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:39,000 Speaker 2: Dad? Hold your questions until the end. Let me start 61 00:04:39,040 --> 00:04:43,319 with the story first, the story of the Maid of the. 62 00:04:43,199 --> 00:04:46,680 Speaker 1: Mist Oh the boat, Dad sh. 63 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:51,959 Speaker 2: Long ago the river by the falls, there lived a people. 64 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:55,639 The people lived in constant fear of a giant serpent 65 00:04:56,079 --> 00:04:58,800 who would creep along the river and poison the water, 66 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:02,279 killing all of those would drink it. The chief and 67 00:05:02,319 --> 00:05:05,319 the men of the tribe tried many times to kill 68 00:05:05,319 --> 00:05:10,600 the serpent, but failed each time, losing men with each attempt. 69 00:05:10,879 --> 00:05:15,199 Out of ideas, out of options, his people living in fear, 70 00:05:15,519 --> 00:05:19,279 the chief beseeched the God of the Falls to save 71 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:22,519 his people from the giant serpent. The God of the 72 00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:26,439 falls heard his please and said yes, with one condition 73 00:05:27,519 --> 00:05:31,279 that the chief mary his only child, his daughter, to him. 74 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:34,800 The chief saw no other way to save his people 75 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:38,959 and agreed. That night there was a ceremony the marriage 76 00:05:38,959 --> 00:05:41,360 of the God of the Falls and the chief's daughter, 77 00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:45,639 and upon its completion, that god took his bride beyond 78 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:49,720 the falls. She is the maid of the Mist. Her 79 00:05:49,759 --> 00:05:55,240 bridal veil that of the bridal Veil falls. Days later, 80 00:05:55,439 --> 00:05:59,079 the giant serpent came to poison the water, and as 81 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:02,240 he crept his way along the gorge by the river, 82 00:06:02,759 --> 00:06:05,800 the God of the Falls saw him, extended his arm 83 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,560 from beyond the mighty waters of the falls and hurdle 84 00:06:09,639 --> 00:06:13,360 a spear at the serpent, impaling him to the gorge wall. 85 00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:14,720 The people were. 86 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:17,319 Speaker 1: Safe is a question time almost. 87 00:06:16,959 --> 00:06:20,480 Speaker 2: The serpent was not killed, only stunned. For the serpent 88 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:23,160 was not a true creature of this world. The chief 89 00:06:23,199 --> 00:06:25,680 and his men bound the serpent and carried it to 90 00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:30,560 the caves behind the falls. There he remained bound and imprisoned, 91 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:33,120 left to lay in a kind of slumber due to 92 00:06:33,240 --> 00:06:36,959 the lack of nourishment. He lays their nap, waiting to 93 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:41,879 feed and growing strong again. Now you can ask questions. 94 00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:44,959 Speaker 1: That's fantastic, hoy, But why the four languages on the 95 00:06:44,959 --> 00:06:47,959 back of a door? How did English, French and Latin 96 00:06:48,319 --> 00:06:50,639 get mixed into an ancient Native American story? 97 00:06:50,800 --> 00:06:53,600 Speaker 2: Glad you asked, Dad. From what my Ta told me, 98 00:06:54,160 --> 00:06:58,040 there were cryptic writings by the French missionary Louis Hennepin. 99 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:00,959 Hennepin was the first European to see the falls and 100 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:05,279 meet the Senecas back in sixteen seventy eight. He wrote 101 00:07:05,399 --> 00:07:09,519 of the falls and the peoples there extensively. They also 102 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:13,240 found some odd writings from his later years related to 103 00:07:13,279 --> 00:07:17,399 the giant serpent that everyone wrote off is hyperbolic and 104 00:07:17,439 --> 00:07:20,759 the ramblings of a dying old man. They were similar 105 00:07:20,759 --> 00:07:24,279 to the verses you found though, that a serpent had 106 00:07:24,319 --> 00:07:28,120 been cast under the waters of the falls, that no 107 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:30,959 one should disturb his slumber In the caves or else 108 00:07:30,959 --> 00:07:34,480 suffer his wrath. Oh, so the language is on the door? 109 00:07:34,959 --> 00:07:39,319 Why four languages? Three were to warn the prominent explorers 110 00:07:39,319 --> 00:07:42,560 in the area, the English, the French, and the Latin 111 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:46,160 to cover any other Christians that might find it, and 112 00:07:46,439 --> 00:07:51,639 Senega to warn the lands people had been Probably found 113 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:55,480 some connecting tunnel to the caves, and for whatever reason, 114 00:07:56,079 --> 00:08:01,800 like a gullible tourist, believe the story unless the story 115 00:08:01,879 --> 00:08:02,759 is true. 116 00:08:02,920 --> 00:08:05,600 Speaker 1: Any other questions, No, No, I think I got it. 117 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:08,759 Giant immortal snake left to sleep in the caves beneath 118 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:11,959 the falls, needing to feed to gain his strength to 119 00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:16,279 make his way out again and terrorize the world. Got it? Actually? 120 00:08:16,879 --> 00:08:19,240 How much does he have to eat in order to 121 00:08:19,279 --> 00:08:20,639 gain enough strength to escape? 122 00:08:20,800 --> 00:08:24,399 Speaker 2: Ah? My Ta did mention that, looking at the pictures 123 00:08:24,439 --> 00:08:27,360 you sent, there was faintly in the middle of the 124 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:31,959 door a constellation of the Great Bear and the Six Hunters, 125 00:08:32,759 --> 00:08:34,960 easy to miss if you didn't know what to look for, 126 00:08:35,639 --> 00:08:40,559 also known as the Big Dipper. So probably seven seven? 127 00:08:40,639 --> 00:08:41,840 What seven people? 128 00:08:41,919 --> 00:08:42,159 Speaker 1: Dad? 129 00:08:42,399 --> 00:08:45,720 Speaker 2: But that's all folklore and mythology, which is why everyone 130 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:49,200 here is super excited. The amount of treasures and historical 131 00:08:49,279 --> 00:08:53,240 artifacts that could be down there. This could be major discovery. Dad, 132 00:08:53,799 --> 00:08:55,200 You're going to be famous. 133 00:08:55,759 --> 00:08:59,120 Speaker 1: She kept talking, but I couldn't hear a word. Hey, honey, 134 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:02,080 let me call you. I was at the hospital last night. 135 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:07,039 I'm really not feeling good. Still love you. I quickly 136 00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:10,440 turned off my phone. The truth was I wasn't feeling 137 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:12,799 good at all, but it had nothing to do with 138 00:09:12,919 --> 00:09:15,840 being out all night and had everything to do with 139 00:09:15,919 --> 00:09:20,039 what was staring at me on the video. My computer pained. 140 00:09:21,159 --> 00:09:24,639 I got an email from someone at County Records That 141 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:28,519 must have been the quickest turnaround for a government employee. 142 00:09:29,039 --> 00:09:32,519 I took a breath, and I clicked on the email.