Speaker 1: Fast food horror is an abby normal production. Greetings listen, editors,
welcome to chapter four of The Shaft. My daughter's words
echoed in my head as I stared at the screen,
now just showing just a chef and the empty night
sky above. What was that thing? What made that cry
or the roar I heard? She clearly had information for
me on my find and would be expecting a phone
call back. Do I share this with her? Though that
was easy, That's a hard no. How do I tell
her or anyone that there's a giant thing a serpent
living in a shaft along the river with a mysterious
door and text in verse. Oh, and don't forget the
lines of angel statues guarding the path. I'd be locked up. Shoot,
I saw it, and I don't believe me. Hollywood would
make a movie just like this, starring Nicholas Cage as me.
Steph would have me back at the hospital before I
could say, but it's on my phone. This was one
piece of information I'd be keeping for myself. A simple
text from my daughter popped up and brought me back
to the world Dad, followed by a second, then a third,
then a fourth, then a fifth. She was not going
to sit quietly and wait. I hit the video call
from my little girl and waited. She picked up on
the first ring. Her face filled the screen, blue eyes, intent,
eyebrows frowed, and a no nonsense look to complete the fit.
No smile, no hint of happy.
Speaker 2: Oh Dan, what took you so long to call me back?
Speaker 1: Really, I answered, I had to find my phone.
Speaker 2: I lied, you lost that phone more than Lenell has
lost her virginity.
Speaker 1: A faint hey, I'm right here could be heard somewhere
in the background, playful displeasure from her college roommate. I'm
best friend, Linelle. All right, liv tm I TM I focus, focus,
I replied, as laughter filled her dorm room. What did
you find out?
Speaker 2: All right, Freddy, get comfortable. I did the Latin translation.
It fit the English verse, word for word. I hit
a Google Translate for the French again, word for word,
which brought me to the fourth mystery verse that, after
much searching, was found to be early Seneca, the Native
Americans that called this part of the continent home. Again
a word for word match. But that's not the exciting part.
Speaker 1: Really, there's more, I asked, dripping with sarcasm.
Speaker 2: Yes, I showed the picks to the tea of my
history class. He lost his mind. He said that not
only could this be one of the earliest known writings
of the Seneca on what is called the North American
Rosetta Stone, but the verse was referencing a story told
verbally by the Atawandaran Trope, an Iroquoian speaking confederacy of
Native American people that no longer exists, the.
Speaker 1: Wanna sh Deah.
Speaker 2: Questions will be answered at the end of the lesson.
The Adawandaran tribe predated the Senecas in the Niagara region.
Long story short, the Senecas absorbed some of their people
when they moved in and took over, and conversely absorbed
some of their stories, the history and the culture. The
verse referencing one of those stories.
Speaker 1: But how did that story end up on the back
of a door?
Speaker 2: Dad? Hold your questions until the end. Let me start
with the story first, the story of the Maid of the.
Speaker 1: Mist Oh the boat, Dad sh.
Speaker 2: Long ago the river by the falls, there lived a people.
The people lived in constant fear of a giant serpent
who would creep along the river and poison the water,
killing all of those would drink it. The chief and
the men of the tribe tried many times to kill
the serpent, but failed each time, losing men with each attempt.
Out of ideas, out of options, his people living in fear,
the chief beseeched the God of the Falls to save
his people from the giant serpent. The God of the
falls heard his please and said yes, with one condition
that the chief mary his only child, his daughter, to him.
The chief saw no other way to save his people
and agreed. That night there was a ceremony the marriage
of the God of the Falls and the chief's daughter,
and upon its completion, that god took his bride beyond
the falls. She is the maid of the Mist. Her
bridal veil that of the bridal Veil falls. Days later,
the giant serpent came to poison the water, and as
he crept his way along the gorge by the river,
the God of the Falls saw him, extended his arm
from beyond the mighty waters of the falls and hurdle
a spear at the serpent, impaling him to the gorge wall.
The people were.
Speaker 1: Safe is a question time almost.
Speaker 2: The serpent was not killed, only stunned. For the serpent
was not a true creature of this world. The chief
and his men bound the serpent and carried it to
the caves behind the falls. There he remained bound and imprisoned,
left to lay in a kind of slumber due to
the lack of nourishment. He lays their nap, waiting to
feed and growing strong again. Now you can ask questions.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic, hoy, But why the four languages on the
back of a door? How did English, French and Latin
get mixed into an ancient Native American story?
Speaker 2: Glad you asked, Dad. From what my Ta told me,
there were cryptic writings by the French missionary Louis Hennepin.
Hennepin was the first European to see the falls and
meet the Senecas back in sixteen seventy eight. He wrote
of the falls and the peoples there extensively. They also
found some odd writings from his later years related to
the giant serpent that everyone wrote off is hyperbolic and
the ramblings of a dying old man. They were similar
to the verses you found though, that a serpent had
been cast under the waters of the falls, that no
one should disturb his slumber In the caves or else
suffer his wrath. Oh, so the language is on the door?
Why four languages? Three were to warn the prominent explorers
in the area, the English, the French, and the Latin
to cover any other Christians that might find it, and
Senega to warn the lands people had been Probably found
some connecting tunnel to the caves, and for whatever reason,
like a gullible tourist, believe the story unless the story
is true.
Speaker 1: Any other questions, No, No, I think I got it.
Giant immortal snake left to sleep in the caves beneath
the falls, needing to feed to gain his strength to
make his way out again and terrorize the world. Got it? Actually?
How much does he have to eat in order to
gain enough strength to escape?
Speaker 2: Ah? My Ta did mention that, looking at the pictures
you sent, there was faintly in the middle of the
door a constellation of the Great Bear and the Six Hunters,
easy to miss if you didn't know what to look for,
also known as the Big Dipper. So probably seven seven?
What seven people?
Speaker 1: Dad?
Speaker 2: But that's all folklore and mythology, which is why everyone
here is super excited. The amount of treasures and historical
artifacts that could be down there. This could be major discovery. Dad,
You're going to be famous.
Speaker 1: She kept talking, but I couldn't hear a word. Hey, honey,
let me call you. I was at the hospital last night.
I'm really not feeling good. Still love you. I quickly
turned off my phone. The truth was I wasn't feeling
good at all, but it had nothing to do with
being out all night and had everything to do with
what was staring at me on the video. My computer pained.
I got an email from someone at County Records That
must have been the quickest turnaround for a government employee.
I took a breath, and I clicked on the email.