Little wonder how early civilizations attributed
the inexplicable nature of the world around them to
forces unseen where they struggled to understand
why it was that wind tore their rude dwellings to
tatters, and volcanic eruptions vomited rivers
of molten rock, why the restless seas extended
their domain to land when the mantle of the Earth
suddenly shifted and great open graves swallowed
them. When inundating rains arrived they heard
the voice of a monstrously infuriated god in the
great rumbling above and in paroxysms of fear
their raw and trembling intuition informed them
the gods must be propitiated else wildfires would
sear them to a deathly cinder along with the wild
game they hunted for survival. In lean years when
the hunt failed, the bounty of the land withdrawn
the ceremonial sacrifice of their own choice a
price to pay for appeasing majesty above in an
appeal for amnesty from dire, deadly privation.
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