The Mayan earth God, Pauahtan, the patron of scribes and of group of 5 unlucky days known as the Uayeb, emerges from a spiral shell. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras. Originating in the Yucatán around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. The snail was a symbol in ancient Mesoamerican cultures. Snails symbolised tolerance and perseverance and being hermaphrodite, had a duality symbol as in the process of mating they use both, male and female characteristics of their body. In ancient Japanese times, snails were considered the most fertile of all animals and gods of water. The Burarra people of Arnhem Land, also referred to as the Gidjingali, regard their midens as sacred sites. In Australia, shell midens created by coastal Indigenous Australian tribes often feature in Dreamtime stories. sambaquis in Brazil from 6000BC or Køkkenmøddinger from Denmark from 5000BC), bear witness to the amounts of shells processed by tribes through time. The Sumerians and Babylonians considered the snails immortal, making them a symbol of eternity. The spiral was considered the essence of the Universe and of time itself. The spiral to many ancient cultures not only represented the cycle of life, death, and rebirth but represented the rotation of the Earth around the Sun. Snails will leave a trail of moisture behind at every place travelled as a message to everyone that our pure water is precious and must be taken care of.Īt present, the Giant African Snail ( Achatina fulica) is part of traditional religious ceremonies of Candomblé in Brazil where it is used as an offering to the deity called Oxalá. First Woman declared that from that day on, the snail will carry the water bottle on her back as a symbol of her great journey. Snail girl was thanked and honoured by the People. She filled the bottle and carried it back but it opened and spilled leaving a silvery trail. After a long time, she found her way to the underworld and there she found some pure water. First woman tied a bottle to the girl’s back and she set off slowly. A thin little girl called ‘snail girl’ offered to search though most thought she could not do this. She sent several strong animals to find it but all were unsuccessful. First Woman stood in front of the People and said that someone would have to go back down to the old world below to find some fresh water. But at the end of four days, they came back to the place by the ocean as there was no fresh water to drink. The People broke into groups by clan and went out to find new homes. They found themselves on the shore of a great ocean. Humans created by Obatala come together to form the first Yoruba Village in Ife.Ī Navajo Indian tale from northern America tells that long ago, there was a mighty flood, and the People left their world, the Fourth World, the Underworld, and came up into the Fifth World, the world lived in today. After a while, he decided to fashion human beings to keep him company because his task was quite lonely. When he reached the earth, Obatala spread the sand and planted the nut. Obatala descends onto Earth to a place called Ife, carrying a snail shell filled with sand, a white hen, a black cat, and a palm nut. The God Obatala believed that the world needed more so he went to Olorun, ruler of the sky and creator of the sun, asking for permission to create mountains, valleys, forests, and fields. The second snail was sent to the east and became the Sun.Īnother creation myth from the Yoruba people of Nigeria tells that in the beginning, the universe consisted only of the sky, the water, and the wild marshlands.
Areop-Enap made the lower clam shell into Earth and the upper shell into the sky and sent the smaller snail west of the sky-shell where it became the Moon. He used two snails and a worm to find a way to open the clam. Areop-Enap searched for food in the darkness and found an enormous clam which swallowed him. Snails are often symbolized by their spiral shape or their slowness linked to laziness.įrom Nauru only 3500 km from eastern Australia, comes the creation myth that at the beginning, the only things in existence were Areop-Enap (a spider) and the sea. From the earliest times, snails have been part of myths and legends, some even depicting the creation of the world. Land snails have featured in the human culture from ancient times.
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