Page 29: Jentillaks

All around the world there are stories of ancient races of very tall, very smart beings that taught humans the secrets of agriculture or animal husbandry or the basics of science.

Among the most intriguing are the Basque Jentillaks, a race of tall, smart warriors who lived in the hills and not only taught the humans about agriculture, but also metallurgy and the secret of the saw. Most amazingly, the Jentillaks set the standing stones.

Now, anyone who has made it to the Author's Note in Old Blood knows that the standing stones -- be they at Stonehenge, the Orkney Islands, Turkey, the Basque region, or elsewhere -- are among the central mysteries of neolithic times. How did human beings who, mostly, ate only what they could find or catch, suddenly, in the 4th millennium BC, develop the engineering and scientific skills to not only heave from the earth gigantic, monolithic stones but also acquire the scientific knowledge required to place them in astronomically significant positions? It boggles the mind.

The modern mind jumps to aliens, but of course there's no real evidence of that. If only we could ask the ancients how they did it. But wait a minute... We can, in a way. The legends they told themselves -- at least in Basque country -- said that the Jentillaks did it for them.

The Jentillaks are associated with Mari, the Great Goddess of Basque mythology. Mari is linked to Astarte, Inanna, Aphrodite, and Ishtar, the great goddesses of other cultures. Astarte and Inanna were angels. We've seen that Ishtar, the queen of the night, is depicted as having wings. The great goddesses are seen to be angels in many cultures. So, could the Jentillaks have been angels, guardian angels, looking after the Basques and occasionally building a stone circle?

Hhhhhmmmmmm.....

The link below is a nice, enigmatic little guidebook entry about the Jentillaks. For more information, also see Mark Kurlansky's wonderful book The Basque History of the World.

http://books.google.com/books?id=10YpDcz8CnQC&pg=PA131&lpg=PA131&dq=jentillak&source=bl&ots=DqhxncZ5yR&sig=MEGZ3BsLEP5evZzF2U51tf9pGhE&hl=en&ei=qToNS5njC4yWtgfh8_XtAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CBYQ6AEwBDge#v=onepage&q=jentillak&f=false