A casino, a liquor store, a Bureau of Indian Affairs office, a corrupt judge, a BATF operation gone way wrong, and a bewildered FBI investigator trying to understand how the high price of Coca-Cola fits into the other strange goings-on in San Cristobal County ...
“In syncretistic religions, Scully, the attributes of one religious figure,” Mulder taps a case containing a weeping St. Catherine, “are given to another. In this case, John the Baptist’s connections with water: rivers, dunking ...”
“Baptism?”
“... made him the prime candidate to represent Chac, the Mayan water god.”
“I see. Like a mid-season replacement.”
Mulder glowers. “Now, traditionally, fermented corn mash was used as the sacrament in Mayan ritual, mixed with some magic herbs. A little binge, a little purge, and soon you're seeing visions.”
Scully looks around at the vaguely Catholic ornamentation encrusting the church. “I can’t imagine why.”
“The Spanish must have stopped the magic mushroom part of the ceremony, but you still had the folk belief that to receive the numinous, you had to expel the profane. Hence the burping contest we saw at Mass.”
“And that’s where the Coca-Cola comes in.”
“Yeah. What a racket. No wonder El Jefe owns the bottling plant.” Mulder looks up at a garish mural, Salome being presented with the martyred St. John’s head. Not too many redheads in Spanish colonial religious art.
o.O
Posted by: Will Baird | October 30, 2008 at 05:44 PM
Credit to Dr. Yu.
Posted by: Noel Maurer | October 30, 2008 at 05:46 PM
I assume you'll tell the rest of the story now.
You coming down?
Posted by: Luke | October 30, 2008 at 10:20 PM
I could have sworn that Carlos has denied having a doctorate in the past. Was I embarrassingly wrong yet again, or am I missing something obvious here?
Posted by: King-Walters | November 02, 2008 at 08:02 PM
No, you are correct, Dr. Yu does not yet have the official credential.
But he does have www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/06-041.pdf.
Posted by: Noel Maurer | November 02, 2008 at 08:04 PM