THE RAINBOW CAVE In the Land of The Purple Mountain there are many wonders. The tiny villages there cannot be found on any maps that I know of. Even most of the entire area in the vicinity of the Purple Mountain remains uncharted, secluded in the rugged mountain forests – remote in time as well as place. It seems as if it had been tucked away from the busy cities and highways where most of us rush our lives away. It is no “wonder” that many even more wondrous stories were created to explain, or even to honor, some of those wonders. Most civilizations have created such lore. These tales circulate and gradually grow larger as they grow older! Their amazing folk-history frequently seems created by a magical life-force. Yet the magical power often seems to originate within the tales themselves! To be all their own – as if the re-telling of them were a magical incantation. Indeed, the experience may feel much like a religious service when it is sometimes recited before a gathering of people. Throughout the course of my life I have had the opportunity to study many, many of these tales. I specialize in those that involve mysterious and wondrous situations and events. Beyond a doubt, to me the most appealing story to is the centuries-old, fabulous account of THE RAINBOW CAVE. One reason for my fascination with THE RAINBOW CAVE is that I have come to share its effect on the people of the village nearby. It seems to have become a major aspect of their lives and their personalities – both individual and collectively. During all the centuries since the villagers first learned of the cave, its entrance has remained a secret. Never has it been discovered except by happenstance. Its entrance must be magically camouflaged – among rocks, and overgrown with bushes and vines. People who are deliberately looking for it are said never to be able to find it. Aimless forest wanderers occasionally are startled to stumble onto it, as if suddenly it just appeared before them, they say – as if by magic. However, such infrequent discoveries have never been known to happen except by accident. It is said that those rare finders most likely will hurry back to their usually sleepy village to spread the news of their find -- as if they had discovered a long-lost treasure. Oddly, however, sometimes the unusual event is described not so much as if they just happened to FIND the entrance. Curiously, the reports sound rather more as if the entrance suddenly had magically revealed itself to them! Usually, however, as far back as current memories of earlier memories can reach, most of the few people who are known, one way or another, to have entered the cave, have been strangers randomly hiking in that remote and uncharted territory. No one knows, of course, how many may have happened onto the cave before they happened onto the village. Because, no-one who has ever ventured into the cave further than the first curve has ever returned!!! Thus, many strangers to the area might have become victims of the cave with no one even being aware. And occasionally, people, including forest rangers and officers of the law, have come through these mountains searching for someone last seen leaving to hike in the area. There is no knowledge of any of the searchers having found the entrance, as one might guess. Surely that would have brought further investigations and reports if anyone of them had disappeared. The rare villager who does discover the entrance and eagerly dares to explore the cave, hastily returns to gather flashlight, camera, snacks and large balls of string to unroll during the descent. They think they are too smart to become lost in the cave. They plan to follow the string when ready to come back out, foolishly assuming that they will be coming back out! Of course, only the fool-hardy will try entering the cave. Perhaps no-one had dared venture into it for many years, so the fear of its danger had subsided. Occasionally, however, a non-believer of the village myth boasts that the stories are only superstitions held by insecure and cowardly people. Most villagers call those who flaunt the warnings as arrogant braggarts, who to most of the people’s warnings. Sometimes weapons will be taken -- swords or even guns. Usually they insist that no one go with them, nor try to follow. They seem possessed by a strange desire to have this adventure all to themselves. The first person to explore the secret cave. Perhaps they think they will be great and brave heroes and put the village on the maps of the world. Perhaps the village will even change its name to theirs! Ironically, of course, no-one making such plans has ever found the entrance to which they have prepared to return! Ah, but they are the lucky ones! No matter how certain someone may be about having noted and remembered its exact location, no-one has ever been able to find the entrance again! Not even villagers who intended only to show it to others One surprising aspect of THE RAINBOW CAVE story, however, is that there are many slightly varying descriptions of the cave’s fascinating interior, and much speculation, and even arguments, about particular details of the cave. These disagreements have been known, they say, to become serious enough to destroy long-time friendships. Indeed, one may be reminded of stories of various religious sects so entrenched in their particular beliefs that they discount all other views, even though based on the simplest, seemingly trivial detail. By now you must be wondering: if nobody has ever returned from inside THE RAINBOW CAVE, how can anyone argue about its interior? Why, even, should it ever have been called RAINBOW CAVE? And this is the crux of the story. Happily the villagers have an old and faded painting. Scrawled on the back, just barely visible, one can make out the words: “inside THE RAINBOW CAVE.” Now I must point out a couple more details about the painting before ending this introduction. Because of my profession I have learned some technical aspects about the history of painting and paints, and also about the history of various styles and subject matter. I know virtually nothing, however, about artistic quality, nor do I have much feeling about aesthetics, nor even much interest. But I can definitely tell that the scene this painting depicts was vividly sharp, colorful, and clear when created. By now many of the details have faded away. Many of its lines have become blurred and fuzzy simply through the passing of time, as well as by careless storage and handling. From my training I can also tell that almost certainly it was all painted by the same hand with no attempts since then by anybody to touch it up or to revise it in any way. Its sketchy quality suggests it was done in haste, probably with more concern for showing what was here within the cave than with creating an artistic painting. The most careful consideration seems to have gone into the colors, then bright, of the wall. Evidently that spectacle was overwhelming to the artist. One cannot help but wonder if it was so overwhelmingly beautiful, or striking, or even terrifying to the artist. Perhaps the artist knew, or felt that this array of color was significant to some aspect of the “inner working” of the place. Perhaps it was he who named it THE RAINBOW CAVE. Surely that we will never know, the artist being long dead by now. In a moment I will survey for you some of the major areas of speculation by the villagers and occasional visitors (usually stumbling upon the village by happenstance, also). I want to mention here, though, that I think not enough attention has been paid to speculations that the colors might contribute to the nature of the cave and activities within it. The meaning of rainbows in history and literature, for instance, and how could such information function in explanations of our quandaries? The most obvious ones I think of are God giving the rainbow sign, and also the dove, as a covenant never again to destroy the whole earth by flood. We have the common playful superstition of the pot of gold. D.H. Lawrence titled one of his major, if not the best known, novels THE RAINBOW in , which freedom and escape from the mundane world, ironically I would say, is achieved through sex. And in the United States numerous songs where the rainbow symbolizes freedom and happiness. From the classic WIZARD OF OZ most everyone knows OVER THE RAINBOW. mORE I do want to slip in here, however, mention that I think this painting, being of a scene below ground in a cave, must belong to a genre called under-landscapes; or, to be literally more exact, we might say “Nederlandscapes!” Further, I personally have no doubt but what if this painting had not endured so long uncared for in a dank cave, perhaps sometimes even flooded, surely it would stand on its own with, or even above : ) the paintings done much later by the numerous artists (all men, of course) who are now called the Dutch Masters. Often those stiff, dark, and cheerless portraits are housed and cared for in museums now, where the atmospheric conditions, including the brightness of light, are monitored and controlled optimally for preserving the works of art. Ah, but time bicycles along, and I must cease my rambling and admittedly feeble attempt at humor. So, returning to our serious discussion again, we have already learned that no one has ever returned from the cave, but perhaps the most serious and important “message” in the painting is that people do not die immediately after entering the cave – not all of them at least, since the Artist of the painting lived to paint it! Speculators, including myself, are most uncertain about the magic and mystery of the multicolored lights depicted in the painting! They definitely interested the painter. Did they shine all the time, semi-illuminating the huge underground room? Could the lights have something to do with the deaths of the people and animals? Deadly rays? The memory and imagination of whoever painted it obviously far exceeded their artistic ability. Or the quality of the paints. No doubt he was a looking for an interesting landscape to paint and had his materials with him when he chanced onto the cave’s entrance. That was so unfortunate for him, but the painting is so valuable for all of us now because of its unique portrayal. Still, this remnant will remain invaluable to explorers and historical scholars, such as I am. It is a tangible detail in the origin of this particular "folk myth." And, after all, my profession is near to exhausting the number of locations that so far have escaped our study and analysis of the inhabitants lore and their lives. Without the painting we scholars would view the tale of THE RAINBOW CAVE merely as this villages own “enhanced” oral-tradition, with a magical appeal frequently found in oral traditions. We would conclude that eventually a story – perhaps originally told to entertain children – evolved from being merely a collection of exciting but variously told folk tales to becoming regarded by the inhabitants as details in the actual history of their village and its people and of this mysterious RAINBOW CAVE. But the villagers have kept a revered and well protected log of the names of citizens who have disappeared over many generations. Some time ago they established a sort of on-going memorial tribute to those who never came back from a trek in the surrounding countryside. Occasionally, it was a couple of lovers. Now the names are carved into two wooden pillars in the community meeting building. They are surrounded by a metal fence and between them hangs the almost revered painting of THE RAINBOW CAVE. Now here is the interesting part. From the beginning of the log down to the present, the number of disappearances decreased, very gradually at first, then diminished rapidly until now a new name is added only many years after the one before it – perhaps, I speculated, about a generation apart, as if each new generation of people had to “prove” it for themselves. No doubt this descending number of victims demonstrates how the villagers gradually pieced together the deadly workings of the cave. If you are curious and patient, and have a keen eye (perhaps also a flashlight to guide your eyes as well as illuminating the dull old painting), you will be able to find depictions of persons, maybe a few animals, or parts suggesting either, lurking partially hidden in the painting. So we know that the strict rules of the cave applied to animals as well as to people. So even animals with their sharp senses did not suspect the mortal danger lying ahead of them. Evidently any living being who ventured into the depths of THE RAINBOW CAVE now live there forever: souls lost having become lost souls wandering the rocky halls forevermore. We can’t help but wonder further how death came to the adventurous amateur explorers who ventured into the Rainbow Cave. It remains a mystery, even to the local inhabitants. Did they become lost and starve to death? Suffer a fall, perhaps becoming too injured to even crawl out? Accidentally become wedged into a small passage way, or maybe between two rocks. Such accidents are risks against which every spelunker must be on guard, especially if going in alone. But it hardly seems possible that down through the centuries, without exception, every person and at least many animals, would suffer such an accident. Did some of the animals in the painting, which now have become only animal spirits, kill them? Perhaps even eat them before finally succumbing to starvation themselves? Or is there some terrible cave monster, seeming to live forever? Perhaps not living forever but instead a group of them that reproduce and want to be unbothered by the outside world. Some villagers have grizzly thoughts of the adventurers becoming food, perhaps even eaten alive. Or could they be forced into slavery, doing whatever work it is that the cave “owners” want? Another idea that has been considered is that, instead of there being some living monster somewhere within, perhaps an odorless, hence unrecognizable poisonous gas fills part of the cave -- maybe even all of it beyond that first bend in the entrance tunnel. Or could it be released by some extraordinary and nefarious being or beings whenever intruders violate her or his secret dwelling. Or as I mention above, could there be more than one unknown being living within the fateful cave? Perhaps the gas does not kill the “intruders” immediately itself. Consider, could it even be torturous? Say, for instance that the victims are merely paralyzed and left in such a state until starving. Could they even be in pain till released by their now longed-for death? There is one further suggestion to which only a few of the villagers adhere. (I should have mentioned earlier, perhaps, that most of them know little about the rest of the world and seem to care even less. I just sort of took for granted that everyone realized that.) Notice that just to our right from the large red area is what appears to be a semi-transparent person in white with a pointed hood (notice that you can see some of the colors on the wall through it.) I am reminded of movie news features I saw when I was very young of Ku Klux Klan members cavorting around a burning cross, hidden under sheets with holes for eyes cut out of them and somehow made to have a pointed cone-like top. And thus, some people believe that the deaths in the cave (animals as well as humans) may have resulted from lynching, including such prior tortures as often were inflicted by the Klan before finally hanging their victims. Some others have speculated that the figure could be the ruler (or one of them), or whatever it is that manages the cave, the causer of the deaths. Surely, the figure seems to be in a prominent location and above the others. Now notice the person in the painting with a green sleeve, sitting or bending over something. Look straight down from the yellow column toward the bottom and you can find the profile of this hunched over figure, just below a large reddish rock. To me he seems obviously to be painting on something large enough to be the priceless work now before you. Other people speculate that he is studying a book, perhaps something about caves, or wilderness survival skills! For his benefit we should hope it’s a Bible, or The Koran, or some other holy book. For as you know by now, eventually he will become one of the spirits seen in the painting. Some of the oldest and wisest of the community speculate that the Rainbow Room lights up in glorious colors when, and only when, another soul has become lost in their cave and is soon to join them forever. So many questions about THE RAINBOW cave remain to be pondered, considered and discussed by elders and children alike. Indeed, in some ways the “blessing” of the information provided by the painting introduces even more wonders than there were before! Perhaps one day in folktale fashion the story will be "enhanced," little by little to include, and presume to offer, explanations for the numerous unexplained aspects of this horrid mystery, including details of the fate of the poor lost souls. As for several centuries, the only knowledge of the situation in the cave is the time-worn painting. And only conjecture about how it somehow was found, centuries ago, just before that first curve. Most of the villagers believe the painting probably was thrown out across the invisible line that separates life from death. If it was thrown, perhaps its maker was the one to accomplish that feat. And if so, even more than the idea of delivering its scant details of the cave to the world above, did he as an artist might, hope maybe the painting would be found and create his lasting fame. Ah, but with no name, only the presumed intended title, the artist could become known only by the name “Anonymous” – only a very slight niche in history to be sure! Continuing with a few examples of these considerations, why wasn’t a message written on the back of the painting? Or even on something else that might have been somehow secretly transported to the outside, as was the painting. Ah but the poor wretches inside the cave never even knew if the painting ever was found. Perhaps few if any of them even knew about it, we might surmise, because it would have had to be kept such a secret. There is a simple plausible explanation for those and most other ponderings. The artist had no time, maybe was caught. Perhaps executed immediately or whatever is done, and maybe someone else surreptitiously rescued the painting and managed to hide it! We can only guess, if that were the case, how long it remained hidden until someone yet alive managed to smuggles it out! As far as my own thoughts go on these questions surrounding the mysterious RAINBOW CAVE, I do believe that all of these seemingly various suppositions do, indeed, indicate one important detail. People who never return from the cave, or at least some of them, do not die immediately! Otherwise, no one could ever have created the painting, and no one could have managed to get it to the outside! Ah, but someone has even suggested that the painting could be just a fraudulent hoax. Someone made this painting to look dated, as shysters who are very skillful have been doing. And why not just write a message to alert people with what is going on inside the cave? Perhaps even with some suggestion of how we above ground might plan an invasion. That’s just another aspect, another perhaps dead-end corridor, in the speculation. I’m sure that each of you readers can think of more, as have others of us already acquainted with the hideous deaths within the evidently beautiful and magical cave. So, I hope that you enjoy both the painting and its story, and if you have any questions or comments about it or its story, please write them in the place provided below the photo of THE RAINBOW CAVE.