Intro - Lithophones
You sit out in the open, camped on the edge of a plateau. The wind blows. The shaman sits behind a set of lithophones. He begins hitting the stones in a rhythmic fashion and they resonate, they speak, they sing! You hear a tale of time long past, of fantastic beasts, pristine shores, wet river crossings, and great cataclysms.


Kaibab
Limestone, forming fractured cliffs, composed of the bodies of millions of small sea creatures. Under deep ocean pressure, crumbled shells became stone. Tan and silty, telling of warm, well-circulated oceans. But all that life was wiped out in a mass extinction for reasons no one can fathom.


Moenkopi
Muddy, red sandstone with repeating patterns. Fossilized waves in the sand. Sea levels rising and falling. The deep ocean had become a broad tidal flat with no life.


Chinle
A basin filled with flood plains, swamps, and lakes where a conglomerate of muds formed layers of shale. The stone is softer and forms sandy, crumbling slopes where exposed in cliffsides.


Moenave / Kayenta
Red, interbedded sandstone and shale mark a gradual change to drier conditions. Mountains grew and the floodplains have become rivers and streams. Fantastic beasts, like scaley, flightless birds, roamed the land. They migrated, leaving tracks in the stream beds. Suddenly, a great dying.


Navajo
The land has become a desert. Towering straight cliffs ranging from red to white formed from sand blown by the wind. At the top of the cliffs you'll find massive dunes frozen in time.


Wahweap / Kaiparowits
Massive mountains made of mud. Gray and plain looking, but full of life. Terrifying birds and tyrannical lizards roamed the land. Until a sudden cataclysm wiped out all but the smallest creatures. A rock from space crashed into the Earth!


Claron
Breathtaking natural amphitheaters filled with never ending hoodoos that will trick the eyes. Pink to orange limestone, soft and brittle. Beautiful towers, turrets, and crenellated ridges so intricate only nature could have created them.

Solar Corona
As the tale concludes, you notice it has grown dimmer. Evening approaches, as though the sun is setting in all directions, but you see the sun above at mid-day! Suddenly, it's gone, replaced with a bright ring of light, with wisps coming off all around. This lasts a few minutes before the mid-day dawn and the world is light again.

 

Permission is hereby granted for any public performance without royalty due.