The Legend of the Njir

            In the seventh era of the Chin-Abe Nyo, their greatest era of prosperity, it was common practice that when young children came of a certain age they would undergo the "Test of Ascension". The Chin-Abe Nyo believed that to be able to control your life, one must first face and accept their inner self.   The children would leave their village for three days and four nights and search for their destiny. They spent this time in deep introspection, striving to put a face to their hopes and dreams. They were to find their destiny and embrace it; tame it and bring it into alignment with their existence. After their trial the children would return to the village to the care and guidance of the Face Maker. They would spend three days with her defining and creating the mental image of their dreams- the physical manifestation of what they had conquered and created.

            From then on they were considered adults, but of course that is not the end-it is a life-long trial. The images that the Face Maker helped the children to interpret were made into a pendant: a totem of their soul. These pendants were deliberately created out of materials that were lasting, but fragile. This served as a reminder to the wearer of the fragility of the hopes, dreams, and desires that they represented. And, like our own souls, we can choose to show and share them, but we must always guard and care for them.

            For the Chin-Abe Nyo people, the greatest display of devotion was to give one's totem to another. Nothing showed greater trust and dedication than entrusting that which was most dear, having been created as a physical "soul", to another's care. The giving of such precious fragility required absolute trust, devotion, love, and honor. The deliberate destruction of another's totem was considered one of the highest crimes. It was not uncommon for a soldier to give his pendant to his king as the ultimate sign of submission. In doing so he was turning his life over to the king's goals and aspirations, sacrificing all he was to his will and direction. It symbolized the ultimate devotion to the good of the people and absolute belief in their cause.  

All hopes and dreams have a face and none are, or ever could be alike, for no two people are alike. And so the pendants were made, as a reminder as of the strength and individuality each of them had committed themselves to. The masks simple and small things as they were, were beautifully crafted individual masterworks of art. As is every life.

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