scaupus
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I was watching a fast moving thunder-shower on my radar app move over Miami Beach Saturday afternoon. I raced over the causeway, and sure enough found several open parking spaces by the beach. By the time I had finished suiting up, the sun was out and all the empty spaces were filled up. This is a neat trick for finding parking on the Beach after 9am.
I found these lead figures in the wet sand. The one on the right is an oar about 6" long, to give you an idea of the size. All are full casts, except the head.
After getting a good look at 'em, the image of an old salty pirate of the Spanish Main came to mind, who threw these into the sea to appease the gods during a hurricane.
But, more likely they are present day Santeria sacrifices, ritualistically left on the sand to be drowned by the rising tide. (Santeria is an Afro-Cuban animist, polytheistic religion). You can find Santeria sacrifices all over Miami, mostly - as far as I have seen - dead chickens or fruit left on corners and at beaches and along shorelines (I understand that Hindus also sacrifice fruit along shorelines).
I once found a small Santeria shrine on the Miami River. It consisted of a resin statuette of the Virgin with the Christ child in her lap, nestled in the crook of a tree. The head of the child was missing. There were pennies all around it, on the ground and in the water.
I also found a good number of coins in the vicinity of these cast lead items, way more than I found anywhere else in the wet sand today. Was that the result of tides and currents...or were they cast about the lead items as part of the ritual?
Even more interesting to my mind, is that at the Miami River shrine, a rope snaked out to a large lead disk in the water that weighed, if memory serves me, 27 pounds. The rope was not attached to the disk, it was held down by the weight of the lead. It never occurred to me until now that there was some association between the shrine and the lead disk. There may be Santeria significance to lead...for instance, lead being the opposite in value and beauty to gold.
I think it's very unlikely these were a set of old relics brought near the surface today...nor is it likely that a child raided dad's collection, and brought these old lead "toys" to the beach. Yet I can't rule out those options. I will consult with a Cuban friend who practices a little Santeria when the need arises, and see if he can shed any light on this.
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