The Doorway to Enlightentment - El Babus

A brief passage in the puzzle booklet encouraged Hunters to "Read the signs at the Fondren Library entrance and be enlightened." Arriving at the library, Hunters noticed several posters plastered around saying simply, "Be Enlightened."

Those Hunters who chose to slow down on their trip long enough to notice the table set up for the semi-fanatical cult, "The Society for the El Babus Enlightened" got a quick start. The group preached "Enlightenment," and was handing out El Babus Fliers for their cause:

The end of society is upon us. People are losing their individuality, forgetting how to think for themselves, becoming slaves to other people's desires. Corrupt influences are constantly telling us, "This is what you must do," and "That is necessary." Our government, our bosses, our teachers, even our parents seem to know what we must do. But do they really know the truth?

Each person must seek the truth and decide for himself or herself what is really necessary and important. We must decide for ourselves if this particular account for the advertisement agency we work for is right for us. If this assignment in school is something that will help us grow. If this new tax law will aid us in our quest for happiness.

Life is too short to waste it with inconsequential things that other people deem important. We must individually determine what we really need to dedicate ourselves to.

Let it be known that El Babus can help. El Babus is an ancient, though rather unknown, Spanish spirit. He has been called the backbone of the king of the jungle, the bone-enriched, or "boneous" lion. He is there for us to determine what it means to be an individual. What is important. What is necessary.

The way he helps us is simple. After he has seen proof of our dedication, he speaks to us in special dreams. It is possible he has spoken to you without you even being aware!

He requires proof of dedication in the following ways:

• End your connections with those people who threaten your individuality.
• Make new friends. Friends who care about you... the person.
• Announce your desire to live for yourself.

Now that you have done these things, El Babus will show himself.

You might find it difficult, maybe impossible, to complete these goals. That is what The Society for the El Babus Enlightened is for. We are here to see that you make the transition and find friends who want only that you discover your individuality.

Of all people, we are best able to see that your weaknesses for money and dependence on other people to tell you what to do don't overcome you during your transition.

Understanding your dreams and whether they are messages from El Babus is another benefit we would like to provide for you.

Reaching your aspirations is why we are here.

Please consider what El Babus can do for you:

• Assurance of inner peace.
• Society of friends who will respect your self.
• Stopping of others telling you what's "right."
• Ways of living you have never dreamed of.

Of course, it is up to you to decide that this is right for you. We can not tell you that our path to individuality is correct any more than the government can tell you that your taxes make you a happier person.

Right and wrong can only be determined by you in the end, so the decision rests with you.

Do think about this flier and your life. The key to your happiness lies within these calligraphy-started paragraphs and statements.

Each paragraph of the flier started out with a letter in a large calligraphy-style font. (This was strongly hinted at by the last line of the flier!) Reading down the left edge of the page, these letters spelled, "Tell the man your password."

As part of The Hunt's registration process, each team was assigned a different bizzare password. Simply telling your team's password to the El Babus zealot didn't seem to work - these El Babus-heads seemed pretty dead-set in their Babesque principles of not being told what to do by others. But by drawing the team's password Pictionary-style, and getting the Babusheads to guess it seemed to please them without ruffling their feathers too much. This was a bit tricky with some of the passwords that were assigned, among them, "implosion," "septology," and "calypso."

The Second Path to Enlightenment - Rice Stadium

If you survived the pinkie-finger painting and so forth at the El Babus booth and successfully drew your password, you received an envelope containing three sheets of paper:

The Instructions Page

The first sheet explained the rules for forming rebuses, and how they would occur in the puzzle.

There were also a couple sample rebuses to practice with.

The Rebus Grid

The second sheet of paper was a 13 x 13 grid of squares, filled with pictures of objects (rain, ants, mask, olive, sink, etc.), separated by plus and minus signs. At the bottom of this page were some blank squares, labeled with "Word 1," "Word 2," etc.



The Word List Mural

The last sheet contained 15 pictures of various objects, including an octopus, a corkscrew, kangaroos, and others.

Around the edge of the piece of paper were the one- and two-letter chemical symbols for various elements, Hg, CU, O, Na, and many others, 34 in all.

This puzzle was like a word search. Each of the 15 items from the Word List Mural page could be found in the Rebus Grid by adding and subtracting words with the addition and subtraction signs found in the grid.

After all 15 words were found, 12 items from the Rebus Grid page remained. Inserting these 12 items into the empty boxes at the bottom of the page yielded the following formulas:

Word 1 = Go

Word 2 = 2

Word 3 = R + ice

Word 4 = staple - E + date - plate + I + gum + ear - gear

which could be solved, rebus-style, to yield the instruction, "GO TO RICE STADIUM."

The Third Path to Enlightenment - Bison

At Rice Stadium, Hunters were greeted with another envelope, this one containing a highlighter and a short Poem with further cryptic instructions:

More to do? My, oh my, my!
Here's another question for you to try.

"Their numbers are few, as we all know,
but what else can you call a buffalo?"

Go back to the mural that gave your orders
and look at the letters outside of the borders.

Connect the letters that answer the riddle.
Use a straight-edge; don't err even a little.

When you have done that, the next thing to do
is look at the pictures the line passes through.

Highlight the words on the rebus you've done.
using the pen will help you a ton.

Look down on the squares laid out on the field.
The path shows just what the letters will yield.

Connecting on the Word List page the letters Bi, S, O, and N, drew a zigzag path across the page, passing through 7 of the 15 objects on the page.

Highlighting on their Rebus Grid the seven rebuses corresponding to the seven words that the Bi-S-O-N path passed through on the Word List page created a path winding through the 13 x 13 Rebus Grid.

The Final Path to Enlightentment - Kerbelblexdoo

Climbing up to the top of the stands, Hunters could look down on the football field, and see a 13 x 13 grid of giant letters on the field.

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Comparing this grid to their 13 x 13 Rebus Grid, and reading the letters on the field that corresponded to the path highlighted on their page yielded the message, "GOOD FOR YOU - YOU KNEW WHAT TO DO - THE ANSWER IS KERBELBLEXDOO."

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Checking the Findivver Table of Elements verified that kerbelblexdoo was indeed one of the potential components for Snickleberry Juice, and is the answer to this puzzle.