The Toe Bone and the Tooth is structured around a previously unpublished mythic Mayan tale of the same name, gifted to Martin by one of the elders of the village in return for helping his son. This ancient tale from the tribal oral tradition forms the backdrop to Martin's own untold story - how he, his Indian wife and two little sons experienced a chilling escape from Guatemalan death squads in the mid-1980s, and how he has continued to live out the myth in the alien context of modern life in the US. Through this book, Prechtel shows how this powerful mythic story can be a pattern for everyone's life. He demonstrates how his initiation as a Mayan shaman and understanding of their mythology has ensured his survival in the modern world.