I am KuSek of PoSek by Tarel and our people are the Po-lu-Tonk. The Big Valley is ours up to the river. We do not go beyond the river, only the tapir hunters live there and they are an uncanny lot - they can be dangerous. But the Ka-lu-Gak on the mountain are our brothers, and Tarep my sister is married to PaTik their wise man.
The Po-lu-Tonk are not children. Even the youngest wife knows what fruits to gaher and when to dig the ke root, and PoHom our wise man has forgotten more than PaTik my sister husband knows.
We know how to look for signs and recognize them, whether the rains will be early, when it is safe to eat the ke leaves, we can read the moon and stars and know what it means when the moon blushes. When I hunt, the forest speaks to me and I listen. The older children sometimes scare the little ones with stories of angry ghosts, but we know ghosts are nothing to worry about. All they can do is make the mists swirl, which is a sign that it is storming in their world.
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Let the one who reads this to you tell you, I am Corns Bolukemi Tans. I am a citizen merchant of Gla and own three farms. He who read me your letter said you wish to know about the religion of Gla. We have god-houses for all six gods, but I sacrifice only in the house of Bols, because she was my father's patroness and is said to favor leather merchants, and of course twice a year in the house of Ato-Gla. It is a civic duty and keeps the king's men from poking into my business.
The priests tell us that Ato-Gla made the hill of Gla and the first man. When the man asked for more land for his crops, Ato-Gla made the rest of the world. Then the first woman, then the other five gods.
It it true? Who knows. I cannot quite figure how the priests found out what happened before there were any people, but there are some good stories about the gods that teach some practical principles. The sacrifices may not really help the crops grow, but you never know, and it gives the serrfs a holidaty and keeps the king's men off my back.
Written this thirteenth day of Bolugins in the fourth year of King Farans.
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Certainly, I will gladly tell you what I believe. Fred Parsons here, I've been working at Hinnebusch and Law for twenty years now. God? Dear me, no. We go to church Christmas and Easter - everybody else does, and they say it is good for the kids to have a religion. But all the best minds agree it is essentially nonsense. Imagine a giant being you can't even see, who rules the world but lets people do whatever they want! I mean to say!
The Big Bang - that's a different thing. There are experts who know these things, and they say they can make a mini-Big Bang in the laboratory, which proves it. Did you know that you and I are not actually solid at all? We are empty space with lots of wiggling loops of - something - so I could actually walk right through this wall. Saw that on the telly, some Japanese prof saying all kinds of things you would hardly credit. Well, the scientists should know, I barely made it through Maths.
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Me - I am Philologos of the Palaeologoi. I know how little I now, and from that extrapolate how little other experts know. I am an expert - international rep - which matters to nobody much.
But I know how to look for signs and recognize them, and some I gradually learn to interpret. I see clover in the grass and find the wotrd I want in the dictionary and start in part to understand people.
I have sat in the woods and heard the woods speak, I have felt the pain of my spirit being touched.
Some things I know, some I believe conditionally, some things remain mysterious.
We are the people.
24 May 2011, 4:02 pm
