Intertribal Trade Council and Second Functionary of the Humashup Lodge. And this is Kaxiwalic, one of our most successful independent entrepreneurs.”
“Pleased to meet all of you,” I said, all benevolence. I had my audience pegged, now: here were the upper classes, wearing a certain hard and confident look, a can-do look, you might say, and across their chests the rolls of shell money rippled and clicked like backgammon counters. The nobodies were at the back of the room, with open, vulnerable faces like nobodies everywhere. I could play to this audience. I’d played to their like for more centuries than I remembered.
I got to my feet. My shadow loomed up behind me on the dome of the hall, unsteady in the firelight.
“It’s good to be back in Humashup, children,” I said, “though it’s true I haven’t been to see you in a few generations. But it’s a long journey from here to the World Above, let me tell you, and I’m a busy god. I only found the time to come down now because I have very important news.
“Now, you all know”—I held out my strange hands to them—”how we play a game up there, the Sun and I, at midwinter every year. We gamble. We outguess each other, He and I. And you all know what the stakes are.
“Yes, I can see you do. It’s your
lives
He wants, the Sun, because He’s always hungry. All that burning, burning up in the sky, and how does He do it? He feeds on men. Your lives light the sky, heat the earth, and the only one who can keep Him from taking you all is me. If I didn’t gamble with him to save some of you every year, you wouldn’t be here now to listen to me, any of you. This fine hall would be dark and cold, and you’d all be in the cemetery out there.
“But don’t worry: I’m a good gambler and I win often. When I do, the Sun can’t take any of you but the old sick people. Better than that: He has to pay me in good things, acorns and fish, deer and geese in plenty, which I send down to you. I win you rainy seasons to make the hills green. I win you calm weather at sea and big runs of salmon. All these things come from me, because I’m your uncle and I look out for you.
“You know all this. And this is how things have always been, every year. But not anymore!”
Eyes widened at this, and there was some muttering. The mortals smelled afraid. I went on: “Last month was midwinter, and I went to the corner of the sky where I gamble with the Sun. And He was there, all right, and there were the dice ready for the cast, but I saw something else too: the Sun had a talisman around His neck on a piece of cord, and it looked like a canoe, only a
big
canoe with the wings of a white bird.”
A few people exchanged meaningful glances.
“Anyway I settled down to play with Him, and I noticed that He took off His talisman and lay it down by His right foot. We cast the dice, the little shells spun around, and at first I won.Then my luck changed! If I called five, three came up. If I called ten, I’d throw two. I couldn’t call a winning throw no matter how I shook the shells.
“This went on and on. I lost ten of your lives, ten of you here in this very hall. Whose lives do you suppose they were? Then I lost fifty lives. Then a hundred. Sun threw every number He called, but never me. So I watched closely, and I saw what was happening.
“There were little men hiding in Sun’s canoe talisman, tiny men white as chalk. When it was my turn, they’d run out and bowl the shells along like hoops until they landed me a losing number. When Sun threw, they’d bowl and flip the shells so that He won every time. And more and more of you were dying, and not only you but all the tribes, the Yokuts and the Ohlone and tribes you haven’t even heard of. Finally I threw my hands up and cried, ‘Sun, You’re cheating!’
“He just laughed and said, ‘If you think so, call in Moon to judge between us.’
“This seemed all right to me, because, say what you like about Moon being
“Pleased to meet all of you,” I said, all benevolence. I had my audience pegged, now: here were the upper classes, wearing a certain hard and confident look, a can-do look, you might say, and across their chests the rolls of shell money rippled and clicked like backgammon counters. The nobodies were at the back of the room, with open, vulnerable faces like nobodies everywhere. I could play to this audience. I’d played to their like for more centuries than I remembered.
I got to my feet. My shadow loomed up behind me on the dome of the hall, unsteady in the firelight.
“It’s good to be back in Humashup, children,” I said, “though it’s true I haven’t been to see you in a few generations. But it’s a long journey from here to the World Above, let me tell you, and I’m a busy god. I only found the time to come down now because I have very important news.
“Now, you all know”—I held out my strange hands to them—”how we play a game up there, the Sun and I, at midwinter every year. We gamble. We outguess each other, He and I. And you all know what the stakes are.
“Yes, I can see you do. It’s your
lives
He wants, the Sun, because He’s always hungry. All that burning, burning up in the sky, and how does He do it? He feeds on men. Your lives light the sky, heat the earth, and the only one who can keep Him from taking you all is me. If I didn’t gamble with him to save some of you every year, you wouldn’t be here now to listen to me, any of you. This fine hall would be dark and cold, and you’d all be in the cemetery out there.
“But don’t worry: I’m a good gambler and I win often. When I do, the Sun can’t take any of you but the old sick people. Better than that: He has to pay me in good things, acorns and fish, deer and geese in plenty, which I send down to you. I win you rainy seasons to make the hills green. I win you calm weather at sea and big runs of salmon. All these things come from me, because I’m your uncle and I look out for you.
“You know all this. And this is how things have always been, every year. But not anymore!”
Eyes widened at this, and there was some muttering. The mortals smelled afraid. I went on: “Last month was midwinter, and I went to the corner of the sky where I gamble with the Sun. And He was there, all right, and there were the dice ready for the cast, but I saw something else too: the Sun had a talisman around His neck on a piece of cord, and it looked like a canoe, only a
big
canoe with the wings of a white bird.”
A few people exchanged meaningful glances.
“Anyway I settled down to play with Him, and I noticed that He took off His talisman and lay it down by His right foot. We cast the dice, the little shells spun around, and at first I won.Then my luck changed! If I called five, three came up. If I called ten, I’d throw two. I couldn’t call a winning throw no matter how I shook the shells.
“This went on and on. I lost ten of your lives, ten of you here in this very hall. Whose lives do you suppose they were? Then I lost fifty lives. Then a hundred. Sun threw every number He called, but never me. So I watched closely, and I saw what was happening.
“There were little men hiding in Sun’s canoe talisman, tiny men white as chalk. When it was my turn, they’d run out and bowl the shells along like hoops until they landed me a losing number. When Sun threw, they’d bowl and flip the shells so that He won every time. And more and more of you were dying, and not only you but all the tribes, the Yokuts and the Ohlone and tribes you haven’t even heard of. Finally I threw my hands up and cried, ‘Sun, You’re cheating!’
“He just laughed and said, ‘If you think so, call in Moon to judge between us.’
“This seemed all right to me, because, say what you like about Moon being
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