That evening there was to be a special meeting of everybody, but I couldn’t tell what made it special. I asked my father if I should come to it. The question obviously surprised him and he said
"Yes, everybody."
The preparations began early and Miklin took me in hand when she saw I had no idea what to do. Everybody was outside their shelters messing about with feathers. It took me some time to grasp that the adults were dressing as bustards and the children as ruffs. They were all male birds so it seemed some sort of communal display would be made. Miklin did her own dressing first. It was a head-dress of smaller feathers with the larger ones making a tail. Her three-toed feet were woven reeds with large carved claws. She did a little ruff display to show the costume off to me and it was very realistic. Then she took it all off again and laid it carefully aside while she scrutinised me. Perhaps she was wondering if I was a child or an adult because she then approached her mother who was preparing her evening’s outfit. They spoke for a while and then Miklin brought some spare feathers from their shelter. They were bustard so she thought I was an adult, that was satisfying but then she was very young. But there were only two spare toes and they were very worn. We sat down together and mended them as best we could. They didn’t look too bad when we finished. But then we found that the straps that her mother had spare, for fixing the feathers in, were too small for bustards’ feathers, they were for ruffs’. It would be a long job to modify them and Miklin consulted her mother again. They both looked at the straps for a while but seemed to reject the idea of making them fit an adult with bustards’ feathers and Miklin took my hand and pulled me up. We set off for someone else’s shelter and when we got there I recognised the woman I had first asked for help. She smiled and hit me on my back so I returned the greeting. It seemed to be well received. Miklin explained our problem and the woman brought out her spare items. There were several adult straps, though very worn ones, but only one more toe and two more feathers. But she had a beautifully worked leather beak so at least my face would not be bare. It had perfectly made nostril holes for breathing and the hinge was so good that normally the two halves were shut but one hand easily opened it if you wanted to say something. I had never seen such leather-work but wasn’t able to say so. I thanked her several times for the loan of such a wonderful object but she seemed to think nothing of it.
We started to return to Miklin’s shelter but I signed that my father might have some spare toes or feathers. She looked scandalised and hurried me onwards, so I guessed that I could borrow from women but not from men. It seemed odd because everybody was dressing the same way.
Later, as it started to go dark, people moved towards the fire and were collecting in groups. The group which Miklin and her mother formed had several adults and many children. But none of the other children were my half brothers or sisters. I saw that the teeth of their necklaces were all the same on the right hand side of the snake fangs and the same as Miklin’s right teeth. I checked her mother’s necklace and saw that the arrangement of teeth on the right of hers was the same only made from larger teeth, fox, wolf, bear and lion I was able to identify. So it was plain then that the teeth on the left identified someone as the child of a particular father and those on the right as of a particular mother. These adults must be the children of Miklin’s grandmother, though I could see no-one old enough who might have been her.
When I checked the teeth arrangements of the other groups, which were loosely gathering by the fire, my idea held. Each group had the teeth on the right in common and my half brothers and sisters were scattered amongst the different groups. I gestured to Miklin that perhaps I should join my father who was in a group that I guessed were his mother’s relations, but she wouldn’t have it. So I guessed that an outsider could be in any group.
The evening started with what you would have to call singing, though it was very different from ours. There were no instruments to accompany it as there had been on previous evenings. The pipes, flutes, horns and drums were left in the shelters. It was a deep song with a lot of strange rhythms but little tune. Some people went over to a storage tent and returned with armfuls of something that I at length realised were dried mammoth tails. They were distributed, one per person and people organised into pairs. Miklin was my partner of course as she had taken on herself the job of seeing me through the evening, which I was quite relieved at. She held the other end of my mammoth tail and I held the other end of hers so we were joined by two bands. I just copied what she was doing for the dance which was vigorous and involved a lot of whirling round so that I was quite giddy. After that the sound of the singing changed and the rhythm slowed. The pairs split up and everybody then held one end of their own mammoth tail and one end of someone else’s, so everybody was joined in one long line which danced around the fire and all through the area of shelters. Perhaps it represented a snake.
The bird dancing followed that. The children went first with their ruff dance. Some of the older ones were making moves very like ruffs though I think the younger ones were just enjoying themselves making it up as they went along. I knew it was serious though because nobody was drinking and I hadn’t seen that before. The adults then danced the bustard dance while I sat out with Miklin. I didn’t want to make a fool of myself. It was very impressive particularly when they all gave bustards’ calls together. It ended with them in a circle round the fire shaking those huge tail feathers. After they had settled to sitting round the fire an old woman appeared and moved to stand near it. Her face was painted in patterns of white, black and red dots and was very wrinkled. Her costume was elaborate and had no feathers at all. From her shoulders down she wore what looked like a wicker cape which turned up slightly near her feet. But it had no fastening, it was something like a basket and she must have put it on over her head. There were two holes for her arms to come out of at the front and she held a large bowl covered with a red cloth densely embroidered with pale yellow thread in patterns similar to her face painting. I found out as the evening went on that the bowl contained a large number of rounded pebbles. Her head-dress was very elaborate, made of the seeding stems of reeds which looked like papyrus to me. I wondered if the ice giants travelled further than I had thought, but perhaps they had traded for them.
There were a number of people gathered at the opposite side of the fire to the woman and at a call from her they all went round and put their hands under the red cloth. They were a mix of people, young and old, men and women and I was quite puzzled at first to guess what was happening. She spoke to them and when they assented she gave a loud cry and they all took their hands out again. Each was holding a pebble and they all studied them until one found a mark on his. All but he returned to their previous position at the other side of the fire.
The man with the marked stone then stood beside the wickerwork woman and spoke for quite a long time. Even I could tell that it was a prepared speech though I couldn’t understand a word. He ended with what sounded like a formal phrase. At that three other people from the general gathering joined him and he passed the pebble to one of them. That was a woman who spoke quite excitedly though not for long. Despite it being short one of the other women in the group of speakers had been hopping up and down impatiently, but she didn’t speak until she had been handed the pebble. They all got a turn to speak but obviously only the person holding the pebble could speak at any one time. It slowed down the discussion but seemed very fair as nobody could be interrupted and over-ruled as it were. Miklin tried to explain to me what they were discussing but I couldn’t grasp it.
When they had all spoken - and some several times - it was put to a vote. All who agreed (or disagreed for all I know) with the first person’s suggestion stood up. Everybody counted the people standing up, including all the speakers and everybody either standing or sitting. There was general calling and shouting until all agreed on the balance of numbers for and against. Some looked pleased and some didn’t. They must have agreed to whatever the first speaker proposed because he looked pleased. He went and sat down with what I assume was his mother’s family, after returning the marked pebble to the woman’s bowl. The remaining people who wished to speak then drew pebbles again and it proceeded in the same way until everybody had either had their suggestions accepted or rejected. The only slight difference that occurred was when someone suggested something and nobody spoke against it. There was no vote then and I assume it was accepted. My father was one of those. I think he was saying that he would return with me to Gabillou and act as ambassador, reporting back to them so that they could decide what relations they might choose to have with our group. I was pleased that nobody spoke against him. It suggested that they might be generally willing to join us, or semi-join us anyway. Perhaps they had previously spoken about enlarging the group or the need to get in new skills or something.
Once everybody who had a proposal for the group had spoken, and everything had been decided, the old woman sang at length to a fairly simple tune. When she had finished the whole group sang the same thing back to her. Miklin explained that it was making the decisions final and if anyone went against any of them later the group would jointly sing the song to them to show that they were wrong. At that point the drinking began. Some people seemed to be making up for lost time because the evening ended with some very drunken bustard dancing.
Nobody was up early the next morning, but I hurried to the fire as soon as I was ready because I had promised to go with Miklin to see something she wanted to show me. I half understood that it might be something sacred to her so I went prepared with power objects. She wasn’t there when I arrived so I had some breakfast. I was expecting it to be leftovers from the previous evening but there was new freshly cooked food and I felt surprisingly hungry. Miklin arrived while I was still eating, but I was quite happy to carry on eating with her. It seemed we had to wait for some others and when we were all gathered it was a group of half brothers and sisters. I could recognise them by this time even without checking their decorative teeth. They took me by the hands and pulled me off more or less north-westerly. It was not far to go, about half an hour perhaps, though it would have been faster without the inevitable children’s games and messing about. They quietened down as we approached two large rocks with a space between. The two rocks touched at about the height of an adult and what would have been space at the back was filled in by small rocks so it made an artificial cave. They all touched their foreheads before going in so I did the same. At the back against the wall of rocks was a flat stone serving as an altar, that is how we would interpret it anyway. It was covered in skulls all facing forward, they seemed to be looking at us. I recognised sable and fox but couldn’t be sure what the smaller ones were. None of them was decorated in any way. From the sides of the altar two curving low walls of woven wicker came forward and nearly met in front of our feet. Inside the nearly circular enclosed space was a most surprising, and obviously very powerful object. It was the beak of a curlew and the surprise to me was that there was no skull. I don’t think we would ever remove a bird’s beak. The two pieces of beak were touching each other where they would have joined the skull but were widely separated at the other end. Between them were a lot of red berries, some yew though I’m not sure what the rest were. But it was not the right time of year for berries. These must have been last Autumn’s and still red. There was a shiny glaze on them which looked as though it might be sticky. Of course I wanted to touch to see if I could tell how they had been preserved, but that was unthinkable as it would certainly be sacrilege. I wondered if they represented the curlew’s lovely bubbling song.
They performed no ritual, so I guessed that the making of the shrine and coming to visit it was the offering to the spirits. As they moved to go I gave Miklin our sea urchin and signed that it was for the shrine. They all gathered round it to look and seemed amazed. One signed a question, did it come from the sea? Miklin was holding it very reverently and, though one or two of the others looked as though they wanted to touch it, they didn’t. They all made the gesture to it that I had seen everyone making to the northern bear’s claw. After some discussion they put it down carefully, with many gestures, between the front ends of the wickerwork dividers. Then we all left the shrine walking backwards.
On the way back to camp I thought through their contacts with the spirit world. It seemed to me that all together round the fire they sang and danced for the spirits. I thought the ruff and bustard dances must have been to ask the spirits to help them make good decisions in the organisational meeting. But they also seemed to contact the spirits privately, each adult alone and the children in groups of father-related siblings. The children had been in groups of mother-related siblings the previous evening so it might indicate that contacting the spirits was more to do with the men and social organising more to do with the women.
Miklin interrupted my thoughts with something, but I couldn’t follow her signs. It was something to do with Tlez and she obviously thought it important because when we got back she went and found my father and brought him over to me and Tlez. She was talking very fast and pleadingly as they came up and my father grinned a greeting to me while trying to listen to her. Then he sent her to get her mother. While she was away he drew the triangle mountains on the ground again and indicated that Miklin wanted to go with us over the mountains riding on Tlez. I smiled and tried to show that I was happy with the idea if her mother was. She looked quite resigned to the idea by the time she and Micklin joined us. She spoke to my father about it obviously agreeing, she pointed to Tlez and said something then they both laughed. I wished I understood but all the time I was there I found jokes impossible.
The four of us spent the rest of the day getting everything ready. My stuff was easy as I just packed up everything as I had brought it, but it was seen as a joint activity so we all got in each other’s way, fell over things and I failed to understand almost everything. I did understand though that the whole enterprise was seen as an exciting and lighthearted adventure and mostly one joke after another. But both Miklin’s parents took very seriously warm waterproof clothing for her and strong straps to hold her onto Tlez’s shoulders. Some things they packed after much discussion, which seemed useless to me, I guessed they must be offerings to Gabillou spirits of place.
We four, and Miklin’s mother’s other children, formed a group by the fire that evening. Several people came up to us saying things I couldn’t altogether understand but thought from glances at me and Tlez that they were asking my father to find out how we did particular things, perhaps how we hunted particular animals or which spirits we asked for help in which circumstances.
There was no drink for us that evening and we went to our shelters early. I slept the whole night through and remembered no dreams, but I was up and dressed the next morning when my father banged on the outside of my shelter to make sure I was awake. I called that I was. By that time I had worked out that ’Groohk’ was his name, ’father’ was an even more unpronounceable word.
Miklin’s mother looked less certain about things that morning and hugged Miklin tightly before smiling her up onto Tlez. The holding straps were checked worriedly several times, but Miklin looked overjoyed and kept hugging Tlez’s head. We got our packs up onto Tlez’s back behind Miklin then my father and I took our places standing on either side of her tusks. A lot of people had got up early to see us off and we walked south to the sound of them singing. My father and Miklin sang the same tune back to them, so it must have been a song of departure, but by the time I had learned it we were no longer within earshot.
The journey back was easier and quicker than my journey there had been. I didn’t recognise some of it and there seemed to be much less snow and ice, so I guess that my father knew a better route through the mountains than the one I had come by. Leopard appeared and helped us through a couple of awkward places. It was not long before we were approaching Gabillou and the rest you know.