Stillness settled over the assembly. The group followed the message a long way and contemplated the metaphor for a long time. Then they cried with the air of someone who had forgotten something: “Did our master really say this?” The diviner did not reply.
Then the only man who bore antiquity on his shoulders intervened and seized the right to utter the decisive statement: “This is language that befits our master. This is really his idiom, and this is his wisdom. Don’t you think it behooves us to obey?”
The proponents of migration argued their case by grumbling, moving their turbans closer to one another, touching their heads together, and pretending they were consulting each other, but Emmamma, who was older than any of them, allowed them no time. He took his polished stick and left the tent.
2
Tongues voiced objections, and mouths mentioned the Law’s dictates that cautioned against any surrender to the temptation of the earth. Then the leader took charge of them all and, using the virgin’s tongue, sent them a new message. This prophecy said, “Yassokal awadem yeway imannet meykka? What kind of trip is it when a man carries his soul along with him?”
The diviner chanted this with a noble, heartrending melody. Then tears leapt from his eyes. He chanted this for a long time before he sent for the herald. When the herald arrived, the diviner entrusted the mission to him. The herald went through the settlements spreading the good news of the prophecy. Then the virgin followed him to the diviner’s dwelling, bearing a new prophecy. Via the virgin’s tongue, the leader said, “Etekkam ettaqqlimd degh yohazan. Wherever all of you go, you will return by a nearby place.” The diviner wept once more and sang the lyric mournfully while gazing at the distant horizon and swaying back and forth like people who are in a trance and robbed of their intellects by a song. He spent a long time on his private journey. When he finally returned, he dismissed the virgin and again sent for the herald.
3
He wandered in the wasteland for some days and returned from seclusion with an inspiration.
He summoned a man who was famous for his craftsmanship in constructing tombs and who was known in the tribe as the “Lover of the Realm of Stones.” He sat with him outside the tent in the dusk of the evening. Sitting down, he asked, “Have you all finally realized that it is pointless to continue migrating?”
The Lover pulled his turban lower and began to examine the dirt with his fingers, searching for pebbles. He picked up a pebble in his right hand and deposited it in the palm of his left hand. He answered this question after a pause. “Whether we believe it or not, generations from now the Spirit World will make clear whether we were right or have committed a sin.”
“Do I understand from this that my guest has preferred to join the doubting faction?”
“My master’s guest does not prefer to join any faction. I’m simply talking about the will of the fates. The course of time will answer my master’s question.”
The diviner watched him inquisitively. He straightened his knee, raising it higher, and left his other thigh on the ground. He said, “I didn’t, in any case, send for our dignified guest to debate the subject of migrations. I want to discuss another matter.”
The Lover continued to dig in the dirt, collecting pebbles carefully in his palm. He replied, “I never doubted that, because the diviner would not send for a creature to debate with him a heavenly matter or a concern that we customarily reserve for the nobles in the Council of Sages.”
“Not so fast! Slow down! I see my guest is about to lose his way. As a matter of fact, I did send for my distinguished guest for a subject that is intimately linked to the heavens.”
The Lover stopped raking the dirt with his finger and looked at the diviner inquisitively for the first time. The diviner continued, “I thought I would surround my master’s tomb with a building, and you know you’re the only master builder in the whole tribe.”
The pebbles tumbled from his left hand, and he picked them up with the deftness of a person who has lost a treasure. Then he replied, “I hope my master thinks well of me, but I don’t understand the pressing need to build a tomb around the tomb.”
“We have built a tomb to hide the bodies of the dead, and we will build a tomb to shelter the bodies of the living!”
“I really don’t understand.”
“Because we are a nomadic people, our forefathers taught us to erect a structure around the bones of a deceased man. We bury our dead today and travel the next day. But the Law has left us no statute regarding dead men we have decided to keep near us forever because they have become our destiny and our only path to the heavens.”
From behind his veil he glanced stealthily at his companion, whose fingers he saw were working in the dirt with the ardor of armies of ants. He smiled and continued, “Today we guide our lives by the firebrand that comes from the tomb the way a nomad guides himself by the stars and the way our ancestors before us guided themselves by the light of the lost Law.”
“I’ve begun to understand. My master wishes to replace the tent post we lost with a building that will play the role of two tent posts at one and the same time: the tent post that collapsed when the leader passed on and the tent post that will fall when we fold our tents forever to become food for larvae and grubs.”
The diviner ignored the guest’s allusion and spoke without any circumlocution. “People will gather at the tomb out of curiosity. Others will come seeking prophecies regarding secret matters monopolized by the Unseen and known only to the people of the Unseen. Nomads will also arrive, and tribes will send messengers to clarify signs or to plead for counsels. Communities will crowd together there, and the number of people will grow so great that eventually you won’t find a place around the site to set a foot and the virgin won’t be able to stretch out, lie down, or sleep. So be quick and ingenious about erecting a building. Divide it into three chambers. One will house the tomb, one will be suitable for the virgin’s habitation, and the third will be a courtyard where sacrificial animals are slaughtered and visitors, messengers, and people seeking a prophecy are received.”
A pebble escaped from his fingers, and he searched the earth carefully, digging in the dirt to look for it. Only after he had retrieved it did he ask, “What form does my master have in mind for the building?”
“To what form is my distinguished guest referring?”
“I meant to say that the form of the tomb has always been based on a circular body, because the ancients, when they built the first house for the first deceased, wanted to imitate the Spirit World. So they constructed the tomb of the wasteland as a replica of the eternal home. So what form will a structure built atop another building take?”
“The truth is that I haven’t given any thought to this.”
“My master knows that each body in the desert is destined to be circular.”
“Actually this is the first time I’ve considered the matter.”
“My master knows that gold is circular.”
“Gold?”
“For this reason smiths work this metal into circular forms when they make jewelry and other decorative items.”
“The truth is that I. …”
“The snake is also round.”
“The snake?”
“My master knows that the snake always has some ulterior motive. If it is tubular and coils round itself, there is some secret behind that.”
“What are you saying?”
“The desert also has a circular body.”
“Hold on.”
“It is said that the snake only coils into a circle to imitate the mother that gave birth to it.”