Imaswan Wandarran explained, “Had it not been for the prophecy, we would not have needed all this. You know that we haven’t settled on the earth in response to some whim; it is what the leader willed. Since we have resigned ourselves to remaining in this place, we must find water to serve us as a consolation and a peg. The presence among us of a man who knows the depths of the earth as well as he knows the ends of his fingers has escaped us throughout our search. So did we err in sending for you?”
He arranged the golden pebbles in a vertical column, which he traversed with a chain of black stones. Then the beautiful intersection was visible: the sign of the goddess Tanit.
The hero intervened for the first time, “Our reliance on this earth benefits our venerable companion. From today forward you won’t need to leave your refuge here to dig another one there. Do you take my point?”
The excavator glanced stealthily at Ahallum. A flash gleamed in his stern eyes, but he bent over the mandala again. He chose white stones from the pile and arranged them around the upper part of the cross. Then he encircled the lower part of the figure with the gray pebbles. The circle around the cross was divided into two colors, and the first figure was split into four triangles. The triangle is also a symbol of the goddess Tanit. Emmamma interjected a comment from another angle. He spoke swaying like those possessed. Before he spoke, he sang that tuneful moan that the people of the wasteland are accustomed to hear from noble elders who have inhabited eternity for long periods till nothing of them remains in this world save their scrawny bodies.
He said, “Loath as we are to send for a man to teach us to dig pits, the ancients taught us to search for the secret of something before beginning to search for it. All of us know that the desert, like the sky, conceals in its belly a secret bigger than all the treasures that have captivated the minds of greedy people from antiquity. We have also inherited from the first peoples the insight that the earth’s secret is one of the secrets of the desert. If the sages had not hovered around its secret for ages, they would not have been able to discover the Law.”
He set about buttressing his statement by proof-texting it from provisos of the Law while his meager body swayed right and left. He chanted a moan that almost evolved into the tune of a sorrowful ballad. Then he spoke once more, saying that their companion was the man closest to the earth, because things reveal their secrets only to one who loves them and offers them not only an attentive ear but goes farther and commits his affairs to them. Finally he ended by saying, “We have come to you hoping you will tell us the secret.”
Silence prevailed. His fingers stopped arranging the pebbles.
Aggulli repeated, “We have come to you hoping you will tell us the secret.”
They all repeated this statement in unison. They repeated the statement as if reciting one of the talismans of the first peoples.
9
“I must admit there is a secret to this.” He repeated that twice, just as they had twice repeated the venerable elder’s talisman in unison. He looked up at them for the first time, and they noticed traces of a sparkle, ecstasy, and tears in his eyes.
He declared definitively, “A sacrifice!”
They exchanged astonished looks before asking, “Sacrifice?”
He glanced boldly from one to another of them, and the amulet attached to the front of his veil at the top seemed to protrude and move higher. He repeated this prophecy: “A sacrifice!”
Aggulli protested, “But we slaughtered a sacrificial victim on day one!”
Then the excavator’s body was seized by the fever of ecstatics, and the tears in his eyes became clearly visible. He released a long moan like those of Emmamma when the venerable elder sang sad songs from the desert of eternity. Trembling overwhelmed him, and he swayed and shook. He tried to calm his longing and returned to his sacred mandala, but his fingers betrayed him. When he picked up a pebble it would fall before he could place it in an empty spot in the figure. He shook the dirt from his hands and ran his right hand over his broad leather girdle. He sighed emotionally and asked, “What do you know about sacrificial victims? What do you know about the earth? If you slaughter a black goat to extract a little gold dust, should you slaughter a black goat when you wish to extract water? Don’t you realize you’re disparaging the earth’s treasure, the truth’s treasure, when you offer the same sacrificial kid for both of these treasures, even though people think it a major sin to compare the two?”
The elders exchanged questioning glances, and their fingers stopped fiddling in the dirt. Aggulli observed, “The truth is that we’ve never dug a well before. How would we know what blood offering the earth demands as the price for water?”
“Before we speak of the blood offering, let’s discuss the location. I’ve heard where you’ve dug and know that you missed the right place. Don’t you realize that the earth is a body comparable to that of a slaughtered animal? Haven’t you seen how a skillful butcher will follow the joints when butchering a carcass? Don’t you know that the belly of the earth also has articulations and that water flows through the lower reaches of the earth like blood flowing through bodies?”
Imaswan Wandarran cried out, “You all see? Didn’t I tell you we didn’t pick the right place even once?”
The excavator paid him no heed. He cast a look all around the council. Then he said, “Earth’s blood is water; nothing demands a blood offering so much as blood. Nothing on earth seeks the blood of a sacrificial victim as much as blood!”
He bent over his mandala again and dropped a pebble to fill a gap in the right triangle on the upper edge. He repeated his prophecy as if reading it from a symbol in the sacred mandala: “Nothing on earth seeks the blood of a sacrificial victim as much as blood!”
Aggulli asked, “Do you want us to slaughter a whole herd? Would the blood of a herd suffice to obtain water?”
“A herd’s blood is an appropriate offering for evanescent treasures.”
“Into which group of blood offerings does water fall?” He looked up mournfully at their guest.
The excavator replied almost in a whisper, “Water bears no relationship to your blood offerings. Water isn’t a transient treasure. Water is another type of being.”
“Tell us a little about water!”
“Can a creature like me speak of water? I admit that I have spent long years with it; but I can’t claim to understand water.”
“Do you want us to believe that a boon companion knows nothing of his friend of many years?”
“I acknowledge that the earth’s compassion has been greater than I could ever have imagined. Water has come to me as a messenger and kept me company in my solitude.”
“What does water say? Tell us what water has confided to you.”
He raised his head high, and the leather amulet attached to the front of his veil shot up. Then he leaned toward Aggulli till the amulet almost touched his companion’s veil. His eyes narrowed to slits. He replied in a mysterious voice, “The earth’s tongue can only be understood by someone who lives in the earth. Only someone who has lost the ability to use people’s language comprehends water’s language.”
Silence reigned. Eventually Emmamma’s voice rose in a sorrowful moan. Ahallum interjected, “Let’s go back to the blood offering!”
More than one voice seconded his suggestion. Then the excavator asked, “Remember the blood sacrifice for the sky’s water?”
They kept still for a long time. Then Aggulli asked suspiciously, “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that the sky took the tribe’s soothsayer as the price for the sky’s water.”