Suspecting that Tarhe was too intelligent and too basically incredulous to believe in the existence of ghosts and demons, Two Hawks questioned him. Tarhe replied with a smile and some carefully chosen ambiguous phrases. They satisfied Two Hawks that Tarhe used the terms only to conform to the scientific terminology of his profession. There may have been a time when the categorizations were literal and not figurative, but men like Tarhe no longer put credence in them. However, the belief in demons was a living force among the common people and the priests of the state religion. It might be dangerous to publicly profess disbelief. So, Tarhe went along with public opinion.
The amazing thing was that the principles of treating the mentally sick were much the same as those used by the Freudian practitioners of Earth 1. The Iroquoian explanations for the genesis and cure of warped minds might be different, but the therapy was similar.
“How do you account for our ignorance of your language?” Two Hawks said to Tarhe.
“You’re an intelligent man. Your teotya’tya’koh is cunning. It decided to go all the way into this dream world. So it made you forget your native tongue. Thus, you are even more secure from being forced back into this world.”
“You have a rationalization for everything I say,” Two Hawks said. “In fact, you rationalize so much, one might think you were the patient and I the doctor. Have you ever considered, even for one second, that I might be telling the truth? Why not conduct an experiment to determine this; take a truly scientific nonprejudicial approach? Question O’Brien and myself separately about our world. We could have agreed on a story in its broad outlines. But if you delve into it, break it down to very minor details—oh, about a thousand things: language, history, geography, religions, customs, etcetera—you’ll find an absolutely astonishing agreement.”
Tarhe removed his glasses and polished them.
“That would be a scientific experiment. It’s true you couldn’t create an entire language in all its complexities of sound, structure, vocabulary, and so forth. Or agree on details of history, architecture, and so on.”
“So why don’t you test us?”
Tarhe replaced his glasses and looked owlishly at Two Hawks.
“Some day, I may. Meanwhile, let’s work on your possession, find out how the demon managed to invade you. Now, what were your feelings—not thoughts -- when I contradicted you a moment ago?”
Two Hawks was furious at first, then he began to laugh. After all, he could not blame Tarhe for his attitude. If he were in his place, would he believe such a story?
Much of Two Hawks’ time was taken up with the routine of the asylum. There were the daily sweatbaths, so long and hot that if a demon were inhabiting his body, it would have been too uncomfortable to remain. There were daily religious ceremonies, during which the priests from a nearby temple tried to exorcise the demons. Tarhe absented himself during these; apparently, he had had trouble concealing his impatience with priests. He must have felt that they were wasting time that could be better spent. It was an indication of the power of the Iroquois church that he dared not interfere with it. Two Hawks made some inquiry about the state religion and found that it was indigenous. It was based on the primitive religions of the Iroquois and had been formalized and put into writing some four hundred years ago by a prophet, Kaasyotyeetha. The founder of the religion had made the vaguely pantheistic belief into a monotheistic one. And he had incorporated various concepts and creeds of the Western European religion into the new faith. However, all the borrowings had an Iroquoian flavor.
There was, however, religious toleration in the nation of Hotinohsonih.
In his leisure time, Two Hawks went to the library or practised conversation with the patients and staff. He intended to escape some day and would thus have to know this world well if he were to operate effectively. A children’s book, printed by a house in ‘Estokwa, gave him an outline of Earth 2’s prehistory and history. The planet was now in the terminal stage of an ice age, just entering a warm period. This was a good thing for Europe, otherwise all of the northern half and part of the southern would be under a permanent icecap. The lack of a Gulf Stream to heat up the continental climate had made a big difference in man’s technological development and in his expansion. A good part of the Scandinavian peninsula and of northern Russia was icebound most of the year. The lack of horse and camel also seemed to have slowed man’s travel and communication.
Over the course of several thousand years, large migrations of Amerinds (generally referred to by Westerners as anthropophagi) from central Asia and Siberia had wandered into Europe and conquered or been conquered. The conquerers had usually been absorbed into the defeated peoples, who had then regained their national identity and integrity.
But in fairly recent times, during the past 800 years, several of the later invaders had succeeded in imposing their language and some cultural traits on the white aborigines. The area of Czechoslovakia of Earth 1 was here called Kinukkinuk. The Algonquian word for this state had originally meant mixture and had referred both to the differing dialects of the various conquerors and also to the fact that the Amerinds had miscegenated with the white natives.
This reminded Two Hawks of Hungary of Earth 1, where a semi-Mongolian people, speaking a Uralic tongue, had defeated the whites, imposed their language upon the whites, and then had been absorbed, losing their racial identity. Here, the Huns had never been heard of.
The Finnish speakers had been diverted eastwards, invaded and settled down in Japan, known on Earth 2 as Saariset. The Japanese, repelled when they had tried to conquer the islands, had turned instead to the area of what Two Hawks’ planet knew as southern China. Northern China was inhabited by a Mongolian-type people speaking an Athabaskan tongue similar to Navaho and Apache.
India, Burma, Malaya, and Indonesia were similar to the countries of Earth 1. But there were differences. Some of the northern Indian rajahdoms spoke Turkic, and Arabic was prevalent in the southern part.
Asia Minor presented an alien picture. The Turkey of Earth 1 spoke Hittite. Palestine used a Semitic tongue derived from colonists from Crete. Hebrew was unknown. The rest of Asia Minor, except for Arabia, spoke Indo-Iranian dialects.
The Akhaiwoi (a Hellenic tribe) had conquered the Italic peninsula and given it its present name of Akhaivia. They had built up a civilization that could be compared favourably in some respects to the Athenian culture of Earth 1, although lacking in others.
Egypt had its own Greek dialect. The other North African states spoke Berber, Iberian, or Greek. Unlike the semidesert North Africa of Earth 1, these nations had very fertile soil and a large population.
The Germanic peoples had begun invading Britain and Ireland at an early date. Succeeding waves of Germanics, Celtics, and even Baltics came so fast and furious that Britain became known as Blodland (Bloodland). The Ingwine finally established themselves in Blodland, and their speech developed into something like the Old English of Earth 1. But then the Danish and Norwegian raids and invasions began. They were on a scale that far surpassed those of Earth 1. In fact, half of Denmark migrated to Blodland over a period of a hundred years and settled down there.
Danish kings ruled for a long time. Under them, Iceland, Ireland, Norland (Scotland), Blodland, Grettirsland (Normandy), and south Scandinavia became known as the Six Kingdoms and had remained so until modern times. All of the six states spoke dialects of a common language, Ingwinetalu. This could be described as an archaic and creolized English with an enormous stock of Norse loanwords and a lesser amount of Semitic Cretan, Etruscan Rasna, and Greek loanwords.