have been replaced. But these are only the northern ones and I have wondered if the same thing is happening to the southern ones. It might be interesting to live under a tilted sky, but perhaps not. Are they still firmly standing?’
‘As firmly as they can be in these times,’ Jangamuttuk replied. ‘I myself conducted some of the last ceremonies to keep them upright and hard as stone. They are like crags and should remain standing for a very long time. Our problem was different. A hole in the sky developed through which came a horde of ghosts. Our ceremony was to repair the damage and prevent more coming through. Still, it may have been too late and the hole may be becoming larger and larger, letting through the ghosts in countless multitudes.’
‘The times are indeed rough,’ Waai agreed, ‘and we shamans must struggle to return it to its original smoothness. At least the poles remain upright down there where it is, I have heard, very cold. They must be frozen solid and as hard as stone, and thus free of rot and insects. It is not like that far to the north where the rain falls all summer long and termites build large camps covering acres of land. But it seems that the poles have been replaced and so this ceremony was very efficacious in driving away the inimical forces which threatened them.’
My father, the ritual master of our mob, was always eager to see and trade old ceremonies for new ones. He had collected in his mind hundreds of songs and rituals, and these songs I sing are from him. He taught them to me. His songlines were sung until he passed over, and it was then that I began to add verses of my own. So it is understandable that he was eager to add this one to his collection. ‘It is right,’ he said to Waai, ‘that I receive this ceremony. When one enters a new land, one needs to be able to sound out its hidden rhythms and sing its melodies.’
‘That is so,’ Waai replied, ‘though this one is not from here but, as I’ve said, comes from the far north where the seasons and vegetation are different and the land is not as it is here. We have our own and these can only be passed on to fellow shamans. There is one which ...’ He broke off, looked at me and asked as if I was not there, ‘And how is this boy? Is he ready yet, for there seems something about him?’
My father stared at me and shrugged. ‘He is one of us, though perhaps too much a dreamer. He might lose himself if he is not careful. Still, he must make his own way and I can only lead him so far.’
‘He may be ready to move on to these things.’
‘Well, he tasted the blood of his first life today and it caused a fever. The spirit of an animal awakened in him, one that likes the taste of blood,’ he replied, then shrugged again, dismissing me from his mind.
They sat in silence for a time, then Waai got up, gestured and went off into the darkness beyond the camp. Jangamuttuk ignored his departure for a while, before he too got to his feet. ‘That Crowman needs an Eagleman with sharp eyes to lead him back to camp. Without me, he’ll be lost in the darkness,’ he said, and followed after Waai.
They had not returned by the time sleep claimed us, nor had they returned when I rose with the sun. The others went off to hunt with the local men while I decided to go to the beach and see how Wadawaka was doing. Over the few days on the land, our hunting had been very successful. We enjoyed ranging far and wide after the confines of the vessel and any fears we might have had of being in a strange place had been lessened by our connecting with the local mob who joined us in the hunt. We had supplied Wadawaka with a plentiful supply of meat to salt and pack away in barrels.
I found him hard at work, hammering on the lid of a cask. He finished this before acknowledging my presence. I looked away from his glance, for he had been left alone to do most of the necessary work, but this did not seem to perturb him overmuch as he merely commented, ‘Ceremonies and dances might be all right when we have time, but to go on this is as important. There will come a time when we can’t land and replenish our supplies. Ahead of us, there is this long stretch of coastline; it extends on and on with few landing places. The cliffs fall sheer into the ocean and beyond the land is bare and dry. No rivers flow into the sea and at one place where we shall land, we shall find sand dunes. Beyond them, within the bowels of the earth, is water, but that place is dangerous and we may be able to avoid it. If not, so be it, for on voyages there are many perils which must be overcome. There are many stories of Sinbad, Ulysses and others who did as we do.’
‘Tell me some of these stories,’ I demanded, thinking that he might know some of these voyagers, and also I was curious about how he could know what lay ahead. Had he voyaged along this coast before, perhaps with that Sinbad? He merely grunted as he returned to his work. I handed him the lid to another cask.
‘Must get water aboard next, though we soon shall have another chance to replenish our supply,’ he said. ‘There is coming towards us a ship that will prove both dangerous and profitable to us. It is loaded with supplies which we need. There may be other ships coming this way too and it is best that we leave this place before they arrive. They see this schooner here and they come to find out who we are, for they claim all this land as theirs now. And it will not go well for us when they find black folk in command of a vessel. They feel that only they have the right to sail the seas and not us blackfellows. It will go hard with us too when they find out that the schooner is stolen. It will not be a flogging matter, but a hanging one.’
‘You have been with them a long time and know their ways, but how do you know them now and in the future?’ I demanded again. ‘These local blackfellows could not have told you. They know nothing about the ghosts sailing along their shores. You have not seen the ghosts either, for we have not seen another ship since we sailed, and even though Father mentioned something he saw he often sees things that are not there. It’s all gammon,’ I ended querulously. I did not like the fact that my father and mother and now my friend Wadawaka had secrets I was not privy to.
Again he did not answer. Instead he busied himself with carrying a cask to the dinghy. I picked one up and helped him; I even rowed the laden boat to the schooner. As I leant on the oars, he suddenly asked me, ‘What three exists where three are not?’
‘I don’t know,’ I replied gruffly, for I was in a huff and annoyed at him.
‘Well, I’ll give you an answer to the riddle. It’s like this,’ he replied, ignoring my petulance. ‘Ceremonies exist where there are workers; but ceremonies cannot exist when there is no one to prepare the ground. That’s the first one, and from my land too. The second one is that grass exists where there are no animals to eat the grass; but there are no animals where there is no grass. And the last one is,’ he concluded, ‘water exists where there is no thing to drink it; but no thing can exist where no water is.’
‘And what does this mean?’ I asked, somewhat exasperated at his way of talking which was similar to how my father answered when he did not want to give a straight reply to one of my questions.
‘Well, it means that if you get down and do your bit, you’ll end up with something,’ he replied with a shrug, as if to say anyone with a little common sense could see this.
I shipped my oars deftly and swung the dinghy against the side of the vessel. Wadawaka caught a trailing rope and made her fast. He passed the casks up to me on deck, then came aboard to stow them carefully below. As he did so, he seemed to hesitate and suddenly made a sign. ‘There, that should fix them,’ he muttered, then went on, ‘Flowing water and darkness, the smell of earth and the creaking of timbers – what does it mean?’ He said this to himself and I did not bother to answer him. I had had enough of riddles. We came up on deck and he secured the hatch covering, then loaded the dinghy with the empty water kegs. ‘Far too few, but on the way we can pick up some more from that vessel travelling with a mist of doom about her.’
When the half-dozen water kegs were unloaded, we rested and Wadawaka, deeply troubled about something,
