by Tom Ball.
CHAPTER 1: THE TRIBE’S MYTHOLOGY
Let me tell you the tale of my people. We lived in what you know as the French Riviera in winter and in the Alps in summer. In this year our tribe had 52 warriors and 102 women and almost 300 children. That was in my 40th summer. We were a race of hunter-gatherers. And we had free love amongst us and called ourselves, “The Love People.” But actually, we were quite violent and lived for war and the hunts. Our last war was five years ago where we defeated and killed the males of a much smaller tribe and took their women and children. This last war acquired slightly dark-skinned women into our tribe of whites. We all agreed these women were a good addition to our tribe as some of them were very clever.
But the Shamaness, Magic Tongue, was in charge of religion. And she knew all the stories of the Gods. The chief God was the Goddess of Love. The offspring of her and the Sun God, made humans and gave people the desire to breed. And the Goddess of Love tried to temper the God of War and make peace amongst the Gods. And the Shamaness hypnotized us not to fight other tribes unless absolutely necessary. We had a couple of artists in our tribe over the years and they carved images of the Gods in wood, and we put the statues in the Temples of the Gods in the high mountains. In summer the Shamaness, Magic Tongue, would spend time dwelling in these cave temples and the people would offer food to the Gods and Goddess. We believed the caves were an entryway to Hell, where we were all going after death. And the carvers were now working on carving Demi-Gods who also had their own caves. Magic Tongue, she would pray to the Goddess for the health of our tribe. It was one of our myths that the Gods had programmed us (through the Shaman’s hypnotism) to build shrines for the Gods. And every summer season which we had always spent in the mountains, we visited and now our carvers were doing lesser deities. And all of the temples were in cliff faces in caves and could only be reached by dangling a rope from above, so no other tribe disturbed our holy places. But it was said that the tribe’s first Shamaness had died while being lowered to the caves as the rope broke. It was an infamous tragedy in the tribe’s history. Every year the top 20 wisest tribespeople, by election, were lowered by rope to the caves in the cliff facings of their choosing. The mouths of the caves were 25 in number, and we used 12, one for each of the 12 deities. Some of the caves formed a network of caves, which were full of effigies and totems and the ashes of former Shamanesses and Chiefs. But sometimes birds such as eagles nested in our temples, and we had to fight them off. We also worshipped the God of Birds and Flying. The Bird God was said to be a dragon who was known to sweep down on humans and take them to his lair and devour them.
Our oral history was mythological. And our goal in life was to try and be perfect just like the Deities. But some of us pointed out that the Gods weren’t perfect. Anyway, our mission was to sow their seeds and populate Earth and live a life worthy of the Gods.
Our history said that we were part of a great diaspora of peoples from the bosom of the Gods well over a century ago.
The Shamaness, Magic Tongue, said, “The Gods wanted everyone to have sex with as many people as possible for good children.” And she believed it was good to love everyone. No other tribe we met had free love, though many were polygamists. We typically didn’t know who the father was. And we all tried to love everyone else of the opposite sex. The Sun God was said to have once shared light with the Moon Goddess, and it was still lighting up the night sky. And the Sun God loved all the Goddesses, and had children with them who were lesser, obscure Gods, who would one day grow to replace the elder Gods.
And I, Cool Ring, was the chief bard of the peoples’ history which went back through several generations. The beginnings of our tribe were rooted in myths, but there had been some great chiefs and Shamanesses and bards (the latter similar to me) and warriors. Like the former chief who had said, “Our tribe would grow and grow and replace all others eventually.” He proposed “A tribe of thousands.” And said, “We must avoid warfare in order to grow.” And the former Shamaness who was my mother, was known to have said, “Every disease can be cured one day.” But that was before the coming of the smallpox 4 years ago. And she said, “We should trade far and wide.” And the Shamaness before that, she was known to have said, “Magic mushrooms were the food of the Gods.” And she had said, “Life is largely illusory.” And the Shamaness before that was said to have spoken about, “How easy and good, this life was!” And she had said, “Animals have a spirit and to eat them is to capture their essence.” And people would have dreams of the animals they had killed or almost killed. The Shamanesses would interpret our dreams.
Another of our stories was about a Chief in the distant past, Magnus Ludos who had said, “The key to raising the youth, was to make learning fun.” And he said, “The people need not be serious. Life is just a dream.” And Magnus Ludos said, “Everyone should have a totem animal.” “A totem animal was one in which your spirit most resembled. So, we did, and my animal was a rare sabre-toothed tiger. Many people just called me, “Tiger.” The Shamaness was a mammoth, and the chief was a cave bear. Most were just humble animals. And one day I was confronted by a sabre tooth tiger and I filled him full of arrows and killed him. After that I wore his tusks when I went on the hunt. We all wore a ring of our totem animal of wood.
And we had some wood carvings of our previous important people. Like three Shamanesses before and five chiefs before and outstanding artists and bards and took them with us as we migrated with the seasons. And of course, we had carvings of the 12 Gods in the cliff temples. We had two master wood workers and they together had 7 protégés working for them. Some other tribes were amazed by our statues. Some neighboring tribes referred to us as “the Statuesque People.” We had some words in common with many of our dozens of known neighbors, especially simple words. And ever year we sent a warrior to 10 of our neighboring tribes to learn their language for 2 months a year. Many wars were caused by miscommunication, and it was the Shamanesses idea to learn others’ languages. And also learn their ways. And we traded statues of the Gods to other tribes along with other things.
And we closely studied the heavens. We believed each star was a God or Demi-God, but we only worshipped 12 Gods/Goddesses and 12 Demi-Gods. However, we knew there were others. We figured the brightest stars were Gods who were farther away than the Sun or the Moon. And some, like the Goddess of Luck were invisible to our mortal eyes, but often could be seen while we were on magic mushrooms. Magic mushrooms were the food of the Gods. And when one became an adult at age 14, one would take the shrooms for the first time and would “see things” pertaining to their future and at the same time, they were hypnotized by the Shamaness, who programmed them with post-hypnotic suggestion, and they were duly named. Some said, “Fourteen was too young,” but they were fully developed at age 14 and the tribe needed hunters/warriors and newborn children.
My favorite Deity was the Moon Goddess, and she was on my totem necklace. Wearing a Deity necklace brought mostly good luck from your Deity. But often the Gods were displeased with you and didn’t bring good luck. Quite the opposite in fact. But I wondered why the Gods were so cruel and inattentive to our needs. If they were our creators, why didn’t they take better care of us? Magic Tongue said, “We are mere mortals, and it is not our place to question the Gods. As you know in the whole history of the tribe, everyone has worshipped the divine Gods!”
Anyway, the Goddess of the Moon who was a crazy God who wanted all the people to act like mad people. And the Moon God was full of mad behavior and antics. Like stealing the Goddess of Love’s emerald cup and giving the people a sense of humor. Don’t be too serious was the message of this God. And party on, was her message. I partied every night. And at the end of my night, I would visit with one of the women.
And on the solstices and equinoxes we did no work and partied all day. These were days of the Gods. People would drink the alcohol I had made. Alcohol was produced by a variety of grains which were fermented, and we kept it in animal stomach pouches and mostly large wooden boxes 3 yards by 3 yards, with the wood planks glued together with clay… It was very strong liquor and had to be drunk with water and dried berries. But most of us drank alcohol every day…
And I told the people, “The message from our ancestors is ‘Tomorrow you may die, so live for the day.’” Most of our people didn’t live long after 40, if that. War and disease and aging and fatalities while trying to give birth all took their toll on us.
We prayed to the Gods especially during childbirth and war. With regard to childbirth the infant mortality rate was 10% and the mother died 2% of the time. So, there were some orphans who were taken in by other mothers. Big Chicken, a matron of 50, did most of the childbirths. Big Chicken said, “Whilst some have 12 or more kids, others die at their first birth.”
The Demi-Gods were cloud giants who gave power to warriors and the giantesses made women strong. If a woman had no kids by age 35, she was cast out as demon spawn who were a waste of food resources and semen. Once cast out they typically wouldn’t live long, and people shunned them as witches. It was the tribal custom. Women who were in their 30s and childless were frantic and panicking, loving for much of the day. As of this time, 15 had been banished in the last two decades.
But I also wore a totem necklace of the Love Goddess who I also kind of respected. I believed strongly in free love, and I always had had a lot of lovers. But I wondered if it all wasn’t up to the God of Luck. Or perhaps even there were no Gods…But all of our great ancestors had believed in the Gods, and everyone in the tribe prayed to one God or another. And other tribes were the same.
Another of our myths was about the Goddess of Love who would possess females and make them very attractive/charming to men. Some men claimed ordinary women drove them wild with desire. And many women prayed to the Goddess. The Love Goddess was said to demand children from women.
Also, central to our belief system was the story of the Goddess of Luck who was kicked out of the Gods Temple in Hell for believing in luck. And this God, named Chronos had numerous children with mortal women, and many of the children became some of the various tribes in the World today… But we were not so lucky, with all our disease and warfare. And many of our tribe believed in this God and worshipped him. Chronos demanded people throw the six-sided bone die before all action. The die’s sides indicated north, south, east and west and also yes and no. Most often they would try to roll a yes to their wishes. Some argued the way some threw the dice were cheating by throwing the dice in the same way with the same face up…
And some worshipped all 12 of our Deities and the 12 Demi-Gods. The Chief was a follower of the God of the Sun and so were many of the other men. But many also wanted to worship the God of War, but Magic Tongue hypnotized them to desist. The God of War was to be invoked only when absolutely necessary. So far in the last century or so the tribe had gone to war 8 times and still the tribe survived. There had also been some skirmishes with other tribes over hunting grounds. It had been five years since the last war which was relatively mild.
Before hunting, hunters burnt small wooden effigies they had created of various animals to get power over them. Everyone could create an effigy. They could be quite simple and carved in a half-an-hour. I didn’t believe in effigies; they didn’t seem to work. But Magic Tongue had no problem with it, so the burning of effigies continued. She said, “If you were confused about what action to take, one might as well simply worship the Goddess of Luck with a throw of the bone die.”
Another myth was the story of the ram and the lambs in which the ram butts the male lambs, and they fall to their death in order to have no challenger to his harem of ewes. The result of course was the herd went extinct. And we all felt it was a seminal story. We all lived above all for our children and hoped they could make our tribe stronger and more populous and spread out throughout the land and maybe even go to sea.
Another seminal story was a fable about the turtle and the mammoth. The turtle was good in swimming but clumsy on land. The mammoth was powerful on land but barely able to swim. And attracted and was devoured by sharks, while cooling off on a hot summer’s day. The moral of the story was everyone has their own unique skills, and everyone is a valuable part of our tribe.
Also in our mythology was the story of a Devil spirit who tried to set fire to our camp. It was a surprise night-time attack, just the one Devil came out of the dark and tried to burn down their tents in the dark. We had had this great fire some years ago and it burnt our entire camp, but the Chief alerted the people and, in some cases, pulled them to safety, he was awake late into the night., and that’s the reason he was able to alert everyone. After setting fire to our camp the Devil disappeared, but not before the Chief saw his Devilish visage. Some of us stopped praying to the Goddess of Death. And after the fire, winter was coming. So, it was our custom now to have a few people sit out by the central fire at night, drinking, to ward off arsonists. Fortunately, we killed a lot of animals that Fall and made good hide tents for the winter. But some said we were cursed by the Goddess of Death. And the carvers asked the chief about this Devil and made a statue to him. The Devil was believed to dwell with the Death Goddess in Hell.
And we believed in the afterlife. We believed our souls would be sucked up to Hell once we died. And though some people said the Gods had come from distant Worlds to Earth and we were their divine offspring, nevertheless life was cruel and most believed our souls went to Hell after death. So, few wanted to die. The Goddess of Death was worshipped by many in our tribe. But some said the meaning of life is to die gloriously. The Goddess of Death lived deep below the Earth in a maze of caves and the dead spirits wandered lonely in the caves where nothing, but dead souls lived. And they were said to fight unending battles with one another and had no rest or succor. To appease the Goddess of Death we burnt the bodies of our dead enemies in her honor. We all felt she was greedy for souls in Hell to manipulate and control. And we believed animals had souls too and would also wander in Hell.
The forest was full of dangerous animals and evil spirits. Like the evil witches who appeared comely but lured men into their house and enslaved them for eternity.
And there was the story of the ghost robbers. The robbers were rogue warriors who had been cast out by various tribes and died and became ghosts. They attacked tribe members by getting in their heads. And killed them and devoured their soul. And every day before starting out on a hunt, we all prayed to our individual Gods for good luck and safety. I prayed with the others, but I felt perhaps there were no Gods. I hadn’t seen any except when on magic mushrooms. And I didn’t believe the smallpox we’d had four years previously was caused by a God. But most said the God of Plague was responsible. If it was true this God existed, he was certainly very cruel. And I wondered what he might have to gain by striking us with disease.
And then there was the God of War. Many men prayed to this God, especially before the hunt and also if there was to be a battle while out hunting or in war. The War God demanded warriors cut their arms and bleed on the central fire before starting the hunts, in the camp, and the Shamaness saw no reason to change it.
And many of us also believed in the Goddess of Plenty. This Deity made the land and sea prosper with animals/sea creatures and humans. And we prayed to her for good hunts/fishing. And she gained more and more souls to worship her. The Goddess of Plenty was said to have stolen the Sun God’s power for the sake of the people. The Sun God was said to have set fires to burn large tracts of land as revenge. And we had a forest fire that year, as it was a drought.
We also told a tale of green-skinned men who had died out due to lack of food to the north of us. Apparently, they all died in a prolonged snowstorm, in which they all got a feverish chill. It was a lesson for us. And it seemed that people came in all colors.
And our hunters and scouts discovered numerous ruins of cities made of stone and brick and we thought these cities were previously inhabited by the Gods before they went to “Space.” We avoided the ruins as places of “evil.” And they were overgrown with vegetation. But there were ruins everywhere. Many prayed to the God of the Past.
And so on. The Shamaness told endless stories of the Gods and I told stories of humans. Many of my stories though, I made myself. I was truly the storyteller.