Excerpt
…and smoky cooking fires, two light brown dogs charged out from the shade to bark
loudly at the strangers. Ari extended his hand to them. Tails between their legs, the
dogs approached. Sensing friendliness, they wagged their tails in greeting. A group
of naked children ran excitedly around the newcomers. They touched their beards
and marvelled at the men with pale hair and skin.
Fire Maker told the village chief that his companions served a great god of the
east. Later in the evening after long conversation, Fire Maker asked permission from
the chief and the shaman to take his friends to the tribe’s sacred place, which was on
the route they would follow the next day.
Much later, Fire Maker explained to his companions who these people were:
“These are the Onöndowága, People of the Great Hill. They hunt and fish, but they
also look after the land. Sometimes they go to war with their enemies, the Zisaugeghroanu,
who only hunt and fish and move in bark canoes from camp to camp with the
seasons. When the Zisaugeghroanu want corn, they take it from the Onöndowága
crops outside the fence.”
On rocks and cliffs in the hills close to the village, the monks saw colourful paintings
of fish and stick people with arms and legs but no heads. The pictures were full
of energy and motion. Men were painted with upraised arms, dancing legs and exaggerated
penises. Some pictures represented people copulating, some with deer copulating.
In one, a giant man stood with three digits on each raised hand. Finten gazed
in wonder but said nothing and Rordan remarked on the beauty of the paintings.
Keallach discovered several sun discs – circular flat stones about half his height,
decorated in colourful patterns. Some had holes drilled through their centres. Excitedly,
he pointed them out to Bjorn who merely shrugged his shoulders and said,
“There are stones like these in Thulé. They are just decorations or maybe prayer
stones.”
Brother Keallach approached Father Finten and, out of respect for Chief Fire
Maker, spoke to him haltingly in Mandan. “Father, you must look at these stones.
They make perfect wheels. All we need are one or two sturdy poles.”
Fire Maker turned to face the young Brother. “You speak of the sacred sun wheels?”
Keallach kept talking as though he had not heard.
“Nowhere have I seen a wheel used to transport goods. How simple to run an axle
through two discs.”
Fire Maker placed his hand on Keallach’s shoulder. “My young friend, you would
place your light burden on the back of the sacred sun symbol?”
Keallach continued, “I do not mean these stones. We could make discs of wood
about the same size…”
Fire Maker raised his hand to silence the young Brother. “Red Fox, you have not
yet learned the sacredness of the circle. It represents our Brother Sun and Sister
Moon. It represents eternity and all the cycles of all life. That is why we gather in
circles and place our homes in circles. We have other ways to carry our goods. We do
not insult the sacred symbol.”
Father Finten noticed the look of exasperation on Keallach’s face. “Consider,
Brother, how far could we have gotten with such a device in all our travels thus far?
Who’d pull this heavy contraption of yours through the brush and over the rocks?
Libros Libertad 