“I see.”
“One final matter. You may hear a noise from the rain forest before sunrise on the morning of their arrival. It’ll be an Islamamo religious ritual that requires calling out. There’s no cause for concern on your part.”
The village bustled with activity for the rest of the day and all the next day as the Euromamo prepared for their guests. The demeanor of the villagers was more serious than it had been before the meetings with the other groups. The men even tended to their weapons, an unusual step for the Euromamo given their commitment to resolving issues without violence. Once readied, the weapons were stored out of sight. Before sunrise on the day the Islamamo were scheduled to arrive, Rick was awakened by piercing wailing from the rain forest. He’d have been alarmed if John had not told him about the morning religious ritual of their guests. As it was, the noise merely kept him awake for a half hour. Shortly after sunrise, Rick could hear the Euromamo villagers begin to bustle about. The men gathered outside the dining room while the women went inside. In the distance, Rick saw the Islamamo party gather in their camp and then begin to walk toward the Euromamo village. As John had said, only men were in the visiting party. They approached with erect, dignified postures clothed in long white robes with brown trim.
“The Islamamo Chief is the one walking in front of the group with the gold and brown trim on his robe,” said John Eel Hunter. “You may remember him from the battle.”
“Yes, but I never got this close to him.”
The Chief was average in stature but his intense gaze added gravitas to his bearing. The Leader greeted him warmly, hiding Euromamo apprehensions regarding the meeting. They clasped each other’s forearms but didn’t hug. Next to the Chief was a large, round-faced man with a full beard that reached the middle of his chest. He was clothed in an impressive robe trimmed in brown and red.
“Who’s that person?” asked Rick.
“He’s their High Toll, their religious leader. The Islamamo are very devout,” said John very quietly. “Excuse me for a moment.”
John stepped forward and clasped both hands of the High Toll, then gave him a brief embrace. Each Euromamo picked out an Islamamo and exchanged hugs. John then returned to his spot next to Rick.
“Isn’t all this hugging a lot of friendliness?” Rick asked quietly.
“We want to make them feel welcome, and it’s customary in their society.”
John paused before continuing in a whisper, “Also, if there are weapons under their robes, we might be able to feel them. We don’t like the subterfuge but we want to check when meeting with the Islamamo. We’re lucky that hugging is the customary greeting in their culture.”
“The hugging is done only among the men?” questioned Rick.
“Definitely only among the men,” said John. “That’s one of the reasons they leave their women at home. Females are not available to be greeted by other men—or even seen by them. As you know, we remove our women from the greeting ceremonies with the Islamamo for that reason except, of course, the Leader. Islamamo men would regard it as highly improper for us to let them hug our women at any time. That’s why the Chief and the Leader didn’t hug.”
As he looked around the Euromamo village, the Chief of the Islamamo had a concerned expression on his face, almost a frown. Other Islamamo close to the Chief had similar serious expressions. Only a few Islamamo, young men, had slight smiles.
“They don’t like the Euromamo much, do they?” Rick asked.
“They hate how we live,” John replied cryptically. “You may get a fuller sense of our differences from the welcoming comments.”
The two groups filed into the communal dining room where the eating and discussions were to take place. Once inside, the Leader remained standing at the head of the largest table and bade the others to be seated. The Chief of the Islamamo sat immediately to her right and the High Toll sat in the chair next to the Chief.
“We welcome our neighbors, the Islamamo, to our village,” the Leader began through a translator. “We are pleased to have your company and we hope we’ll have productive talks. At the outset, I want to mention our gratitude for the many things we learned from you during our early years in the rain forest. You were masters of how to live here and we were ignorant. You knew much about plants and animals. If you hadn’t shared with us your knowledge about illnesses and their remedies, many more of us would have died during those early years. Of all the neighboring groups that we learned from, we learned the most from you. We regarded you, rightfully, as the most advanced society in this region, as did the other groups in this part of the rain forest. Again, we thank you and we look forward to a productive exchange of ideas.”
Pleasant enough, thought Rick. Once the translator had finished, the Chief of the Islamamo rose to offer some comments.
“You’re right, Leader. You weren’t very good at living here when you arrived,” he began, allowing himself only a strained smile. “Our name for you during those early years was ‘Babes of the Forest’. Admittedly, you’ve made progress since then. You’ve grown up, as it were. You’ve brought new knowledge into the rain forest from outside. You’ve also discovered additional things on your own as you’ve lived here. Unfortunately, this has caused you to live differently than we do. I’ll be blunt here. Your changes have been in the direction of irreligion and evil. It should be no surprise that we’ve grown apart. While you were going your way, we’ve become more attentive to the High Toll and his predecessors who have guided us in applying religious beliefs to our lives, as decreed by The Augur years ago. We live in the world that Ah-Ha made, and bowing to His will is what we do. These are the important things in life.”
A silence fell over the room. This was going to be a tense meeting, Rick sensed. The Chief looked around the room. His brow furrowed as he perused the portraits that had been stored against one wall of the dining room. They were the portraits that were used as a backdrop for Church of World Religion services.
The Leader said quietly to the Chief, “I see you’re interested in our portraits.”
“Interested, but not favorably impressed,” the Chief grumbled. “A few are leaders of your so-called religion and a few others are from the rain forest, but I don’t recognize all of them.”
“We put name plates underneath each portrait to identify them,” said the Leader with as much pleasantness as she could muster. “On the far left is a portrait of Thomas Herring, who was Archbishop of Canterbury when our forebears’ ship wrecked near the mouth of the La Cuerda. The next one is the Founding Pontificator who, as you know, led the split of Soumamo religion from its ancestral church centuries ago. Then comes Martin Luther, a prominent religious leader across the ocean during the sixteenth century. Next is the leader who is simply called ‘Father’ by the Mexamamo. He lives far away from them among the Romamo but, in spite of his remoteness, he’s treated with great reverence by them, as you know. The next three are Mohammad, Jesus, and Joseph Smith, all prominent in outside society.”
“I have heard of Jesus, but not the other two,” said the Chief.
“After them, the final three are religious leaders in the rain forest. Your Augur is the third one of those, the one on the far right, as you can see.”
“Why did you place The Augur with these false teachers? And a portrait? It’s shameful of you. You know that we prohibit any representation of The Augur. To display it is blasphemy and blasphemy is cause for death.”
“These portraits were stored here temporarily by the Church of World Religion after their service yesterday in the entertainment center.”
“Why did they do this awful thing? Surely, this “church” does not worship The Augur who is, in any regard, only a messenger for Ah-Ha. It makes no sense. It’s blasphemy to worship a god other than Ah-Ha, and look at how many gods are represented here! The church could hardly follow all of these religious figures at once unless they have a very sloppy religion with no true beliefs.”
The High Toll of the Islam
amo looked distressed throughout the discussion. After he briefly perused the portrait of The Augur, he averted his eyes from it and shook his head.
“The Church of World Religion displays the portraits to express one of its fundamental tenets,” said the Leader calmly.
“What’s that tenet?” asked the Chief.
“They’re all witch doctors,” replied the Leader. “The Church gleans pieces of truth from all religions but thinks that no religion is completely true. Stated another way, all religions contain some falsity.”
“All of them?” asked the Chief brusquely.
“Every last one of them,” replied the Leader.
“But The Augur is the true guide to the spirit world,” said the Chief. “Only he provides the eternal truths that are the basis of our religion and laws. He shows the one true way.”
“They’re all on the same level because they all make it up,” responded the Leader.
“Absolute blasphemy,” replied the Chief sharply. “You’re filled with lies. That aside, displaying his portrait is highly offensive to us. If you want to have a productive conversation, the portrait must be removed.”
“I can’t do that,” replied the Leader.
“It a small request on a matter that’s important to us. Surely, the church can make their point using another religious leader.”
“No, it can’t,” responded the Leader. “If the Church removed the portrait of The Augur, it would signify that he’s different from the others and isn’t a witch doctor. That’s contrary to their tenet that they’re all witch doctors.”
“What you say is an abomination,” interjected the High Toll. “All must follow the teachings of The Augur and submit to the will of Ah-Ha. It’s the only way. Failure to submit is cause for death.”
“Too many things in your society seem to be a cause for death. We’ll not follow you down that path.”
The High Toll was clearly exasperated.
“So this Church of World Religion practices a sloppy blasphemous religion where all are the same,” asserted the High Toll. “Surely they cannot follow all religions at once.”
“They do not follow all at once. They select the best practices from the religions of the world and follow those.”
“As they’re choosing, if they have clear heads, they’ll recognize that Ah-Ha is the only true spirit, as taught by The Augur. They’ll submit to his precepts and abandon all false religions.”
“The Church of World Religion finds guidance wherever it can, including your religion founded by The Augur. However, some aspects of your religion have not been adopted.”
“What could they be?”
“You have a close relationship between your religion and your government. You and the High Toll govern as co-rulers in many regards, don’t you?”
“Yes, we do,” replied the Chief. “He provides me spiritual guidance on matters of policy on a regular basis. The Augur said that religious law should govern all of society, not just religious practice. That includes political matters.”
“After looking at the histories of many societies, the Euromamo concluded that religion and politics should be separate,” the Leader said, looking directly into the High Toll’s eyes. “The Church of World Religion is in complete agreement with that principle of separation and exercises no political role in our society.”
“What a weak religion you have! Anyway, we leave you to your blasphemy.”
The Chief joined in, “I say again that we regard displaying a portrait of The Augur as offensive. By displaying it, you’re being insensitive to our beliefs. We ask you to remove it immediately.”
“We can’t remove the portrait because that would violate a fundamental tenet of the Church of World Religion, namely, that they’re all witch doctors.”
“This is awful,” said the High Toll.
“If it’s any comfort to you, the portrait of The Augur cannot be an accurate representation of him because you haven’t left any contemporaneous portraits of him that record how he looked,” the Leader offered. “As we didn’t know how he looked, we modeled the portrait on one of our villagers. It’s really a portrait of him, if that makes it less offensive to you.”
“But the name plate and the ritual clothing clearly identify the person as The Augur,” replied the High Toll. “That’s disrespect enough.”
“There’s no disrespect intended. We gave him a handsome likeness as you can see. In fact, he looks a lot like Jesus there next to the end who, as you may know, is highly revered in the culture we came from. By the way, we do not know what he looked like either. We also used a model for Mohammed.”
“If Jesus is highly revered in the culture you come from, why does your church not place him above all others?”
“Because they’re all witch doctors. I know The Augur didn’t want portraits of himself displayed because they might lead to worship. It may provide some comfort to you that his portrait is not displayed to worship but to emphasize that he, like the other leaders, is a witch doctor. It’s to tell people to not revere any of them unreservedly.”
The High Toll grimaced.
“We know that some of the things we do in our village concern you,” continued the Leader. “I look forward to discussing any of these things that you wish. We are also interested in learning more about you. Let’s try to understand each other better and live in peace.”
“Your ways are blasphemous and an abomination to true religion,” the High Toll said briskly.
“Don’t you have another denomination?” asked the Islamamo Chief.
“Yes, our other denomination is the Church of Science. Both denominations are active in our society and our people are free to join either and to move between them.”
“Freedom and religion are opposites and have nothing to do with one another,” retorted the High toll. “Worship requires submission to Ah-Ha, who controls all actions.”
“The place of religion in our society is limited, and that’s how we think it should be. For example, religion has no say in medicine or in the study of plants and animals. It’s only a distraction there, a cause of error.”
“Nature, in itself, doesn’t matter, only the will of Ah-Ha,” replied the High Toll, as if by rote.
“When we arrived here years ago, you lived better than anyone in the region. At that time, you valued accurate knowledge of nature, without resort to religion. You worshipped Ah-Ha then but it didn’t obscure or distort your understanding of the natural world. But now, your Ah-Ha has grown so large that he’s taken over your thinking. You refer to him habitually…automatically…whenever you speak.”
“Not having Ah-Ha present in our thoughts quickly leads to evil,” said the High Toll. “Obedience to his will demands our constant attention.”
“Not referring to Ah-Ha or any other god when we do science works best for us, just as it used to work for you in your glory days. Let’s go talk privately,” said the Leader, guiding the Chief and the High Toll toward a table along the side of the large room. “We can continue our conversation there,” she added with a kind tone to her voice.
The Islamamo Chief and High Toll were clearly unhappy, but they followed the Leader to the table. A few prominent members of each group gathered around the table. John Eel Hunter gestured to Rick that it was acceptable for him to join the gathering.
“We usually go down this path when we meet, don’t we?” the Leader began. “We need to talk more, I think. We need to learn more from each other.”
“What’s there for us to learn from you except the ways of evil?” bristled the High Toll.
“You can learn from us things that have nothing to do with evil—or with religious good, for that matter. We can agree to talk only about our knowledge of this world. Of all societies in the rain forest, the Islamamo should appreciate this type of knowledge as you led all groups in it years ago.”
“What is it that we need to learn from you?” asked the Chief, defiantly.
“Admittedly, many t
hings you already know,” said the Leader. “You’re trading your minerals to others and have been doing so for decades, but your mineral deposits are limited, as we have discussed in the past. You’re going to run out soon. We wish to work with you to develop a large variety of things to trade other than minerals,” said the Leader in a low, but clear voice, audible to the few who were gathered around them but not to the others in the room.
“What’s your proposal?” asked the Chief.
“Years ago, you lived well in the rain forest. We sent emissaries to reside with you on a regular basis to learn your ways. You graciously hosted them and let them learn from you. They brought back much valuable information to us.”
“That’s true. What’s your point?”
“We noticed that you didn’t send emissaries to us.”
“You’re right. We didn’t. We had great knowledge of the rain forest and you had so little. There was nothing we needed to learn from you,” replied the Chief.
“Admittedly, we knew little about the rain forest, but we knew a lot about the outside world. We must have had some information that would have benefitted you,” replied the Leader.
“You were unfaithful,” interjected the High Toll. “You didn’t follow the teachings of The Augur and persisted going along the path of evil.”
“We collected much knowledge about the rain forest from you and, over time, I should add, from other groups, both nearby and at some distance.”
“Yes. Your reputation for deep knowledge and far travel is well known, though strange,” said the Chief.
“Now on a more sensitive point,” said the Leader. “We eventually learned enough about fighting so that, when violence broke out between us, we usually won. That knowledge was mainly a result of our learning from others.”
“The Ah-Ha will give us victory if it’s his will.”
“It is highly unlikely that it will be his will with our respective levels of armaments,” replied the Leader.
The Blue Disc Page 30
