regenerating systems that they had, which meant he could be relatively spendthrift in its use. Since some of the Marines already sported similar infections, that was going to be a good thing.
With the cream and self-sealing bandages, he’d just about fixed all the simple problems in the village. There were a few advanced cases of infection that he was less sanguine about, and a couple of other cases where something was attacking eyesight had him scratching his head. But in general, he’d done good service to the village that day.
“What did I miss?” O’Casey asked as she watched the slight warrant officer packing up his tools. He’d obviously worked through the celebrations that
“Oh, you would’ve loved it,” Roger admitted in Standard English, scratching the lizard’s head. It hissed with pleasure and rubbed its chin on his chest.
“We had a nice little ceremony. Very symbolic of all sorts of things, I’m sure. Cord forswore all previous allegiances in my favor, while I promised not to throw his life away pointlessly. Then we had all sorts of bonding oaths: the usual suspects. Last, but certainly not least, it involved eating a small bit of slime from Cord’s back,” he finished with a grimace.
Eleanora chuckled and seated herself carefully on the ground with the rest of them. The hut was walled on three sides by bundled branches with mud packed in the cracks between them. There was a rolled up covering for the open front, woven out of some sort of fibrous grass or leaves, and the sleeping areas arranged along the back and sides were also covered with the woven mats, which appeared to be designed to be staked down. It would be an awfully warm way to sleep in the muggy heat.
“I’m sorry I missed it,” she said, and meant it. She’d initially taken her third doctorate in anthropology because it was a traditional complement to sociology and political science. But she’d quickly found that one developed a richer and fuller appreciation for the politics of a culture if one looked at its underlying premises, which was what anthropology was all about.
“I don’t understand all the fuss.” Roger pulled his hair up off his neck. “I can’t believe they treat all visitors like this.”
“Oh, I’m sure they don’t,” O’Casey said as her mind gradually cleared of fog. “You do understand the meaning of all this ritual, don’t you?”
“I suppose I don’t,” Roger said. “I don’t really understand most rituals, even the ones on Earth.”
O’Casey decided that it would be more discreet to avoid agreeing overenthusiastically with him, and took another sip of her warming water while she considered how best to respond.
“Well,” she said after a moment, “this was a sort of cross between a wedding and a funeral.”
“Huh?” Roger sounded surprised.
“Did Cord maybe take something off or put it on? Or maybe give something to someone?”
“Yeah,” Roger said. “They gave him a different cape to replace the one he was carrying. And he gave a spear and a staff to one of the other Mardukans.”
“I talked a little to Cord on the way down from the plateau,” Eleanora said. “This
“Today I did,” Roger said angrily. “That’s crazy! The Empire doesn’t permit slavery or bondage of any form!”
“But this isn’t an imperial world,” she pointed out. “We’ve barely planted the flag, much less started on socialization. On the other hand, I think you misunderstand the situation. First of all, let’s take a look at the definition of slavery.”
She considered how to go about explaining slavery, marriage, and the similarities between them that had existed for thousands of Earth’s years to a man of the thirty-fourth century.
“For most of history—” she began, and saw him glaze over immediately. Roger was always interested in the battles, but get onto the societal structures and faction struggles, and he completely lost interest.
“Listen to me, Roger,” she said, meeting his eye. “You just married Cord.”
“
“That got your attention, didn’t it?” she asked with a laugh. “But you did. And you also took him as your slave. For most of history, the rituals of marriage and slavery were practically identical. In this case, you performed an action that required that you ‘marry’ the person whom you’d saved.”
“Oh, joy,” Roger said.
“And you are now required to ‘keep’ that person, for the rest of his life and into the afterlife, most likely.”
“Another mouth to feed,” Roger joked.
“This is serious, Roger,” his chief of staff admonished, but she couldn’t help smiling. “By the same token, Cord must obey your wishes religiously. And to his family, it’s as if he’s dead. Which is probably the origin of the big festivities at weddings, by the way. In most primitive cultures, there are practically no rituals involved in marriage bindings, but elaborate rituals for funerals. There’s a strong theory that the wedding rituals eventually evolve out of the funeral rites because the bride and groom are leaving their families . . . just as would have been the case if they’d died.
“Now, I used the term ‘marriage’ because I knew it would get your attention,” she admitted. “But I could have said ‘permanently binding oath of fealty,’ ‘slavery,’ or ‘indenture.’ The rites and customs for all of them were practically identical in most early human societies, and we’ve found parallels for that in almost all of the primitive nonhuman societies we’ve studied. But any way you look at it, it’s a very important sacrament for the Mardukans, and I’m really sorry I missed it,” she concluded.
“Well, the dance of the forest animals was apparently the climax,” Roger told her. He picked up one of the blackened bits of meat and popped it into his mouth, following it up with one for the tame lizard. Her explanation made quite a few little bits which had been confusing him fall into place. He would worry about the ones that hadn’t at another time.
“But I’m glad you woke up,” he went on. “If you hadn’t, I would have had to send someone for you. Cord has just broached an interesting subject.”
“Oh?” She picked a leftover bit of fruit off a plate . . . and set it back down hastily when she saw that several of the “seeds” were moving.
“Yes. It seems that his tribe is in need of some advice.”
The hut was hot, dark, and close.
The party had gradually broken up, and as people left the square, the front covers of the huts had come down. They were, indeed, designed to be pegged down, and the Mardukans had also laced up the sides. Most of the Marines were packed into the huts, while a few were in tents, but at least the entire company was under cover, and most of its members were asleep.
But in Delkra’s hut, the futures of both the company and Cord’s tribe were under discussion as Cord explained why the interruption of his vision quest and his departure with Roger constituted such a bitter blow.
“In the days of my father’s father’s father, traders came up the Greater River to the joining of Our River and the Greater River. Traders had long come upriver, but this group made peace with my father’s father’s father and took up residence on a hill at the joining. We brought the skins of the
“The traders brought with them new weapons, better metals. Cloths, grains, and wine. The tribe flourished with the wealth that was brought in.
“But since that time, the town has grown greater and greater, and the tribe has become weaker and weaker. During my father’s time, we were at our greatest. We were more numerous and more fierce than the Dutak to the north or the Arnat to the south. But as the city has grown, its people have taken more and more of our hunting lands. Starvation has loomed more than once, and our reserves are always scanty.”
The shaman paused and looked around, as if trying to avoid an awkward truth.
“My brother has been overgenerous in this celebration. The barleyrice is purchased from the city, Q’Nkok, at great price. And the other foods. . . . There will be hungry mothers in weeks to come.
