“It does?” Griffin sounded doubtful. “I couldn’t find anything remarkable about the place.”
“It’s at the great bend of the river,” Jun said. “The Yangtze travels for nine hundred miles in a southerly direction from its headwaters in the Himalayas and then turns abruptly east near Lijiang.”
Griffin regarded the trove keeper blankly, apparently still not convinced of the location’s significance.
Jun gave a slight smile. “Lijiang is very close to the land of the Mosuo. No doubt, you’ve heard of them.”
“Of course, I’ve heard of them,” the scrivener replied. “Maddie has been trying to set up a trove near Lugu Lake for several years now.”
Cassie tentatively raised her hand. “Anybody want to fill me in about these Mosuo characters?”
Rou piped up. “Last matriarchy in China.”
“Really?” The pythia turned to her with avid interest.
The girl withdrew immediately under Cassie’s intense scrutiny and focused on picking apart her steamed dumpling.
Jun took up the explanation. “The Mosuo are a tribe living in a cluster of villages high in the mountains around Lugu Lake. They have managed to resist the influence of Han China and maintained their matriarchal customs to this very day. The eldest female is the supreme authority in the family. As you might expect, lineage is traced through the mothers. Their language has no word for ‘father’ or ‘husband.’ Men are responsible for the children of their sisters rather than their own biological sons and daughters since offspring never leave their maternal home. They don’t marry in the sense that we understand marriage.”
“No marriage?” Cassie’s eyebrows shot up. “How do they pair off?”
“They have walking marriage,” Rou said.
“Is that like walking pneumonia?” Cassie asked archly, trying to coax a smile.
The girl rewarded her with a soft giggle. “No. Not a disease.”
The trove keeper continued. “When a young woman reaches a certain age, she’s given her own bedroom where she can spend the night with a young man she likes. In the morning, the male partner returns to his own mother’s house which is why the custom is called ‘walking marriage.’ Nobody frowns on this arrangement. Any children that result from such unions belong to the young woman’s family.”
“From what little I know of Mosuo customs,” Griffin interjected, “these romantic alliances can last for years, sometimes even decades. At the very least, serial monogamy rather than rampant promiscuity seems to be the norm.”
Jun nodded. “One might think that such an arrangement results in chaos but the Mosuo family structure is remarkably stable—far more so than the patriarchal nuclear family. Without divorce, there is no property division when a relationship ends. As for the children, their lives are not disrupted if their mother changes partners since Mosuo households contain large numbers of aunts and uncles. Children always have multiple adults looking after them. No one is ever an orphan. Aside from stability within the family, the culture as a whole is quite durable because there is no violence. The matriarchs manage to resolve conflicts without resorting to fistfights. There is no vicious competition for resources because nobody hordes wealth. All the members of each family receive a fair share. In local politics, the role of mayor is played by a man, but nobody pays him much attention. Everyone knows the real power is in the hands of the grandmothers.”
Rou cleared her throat, a sure sign that she intended to complete an entire sentence. “Letting the grandmothers decide things is good for everyone in the clan.”
The other three nodded their agreement with the wisdom of that phrase.
“So how did they manage to pull it off?” Cassie asked. “This Mosuo tribe must be surrounded on all sides by patriarchal Chinese.”
“I imagine the same way the Basques did,” Griffin speculated.
“You mean mountains,” the pythia inferred.
“Yes, the area which the Mosuo inhabit is relatively inaccessible. It offers no resources which overlord armies might covet.”
“There is no overlord genetic footprint around Lugu Lake,” Jun said. “To this day, Mosuo DNA is distinct. The tribe is closely related to Tibetans with hardly any admixture from the ethnic majority Han DNA.”
“It sure sounds like an interesting place to visit,” Cassie ventured. “In terms of a likely hiding spot for a bunch of goddess-worshipping Minoans, it seems ideal.” Eyeing Griffin, she asked, “So why don’t you think this is where we should be looking?”
The scrivener gave an exasperated sigh. “Because it’s nowhere near a major river.”
“About one hundred and fifty miles from the Yangtze,” the trove keeper corrected.
“The riddle explicitly mentions a river pointing to the whereabouts of our next artifact,” Griffin insisted. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see the connection.”
“Tributaries,” Rou whispered.
The scrivener looked startled. He stared at the girl. “I beg your pardon?”
Sensing that she was about to withdraw again, her grandfather intercepted the question. “All the Mosuo villages are built on the shores of Lugu Lake, and the lake itself is fed by small rivers which are tributaries of the Yangtze.”
“You’re saying that if the Minoans followed the Yangtze to the big bend, they would have been able to branch off along another river that would lead them to Lugu Lake?” Cassie clarified.
“Yes,” Rou confirmed simply.
“Here is another fact which might be relevant to your search,” Jun added. “Lugu Lake nestles close to Gemu Goddess Mountain.”
“A goddess mountain?” Cassie repeated slowly. “That’s practically a red flag for us! The Minoans love hiding stuff in mountains, especially if they’re sacred to some goddess or other.” She stared pointedly at Griffin, daring him to offer another objection.
Apparently conceding the argument, the scrivener threw his hands up. “What are we waiting for? Sichuan Province is a long way from here, and we have travel arrangements to make.”
“Now why didn’t I think of that?” Cassie asked wryly.
Chapter 22—Power Beauty Tips
“How does this one look?” Hannah emerged nervously to stand before Faye. The old woman had taken a seat in front of the fitting room doors and waited patiently as the girl tried on a dozen different prom dresses. They were shopping in a pricey boutique at the mall that
