Nexus - 0302 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

"Let us say that it is dusk in that strange “Living in their hidden city, the Hav- place which you, the white man, calls musuys ruled the sea with their fast row- Death Valley. I have passed tobacco...to _ ing-ships, trading with faraway peoples and the aged chief of the Paiutes who sits bringing strange goods to the great quays across a tiny fire from me and sprinkles _ said still to exist in the caverns. corm meal upon the flames... "Then, as untold centuries rolled past, "The old chief looked like a wrinkled the climate began to change. The water in mummy as he sat there puffing upon his the lake went down until there was no pipe. Yet his eyes were not those of the longer a way to the sea. First the way was unseeing, but eyes which seemed to look broken only by the southern mountains, back on long trails of time. His people had over the tops of which goods could be car- held the Inyo, Panamint and Death valleys ried. But as time went by, the water con- for untold centuries before the coming of _ tinued to shrink until the day came when the white man. Now we sat in the valley only a dry crust was all that remained of which white man named for death, but the great blue lake. Then the desert came, which the Paiute calls Tomesha, the and the Fire God began to walk across Flaming Land. Here before me as I faced Tomesha, the Flaming Land. eastward, the Funerals (mountains forming “When the Hav-musuvs could no longer Death Valley's eastern wall) were wrapped use their great rowing-ships, they began to in purple-blue blankets about their feet think of other means to reach the world while their faces were painted in scarlet. beyond. I suppose that is how it happened. Behind me, the Panamints rose like a mile- We know that they began to use flying high wall, dark against the sinking Sun. canoes. At first they were not large, these "The old Paiute smoked my tobacco fora silvery ships with wings. They moved with long time before he reverently blew the a slight whirring sound, and a dipping smoke to the four directions. Finally he movement like an eagle. spoke. "The passing centuries brought other “You ask me if we heard of the great sil- changes. Tribe after tribe swept across the ver airships in the days before white man land, fighting to possess it for a while and brought his wagon-trains into the land?’ passing like the storm of sand. In their "Yes, grandfather, I come seeking mountain city, still in the caverns, the Hav- knowledge.’ (Among all tribes of my peo- musuvs dwelt in peace, far removed from ple, “grandfather” is the term of greatest the conflict. Sometimes they were seen in respect which one man can pay to another.) _ the distance in their flying ships or riding "We, the Paiute Nation, have known of on the snowy-white animals which took these ships for untold generations. We also them from ledge to ledge up the cliffs. We believe that we know something of the peo- have never seen these strange animals at ple who fly them. They are called the Hav- any other place. To these people, the pass- musuvs.' ing centuries brought only larger and larger "Who are the Hav-musuvs?' "They are a people of the Panamints, and they are as ancient as Tomesha itself.’ “He smiled a little at my confusion. “You do not understand? Of course not. You are not a Paiute. Then listen closely and I will lead you back along the trail of the dim past. “When the world was young, and this valley, which is now dry, parched desert, was a lush, hidden harbour of a blue-water sea which stretched from halfway up those mountains to the Gulf of California, it is said that the Hav-musuvs came here in huge rowing-ships. They found great cav- erns in the Panamints, and in them they built one of their cities. At that time California was the island which the Indians of that state told the Spanish it was, and which they marked so on their maps. ships, moving always more silently.’ "Have you ever seen a Hav-musuv?' "No, but we have many stories of them. There are reasons why one does not become too curious." Reasons?’ "Yes. These strange people have weapons. One is a small tube which stuns one with a prickly feeling like a rain of cac- tus needles. One cannot move for hours, and during this time the mysterious ones vanish up the cliffs. The other weapon is deadly. It is a long, silvery tube -When this is pointed at you, death follows imme- diately.’ “But tell me about these people. What do they look like and how do they dress?' “They are a beautiful people. Their skin is a golden tint, and a headband holds back their long dark hair. They dress always in a white fine-spun garment which wraps around them and is draped upon one shoul- der. Pale sandals are worn upon their feet..." "His voice trailed away in a puff of smoke. The purple shadows rising up the walls of the Funerals splashed like the waves of the ghost lake. The old man seemed to have fallen into a sort of trance, but I had one more question. “Has any Paiute ever spoken to a Hav- musuv, or were the Paiutes here when the great rowing-ships first appeared?’ “For some moments I wondered if he had heard me. Yet, as is our custom, | waited patiently for the answer. Again he went — through the ritual of the smoke-breathing to the four directions, and then his soft voice continued: NEXUS ¢ 49 FEBRUARY-MARCH 1996