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He hadn’t spoken at all for the first few days of surveying, terribly relieved not to have to Noas beginning to talk again, though--disliking the hoarse, led sound of the words, but not so bothered, since there was no one else to hear

He heard the gurgle then of water over stones, and burst through a screen ofsaplings to find the strea off the water He knelt and drank and splashed his face, then chose the spots along the bank froer book, ink, and quill fro over his shoulder, and fished the astrolabe out of his shirt

He had a song in his head--again They sneaked in when he wasn’t looking,in his inner ear like sirens from the rocks, ready to dash hih He sed the bar of the astrolabe and sighted on a tree on the opposite bank It was a children’s song, one of the counting songs Bree sang to Jeot into one’s head and wouldn’t get out again As he took his sightings and made the notations in his book, he chanted under his breath, ignoring the cracked distortion of the sounds

"Theants gooneby one"

Five thousand acres What in hell was he to do with it? What in hell was he to do, period?

"Downtothe gr-grroundto ggetoutatha RAINbum, bum, bum"

I DISCOVERED QUICKLY why nificance to Tsatsa’wi; the nae was Kalanun’yi--Raventown I didn’t see any ravens as we rode in, but did hear one, calling hoarsely from the trees

The village lay in a char location; a narrow river valley at the foot of a smallish mountain The town itself was surrounded by a s strea off down the valley into what looked froe thicket of balowing dusty gold in the sun of early afternoon

We were greeted with cordial enthusiasm by the residents of the town, lavishly fed and entertained for a day and a night In the afternoon of the second day, ere invited to join in what I gathered was a petition to whichever Cherokee deity was in charge of hunting, to invoke favor and protection for the expedition against the ghost-bear that was to take place next day

It had not occurred to ht be asthe Christian clergy I had by this time encountered several of both species, but buffered by the e, had not previously realized that a calling as shauarantee a person the possession of personal

Watching a slow glaze spread across the features of the people packed into Peter Bewlie’s wife’s father’s house, I realized now that whatever his personal charm or connections with the spirit world, Jackson Jolly was sadly lacking in the last of these talents

I had noticed a certain look of resignation on the faces of soation as the shaman took his place before the hearth, clad in a shawl-like blanket of red flannel, and wearing a an to speak, in a loud, droning voice, the wo to the other and sighed

The sighing was contagious, but it wasn’t as bad as the yawning Withinlike fountains My olike an owl

Jolly was undoubtedly a sincere sha one The only person who appeared riveted by his petitions was Je open in awe

The chant for bear-hunting was a fairlyendless repetitions of "He! Hayuya’haniwa, hayuya’haniwa, hayuya’haniwa" Then slight variations on the the--"Yoho!", as though ere all about to set sail on the Spanish ation exhibited h, and it finally dawned onwas probably not with the shae for h this particular ceremony several times, already, with no success No, it wasn’t that Jackson Jolly was a poor preacher; only that his congregation was suffering a lack of faith

After the conclusion of the song, Jolly sta he was saying, then took a sage-wand froan to ation The crowd parted politely as he marched up to Jamie and circled hi and perfuht this intensely funny So did hiswith suppressed giggling Janified, as Jolly--as quite short--hopped around hi the tail of his coat to perfume his backside I didn’t dare catch Brianna’s eye

This phase of the cerean to sing again The wohtly