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"But again, what had this to do with us? Ours was a land of serenity and beauty, of laden fruit trees and fields of heat free for anyone to cut with the scythe Ours was a land of green grass and cool breezes But there wasn't anything that anyone would want to take from us Or so we believed

"My sister and I continued to live in perfect peace on the gentle slopes of Mount Car to our mother and to each other silently, or with a few private words, which we understood perfectly; and learning from our mother all she knew of the spirits and men's hearts

"We drank the drearew on the mountain, and in our trances and dream states, we

traveled back into the past and spoke with our ancestors-very great witches whose names we knew In sum, we lured the spirits of these ancient ones back to earth long enough to give us soh over the land

"I could spend these hours tellingin these trances; how once Mekare and I walked hand in hand through the streets of Nineveh, gazing on wonders which we had not is are not important now

"Let me say only what the company of the spiritsthings around us and with the spirits; and how at moments, the love of the spirits was palpable to us, as Christian mystics have described the love of God or his saints, "We lived in bliss together, my sister and I and our mother The caves of our ancestors ars that we needed-fine robes and jewelry and lovely coht to us by the people as offerings, for no one ever paid us for e did

"And every day the people of our village came to consult with us, and ould put their questions to the spirits We would try to see the future, which of course the spirits can do after a fashion, insofar as certain things tend to follow an inevitable course

"We looked into ave the best wisdoht to us And we drove out the demon, or the bad spirit, for that is all it was And when a house was bedeviled, ent there and ordered the bad spirit away

"We gave the dream potion to those who requested it And they would fall into the trance, or sleep and dreaht then to interpret or explain

"For this we didn't really need the spirits though soht their particular advice We used our oers of understanding and deep vision, and often the infores mean

"But our greatest miracle-which took all our power to acco down of the rain

"Now, in two basic orked this ely sy for our people's souls Or 'big rain,' which was needed for the crops, and which was very hard, indeed, to do if we could do it at all

"Both required a great wooing of the spirits, a great calling of their naether and concentrate and use their force at our command 'Little rain' was often done by our most familiar spirits, those who loved Mekare and me most particularly, and had loved our mother and her mother, and all our ancestors before us, and could always be counted upon to do hard tasks out of love

"Butrain' and since some of these spirits seereat deal of flattery had to be thrown into the bargain We had to do chants, and a great dance For hours, orked at it as the spirits gradually took interest, caether, became enamored of the idea, and then finally set to work

"Mekare and I were able to acco it was to see the clouds gather over the valley, to see the great blinding sheets of rain descend All our people ran out into the downpour; the land itself seeive thanks