across the idea that she considered Deyv to be out of his mind. Besides, she was jealous because Deyv
had been paying so much attention to Jum these past two weeks.
So Deyv shrugged and turned, with Jum a few feet ahead of him, and proceeded down the jungle path.
Every step that took him away from the tribe was a pace deeper into loneliness and insecurity. If he'd
been accompanied by anyone on a hunt for food, one which he knew would see him back with the tribe
after a sleep or even seven sleeps, he would have been happy. But to go forth by himself for only The
Great Mother knew how long was to be shivering with fear, sick with aloneness.
Nevertheless, he was not numb. His eyes, ears, and nose were alert. Behind every bush or tree could be a
poisonous snake, a corps of the great ruddy cockroaches, the thing-with-a-nose-like-a-snake, a ghost-
with-venomous-urine, the toe fancier, or an enemy tribesman eager to remove his head and his soul egg.
There might even be an enemy woman out to catch a mate, though these were very few.
The wind was coming from ahead of him. Though it waved the upper leaves and caps of the tall trees, it
pushed gently along the path. Still, it should carry the scent of anything ahead to Jum's nose. Anything
except a ghost, and dogs were supposed to be psychically sensitive to those horrible things.
To expect to hear anything soft but sinister nearby was to be stupid. The jungle rang, shrilled, cawed,
cackled, hooted, tooted, chortled, drummed, whistled, and screeched. Most of the noisemakers were
hidden, but occasionally Deyv saw a bird, a gliding mammal, a fingered bear, a creature like a four-
legged blowgun, a troop of scowl-monkeys, or a live-alone cockroach; and once he halted while a
diamond-backed tortoise heaved its monstrous shelled bulk across the path. Though it was not his totem,
still it was a cousin to it, and so he addressed it politely and wished it well.
After it came a regiment of small yellow mouse-sized cockroaches, hoping to eat its dung or find a
crevice between flesh and shell into which to burrow. Deyv picked up a dry stick and beat a dozen or so
into paste. The survivors scampered off into the green while Deyv called after the diamond-back, "You
owe me one, O mighty sister."
Jum ate the corpses and sniffed around for more. He'd had his single between-sleeps meal, but, doglike,
he would eat until he burst if he got a chance. Though it was not distasteful to Deyv, he didn't share
Jum's food. Instead, some easily plucked large round yellow fruit, only half-eaten by the birds, tempted
Deyv. Holding two in one hand and eating a third in the other hand, he walked along. To find food was
no problem in his world. To avoid being food was.
Only thirty sleeps before, Deyv had been with the tribe at the Place of the Trading Season. Every forty-
nine circuits of The Dark Beast, the nine tribes in the area put aside war and gathered peacefully at the
Place. This was by a House occupied only by animals, birds, and insects, and possibly a nonmalignant
ghost, a House centrally located. At this time, by custom immemorial and unstained by truce breaking,
the tribes went down the paths and gathered at the Place. It was near a broad river in an overgrown area
that was cleared every Trading Season. Here the artifacts that one tribe had and the others didn't were
file:///D|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry/Deskto...ip%20Jose%20Farmer%20-%20Dark%20is%20the%20Sun.htm (4 of 306)3/12/2004 11:36:52 PM