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endure, and live or die as a man must. My daughter, whose name is Yedneke,
Leaf, like my mother, will grow to womanhood and go or stay as she chooses. I
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will live alone. This is as it should be, and my desire. But I am of two
worlds; I am a person of this world, and a woman of my mother's people. I owe
my knowledge to the children of her people. So I asked the lander to come, and
spoke to the people on it. They gave me my mother's report to read, and I have
written my story in their machine, making a record for those who want to learn
one of the ways to make a soul. To them, to the children I say: Listen! Avoid
magic! Be aware!
URSULA K. LEGUIN
THE BIRTHDAY OF THE WORLD
TAZU WAS HAVING A TANTRUM, because he was three. After the birthday of the
world, tomorrow, he would be four and would not have tantrums.
He had left off screaming and kicking and was turning blue from holding his
breath. He lay on the ground stiff as a corpse, but when Haghag stepped over him
as if he wasn't there, he tried to bite her foot.
"This is an animal or a baby," Haghag said, "not a person." She glanced
may-I-speak-to-you and I glanced yes. "Which does God's daughter think it is,"
she asked, "an animal or a baby?"
"An animal. Babies suck, animals bite," I said. All the servants of God laughed
and tittered, except the new barbarian, Ruaway, who never smiled. Haghag said,
"God's daughter must be right. Maybe somebody ought to put the animal outside.
An animal shouldn't be in the holy house."
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"I'm not an aminal!" Tazu screamed, getting up, his fists clenched and his eyes
as red as rubies. "I'm God's son!"
Maybe," Haghag said, looking him over. "This doesn't look so much like an animal
now. Do you think this might be God's son?" she asked the holy women and men,
and they all nodded their bodies, except the wild one, who stared and said
nothing.
"I am, I am God's son!" Tazu shouted. "Not a baby! Arzi is the baby!" Then he
burst into tears and ran to me, and I hugged him and began crying because he was
crying. We cried till Haghag took us both on her lap and said it was time to
stop crying, because God Herself was coming. So we stopped, and the bodyservants
wiped the tears and snot from our faces and combed our hair, and Lady Clouds
brought our gold hats, which we put on to see God Herself.
She came with her mother, who used to be God Herself a long time ago, and the
new baby, Arzi, on a big pillow carried by the idiot. The idiot was a son of God
too. There were seven of us: Omimo, who was fourteen and had gone to live with
the army, then the idiot, who was twelve, and had a big round head and small
eyes and liked to play with Tazu and the baby, then Goiz, and another Goiz, who
were called that because they had died and were in the ash-house where they ate
spirit food, then me and Tazu, who would get married and be God, and then Babam
Arzi, Lord Seven. I was important because I was the only daughter of God. If
Tazu died I could marry Arzi, but if I died everything would be bad and
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difficult, Haghag said. They would have to act as if Lady Clouds' daughter Lady
Sweetness was God's daughter and marry her to Tazu, but the world would know the
difference. So my mother greeted me first, and Tazu second. We knelt and clasped
our hands and touched our foreheads to our thumbs. Then we stood up, and God
asked me what I had learned that day.
I told her what words I had learned to read and write.
"Very good," God said. "And what have you to ask, daughter?"
"I have nothing to ask, I thank you, Lady Mother," I said. Then I remembered I
did have a question, but it was too late.
"And you, Tazu? What have you learned this day?"
"I tried to bite Haghag"
"Did you learn that was a good thing to do, or a bad thing?"
"Bad," Tazu said, but he smiled, and so did God, and Haghag laughed.
"And what have you to ask, son?"
"Can I have a new bath maid because Kig washes my head too hard?"
"If you have a new bath maid where will Kig go?"
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"Away."
"This is her house. What if you asked Kig to wash your head more gently?"
Tazu looked unhappy, but God said, "Ask her, son." Tazu mumbled something to
Kig, who dropped on her knees and thumbed her forehead. But she grinned the
whole time. Her fearlessness made me envious. I whispered to Haghag, "If I
forgot a question to ask can I ask if I can ask it?"
"Maybe," said Haghag, and thumbed her forehead to God for permission to speak,
and when God nodded, Haghag said, "The daughter of God asks if she may ask a
question."
"Better to do a thing at the time for doing it," God said, "but you may ask,
daughter."
I rushed into the question, forgetting to thank her. "I wanted to know why I
can't marry Tazu and Omimo both, because they're both my brothers."
Everybody looked at God, and seeing her smile a little, they all laughed, some
of them loudly. My ears burned and my heart thumped.
"Do you want to marry all your brothers, child?"
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"No, only Tazu and Omimo."
"Is Tazu not enough?"
Again they all laughed, especially the men. I saw Ruaway staring at us as if she
thought we were all crazy.
"Yes, Lady Mother, but Omimo is older and bigger."
Now the laughter was even louder, but I had stopped caring, since God was not
displeased. She looked at me thoughtfully and said, "Understand, my daughter.
Our eldest son will be a soldier. That's his road. He'll serve God, fighting
barbarians and rebels. The day he was born, a tidal wave destroyed the towns of
the outer coast. So his name is Babam Omimo, Lord Drowning. Disaster serves God,
but is not God."
I knew that was the end of the answer, and thumbed my forehead. I kept thinking
about it after God left. It explained many things. All the same, even if he had
been born with a bad omen, Omimo was handsome, and nearly a man, and Tazu was a
baby that had tantrums. I was glad it would be a long time till we were married.
I remember that birthday because of the question I asked. I remember another
birthday because of Ruaway. It must have been a year or two later. I ran into
the water room to piss and saw her hunched up next to the water tank, almost
hidden.
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"What are you doing there?" I said, loud and hard, because I was startled.
Ruaway shrank and said nothing. I saw her clothes were torn and there was blood
dried in her hair.
"You tore your clothes," I said.
When she didn't answer, I lost patience and shouted, "Answer me! Why don't you
talk?"
"Have mercy," Ruaway whispered so low I had to guess what she said.
"You talk all wrong when you do talk. What's wrong with you? Are they animals
where you come from? You talk like an animal, brr-grr, grr-gra! Are you an
idiot?"
When Ruaway said nothing, I pushed her with my foot. She looked up then and I
saw not fear but killing in her eyes. That made me like her better. I hated
people who were afraid of me. "Talk!" I said. "Nobody can hurt you. God the
Father put his penis in you when he was conquering your country, so you're a
holy woman. Lady Clouds told me. So what are you hiding for?"
Ruaway showed her teeth and said, "Can hurt me." She showed me places on her
head where there was dried blood and fresh blood. Her arms were darkened with
bruises.
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"Who hurt you?"
"Holy women," she said with a snarl.
"Kig? Omery? Lady Sweetness?"
She nodded her body at each name.
"They're shit," I said. "I'11 tell God Herself."
"No tell," Ruaway whispered. "Poison."
I thought about it and understood. The girls hurt her because she was a
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