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Authors: Avram Davidson
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either. But, Lord! I don’t know all of them, there are so many. About the only one which is well-publicized is the one that’s attached to the Holy Hermit … and that one, of course, even though it’s technically theologically irregular, well, still, it
is
attached to the church. But most of these others are purely pagan. Which is to say that for the whole length of time of the Spanish rule, they were at least in theory illegal. And hence tended to be clandestine. Then when the Roman Catholic Church was disestablished and some measure, some varying measure of governmental anti-religious pressure came along, varying from disapproval and ridicule down to outright persecution — why, a lot of the pagan cults and ceremonies got it in the neck, too. It didn’t make much difference to them if they were suppressed in the name of Catholicism or of Freemasonry — which reminds me” — he chuckled — “no, I’ll mention that later. Anyway, so they went right on being underground, so to say.
“Nowadays very few of them have got anything to fear, actually, from the law. But, well, these things are looked upon as silly things which only ignorant Indians engage in. And even ignorant Indians don’t want to be laughed at, mocked. So they go right on going off into the woods, you see. Sometimes whole families sort of split up over it. Say that one family has a son in the secondary school, well, they know he’s bound to be too modern to strip down to a loincloth and dance around, say, a post with homemade hootchemacallits pinned onto it. So the afternoon before the thing is due his father may slip him a few pesos and say, ‘Why don’t you go visit your cousin in Amecameca — tell him we’d like to come, but we can’t get away.’ Then, with the kid out of the way, they can troop out to the boondocks and carry on the way Grandpa used to do.
“That’s all there is to it, really….”
Jacob was weakening, but was still not convinced. “This wasn’t any mere poor-Injun bare-assing around,” he said. “Why, those costumes must have cost a fortune! Besides … besides … I don’t know just how to put it without sounding corny and pulp-fictionary — but — well, damn it! Yes! There was an atmosphere of evil about whatever was going on back up there last night! I had the definite feeling that if I’d let on that I was there I might have wound up a patient in what you called the Aztec Cardiectomy Clinic! Really, Mac, no kidding around: that was very bad medicine there.”
He was about to enlarge on it, seeing that Macauley was at last becoming at least a little bit impressed that this was no mere rustic frolic — but then Lenita appeared. She had so thoroughly repented of her earlier brusqueness that she clearly neither remembered it nor desired it to be remembered — a plump, dark woman of general good nature and not a single word of English. She bustled Sarah away from the two men with an oh-you-poor-thing manner, reclaiming her for the Improved Benevolent Order of Women — local branch consisting of Lenita, Aunt Epifania, and now, of course, Sarah — and impressed her into service at the business corner of the kitcheii. Sarah, as soon as she saw that (a) she was not merely allowed, but encouraged, to take samples of the sundry goodies, and (b) that there were no dirty dishes to be washed, no, not a one, Sarah abandoned the discussion without a pang. She even fell spontaneously into Spanish. “What quality of article will we you were to have making thereunto?” she inquired cheerfully.
Macauley’s smile slipped a bit, with her gone. In a lower voice, he said, “Well, there may have been some intended bad medicine brewing around here. Some of the aborigines are really upset, you know.”
“Yes, that I gather. But
why?
”
“Government doings.”
“Meaning …?”
“Meaning: Tlaloc.”
The familiar-unfamiliar word made Jacob frown. Then he remembered. “Tlaloc. Wasn’t he the old Mexican rain
is
attached to the church. But most of these others are purely pagan. Which is to say that for the whole length of time of the Spanish rule, they were at least in theory illegal. And hence tended to be clandestine. Then when the Roman Catholic Church was disestablished and some measure, some varying measure of governmental anti-religious pressure came along, varying from disapproval and ridicule down to outright persecution — why, a lot of the pagan cults and ceremonies got it in the neck, too. It didn’t make much difference to them if they were suppressed in the name of Catholicism or of Freemasonry — which reminds me” — he chuckled — “no, I’ll mention that later. Anyway, so they went right on being underground, so to say.
“Nowadays very few of them have got anything to fear, actually, from the law. But, well, these things are looked upon as silly things which only ignorant Indians engage in. And even ignorant Indians don’t want to be laughed at, mocked. So they go right on going off into the woods, you see. Sometimes whole families sort of split up over it. Say that one family has a son in the secondary school, well, they know he’s bound to be too modern to strip down to a loincloth and dance around, say, a post with homemade hootchemacallits pinned onto it. So the afternoon before the thing is due his father may slip him a few pesos and say, ‘Why don’t you go visit your cousin in Amecameca — tell him we’d like to come, but we can’t get away.’ Then, with the kid out of the way, they can troop out to the boondocks and carry on the way Grandpa used to do.
“That’s all there is to it, really….”
Jacob was weakening, but was still not convinced. “This wasn’t any mere poor-Injun bare-assing around,” he said. “Why, those costumes must have cost a fortune! Besides … besides … I don’t know just how to put it without sounding corny and pulp-fictionary — but — well, damn it! Yes! There was an atmosphere of evil about whatever was going on back up there last night! I had the definite feeling that if I’d let on that I was there I might have wound up a patient in what you called the Aztec Cardiectomy Clinic! Really, Mac, no kidding around: that was very bad medicine there.”
He was about to enlarge on it, seeing that Macauley was at last becoming at least a little bit impressed that this was no mere rustic frolic — but then Lenita appeared. She had so thoroughly repented of her earlier brusqueness that she clearly neither remembered it nor desired it to be remembered — a plump, dark woman of general good nature and not a single word of English. She bustled Sarah away from the two men with an oh-you-poor-thing manner, reclaiming her for the Improved Benevolent Order of Women — local branch consisting of Lenita, Aunt Epifania, and now, of course, Sarah — and impressed her into service at the business corner of the kitcheii. Sarah, as soon as she saw that (a) she was not merely allowed, but encouraged, to take samples of the sundry goodies, and (b) that there were no dirty dishes to be washed, no, not a one, Sarah abandoned the discussion without a pang. She even fell spontaneously into Spanish. “What quality of article will we you were to have making thereunto?” she inquired cheerfully.
Macauley’s smile slipped a bit, with her gone. In a lower voice, he said, “Well, there may have been some intended bad medicine brewing around here. Some of the aborigines are really upset, you know.”
“Yes, that I gather. But
why?
”
“Government doings.”
“Meaning …?”
“Meaning: Tlaloc.”
The familiar-unfamiliar word made Jacob frown. Then he remembered. “Tlaloc. Wasn’t he the old Mexican rain
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