Lord Tyger Read Free Page B

the edge of the plateau. At that time, however, he never climbed down from the plateau. The jungle down below looked as sinister as Mariyam and Yusufu said it was. Moreover, the one time he had given in to his curiosity and had started down the cliffs, the Bird of God had stopped him.
    The Bird had been around ever since Ras could remember. This was the first time, however, that it had shown any close interest in him. It had always either flown high over him on some mysterious errand or had hovered high up above him for a while.
    The Bird of Igziyabher, or, in English, God, was like no other bird, although the other birds had also been created by Igziyabher. This Bird was especially created, long after the world was created, if Ras was to believe his mother, Mariyam. It watched over the world, and especially over Ras, for Igziyabher. Indeed, it contained in its belly an angel, or so Ras had been told.
    It was larger than fifty fish-eagles put together, and its body was shaped something like a deformed fish. Part of the body reflected sunshine; the rays bounced off it as they did off Ras's mirror. Its legs were rigid, hanging below the belly and held out a little to both sides. Its claws were very strange; they were round and never opened.
    Its wings were attached to a bone that projected above the Bird, and the wings went around and around so fast, with a chop-chop-chop, that Ras could see them only as a blur.
    It appeared high in the sky that day when Ras was about aquarter of the way down from the edge of the plateau. Ras glanced at it and then ignored it, but presently the Bird was hovering below him and then rising toward him. Its noise deafened him, and the wind from its wings was strong. Ras clung in terror to the face of the cliff while the Bird hung about forty feet out from the cliff.
    The body of the Bird was hollow--it seemed to lack a heart and lungs and guts--and two angels were inside the body. Both had scarlet faces which looked like masks. Their bodies were covered with some kind of brown material, but their hands and necks were pinkish. One sat in the front of the belly, and the other, standing up farther back, was pointing a black box with a blind eye at him.
    Then the angel with the box put it down and gestured at Ras to go back up the cliff. Ras was too scared to defy him. He went back up so fast he almost slipped once. The Bird followed him, staying high up, until Ras had run all the way home.
    He had intended to say nothing about the Bird to his parents. But they knew all about it, and it was then that Ras wondered if Igziyabher did not truly speak to them, as they claimed.
    On his ninth birthday, he was told that he could go down below the plateau. He must not, however, go so far away that he could not return home before nightfall. "Why am I now permitted to do this?" Ras said.
    "Because it is written."
    Yusufu was always saying this. Because it is written. Because it is not written.
    "Written where?"
    "In The Book."
    Yusufu would never say any more than that.
    The morning he left on his first trip, Mariyam wept and hugged him and pleaded with him not to go. He was her beautiful baby; if he died, she would die. He should stay home and be with her always, where he was safe.
    Yusufu growled that the boy must become a man. Besides, It Was Written. Yusufu had tears in his eyes, however, and he insisted on accompanying him as far as the edge of the forest. When they got to the plain, which ran for several miles before losing itself in the thick growth of trees, Yusufu checked out Ras's weapons. These were the big knife Ras had found in the cabin on the lake, a rope, a quiver with ten arrows, and a bow. Ras also carried on his belt an antelopeskin bag that held a small mirror, a whetstone for sharpening the knife, and a tortoise-shell comb.
    "Now I could have allowed you to find the Wantsos yourself, and I should have," Yusufu said, scowling. "But you have encountered no other human beings--you are the only