The Manamouki - Mike Resnick, ebook
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======================The Manamoukiby Mike Resnick======================Copyright (c)1990 by Mike ResnickHugo Award WinnerFictionwise ContemporaryScience Fiction---------------------------------NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the purchaser. If you did not purchase this ebook directly from Fictionwise.com then you are in violation of copyright law and are subject to severe fines. Please visit www.fictionwise.com to purchase a legal copy. Fictionwise.com offers a reward for information leading to the conviction of copyright violators of Fictionwise ebooks.---------------------------------MANY EONS AGO, the children of Gikuyu, who was himself the first Kikuyu, lived on the slopes of the holy mountain Kirinyaga, which men now call Mount Kenya.There were many serpents on the mountain, but the sons and grandsons of Gikuyu found them repulsive, and they soon killed all but one.Then one day the last serpent entered their village and killed and ate a young child. The children of Gikuyu sought out their mundumugu -- their witch doctor -- and asked him to destroy the menace.The mundumugu rolled the bones and sacrificed a goat, and finally he created a poison that would kill the serpent. He slit open the belly of another goat, and placed the poison inside it, and left it beneath a tree, and the very next day the serpent swallowed the goat and died."Now," said the mundumugu, "you must cut the serpent into one hundred pieces and scatter them on the holy mountain, so that no demon can breathe life back into its body."The children of Gikuyu did as they were instructed, and scattered the hundred pieces of the serpent across the slopes of Kirinyaga. But during the night, each piece came to life and became a new serpent, and soon the Kikuyu were afraid to leave their bomas.The mundumugu ascended the mountain, and when he neared the highest peak, he addressed Ngai."We are beseiged by serpents," he said. "If you do not slay them, then the Kikuyu shall surely die as a people.""I made the serpent, just as I made the Kikuyu and all other things," answered Ngai, who sat on His golden throne atop Kirinyaga. "And anything that I made, be it a man or a serpent or a tree or even an idea, is not repellant in My eyes. I will save you this one time, because you are young and ignorant, but you must never forget that you cannot destroy that which you find repulsive -- for if you try to destroy it, it will always return one hundred times greater than before."This is one of the reasons why the Kikuyu chose to till the soil rather than hunt the beasts of the jungle like the Wakamba, or make war on their neighbors like the Maasai, for they had no wish to see that which they destroyed return to plague them. It is a lesson taught by every mundumugu to his people, even after we left Kenya and emigrated to the terraformed world of Kirinyaga.In the entire history of our tribe, only one mundumugu ever forgot the lesson that Ngai taught atop the holy mountain on that distant day.And that mundumugu was myself.* * * *When I awoke, I found hyena dung within the thorn enclosure of my boma. That alone should have warned me that the day carried a curse, for there is no worse omen. Also the breeze, hot and dry and filled with dust, came from the west, and all good winds come from the east.It was the day that our first immigrants were due to arrive. We had argued long and hard against allowing any newcomers to settle on Kirinyaga, for we were dedicated to the old ways of our people, and we wanted no outside influences corrupting the society that we had created. But our charter clearly stated that any Kikuyu who pledged to obey our laws and made the necessary payments to the Eutopian Council could emigrate from Kenya, and after postponing the inevitable for as long as we could, we finally agreed to accept Thomas Nkobe and his wife.Of all the candidates for immigration, Nkobe had seemed the best. He had been born in Kenya, had grown up in the shadow of the holy mountain, and after going abroad for his schooling, had returned and run the large farm his family had purchased from one of the last European residents. Most important of all, he was a direct descendant of Jomo Kenyatta, the great Burning Spear of Kenya who had led us to independence.I trudged out across the hot, arid savannah to the tiny landing field at Haven to greet our new arrivals, accompanied only by Ndemi, my youthful assistant. Twice buffalo blocked our path, and once Ndemi had to hurl some stones to frighten a hyena away, but eventually we reached our destination, only to discover that the Maintenance ship which was carrying Nkobe and his wife had not yet arrived. I squatted down in the shade of an acacia tree, and a moment later Ndemi crouched down beside me."They are late," he said, peering into the cloudless sky. "Perhaps they will not come at all.""They will come," I said. "The signs all point to it.""But they are bad signs, and Nkobe may be a good man.""There are many good men," I replied. "Not all of them belong on Kirinyaga.""You are worried, Koriba?" asked Ndemi as a pair of crested cranes walked through the dry, brittle grass, and a vulture rode the thermals overhead."I am concerned," I said."Why?""Because I do not know why he wants to live here.""Why shouldn't he?" asked Ndemi, picking up a dry twig and methodically breaking it into tiny pieces. "Is it not Utopia?""There are many different notions of Utopia," I replied. "Kirinyaga is the Kikuyu's.""And Nkobe is a Kikuyu, so this is where he belongs," said Ndemi decisively."I wonder.""Why?""Because he is almost 40 years old. Why did he wait so long to come here?""Perhaps he could not afford to come sooner."I shook my head. "He comes from a very wealthy family.""They have many cattle?" asked Ndemi."Many," I said."And goats?"I nodded."Will he bring them with him?""No. He will come empty-handed, as we all did." I paused, frowning. "Why would a man who owned a large farm and had many tractors and men to do his work turn his back on all that he possessed? That is what troubles me.""You make it sound like the way he lived on Earth was better," said Ndemi, frowning."Not better, just different."He paused for a moment. "Koriba, what is a tractor?""A machine that does the work of many men in the fields.""It sounds truly wonderful," offered Ndemi."It makes deep wounds in the ground and stinks of gasoline," I said, making no effort to hide my contempt.We sat in silence for another moment. Then the Maintenance ship came into view, its descent creating a huge cloud of dust and causing a great screeching and squawking by the birds and monkeys in the nearby trees. "Well," I said, "we shall soon have our answer."I remained in the shade until the ship had touched down and Thomas Nkobe and his wife emerged from its interior. He was a tall, well-built man dressed in casual Western clothes; she was slender and graceful, her hair elegantly braided, her khaki slacks and hunting jacket exquisitely tailored."Hello!" said Nkobe in English as I approached him. "I was afraid we might have to find our way to the village ourselves.""Jambo," I replied in Swahili. "Welcome to Kirinyaga.""Jambo," he amended, switching to Swahili. "Are you Koinnage?""No," I answered. "Koinnage is our paramount chief. You will live in his village.""And you are?""I am Koriba," I said."He is the mundumugu," added Ndemi proudly. "I am Ndemi." He paused. "Someday I will be a mundumugu too."Nkobe smiled down at him. "I'm sure you will." Suddenly he remembered his wife. "And this is Wanda."She stepped forward, smiled, and extended her hand. "A true mundumugu!" she said in heavily-accented Swahili. "I'm thrilled to meet you!""I hope you will enjoy your new life on Kirinyaga," I said, shaking her hand."Oh, I'm certain I will," she replied enthusiastically, as the ship disgorged their baggage and promptly took off again. She looked around at the dry savannah, and saw a trio of maribou storks and a jackal patiently waiting for a hyena to finish gorging itself on the wildebeest calf it had killed earlier in the morning. "I love it already!" She paused, then added confidentially, "I'm really the one who got Tom to agree to come here.""Oh?"She nodded her head. "I just couldn't stand what Kenya has become. All those factories, all that pollution! Ever since I learned about Kirinyaga, I've wanted to move here, to come back to Nature and live the way we were meant to live." She inhaled deeply. "Smell that air, Tom! It will add ten years to your life.""You don't have to sell me any more," he said with a smile. "I'm here, aren't I?"I turned to Wanda Nkobe. "You yourself are not Kikuyu, are you?""I am now," she replied. "Ever since I married Tom. But to answer your question, no, I was born and raised in Oregon.""Oregon?" repeated Ndemi, brushing some flies away from his face with his hand."That's in America," she explained. She paused. "By the way, why are we speaking Swahili rather than Kikuyu?""Kikuyu is a dead language," I said. "Most of our people no longer know it.""I had rather hoped it would still be spoken here," she said, obviously disappointe...
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