When the Tiger Roars Read online

  “The mountain people were fearful and superstitious. They believed in many gods and their world was full of spirits, omens, and spells. Such a world is rarely safe and secure. They believed that they were surrounded by supernatural beings and forces, most of which were hostile to humans. For them the worlds of the visible and the invisible were connected. They believed that the gods, the spirits, and the ancestors of the unseen world were easily offended and needed to be appeased. They saw themselves as constantly struggling against the powers of the spirits, other humans, and supernatural forces. Their goal was to attain the power they needed to control the forces that threatened them. On the other hand the Sampians believed in one Great Creator, with whom they had a relationship which was based on love and grace. Their fear of the rainforest and the animals that lived there had been dispelled by their adherence to the Covenant that the Great Creator had caused the Great One of the Forest to make with Abele. They lived without fear either of the seen or the unseen world. None of their community celebrations were motivated by superstition or fear, and always included expressions of gratitude to the Great Creator. They lived simply but their depth of love for each other was profound, and their welcome and acceptance of strangers was warm and generous.

  “I am not saying for a moment that the people of Sampa lived without the normal anxieties that come from the simple acts of living and loving. Living off the land, for instance, can be an anxiety-producing experience. Droughts, floods, and failed crops and their impact on the valley’s capacity to support its growing population were often matters of great concern. Illness and accidents also brought their anxieties and stresses, and the personal suffering that related to those experiences was of course a part of the Sampians’ day-to-day existence. However, because the people believed that the Great Creator had addressed their greatest fear, they were able to face all the normal hardships with a greater sense of confidence and faith.

  “Galildra’s response to the challenges that some of the refugees made was both gentle and nonjudgemental. He did not demand that they renounce their religious beliefs or their customs, but he firmly maintained that the practise of such beliefs and customs was incompatible with those practises that formed the basis of Sampian society, and the concept of some sort of dualism of practises was neither plausible or possible. The peaceful and compassionate lifestyle of the Sampians existed, and could only continue to exist, because of their relationship with the Great Creator and a complete faith in and adherence to the Covenant. As a result, all their core values and customs reflected that truth, and therefore should not and would not be changed even to accommodate the strangers who chose to live amongst them. Some of the Sampians believed that the stance taken by Galildra and the Elders was too soft and felt that they should have demanded that the refugees embrace the beliefs and customs of the Sampians or go elsewhere. Others who were motivated only by a sense of fairness and compassion argued for more tolerance and acceptance of a different way of life. ‘These people,’ they said, ‘did not ask to become refugees. They did not deserve to be persecuted by their countrymen and they do not deserve to be treated as second-class citizens by us.’

  “At the same time as Galildra had mysteriously arrived at the village, another family had come to Sampa seeking refuge. Their story was that they were no longer welcome in their own village and they were seeking a safe and secure place to bring up their children. The people welcomed them as warmly as they had welcomed Galildra, and built a house for them in the centre of the village. The man and his wife, however, were not responsive to the love of the people, and as soon as they had established their gardens and been allotted pasture land for their stock, they built a new house on the very fringe of the village. They had a daughter and a son but would not allow them to attend the local school. They rarely attended any of the frequent special celebrations or feast days and they rejected the story of Abele and the Covenant as a myth.

  “Their daughter became a very beautiful young woman and many of the young men sought her father’s permission to marry her. He angrily rejected them all and then one day he and his family suddenly packed up and left the village. Many were pleased to see them go, but not so pleased when two years later they returned. With them came their daughter’s husband, a man much older than her, to whom she had been promised when she was born, and a young woman who was to become their son’s wife.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  GALILDRA’S STORY CONTINUES

  “I understand the logic of removing toxic people from one’s life. But I also understand that many who are ‘toxic’ are acting out of a painful past…. And that to marginalise someone who has not known much love is to validate that they don’t matter. To live in the world we desire—a world of good people and safe places—requires less fence-building and more heart-building. It requires valuing the worth all of people and loving the hurting as much as possible.”

  Renata Bowers

  “The son’s name was Mordeca which, in the language of the village from which his parents had come, meant ‘dark prince.’ From his youth he was cunning and manipulative. He was very articulate and charming, and began to exercise significant influence among young men who disagreed with Galildra. He seduced a large number of men and convinced them that there were great riches in the forest, and that they were kept from having them by a superstitious story of a pact between the people of Sampa and the tiger in the forest. He convinced them that it was all an elaborate myth propagated by the leaders to keep them poor and dependent. ‘There are no tigers in the forest,’ he maintained. ‘If there were, would they not be raiding the pastures and stealing the livestock? But there are great riches to be found there. There are animals that could be killed for their pelts and there are stories of precious stone that could be mined. We would then be the richest of all the villages and the most powerful.’

  “Their greed for wealth and power led to a decision to challenge the requirements of the Covenant and to enter the forest to hunt deer, and they began to plan their first hunting trip. Though many were too afraid to do so, more than fifty men joined the group. The invasion of the forest would occur at the next full moon.

  “On the morning of the day that the hunting expedition was to occur, Mordeca rose earlier than usual, and as he stood at his doorway he saw the twisted figure of Galildra hobbling toward the rainforest. Without a second thought he dropped down on the path and quickly followed, being careful that the Mother-Father did not see him. When he reached the edge of the forest he slowed his pace and, slipping from tree to tree, he went deeper and deeper into the dark, dank woodland. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks. He could hardly breathe. His legs went weak so that he was in danger of falling. For there, not more than one hundred metres away, in a clearing lit by the early morning sun, stood an enormous tigress. She was a rich golden colour with broad black stripes. She was at least two metres tall at the shoulder and over three metres long. Her coat shone as if it had been polished, but even at this distance it was her eyes that filled him with overwhelming awe. They were at the same time the most terrifying eyes he had ever seen, and the kindest. They burned so hot and bright that for a split second Mordeca felt that all the evil in the world could be exposed and all the pain in the world could be healed, by a single glance.

  “Hidden by a great tree, Mordeca breathlessly watched the scene before him. What manner of black magic had Galildra worked? What sort of witchcraft could bring such an evil and terrifying creature into existence? How could Galildra be standing calmly in the presence of this spectre that he had conjured up? It could not be the Great One of the Forest that Mordeca had heard about, because he was convinced that no such animal existed. Had not his father and his brother-in-law taught him that the stories of the Great Creator and the Great One of the Forest, Abele, and the Covenant, were convenient myths propagated through stories and songs?

  “Galildra was now sitting on a log in front of the tigress who herself was sitting on her haunches. It appeared to Mordeca
that neither of them spoke, and there was no movement of their heads or their mouths, and in Galildra’s case his hands, yet Mordeca could hear a sound that only added to his terror. It was a low rumbling sound, and although there were no decipherable words, it was like he was eavesdropping on a conversation. It seemed like they were conversing with each other about him, about darkness, and about evil. But, thought Mordeca, Is not what I am seeing right now the most evil thing that you could imagine?

  “Suddenly both the tigress and Galildra stood, and the latter turned, so that now they both directly faced the tree behind which Mordeca had hidden. The tigress lifted her head, and from her gigantic mouth came a roar so loud that Mordeca was momentarily deafened by it. It went on and on, until Mordeca trembled so violently that he lost control of his bowels and bladder. As the noise began to recede, he broke from his cover and stumbled through the undergrowth toward the village. Suddenly he changed his direction. I cannot go to the village in such a state, he thought as he skirted the village and kept running until he came to the river on the other side.”

  “As he sat alone by the peaceful river, he struggled to regain his composure. Although he was still physically shaking, his mind had already started to rationalise what he had just seen. Galildra went to the rainforest to practise black magic. His power over the people of Sampa was clearly that of a wizard. The tiger Mordeca thought he had seen was not a real flesh and blood animal but an illusion. The unspoken conversation, which at the time he felt he had understood, was devilishly engineered by Galildra. The horrific roar that had driven him from the forest was a figment of his own imagination, fuelled by his shattered nerves. Nothing had changed other than Mordeca now knew for sure that the current Mother-Father of Sampa was not just deluded by myths, but was in fact a powerfully dangerous and evil magician.”

  “By the time the hunting party had gathered at his house later that morning, Mordeca was completely composed, but by now he had decided that to lead his party into the forest that day would be foolish indeed. If Galildra somehow knew what was planned, and by his devilish magic conjured up another illusion of a terrifying tiger, he would never get the men to go back there again. No, this was the time to plan something far greater than simply defying a stupid law. Galildra and his son Mesila must die. The Elders needed to be killed also and be replaced by Mordeca and his followers. The myth of the Covenant must be exposed and removed. What had begun as a deliberate act of disobedience evolved into a hate-driven rebellion. That night, and on many other nights, this group of men along with others who had been seduced by Mordeca met to meticulously plan the first bloody revolution in the history of Sampa. They not only planned the initial attack but also the shape that the new government would take.

  “One night as his followers were leaving after yet another planning meeting, two men entered his house by the back door and waited in the kitchen for him to say farewell to the last of the men to leave. Mordeca was startled to find them there because up till now he had chosen not to divulge his plan to his father and his brother-in-law. ‘You are a fool, Mordeca,’ the old man said. ‘You engage in a plan to overthrow the wizards of Sampa, but you do not seek the aid of the spirits you and your fathers have worshipped and feared. Your hatred alone cannot defeat the wizardry of Galildra. Your dream of the freedom to plunder the forest will not enable you to prevail. Unless you and your men are empowered by the spirits and the magicians of the mountains, you will fail.’

  “‘No, Father! You and I have little in common now. I am of a different generation. I have rejected all notion of a spiritual world. You are as deceived and bewitched as Galildra. You taught me that the tales of Abele, the Great Creator, the Great One of the Forest, and the Covenant were convenient myths. And I believe that. But so are the stories of mountain spirits that inhabit animals and trees and pose a constant threat to those who do not appease them. The witch doctors in our village are frauds, as Galildra is a fraud. We were never meant to live in awe or dread of a spiritual world that we cannot see and which we cannot prove exists. We are all there is. We live in a human world where those who are weak and superstitious will perish unless those of us who are strong and resourceful lead and protect them. My followers and I will destroy Galildra precisely because we reject all religious superstition and are therefore much stronger and more resilient than he and his followers are.’

  “‘My son,’ said the old man sadly, ‘your arrogance will surely lead to your death. The spirits we worship inhabit the world to remind us that we are nothing without our connection to the spirit world. Yes, I do believe that the story of a benevolent creator who relates to human beings by loving them is a myth. But the idea that there is no spirit world to modify the arrogance of men is madness.’ Mordeca did not reply to his father. He simply opened the door and motioned for the two men to leave.

  “During the weeks that Mordeca and his followers were secretly planning the murder of Galildra, Mesila, and the Elders, Galildra suddenly one morning arrived at Mordeca’s house to challenge him to a public debate. Disturbed by the reality that Mordeca had gathered a dedicated following and the possibility that ‘the dark prince’ would challenge him for the position of Mother-Father, the old man had decided to be proactive and invite him to state his case to the people, after which he himself would reply.”

  “It was during this visit to Mordeca’s house that Galildra engaged the young man in the only face-to-face conversation that the two men had ever had. Galildra invited Mordeca to tell him about his village of origin and his vision for Sampa. Mordeca was sullen and rude at first, but soon found that it was impossible not to warm to the old man’s genuine interest in him. He told Galildra that he had spent his early childhood living with his parents in a mountain village some six days’ walk into the mountains. His father was the son of the chief of the village, and he faced strong opposition from a group of men whose plan it was to overthrow him. When the chief became ill and it was apparent that he would die, this group, knowing that the position of chief would pass to his son, drove Mordeca’s father and his family out of the village. Fleeing for their lives they eventually arrived at Sampa, although in reality that was the last place that his father had wanted to find refuge in.

  “‘Stories of Sampa had always been told in our village,’ Mordeca told Galildra. ‘We knew that the people of Sampa did not believe in the spirit world as we did, but instead had put their faith in a line of wizards who controlled the people by spells and lies. We knew that as every generation had passed, the strength and the evil deeds of the wizards had become stronger. We were told that every time there was a fire in the mountains or a drought occurred, or when war broke out between different villages, this was the result of a curse placed on the mountain by the ruling wizard of Sampa. When we arrived we expected to be treated cruelly, but the opposite happened. We were welcomed warmly and given a house to live in and land to farm. Nevertheless my father did not trust the Sampians, even though they had been kind to us. He continued to tell us stories of the evil sorcerers of Sampa and refused to send us to the local school or to engage in any way in village life.

  “‘When I reached early adulthood my family left Sampa for two years. We returned to our home village, where my sister was married to a man to whom she had been promised when she was still a child. He already had two wives as our custom allows, but when we returned he could not bring them here because you would not permit such a thing. We brought back the young girl who would become my wife, and we have continued to live here since.

  “‘Underneath the apparent kindness and generosity of Sampa lies a terrible evil. The people are controlled and kept powerless by a cruel myth that prevents them from extending their pastureland by clearing the forest, or increasing their wealth by mining the precious metals that are to be found there. They are vulnerable to attack by enemies from the mountains because they have no army, and they are forced to believe that they must trust the wizards for protection. I once believed that the spirits of the mounta
in had brought me here to deliver the people of Sampa from the power of the wizards. I do not believe that any longer. I have rejected the concept of a spiritual world. My purpose, Galildra, is to lead Sampa into a rational age, where like the animal world, the strong and resourceful will survive and prosper, and the weak and superstitious will perish.’

  “Galildra listened to Mordeca patiently and respectfully. ‘My parents lived in a village not more than a day’s walk from where you were born,” he said softly. ‘They worshipped and placated the same mountain spirits as your family did. When I was born deformed, my parents believed that it was because they had displeased the spirits. They lived with the constant fear that the people in the village, even their own families, would discover me and kill them because they had brought shame and judgement on the village. Have you ever wondered, Mordeca, why you have never seen a disabled child in your village? It is because like me they were hidden, and when it became too difficult to hide me they dumped me in the forest to be eaten by wild animals. I was found there by a tigress, which thankfully did not eat me. Instead she fed me and protected me until I was found by a man from Sampa. Which brings me to another question, Mordeca: Have you ever wondered why my own parents saw me as a curse from the spirits and the people of Sampa saw me as a gift from the Great Creator?’ The conversation ended right there and, after inviting Mordeca to a debate in the village square, Galildra left and returned to his home.

  “When the evening that had been set aside for the debate arrived, a noisy crowd gathered. They went suddenly silent, however, when Mordeca arrived with a group of more than one hundred men. He walked with the arrogance of a man who knew that nothing he would say could be refuted. Galildra stood to one side of the platform as Mordeca strode to the centre and addressed the crowd. His voice was strong and his tone brimmed with confidence.