ZUZIMI

WHAT THE TIGER-MOTHER TOLD ME

by Jeff Erwin and 'Trotsky'

Who are you?

I am the spirit-mother and the teacher.

Who are we?

We are the Bamboo Stream bloodline; everyone here is a cousin, or a cousin’s mate. But remember that you are yourself, and we are proud to live alone.

What makes us great?

The folk of the Tiger are the greatest and fiercest amongst men and beasts. All other tribes and creatures must be on guard against us, and we are all free. None can stand against us save through the basest trickery, and then not for long. Yet this is not the only reason we are great, for are we not also the most beautiful and magnificent of people? Look around at you at our menfolk. You will never see members of other races who are so strong of limb and loin, so fair of face and so dusky of skin. That is why the tiger lets us near, as he does no other human folk, for not only are we his kin, but only we among all the two-legged peoples approach his own wondrous perfection of form.

Where do we live?

Our people are found wherever there is much prey and few interlopers. We roam wherever we wish, from the snow-bound forests of the north to the mountain slopes where the Yak people dwell to the damp jungles of the south. The Bamboo Stream bloodline lives in this high mountain valley, and our hunters travel across all the land that you can see from the high rock by the waterfall, and none dare challenge them within that territory.

How do we live?

Here in the valley, we make huts of bamboo and secure dens in the earth in which to bring up our children. The tigers sometimes visit us here, for they know that we are kindred, and that they can commune with the spirits through our magic. No other animals come near to our homes, for they fear our strength, but the tiger travels amongst us and does not attack us, and may often be found sleeping by the brook in the mid-day sun or looking about to see what we are up to.

At the forest edge live people who are kin to us. They may offer you things for furs or for meat. Be suspicious, but take pity on these crippled tigers. [1]

What is important in my life?

Mainly food, and sex, and territory. Things change after you have children, and later still if you live past your fertile stage.

Blood is the fluid of life, and its first shedding is an important threshold in anyone's life. For the boys, that shedding comes with their first kill of a true food animal. For we females, the blood that is shed is our own, a sign from Hsa-Yi that she knows we are ready to learn more of the magics of the people. I am sure you well remember that time, when I blessed you, and informed the tigers of what had happened, for it showed that you had taken an important step towards womanhood.

Next you will take the full rites of adulthood, and show that you know the correct rites to appease the lesser food animals and how to bind the wounds of warriors, and that you know the women's stories. Then you must move from your mother's den and make one of your own. If there is empty territory within the bloodline, or an older woman moves aside to let you do so, then you may stay in the territory of the Bamboo Streams, making your own den and place within it.

If not, you will be a wanderer. You will live amongst strangers and see many things. Eventually you must settle down to make a den, and found a new bloodline. You will likely have to compete with some other bloodline which already holds the territory, and the strongest will prevail as is the way of the world.

Wherever you build your den, you must then select a handsome mate from the Tigersons who live nearby. He will give you children, and you will settle down and look after a family of your own. Whatever happens, do not forget who you are. Never give away your soul.

What is the difference between men and women?

Women live in their own dens and look after children until they are old enough to live on their own. Women are part of the bloodline, and all of those in an area are related through that bloodline, although new ones are formed all the time. We chose our own mates, and we teach out children the proper way to behave and how to make themselves self-reliant. We may kill the lesser food animals, so long as we do not hunt them through the forest, but instead devise traps to hold and kill them and their living blood does not taint us.

Men are bigger and untrustworthy, but safer than fertile females from beyond the bloodline. They also are helpful for making cubs. If you can find a loyal male who will guard your territory with you and feed your cubs, very good! But most men are interested in making their own territory, so they may try to trick you. Because of their strength, men become warriors and can hunt and kill the true food animals, but they are weaker inside.

Men do not have dens of their own. Bachelors travel from place to place, waiting for a chance to take territory from a Tigerson, and attract the attention of his womenfolk. Tigersons are the strongest of men, and they live in the dens of their women, so long as they will let him, and travel from the one to the other as the whim takes them. Men do not have bloodlines, as we do, for they live alone from their relatives.

Who rules us?

No one rules us, for we are free and do whatever we please. However, you should to look to me for advice, for my skill as a spirit-mother lets me deal with the other side more directly than you can, so I know when the spirits need appeasing and can perform the greatest rituals of our people.

Three Tigersons also visit our bloodline's territory, for it overlaps with theirs. Each competes with the other, and any woman may pick one of them to bond with and share her den. They may think that they are the rulers, but although they protect us, we do as we wish without asking their advice unless great conflict threatens.

What makes someone great?

All of us yearn to have strong children by a loyal mate. But we cannot be satisfied, for these children can become rivals. Only when you are old like I am can you walk amongst both sexes freely.

The first and best thing I have taught you is to be free. You know how to provide for yourself and your children, and to thwart the advances of an unwanted male. You know the scents of evil and the secret languages of the forest.

You must teach these things to your cubs, and bring them to the Spirit-Mother to learn our secret ways.

What is evil?

Evil is death by those weaker than yourself. But you must always be ready to avoid those who are stronger until you can best them. It is very dangerous to eat our kind or that of the humans, for they will visit the curses of their spirits upon you. The mightiest among us may do this to show they are strongest. Evil is also madness, and fear and poison.

The Forest Clearing people are evil, though they do not know it; the spirits and the Aldryami tell us so, for they have brought slow death, by fire, traps and hunts.

Your rivals are not evil, but they are very dangerous. Only I can master the Mother Tiger and bend you, your sisters and brothers, for I taught you how to be a free person. Anyone else who does this is evil.

What is my lot in life?

Once you have taken the rites of adulthood, you must leave this place, venture into the outside world and become strong. Then you may discover a new place and make it your own, attracting a handsome mate, or you must take another woman’s place - either here in this valley or in another region.

How do we deal with others?

You must always be cautious when dealing with Tiger folk from other bloodlines. Although they follow the same ways that we do, and avoid evil, they will take your territory if they can in order to make themselves stronger. If you travel far, you must always be careful when entering the territory of another Tiger woman. If you can do so and are not ready to take her territory for your own, then avoid her. If you cannot avoid her, she will likely challenge you to ritual combat and you must be prepared to face the consequences.

All other peoples are weaker than us. Most of those you will meet do no conscious evil and you should not fight them unnessecarily. When you meet them you must give the proper greeting, identifying yourself as a child of the tiger, so that all may know where they stand. If they give the proper greeting in return, you may deal with them for metal goods or for food, or for the magics or skills which they may be able to lend to you. In this way, all the true peoples of the Shan Shan embody the parts of the dragon and all may live together.

But neither should they stand in your way when you are about your business, for we are superior to them and they should be made to understand that and behave accordingly. If they stand between you and something you want, then allow them to flee, and if they do not, then bloody their nose and teach what it is to anger a tiger.

Who are our enemies?

There are some peoples who do evil knowingly, and embrace it. These are our enemies, and they should not be permitted to challenge us or to mar the beauty of our territory with their presence. These are the farmers in the lowlands, and their metal-clad warriors who bring naught but misery with them.

Who are our gods?

Hsa-Yi is the Tiger Mother, ancestress of all our people, both four-legged and two-legged. She gave birth to the first cubs, and so provides magic to do with life, fertility and healing. But she is also fierce, and wise in the ways of defence and how to deal with rivals. It is she to whom we introduce newborn babes, and to whom we dedicate our first blood, and she oversees the adulthood rites of women. It is also she who taught us the ways of ritual combat, and in what circumstances each such ritual should be performed.

Hsa-Lu is the Tiger Father, who sired the first cubs, and killed many animals to bring them food. For this reason, he provides magic to do with death and combat, and is most important to the Tigersons. He oversees the men's adulthood rituals, and the rites which lead our souls into the next world to be reborn.

I have heard of other powers. What can you tell me about...

Kralorela?

These eastern people once venerated ancient dragon spirits of the lowlands, but now they live in great settlements where everyone is unnaturally forced together. They have no appreciation of nature, carving the hills into flat terraces and growing rice plants everywhere, instead of forests. Whenever they come to our lands, they bring misery, for they wish to make everything as dull and lifeless as their own meaningless existence.

Teshnos?

These southeners are weak, and lack the strength to be a danger, even though they live in a manner similar to the Kralorelans. Our cousins, who venerate the tiger, but do not follow her ways properly, raid these people often, and steal their food and sometimes their women [1].

Praxians?

These people live in the dry and cursed plains to the west. They worship the strange animals which they ride, but they rarely enter our mountains and their land is too poor to be of any worth to us. Great monsters live out in the wastes, and these people spend their time battling them, which can make them admirable foes if we ever have to fight.

Other Hsunchen?

Many other peoples live in the mountains, but none of them have the strength to stand up to us, and all know that we are their betters and allow us passage wherever we wish. Mostly, they worship food animals such as deer and yak, all of which fall beneath our claws. But all are part of the dragon, and as such, each has its special skills and magics, just as we are the warriors who protect others from harm. When they give the proper greeting, you know that they can be trusted for the duration of your meeting and you can trade with them for the goods they supply.

The Basmoli lion people were once our brothers, but their god proved himself weaker than ours when the Praxians killed him and took his pelt, so that now these people have lost their greatest magics and strength. The Chengasi of the mountain slopes [2] are like us, and know much of the true ways of living and of dealing with the spirit world. They do not fight us for territory, and because of that can sometimes be treated as allies, but they follow their own mysterious agendas and, like all outsiders, can never be trusted until they give the proper greeting.

Aldryami?

In the forests of the south-east live these green people, who deal with plant spirits as we deal with animals. Sometimes we can deal with them, for they fight the human lowlanders as we do and seek to expand the forests where hunting is so good. Yet they are not human, and the plant spirits are closed to us so that we can never truly understand their ways. Be careful in their forests, for if you do them damage, the Aldryami will stalk you and use their magics to injure you from afar.

[2] The Snow Leopard people.