"In my life as a little boy, I watched my mother being taken into the streets and her sweetness taken from her. I watched in my life, as it were, of where we lived and the despise that was around me. And I watched when my mother was taken. I watched the child grow inside of her belly and knew who it was. And I watched my mother weep. Why? That was very obvious. Would there be another sibling in the street to suffer as she had suffered in this promised land? I watched and helped my mother bring forth that which is termed a little sistren, in your language, to life. I helped my mother because she was too weak to bear the child herself. And the little girl came forth yelling into the world. She wasn't happy. It was very obvious. But grave upon my being was that of my motheren's being, for weakened so was she that to the infant that sucked at her tender breast there was no milk, for she had starved, as it were indeed. And my sistren that was suckling at my mother's breast was very weak. Why, say you, we have this in our life? For we are the peasants; we are the nonessentials; we are the no-entities of a governed land."

"Who governed this land? Those of means who had all of us live about their lands and run their fields and say they would not grant us even a stalk for our own living. And what, say you, did they with these things? They locked them into granaries. And, lo, they fed themselves with fastidious fingers upon their fastidious faces. I say unto you this was injustice. And who be this God they have spoken of? I am angered, for my mother weeps for there is no milk in her breasts. I scrounged in the streets and slayed dogs and wildfowl and stole that which is termed, as it were indeed, the grain from the proprietors late in the evening, for I was very deft on my feet. And I fed my mother, who in turn suckled my little sister. And the little girl, as it were, became diarrhetic. She could not hold what was coming into her body and passed it quickly from her body and lost all of the life in her body. And so they were gone."

"I did not blame my little sister for the death that would soon follow of my beloved mother, for the little girl suckled from my mother. All of her strength was given to the new life, that new life could continue forth. And my mother perished with the babe at her breast. There was nothing. There was no more. My hate for the red peoples - they are called Atlatians - was increased into my being like a great viper only as a little boy. And there was nothing left, for my brother was taken into subserviency into another city at the prey of a man and his needs for what is called loin gratification."

"My lineage worshiped and loved that which was beyond the stars, beyond your moon. They loved what could not be identified. It was called the Unknown God. As a little boy I did not blame the Unknown God for his inability to love myself and my peoples and my motheren and little sistren. I did not blame him; I hated him."

"And in my times, no one died nobly of my peoples. There was no such thing as nobleness, virtue, indeed. So I found a great mountain that loomed in the distance, a very mysterious place, for if I could climb there I would get in touch with the Unknown God out here and proclaim my hatred for him at his unfairness. So I began my journey. I run from that of my hovel, and there be a great mountain in a distance I barely see. And my journey, as it were indeed, hath been of ninety days. Of ninety days, as it were indeed, of devouring locusts and roots and urnments of ants did I find this mountain. If there be a God, he would live there above all of us as those who governed our land lived above us. And, lo, I sought him out. Yet he was not there except for the great cold. And I wept heartily until the whiteness, as it were indeed, iced itself from my tears."

Next -- Battle against the Unknown God Part 2