The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children 5)

Jondalar looked relieved.

“I suppose we should start with ‘elan.’ You do know that word?”

“I heard you use it today,” Ayla said. “It means something like spirit or life-force, I think.”

“But you didn’t learn this word before?” Zelandoni asked, scowling at Jondalar.

“Jondalar always said ‘spirit.’ Is that wrong?” Ayla said.

“No, it’s not wrong. And I suppose we do tend to use ‘elan’ more when there is a death, or a birth, because death is the absence or end of elan, and birth is the beginning,” the donier said.

“When a child is born, when a new life comes into this world, it is filled with elan, the vital force of life,” the One Who Was First said. “When the child is named, a Zelandoni creates a mark that is a symbol for that spirit, that new person, and paints it or carves it on some object—a rock, a bone, a piece of wood. That mark is called an abelan. Each abelan is different and is used to designate a particular individual. It might be a design made of lines or shapes or dots, or a simplified form of an animal. Whatever comes to mind when the Zelandoni meditates about the infant.”

“That’s what Creb—The Mog-ur—used to do, meditate, to decide what a new baby’s totem was!” Ayla said, surprised. She wasn’t alone.

“You are talking about the Clan man who was the … Zelandoni of your clan?” the donier asked.

“Yes!” Ayla said, and nodded.

“I’ll have to think on that,” the large woman said, more astounded than she wanted to let on. “To continue, the Zelandoni meditates, then decides on the mark. The object with the mark on it, the symbol object, is the elandon. The Zelandoni gives it to the baby’s mother to keep safe until the child is grown. When they pass into adulthood, the mother gives her children their elandons as part of their coming of age ceremony.

“But the symbol thing, the elandon, is more than just a material object with designs painted or engraved on it. It can hold the elan, the life-force, the spirit, the essence of each member of the Cave, much the way a donii can hold the Mother’s spirit. The elandon has more power than any other personal item. It is so powerful that in the wrong hands it can be used against a person to create terrible afflictions and adversity. Therefore, a mother keeps her children’s elandons in a place known only to her, and perhaps her mother, or her mate.” Suddenly Ayla realized that she would be responsible for the elandon of the child she was carrying.

Zelandoni explained that when the elandon was given to a child who had reached adulthood, that person would hide it in a place known only to the new adult, often quite far away. But an innocuous object, like a stone, would be picked up from close by as a surrogate and given to a Zelandoni, who customarily put it in a crack in a stone wall of a sacred place, perhaps a cave, as an offering to the Great Mother. While the thing that was offered seemed insignificant, its meaning was much greater. It was understood that Doni could trace the surrogate back to the original symbol thing, and from that to the person to whom it belonged, without anyone, not even a Zelandoni, knowing where the elandon was hidden.

Willamar tactfully added that the zelandonia as a whole were highly respected and considered trustworthy and beneficial. “But they are very powerful,” he said. “For many people a touch of apprehension is part of the respect they command, and any individual Zelandoni is only human. A few have been known to misuse their knowledge and abilities, and some people fear that given the opportunity, one of those might be tempted to use a powerful object like the elandon against someone they disliked, or to teach a person a lesson if they felt they had been wronged. I have never known it to happen, but people do like to embellish stories.”

“If anyone disturbs a person’s symbol thing, it could make a person sick, or even die. Let me tell you an Elder Legend,” Marthona said. “In the past, it is said, some families used to put all their symbol things together, in the same place. Sometimes even entire Caves put them all in one place.

“There was one Cave that put all their symbol things together in a special little cave in the side of a hill near their shelter. It was considered such a sacred place that no one would dare to disturb them. One very wet spring, an avalanche washed down the slope, destroying the cave and everything in it. The people blamed each other and stopped being cooperative. Without each other’s help, life became very difficult. The people scattered, and the Cave died. So people learned that if someone disturbed all the elandons, or even if they were dislodged by natural shifts caused by water, wind, or earth movements, the family or Cave had serious problems. That is why each person needs to hide her own symbol thing.”

“It is all right to put surrogate stones together,” Zelandoni added. “The Mother appreciates them, and She can trace them back, but they are just little tokens, not the real elandons.”

Ayla was delighted with the “Legend.” She had heard people talk about the Elder Legends, but she didn’t realize they were stories told to help people understand things they needed to know. They reminded her of stories that old Dorv used to tell to Brun’s clan in the winter.

Then the donier continued. “The abelan is a symbol or mark or pattern that always has life-force associated with it. It is used specifically to identify or characterize someone or some group. The Zelandonii abelan identifies all of us and is the most significant. It is a symbol made of squares or rectangles, often with variations and embellishments. It may be different colors, or made of different materials, or even different numbers of squares, but it must have the basic shapes. Part of this is a Zelandonii abelan,” she said, pointing to the mark tattooed on the side of her forehead. Ayla noticed that three rows of three squares were part of the design.

“The squares tell anyone who sees it that my people are Zelandonii. Because one can count nine of them, the mark also identifies me as a member of the Ninth Cave. There is more to this tattoo, of course,” she continued. “It also marks me as a member of the zelandonia, and declares that I am considered by the other Zelandonia as First Among Those Who Serve The Great Earth Mother. Although no longer as significant, a part of it is also my own personal abelan. You will notice that Marthona’s tattoo is different from mine, although parts of it are the same.”

Ayla turned to examine the former leader’s tattoo. Marthona tilted her head to show it better. “There are the nine squares,” Ayla said, “but the mark is on the other side of her forehead, and there are other marks, more curved. Now that I look at it, one of them seems to have the shape of a horse, from the neck, across the back and down the hind legs.”

“Yes,” Marthona said. “The tattoo artist was very good and captured the essence of my abelan. Though more stylized so that it could work with the whole pattern, it is very close to the mark on

my elandon, which is a horse, but simplified like that.”

“Our tattoos tell you something about each of us,” Zelandoni said. “You know that I Serve The Mother because mine is on the left. You know that Marthona is or was a leader of her Cave because hers is on the right side of her forehead. You know we are both Zelandonii, because of the squares, and that we are of the Ninth Cave.”

“I think Manvelar’s tattoo had three squares, but I don’t remember if I could count up to fourteen squares on Brameval’s forehead,” Ayla said.

“No, you couldn’t,” Zelandoni said. “Caves are not always identified by the number of squares, but a person’s Cave is always identified in some way. Brameval’s tattoo has fourteen dots in a certain shape,”

“Not everyone has tattoos,” Ayla said. “Willamar has a small one on the middle of his forehead, but Jondalar doesn’t have one at all.”

“Only people who are leaders have tattoos on their foreheads,” Jondalar said. “Zelandoni is a spiritual leader, mother was a Cave leader. Willamar is the Trade Master. It is an important position, and his advice is often asked, so he is also considered a leader.”

“Though most people would rather show who they are with their clothes, like Shevonar, some people have tattoos on other places, their cheeks or chins, even hands, usually someplace that shows and is not covered up by clothes. Not much point in putting an identifying mark where no one can see it. The other tattoos often show something a person wants to be recognized for, but usually it’s a personal achievement, not a primary tie relationship,” Marthona said.

“Among the Mamutoi, the mamuti—that’s like zelandonia—have tattoos on their cheeks, but not squares. They use chevrons,” Ayla said. “They start with a diamond shape, which is like a square turned so that it points up and down, or half of that, a triangle—they particularly like downward-pointing triangles. Then they repeat the pointed shape, like one point nestled inside another. Sometimes they connect them and make zigzags. All those symbols have meanings, too. Mamut was just starting to teach them to me the winter before I left.”