"The way of Fathers"

When the old crone told me how get rid of the evil, I said the names of my Fathers, all of them in a row, and I spat on the ground. It was too much to bear. I had been told to bring the crone back to where the people were camped, but I wanted to hold her down in the water of the river and be done with her. She said that we must wait for the next moonless night, then lead one of our young women deep into the haunted rocky lands. One of the monstrous evil strangers would come and take her away. If we do this, the evil strangers would leave the rest of the people alone, and they would not destroy us as they destroyed the Painted Backs. She said we must do this at the beginning of every dry season. It was absurd, but we took the crone back to the people as we had been told to do. She told the people what she had told us. The people listened and were silent for a while. I spoke up as the son of one of the great men. I said her plan was evil. The people's strength is their young women, who are ripe and bear sons. To give them away is a humiliation. It is the way of cowards. When we make war against strangers, do we not take their young women for our own? We should make war against these evil strangers. We should set up a night watch, and when the evil strangers come to us, sneaking in like cowards, we should slay their men and take their women. This is the way of the Fathers. This is among the Deeds. Many of the people agreed. Even though my words were clumsy, they still had the flow of truth. However, some of the great men seemed irritated, because I spoke first even though I was not a great man myself. One of my uncles asked the people if the Painted Backs were cowards. Were they not at least as numerous as the people? Were their men not strong? Did they not join us in war against the vile Grub Eaters and fight like lions? Yet they had been entirely destroyed by the evil strangers. It was not the act of a coward to prevent this. The people had many ripe young women, and just one was not too much to give away. To go against the flow of a powerful evil like this was unwise. It would bring destruction. This led to much arguing among the people. Nobody knew what to do. I became angry. I shouted that the crone was a witch trickster. She had probably kidnapped the young girl Rima and sold her as a slave. I said my uncle was a fool. Some of the men had to lead me away from the camp so that I could calm down before blood was shed. When I finally came back, all had been decided. On the next moonless night, the crone would lead Rima's younger sister, Rona, out to the rocky lands. I was outraged, but did not say anything. The people were decided, and I could not go against them. Then Maed, the flute player, spoke up. He said that it was cruel to send such a young girl out to the rocky lands to be taken away by evil. She would never see her mother and father again, nor the people, nor Mother River herself. With many beautiful and flowing words, he begged the people to change their minds. Now the arguing began again. The people were decided, but some of them lamented for Rona. After Maed's words, I felt an opportunity. I asked the great men if I could go with Rona and the crone to the rocky lands. I would make sure that the crone was not tricking us and face the strangers to see if they were as the crone had said, monstrous men as white as cave fish, or if they were just ordinary men. I was sure that the crone was trickster and that the evil strangers were just a lie she was telling. I expected her to protest, and I planned to show the people that she was lying. But instead she just bowed and said that this was a wise and fair idea. She said I was very wise to doubt her, even wiser than some who were older than me, which made my old uncle grumble. She would be glad to show me the nature of these terrible beings so that the people would believe her. This surprised me. The old witch was more tricky than I had expected. She offered to take anyone who doubted her out to the rocky lands to show them the evil menace. Nobody but me was "wise" enough to go with her. Now I became worried. Was the menace real? Would I encounter something monstrous out there in the rocky lands? Was I swimming against the flow of something sinister and powerful?