Part 10 (1/2)

He took his time about answering: he was beginning to acquire the Indian habit of thinking a long while before speaking.

”Property and justice are water,” he said finally. ”No man can hold them long. I have spent many years in courtrooms, and I have seen property and justice change when a man speaks, change as the caterpillar changes to the b.u.t.terfly. Do you understand me? I thought I had victory in my hands, and then the judge spoke and it went away. Like water running through the fingers.”

Uncle John Feather nodded. ”I understand. You mean we will lose again. We are accustomed to losing. Since George Was.h.i.+ngton promised us these lands 'as long as the mountain stands and the gra.s.s is green,' and then broke his promise and stole part of them back in ten years-in ten years, my friend!-we have lost, always lost. We have one acre left of each hundred promised to us then.”

”We may not lose,” Hagbard said. ”I promise you, the BIA will at least know they have been in a fight this time. I learn more tricks, and get nastier, each time I go into a courtroom. I am very tricky and very nasty by now. But I am less sure of myself than I was when I took my first case. I no longer understand what I am fighting. I have a word for it-the Snafu Principle, I call it-but I do not understand what it is.”

There was another pause. Hagbard heard the lid on the garbage can in back of the cabin rattling: that was the racc.o.o.n that Uncle John Feather called Old Grandfather come to steal his evening dinner. Property was theft, certainly, in Old Grandfather's world, Hagbard thought.

”I am also puzzled,” Sam Three Arrows said finally. ”I worked, long ago, in New York City, in construction, like many young men of the Mohawk Nation. I found that whites were often like us, and I could not hate them one at a time. But they do not know the earth or love it. They do not speak from the heart, usually. They do not act from the heart. They are more like the actors on the movie screen. They play roles. And their leaders are not like our leaders. They are not chosen for virtue, but for their skill at playing roles. Whites have told me this, in plain words. They do not trust their leaders, and yet they follow them. When we do not trust a leader, he is finished. Then, also, the leaders of the whites have too much power. It is bad for a man to be obeyed too often. But the worst thing is what I have said about the heart. Their leaders have lost it and they have lost mercy. They speak from somewhere else. They act from somewhere else. But from where? Like you, I do not know. It is, I think, a kind of insanity.” He looked at Hagbard and added politely. ”Some are different.”

It was a long speech for him, and it stirred something in Uncle John Feather. ”I was in the army,” he said. ”We went to fight a bad white man, or so the whites told us. We had meetings that were called orientation and education. There were films. It was to show us how this bad white man was doing terrible things in his country. Everybody was angry after the films, and eager to fight. Except me. I was only there because the army paid more than an Indian can earn anywhere else. So I was not angry, but puzzled. There was nothing that this white leader did that the white leaders in this country do not also do. They told us about a place named Lidice. It was much like Wounded Knee. They told us of families moved thousands of miles to be destroyed. It was much like the Trail of Tears. They told us of how this man ruled his nation, so that none dared disobey him. It was much like the way white men work in corporations in New York City, as Sam has described it to me. I asked another soldier about this, a black white man. He was easier to talk to than the regular white man. I asked him what he thought of the orientation and education. He said it was s.h.i.+t, and he spoke from the heart. I thought about it a long time, and I knew he was right. The orientation and education was s.h.i.+t. When the men from the BIA come here to talk, it is the same. s.h.i.+t. But let me tell you this: the Mohawk Nation is losing its soul. Soul is not like breath or blood or bone and it can be taken in ways no man understands. My grandfather had more soul than I have, and the young men have less than me. But I have enough soul to talk to Old Grandfather, who is a racc.o.o.n now. He thinks as a racc.o.o.n and he is worried about the racc.o.o.n nation, more than I am worried about the Mohawk Nation. He thinks the racc.o.o.n nation will die soon, and all the nations of the free and wild animals. That is a terrible thing and it frightens me. When the nations of the animals die, the earth will also die. That is an old teaching and I cannot doubt it. I see it happening, already. If they steal more of our land to build that dam, more of our soul will die, and more of the souls of the animals will die! The earth will die, and the stars will no longer s.h.i.+ne! The Great Mother herself may die!” The old man was crying unashamedly. ”And it will be because men do not speak words but speak s.h.i.+t!”

Hagbard had turned pale beneath his olive skin. ”You're coming into court,” he said slowly, ”and you're going to tell the judge that, in exactly those words.”

ILLUMINATI PROJECT: MEMO #17.

8/8.

J.M.:.

You may remember that the East Village Other's East Village Other's chart of the Illuminati Conspiracy (Memo chart of the Illuminati Conspiracy (Memo #9) #9) listed ”The Holy Vehm” as an Illuminati front. I have finally found out what The Holy Vehm is (or, rather was). My source is Eliphas Levy's listed ”The Holy Vehm” as an Illuminati front. I have finally found out what The Holy Vehm is (or, rather was). My source is Eliphas Levy's History of Magic History of Magic, op. cit., pages 199-200: They were a kind of secret police, having the right of life and death. The mystery which surrounded their judgments, the swiftness of their executions, helped to impress the imagination of people still in barbarism. The Holy Vehm a.s.sumed gigantic proportions; men shuddered in describing apparitions of masked persons, of summonses nailed to the doors of n.o.bles in the very midst of their watch-guards and their orgies, of brigand chiefs found dead with the terrible cruciform dagger in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s and on the scroll attached thereto an extract from the sentence of the Holy Vehm. The Tribunal affected most fantastic forms of procedure: the guilty person, cited to appear at some discredited cross-road, was taken to the a.s.sembly by a man clothed in black, who bandaged his eyes and led him forward in silence. This occurred invariably at some unseemly hour of the night, for judgment was never p.r.o.nounced except at midnight. The criminal was carried into a vast underground vault, where he was questioned by one voice. The hoodwink was removed, the vault was illuminated in all its depth and height, and the Free Judges sat masked and wearing black vestures.The Code of the Vehmic Court was found in the ancient archives of Westphalia and has been printed in the Reichstheater of Muller, under the following t.i.tle: ”Code and Statutes of the Holy Secret Tribunal of Free Courts and Free Judges of Westphalia, established in the year 772 by the Emperor Charlemagne and revised in 1404 by King Robert, who made those alterations and additions requisite for the administration of justice in the tribunals of the illuminated, after investing them with his own authority.”A note on the first page forbade any profane person to glance at the book under penalty of death. The word ”illuminated,” here given to the a.s.sociates of the Secret Tribunal, unfolds their entire mission: they had to track down in the shadows those who wors.h.i.+pped the darkness; they counterchecked mysteriously those who conspired against society in favour of mystery; but they were themselves the secret soldiers of light, who cast the light of day on criminal plottings, and it is this which was signified by a sudden splendour illuminating the Tribunal when it p.r.o.nounced sentence.

So now we have to add Charlemagne Charlemagne to the list of the Illuminated-along with Zoroaster, Joachim of Floris, Jefferson, Was.h.i.+ngton, Aaron Burr, Hitler, Marx, and Madame Blavatsky. Could this to the list of the Illuminated-along with Zoroaster, Joachim of Floris, Jefferson, Was.h.i.+ngton, Aaron Burr, Hitler, Marx, and Madame Blavatsky. Could this all all be a hoax? be a hoax?

ILLUMINATI PROJECT: MEMO #18.

8/9.

J.M.:.

My last memo may have been too hasty in using the past tense in speaking about the Holy Vehm. I find that Darual thinks they may still exist (History of Secret Societies (History of Secret Societies, op. cit., p. 211): These terrible courts were never formally abolished. They were reformed by various monarchs, but even in the nineteenth century it was said that they still existed, though very much underground. The n.a.z.i werewolves and resistance organizations fighting the Communist occupation of East Germany claimed that they were carrying on the tradition of the ”Chivalrous and Holy Vehm.” Perhaps they still are.

Pat Federal Court for the 17th District of New York State. Plaintiffs: John Feather, Samuel Arrows, et al. Defendants: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, and President of the United States. For plaintiffs: Hagbard Celine. For the defendants: George Kharis, John Alucard, Thomas Moriarity, James Moran. Presiding: Justice Quasimodo Immhotep.

MR. FEATHER (concluding): (concluding): And it will be because men do not speak words but speak s.h.i.+t! And it will be because men do not speak words but speak s.h.i.+t!

MR. KHARIS: Your honor, I move that the last speech be stricken from the record as irrelevant and immaterial.

We are dealing here with a practical question, the need of the people of New York for this dam, and Mr. Feather's superst.i.tions are totally beside the point.

MR. CELINE: Your honor, the people of New York have survived a long time without a dam in that particular place. They can survive longer without it. Can anything survive, anything worth having, if our words become, as Mr. Feather says, excrement? Can anything we can reasonably call American Justice survive, if the words of our first President, if the sacred honor of George Was.h.i.+ngton is destroyed, if his promise that the Mohawk could keep these lands ”as long as the mountain stands and the gra.s.s is green,” if all that becomes nothing but excrement?

MR. KHARIS: Counsel is not arguing. Counsel is making speeches.

MR. CELINE: I am speaking from the heart. Are you Are you-or are you speaking excrement that you are ordered to speak by your superiors?

MR. ALUCARD: More speeches.

MR. CELINE: More excrement JUSTICE IMMHOTEP: Control yourself, Mr. Celine.

MR. CELINE: I am controlling myself. Otherwise, I would speak as frankly as my client and say that most of the speeches here are plain old s.h.i.+t. Why do I say ”excrement” at all, if it isn't, like you people, to disguise a little what we are all doing? It's s.h.i.+t. Plain s.h.i.+t.

JUSTICE IMMHOTEP: Mr. Celine, you are coming very close to contempt of court. I warn you.

MR. CELINE: Your honor, we speak the tongue of Shakespeare, of Milton, of Melville. Must we go on murdering it? Must we tear it away from its last umbilical connection with reality? What is going on in this room, actually? Defendants, the U.S. government and its agents, want to steal some land from my clients. How long do we have to argue that they have no justice, no right, no honor, in their cause? Why can't we say highway robbery is highway robbery, instead of calling it eminent domain? Why can't we say s.h.i.+t is s.h.i.+t, instead of calling it excrement? Why do we never use language to convey meaning? Why must we always use it conceal meaning? Why do we never speak from the heart? Why do we always speak words programmed into us, like robots?

JUSTICE IMMHOTEP: Mr. Celine, I warn you again.

MR. FEATHER: And I warn you. The world will die. The stars will go out. If men and women cannot trust the words spoken, the earth will crack, like a rotten pumpkin.

MR. KHARIS: I call for a recess. Plaintiff and their counsel are both in no emotional state to continue at this time.

MR. CELINE: You even have guns. You have men with guns and clubs, who are called marshals, and they will beat me if I don't shut up. How do you differ from any other gang of bandits, then, except in using language that conceals what you are doing? The only difference is that the bandits are more honest. That's the only difference. The only difference.

JUSTICE IMMHOTEP: Mr. Marshal, restrain the counsel.

MR. CELINE: You're stealing what isn't yours. Why can't you talk turkey for just one moment? Why- JUSTICE IMMHOTEP: Just hold him, Marshal. Don't use unnecessary force. Mr. Celine, I am tempted to forgive you, considering that you are obviously much involved with your clients, emotionally. However, such mercy on my part would encourage other lawyers to believe they could follow your example. I have no choice. I find you guilty of contempt of court. Sentencing will take place when court reconvenes after a fifteen-minute recess. You may speak at that time, but only on any mitigating grounds that should lighten the degree of your sentence. I will not hear the United States government called bandits again. That is all.

MR. CELINE: You steal land, and you will not hear yourselves called bandits. You order men with guns and clubs to hold us down, and you will not hear yourselves called thugs. You don't act from the heart; where the h.e.l.l do you act from? What in G.o.d's name does motivate you?

JUSTICE IMMHOTEP: Restrain him, Marshal.

MR. CELINE: (Indistinguishable.) JUSTICE IMMHOTEP: Fifteen-minute recess.

BAILIFF: All rise.

ILLUMINATI PROJECT: MEMO #19.

8/9.

J.M.:.

I wish you would explain to me how your interest in the numbers 5 and 23 fit in with this Illuminati project. This is all I've been able to unearth so far on the number mystery, and I hope you find it enlightening. It's from a book of mathematical and logical paradoxes: How to Torture Your Mind How to Torture Your Mind, edited by Ralph L. Woods, Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1969, page 128.

2 and 3 are even and odd; 2 and 3 are 5; Therefore, 5 is both even and odd.

The d.a.m.ned book, by the way, provides no solutions to the paradoxes. I could sense the fallacy in that one right away, but it took me hours (and a headache) before I could state it in precise words. Hope this helps you. Anyway, for me, it was a relief from the really frightening stuff I've been tracking down lately.

Pat There were two further memos in the box, on different stationeries and by different typewriters. The first was brief: April 4 RESEARCH DEPARTMENT!.

I am seriously concerned about Pat's absence from the office, and the fact that she doesn't answer the phone when we call her. Would you send somebody to her apartment to talk to the landlord and try to find out what has happened to her?

Joe Malik Editor The last memo was the oldest in the lot and already yellowing at the edges. It said: Dear Mr. ”Mallory:”

The information and books, you requested are enclosed, at length. In case you are rushed, here is a quick summary.

1. Billy Graham was in Australia, making public appearances all through last week. There is no way he could have gotten to Chicago.

2. Satanism and witchcraft both still exist in the modern world. The two are often confused by orthodox Christian writers, but objective observers agree that there is a difference. Satanism is a Christian heresy-the ultimate heresy, one might say-but witchcraft is pre-Christian in origin and has nothing to do with the Christian G.o.d or or the Christian Devil. The witches wors.h.i.+p a G.o.ddess called Dana or Tana (who goes back to the Stone Age probably). the Christian Devil. The witches wors.h.i.+p a G.o.ddess called Dana or Tana (who goes back to the Stone Age probably).