Part 35 (1/2)

'Of course.'

'Judaism - Jewishness - it's one of Earth's major religions.'

'You are therefore a priest?'

'Not at all. I don't even practice Judaism. But my ancestors did, and therefore I consider myself Jewish, even though-'

'It is an hereditary religion, then,' the Antarean said, 'that does not require its members to observe its rites?'

'In a sense,' said Schwartz desperately. 'More an hereditary cultural subgroup, actually, evolving out of a common re-ligious outlook no longer relevant.'

'Ah. And the cultural traits of Jewishness that define it and separate you from the majority of humankind are-?'

'Well-' Schwartz hesitated. 'There's a complicated dietary code, a rite of circ.u.mcision for newborn males, a rite of pa.s.sage for male adolescents, a language of scripture, a vernacular language that Jews all around the world more or less under-stand and plenty more, including a certain intangible sense of clannishness and certain att.i.tudes, such as a peculiar self-deprecating style of humor-'

'You observe the dietary code? You understand the langu-age of scripture?'

'Not exactly,' Schwartz admitted. 'In fact I don't do any-thing that's specifically Jewish except think of myself as a Jew and adopt many of the characteristically Jewish personality modes, which, however, are not uniquely Jewish any longer - they can be traced among Italians, for example, and to some extent among Greeks.

I'm speaking of Italians and Greeks of the late twentieth century, of course.

Nowadays-' It was all becoming a terrible muddle. 'Nowadays-'

'It would seem,' said the Antarean, 'that you are a Jew only because your maternal and paternal gene-givers were Jews, and they-'

'No, not quite. Not my mother, just my father, and he was Jewish only on his father's side, but even my grandfather never observed the customs, and-'

'I think this has grown too confusing,' said the Antarean. 'I withdraw the entire inquiry. Let us speak instead of my own traditions. The Time of Openings, for example, may be under-stood as-'

In the Green Room some eighty or a hundred distinguished Papuans press toward him, offering congratulations. 'Abso-lutely right,' they say. 'A global catastrophe.'

'Our last chance to save our culture.' Their skins are chocolate-tinted but their faces betray the genetic mishmash that is their ancestry - per-haps they call themselves Arapesh, Mundugumor, Tchambuli, Mafulu, in the way that he calls himself a Jew, but they have been liberally larded with chromosomes contributed by Chinese, j.a.panese, Europeans, Africans, everything. They dress in International Contemporary. They speak slangy, lively English. Schwartz feels seasick. 'You look dazed,' Dawn whispers. He smiles bravely. Body like dry bone. Mind like dead ashes. He is introduced to a tribal chieftain, tall, gray-haired, who looks and speaks like a professor, a lawyer, a banker. What, will these people return to the hills for the ceremony of the yam harvest? Will newborn girl-children be abandoned, cords uncut, skins unwashed, if their fathers do not need more girls? Will boys entering manhood submit to the expensive services of the initiator who sacrifices them with the teeth of crocodiles? The crocodiles are gone. The shamans have become stockbrokers.

Suddenly he cannot breathe.

'Get me out of here,' Schwartz mutters hoa.r.s.ely, choking.

Dawn, with stewardess efficiency, chops a path for him through the mob. The sponsors, concerned, rush to bis aid. He is floated swiftly back to the hotel in a glistening little bubble-car. Dawn helps him to bed. Reviving, he reaches for her.

'You don't have to,' she says. 'You've had a rough day.'

He persists. He embraces her arid takes her, quickly, fiercely, and they move together for a few minutes and it ends and he sinks back, exhausted, stupefied. She gets a cool cloth and pats his forehead, and urges him to rest. 'Bring me my drugs,'

he says. He wants siddharthin, but she misunder-stands, probably deliberately, and offers him something blue and bulky, a sleeping pill, and, too weary to object, he takes it. Even so, it seems to be hours before sleep comes.

He dreams he is at the skyport, boarding the rocket for Bangkok, and instantly he is debarking at Bangkok - just like Port Moresby, only more humid - and he delivers his speech to a horde of enthusiastic Thais, while rockets flicker about him, carrying him to skyport after skyport, and the Thais blur and become j.a.panese, who are transformed into Mongols, who become Uighurs, who become Iranians, who become Sudan-ese, who become Zambians, who become Chileans, and all look alike, all look alike, all look alike.

The Spicans hovered above him, weaving, bobbing, swaying like cobras about to strike. But their eyes, warm and liquid, were sympathetic: loving even. He felt the glow of their com-pa.s.sion. If they had had the sort of musculature that enabled them to smile, they would be smiling tenderly, he knew.

One of the aliens leaned close. The little translating device dangled toward Schwartz like a holy medallion. He narrowed his eyes, concentrating as intently as he could on the amber words flas.h.i.+ng quickly across the screen.

'...has come. We shall...'

'Again, please,' Schwartz said. 'I missed some of what you were saying.'

'The moment has come. We shall... make the exchange of sacraments now.'

'Sacraments?'

'Drugs.'

'Drugs, yes. Yes. Of course.' Schwartz groped in his pouch. He felt the cool smooth leather skin of his drug-case. Leather? Snakeskin, maybe. Anyway. He drew it forth. 'Here,' he said. 'Siddharthin, learitonin, psilocerebrin, acidly. Take your pick.' The Spicans selected three small blue siddharthins. 'Very good,' Schwartz said. 'The most transcendental of all. And now-'

The longest of the aliens proffered a ball of dried orange fungus the size of Schwartz' thumbnail.