pauraque_bk: (conlangery)
[personal profile] pauraque_bk
The new moon after the longest night is known as:

 
amunrujówó múúnnú

the darkest night

Depending on the year's position within the lunar-solar cycle, it falls on various days around the end of the season of Rain and the beginning of the season of Grass. If the solstice is a new moon, the darkest night is celebrated the night after.

On this night, the moon has succeeded in persuading the sun to slow down, but the nights are still long, and when the moon turns her face away to observe the stars, various malignant spirits may be seen. But this is not a serious holiday like the solstice; the people have confidence that summer will come, and work off the tension by tempting, chasing, and dancing with the spirits.

Those who possess the interest and skill may dress in costume and impersonate various spiritual and mythical beings.



The caption says:

awámmíió jyRú.
maong úmúún njyréeLin.
Láá óngóa ljyruúw.


Coyote Talks is acting as a hawk.
Black Morning Glory is acting as the sun.
Cold Quail is acting as the wolf.


The hawk costume is made of feathers and talons. (The talons on this costume are actually the claws of a young bear.)

The essential component of any sun costume is the blindfold. When the sun visits the land in the form of an animal or person, he must keep his eyes closed or covered, or else his light would be visible. This particular costume also incorporates face paint, body paint, and a piece of clothing to cover Black Morning Glory's genitals -- not for modesty's sake, but to suggest the being's inherent sexlessness (thus dangerous exemption from the reproductive contract). Black Morning Glory carries a decorated ring to symbolize the sun's disc, and rides a bull deer "because it is impressive to the children", he says.

The alpha male wolf is a mythological villain. In one tale, he rapes a female badger to illegitmately create the race of coyotes. Cold Quail -- actually a woman -- here costumes herself to resemble the way the wolf is depicted in art: with a distinctive pattern of stripes, tufts of hair at elbows and knees, and an erect penis. Cold Quail's strap-on phallus is made of wood. She is holding a slaughtered rabbit, the wolf's traditional prey animal. (Wolves and rabbits were both created by the same star.)

Date: 2005-01-11 09:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] notfudge.livejournal.com
This is awesome. Where, if you don't mind me asking, is it from? Or have you written it yourself? (I would really like to incorporate the idea into my own cycle of seasonal celebrations.)

Date: 2005-01-11 07:18 pm (UTC)
pauraque: patterned brown and white bird flying on a pale blue background (conlangery)
From: [personal profile] pauraque
It's from my brain. :) If I'd copied from somewhere, I'd have attributed it.

Date: 2005-01-13 12:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] notfudge.livejournal.com
I suspected it was.
Is it part of something wider? I'd love to read anything more you have written...

Date: 2005-01-13 06:37 am (UTC)
pauraque: patterned brown and white bird flying on a pale blue background (conlangery)
From: [personal profile] pauraque
Everything I've posted about it to LJ is here. It's mostly language stuff, since that's my primary area of interest, but as I've gone on, the culture has inexorably developed.

Date: 2005-01-11 10:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tekalynn.livejournal.com
That is SO COOL. I love your mythological work.

Date: 2005-01-11 07:38 pm (UTC)
pauraque: patterned brown and white bird flying on a pale blue background (Default)
From: [personal profile] pauraque
Thank you!

Date: 2005-01-11 12:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] theatresm.livejournal.com
pau, are you considering writing fantasy? Because, man, you've got one hell of a world built here.

Date: 2005-01-12 12:01 am (UTC)
pauraque: patterned brown and white bird flying on a pale blue background (Default)
From: [personal profile] pauraque
My problem is that I have a hard time coming up with plots. Background -- endless background -- is easy and enjoyable for me, but finding a story to tell about it is trickier.

Date: 2005-01-12 01:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] theatresm.livejournal.com
Ah. Well, the more detailed their world is, the more likely one of the little buggers is to creep up and insist on telling you their life story.

I'd lay odds on Cold Quail. Any female who carries off a ceremonial phallus with that much elan has got to have an interesting story....

Date: 2005-01-13 06:35 am (UTC)
pauraque: patterned brown and white bird flying on a pale blue background (Default)
From: [personal profile] pauraque
She is an interesting one. She's rather an important person... the mother of one child, and the accepted "father" of another. You can't tell these guys there's no such thing as lesbian pregnancy -- belief systems are powerful things!

Date: 2005-01-11 10:29 pm (UTC)
cruisedirector: (treeoflife)
From: [personal profile] cruisedirector
This is fascinating...is it based on a cultural tradition I should know about?

Date: 2005-01-12 12:11 am (UTC)
pauraque: patterned brown and white bird flying on a pale blue background (conlangery)
From: [personal profile] pauraque
I'd say I take some cues from native North American cultures, as far as the animist beliefs and mythology... But also, I've read a lot about how belief systems typically develop, and animal mythology + sun and/or moon worship is a common type for people at the technological level of these guys. Rather than (consciously) borrowing elements directly, I've tried to build the culture from the ground up... I ask myself, in this environment, with this level of science, how are they going to explain things? Now that a lot of groundwork has been laid, I'm mostly extrapolating from basic beliefs I've already decided on, trying to make things logical and natural _to them_.

I feel like I'm not explaining very well. I hope I've at least answered part of your question!

Date: 2005-01-11 10:52 pm (UTC)
ext_7651: (chinese)
From: [identity profile] idlerat.livejournal.com
**LOVES***

So much. What a beautiful drawing!

Date: 2005-01-12 12:12 am (UTC)
pauraque: patterned brown and white bird flying on a pale blue background (Default)
From: [personal profile] pauraque
Thank you!

By the way, I was recently doing some astronomy work, and reminded myself that I would need a rat constellation, or else Ratty would be displeased. ;)

Date: 2005-01-12 01:59 am (UTC)
ext_7651: (Default)
From: [identity profile] idlerat.livejournal.com
It would not be wise to incur the displeasure of The Rat!

Date: 2005-01-12 02:04 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Thanks, Eo! :-) It's been a while since I've seen new Amiu material, and the text and drawings give a whole new picture of your world.

(I note the bull deer's expression; I'm not sure he's all that thrilled at being ridden... ;-)

p@,
Glenn

Date: 2005-01-13 06:32 am (UTC)
pauraque: patterned brown and white bird flying on a pale blue background (Default)
From: [personal profile] pauraque
I don't think he is either! Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

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