Greetings, party people. There seems to be a great deal of misunderstanding about the following item that is part of "JTPYO" - specifically, it's part of JTPYO 4, King of the Land of the Dead, the chapter named "the poison tree."
Strangely, no one has contacted me for help to try to figure things out - and that's okay! But just in case someone would like to understand more, I offer the following from my own point of view - and since I wrote it, that should be worth something, right?
I shouldn't have to say this, but:
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
Enjoy!
-----------------
A parable is a story that illustrates a philosophical maxim.
Naruthi is a
character that appears frequently in Naxosos's lessons. He's actually
just a version of Naxosos that's a little more of a boor and a knave,
and a little more thick-headed, than Naxosos himself. Naruthi appears
in a number of Naxosos's lessons, but not every single one. Naxosos's
parables are usually a hit, as the audience knows him well enough to
know he's spoofing himself (and occasionally his friends, wives, and
adversaries) to get a point across.
The parable "The
Goose Girl" appears in the segment "the vineyard laborers"
after Naxosos meets and heals a young girl named Marihea from
paralysis. He is about to meet with the leaders of the clan Gohaiash
and try to persuade them to back his claim to the throne of Arigne.
There is a large gang of people awaiting his arrival in the village
and combined with his own followers – who trail several leagues
behind him on the road – it's a huge passel.
Inspired by the
simple faith of Marihea's family – they're Satrians – he relates
this parable to the huge crowd. (And a whole bunch of things happen
after that – Naxosos and his gang are basically kept awake all
night by the hysteria accompanying their arrival and the subsequent
arrival of the rest of his entourage, several thousand people and a
number of animals, carts, wagons, and so on a few hours later.)
The basic, and very
simple, premise of "the goose girl" is that God's word will
always take root in a person's heart whether they have ever been told
anything about God, or made to believe in him, or not.
Rose is a girl in a
very small and somewhat impoverished town; no one in the town ever
speaks of God and most have no idea in their heads about God at all.
Rose herself has "never heard of or known about God."
-----------
(The Goose Girl)
There was a girl
named Rose and her parents lived by the sea on Benetetria in Pavrain.
The town in which they lived was poor, though some of the houses were
sturdy and fine; also, it was very isolated. The bay and waters
beyond it had been fished-out for years, but the area was of interest
to the military and so people continued to live and trade there.
This girl Rose kept
a flock of geese, which had been something she'd been taught to do by
her uncle, her mother's brother, who was now gone. Her uncle had
informed her that she should never let any harm come to the geese and
that she should only harvest their eggs at her family's need, and
that if any of the geese were to be killed, it would only be at her
father's order. Rose understood these things and obeyed. She was a
great caretaker of her flock of geese and over the years it took for
her to attain twelve years of age, there were many fat goslings who
were sold to market or to the local militiamen or townspeople to
profit her family, and eggs to feed her family when the winter winds
buffeted the shores and food was scarce, with a fat goose, or several
of them, to eat at solstice-time.
Now this little
village town did not know God, nor of him. Some of the militiamen
knew of him from their travels, but they were never in the mood to
tell anyone about him. There were references to him upon some very
old markers in the town cemetery, but the graves were almost never
visited and when they were, no one paid attention to the markers.
Naruthi happened to
be passing through the town at one point, as he had some shady
business to attend to with the garrisoned men. He noticed the place
was rather dull and lifeless, but people, most of them dispirited and
uncommunicative, continued to live there – of course, Naruthi knew
that even if all the townspeople died or moved away, the garrison and
its soldiers would still be resident, so there was the explanation.
However, Naruthi
happened to notice upon his perambulation through the town the
goose-girl Rose. Because of his facility for perception, he noticed
also that the goose-girl Rose was innocently dedicated to her flock
of geese – and that she and her family were perhaps not thriving,
but at least maintaining, in a place otherwise barren of any sign of
success.
So, because that is
what Naruthi does, he determined that he would upset Rose's world and
cause disruption in the town, and then proceed to his shady dealings
with the soldiers in the garrison.
Rose was driving her
geese down to the shore to graze, then, as she did on most calm
mornings, when she saw a handsome man giving her the eye. She was
used to this, as she was a comely young girl but not a wealthy one,
so she simply gazed back, and held up the flail she used to direct
her geese as a subtle threat.
Naruthi said: "Nay,
young lady, I wish only to take a moment of your time to tell you
about God."
This stirred
something in Rose's memory, though she knew not what. She answered,
"Stranger, if you wish for only a moment of my time, you may
have it, as long as you stay where you are and make no sudden moves."
Naruthi then
informed Rose of the existence of God and taught her to say "praise
God." Once he was sure she had accepted his message, he traveled
on to the garrison and Rose never saw him again. She thought of
Naruthi a great deal after that, but of God even more often, and was
greatly disturbed thereby.
Upon successive
days, it seemed that a great clamor had begun upon the island
Benetetria, or at least upon its shores, for Rose heard the local
residents talking about it. Then one day, when Rose released her
flock of geese from their enclosure upon her parents' manor, she
noticed people she didn't recognize in the streets, and that moreover
the streets were full of carts and people carrying their belongings;
she had a difficult time driving her flock down to the shore.
When Rose and her
geese did get to their grazing-ground, she climbed a promontory and
looked toward the town, and though she didn't see much, she heard an
uproar. She wondered if this had something to do with the God that
the handsome man had told her about – it did seem likely.
Being mindful of her
uncle's advice, Rose decided not to take her geese back to her
parents' manor until she knew that everything was all right in the
town – this was not too much of a problem for her, as there were
many grazing-places for her birds, and she was more than able to care
for herself away from home and hearth – following her uncle's
advice had made her very self-sufficient.
For a few days Rose
and her flock stayed by the waterside, even though it was rainy and
cold. There were plenty of charaberries left on the bushes on the
saltwater flats, so the geese were quite content. Rose made a little
fire that kept the hollow where she slept warm enough, and though she
was sometimes hungry and uncomfortable, she did well. When the noise
from the town started to abate, she said to herself, she would
return. She worried about her mother and father, but there seemed to
be little to do about it, so she continued to follow her uncle's
advice. She cared for the geese and kept them from harm.
But things got
worse. The noise from the town increased and now there was smoke from
houses burning. Rose took her geese further out onto the salt flat;
they were not as content here, but they followed her because she was
their caretaker. The geese clustered around Rose when she slept and
kept her warm; she dared not build even the smallest fire for fear of
being noticed. She wondered if this trouble was because of the God
she had been told of; also she wondered if the man who had told her
about this God was the agent of all the ill she was experiencing.
One night there were
sounds of conflict and flashes out on the water, and Rose became
terrified. Now she collected her geese – they were also frightened
– and retreated to a cove on a low jetty that she knew of,
surrounded on every side except for the sea by salt marsh and, as far
as Rose knew, only she was able to reach it. It was a very unhappy
place and the geese also didn't like it, though one could live there
for days as there was an abundance of sand crabs. Rose knew how to
collect dew and rain for drinking water and so would be able to
survive there for a time.
When morning came,
Rose saw men in longboats out on the water. They could see her and
her geese, but they could not reach them because of the shallows and
the marsh. The men even shot arrows, but these were not able to reach
Rose or her geese – and they couldn't retrieve their arrows – and
finally they became frustrated and rowed away, shouting threats and
curses. Rose was afraid and cried, and spent a very miserable day and
night wondering if the men would find a way over the marsh and
capture her.
Another handful of
days passed. Things started to quiet down after a couple of days, and
by the fourth day everything seemed almost back to normal – the
sounds of conflict went away and the air cleared, and one morning
Rose, now very worn and tired and hungry, woke to the sounds of
birdsong, and realized that she had not heard this sound for many
days, but now it had returned.
During her time of
hiding, Rose had come to the conclusion that Naruthi, the handsome
gentleman who had told her about God, had been the agent of all the
upheaval, but in a strange way that didn't have anything to do with
her – she began to feel that Naruthi had told her about God to
protect her in some way, for she doubted greatly, given the fires
that had burned for days, that there was much of the village left.
She listened to the
birds singing and felt the clean air on her face and, even though no
one had ever taught her how to address God, she felt gladness and
gave thanks to God in the same manner she would have thanked someone
giving her a present for her birthday. This made her long to see her
parents and her home, so she resolved to leave the salt marsh and
return to her village.
Rose told the geese
that she would give them a chance to take their freedom, as she was
going to go and try to find out whether her parents had survived,
which would involve risk, and her uncle had told her never to let any
harm come to the geese. She then removed the bands from their wings
so that they could take flight. She petted them and said goodbye to
them, and left them stretching their wings – it seemed they were
thanking God, too – at the cove, and made her way out of the marsh.
Once Rose had a view
of the town, she hid for some time in a covert, watching. She saw
some men under guard being led through the streets with ropes around
their necks and their hands tied; they were led by the local
militiamen, and one or two of these prisoners wore the same uniform
as the men who had shot arrows at her.
Rose still
hesitated, as she had heard that even one's own soldiers may behave
very badly after they have been in a fight.
Then a strange thing
happened, for Rose heard a sound overhead and looked up to see her
geese flying over her; upon seeing where she was, they circled, then
landed in the covert and gathered around her. Rose sensed that the
geese wanted to stay with her and were anxious to see their pens and
food again, though if she drove them into the town it was doubtful
that any of them would live much longer than it took for hungry
survivors of the conflict to spot them.
But she couldn't
persuade the geese to leave her and they all clustered around her
until she decided that she would go to her parents' house to see how
they had fared. Then all of her geese began waddling on their usual
route toward Rose's house, and she followed them, wondering if she
would see Naruthi again.
Rose and her flock
managed to get back to the manor and, wonder of wonders, she found
her mother and father there, whole and alive. Their house had taken
fire but rain had put the fire out quickly, and they had been able to
hide at a neighbor's farm for the worst part of the conflict. When
they had come back, they had found that the local militia had
vanquished the attackers and that further, the attackers had been
driven from Benetetria. The manor house was somewhat damaged, but
they had already hired workers to make repairs. Upon learning these
things, Rose urged her parents to express their gratitude toward God,
which they did, though they had never heard of him in their lives.
Everyone in the
village, as it turned out, had been anxious about Rose, but her
father had said to those who asked about her that he knew that she
would always follow her uncle's advice, and that she was a very
self-sufficient girl, and that they could and should expect her back.
They were all surprised, however, that she had returned with her
flock of geese intact and in a company all around her, having lost
none, and that none of them had a band on its wing anymore. This was
regarded as a marvel. Rose encouraged them to express gratitude
toward God and, even though some of them considered it ridiculous and
offensive, most of them did just on the off chance that there might
be something to it.
The townspeople were
hungry and so Rose and her mother and father made very good trades
with them; after this, a number of townspeople started their own
flocks from those animals they had purchased from Rose and not eaten
straightaway. Rose ended up with only six geese left to begin a new
flock, but her family now had enough money to make repairs upon their
property, and Rose's father also made sure he added a substantial
amount to his daughter's dowry. (After that, the young fellows in the
district began to be very polite toward Rose, and to tip their hats
when they chanced to see her driving her geese to the shore.)
Some years later
Naruthi happened to be passing through the area on no particular
business and noted that Rose was now a very successful lady married
to an important man, living on an estate that was luxurious and
productive, in spite of how isolated the village was. Intrigued, he
wandered through the town, listening and watching and taking note of
whatever he saw or heard.
The next thing
Naruthi observed, then, was that the locals, though they were not
ostentatiously rich or even comfortable-appearing, did not appear
poor or downtrodden, either. People bustled about their business and
when they would encounter one another, each would not just pass a
greeting, but comment on something about the day or the other's
attire, or about how peaceful everything was, or make some other
observation that was friendly and positive-sounding, and then say –
almost as though they were quoting a verse from an obscure text in a
language unknown to them – "Praise God!" after which both
parties would give a little laugh and look toward the sky, and then
go on about their business.
"Drat that
girl!" Naruthi exclaimed when he realized what was going on, and
then traveled on down the road without taking a room, even though the
next village was quite a distance.
If you have two
ears, then hear.
###
THIS IS ALL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL.
