Light Be Yours

The Night Face, II.

The immediately preceding Technic History instalment, "A Tragedy of Errors," is about misunderstandings caused by linguistic changes. The Night Face might involve the same problem:

"'Evidently, the meaning of the word "government" has diverged in our language from yours. Let me think, please.' Dawyd knitted his brow." (p. 557)

However, it will emerge that the problem runs deeper.

When the Gwydiona, Dawyd, welcomes the Namerican, Tolteca, into his house, he recites a formal greeting:

"'O guest of the house, who may be God, most welcome and beloved, enter. In the name of joy, and health, and understanding, beneath Ynis and She and the stars; fire, flood, fleet, and light be yours.'" (p. 562)

Ynis is the sun. She, IIRC, is the single moon. Thus, "beneath heaven." Why is this elaborate greeting not abbreviated? Why does he wish fire, fleet and flood for his guest? There are further refinements. Dawyd crosses himself, then draws a cross on his guest's brow with a finger. Furthermore, and this is surprising:

"The ritual was obviously ancient, and yet he did not gabble it, but spoke with vast seriousness." (ibid.)

Surely you or I would tend to gabble if we had to repeat that regularly? It is not a mere ritual. The psychology of the Gwydiona is such that, without any apparent effort on their part, they maintain elaborately civilized behaviour most of the time but go insane once a year and then forget. Even they do not know what their problem is. The Night Face is hidden.

Someone might ask, "Wasn't there a Star Trek like this?" But we have already covered that! See here.