No Strings Attached: Stage Show

and drew her shawl closer to her neck.

"I cannot tell you," she said, "For none have ever gone that way and returned to tell."

Yaoul was disappointed.

"But listen," said Inigwa, "I will tell you the song of the Arrival, and you may take from it whatever you will."

"The Arrival?"

"Yes, yes," said the old woman, waving her hand to quiet him, "If you leave the questions till later, you may find you do not need to ask them. Now listen, and I will sing you the song.

She lifted her voice to a steady sound, like the wind blowing through the branches of an old tree.

"In a time when the world was dark, and growing darker,

When the gods were living with the people, and teaching them evil things,

When the world was rocking to and fro,

And all the people spoke rebellion, and learned to love violence,

And they began to build a tower,

A tower of blasphemy.

The Great God was angry,

His fire went out,

He blew the tongues of animals across the sky,

And they landed in the mouths of men.

Now the men could not speak.

They brayed, they snorted,

Like the wild horses they galloped,

Like the tall giraffes they called to their companions,

Like the fish they followed the rivers of the world.

And the gods went with them, following hard,

Chasing them to the ends of the stars and pushing them down,