The humans were led to the center of the room, to the “Ground of Canthorel,” a plot of fragrant leafed plants where a bench had been provided for them.
“The plants are actually grown in a greenhouse,” whispered Vess. “They bring in fresh ones each morning, take the bottoms off the pots so the roots can actually touch the Ground of Canthorel, which is where his ashes were spread, thus sanctifying the plants. Visitors nip off a leaf as a remembrance. There’d be nothing left unless they put new ones in each day.”
Several Pistach carrying buckets and mops were gathered between the center door and the one to the right, and a tall Pistach in blue apron and hood (a curator, they were told) stood behind a lectern. Benita thought he looked nervous, though she couldn’t tell why she thought so until she noticed the tiny fringy bits around his mouth trembling, as though he had Parkinson’s disease. T’Fees emerged from the group with the mops and signaled the curator, who began to read. Chiddy, beside her, translated.
“Panel number one,” he said.”The Meeting. This panel portrays the welcoming of Mengantowhai by the Jaupati. We see the ship in the background, and in the foreground several of the Jaupati, gazing with wonder at the great vessel. In the middle distance, we see Mengantowhai approaching, carrying his staff. Stepping forward from among the Jaupati is the person of Bendangiwees, leader of the Jaupati and first friend of the Pistach. To the rear, right, we see three amorphous figures assaulting wine jars. This is a teaching against drunkenness.”
At this point in the reading, T’Fees shouted a command, and his minions began sloshing liquid over the amber/ocher haze that hid the subject matter. As the curator went on with the details of commentary, the liquid ran down the wall, carrying the soot away, disclosing the bright colors of the wall. Runnels of dark cleanser gathered on the floor to be sponged up by the cleaners and squeezed into empty buckets. Again and again the mops stroked fresh cleanser across the panel between the doors, and the cleaning Pistach moved back and forth, taking buckets away and bringing new ones.
On the gallery, the old Pistach murmured among themselves, sometimes crying out in feeble voices. Benita saw them point and shiver and point again, as though they saw some great disaster they were impotent to avert.
Since the cleaners worked from the top down, the first part of the picture to emerge was an expanse of bluish violet sky. The ship emerged next, coming out of the sooty haze as a great lumpy thing with what looked like gun turrets all over it. Next was Mengantowhai, a strong, stern-looking Pistach carrying . . . well, the curator had called it a staff, but it was obviously a weapon. The huddled things in the middle right background were not wine jars or any kind of vessels, but people, presumably Jaupati, who were being beaten by uniformed Pistach.
Finally, they saw the foreground Jaupati emerge from the veil, a furry people rather like large six-legged cats. Their mobile faces showed expressions of terror and loathing of the Pistach. Their gestures were aversive, and their leader, Bendangiwees, thrust out his four-fingered forehands, warningly.
“Look at it, curator!” called T’Fees, when the last of the mopping and sponging had been done. “What does it show?”
“As I said,” the curator intoned, his voice shaking only slightly. “It shows Mengantowhai’s first meeting with the Jaupati. The Jaupati were afraid, at first, but this emotion was soon replaced with gratitude.”
“And the ones being beaten?”
“Probably . . . criminals. People . . . who had attempted to disrupt the order of the meeting ceremony . . .”
“Or perhaps simple citizens who didn’t get out of the way fast enough,” trumpeted T’Fees. “Second panel! Read, curator!”
The curator looked at the page before him, hesitantly, letting his eyes drift upward to the aged Pistach on the gallery.
“Read!” demanded T’Fees again.
He read.
“The Descent of the Steadfast Docents.We see the docents descending into the society of the Jaupati, spreading throughout their society in order to civilize them and make them orderly. . . .”