The ROOF OF BEAUTY AND WISDOM
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are imaginatively adapted from an ancient Kurdish Jewish folktale.
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Tanayt Asenath was not supposed to do housework. According to the marriage contract her father had insisted upon, Jacob could not ask his wife to do things like clean their home, cook meals, or wash clothes. Her father felt, and Jacob agreed, that she was too great a scholar to devote her energy to such mundane activities.
She inspected the long beige skirt, pleased that the stains from this morning's lesson were gone. Jacob had not asked her to hang the laundry on the roof, as she was now doing. He was dead, and the laundry needed to be done. Although her children were old enough to take care of these chores themselves, Asenath enjoyed doing ordinary things.
The Ebers looked to her as their leader because of her vast wisdom. Other people treated her with awe because she was the head of the Ebers, or Clay People as some called them. People also treated her deferentially because she was stunningly beautiful. Tall, her full figure and long limbs gave Asenath a commanding presence. Both men and women were afraid to look past the long lashes into her violet eyes. Such beauty, people reasoned, could only be a result of divine favor. Her straight black hair was always covered by a kerchief and was said to possess mystical powers.
Asenath accepted her beauty and her wisdom as a gift. The former, she ignored; the latter, she nurtured and fed. She didn't feel arrogant about either. "Tanayt" wasn't a name, but a title her people had bestowed on her. It was reserved only for the greatest sages, for the most able of leaders, and hadn't been given to anyone in hundreds of years. Certainly not to a woman.
Her father had been the community's leader. After he died while fleeing an assassin, Asenath's husband took his place. Jacob in turn was killed by a mysterious disease a couple of years later, after having spent a few days among the mosquito-infested marshes. Asenath had already been teaching in the Academy and was a trusted advisor to the community judges. Ordinary people, both Eber and non-Eber, came to her for advice, for counsel, for support. When Jacob passed away, it wasn't even a question as to who the next leader, the next head of the Academy would be. It wasn't a matter of nobility, of descent. Asenath was appointed by the love of the people.
The Ebers were tradesmen and merchants. They were also problem-solvers for the other inhabitants of the land: the Madai in the towns, and especially for the Marsh dwellers. These people were plagued by Sheyds, quasi-human sprites and troublemakers. The story behind them is that they were in the midst of being fashioned when the Source of Blessing hung the yellow moon in the sky, marking the end of the creation process. The Sheyds were there, but not fully. Resentful, they took vengeance by wreaking havoc on the lives of completely formed, fully sentient humans. Many Sheyds held the hope of taking over and retroactively changing things so that they would be the solid ones. It was a battle that began moments after the dawn of man. The Ebers had devised a way to trap the Sheyds using specially inscribed clay bowls, giving the humans a decided edge. Sheyd trapping was a distraction, but they couldn't refuse the pleas of people desperate for protection from hidden causes of trouble.
Asenath's house was small: typical two-story wattle and daub. Its exterior was the rust color of the local clay. Corner posts supported a wood roof frame, with thick, square crossbeams that extended out past the walls. Many people decorated the protruding roof beams of their houses with carvings, or hung beads and ribbons from them. Asenath's roof beams were plain. There were no beads or ribbons; there were no carved hands on them. So why was there a hand on one? As she watched, a large, muscular arm covered with coarse hair swung onto the roof beam. A leg followed. A face and torso she didn't know stood at the end of the beam, leering. The man balanced on one leg and scratched his groin.
"Your husband didn't let you be a woman; didn't even let you do the laundry like a woman is supposed to. I'm a real man, and I'm going to make you feel like a real woman."
"In the merit of the righteous, protect me. In the merit of wisdom, protect me." Asenath's whispers were inaudible to her visitor.
"Turn around for your own sake. Go away, and we will forget this happened." She addressed him calmly. "I won't allow you near me."
"I didn't ask for your permission."
"Are you married? Do you live near here? You don't look familiar." She smiled.
"I just moved to Lagash with my family. We're building our home on the eastern road. I heard about your body. I see the stories are true. Now it's time for a closer look." He took a step forward but stopped suddenly, as if he had walked into an invisible wall. Teetering from encountering something unexpected, he tried to steady himself. His foot slipped. Flailing, he just managed to grab the end of the beam with one hand as he fell to the side.
Asenath walked over to the fence surrounding her roof and peered into his eyes. He leered at her again, his neatly combed hair and clean-shaven cheeks contrasting with the ugliness of his plans. He tried to lift his leg back over the beam. He couldn't. He swung his other arm, to try to get a better hold with both hands. He couldn't. He gripped the beam as hard as he could with one hand, digging his fingernails into the wood. Asenath noted the makeshift ladder he had used to climb up, which he was desperately swinging his feet towards but was unable to reach. He was hanging over her garden, where beans were held up by closely spaced wooden stakes. If he fell, he might end up like a sieve.
"Don't worry, I won't let you fall." Asenath smiled at him. He swung his arm wildly, trying to get a better hold of the beam. He remained suspended by his one hand.
Asenath turned back to her laundry. She smiled at her children's clothes as she clipped them to the rope; there was great satisfaction in simple activities.
There were just a few socks and towels left in the last basket when the man gave up on freeing himself. "Help me, please. I didn't mean what I said. I was only trying to get your attention."
Asenath took a dishtowel from the basket. She had to give a lesson in the Academy in the evening, and she wanted the clothes to be dry enough to take down and fold before then. She clipped the towel next to the shirts.
"Please, have pity; don't leave me here like this." There was an edge of panic to his voice. "I heard you are a wise and merciful woman. Please be merciful to me. I wasn't going to hurt you."
Asenath walked back over and glanced at him. Some neighbors had come out and were looking to see what the commotion was about.
"Please, let me down. Undo your magic."
"It's not magic."
"Asenath, are you all right?" her next-door friend called from atop her own roof. "I'll send my daughter to the Academy, to let your children know what's going on."
She didn't want her children to be upset by this, but she also didn't want to keep them in the dark about something they were entitled to know about. "The situation's under control. Thank you."
Now the invader started to scream. "Mercy, help me!"
More people gathered.
"Look into my eyes, and tell me why you climbed up to my roof."
He was sobbing. "I just moved to this town. I heard that you are the most beautiful woman alive, that looking at you was like looking at the source of all beauty. I realized that I had to have you. Please, be kind."
Asenath spoke loudly, as much to the gathering crowd as to the man dangling by one hand from her roof beam. "A person who is kind when it is time to be cruel will end up being cruel when it's time to be kind."
"When will you let me go?"
"Why do you presume I will ever let you go?"
"Ja'ix's army will never let go of you, your children, or your children's children. I curse you with my death," the man screamed as he removed his hand from the beam. A gasp rose from the gathering crowd as the man remained suspended in the air, strapped in place by invisible bonds. Sweat poured from his brow as his hands and feet jerked around, trying to find a hold. He twisted and turned, he kicked and he cried. He could do everything except move from where he hung.
The crowd below grew, as Asenath returned to the clothesline. She hung up the garment in her hand and turned to the sound of a pair of feet coming up the stairs. Her friend from the next roof approached her.
"I'm afraid. What if Chief Taiku comes, and brings soldiers? They might decide to kill all of us just to amuse themselves. What if one of the Sphere Travelers comes to free him? Asenath," she whispered urgently, "what if every thief or brigand were to suffer such a fate? A quarter of the town would be in the air."
"I'll deal with the Chief when he comes. If more thieves and brigands were to suffer this kind of fate, maybe they wouldn't make up a quarter of the town. And several Sphere Travelers are on their way now, bringing spirit rope-cutters," she said without a trace of mockery. "One of them is actually climbing the stairs now."
In fact, three people were coming up the stairs: Aua, a short, muscular, and powerful shaman with a small, flat face, and slightly slanted eyes. Strangers from afar who mocked his appearance quickly learned to retract their words.
Most Sphere Travelers could get to only one other Sphere from the Abode of Life. Asenath suspected that Aua could reach more, perhaps the Sphere of Splendor, maybe even Strength. There were thirty-two mysteries, thirty-two pathways amongst the Spheres, and getting lost among them could be much worse than deadly. Wisdom and Understanding were near the top, and between them lay the Sphere of Knowledge.
Aua had his two frail-looking apprentices, Aleku and Geordi with him. Asenath was careful not to look in their direction until they had time to prepare. After a minute she turned to them, their faces on the floor in respect. Aua addressed her: "Teacher..."
"Please get up," Asenath said. She was embarrassed every time they did this, but they would be humiliated if she refused to acknowledge their bowing and scraping before her. "I am not the One to whom you should bow. I am not the Source of Blessing."
They got up slowly, holding their hands sideways in front of their faces, a sign of submission, of respect. The two apprentices kept their eyes downcast, looking only at Asenath's feet. Aua slowly lifted his eyes to hers.
