The Wildmen: A Field Study

(excerpted in part from a rare unabridged copy of "The Chronicles of Talislanta", by the wizard Tamerlin.)

"After two unsuccessful attempts to study a tribe of Wildmen at close range, the last of which involved a truly frightful encounter with a pack of Wildwomen in heat, I hit upon a more fruitful strategy. Rather than attempting to watch the tribe from hiding or approach them in an open and friendly fashion (the latter method having nearly proved fatal), I scoured the surrounding woods until I had gathered a considerable quantity of a local fungi known as skullcap. This done, I packed the mushrooms in a basket, sat on a rock in plain view of the tribe, and waited.

"Several moments passed before any of the tribe noticed my presence. Then a small group of Wildmen approached, their expressions registering a combination of curiosity and puzzlement. One touched me one the shoulder, then jumped back as if shocked to discover that I was actually there and not some sort of vision. Another came close, looked into the basket, and exhibitted a great, fanged grinned. The creature pointed to its mouth; I nodded and gave him a mushroom. He swallowed it whole, shook his mane of dredlocks wildly, and yelped in apparent glee.

"Soon the others were crowding around me in a most friendly fashion. I handed out mushrooms by the dozen, until there was only one left in the basket. This last mushroom none of the Wildmen would accept. Instead, by the use of certain signs and grunting noises, they indicated that this mushroom was for me. At first I hesitated, uncertain whether it would be more dangerous for me to ingest a poisonous mushroom or to defy a band of armed and inebriated Wildmen. Since the mushroom was rather small and the Wildmen quite large, I decided on the former course of action.

"As soon as I ate the skullcap the attitude of the Wildmen underwent a marked change. Clapping me on the back and hooting loudly, they motioned for me to join them. Together we set off into the woods at a loping gait, the Wildmen swinging their peculiar "singing stones" above their heads and howling like tundra beasts. Fantastic images of prismatic-colored topography swirled before my eyes, and I was swept away by feelings of wild euphoria. This was no doubt due to the effects of the skullcap, as I realize now, though at the time I was convinced that these were visions of some great truth that had eluded me since childhood. I remember little else about the experience save for the fact that I awoke sometime later, suspended from the uppermost branches of a spyder-oak, with a headache that lasted the better part of three days."

© 1994 SMS

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