Light Action in the Caribbean Read Online Free PDF

begins his time of service by becoming an attendant. It is his responsibility to prepare meals for the Lords, to see to the plots, orchards, and gardens in the interior, to the pathways and a wood lot, and to assist those people chosen to change the Texts. (These are always young women and men from among the Dobrit, chosen Word of Mouth, who study under the Circle of Women before performing their duties four times a year, at Change of Season.)
    From the outside, the houses of the Lords resemble one another closely, though slight differences in construction, for instance in the mortise and tenon of framing, were apparent to me. Each house sits just off the ground on chestnut postsand is girt by a veranda. Sliding walls, inset with carved cypress panels, open all around onto the porch. The low-pitched shed roofs, composed of long, half-round tiles, slope outward. Inside, the four trapezoidal rooms converge on an open courtyard. These rooms are identical, each spacious enough to contain two or three large tables (upon which rest the Texts), a sleeping mat, or futon, and a small serving table. A flat chest for clothing, several wood chairs, and a washstand complete the furniture. A slate apron in the center of each floor surrounds a small firepit. Firewood is ricked on the porch outside, an ash bucket sits opposite on a tile. From two corners of the roof, chains lead to rain barrels.
    The day I was admitted to the Garden of the Lords of War was in the fourth week of spring. Many of the trees were in blossom, vegetable gardens were budding with early onions and two types of lettuce, and the flower plots were effulgent with carmine, lavender, and sulfurous blooms. I walked with two of my hosts, an older woman named Kortathena and a girl about eighteen called Marika, and with the attendant at whose gate we had entered. It was a visit of only three hours but we walked leisurely through the grounds—time enough for me to see well how closely tended they were, and to observe that though the design of the pathways and the placement of the gardens suggested symmetry, they were not so laid out. Some of the pines were of such great size I felt the area must have been sacred to others before the Dobrit arrived. Certainly nowhere have I ever seen so many spiders or butterflies, or heard so many sorts of birdsong—five altogether.
    The arrangement of the Prayer among the Lords of War isas follows: each Lord lives the whole of a season in a single room of the house he occupies. At Change of Season he moves across the courtyard to another room, which has been prepared with a fresh set of Texts and drawings, and enhanced with artwork—textiles, sculpture, and paintings. He remains there until the following seasonal change, reading and studying. This practice and sequence permitted me to view each type of room empty, though I was able to step into only two houses. (The design of these rooms is similar from house to house, though I was told the four styles of design found in each house are not meant to correspond to the seasons. The rooms are commonly called by the color of the glazed pottery on which meals in that room are served: ocean green, lantern red, Persian blue, poppy yellow.)
    When a room is occupied by a Lord, it is also vased with flowers and contains a pair of birds, doves usually, though sometimes crows. A lute,
shamisen
, or other stringed instrument is present, and small bowls of spice—ginger, cinnamon, sage, vanilla bean, clove—are set about. When a room is not occupied, it appears hollow and spare. The one bright spot of color is the stack of glazed dishes on the meal table.
    In the Ocean Green room I was shown, the floor was of quartersawn tulipwood, light-colored, straight-grained, with a matte sheen, as if holystoned. The long outer wall of sliding cypress panels was complemented by a taller cypress wall facing the courtyard, constructed to admit light and air in the same way. The interior walls were of unfaced stone. In