Jackson Gregory

“ Muyingwa had gone back to his mana, and the two of them were standing like Northrup and Yahoya, hand in hand.
It was perhaps Muyingwa's offer to race with Tiyo as much as anything which settled the matter. There are no runners in the world like the runners of the southwestern desert; they are men who can run an unbelievable number of miles out across blazing sands in the morning to dig in their fields and run back the same evening. With them running is at once a necessary thing, a part of their religious training, and a way of settling just such debates as the one that had arisen now. ”

“ Already he heard Inaa's words, saw Yahoya forming them silently.
"The Spider Woman and the Great Earth Woman, the goddess who weaves the colors of sunrise and sunset, the goddess to whom belongs the world, the god who makes green things grow and the God of Rain, the great gods and the small gods bless you, Yahoya and Yellow Beard! You are a mana and his woman. The woman's house is open to the man, to none but him. ”

“ He wanted to get her away from here and to make her happy; he wanted to show her a world which would be like fairyland to her; he wanted to teach her his language, her own forgotten tongue; he wanted to mother her and father her and lover her. ”