The Tuchuks, Tarl Cabot tells us, do not worship in the ordinary way, but hold many things holy:

The bosk, and the skills of arms, but chief of all things before which the proud Tuchuk stands ready to remove his helmet is the sky, the simple, vast, beautiful sky, from which falls the rain, that, in his myths, formed the earth and the bosks and the Tuchuks.

We are likewise told that the Tuchuk prays while mounted upon his kaiila, and with his weapons at hand. He approaches the sky as a warrior approaches an Ubar. Even in prayer he is proud.

The women of the Tuchuks are forbidden to pray to the sky, but they also have an active spiritual life. Theirs centers around the divinitory powers of the haruspexes.

A haruspex is a kind of Tuchuk shaman who reads portents and tells the future, as well as furnishing various amulets and potions to women who seek magickal protection or intercession. One particularly popular object is a coloured string, which receives its magickal powers from the sequence of knots tied into it by the haruspex.

Tarl Cabot writes:

I heard a haruspex singing between the wagons; for a piece of meat he would read the wind and the grass; for cup of wine the stars and the flight of birds; for a fat-bellied dinner the liver of a sleen or slave.

Another belief of the Tuchuks revolves around the selection of a name for male offspring. No name is given at birth. Instead, the male-child is known simply as First Son or Second Son until such time as he masters the use of all the weapons of war and the hunt. The Tuchuks regard names as being precious; they are not to be wasted on those who are not likely to survive.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page