Urth Net
Decoding "Tracking Song"
I looked up "cim" in the OED and the OED supplement;
there is a "cime", an alternate spelling for "cyme",
which is a technical term for a particular kind of
bud ("a head of unexpanded leaves"). This doesn't fit.
Here's the Cim name quote (p 199 of the 1980 Timescape
pb edition of IODDAOSAOS):
When I was born my father wished to name me
Seven Snows, which is a common name for girls
amoung our people. But I was born while he
was away in his boat; and before he returned,
my mother had left her bed and seen the Cim
blowing from tree to tree like a soft star in
the air, and completed the naming.
Re-reading that passage I am struck by the way it
carries hints of meaning in all the phrases: the other
name, the boat, the implied customs of naming, the
relations between the sexes in her people.
It's also not clear what the Cim could be: is this
a single thing or a stuff? The best real parallel
I've seen is the floating dandelion-like seeds of
some trees, which in the spring sometimes float in
clouds from their parent trees. That's a bit star-
like, but not like "a star".
Re Nashhwonk: yes, the description of the fight makes
the "chair" sound much more like moose antlers (it
can cover his head) or elk antlers (many sharp points).
I conceed. North America it is.
The tone of the interactions between the narrator and
the Nashhwonk named Mankiller (and where else have
we seen that concept? This too is no accident!)
is interesting--the moose is confident and friendly;
it's a surprise when he dies, as you expect him to
continue after such an introduction.
-John