Page 48 - Effable Encounters

Cargo Blues

quickly as one might suppose. If the gods continue to withhold the
secret of obtaining manufactured goods from the people, then those
deities must still be under the control of the whites and they can only
be freed by learning that secret. All it takes is one charismatic leader
to declare he has discovered the method and he will get a following.
It is classic sympathetic magic: clearing land for runways and building
bamboo control towers are part of an imitative process designed to
arrive at the proper ritual, the one the gods require on the human
side of the cosmic relationship. Did your informant indicate any
special construction going on in that village?”
“No, and a study of commercial aviation routes will reveal that
airplanes don’t overfly that area. It was unaffected by Japanese or
American activity during World War II. Madame—rather, Miss
Honeywell, it comes down to this: your surmise, based on scant
evidence, against my years of service in the territory. Now, if you’ll
excuse me, other matters require my attention.”
The D.O.’s mind returned sporadically to this conversation over
the next two weeks. Then one afternoon an urgent call brought him
to the radio room.
“Sir, it’s that lady anthropologist. She’s in deep trouble.”
Plummer took the headset. “Hello. This is the District Officer.”
After a crackle of static Samaria Honeywell’s voice filled his ears.
“Mr. Plummer: listen carefully. Your man did reach this village—it is
called Kilibob-Manup if that helps locate it—but he died here. I saw
the remains. I fear we were both right—and both wrong. It is no
cargo cult, nor is it war against neighbors. But it is a belief, and my
life is in danger because of it.”
“Go on, but speak up: your battery must be weak.”
“Yes, right. They showed me their church—or what’s left of it.
The missionaries in Canberra had a very garbled version of events
here. A big passenger jet on one of those new flights from Sydney to
Hong Kong or Bangkok must have strayed off course and passed
over this part of the island. To save fuel it illegally jettisoned the
contents of its lavatories at high altitude. The result is called ‘blue ice’.
A large chunk of it scored a direct hit on the mission house and
school in Kilibob-Manup. That showed the villagers that their
attempt to use Christianity to deliver cargo was angering the spirits.
They blamed the missionary for sending an evil message to heaven

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