Chapter 18

"Hey!" Rachel said as she came in. "More cheese?"

"Sorry."

"Ever since you heard about that place, you've been nibbling away!"

"I admit it. I feel like Wallace. And when Sandra told us about Formaggio Ocello, I went off the deep end."

"How deep?"

"Nearly $100."

"On cheese?"

"And some ham and crusty bread."

"Well, they taste good, I'll admit that."

"So do the various cheeses. My mum would buy goat cheese from Gidgegannup, borello from Oakford and sheep cheese from Nannup. It's just that it's not your thing. But I don't eat pickles at breakfast."

"True, true. Most foods are cultural artifacts."

"Can we kiss and make up?"

"Of course. But I'm still concerned about Audie."

"I presume you didn't see her. Isn't she back?"

"I'm not sure. We wouldn't have had class together today, anyway. I didn't see Gerry or Gordy either."

"Did you try to phone any of them?"

"No. And you're right. After all, when did I last speak to Max? Or you to Sarah?"

"Have a sandwich."

"Okay. What have you been doing?"

"Thinking about Melbourne."

"Oh! That reminds me! When do we go to the opera?"

I looked in my book. "Ten and 30 July and 6 August."

"Right. So we go to Melbourne in the next few weeks and to Perth for two weeks in July!"

"Exactly. After meeting Sandra, do you still want to go by train?"

"Of course. It's safer than crossing King Street! What do we hear?"

"Korngold's 'Dead City', 'The Pearl Fishers', and 'Aida'."

"I'll have to read up. 'Aida' is the only one I've heard of."

"We'll just get a Penguin or somesuch on opera."

"Right. Anyway, I've been reading more on ravens. I was looking at the Panchatantra and..."

"India?"

"Yes, India. I was reading it and while there are many 'crow' stories, there don't seem to be any 'raven' stories."

"Maybe the ancient Indians ... Hindus? ... didn't know that they were different."

"Possible. I don't know anyone who knows Sanskrit, though."

"Ask one of the Indian students."

"Good idea. Anyway, it looks to me as though crows and ravens are just distinguished on the basis of size. And the crows seem to be clever in northern India, like the ravens in the Pacific north-west of Canada and the US. Or Odin's ravens. And they're all carrion eaters."

"Like coyote."

"Exactly. The raven is a bad guy in the book of Genesis, too."

"Really?"

"There's a discussion of exactly why, but I didn't get most of it."

"That's okay."

"But a lot of the Pacific north-west legends are similar to those of the Australians."

"Were we to know their stories, I'd not be amazed to hear that about the Fon or the Fuegians."

"You really think we're all alike."

"Pretty much so. People like Levi-Strauss and Wilson put lots of things together."

"Wilson?"

"My dad's favorite. A Harvard entomologist."

"The only thing of Levi-Strauss I remember is that 'The world began without the human race and will certainly end without it'."

"Right. But the important thing is that the generalizations are true. I'm not even sure there's a big difference between political parties and tribal behavior. Anyway, tell me a raven story."