“Not that bad, all things considered. I think it was harder on the Bellum than on me.”

“Oh? Why?”

“They were a dedicated communal society, and the concept of individual ownership wasn’t very popular with them.” He grinned. “Needless to say, this was a worldview that I didn’t exactly share. I’ve been gone for close to thirty years now, and I’ll bet some portions of their economy still haven’t recovered.”

“I would have thought they got you young enough to properly indoctrinate you.” commented Virtue.

“That’s what they thought,” he said with an amused laugh. “But give a two-year-old child a rag doll and tell him that it’s his, and he’s got an understanding of property that even a planet filled with Bellum isn’t going to shake.” He paused. “Anyway, I’ve never been very good at taking orders, so when they told me that no right-thinking entity would ever want to possess any material goods, I immediately began accumulating things at a phenomenal rate!” He grinned again. “I guess it carried over into adulthood.”

“Interesting,” she said, deciding that the heat was preferable to the dust and closing her window. “But I don’t see that any of this makes you more qualified than me to speak to Sitting Bull.”

“He’s an alien who’s trying to act like a human,” said the Swagman. “That’s much the same position I was in three decades ago.” He paused. “Also, I’ve dealt with him once before, so I know the form.”

“Form? What form?”

“He’s very big on Amerind rituals. I suspect most of them never existed, but he’s read a lot of books and tapes by a lot of half-baked anthropologists.”

“And that’s what interested Black Orpheus enough to write him up?” said Virtue, obviously unimpressed.

“He’s written up less colorful characters,” replied the Swagman. “You and me, for instance.”

“This may come as a surprise to you, but I didn’t even know I was in his damned song until after my verse appeared.” She snorted contemptuously. “I still don’t know when and where he saw me, and I don’t think I’ll ever know where he got that Virgin Queen crap.”

“So you’re not a virgin and you’re not a queen,” said the Swagman easily. “I was never chased by a posse, either, no matter what the song says. But Black Orpheus never lets facts get in the way of truth. After all, he’s a myth-maker, not an historian.”

“He’s not a myth-maker or an historian.” said Virtue. “He’s just a ballad-writer, and not a very good one, at that.”