Tricked

Pronunciation Guide
    There’s a reason the Navajo Code Talkers were so invaluable to the Marines in WWII. Their language, while beautiful, is really difficult to describe, filled with little glottal stops and special characters and mind-shredding verb constructions like the optative-semelfactive. They have no adjectives but rather use their verbs in an adjectival way. To illustrate how complicated it can get, there is no Navajo word for the verb to give but rather eleven different words that vary depending on the size and shape of what is being given. I don’t use many words of their language in this book, but I’ve done my best to give you a clue about the few you’ll see below. None of them are verbs. Also note that there are regional differences in pronunciation, just as there are different dialects in English, so some of these pronunciations may differ slightly depending on where you are in the Navajo Nation.
    Navajo
    Á³tsé Hashké = Aht SEH hash KEH (Translates to First Angry , or perhaps First Mad or First Scolder . It’s the proper name of one of the First People, Coyote.)Áñ³’ ááh = unn TEE (Means the Witchery Way , or the Corpse-Poison Way .)ch’áádii = CHEE dee (A ghost, but specifically the part of one’s spirit that wasn’t in harmony with the universe at the time of death.)Diné = dih NEH (Means the People . It’s what the Navajo call themselves; the term Navajo was slapped on them by the Spanish and it stuck. In this book, art will imitate life; the Diné will call themselves Diné, and everyone else—including Atticus—will call them Navajo.)Diné Bahane’ = dih NEH bah HAH neh (Means Story of the People . It is the Navajo creation story, parts of which are sung in various ceremonies.)Hataa³ii = hah TAH hlee (This translates to singer , a person who sings at ceremonial occasions and creates sandpaintings, important in many rituals from blessing structures to restoring balance in those who have lost it; in crude terms, a medicine man.)Hózh = hoh ZHOH (This means very good , or great energy , everything spiffy and balanced in the world, which English sometimes translates to blessing . To be honest, it doesn’t translate well into English; it’s just one of those words that are too big for Anglo-Saxon noises.)Hózh ji = hoh ZHOH jee (This means Blessing Way .)Nílch’i = NIL cheh (Literally, air , but in stories this is the name of the wind. And, yeah, that l with the cross through it doesn’t really get pronounced like an English l , but it’s more of a guttural noise behind your molars; using an l is just an expedient approximation.) Stunning Sandstone Edifices
    Tyende = tee YEH in DEH (This mesa is located about ten miles southwest of Kayenta. Incredibly beautiful sandstone—just don’t be in a wash after a rain. Get to the high ground FAST, because they aren’t kidding about flash floods.) Wolverines of Especial Interest
    Faolan = FWAY lawn (This isn’t a Navajo name, by the way; we’re back to the Irish here.) Tuatha Dé Danann
    Ogma = OG mah (Pronounced og as in log . It’s not like the Ó in Aenghus Óg. That had a diacritical mark over it so you’d pronounce it as a long O . This one’s short. Ogma is credited with teaching Druids Ogham script, among other things.)

Chapter 1
    The best trick I ever pulled off was watching myself die. I did a respectable job of it too—the dying, I mean, not the watching.
    The key to dying well is to make a final verbal ejaculation that is full of rage and pain but not tainted in the least by squeals of terror or pleas for mercy. This was my father’s wisdom—about the only shred of it that has managed to lodge firmly in my mind all these years. He died while trying to steal somebody else’s cows.
    It would be an ignominious end today, but before the common era in Ireland, it was honorable and manly to die in a cattle raid, as such theft was called. Before he left to meet his doom, my father must have had some dark premonition about it, because he shared with me all his opinions about dying properly, and I will never forget his final words: » A man’s supposed to shit himself after he dies, son, not before. Try to remember that, lad, so that when your time comes, you won’t make a right girly mess of it. Now fuck off and go play in the bog. «
    Like many silly codes of bravery and manliness, the meat of my father’s instruction on how to die well can be distilled to a simple slogan: Die angry at maximum volume. (Dying