by Watson, Tom
“Mmm salty!” Ember mused as she licked her fingers clean of the tasty mineral while moving towards the hearth. Ember consumed many times as much salt as her peers, much to her mother's chagrin.
Longhouses actually had two hearths, one on each end; however, only one was generally ever in use at any one time. At this moment, Ember found, to her dismay that the working hearth had been allowed to burn down and now merely smoldered. Ember struggled with blowing and fanning the fire back to life, at one point becoming light headed. Regrettably her name came from her beautiful waist length fiery red hair, and not her poor skills with fire tending. Ember was more likely to burn herself than strike a blazing flame. Even though she was mildly proficient with a fire bow, a tool used to make fires, she had earned a bad reputation for her inability to light the hearth on many occasions.
Ember picked up a few of the long sharpened and fire-hardened twigs used to cook meat, and let the pork lay across the flame. The flame kissed the meat with tiny pops and crackles producing the blackened crispy pieces at the tips which Ember loved so much. Eating too much of the burned part would cause an undesired trip outside, but only a little wouldn't hurt. Ember needed the tasty start to her morning on such an important day.
The pork quickly sizzled and roasted over the open fire, with the salted peas staying safely in their pot far from the heat. Ember plucked the pork from the small twigs she had used to hold the food over the coals. She soon regretted her haste, for she had burned the inside of her mouth in the process. Luckily, several of the clay pots contained drinking water. After a few gulps, Ember sat back against a center pole savoring the oily taste in her mouth and thinking the entire breakfast filling and quick to make. Ember knew that eating a meat and salt-rich breakfast was taxing on the families food stores, but she grew tired of porridge each morning.
Porridge, a dish made of grains and salt, was normally filling but not very tasty. While most porridge required only dried and ground grains, the best porridge required a special process to make. The grains were soaked in water, the water changed constantly, for a full two days and two nights. Afterword, the mass was tossed into a large pile and agitated many times a day for about three to six days. This caused little green sprouts to appear from the grains. Afterword, the mass was dried near a fire, but not too close. The resulting grains were ground and allowed to soak in a little water over night, before being dried again. The resulting grains could be stored for long periods in the ground and converted to porridge when needed. The best part of the porridge came from the bottom of the pot or hole where the grains were kept. Moister could get into the grains and the result was a hearty, but slightly sour, porridge which was mixed with salt for taste.
After the short meal, Ember went about her daily preparations before entering the busy world that was her village. First she removed the skirt she used in the morning, but just around the house, and donned her more colorful woven flax skirt, which her mother had dyed green with locally growing plants, at Ember’s request. The skirt featured differing shades of green, initially an err on her mother's part, but which had created a pattern pleasing to the eye. Flax was too costly in trade and the green color would not come out anyway. The skirt was a single flax cord which circled the waist and ended in loops on the right side, through which a thong of leather was knotted creating a sort of belt to which the strands of the skirt were affixed, hanging on looped ends. At least two hundred flax strands were neatly looped around the main cord, falling down to Ember's knees. The only uncovered part was the two finger thick open area where the cord was bound on the right side. The strands didn't fully cover everything, but when used with a breechcloth, Ember could be assured of full coverage.
With the skirt firmly in place, Ember put on her soft doe-skin shirt, a remarkable piece of clothing given by her grandmother just this passed cold season. The shirt was extremely soft and loose, far more than most leather shirts. The shirt had been traded for, and was said to have come from the skin of a young female deer felled by a blow to the head. Ember liked soft leather, hard to come by in larger animals. Soft leather required special tanning and beating, to “break the will” of the leather as the tanners in the village told it.
The smell from tanning was horrible. Ember had, on several occasions, witnessed the men and women who performed this act spreading horrid looking concoctions on the hides, or placing them in baths of dark colored water. The thought of tanning made her gag even now.
Luckily the tanners produced a ready supply of those extra thin and extra soft strips of leather both sexes used for undergarment. The thought of a trapped mink realizing its future utility brought an uncontrolled laugh. Perhaps she should be more considerate of the soft pelted and extremely soft skinned creatures, but the thought was just too funny.
As she donned the doe skin shirt, Ember felt its soft leather flowing over her. Ember loved the way the shirt fell across her body in a way no other material did, though this was not a general property of leather, which typically held its own shape and rubbed at the skin.
Gazing into a wide and shallow fire-blackened clay dish filled with water, Ember considered her hair and face in the reflection. Ember had long flowing red hair the color of burning embers against tanned skin. Red hair was not uncommon, but most redheads in her tribe and nearby tribes were not very richly colored. Most other redheads had lighter color, approaching either blonde or brunet. Ember's color was very rare, being vibrant and rich with many different hues of red. Her eyes were a bright green color giving her a striking and contrasting appearance.
Unfortunately, as with most young people, Ember saw only imperfection. Her face had a few little bumps which were hard to hide and painful to remove. Her grandmother had said that everyone got these bumps and that they were merely her body growing too fast, as most people got them early in life and had them even after they had reached 14 to 16 harvests, and had become adults.
Ember's hair was also quite oily from a long day of work and a long hot night of sleep. Her hair always retained a little oil even when she washed it, but this kept the hair in good condition. Water was one of the ways tanners removed hair from hides, and Ember always wondered if over washing could cause the same effect. She pulled her hair behind her head in a loose pony tail and secured it with a leather thong. She would wash it at the river when time permitted.
Ember decided she needed to add a little bit of color to such a special day, and hide her red bumps at the same time. She applied a small amount of ocher-colored paint to her face. The ocher covered her facial skin smoothing out imperfections and giving her a generally uniform look. Delicately, using her pinky finger, Ember added four small black dots below each eye, running horizontally, made from a paint of fish oil and animal bone ash. As she did this, she sang a small song, a prayer to the fish spirits for good luck at the river, her next destination. Spirits enjoyed the attention and Ember might find luck in their joy.
Most of the females in the tribe painted their faces and bodies. Men often applied similar coloring, but in more striking colors, such as red or black. Painting of the body was very common amongst most peoples and various designs could even signify a person's tribe or rank within the tribe. Mostly, body painting and design were up to the artist, and merely decorative. Sometimes, the body paints could signify magic or other spiritual significance. Satisfied that she could face the day, and with a warm meal in her stomach, Ember picked up her flint work knife by its leather wrap handle, which road in a rawhide sheath attached to her waist. She often needed the knife for her daily chores. She also grabbed a small reed basket and headed out of the longhouse to greet the morning.
Chapter 2: Ember’s World
Ember is a young woman living in a medium sized tribe of about 170 people, broken into a little over a dozen extended family groups. In such a close setting, everyone would know everybody by name and by face. This may sound pleasant, but there are serious problems with a gene pool when the total number of people is too small. As a
result, it may have been commonplace for exchanges of people between villages. Men and women would most likely have intermixed between tribes. Exchanges of people consequently results in exchanges of ideas and culture. Perhaps uniformity of cultures within specific geographical regions owes to this fact.
The exact protocols and rates of exchange are unknown. Based upon current tribes and the tribes of recorded history, it can be fairly supposed that men generally traveled to other tribes to find wives or to become members themselves. This does not to preclude women leaving for other tribes, or even possibly making the journey alone, but this is less likely, given lack of significant historical precedence. Ember is becoming a woman soon and per her tribal customs, she will need a husband. Perhaps she would choose from her local tribe or perhaps from afar.
As she opened the leather hide flap covering the longhouse door, Ember was hit by a blast of warmth, as well as the intense light of the morning. The warm season's air was always warmer than the cold season's, this was to be expected, but this sort of heat was uncustomary, and it showed on the faces and clothing of the first few people Ember saw. Their skins were made shiny with sweat, and perspiration rolled down many a face. Ember could not believe the heat! This was perhaps the hottest day she had ever felt. The people of her village had shed as much extra clothing as they could opting for skirts, aprons, and wraps leaving their upper bodies free of hot leather and fabric.
Men often wore heavy leather clothing, such as leggings, breechcloths, tunics, and boots while hunting, but most people of the tribe clothed themselves in skirts and wraps of thinner leather or woven material, such as flax or reeds, during normal activities. They generally clothed their upper bodies in leather tunics, smocks, and occasionally vests or shirts made of soft leather. When the cold season came, thick leather leggings, doubled breechcloths, and long leather shirts would be worn by men while women would wear long skirts and long shirts of leather. Women would also wrap leather or fur around their legs, securing them with leather thongs, or fully wear leggings much as the men. If the cold became too much, full fur wraps would be donned. The cold season was just too harsh for anything less, but this was the warm season and much too hot for even normal attire.
Ember watched a man walk by complaining about the heat. She would need to go by the river, before she started complaining as well. As Ember walked through the village, the signs of people trying to keep cool were all around her. Ember's people were just not used to such heat. Luckily, they had a river nearby to cool off in.
The tribe lived on a slightly raised portion of ground which overlooked the Great River. The trees here had been painstakingly cleared by hand using stone axes, small fires burning at the bases of the trees, and sometimes a combination of the two to create a wide meadow for the tribe. Controlled fires also burned to remove the brush from the land.
The fires used to burn the land clear were also very useful in helping crops grow. One night when she was a young girl, Ember had listened to her grandmother explaining how the Goddess of the moon wept for burned lands and quickly caused plants to grow upon them. This made sense to Ember, though she had always wondered why plants did not grow in the cold season. To complicate things further, Ember's mother had explained that fire also told the plants it was time to regrow. Ember had looked at flowers very closely, following her mother's proclamation, even speaking to them on occasion, but they never showed any intelligence. Ember wondered how they could know to grow or how two completely different stories could exist for why fires resulted in new growth. Ember supposed both stories could be true.
The hardest part of land clearing was always the removal of stumps. Ember had watched the men work for days on a new plot of land to be used for crops. The stumps required fires, digging, and all manner of work to remove, if they could be at all. Ember had spent an entire evening bringing water and food to the men as they had cleared the land for growing food, only last season.
The entire open meadow was nearly four fallen trees in length, circular, and well protected from the weather by a ring of trees at the perimeter. Unfortunately the trees blocked the wind a little too well and everyone suffered in the unusual heatwave. The worst hit by the weather were the women working around the central hearths, located in the center of the village and surrounded by 16 longhouses. As Ember walked past the central hearths heading for the river, she glanced at the poor women. There were eight women working by the fire baking clay pots, cooking lentils, or fanning themselves with whatever could be found. The women wore thick leather aprons to protect them as they worked with tools, but they had discarded their tops and shoes because of the heat and the fire in the hearths. Their skins had been carefully covered with a mixture of soot and water, drying to form a dark powdery covering. Beside several of the women sat the clay pots they were decorating with sharp stone pieces, chips really, shaped well enough to work with. Flint was a precious commodity and never discarded until too small to be flaked.
Around them, happy unclothed children ran about free from the worries of adults and too young to be put to general work. A few industrious mothers had taught their children a game called “fan mommy with the reed fan and win a prize”. Ember recalled those happy days when she had seen barely five harvests, and the fun she would have had on a day like this. Those were blissful days where she ran free as any bird flew.
As Ember strolled through the village, she became excited by thoughts of festivities to come. People worked frantically painting longhouses with designs, creating delicious food, or a multitude of other tasks to properly honor the Gods. Not far from the hearths, men worked with round flint tools cutting open freshly killed animals to clean and prepare. There would be roasted meat en masse for the tribe tonight. Near the busily working men, a younger woman stood obviously trying to pick up a partner for the coming events. She had decorated her hair in thick braided strands tied with flower stems and traced streaks of green dye from her forehead down her body to the ground. The effect was quite impressive, but Ember shook her head; such relationships never lasted as many of the men would leave for other tribes and new men would arrive. This meant new chances for the women of her tribe, but perhaps, that was the point.
Girlish musings aside, Ember considered the reality of tribal dating. It was hard to find a mate in the same tribe who was not too closely related, which was the main reason behind inter-tribal exchanges. Additionally, new men brought new ideas and new skills. On rare occasions, a few women would be brought to the tribe by fathers who wanted to give them better opportunities than might have existed from where they came. Sometimes a trader would purposefully bring his daughters to wed in a village, securing their future and a close link for his trade. There were tribes up and down the Great River and people journeyed quite often between them. Most of the larger tribes were to the east where another great river ran. Ember continued though the village heading towards the Great River, her river, and her chores for the day.
* * *
Pak, son of Ran, son of Torn, stood still in the warm season's breeze. He would have been cooled by the gentle wind were his skin not hot with rage and embarrassment. All around him the other hunters were laughing. Pak had earned their laughter, for he had missed what should have been a particularly easy kill, a group of rabbits not 100 paces away, with an unlucky arrow shot. The arrows used for small game actually stunned the rabbits with dull reed or leather-wrapped arrowheads filled with pebbles. Hitting the rabbits in the head was best, but any body-shot from such a close range could render a rabbit immobile. The rabbits had run immediately, already being nervous and alert when the men had come close.
Pak's own laughing hunting party consisted of Pak and two others. Another group of three hunters had been walking with Pak's hunting party for nearly a full day. Hunting groups tended to walk together whenever possible for the company. After a short moment, one of the other hunters gave Pak a light and friendly slap on the back, easing his embarrassment. He relaxed a little and allowed himself to
look away from the group. He was quite sweaty from a long walk and longed for a stroll in the cool river not far from the group. Thinking of the water, Pak appreciated the morning’s light breeze as it fell over him, cooling his anger. For the trip, he had taken a pair of soft deer leggings, leather boots, a long leather shirt, and a leather breechcloth. He had stowed his deer hide shirt almost immediately due to the heat. Now the sweat from the day was doing its job and cooling him. Too bad for Pak, the sweat would itch terribly as it dried.
The group of six hunters were heading west down a tributary to the Great River and would soon split up. Pak's group would head west by north west up the Great River on a long range scouting trip, which might last the entire season, while the other group of three returned to the village with fresh kills.
Scouting journeys were a good chance for meeting new tribes and for finding new sources of game. The oldest stories told of a time when these trips were more aimed at hunting than trade, but their village could not support as many through hunting and gathering as it did with farming and trade. Pak's people were from the north east of the Great River, above the Long River, one of many rivers east of the Great River which flowed in a much more Southern path. They tended to hunt much more than the southern and eastern tribes. Pak often wondered if people would keep moving southeast and west to fully abandon hunting in favor of fields and fish. This notion had been reinforced when a trader had come to Pak's village with strange pottery decorated with impressed patterns made from shells and stories from the far south east of villages, said to be ten times the size of Pak's! The man had said these distant villages sported large communal structures and even people who would spend all day working on but a single craft neglecting other trades! That man was from far across the mountains, so he said, from a land where the weather stayed warm generally, and with only short cold seasons.