MEEK
Page 3
It was a little after noon when they saw the coast of Britain on the horizon. Since leaving the Mediterranean, they had seen no ships or any sign of life on the shore. They approached what looked like the tip of a promontory jutting out into the ocean. It was, as the boats’ captains explained, to be their landing place at the very tip of the mainland. Finding a landing area might be difficult, as the place had cliffs and stony beaches but, rest assured, they would find a sandy cove. This turned out to be the case and, as it was low tide, the boats ran their bows into the soft sand strewn with shells. There had been a rowing race of sorts in order to see who would beach first. Utet’s boat, with its slight weight advantage, had arrived five minutes before the next boat. He had leapt out and, helping Kartek off the boat, they had run together, exhilarated by the use of legs on firm land, to the point on the beach where the rest of the family would disembark. They waved and jumped up and down like small children once they recognised the faces. Reunited, they set about unloading their possessions. The sailors had found a way out of the cove and onto the top of the low cliffs that surrounded it. Nuhro suggested that as night was coming on and the cliffs provided some shelter, they all spend what would be their last night together sleeping on the beach. Pekhrari, who was not inclined to build a colony at such an early point because he wanted a fresh water source and arable land found, agreed wholeheartedly. Nuhroh said it would be quite safe to build large fires on the beach as he did not expect to see the native inhabitants until after another full day of sailing northward. Shellfish were found on the rocks and some small crabs were also collected. The evening was a happy event. The elders gave speeches and passed the payment of gold with thanks to Nuhroh. Sabri played with the younger exiles, knowing he would see them on his return journey as Nuhroh expected to pass by in a week or two, laden with goods and heading home. They all were grateful for a safe trip that had basically gone to plan. There was sadness for those who had failed to reach the coast, but later that evening there was laughter and even music and singing. All the exiles went to bed with optimism for the future. Utet, laying in his blanket on the beach, looked up at the stars and whispered across to his sister, “The stars are smiling on us, Kartek, all will be well.”
“We have earned those smiles, brother. I do not want to get on a boat for at least another two years.”
CHAPTER FOUR
722 BC
It is not always easy to tell a beginning from an end, they can both lead somewhere. A quote from The Friend.
Utet was up before daybreak and had climbed to the top of the cliff as the sun rose. It was a soft sun, not like that of his homeland which had always burnt with a sense of violence.
“It is more suited to our nature. It warms softly,” he thought. He had found a clean freshwater stream and an abundance of trees of various varieties, all suitable for building and boat making. There seemed no need to go any further than this to build their village. He saw no evidence of other people having been there and was whistling and relaxed to a depth he had never felt before.
“This must be freedom!” he laughed. He looked down on the beach; Nuhro was preparing to leave. Utet ran back to the landing site as he wanted to say goodbye to Nuhro and Sabri. Nuhro and Utet hugged and they wished each other good luck. Sabri was excited about meeting the British natives and was anxious to get going as usual – he was going to make an excellent sailor. Utet waved as he watched them struggle with the oars until they got far enough out to hoist the sails and head up the channel. Utet turned to see that the exiles were beginning to gather on the beach. It had been decided to hold a meeting in order to decide on the plans for building the settlement.
Tet Hapi stood on a flat rock. He was a member of the council, younger than Utet’s grandfather but with charisma blended with wisdom that surpassed all. He raised both hands in the air. The exiles were silent.
“I see you all smiling, it gladdens my heart, we have overcome a small obstacle, distance. We must not be deluded by this place. We are different from all humanity! It must be confirmed here on this beach! NOW!” Deep inside him, Utet waited to hear the truth; he knew it had to be spoken.
“We cannot coexist with those who see our philosophy of life as a threat to their own existence. Therefore we cannot build monuments to our achievements here. We cannot build great institutions of science and learning here. We cannot be free!” Utet, to his own surprise, heard his voice, calm and clear. “Then what have we achieved? Today, I smelt freedom, something I have never known. Did I dream it?”
“No.” Tet Hapi’s voice was lower now. “We are all feeling it, but it is a possibility, that is all, one that can break your heart. We have chosen a different path, for that we are exiled not from Egypt but from humanity.” Tet Hapi paused. This needed to sink in.
“We cannot escape this, we can only hide and help humanity to change and somehow in all this find our destiny.” It was the bucket of cold water thrown on a roaring camp fire. Utet was on his feet, “Where is the hope in that? Why can we not decide our own destiny?” His training screamed the answer at him before the words could be spoken.
“Because we will not kill another human being,” replied Tet Hapi. “The first law allows for no compromise. If we enter into open competition or try to assimilate with others, it will inevitably lead to violence. We will always be viewed as weak and vulnerable to exploitation because of our pacifism.” He hung his head. Tet Hapi felt compassion for this young man.
“There is hope here, however. We are alive and we will prosper, the stars are smiling, each new day is a challenge, each evening is a thanksgiving. Our path is for the strong, we cannot integrate with the weak.” He looked at the assembly, slowly moving his gaze over all present.
“We will build without confrontation, we will always offer friendship, we will educate those who ask… and, ultimately, we will bleed when our backs are stabbed, but until that day comes we will keep a low profile. To this end, I propose we clear some land in the middle of the forest and build our settlement there. A small fishing boat should be built and the two families who chose to be the supplier of our needs in seafood can build their homes here on the cliff. As our numbers grow, a second site for a village will be selected in order to keep our population in any place small and, as far as possible, invisible.”
This was all agreed. The elders knew the wisdom of Tet Hapi’s words. The work was divided according to the skills of the individual and the construction of a village began.
Sixteen days passed and Nuhro returned. The exiles purchased some of his trade goods, mainly food items, grain, meat and mead. They had been occupied with building and food gathering was a secondary priority. Nuhro had told them the nearest village had only a population of around one hundred people and they were friendly, concerned only with farming and fishing. He advised the exiles to keep apart from them as long as possible as they might feel intimidated by the larger number of newcomers. “Your presence here is not known to them. They are the vassals of a king and pay a tax to him. This king is one among many in these islands. He has a fort two days’ ride to the north. The villagers have little contact with him and take no interest in local politics. They are aware of constant squabbles between this king and his relatives, which may erupt in violence. I have a map here of southern Britain and southern Ireland which I will leave with you. It is accurate up to a point, but the far northern lands are uncharted. Make a list of goods from the east that you want me to bring back on my next voyage. I expect to be back in three years’ time.”
Tet Hapi spoke. “What knowledge do these people have?”
“They are primitives by our standards, many of their artefacts and utensils are grossly inferior. They seem peaceful enough, although I gather their rulers are not.”
“Nuhro? Would you let my son copy down your alphabet? We have often thought to discard our hieroglyphic system in favour of a sound-based symbol.”
“Certainly, it will be done before we leave in the morning.”
The village was a circular row of wooden huts. In the centre was a well with stone paving forming a plaza. Fields had been planted out with fruit, grains and vegetables. They would have fenced fields ready for grazing animals by the time they arrived.
Over the course of the next two years, the settlement developed into four units. The original landing site consisted of fishing huts on the beach and cliff top on the southern coast of a peninsula. A short way inland to the North, a clearing in a beech forest allowed for the construction of the main settlement. Still further to the North, where the peninsula again met the sea, tin and gold deposits were discovered. A few among the settlers with skills in quarrying and smelting metal, moved to these two sites and established rudimentary mines. The miners and the fisherman lived where they worked and only visited the village occasionally for needed supplies. Much speculation about the native inhabitants occurred, but it was more than two years, before hunters from the village were the first to encounter the native inhabitants from the village that Nuroh traded with. The natives were collecting berries and were unaware that they were being watched. They looked somewhat dirty and untidy to the eyes of the exiles. Their clothes were roughly made with no embellishments of any kind. Their hair was long and some were braided. Another month passed before an unavoidable encounter occurred. A lone fisherman in a skin coracle had lost his oar, and had drifted far enough down the coast to come within sight of the sail of the settlement’s fishing boat. The distressed fisherman called out for help and the exiles went to his aid. They took him to shore, gave him food, drink and an oar, then towed him back to his village. They released his boat a kilometre offshore and returned to their own waters. They refused the invitation to accept hospitality, spoken in a language they did not recognise and strange to their ears. That night, Pekhrari and the other elders decided the best course of action was to do nothing at this stage, even though the natives would be curious and probably seek them out.
This was indeed what happened. Three weeks later, four males, armed with spears and bows, entered the settlement. The elders came forward to greet them. The visitors looked around warily, seeing that the settlement was large and well established. Tet Hapi led them to the small stone plaza and they all sat on the stone benches with cushions filled with duck feathers. Utet sat close so that, by using the Assyrian alphabet, he could try and write sound symbols for the natives’ words. Food and wine was brought. After two goblets, the visitors were smiling and relaxed. The leader’s name was Con and he did most of the talking. In his mid thirties and taller than any in the settlement, with long hair the colour of corn, he was an imposing sight. The elders were guarded but explained they had come by sea and hoped to live here in peace with their neighbours. The neighbours, for their part, seemed to be warning them of a king or warlord who lived to the north in some kind of fortification. There was a town there with more than one thousand inhabitants. The king’s soldiers would visit the coast two or three times a year for tribute. The visitors stayed for many hours and were obviously enjoying the wine and the strange cooking. Utet got plenty of opportunity to learn and record the native language. They, in turn, seemed to have no interest in the language of their hosts. Shortly before nightfall, they bade farewell and said they would visit again soon. The settlement breathed a sigh of relief. These were just plain folk who, like themselves, were happy to be left alone. They had asked their guests not to tell the king about them. They agreed and said that was a wise decision. However, he did provide protection when raiders came, but evidently the cost of the protection was too high. The talk of raiders from the north was of interest to the elders who decided, it would be wise to set up a system of watchtowers for early warning.
So eight years passed, and every season the villagers would come to the settlement and celebrate for twenty-four hours. The religious/philosophical beliefs of the two groups were totally incompatible. The Britons had violence, slavery, even at rare times human sacrifice as a part of their culture. The exiles were pacifists who put the welfare of their community above self-interest. Hundreds of years of humility and obedience to the ethics of personal conscience and responsibility were ingrained into the exiles’ psyches. The seasonal events became a ritual and were friendly. The local king sent his tax collector twice a year to the fishing village and would patrol the cliffs facing across to the continental shore, they covered more than a hundred kilometres of coastline, collecting from the peasantry as they went. On return, the king would admonish them for the lack of gold and silver. The exiles estimated the kingdom to be approximately eighty kilometres by 110 kilometres, nothing in comparison to the empires of the east; he was little more than a tribal chief in reality.
It was inevitable that they would one day be discovered by the king’s men. It was possible one of the villagers gave them away. In any event, twelve soldiers of the king led by the captain of the guard, rode into the little plaza and demanded to see the village leader. The seven elders came forth, closely followed by all the inhabitants. “Which one of you is the leader?” demanded the captain, whose small amount of metal plates sewn onto his leather tunic was the only thing that set him apart from his men.
“We have no leaders, but I will speak for the entire village,” said Hanif, speaking in the local tongue with difficulty.
“You occupy the lands of our king and yet you pay him no homage nor taxes. What have you to say?” This was the captain practising diplomacy, he had glanced around and realized he was ridiculously outnumbered.
“We are a peace-loving people who have settled here with no intent other than to farm, fish and raise our children. If we have caused harm, we certainly did not do it on purpose.”
“If you wish to remain, you will be required to swear allegiance to our lord and pay a tax. If the lord demands your services for any reason, you will supply them. Your tithe will be this bag filled with gold and we will be back in six months to hear you swear an oath of allegiance and receive the tithe. You will receive our lord’s protection in return for your obedience.” The soldiers left in haste. They felt intimidated by these people, who not only outnumbered them, but were dressed in a manner suggesting that their station in life was not as lowly as their own.
The captain’s report omitted nothing. Yet the king was pleased to hear that a seemingly prosperous community was about to help fill his coffers. Yet among the exiles, the issue was a lot more complex, for in the new settlement their discussions centred on the loss of independence that they had become used to. As usual, the elders diffused any emotional response by stating the options: they could leave and try to settle elsewhere, or they could stay and pay and hope the demands did not become unreasonable. It was now that Utet demonstrated his maturity. “By accepting to pay, we make ourselves vulnerable. It is clear none of us want to leave and it is too soon to judge whether our position here is sustainable. Let us pay; the tithe is no great hardship to us, but let us also prepare for the worst. I propose we build an ocean-going vessel and use it to map and explore the coastal regions of these islands. Also that we seek out another refuge in case it ever becomes needed.”
An elder added:
“Utet speaks wisely. I suggest we write the oath of allegiance ourselves in such a form that it does not compromise our beliefs. As long as he gets his tithe and feels we will not rebel, perhaps we will be left in peace.”
This became the resolution and things went back to normal in the settlement, except that some of the young men wanted to be on the list to be chosen as seamen for the new ship and there was an unseemly excitement in the air
.
The King was not too greedy and twelve years passed in which the settlement grew in prosperity and numbers. Utet married and became an elder. Marriage between the settlers and the native Britons was discouraged, and could only happen if the Briton was prepared to be initiated into the philosophy of the settlers and live permanently in the settlement. It did happen, however, and the physical appearance of the people changed slowly with the interbreeding. Skills and knowledge, boosted by commerce with the eastern Mediterranean, grew steadily.
They founded a secondary emergency settlement site across the Irish Sea on the western coast. It was a cold, windswept place even less hospitable than where they already lived. It was also cut off from the mainland by a frequently treacherous sea. It was definitely a shelter of last resort. The years passed, Nuhro handed the family’s trading business to his son Sabri and spent less time voyaging. Sabri had fallen in love with one of the girls in the settlement, Salihah. They had met on the initial migration voyage when they were both very young and had formed a bond that was obviously meant to be. Nuhro approved of the match, yet he felt a concern that a vow of pacificism would make Sabri’s operation of the small fleet impossible. Sabri was his only son and he wanted grandchildren capable of running the family fleet. It was his life and inheritance.