Tsenacomacah was 17 years old when the Strangers, the Beard People, first appeared in the lands of the True People.
There had long been tales told of a race of strangers far to the south ravaging the lands of other tribes, and in turn occasionally being ravaged by them, told by the Tribal Elders, tales gleaned from the traders who traveled along the trail networks that facilitated trade between far-flung tribes. Tales that told of Strangers coming ashore in the lands of the Calusa, the Ai, the Tocobago - and others. Strangers who dressed in garishly colored skins of a strange texture, while their own real skins were pale, frail and sickly looking. To make up for their frailties, the Strangers had developed powerful magics, wearing strange stones on their heads and chests, shiny stones that were strong, but when whose strength was overcome or tested, did not shatter but instead bent like a broken stick of wood. They had magical spears or clubs that belched thunder and smoke, and killed The People at a distance, and great long knives made not of normal stone, but instead of the same magical sort of stone they wore on their heads and chests.
Some times The People overcame the Strangers in conflicts, usually by massing overwhelming numbers or by employing stealth to get closer to them, inside the ranges of their magical weapons, close enough for spears, arrows, and clubs to do their deadly work... but the Strangers kept coming. If you managed to kill one, 3 more sprung up in his place.
Just a few years before Tsenacomacah's birth, maybe 8 or 10 summers, the Strangers penetrated the country deeply, by making use of frightened local tribesmen to guide them from one unsuspecting village to the next. By that means they crushed a wide arc through The Country, from the Great Water to the south deep into the mountains and across to the Grandfather River to the west, taking and destroying as they went. They were eventually overrun and driven from the lands by western tribes like the Mabila, and decimated by a coalition of tribes along the Grandfather River as they were finally driven from the land.
In a battle during that previous invasion of Beard People two days to the south of Tsenacomacah's village, the Strangers had been engaged and defeated, turned away from the lands of the True People, and sent packing onward. His own father had participated in that battle, answering a call for warriors to meet the destructive Strangers before they could enter the lands of the True People.
That battle was joined in the southern regions of the lands of The People of the Artificial Hills, a neighboring tribe of people whose lands adjoined the lands of the True People. Those people were themselves strange, but not as strange as The Strangers, the Beard People who were invading the land. The People of the Artificial Hills worshiped strange spirits, spirits they called "gods", and which they claimed were more powerful than the Spirits of the Land. Tsenacomacah was doubtful of that - how could any strange foreign spirit be more powerful than their own Great Horned Serpent? They certainly couldn't be bigger! They built artificial hills by dumping clay pot after clay pot of dirt in a single place, eventually building a man-made hill, then perching a temple to their strange gods atop it. So they were called The People of the Artificial Hills. Tsenacomacah thought that to be a ridiculous amount of labor for nearly no return, and was glad the True People didn't engage in such madness.
Tsenacomacah had been doubtful of the tales told of the Strangers, until his father told him the truth of it, of the battle he had fought in the south lands that turned them away. The tales were too fanciful, too unbelievable. How could anyone be that strange and still be human? Nevertheless, his father had confirmed the tales to him, had seen them with his own eyes, and confirmed for himself that they were indeed just men who could be killed, not spirits or gods. Men with strange magic, to be sure, but mere men all the same.
Tsenacomacah's village sat at the top of Great Mother Gap in the Long Mountain. Their role was to control trade passing through that gap to the True People beyond from the Salt People who lived on the other side of the gap and mountain. 20 miles northeast along that same Long Mountain, sat another village at another gap in the mountain that was even closer to the salt production works, and another village even farther north and east of that one, which controlled access via gaps to the north and west. Tsenacomacah's village controlled the gap that the trail from the salt distribution town to the east came through. The True People sat at a trade hub controlling access between the northwest and southeast of their homelands. All trade in those directions had to pass through those lands.
Controlled trade, but more importantly prevented invasions though those gaps. The True People spawned a lot of the traders who traveled those routes. They were a trading people, and consequently gathered much of the news from far and wide to create the tales the Tribal Elders were prone to tell.
So one afternoon in late in his 17th summer, Tsenacomacah witnessed the spectacle of refugees pouring through the gap from the salt distribution village of Maniateek on the other side of the gap. The story pieced together from the tales of the frightened refugees told that a company of Strangers, the Beard People, penetrated deep into the territory of the Salt People and destroyed their distribution village, burned it to the ground and killed all of the people they could find in it and the surrounding area, all except a couple of women who some of the refugees saw being taken away as rape-wives, "wives" of conquest and capture.
True to their method of operation, the Beard People came in company of some of the more southerly people from the southeast, of the Shualah tribe, among whom, apparently, the Beard People had settled, and where they had built their own palisade within the palisade of the people living there, a fort within a fort. It seemed like they intended to stay. The name the Beard People gave their fort-town within a fort-town sounded to Tsenacomacah's ears like "Sanwan", a strange word indeed, from a strange people.
The Beard People were a strange lot. They traveled only as men, with no women among them. They had huge strange beasts that they rode upon, and large vicious monster-dogs they attacked people with, but no women of their own. There had been some friction with the locals as one or another of the Beard People claimed wives from among the People that were not theirs to claim, but that friction had largely been quelled by the magical weapons the Beard People possessed.
Now they were coming farther afield and kidnapping women of other tribes. That simply would not do. The headman of Maniateek had foolishly and boastfully sent a message to the Beard People that he would come and kill them, and eat them and their dogs too. A foolish boast to make to a people that possessed magical weapons. It gave them the pretext to make their attack, destroy his village, kill his people, and take his women. A tall price to pay for boastful words.
Tsenacomacah knew they had killed the headman, but could never discover whether they ate him too, or not, in retaliation for his boast that he would eat them and their dogs.
Eventually, a very few of the refugees from the destroyed Salt People village of Maniateek and the more northern village of Kaskatack where the salt was actually produced, settled among the True People and were adopted into that tribe. They had no village of their own to return to any more, and many were too fearful to return anyhow. They had nightmares at times remembering the smoke, the noise, and the sheer destruction of their town, and few had any desire to return there.
The bulk of the Salt People, however, left, never to return. They followed the rivers downstream until they judged themselves to be far enough from the Beard People to be relatively safe, and then settled there among a group of the Shawanwa tribe, the Southern People as they were known.
There, other Beard People eventually made their encroachment from the northwest, but they claimed to be other, different, Beard People, of another tribe of Beard People, and enemies to the Beard People that invaded from the southeast. There was no telling. It could be true, as there were old tales told of inter-tribal war among the Beard People to the southeast, massive fights of smoke and thunder and giant canoes with concurrent massive loss of life among them as each Stranger tribe sought to gain a beachhead on the Big Water to the east and southeast, and to keep the other Stranger tribes out.
The broken remnants of the Salt People who had settled among the Southern People far to the west were taken eventually, many decades later, together with the Southern People living there, to a Beard People village even farther west, and to the north, where they were promised protection by the Beard People of the North under a chief who bore the unlikely name of "La-Sal", or something that sounded like that. Tsenacomacah never heard from them again, nor did he ever hear if they found the promised protection or not.
--- More to come...
.
There had long been tales told of a race of strangers far to the south ravaging the lands of other tribes, and in turn occasionally being ravaged by them, told by the Tribal Elders, tales gleaned from the traders who traveled along the trail networks that facilitated trade between far-flung tribes. Tales that told of Strangers coming ashore in the lands of the Calusa, the Ai, the Tocobago - and others. Strangers who dressed in garishly colored skins of a strange texture, while their own real skins were pale, frail and sickly looking. To make up for their frailties, the Strangers had developed powerful magics, wearing strange stones on their heads and chests, shiny stones that were strong, but when whose strength was overcome or tested, did not shatter but instead bent like a broken stick of wood. They had magical spears or clubs that belched thunder and smoke, and killed The People at a distance, and great long knives made not of normal stone, but instead of the same magical sort of stone they wore on their heads and chests.
Some times The People overcame the Strangers in conflicts, usually by massing overwhelming numbers or by employing stealth to get closer to them, inside the ranges of their magical weapons, close enough for spears, arrows, and clubs to do their deadly work... but the Strangers kept coming. If you managed to kill one, 3 more sprung up in his place.
Just a few years before Tsenacomacah's birth, maybe 8 or 10 summers, the Strangers penetrated the country deeply, by making use of frightened local tribesmen to guide them from one unsuspecting village to the next. By that means they crushed a wide arc through The Country, from the Great Water to the south deep into the mountains and across to the Grandfather River to the west, taking and destroying as they went. They were eventually overrun and driven from the lands by western tribes like the Mabila, and decimated by a coalition of tribes along the Grandfather River as they were finally driven from the land.
In a battle during that previous invasion of Beard People two days to the south of Tsenacomacah's village, the Strangers had been engaged and defeated, turned away from the lands of the True People, and sent packing onward. His own father had participated in that battle, answering a call for warriors to meet the destructive Strangers before they could enter the lands of the True People.
That battle was joined in the southern regions of the lands of The People of the Artificial Hills, a neighboring tribe of people whose lands adjoined the lands of the True People. Those people were themselves strange, but not as strange as The Strangers, the Beard People who were invading the land. The People of the Artificial Hills worshiped strange spirits, spirits they called "gods", and which they claimed were more powerful than the Spirits of the Land. Tsenacomacah was doubtful of that - how could any strange foreign spirit be more powerful than their own Great Horned Serpent? They certainly couldn't be bigger! They built artificial hills by dumping clay pot after clay pot of dirt in a single place, eventually building a man-made hill, then perching a temple to their strange gods atop it. So they were called The People of the Artificial Hills. Tsenacomacah thought that to be a ridiculous amount of labor for nearly no return, and was glad the True People didn't engage in such madness.
Tsenacomacah had been doubtful of the tales told of the Strangers, until his father told him the truth of it, of the battle he had fought in the south lands that turned them away. The tales were too fanciful, too unbelievable. How could anyone be that strange and still be human? Nevertheless, his father had confirmed the tales to him, had seen them with his own eyes, and confirmed for himself that they were indeed just men who could be killed, not spirits or gods. Men with strange magic, to be sure, but mere men all the same.
Tsenacomacah's village sat at the top of Great Mother Gap in the Long Mountain. Their role was to control trade passing through that gap to the True People beyond from the Salt People who lived on the other side of the gap and mountain. 20 miles northeast along that same Long Mountain, sat another village at another gap in the mountain that was even closer to the salt production works, and another village even farther north and east of that one, which controlled access via gaps to the north and west. Tsenacomacah's village controlled the gap that the trail from the salt distribution town to the east came through. The True People sat at a trade hub controlling access between the northwest and southeast of their homelands. All trade in those directions had to pass through those lands.
Controlled trade, but more importantly prevented invasions though those gaps. The True People spawned a lot of the traders who traveled those routes. They were a trading people, and consequently gathered much of the news from far and wide to create the tales the Tribal Elders were prone to tell.
So one afternoon in late in his 17th summer, Tsenacomacah witnessed the spectacle of refugees pouring through the gap from the salt distribution village of Maniateek on the other side of the gap. The story pieced together from the tales of the frightened refugees told that a company of Strangers, the Beard People, penetrated deep into the territory of the Salt People and destroyed their distribution village, burned it to the ground and killed all of the people they could find in it and the surrounding area, all except a couple of women who some of the refugees saw being taken away as rape-wives, "wives" of conquest and capture.
True to their method of operation, the Beard People came in company of some of the more southerly people from the southeast, of the Shualah tribe, among whom, apparently, the Beard People had settled, and where they had built their own palisade within the palisade of the people living there, a fort within a fort. It seemed like they intended to stay. The name the Beard People gave their fort-town within a fort-town sounded to Tsenacomacah's ears like "Sanwan", a strange word indeed, from a strange people.
The Beard People were a strange lot. They traveled only as men, with no women among them. They had huge strange beasts that they rode upon, and large vicious monster-dogs they attacked people with, but no women of their own. There had been some friction with the locals as one or another of the Beard People claimed wives from among the People that were not theirs to claim, but that friction had largely been quelled by the magical weapons the Beard People possessed.
Now they were coming farther afield and kidnapping women of other tribes. That simply would not do. The headman of Maniateek had foolishly and boastfully sent a message to the Beard People that he would come and kill them, and eat them and their dogs too. A foolish boast to make to a people that possessed magical weapons. It gave them the pretext to make their attack, destroy his village, kill his people, and take his women. A tall price to pay for boastful words.
Tsenacomacah knew they had killed the headman, but could never discover whether they ate him too, or not, in retaliation for his boast that he would eat them and their dogs.
Eventually, a very few of the refugees from the destroyed Salt People village of Maniateek and the more northern village of Kaskatack where the salt was actually produced, settled among the True People and were adopted into that tribe. They had no village of their own to return to any more, and many were too fearful to return anyhow. They had nightmares at times remembering the smoke, the noise, and the sheer destruction of their town, and few had any desire to return there.
The bulk of the Salt People, however, left, never to return. They followed the rivers downstream until they judged themselves to be far enough from the Beard People to be relatively safe, and then settled there among a group of the Shawanwa tribe, the Southern People as they were known.
There, other Beard People eventually made their encroachment from the northwest, but they claimed to be other, different, Beard People, of another tribe of Beard People, and enemies to the Beard People that invaded from the southeast. There was no telling. It could be true, as there were old tales told of inter-tribal war among the Beard People to the southeast, massive fights of smoke and thunder and giant canoes with concurrent massive loss of life among them as each Stranger tribe sought to gain a beachhead on the Big Water to the east and southeast, and to keep the other Stranger tribes out.
The broken remnants of the Salt People who had settled among the Southern People far to the west were taken eventually, many decades later, together with the Southern People living there, to a Beard People village even farther west, and to the north, where they were promised protection by the Beard People of the North under a chief who bore the unlikely name of "La-Sal", or something that sounded like that. Tsenacomacah never heard from them again, nor did he ever hear if they found the promised protection or not.
--- More to come...
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’