The year following the attack by the Beard People upon the Salt People, all was in turmoil.
The Beard People had continued their depredations upon the native population, capturing and seizing "wives" from them and making demands for strange substances that The People knew nothing of, things the Beard People termed "gold" and "silver". The foreigners had raided charnel houses, where the bodies and bones of former headmen of the tribes resided, desecrating the bodies of the dead in their quest for these strange substances, and stealing all of the pearls and anything else they deemed to be of value that had been left there as offerings to the spirits. They grew nothing of their own to eat, and hunted food but very little, as all of their time seemed to be devoted to treasure hunting for treasures that did not exist. So they raided and claimed the food stores of The People to support themselves, leaving the women and children starving.
It was abomination upon abomination, and The People would not suffer the depredations forever.
A few months later, some of the Beard People went westward in their search, decimating even tribes on the other side of the mountains from their fort called Sanwan. It seemed that they would not stop until they had destroyed or enslaved every one of The People, and that could not be stomached. They had set up yet other forts to the east of the mountains, and gave all appearances of settling in for the long haul.
On top of everything else, the departure of the Salt People was a severe blow to all in the region. Without the salt they produced and traded to other tribes, all of the tribes suffered... and that was the direct fault of the Beard People.
Some individuals tried to find the salt source that the Salt People had exploited in former times, but most of those searchers never returned. In reality, that was due to the Turkey River People guarding the area against encroachments and killing any interlopers, to protect their own frontiers and create a buffer zone. The Beard People had encroached upon and destroyed the Salt People, and the Turkey River People were not about to allow that to happen to themselves as well, if they could help it. That was the reality of it, but legends grew from that, legends that claimed the spirits of the Salt People killed by the Beard People were taking their revenge on anyone entering that land.
The former lands of the Salt People gained a reputation as a No Man's Land, a place of vengeful spirits, and eventually no one ventured into them any more, leaving the rich salt deposits to be rediscovered by another people, a strange people, far into the future. The taboo that grew around the lands of the Salt People would eventually have unintended consequences for The Turkey River People as well, but that is a tale for another day.
That meant there was no more salt for The People everywhere else in the region. Any salt imported into the region had to come from the Sea People, far to the east on the Big Water, and was consequently much more expensive, and therefore harder to come by. To the northwest of Tsenacomacah's village, there were minor salt deposits, salt licks and salt creeks in a small area, but nothing nearly as rich as the deposits formerly controlled by the Salt People, and now lost. Those smaller seeps were far more labor intensive to produce from, and hardly worth the effort. There were richer deposits to the north on the Kanawha-theepi, and to the west in lands of Kan-tuc-kee, but they had the same problem of transportation as the salt coming from the Sea Peoples to the east.
Over the next year following the attack on the Salt People, these circumstances all combined, and came to a head. Runners were sent out, great Councils were called and debated, and the result of those Councils were that the Beard People had to go. They were too damaging to the lives and prosperity of the True People, in all of the tribes.
Calls for a gathering of warriors with common interest were sent out, calls to gather masses of warriors to drive out the Beard People. Tsenacomacah, now in his 18th year, answered that call along with hundreds of others from far and wide. As a member of a tribe of traders, his economic interests had been directly impacted by the attack.
In the Year of the Lord of the Beard People 1568, they were driven from the lands of the True People.
The forts of the Beard People were, for the most part, to the south and east of the lands of the Turkey River People, in the flat lands, savannahs and forests of what would one day be called North Carolina and South Carolina. When the call for warriors had amassed an overwhelming force to defeat the beard People, they were attacked. Their forts were burned to the ground, and they were all killed to a man. Unbeknownst to the gathered warriors, one Beard Person, a single man, survived and escaped to tell the tale. It is recorded in the archives of the Spanish Crown to this day.
Tsenacomacah killed several of the strangers himself, 5 or 6. Two with arrows before he ran out, one with his spear, driven so deeply upward from under the man's chin that it pierced his brain and was stuck so fast in the man's skull that Tsenacomacah could not free it, and the rest with his pokeeshi club. His father had been right - they were but men, and could be killed as easily as any other man, despite their magic weapons. Tsenacomacah learned that day that once they had discharged their magic dragon weapons, the ones that belched smoke, thunder, fire, and death, the weapon was dead until it could be recharged with magic. Until them, it was but a club, as any other club in any man's hands. The trick was to kill the man behind the club before he could install more magic into his weapon, and to do that, one aimed for areas not covered by the strange shiny rocks the Beard Men worse as a defense. You just bypassed that defense, and struck at the soft parts.
After the fighting was over, Tsenacomacah sat down, weary, covered in mud, blood, soot and ash, and ate deer jerky and pemmican from his provisions pouch as he watched the former palisade and huts of the Beard People he had killed burn to the ground. he vowed that day that if they ever returned, they would be served the same, but before they could disrupt The People and their way of life, rather than afterward as had happened to be the case this time.
The actions that day gained a reputation for Tsenacomacah, which spread outward to tribes as the warriors who were there that day and witnessed the action told their stories upon returning home. Even among his own people, in his own village, Tsenacomacah was referred to in hushed tones as "Beard-People-Killer". People often avoided him, shied away. Whether that was out of deference and respect, or out of fear, Tsenacomacah could not tell. In his own eyes, he was a "killer" of no one. He'd only done what needed to be done, and in all truth only had aspirations as a trader, to run the trails and carry goods from town to town, gathering tales and making trades.
Unfortunately for him, that was not the reputation that grew.
The Beard People were driven from the interior, and gave up their aspirations to conquer it as too dangerous. They were driven all the way back to their seaside town of Santa Elena, on the coast of South Carolina at what would one day be the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, and would never again venture forth into the interior. Eventually, after another 20 years, even the hard-fought-for and hard won Santa Elena would be abandoned.
The North American interior was just too dangerous for the Spaniard Beard People. Henceforth, the Spanish Beard People would confine themselves to what they had renamed "la Florida", a large peninsula at the southern extremity of the continent. the lands that had formerly belonged to the Ai, the Calusa, the Uitina, and so on. The only lands they had a snowball's chance in hell of holding against the wrath of the natives.
.
The Beard People had continued their depredations upon the native population, capturing and seizing "wives" from them and making demands for strange substances that The People knew nothing of, things the Beard People termed "gold" and "silver". The foreigners had raided charnel houses, where the bodies and bones of former headmen of the tribes resided, desecrating the bodies of the dead in their quest for these strange substances, and stealing all of the pearls and anything else they deemed to be of value that had been left there as offerings to the spirits. They grew nothing of their own to eat, and hunted food but very little, as all of their time seemed to be devoted to treasure hunting for treasures that did not exist. So they raided and claimed the food stores of The People to support themselves, leaving the women and children starving.
It was abomination upon abomination, and The People would not suffer the depredations forever.
A few months later, some of the Beard People went westward in their search, decimating even tribes on the other side of the mountains from their fort called Sanwan. It seemed that they would not stop until they had destroyed or enslaved every one of The People, and that could not be stomached. They had set up yet other forts to the east of the mountains, and gave all appearances of settling in for the long haul.
On top of everything else, the departure of the Salt People was a severe blow to all in the region. Without the salt they produced and traded to other tribes, all of the tribes suffered... and that was the direct fault of the Beard People.
Some individuals tried to find the salt source that the Salt People had exploited in former times, but most of those searchers never returned. In reality, that was due to the Turkey River People guarding the area against encroachments and killing any interlopers, to protect their own frontiers and create a buffer zone. The Beard People had encroached upon and destroyed the Salt People, and the Turkey River People were not about to allow that to happen to themselves as well, if they could help it. That was the reality of it, but legends grew from that, legends that claimed the spirits of the Salt People killed by the Beard People were taking their revenge on anyone entering that land.
The former lands of the Salt People gained a reputation as a No Man's Land, a place of vengeful spirits, and eventually no one ventured into them any more, leaving the rich salt deposits to be rediscovered by another people, a strange people, far into the future. The taboo that grew around the lands of the Salt People would eventually have unintended consequences for The Turkey River People as well, but that is a tale for another day.
That meant there was no more salt for The People everywhere else in the region. Any salt imported into the region had to come from the Sea People, far to the east on the Big Water, and was consequently much more expensive, and therefore harder to come by. To the northwest of Tsenacomacah's village, there were minor salt deposits, salt licks and salt creeks in a small area, but nothing nearly as rich as the deposits formerly controlled by the Salt People, and now lost. Those smaller seeps were far more labor intensive to produce from, and hardly worth the effort. There were richer deposits to the north on the Kanawha-theepi, and to the west in lands of Kan-tuc-kee, but they had the same problem of transportation as the salt coming from the Sea Peoples to the east.
Over the next year following the attack on the Salt People, these circumstances all combined, and came to a head. Runners were sent out, great Councils were called and debated, and the result of those Councils were that the Beard People had to go. They were too damaging to the lives and prosperity of the True People, in all of the tribes.
Calls for a gathering of warriors with common interest were sent out, calls to gather masses of warriors to drive out the Beard People. Tsenacomacah, now in his 18th year, answered that call along with hundreds of others from far and wide. As a member of a tribe of traders, his economic interests had been directly impacted by the attack.
In the Year of the Lord of the Beard People 1568, they were driven from the lands of the True People.
The forts of the Beard People were, for the most part, to the south and east of the lands of the Turkey River People, in the flat lands, savannahs and forests of what would one day be called North Carolina and South Carolina. When the call for warriors had amassed an overwhelming force to defeat the beard People, they were attacked. Their forts were burned to the ground, and they were all killed to a man. Unbeknownst to the gathered warriors, one Beard Person, a single man, survived and escaped to tell the tale. It is recorded in the archives of the Spanish Crown to this day.
Tsenacomacah killed several of the strangers himself, 5 or 6. Two with arrows before he ran out, one with his spear, driven so deeply upward from under the man's chin that it pierced his brain and was stuck so fast in the man's skull that Tsenacomacah could not free it, and the rest with his pokeeshi club. His father had been right - they were but men, and could be killed as easily as any other man, despite their magic weapons. Tsenacomacah learned that day that once they had discharged their magic dragon weapons, the ones that belched smoke, thunder, fire, and death, the weapon was dead until it could be recharged with magic. Until them, it was but a club, as any other club in any man's hands. The trick was to kill the man behind the club before he could install more magic into his weapon, and to do that, one aimed for areas not covered by the strange shiny rocks the Beard Men worse as a defense. You just bypassed that defense, and struck at the soft parts.
After the fighting was over, Tsenacomacah sat down, weary, covered in mud, blood, soot and ash, and ate deer jerky and pemmican from his provisions pouch as he watched the former palisade and huts of the Beard People he had killed burn to the ground. he vowed that day that if they ever returned, they would be served the same, but before they could disrupt The People and their way of life, rather than afterward as had happened to be the case this time.
The actions that day gained a reputation for Tsenacomacah, which spread outward to tribes as the warriors who were there that day and witnessed the action told their stories upon returning home. Even among his own people, in his own village, Tsenacomacah was referred to in hushed tones as "Beard-People-Killer". People often avoided him, shied away. Whether that was out of deference and respect, or out of fear, Tsenacomacah could not tell. In his own eyes, he was a "killer" of no one. He'd only done what needed to be done, and in all truth only had aspirations as a trader, to run the trails and carry goods from town to town, gathering tales and making trades.
Unfortunately for him, that was not the reputation that grew.
The Beard People were driven from the interior, and gave up their aspirations to conquer it as too dangerous. They were driven all the way back to their seaside town of Santa Elena, on the coast of South Carolina at what would one day be the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, and would never again venture forth into the interior. Eventually, after another 20 years, even the hard-fought-for and hard won Santa Elena would be abandoned.
The North American interior was just too dangerous for the Spaniard Beard People. Henceforth, the Spanish Beard People would confine themselves to what they had renamed "la Florida", a large peninsula at the southern extremity of the continent. the lands that had formerly belonged to the Ai, the Calusa, the Uitina, and so on. The only lands they had a snowball's chance in hell of holding against the wrath of the natives.
.
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.’