Forty years later there was not the ghost of a resistance on Carillon, nor had there been for thirty-five years. Problems of law enforcement were handled by local and regional constabularies, and the Fremen garrison was the only military force on the planet. It consisted of one reinforced regiment, about 3,200 men. Yet this regiment was backed by a supply and administrative structure numbering over 20,000. The support-to-combatant ratio was over 6 to 1 in a peaceful world where the noise of battle had not been heard for over a generation. Moreover, the examination of the names on the rosters of the support personnel — and this is admittedly an imperfect measure — shows only about one in ten to be Fremen. While the troops under arms continued to be drawn from Arrakis, the maintenance of planetary supply, provisioning, quartering, and medical service was almost entirely in the hands of Carillonians.1
One last and striking piece of evidence will illustrate the decline which all these records show. In 10221, an interesting legal document makes its first appearance: On the planet Finally in that year, a Fremen soldier sued a native in the local courts for assault. The outcome of the trial is of no consequence; what is significant is that the suit was brought at all. A decade earlier, the attacker would not have survived the assault, or if he had, would not have lived to go to court. The next several decades see an increase in the number of civil and criminal cases involving Fremen in the courts of Finally, showing that the Fremen were changing. They were adapting to local society and accepting the local law. There is no reason to believe that Finally was different in this respect from the other garrisoned planets.
The evidence of the century points to just one conclusion: The Fremen army that swept through the empire during Paul's Jihad was, a hundred years later, a broken reed, top-heavy with bureaucrats, dependent on local support, and often manned by sick and unwilling conscripts. It may well be that its total strength declined, too, for Leto never allowed a census on Arrakis, and the strength of his military arm was the most closely guarded of secrets. Had it not been for Leto's spice-based stranglehold on the Spacing Guild and his consequent absolute monopoly on transportation and communication, the Fremen army could not have secured a single planet against a determined resistance after about 10260, let alone have held the Empire together.
THE REVOLT OF THE FREMEN. The revolt of certain units of the Sardaukar, led by Duncan Idaho (11099), is dealt with in more detail in entries DUNCAN IDAHO-11099 and SARDAUKAR. Suffice it to say here that this revolt must have been the major motivation for the foundation of the Fish Speakers. Leto must have realized that in the Fremen army he had a tool of doubtful effectiveness whose political reliability was shaky. The rise of a charismatic figure (such as Duncan Idaho in any of his incarnations) was a potential danger since Idaho was a direct tie to the days of glory — someone who could invoke the name of Paul Atreides with a conviction and claim equal to that of Leto. It is shortly after the revolt that we first hear of the formation of the Fish Speakers, and we are now in a position to appreciate that the Fish Speakers were the effect of a clear sequence of causes.
G.W.E. and W.E.M.
NOTE
1At present, the most avidly sought-after documents in the military section are those which would establish whether Leto, in this first century of his rule, employed auxiliary units of native troops on the planets of his empire.
Further references: DUNCAN IDAHO-11099; SARDAUKAR; Yauzheen Pursewarden, History of the Fish Speakers (Centralia: Johun Univ. Press).
FLOWMETER
A Fremen device used for measuring valuable liquids in large quantities. Precise meters have been traced to the era soon after Fremen first inhabited Arrakis; the celebrated hyperaccurate version was well established long before Pardot Kynes Prior to their destiny-fixing encounter with the Imperial Planetologist Pardot Kynes in 10151 began insisting on ecological transformation.
The first flowmeters were used on large distilling devices such as the Huanui, used in the death-reclamation ceremony. Later on, others were modified slightly to accept water from a funnel instead of a catchtube. This model was mounted at the rim of every sietch's reclamation catch-basin to record "deposits" into the tribal repository of wealth. Standard catchtube-accepting meters, between windtraps and catch-basins, were also mounted in the sietch and stopover megabasins. The flowmeters provided progress reports on the amount of water accumulated along the way to planetary reclamation.
In a funnel-accepting flowmeter the catch-funnel is at the top. Most are about 50 cm in diameter, with a turned lip of about 1.5 cm to prevent splashover. The funnels are of plasteel, and have been found to have been surfaced with the friction release substance found in watertubing. (Two examples of funnels made of a melange-based substance have been uncovered. Melange compounds do not respond well to laserdating, but rough holo-carbon techniques show these specimens to date back to perhaps 7000.)
At the vortex of these catchfunnels is a dilating, pressure-actuated diaphragm valve. As the water rises in the funnel, the calibrated valve releases and lets the funnel-full "drop" into the flowmeter's measuring cylinder. The cylinder and its own pressure valve, the technological core of the flowmeter, come as a unit. The valve, taking up the bottom half of the cylinder, is of the dilating leaf type. It has two appendages, a switch-triggering cable and the threaded casing of a ten-tooth bevel gear.
The control cable is triggered by a tab on the back edge of one of the flowmeter valve's dilating leaves. When tripped, the cable signals the valve at the base of the funnel (above the flowmeter itself) to close. This interconnection prevents both the funnel valve and the flowmeter valve from being open at the same time.
The casing and bevel gear mesh with a complementary arrangement at the dial. As the valve's dilating leaves open out, the gear spins at up to 1,000 rpm. When the valve is at maximum dilation (10 cm), the mechanism clicks the dial pointer to its next position. The meter valve closes, the funnel valve opens, and the cycle repeats.
The flowmeter's accurate recording proceeds almost automatically until the end of a measuring cycle. When the funnel is partly full, its valve can be opened manually (as long as the meter valve has closed). The water enters the meter cylinder, whose valve can be spun manually. This rotation eases or increases the tension applied to the leaves' springs. The precise amount of tension necessary to reach the point of water release is recorded accurately on the flowmeter's dial.
The dial itself reveals a fascinating inconsistency. It records in liters and drachms (to the l/32nd drachm). The "liter" is a Galactic standard, and has been for millennia. The drachm, however, is even more ancient, a holdover from a "halving" system of measurement. The flowmeter's analog recorder converts the metric and halving systems with no difficulty, so using the two approaches made no difference as far as absolute amounts of water were concerned. But the inconsistency is dramatic confirmation of Fremen-Zensunni residence on Salusa Secundus, whose records show continued use of the preminimic Inglo system of volumetrics well into Imperial times. (The basis of the Inglo system was the "gal;" One "gal" — 4096 drachms; 1 drachm = 3.696 ml.)
The flowmeter seldom varied from the design outlined above. Older models show some minor variations; by the time of the Fremen Jihad the design was standardized and mass-produced to service the increasing numbers of windtraps and megabasins installed at even minor stopovers. The difference between lip-mounted meters and the windtrap/Huanui type involved the substitution of a catchtube for the funnel above the diaphragm valve. At the downside end of these models there was a twist-tab mount for a literjon's spout tube or a simple watertube adapter.
From today's vantage point it is possible to speculate about ways the Fremen might have improved their meters. Holtzman electronics, for instance, might have been adapted to replace many of the cumbersome moving parts. However, such suggestions seem to many scholars close to the scene to ignore the Fremen principle.
J.L.C.
FREMEN AGRICULTURE
Prior to their destiny-fixing encounter with
the Imperial Planetologist Pardot Kynes in 10151, the Fremen were accustomed to consuming only those fruits, vegetables, and nuts they could purchase from the village folk nearest their sietches or (more rarely) gather from the terraform planting areas or the high-altitude temperate zones.
All of this was changed with the implementation of the planetologist's dream of transforming Arrakis from a desert world to a gentler, more temperate planet. As the Fremen learned to change the face of the desert with their plantings and their newly adopted Imperial technology, they naturally applied that knowledge to their in-sietch lives, with varying degrees of success.
The earliest recorded attempts made at raising crops took place in 10169, at Sietch Tabr. Using chromoplastic-lined pits, or dew collectors, to help cushion the plants against the harsh desert soil, the Fremen introduced coffee, tabaroot (a sweet tuber developed on Caladan), and a few varieties of vegetables adapted for the fields of Salusa Secundus. (The latter, smuggled onto Arrakis at tremendous risk to Kynes, provided him with ironic amusement: not one of the specimens, toughened for life on the Emperor's "hellhole" of a prison planet, managed to survive to maturity on Arrakis.)
The coffee and tabaroot, both of which the Fremen usually purchased from outsiders, did not immediately flourish; they did, however, provide their cultivators with a small harvest within three seasons. Taking even this degree of success as a sign that their work could go ahead, the Fremen expanded their plantings, both to other sietches and to different types of vegetation.
Certain varieties — the date palm, for example — refused to grow in ground not prepared, as was the case at the palmaries, by many years' growth of other, hardier stock. In addition, the would-be farmers were burdened with the need for secrecy, and dared not indulge in the level of activity performed at the palmary sites for fear of alerting the Harkonnens or other out-freyn to their unsuspected sophistication. Still, the Fremen persevered, rejoicing in their victories and refusing to be daunted by their failures, until no sietch was without its own supply of self-grown produce.
While the cultivation of each area varied from sietch to sietch, certain characteristics were present in every case. Each plant in a sietch garden, however coddled, was prepared with eventual self-sufficiency in mind: with their dew collectors functioning properly, for instance, many of the mature growths could survive for up to one year without human intervention. (It was usually necessary, however, for the gardeners to return in order for the plants to be successfully pollinated.) The sietch gardens were also concealed from casual observation, sometimes in highly ingenious ways.
Pardot Kynes himself was occasionally surprised by the degree of stealth "his" Fremen possessed in this matter. A favorite story involved his having to ask for a guide from one of the sietches in order to find a patch of nearly one Hundred coffee plants. (The patch had been so carefully nestled into an outcropping of rocks that they could only be spotted from above by someone who knew what was being sought.)
Care of established gardens was generally left to the sietch children and was considered good training for the rigors which would face them at the southern palmaries. Records indicate that these youngsters began their chores at as early an age as three years, when they were taught to keep the dew collectors of new plants properly set over the spreading roots. All of the children, as well as their elders, took the cultivation very seriously, and any neglect on the part of a young gardener was severely dealt with by his or her peers before being reported to the adults.
Following Arrakis's ecological transformation, of course, such caution and vigilance became unnecessary. Crops on that planet could be as easily raised as those on any other world, and the uniquely Fremen approach — a sort of grim dedication touched with near-religious fervor — was used only by God Emperor Leto II's Museum Fremen, as another of their ornamental rituals.
C.W.
Further references: PALMARIES; Pardot Kynes, Ecology of Dune, tr. Evan Gwatan, Arrakis Studies 24 (Grumman: United Worlds).
FREMEN CLOTHING AND TEXTILES
The dress of the Fremen in the days of the Atreides has long been a subject of speculation because strictures against pictorial representation were widely followed. But discoveries from the Rakis Finds have answered many of the questions that so long puzzled the curious. This information will be sure to stimulate the fashion-wise trendsetters of our own times.
One of the stops on the Grand Tour of the tenth millennium was the Great Hall of the Imperial Palace on Kaitain. In this lush edifice the splendor of the Corrinos was everywhere visible. The walls of the Great Hall were covered, floor to ceiling, with mosaics depicting the peoples of the Imperium; among them, of course, were Fremen. But the Palace burned during an uprising early in Paul Atreides' Jihad, and its art was thought lost forever. Recently, though, the crystal catalogued as 1-F469 has been found to contain picto-discs revealing the art treasures of the Palace in all their majesty. From these discs, from the occasional surviving portrait, and from records of the textile trade, the keen-eyed students of clothing culture have given us a new understanding of Fremen attire.
Men's clothing appears to have been brightly colored — at least, clothing worn casually at home seems to have favored tones of yellow, bright green, blues, crimson, and so on, for the trouser and jerkin. On festival occasions, men would add a cloak of merino wool, in natural shades of black or buff. Men's trousers were narrowly pleated at the waist, fitted closely to the leg, and ended just above the ankle. Over this was worn a closely fitted jerkin or jacket, cut in a deep vee to the waist, where it was held to the body by a belt at matching fabric closed by a buckle of metal or metallium. The favored metals were copper (thought to promote general health) or silver (said to aid virility). In the opening on the chest, young men often wore tilsams or medallions, usually decorated with a religious theme, although some commemorated an event of the Jihad. Older men often wore chains, not with medallions but with small rings symbolizing the water-rings they had won in battle.
On the head, older men wore either a small turban or scarf, while youths went bareheaded. The house shoe was most often a heelless slipper, which was replaced by townsmen with a heavy boot of sturdy yellow leather. The desert Fremen doffed their slippers for a thick stocking over which, of course, went the specialized stillsuit boot.
Women's clothing was similar to that of men, except that another layer was added. Although men's trousers were made of a medium-weight brocade weave, women's trousers were made of a fine cotton. Those who could afford it luxuriated in trousers of the sheer cotton from Loomar. The female jerkin — the giumlik — was likewise cut in a deep vee, and in the earliest days appears to have been worn open. Later, however, jeweled clasps closed the jacket over the breasts and at the waist. Over the trousers and jerkin, women added a softly falling sheer gown, the entary.
Like the men, women wore a heelless slipper in the house or sietch, but for dressier occasions they chose a high-heeled boot made of soft kidskin. All of the clothing of both sexes, with the exception of the women's boot, made changing into the stillsuit quick and easy.
Unlike the brightly colored male clothing, Fremen women tended to choose clothes in earth tones, sand-colored tans or beiges. It has been suggested that these muted hues were a protective measure, for the women were the treasures of the tribe — or more precisely, the treasuries of the tribe, wearing the family's water-rings as jewelry at the waist, braided into the hair, or as part of a headdress to which a sheer veil was attached.
Children dressed like their elders except for an added garment — the tshka — a closely fitting shirt, usually knitted, and worn under the jacket. All these articles of dress added insulation from the sun and the drying winds of Arrakis.
The fabrics chiefly used by the Fremen were cotton, almost all of it imported at considerable expense from the factories of Loomar. It came in a variety of weights and served both for clothing and decorative hangings. The best Loomar cottons, fabulously expensive, were frequently used as
part of the bride price in the upper classes, in which water-rings (though still valuable) meant less than they did to the desert Fremen. Wool was likewise imported, usually that woven from the merino sheep of Norstrilia. This absorbent fabric served chiefly for outer cloaks, although the bleached but otherwise untreated fleece might grace a couch in the bedroom of a lady of taste and quality. Salucan glasscloth was a spun fabric of relatively low abrasion resistance which was widely used for the mass-produced (and hence inferior) stillsuits, but only as the outer layers. One final fabric was called Alphamet, an extremely lightweight and finely woven metallic cloth that accentuated the figure and embraced the skin while it glimmered and sparkled in the candlelit ballrooms of the rich and mighty.
J.R.M.
Further references: Countess Eleni Sinoria, The Unchanging Heart of Fashion (Caladan: INS Books); Rakis Ref. Cat. 1-F469; Rakis Ref. Cat. 52-C982 (Records of textile factors licensed by CHOAM at Arrakis Ports of Entry).
The Dune Encyclopedia Page 49
