The Blue Disc

by William B. Waits

  “I’m sorry to concern you, John. I’ll try to be a good visitor.”

  “I fear that, ultimately, our interests will conflict.”

  “I hope not.”

  “We’ll find out, won’t we?”

  To break the tension, Rick looked through the window of the mill house.

  “Those two large stones are for grinding grain, right?” he asked.

  “Yes, they are, and they do a quite good job of it.”

  “I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that you have corn here…you do, don’t you?”

  “Yes, we have several types. Our favorite one is a variety we found on a scouting trip northwest of here in 1785. The descendants of the stalks we brought back have provided us many meals over the years.”

  “I noticed that the bottom part of the wheel is still in the water. Shouldn’t it be above the water to reduce the drag so the wheel can turn faster?” Rick asked.

  “You would think so, wouldn’t you, but what’s best is a slow, steady pull. It helps if you have a bit of drag from the water at the bottom of the wheel to give you that. People from outside society must like speed a lot,” he kidded gently.

  Giving up speed was so counter-intuitive to Rick that it took a few seconds for the merits of a slow, steady motion to sink in.

  “What’s this device used for?” he asked, pointing through the window to a large wooden device near the driveshaft. “Is it used for weaving cloth?”

  “Perceptive of you. Yes, it’s a weaving frame. We use the water wheel to power the shuttle and move the threads after each pass.”

  “Since I was captured, everyone has worn skins,” he noted, “that is, until you and the Leader showed up wearing cloth.”

  “You arrived just before our battle with the Islamamo, as you know. We always wear leather clothing around the time of our battles; however, cloth obviously cleans better in the rain forest than leather and is cooler, so, except at ritual times, we wear cloth.”

  “But no one in the bunker mentioned that you have cloth. Was that intentional?”

  “Yes, the Leader thought it would be a good idea for those at the bunker to wear leather until we learned more about you.”

  “You were deceiving me?”

  “We were protecting our privacy. The Leader didn’t want you to know too much about us in the hope that you’d study a different group. If you’d left our village after the battle as we advised, you wouldn’t know about our cloth-making, would you? We could have continued living undisturbed. But you’re here, for better or worse.”

  Water wheel technology. Remarkable Rick thought to himself. “What other secrets have you kept from me?” asked Rick, digging for more information.

  “That’s what this walk is about. You’ll learn more in a few minutes when we get to the village.”

  Past the water wheel were small rapids, and the path got steeper. Fifty yards farther down the path, they emerged from the jungle and the Euromamo village came into view. What a sight! Large! There must have been a thousand people walking about and more were doubtless inside the various buildings. The biggest buildings in the center of the village were located around a rectangle made by wide paths. They were well constructed with roofs of wooden shingles. Two large stone fountains gushed at the corners at either end of the main path. Gazebos graced the other two corners of the square farthest from the river.

  “Amazing!” Rick exclaimed. “Even fountains!”

  “They’re fed by gravity from the Bel Ami.”

  Behind the buildings on the right side of the main path, the Bel Ami flowed toward them and then over the rapids. The first four buildings in that row had water wheels sticking in the water behind them and rotating slowly. Two bridges spanned the river giving access to buildings on the other side. As Rick and John walked through the central area of the village, Rick noticed the fine-cut stonework of the paths and the wildly colorful exotic flowers and other tropical vegetation in well-tended beds along their full length. This took labor, he knew, and he counted twenty people working on them. Surrounding the central area were smaller buildings…shelters, John called them...not large, but ample enough and well-constructed. Overall, the effect was very pleasing.

  “What’s that open green space to the left of the main buildings?”

  “That’s the Butts.”

  “Butts? I’m not familiar with that term.”

  “It’s our commons where we go to practice archery by shooting at padded round barrel butts. We use it regularly as we need the practice for hunting. As I mentioned in our discussion of battles, we usually use simpler weapons for hunting here, not the European weapons our forebears brought here. Here, let’s go into this building first,” said John, motioning Rick into the first building.

  Inside, Rick’s eyes took a few seconds to adjust from the bright sunlight. Then he could make out the large drive shaft of the water wheel sticking through the back wall, turning slowly and powering the machines in the room through a belt system. Shuttlecocks moved back and forth across wooden frames weaving cloth. The ten Euromamo who were tending to the machines smiled and nodded toward John. As Rick perused the room, he felt like he time-travelled back to the early industrial revolution.

  “What do you use to make cloth?” he asked.

  “Fiber from the fiber plant.”

  “Fiber plant?” asked Rick.

  “It is similar to the cotton plant grown by other groups in the rain forest, but this relative of cotton is better. Its fibers are longer, softer, and less attached to the seeds. We learned about it in 1790 from the Soumamo from whom we obtained our first plants. We tried to grow it ourselves but soon discovered that our soil is not as well suited to it as theirs.”

  “I thought rain forest soil was rich with nutrients. Plants are everywhere,” commented Rick.

  “Rain forest soil is not as rich as you might think so where you grow plants matters. Anyway, we can buy all the fiber we need from the Soumamo these days. They are quite the experts at growing it. Indeed, they base their economy on it.”

  “You’re dependent on them for your fiber? Doesn’t that place you at an economic disadvantage in your dealings with them?”

  “Not really. They want things from us when they trade, so they depend on us as well. For example, we sell them the implements they use to grow fiber plants, and we transport goods between us…for a price.”

  “Does this facility make all of the cloth you need?”

  “Yes, what we make in this room provides us more than enough cloth for ourselves plus excess cloth for trading with surrounding groups, usually in the form of finished products.”

  “It’s very impressive. Did you always use water power in making cloth?” asked Rick.

  “During our forebears’ first two decades in the rain forest, they dressed in leather. However, in 1770 they began to make cloth, using water power from the Bel Ami to power the looms. Thank goodness, some of our forebears had worked in cloth mills in England and remembered enough of the technology to reproduce it here. Today, water power meets our needs. It’s good that it does because other power sources—steam, gasoline, and electricity—are impractical for us to use. Let’s move to the building next door.”

  They exited into the blinding sunlight and walked toward the next building, which was thirty feet away and about as large as the first building. In the center of the room was a furnace and smelting pot. At nearby benches, workers busily fabricated metal items.

  “This is our foundry,” John said. “Here we make agricultural implements, tools, and household items, much of it for trade. We also make weapons for warfare but we keep those in storage and hope we never have to use them.”

  “How do you fire the furnace?” asked Rick.

  “We’re fortunate to have adequate coal deposits in our territory to meet our needs. Near the surface, too. Don’t miss our kiln for pottery and ceramics against the far wall. Fired the same way. If you go out the door here, I’ll show you the next building.”r />
  The next structure was about sixty feet by twenty-feet. As they entered the door, Rick saw jars everywhere, along with mortars and pestles, test tubes, burners and scales. It looked like Edison’s lab in West Orange that he had visited three years ago, only better organized. Jars were carefully labeled around their girth with corks in their mouths.

  “This is our lab and production facility for making some of the products we use and trade. Let me show you this.”

  John walked to a counter against the wall to get a shallow wooden box. Rick heard glass clinking in the box as John brought it back. Inside the box were a dozen small labeled jars…with screw-on lids! What were these doing in the rain forest? Surely, they can’t make them here. Before Rick could ask about the lids, John continued the conversation by remarking that “these are only a few of the products we make…for trade with others mostly.”

  “You make products?” said Rick with some astonishment. “Like what?”

  “We’ve developed quite a few over the years,” responded John, “but it’s our plant-based medicines that we are proudest of, especially if what we have is better than that possessed by other groups. We used this one on your leaf cut.”

  Without thinking, Rick glanced down to see that his cut was healing nicely.

  “This cream prevents sunburn,” continued John, handing him another jar. “You should put it on whenever you are out for long. Take this one if you want.”

  Rick turned it over in his hands. The label was printed in English but the label on another jar was in Spanish. A third one was in Portuguese, he guessed. Each had a small line drawing of a sailing vessel, below which was printed “Cork Enterprises, Ltd.”

  “We have some products that don’t have anything to do with health; for example, this one softens leather. There are a few others that we use in the village but don’t trade them to others, for example, hand lotion and some salves, because others seem to have done well enough developing their own.”

  “That’s a lot of products. How did you learn to make them?”

  “In the early years, our forebears learned some basic techniques from native groups, who had developed plant-based remedies during their centuries here. Learning it was crucial to our forebears’ survival. Even if they did not see an immediate use for what natives knew, they made a habit of writing it down because they might have a use for it later, a habit, I will add, that has continued to the present day. As one of our churches puts it, ‘We think data are good per se’. This habit of careful note taking has enabled us, over the years, to determine the effectiveness of our plant-based remedies.”

  “Are you pleased with how your medicines work?”

  “Generally, yes. While our plant-based remedies don’t solve all our medical challenges, they treat many of them effectively.”

  Rick was bursting to ask John about their trade in medicines and particularly the screw-tops on the jars.

  “So you trade the medicines you make? Trade them with other groups?”

  “Yes, we trade them with…others,” said John with obvious unease.

  Rick paused before he asked, “What about the jars and jar lids, John? I want to know more about those.”

  John paused with his head downcast.

  “I know I’m supposed to give you information, Rick, but deep inside, I want to protect our privacy.”

  “I understand that you treasure your privacy, John, but the Leader wanted us to tour the village so I could learn about you. When you showed me the box of jars, you surely knew I’d have questions.”

  “Fair enough. I’ll come straight out with it, Rick. We sell our medicines in La Puerta.”

  “La Puerta? How do you get them there?”

  “We transport them ourselves.”

  “So…you go to La Puerta…and return”

  “Regularly.”

  “You could leave the rain forest at any time…”

  “We can discuss that later.”

  “OK, I guess I’ll have to wait. What else can you tell me about your trade in medicines?”

  “Only a few details now. In 1800, our forebears began making plant-based medicines for trade with neighboring groups in the rain forest. In 1825, they made their first journey to the coast and, soon thereafter, began selling them in La Puerta on a limited basis. Their trade in medicines expanded steadily over the decades, so, by 1870, we were shipping large amounts to the coast. Today, many of our medicines have won a market beyond La Puerta, even as far away as North America and Europe.” His eyes twinkled as he added, “A few of our products have made it into herbal and folk medicine stores in New York.”

  “Outside the rain forest, you sell your medicines for money?”

  “Yes, it’s where we get most of our income,” said John.

  “Deciding whether to sell to the outside must have been a difficult decision,” commented Rick, “especially given your desire to maintain your privacy.”

  “It was. Our forebears thought carefully about whether to sell their products to outside society. Obviously, doing so would require them to travel down river regularly. That posed some safety concerns but, more importantly, it risked their privacy, particularly if they didn’t manage their contacts in La Puerta well. Ultimately, they decided to go ahead because the income from their sales would allow them to buy certain items that were difficult for them to produce here in the rain forest, for example, machined goods, chemicals, lab equipment, and medical equipment…and yes, the screw-on jar lids that caught your attention. It made sense for them to buy such items in La Puerta rather than try to produce them here.”

  “Given your forebears’ concern with privacy, why didn’t they close off all contact with other groups?” remarked Rick.

  “That would have been very risky. They desperately needed to learn from rain forest groups to survive, so they needed to cultivate contacts, not cut them off. Contact with groups outside the rain forest was another matter, but even those contacts they embraced provided they could do it on their own terms. They wanted to buy the things from outside society that made their lives better, but they also wanted to avoid buying indiscriminately. It was a tough challenge then, and it remains a tough challenge today. The short of it is that we are not isolationist, notwithstanding our ongoing concern with privacy. We can discuss it later but, for now, let’s leave through this doorway and I’ll show you more of our village.”

  Inside the door of the next building was a long corridor with about ten rooms along each wall. Numerous people bustled about. Many carried clipboards and pens.

  “This is our medical facility. We’ve always placed great importance on medical care. Without being attentive to our health, our forebears might not have survived beyond the early years.”

  “Astounding,” remarked Rick under his breath. “Do the treatments use plant-based techniques?”

  “Some of it’s plant-based, but we’ve also learned as much about outside medicine as we could and have readily incorporated that knowledge into our society. Your advances have been very impressive.”

  “Medicine is so complicated. How can villagers possibly learn it?”

  “There are two ways in which we increase our knowledge of medicine. First, we keep careful records of the effectiveness of our medical procedures, whether we’re using local procedures or those from outside. We learn from what we do. We may make a mistake but we try to avoid making it again.

  “Second, we train some of our young people in outside medical knowledge. We accord those who practice medicine high status in our society so it usually attracts good students, the swots. With our support, they go to outside society to work in medical facilities, usually hospitals, so they can learn from observing and asking questions. We established a relationship with an employment agency in La Puerta that places our students in appropriate facilities while preserving the privacy of our group. The employment agency can get them hired because, over the years, our young people have proved to be good, conscientious workers. We buy them medi
cal textbooks with some of the profits from our sales of plant-based medicines. When their time in training is completed, they bring their books back to share with others. They also update workers in the medical facility on new techniques from outside society. Finally, they’re tested to make sure they’ve learned enough to treat people.”

  “It’s your best students who go for medical training?”

  “Usually, yes, although some of our best go into other fields, following their preferences and ability. No one is pressured to pursue an occupation that doesn’t appeal to them. It’s difficult to be good at something you don’t like doing.”

  “Aren’t the rejected students disappointed when they’re not able to pursue medical training?” asked Rick.

  “Yes, some are disappointed, but a high level of ability is required to practice medicine in our village. Some aren’t chosen because they fail the tests that we use to identify those with the requisite ability for various occupations. In short, we’re not egalitarian. People have a wide range of abilities and we have constructed our society with that in mind. Let’s stop for a moment to get some elastoplasts to protect your leaf cut while it finishes healing.”

  “It looks very much like a Band-Aid,” Rick said in surprise.

  “Exactly the same idea,” he chuckled. “We make strips out of latex from the rubber plant and then adhere a fiber plant pad. Sterile, of course.”

  A baby cried at the far end of the corridor.

  “It sounds like a strong young Euromamo. Good lungs, apparently,” John said proudly, as he escorted Rick down the corridor. “We’re particularly proud of our obstetrics facilities. From our forebears’ earliest years in the rain forest, we’ve taken special care of women during pregnancy and childbirth. As you know, when they arrived in the valley, villagers had to maintain their fighting population, so they treasured their women and each young Euromamo they bore.”