In The Beginning

by Richard Webber

  Chapter Ten

  Now it began. During my journey across the desert I often had daydreams that began in this same manner. I found other people, somehow convinced them to take me into their tribe, and was always made their king because of my strength and wisdom. Of course these had been dreams born out of vanity and boredom, and though there had been a degree of hope and desire in the daydreams, I had laughed at myself even while I had them. These fantasies had usually involved very little effort on my part. I now realized carrying out my plan, which in reality was very similar to my daydreams in the wasteland, was going to be much more difficult than I had imagined.

  The leader now stood right in front of me, hands out as he looked at me inquiringly. I lifted my open hands again. An audible sound of relief came from all three men. They looked at me and waited, expecting me to make the next move. Now that I had been accepted and was no longer in immediate danger, I needed to communicate with these people to begin the process of becoming their leader.

  “Hello,” I said.

  Their heads cocked like animals as they looked at one another in surprise, and then looked back to me. They all realized I was speaking to them, but this form of communication was very different from what they were accustomed to and they had no idea how to respond. Instead of the guttural sounds that they had been using, this was a smooth and pleasant sound. The word rolled off my tongue and out of my mouth effortlessly and relatively quietly compared to their speech. I expected that it sounded quite different from any speech they had heard before.

  “Hello,” I repeated more slowly, smiling and trying to indicate that this was a positive, friendly word.

  The leader looked at the two men, who had come forward to stand at his side. They all faced me, along with the female who had come around from behind me and now stood beside them, looking at me in surprise with her mouth open.

  There was a long pause. I could practically see their minds turning as they tried to take in this new development. The woman was the first to respond.

  “Ello,” she cautiously said in a low tone.

  I was thrilled! She actually could make the sounds required to communicate. An even broader smile, this one unforced, came upon my face. I nodded and faced her directly.

  “Hello,” I said again, emphasizing the sound at the beginning of the word.

  She hesitantly said hello once more, pronouncing it correctly this time as she spoke in a more confident tone. I was surprised to hear that her voice had a pleasant sound. When she had been shouting at the men in their native language, she had sounded coarse and guttural, now her voice was smooth and melodious.

  Who is this? A god out of the desert? He appears to be a man and he speaks, but he is so large and he looks so different from us. There is something shining on his head, I don't know what it is but it means I cannot harm him... How do I know the mark means I may not hurt him?

  One of the men was the next to respond “Hello”. He also spoke hesitantly and softly, but the word sounded well coming from him, much more natural than any of the crude noises had sounded only a few moments before.

  Now that everyone had calmed down, I could see this man had a more pleasant face than the other two men; he was younger and his features did not look quite so rough. His eyes were alert and his face was more defined and expressive. In contrast, the expressions of the other two men were a bit dull, and they were definitely slower to comprehend my speech.

  On closer examination, the leader of the men impressed me the least. I could see he did not understand the speech I had just exchanged with his tribe mates. He was trying to get his mind around the word we had spoken, but it was obvious he had no idea what was happening. While I could understand that he would lead this small group, I found it difficult to believe that the man in front of me was the leader of their tribe. He just didn't seem bright enough. The leader I would need to identify and displace would be back in their village.

  Now that I could closely observe the woman and the three men together, I concluded this tribe chose their leaders for their aggressiveness or size, and not necessarily their intelligence. My path to leadership could be made more difficult if too many of the men did not have sufficient intelligence to realize what I could bring to them, or were wary of following me because of jealousy or fear of change.

  But overall this had been a wonderful beginning; I could not have hoped for it to go any better. They had seen what I was physically capable of when I deflected and broke their weapons, and they could see the mark on my head. Because of these things they held me in awe and feared me. It appeared that they could learn my language and we would be able to communicate. It was a better start than I could have hoped for, but I needed to insure that I gained control while I still had an advantage; before my skills and the mark became ordinary and normal to these people.

  Their reaction to my mark intrigued me. What did they see when they looked at me? They obviously saw something on my head and it made them fear me. What was it? A symbol, a glow, a ring? I could see or feel nothing, and it was disconcerting that I didn't know what it was they saw.

  I came back to the present and realized they were all staring at me expectantly. Given their reaction, I was no longer worried that I would be attacked. It was time to visit their home, to learn more about them and start building my future.

  Their argument forgotten for the moment, they waited to see what I would do next. I knew what I needed; food and water, and I knew what I wanted; to wash myself and get a good night’s sleep in a real bed. I hoped all those things could happen when we reached their home.

  I indicated through hand gestures and slowly spoken words, a form of communication that I knew would be normal for a while, that I wanted to go to their home. Their eyes went wide when they realized what I was asking, but I insisted, pointing at the group’s leader and indicating that I wanted him to lead the way. The leader was obviously very uncomfortable with this proposition; this wasn’t what he had expected, but I made it very clear that this was what I needed to do. He finally nodded slowly, grudgingly agreeing that they would take me there.

  With this settled I grabbed my pack from behind the rock and was ready to go. I noted the interest that was shown in my pack as I swung it on my back, but was quickly distracted when the leader once again pointed at the rabbits and indicated that the woman should give them to him before we left. Her reaction was immediate, and the shouting started again just as loudly as before.

  Enough, I thought, and I quieted them with a roar. I had to get the bottom of this shouting. I pointed to the woman’s rabbits.

  “What are the rabbits for?” I asked her.

  Surprisingly, she seemed to understand and made a guttural sound in her throat as she pantomimed eating, bringing food to her mouth and chewing. At first this made no sense to me. What did she mean? And then I understood.

  “Food?” I said in horror, as I took a step back in revulsion.

  “Food!” I repeated in shock.

  They eat animals! My mind was spinning and I thought I might be sick. I could imagine nothing so barbaric as to eat an animal.

  My family had killed animals rarely and only out of necessity. To us it was understood as a fact of nature that life was sacred and not to be wasted unnecessarily. If an animal was so sick or injured that it could not be saved, it was killed to ease its suffering. If you were attacked and your life was in danger, as in the case of the wild boar from which my sandals were made, it was expected that you would kill to save your own life.

  The only time we willfully killed an animal was as a sacrifice to God, and this was a complex relationship involving our perfect first fruits. The animals we killed were given to God out of respect and honor, and were related to His gifts to us. To my family the act of killing anything was a very serious and complex issue, which had made my sin against my brother all the worse.

  Never had the idea of actually eating an animal that had been killed crossed my mind. The very thought filled me
with such disgust that if I had anything in my stomach it would have come up; I gagged just thinking about it.

  What could I do now? Could I still go with them? The thought of eating an animal so nauseated me that I didn’t know if it would be possible for me to live with these people. They were more barbaric than I could ever have imagined.

  I realized with absolute certainty that this was the main reason my father had removed them from our land. Though I could never know exactly what had happened, I knew without a doubt that eating meat was the cause of our separation from them.

  My mind raced. I needed water and I needed food. Real food, I thought with a shudder, bread or fruit.

  “Food.” I slowly said once again, much more quietly this time.

  The woman and the younger man, the ones that seemed to understand my speech the best, both hesitantly said “Food.”, and looked at me with curiosity. My reaction had been extreme, and I knew they had no idea why I had become so upset.

  This group’s job appeared to be gathering food for their tribe by killing animals. As much as this disgusted me, at this point I felt that I had no other options. It had been days since my food and water gave out, and at this point I really needed to eat, drink and rest. We had to go to their settlement, and I would make a final decision after I knew more about them.

  I pretended to walk, “Walk” I said, “Let’s walk.”

  They understood. There was a short pause, and then the leader sighed, gave a little shake of his head and we started. We went in the same direction I had been traveling these many days, to the east, away from the desert. The terrain had changed quickly once I came out of the desert. I had been walking today through rocky and unattractive hills covered with an abundance of large hardwoods; and this was the land where I had met my new companions.

  Now, as we continued to travel east through the hills I had been watching for so long, the landscape continued to change, all for the better. After only a short period of travel, we now walked among cedars and pines that were tall and mature, and it became obvious to me that they supported an abundance of wildlife.

  The hills were easy and rolling, with the trees well spaced. There was an attractive undergrowth all around us that had large, glossy, deep green leaves and fragrant white flowers; it was scattered over the hills and quite lovely to look at.

  It had now become a vibrant and fair land that we traveled through. Though it did not yet compare with my homeland, the farther we walked from the desert, the more pleasing it became.

  After a short time we came upon a quiet stream that ran across the faint path we travelled along. We stopped to drink, all of us kneeling as we cupped water in our hands and drank deeply of the cool liquid.

  This was the first fresh water I had seen in over fifty days, and I drank deeply to quench my thirst. I took this time to fill my water bags, and noted the amazement on their faces as they realized what I was doing. I could scarcely believe that this basic amenity was not known to them. How could they not have water bags to carry water with them when they traveled?

  I thought about it, and remembered I had rarely carried a supply of water when I was traveling about my own land. The water bag was something that was invented by my father because he saw a need, but it was actually used only occasionally. If these people had plenty of fresh water available to them and no need to carry it on journeys, they would not develop a bag. It was the same with the pack that they were so interested in when I first slid it on my back. If they had no need for a pack, they would not have invented it.

  This was my first conscious realization that for most people inventions would come about only because of a requirement. In my family we actually had tried to think of different ways to doing something, or things we could invent just to make our lives easier or better.

  I took advantage of the cool water to wash myself. It had been a very long time since I last bathed and I knew I was filthy. Unfortunately I had no soap; I had not thought to bring any with me when I left home. But the water by itself did a pretty good job of taking the dirt off my body.

  I went downstream from the others, so as not to dirty the water they were drinking. I first washed my face and neck, and from there moved on to my hands and forearms. I finished by removing my sandals and rinsing my feet and lower legs. Though it was not a hot bath, it was better than nothing. I also found a decent stick to make into a tooth brush, and quickly shaped one to clean my teeth. With a good drink of water and my body and teeth washed, I felt like a new man.

  Unfortunately, now that these needs were meet, I was more conscious that I had not eaten for many days. I really needed some food, but because of my companions’ barbaric eating practices, I wasn’t sure if I could get anything from them to sustain me. I would need to find something here in the forest, some nuts or berries in the least to assuage my hunger and give me some strength. It would not do to look weak in front of the tribe when I met them.

  I sat back and carefully looked around the woods, searching for something that I would recognize as edible. It was then that I noticed my companions had all gathered together, and they were staring at me. Apparently they had been watching as I cleaned myself.

  As we travelled over the morning I had become more used to their appearance and smell. But since I had now washed up, the differences in our level of cleanliness had become even more apparent. I realized with disgust that they had not even washed their filthy hands before drinking the water.

  Apparently they did not know that dirty food or drink could make you very sick. This was something my father had realized even before my brother and I were born. All my life our parents had stressed to us the importance of cleanliness, both in our bodies and in what we ate and drank. I could not believe these people didn’t vomit from their own filth; the dirt was thick upon their bodies and faces.

  I motioned for them to come close to me, which they hesitantly did. I then showed them how to wet their hands and forearms, take some of the clean sand from the side of the stream, and vigorously scrub themselves.

  They rinsed with more water, and the dirt ran off, leaving skin that now looked like my own. The palms of their hands were white and the rest was tanned brown by the sun, just like mine. I also showed them how to wash their faces, though without the sand. This all made a remarkable difference, giving them a much more human appearance in my eyes.

  They really needed a bath with some strong soap, but this was a definite improvement. They seemed to have no qualms about washing, although from the way they acted I got the impression it was something they had never done before.

  While one man was washing upstream, the younger man took another drink of water. I explained to all of them as best I could with broken words and signs that they should not do this; that it was a bad practice and could make them sick.

  They appeared surprised, but accepted what I told them and did not do it again. I was pleased to see that they would do what I said without argument. If I could make it the custom to have my wishes followed with no disagreement, both my life and theirs would be much better.

  While we were resting I took the opportunity to teach them some new words. I told them I needed to eat, but I wasn’t willing to eat the rabbits the woman carried. I pointed at the plants surrounding us and indicated that I wanted something from a plant to eat. Perhaps because of my strong reaction when I realized rabbits were food for them, they did not seem too surprised that I wanted something from the forest.

  The men looked to the woman at this point, and through their rough speech I gathered that they expected her to find me something to eat. This enlightened me as to why the men may have been so angry with her this morning. If these people went into the forest to get their food, with only the men expected to kill the animals while the woman gathered food from the plants, she may have violated some tribal rule by killing the rabbits.

  While this may be the rule within their tribe, I didn’t understand why there would be a problem with a woman killing animals, as
barbaric as the practice was. In my family there were no rules as to who did what job. While we all had our areas of expertise, there were many times that my mother worked in the fields or helped my father build something. Though it was mainly my mother’s area, I could not count the times that the men had done the cooking or cleaned the house. We all had our favorite jobs, but the idea was to do whatever was needed to help the family.

  The woman indicated that there was something I would be able to eat further up the path; apparently she had gathered food in this part of the forest before. She also communicated that we needed to continue on toward the village, and she would be able to get me more to eat there.

  I was impressed with the woman. She seemed to quickly grasp what I wanted when I spoke, was able to repeat much of what I said, and apparently understand what the words meant with little problem. The younger man also seemed to have a quick mind and understand much of what I was saying. Unfortunately, the other men were struggling to keep up with my speech, and I was sensing growing frustration on their part.

  We started off, once again moving quietly through the wooded hillsides, still following the faint path which was probably made by forest animals. As we walked my thoughts moved quickly through what I had been able to learn thus far.

  My eyes were alert and searching, seeing everything, yet my mind was elsewhere. I was attempting to pull together everything I had previously known, and combine it with what I had been able to learn of these people in the short time that we been together.