In The Beginning

by Richard Webber

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  With the passage of time the villagers became very skilled at farming and building. This allowed me to go on frequent journeys to satisfy my need to explore new places. My journeys ranged across the massive valley and eventually I had travelled to every far corner and ventured deep into each mountain range that formed its borders.

  On these trips I was looking for anything new; people, plants or animals, and I made many wondrous discoveries. Of people, I found one tribe in each direction; to the north in the barren, rugged mountains; to the east in the foothills of the mountains across the great river; and to the south, living on the edge of the grasslands much like we did. This tribe was far south, but not all the way to the southern mountains, which were taller and more frightening than even I could ever have believed.

  To my knowledge, none of these tribes ever saw me in person. I met none of the people and I did not venture into their villages, since at this time it was not in my best interest to reveal myself to them.

  In the first years of my lengthy travels, both in the wooded foothills and on the grassy plains of the valley floor, I found wonderful fruits, vegetables, grains, and livestock that I had the tribe add to our farms. But my greatest discoveries by far were sheep, olive trees, and salt.

  I finally found the sheep far to the south, living wild on the edge of the great grasslands. They were very cautious and would venture into the meadows only to feed, immediately returning to the thick forest undergrowth at any hint of danger.

  To this day it remains a mystery how Garon killed his sheep in the north, because I never found any trace of sheep in that direction.

  After I discovered the location of the sheep I constructed a rough holding pen, and then I spent four full days catching enough sheep to make up a flock. They were four of the worst days of my life, and the less said the better.

  The journey home was unlike anything else I have ever experienced. I had thirty head of sheep tied together to keep me from losing any, and to this day I am amazed that any were alive by the time I arrived in the village. I had never liked sheep when my brother raised them, as I thought them perhaps the stupidest animals to walk the earth. On that journey I came to absolutely despise their mindless ways; they made our goats seem intelligent. Not one of those creatures ever wanted to go in the same direction or at the same speed, and it took me weeks to return to the village, pulling every one of the thirty struggling, bawling bodies behind me the entire way.

  I went through this ridiculous experience only because the sheep were so important to the future of the tribe. The wool of the sheep would allow the tribe to make real clothing and blankets for themselves, and finally rid themselves of those wretched, stinking furs.

  After bringing the sheep to the village I had to make a loom and teach the women of the tribe how to make cloth. This was very difficult. Although I had been taught how to work a loom by my mother, it had really been her job, and I had never gotten very good at it. In addition, I had never paid attention to the details of how the loom was made, and it was one of the most intricate devices my father had ever built. It took months to construct a proper loom, and then there was a long and complicated learning process for both myself and the women, but eventually they became very good and were able to make beautiful woolen cloth. Once they learned, it was not long before the tribe began to be garbed in comfortable tunics made in a rich variety of colors.

  The olive trees were also discovered towards the southern end of the valley. I was overjoyed to find them, since there were so many things olives could be used for. They could be pickled and eaten, they could be pressed and turned into olive oil to use in cooking, and most important to me, with oil the tribe would now be able to make soap.

  I had never fully gotten over my disgust with the odor of the tribe, and I could not wait to make them all bathe. Though they were now trained to wash regularly and be clean when they made food, without soap there was no way for them to truly clean anything properly after cooking, and their bodies still stunk. With the olive oil they were finally able to make good, strong soap, and I wasted no time in teaching them how. To my relief there were no arguments, and in no time bars of soap were regularly used for the washing of bodies.

  The salt I discovered in the far north, at the base of the tall, rugged mountains which shut the valley off at the north end. I had not thought I would ever find salt in this land. It had been the rarest item in my homeland, found in only one location.

  On this particular journey I had traveled to the mountains specifically to search for more information about the people that lived there. As I explored the rocky foothills, before I ever reached the mountains or found a village, I came upon a long, low depression where I saw significant evidence of human activity. Curious about why these people, which I had seen very little evidence of otherwise, would come to this spot, I examined my surroundings closely. This was when I realized that the grayish material underfoot which I had taken for sand and small rocks was actually salt.

  Though I didn’t understand why, I knew salt was vitally important to the body, and something humans needed to stay healthy. As soon as I tasted it I realized my body had been craving salt all along, and I packed my bag as full as possible. I was many days journey north, as far from my village as you could go in that direction, but I knew I would need to return periodically to gather salt for the tribe. Since the salt was also used by another tribe, it was now only a matter of time until our paths crossed.

  In addition to the discoveries I made on my travels, there were also new inventions that helped the village to get food more easily. When we first built the fences for the goats, I had shown the hunters the strong, straight wood which was available in the forest north of the village. It didn’t take long to convince them to use this wood for their spear shafts once I showed them how the straight, smooth wood was stronger and flew truer and further.

  The hunters soon began to use two different types of spear. One spear had a long, sturdy shaft, and was used to stab an animal at close range as they had traditionally done. The other, new style of spear was used exclusively for throwing at prey and it employed a thin, light shaft. Intentionally throwing the spear at their prey was a new method of hunting for them, and it impressed me since they had thought of it themselves.

  One day as I watched some men practice their throwing in the field I noticed that though the shafts flew relatively straight for twenty or so paces, they did not have the accuracy that was needed to be really useful when the game was farther away. I thought about Kalou’s sling, which was now used by the tribe for killing small game to mix in dishes along with vegetables.

  I made a very small spear and tried to throw it with a sling. That did not work at all. I almost stabbed myself, but I did discover that the faster the spear flew, the straighter it would go. I needed to find a way to send the small spear flying with great speed, a way that would send it to its mark straight and with accuracy.

  Later that day I noticed the sheep in the pasture and heard a boy singing as he watched them. I had never encouraged the tribe to sing, but this was something they wanted to do and it was part of their culture. When I saw the boy and heard him singing to his sheep, my mind went back to my brother.

  As I thought of Abel, I remembered those instruments he always tried to make, and in particular I remembered how one happy day we had made up a game using one of his failed stringed instruments. This instrument was meant to make nice sounds which he would sing along with, but it actually made horrible noises. So being boys, we had used it to shoot stones across the meadow towards the sheep. The stones had not gone far, but they had actually flown, and we passed the instrument back and forth, seeing which one could shoot a stone the furthest.

  I remembered in general how the instrument had been shaped, and I hurried to the woodworking area where I found a long, straight, flexible shaft. I notched the shaft on each end and then put loops on the ends of a long piece of very thin leather. With s
ome effort I was able to bend the wood and hook the leather between the two ends. The shaft of wood stayed bowed and pulled the leather cord very taut, and when I plucked the leather it made a nice thrumming sound.

  Abel would have been pleased, I thought as I walked to the meadow, and then realized with a twinge of guilt that I missed him. I lifted the bowed instrument and put my small spear on the string, and then I pulled the string back and sent that spear flying far across the meadow. I could not believe how far it actually went, and it took forever to find.

  Though it took some time and many changes were made to what were eventually called the bow and the arrow, the invention based on my brothers’ instrument became a mighty tool that was used by our hunters. They were now able to send arrows flying long distances with great accuracy and power, and they could bring down a deer at many paces.

  Another invention that was important in helping to feed the tribe was developed as the result of a challenge I issued. After my return from the trip where we first gathered wheat plants, I went to the stream next to the village and with my hands caught several large fish. I asked the village women to clean them, and then they baked the fish over the fire.

  Though it disgusted me to eat the flesh of an animal, I myself tasted the fish to make sure it was safe. It did not make me ill, and actually did not taste all that bad. The fish were then tasted by some of the braver villagers, who pronounced it to be delicious.

  With the discovery that fish were good to eat, the tribe now had a potential new food staple. But since no one besides me could catch them with their bare hands, there was no way for the tribe to eat fish with any regularity. Desiring to encourage both competitiveness and ingenuity, I challenged the tribe to invent a way to consistently catch fish. I was surprised and amused by the vigor with which the villagers attacked my challenge. Many people were soon spending every free moment away from their work at the stream, with all manner of interesting equipment in their hands.

  While there were a number of good ideas, Kalou’s was the best. She began by weaving a large basket to catch the fish in, but the force of the flowing water dragged it out of her grasp. Next she made a basket with big holes to let the water pass through; this allowed her to pull the basket through the water, but the fish just swam away when it approached.

  At this point I left on a trip to gather stone and I never found out exactly how she arrived at her final design. But when I returned a few days later she had a long, wide net, which she had made by weaving together thin cords of grass. Her invention had large holes which let the water easily pass through, and apparently the fish did not notice it in the water. Using two people, it was held across the stream, and by pulling it through the water they were able to catch many fish.

  Once again I was impressed with Kalou’s intelligence, and I was very glad that the village now had another source of food.