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Subject: {ASSM} "... and run between the fires on a warm midsummer night." (2/2)
Date: Sun,  7 Sep 2003 16:10:05 -0400
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"... and run between the fires on a warm midsummer night."

2435 B.C.E.    The Julian Alps.

[ This is part two of two  : complete at:
http://home.alamedanet.net/files/Authors/sandy/wwwhodges/Arkwan.htm ]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The two boys and Arkwan drew lots, and Arkwan drew the white stone, and
was first.   Nakien insisted that he be tied, so they tied him to the
side of the cart, kneeling, with the ox-yoke between his legs.   Nakien
tied a string around the end of his penis, and pulled it tight, and tied
it to the yoke.   Then he wedged sticks under Arkwan's penis, making it
even tighter.   The pain of the string cutting into his penis, and his
penis being, it felt like, pulled out by the roots, was so great that
Arkwan strained at the ropes tying his wrists; his need to get the
string off his penis was stronger than his will to endure the pain.
Then Nakien used the needle, and made many jabs in a line.  Arkwan
groaned.   "Do you want to do this, Arkwan?" Nakien asked.   "If you are
doing it for Danha, she may not even care.   Now, shall I let you go?"
And Nakien gave an extra tug on the string.  "Yes!"  Arkwan shrieked.
But then as Nakien moved to remove the wedges he said "No!"    Nakien
stopped, and waited.   The pain was horrible.  Arkwan gasped, "It is not
... just for Danha ... anyone who sees  ... thinks I'm a boy ... that I
couldn't ... bear the pain ... if I don't ... do this ... they'll be
right."  Nakien removed the wedges, and the pain eased.   "Very well,"
Nakien said, "we will complete the tattoo."

Nakien rubbed charcoal into the pricks he had made, and also drew in the
design, as a guide.   Then he stuck in the wedges to pull the penis
tight, made more pricks, and then removed the wedges again, and rubbed
more charcoal.   And did this over and over, twisting the penis to do
the sides and bottom.  As more and more of his penis was covered with
lines, the pain got worse.   Arkwan sobbed and asked Nakien to stop.
Nakien paid no attention.   Arkwan stopped asking.   The pain
continued.  Arkwan watched a hawk circling on the other side of the
river.   Then Nakien asked Danha to hold Arkwan's penis while he did the
head, under the foreskin, and the foreskin itself.    The pain of the
needle jabbing the head of his penis made Arkwan scream, and pull on the
ropes.

But that was the end, except for the final rubbing with charcoal.
Nakien untied him, and Danha held him in his arms, and he sobbed.
Nakien told him not to touch his penis, and Nute watched to make sure he
did not.  Arkwan was so ashamed that he had cried and screamed so much,
that he covered his face with his arms.

"I will bear it as well as you did, Arkwan," Tektu said, and he marched
over to the cart, and held out his arms to be tied.

As Tektu was tied, Fiya took Arkwan's hands.   "We shall be three
brothers," Fiya said.  "And if ever I can serve you, get me word.   I
will do what I can, for Hu's sake."

"A slave can do little," Arkwan answered.  "But what I can, I will, for
Hu's friend, and my brother."

Tektu's penis hardened when Nakien tied on the string, so Nakien untied
it, and rubbed it with his hand until the seed shot out, and then tied
the string again.   Tektu did not scream or struggle as his penis was
pulled tight, and he gazed far away as the needle jabbed.  Only a few
tears dripped from his eyes.   He did not yell until Nakien pricked his
foreskin.   Wagga, who was shaking in terror, answered his howls with
great ululating wails.   But then it was over.    Arkwan said: "No
warrior could have done better, Tektu."

Tektu blushed.  "But I ..." and he pointed to his penis.

"I will have to tell you what it is like in a battle," Arkwan said.

Fiya's courage lasted until he was astride the ox-yoke, then he broke.
Nute and Nakien had to hold him as they tied his arms, and they had to
tie his legs as well.  His shit and piss came out.   He shouted "No! No!
No!"   Arkwan tried to comfort him, but Fiya bit his hand.   When the
jabbing started he blubbered and sobbed, in choking, strangled sobs.
Nakien started to cry, and had to stop.   But after a while he picked up
the needle, and finished the design.   When Fiya was untied, he sat
sobbing, and Arkwan went to comfort him again, watching out for his
teeth.   Fiya sunk his head on Arkwan's chest, and Arkwan held him in
his arms, twisting to avoid any touching of either of their penises.
Wagga came over and shyly licked Fiya's side.   Fiya sobbed for a long
time.

But the captain said it was time to go.   Fiya was helped and carried
onto the boat.   "Whip him, Nute," Nakien shouted, as the crew dipped
oars. "He can be a bard, but he is lazy.  I didn't whip him enough.
Whip him when he daydreams.  Make him work, and whip him.  If you can't
make him a hard worker, he will never be a bard."

"Fare well Nute," Arkwan shouted as loud as he could.  "Safety and your
heart's desire!"

A faint echo came over the water as the boat passed out of sight. "Fare
well."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The first night of Arkwan's marriage was done by trickery.

They had contrived packs with some bags from Nute's cargo, and had
walked for many days, on rather short rations.  Danha had been snarling
at Nakien all day.  They came at last to a small village, and after the
feast Nakien went off with Tektu and two of the village women, and he
told Arkwan to give Danha a good whipping.  "Who is he to say you should
whip me?" Danha asked.

"You travel with him, and eat his food," Arkwan answered.  "You wanted
to be here.  Go home, if you don't like it.   Otherwise, pull up your
tunic and lie across this log."   The moon had waxed since they had been
walking with Nakien, and Danha's bottom had healed from her mother's
whipping.

Tektu came to watch his sister whipped.   He had a man from the village
with him.   Arkwan cut a thin switch, but whipped hard and fast, for a
long time.   That hurt, he thought, but tomorrow her bottom will not be
very sore.

"That is hardly a whipping," Tektu said.   "Let me cut a real switch.
You can whip me, too.  I want to show you I can bear it.  I won't cry
any more.  I am a man."

"You can show your friend," Arkwan said, and handed him the thin
switch.  Then he went to lie down by their packs.   He had to send away
the naked woman who was there.  Although he wanted Danha to go home, he
felt bound by his promise, and as long as she stayed he would not couple
with any other woman.   Besides, his penis was still sore.

"Waksa Penis," Danha whispered.  "Kunera," he replied.    She brushed
his penis very softly, but it sprang into a tight hardness, which
hurt.   But the pain didn't quench his desire.  He watched Tektu and the
village man whip each others' bottoms.   They were laughing; the switch
was indeed rather thin.  Danha pulled him over on his side, and holding
his penis in her hand, gently stroked the lips of her kunera with the
tip of his penis.  She slipped it inside.  He pushed further in,
although it hurt.  The end came suddenly, unexpected, and he felt
glorious as seed poured out of him.  It was like starting a pheasant
that he hadn't seen, and shooting it as it rose, a blur of brown and
black, crawing into the sky.

The next morning Danha questioned Nakien about the law.  "Did you put
your seed in her, Arkwan?" Nakien asked.  "Did a villager see the
whipping?"   Nakien ruled that it had been a marriage night.  Two more,
and they would be married.

"But from now, you won't need to provoke me to have you whipped, Danha."
Nakien said.  "I will place sticks as doorposts."

"Do you want us to marry?" Arkwan asked.  "Do you want her to be the
wife of a slave?   She should go home."

Nakien answered: "Nute loved a woman once.  A love so strong it could
compel the Gods.  She is dead.  Nute thinks they will live again, on the
green earth, and be together.  He thinks their love can make that
happen.   Danha, I will not stop you from marrying, if that is what you
want.   In any case, I can't claim I have no ridgepole.  When we stop
each night, our camp really is, in law, my house.   If you marry Arkwan,
you do not become a slave, of course.  But if you travel with me,
married or not, I will rule.   There will be work, sometimes hard, if
you wish to eat.  And I will have Arkwan whip you, hard and often, when
you do not behave.  And next time I will choose the switch."

"Danha, you should go home," Arkwan said.  "You might as well be a
slave, as marry one.   If we married and had children, our children
would be slave's sons and slave's daughters.  And I will not marry: I
will not put my seed in your body."

"Seed in her body does not make a marriage, Arkwan," Nakien said.  "even
under a roof.  It must be 'openly and known.'   If only I and her own
brother know, that is not enough."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I thought you meant to put no more seed in her, Arkwan,"  Nakien said,
stepping over them as he came back from pissing.  Days had passed, and
the moon had waned again.

"I do not want to, but every time she comes to me, I do," Arkwan
answered.  "There is no one here.  It does not make us married."

Nakien said: "Yes, but do you have to do it every time we stop to rest?
We will reach a village tonight, and sleep on the threshing floor.   If
you put seed in her there, it will be 'openly and known.'    Let me see
your penis.  It has healed well; all this fucking has done you no
harm.   No one will know that the tattoos were done since midsummer.
Let me see your bottom.  Well, you can see the hand-print if it is
pointed out.   And it doesn't look as if it will fade any more.   It
will do.   I want you to wear your cloak as we come into the village
tonight.  Bow and dagger.  And your ivory wrist-guard.   You don't have
to mention you are a slave.   Danha, wear your jewelry.   If the headman
wants to see the mark of the God, Arkwan, show it to him, but don't bare
your bottom to the whole village, the mark is hard to see."

"I do not think my burn is the mark of the God we do not name, or any
God," Arkwan said.

Nakien looked at Arkwan's face, and took his hand in his own.  Nakien
said: "Danha, take Tektu and go gather some grass.  We should make some
more rope."

"Tell me about the fires, Arkwan," Nakien said, once they were alone.
"You got a burn on your bottom.  Did you fall, and sit down on a bed of
coals?"

"I don't know how I got it.  I don't remember sitting on coals."

"Did something hit you from behind, Arkwan, something that burned?"

"When I was in the fire, I climbed up a burning log.  But it broke, and
I fell toward the fire.   But I didn't fall in, somehow.  I landed
safe.  Something did hit me.  I guess it was a burning log, that fell
and hit my bottom."

"Arkwan," Nakien said, "do you really think it was a log that fell?"

"It.  It.  Felt like.   A hand."

"I thought maybe it did."

"Nakien, how can I have been a God?   Men fell on their faces, they
couldn't look at me.   And it was so strange.  I was there and I wasn't
there."

"That is the Hema, Arkwan, you must have taken gulps and gulps of it.
Don't you believe in the Gods, Arkwan?"

"I don't understand, Nakien."

'I saw the Gods in your village.   Did one of them ever walk up to the
high pasture, sing with Lumpkha and Niri, and have an archery match with
Sujasa?"

"Stop it, Nakien.  That is like a story."

"Gods walk, but only in stories.   Listen Arkwan!  They do walk.   On
the green earth.   I have seen it.   At the dance, everyone saw it.
You felt it.  And you will!  Not!  Lie!  to me!  any more.   Tell me
what happened.  Tell me everything."

The grass was good, and Tektu and Danha twisted coils and coils of cord,
and had laid out a rope walk.   Danha used to spin every day; she missed
it, and the cord-making was a bit like spinning.  As she twisted she
imagined the dark red cloak she would make for Arkwan, spinning every
thread herself.  What a silly girl I used to be, Danha thought, to bring
my jewels instead of my spindle.

Nakien came out to find them.   "Danha, Arkwan is ill.   I.  I upset
him.   He is shivering.  He flinches at the sound of my voice.   See if
you can help him."   Danha and Tektu ran back.   Danha tried to take
Arkwan in her arms, but he turned from her, and clung, desperately, to
Tektu.  "Brother," Arkwan said, "we got our man's tattoos on the same
day.   You wanted to show me you would not cry from a whipping.   Go cut
a good switch.  Only, whip me first.   I don't think I will cry,
either."

Tektu looked at Nakien, and his sister.  Nakien dropped his eyes to the
ground.  Danha looked angry, but didn't say anything.   Tektu had to
pull Arkwan's arms off.  He took his flint blade, and went to cut a
switch.   This will be so good, he thought.   When Tektu had been
whipped by his mother, his cries and screams could be heard all over the
village.  All the children made fun of him.   But Tektu really did think
that he wouldn't cry any more, now that he was a man.    He had been as
disobedient as he knew how to be, to Nakien, hoping for a whipping, but
no one had noticed.   And Arkwan had refused to whip him for his
mistakes at knife practice and archery.  This is going to hurt terribly,
he thought, and I'll just watch the birds.  I hope it hurts so I can't
bear it, but I will bear it and not cry.   In his imagination, Tektu
heard Arkwan saying again "No warrior could have done better, Tektu,"
and he licked his lips and his penis stiffened.   I hope he whips me
till I bleed, Tektu thought.  I won't cry.

When Tektu came back with his thick, knobby switch, Arkwan undid his
belt and slumped forward onto the ground.   Tektu pulled away the loose
loincloth, and brought down the switch across Arkwan's bottom.  It was
like whipping a pile of cloth, as if he did not feel it.  This was
frightening.  Tektu kept whipping.  After a while, Arkwan began to
flinch a bit, as if the switch had started to hurt, and at last he
pushed himself up.   He looked very tired, but his eyes looked like
Arkwan again.   "I think I'll go to sleep," Arkwan said.   Danha held
Arkwan in her arms, and fed him stew, and he did sleep, although the
summer sun was still bright.

Tektu took the switch back to the woods.   He tried a couple of strokes
across his own bottom, then tossed the switch high into a tree.  "It's
not fair to expect it.  He was ill," he said aloud.  "But he did
promise."  His eyes glistened with tears.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The next morning they let Arkwan sleep till he woke up.  The sun had
been up for some time.   Danha could see at once that he was well.   She
ran over to Nakien and began to beat him with her fists.  He covered his
face with his arms, then curled up on the ground.   She beat and kicked
him.  It took Arkwan a moment to get up; then he ran over and pulled her
away.   "Danha!  Danha, it is all right.   I am well again.   And he had
to do it.  I'm glad he did.  Now, I will get water.  Why don't you see
about a fire."   Danha let herself be distracted with flint and tinder:
no one had remembered to wrap up coals.   "Tektu, shall we go for
water?" Arkwan shouted.

It was a ways to the water, and it was only a trickle.  The banks were
muddy.   They took off their loincloths on the bank, and Arkwan slid
down.  "Pass me my bow and quiver," Arkwan said.   Tektu slid down as
well.  Arkwan filled a cooking skin at a tiny pool, and poured it over
Tektu, then poured a skin over himself.   Tektu held the water skins,
and Arkwan scooped water to fill them, and Tektu tied them off.   They
got muddy again climbing the bank.   Tektu thought: he is well now, I
could remind him.   But I hope he remembers by himself.   On the way
back, Arkwan shot a partridge.

As they watched the partridge roast, Nakien looked only at the ground.
Arkwan sighed.  This would be hard.   "Nakien, I'm glad you made me tell
the whole story of the dance.   I think I should tell Danha and Tektu."
Nakien looked up.  His face was still glum, but his shoulders
straightened.   Arkwan told the whole story, with all the details in
order; a better telling than he had given Nakien the day before.  "And
there is one more thing, that I haven't told anyone.  I, that is the
God, that is, well, whoever it was, we looked at all the women, and we,
that is He, thought one was more beautiful than the others.   I just
looked at her, or He did, and she knew that she was chosen.  She dropped
her cloak, ripped her tunic as she took it off, and ran over to me, er,
Him.  She screamed when he slid His penis in, I mean my penis.  But she
clung to me when He tried to leave her."

When Nute had come to his village, and told the story, Tektu had
believed him.   But he hadn't realized what it meant, that Arkwan was
the God.   Well, he isn't now, but still, a God.   The God had used that
penis, that one there, to enter all those women.   The God we do not
name.  People don't even like to talk about that God.  All those women,
last new moon, had felt the burning God inside them.   And it was that
body, sitting there, roasting a partridge.  And I just wanted a whipping
to prove I wouldn't cry, Tektu thought.   I was going to ask a God to
whip my bottom.  But he isn't a God, not really.   He calls me
'Brother.'   We got our man's tattoos on the same day.

It was midday before they lifted their packs, and began to walk down the
trail.   Arkwan's bottom was still sore.  A whipping felt good, when he
needed one, but he wished it didn't have to hurt the next day.  That was
why he liked long whippings with a thin switch.   But that switch I used
on Danha was just too thin, he thought.   Tektu and that village man had
just laughed.    One good thing, he wouldn't have to show his bottom to
the village headman, he was so bruised, you couldn't see the mark of the
God.

Nakien was lecturing: "It is ridgepole and doorposts that make it a
house, Danha, not penis and womb.  If a boy is born of a house, he must
keep the ridgepole up, and guard the door.   That is the law.   That is
why ridgepoles are decorated with bulls' horns, and doorposts have
carved penises.   That is why men sleep facing the door.  A man's first
duty is to those under his ridgepole, not to his sister, just because
they grew in the same womb, seed of the same penis."

"A womb is more important than a log of wood," Danha protested.

Nakien said: "Arkwan, whip your wife, I mean, whip Danha.   Danha, if
you want to make law, become a bard.   But don't say: 'a man should do
this,' when the law says: 'he must do that.'"

Danha said: "You're having me whipped because you know I'm right.  Whip
me hard, husband.  This is Nakien's proof."

"I am not your husband," Arkwan said.  "Tektu, where is the switch?"

"I do not have it," Tektu said, looking at the ground.

"Where did you put it?  It will be easier to get it than to cut
another."   But Tektu did not answer.    Arkwan looked a bit for the
switch, then cut a new one.  "Were you upset about whipping me, Tektu?
Did you burn the switch?"   Tektu said nothing.   "Your whipping was a
gift." Arkwan said, "And I can give you one.  We have time."

Tektu didn't want to be whipped.   It would hurt horribly and he would
cry.   The confidence he felt earlier had vanished.  But he was ashamed
that after asking for a whipping, he was too afraid of the pain to go
ahead with it..  He tried to say he didn't want a whipping, but the
words stuck in his throat.  He was ashamed anyway, because he was sure
Arkwan could tell how frightened he was.

Arkwan asked: "Do you want to be whipped before your sister or after?"

Tektu was about to say "after," when he thought about watching his
sister's bottom whipped, knowing his was next.   "Before!" he said.  It
was almost a sob.   As if in a dream, Tektu removed his loincloth and
lay across a low stone.  After a few strokes, he screamed.   Then he
shouted, "I don't want a whipping!"   Arkwan paid no attention.   Tektu
sobbed and blubbered.  At home, two men had to drag Tektu to his mother
and hold him while she whipped him.  No one was holding him now.    But
somehow he didn't get up and run.  I cried, he thought, and I begged.
I'm no warrior.  I have nothing to prove, now.   I may as well run
away.   But he didn't.   He lay there, looking blank, not screaming or
crying any more, as Arkwan whipped and whipped his bruised bottom.
Then it was over.

Danha went to take her brother in her arms, but Arkwan stopped her.
After a bit, Tektu got up, arranged his loincloth, and tied his belt.
Arkwan handed him his flint dagger, quiver, and bow.

Arkwan looked at Danha.   She removed all her clothing, put her necklace
back on, and lay down across the stone.   "This hurts my belly," she
said.    Arkwan liked making bottoms hurt, even if he didn't like making
people unhappy.   But he wanted to make Danha unhappy now.   He wished
he had some way of making her even more unhappy, something that hurt
even more than a whipping.   Well, he would whip hard, and it would be a
long whipping.   He began.   Danha made a show of not minding, but that
did not last.    She was soon whimpering, then screaming.  "Stop!" she
shouted.   Arkwan stopped.

Arkwan said: "You did well, Tektu.   A warrior endures pain, not when he
chooses it, but when it comes.  I saw my friend Sindjas, with an arrow
in his belly, rescue a companion.  Others, uninjured, were too
frightened to shoot straight.   If you are ever in a battle you will be
one who can face the fear, and bear the pain, and go on; I have seen
that today."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

First, Nakien had to judge a complicated land case.   Then, since it was
the night of the new moon, a priestess castrated and killed a
sacrificial ram for the Queen of the Wombs.   Then the village women
danced and sang.       So it was late when Nakien sang parts of his new
song, and the villagers were drunk.   Nakien had been given the honor
cup, and if he was not yet "drunk as a bard" he was at least "jolly as a
judge."    Another song about the Young God coupling with women at a
dance, the villagers thought.   They liked the parts about women getting
burned inside by a hot penis.   One man took off his loincloth and said
his penis was red hot, and would any woman like to feel it inside?
"Only one moon ago, and it was this man here?  That is nice.   A good
song.  Come back any time.  We are always glad to see a bard."

"Waksa Penis," Danha whispered.   The short summer night was almost
over, and they had at last gone to bed.   They were on the threshing
floor.   Danha licked Arkwan's ear.   Arkwan got up, walked a ways
through the moonless starlight, and used his hand to bring his penis to
hardness and to bring out the seed.  When he got back to the threshing
floor, he told Danha: "That seed is not going in you.  Kunera!"

"Don't you know where we are, bard?" Tektu asked.   It was the next day,
after midday, and they were lost.   The trail had gotten fainter and
fainter, then vanished.   They had turned back, but had somehow missed
the trail.

"Whip this boy, Arkwan," Nakien said.  "And your bottom will get it
tonight.   Why couldn't you act more like a God?   You weren't trying."

Danha's eyes were red with weeping.  Arkwan hadn't slept.  Tektu seemed
angry; he wouldn't look Arkwan in the face.  All three of them had sore
bruised bottoms.  It was hot.  They were lost.   But most of all they
couldn't take any more of Nakien's tongue.  Nakien had the only bottom
that wasn't sore, but he was in an even worse temper than the others.

"A whipping tonight will be good, Nakien," Arkwan answered.  "Although
my bottom is bruised already.   When my tongue is twisted and my
shoulders tight, and everything I say is crooked, a whipping untangles
me, like combing wool.   But you will have to show me how to act like a
God."

Nakien shouted: "Kahnikos!  You mean my tongue is twisted and my words
are crooked, and you think I should be whipped.   It is too hot to
punish you now, but you will be sore for this.  And you will do as I
say."

Arkwan said: "Tektu, Nakien says you must be whipped.  Cut a willow
switch the next time we come to a stream."

They were in a forest of oaks, mixed with ash and beech.   The going was
not difficult, but they couldn't see far, and kept having to detour
around thickets; they went south by the sun, sometimes up and sometimes
down.   Looking for a willow was just an excuse; Arkwan wanted Tektu to
get a rest, and a chance to cool down at a stream, before having to face
another whipping.   Was Nakien thinking about nightfall?   Bows are not
much use in deep forest: the wolves are on you before you see them.

The came to a meadow, through which ran an unmistakable trail.  Nakien
said, "I know where we are, now."   They cooled down in the marshy parts
of the meadow, and settled for midday sleep in the shade at the edge of
the meadow, although midday was long past.   Arkwan shot a deer, but it
ran away, wounded, and with no dog it couldn't be followed.   They ate
food from their packs, and lay down to sleep.

"I am ready to be whipped now, Arkwan," Tektu said, still looking at the
ground.  "There is no willow, but it will not be hard to find a switch
of some kind along the stream."

Arkwan asked: "Nakien, do you want Tektu to whip me now as well?  We are
going to look for a switch."

"Cut a switch," Nakien said.   "But don't bother with Tektu's bottom.
Tektu can whip your bottom.    It is your words that are twisted,
Arkwan, and not mine."

Arkwan and Tektu went to look for a switch.  Arkwan said: "I am glad it
will be your hand, Brother, using the switch.   I know you will not like
to do it.   As I try to bear the pain, I will remember how you bore it."

Tektu, looking at the ground, said: "Arkwan, Brother, when you told the
story of the dance, I saw what it meant.   The God was you.   The God
danced, on your legs.  He entered women, but it was your penis.   We
have Gods our the village, Gods of wood.   I never saw the Gods' real
faces in them.   But you can feel the Gods.   It was hard for me to look
at our wooden Gods.  I could never have touched them.    I feel the God,
here, now.   Those wooden Gods were nothing compared to this.  Before
you whipped me, I wanted to say, 'I am afraid of the pain, I can't do
it.'   I wanted to run away.   But because you thought I could face the
fear and bear the pain, I could.  And I always will be able to, I
think."

"I can't be a God, Tektu," Arkwan said.  "I danced, and I entered many
women; my legs took me without me wanting it.   Perhaps that was the
God, using my legs, my penis.   But that is over.  I did not feel the
God.  I am just Arkwan now.  I don't know how to be more like a God,
even if I wanted to be.   I don't know what Nakien wants me to do."

Tektu lifted his eyes to look at Arkwan's face, and then quickly looked
away.  He sat down and put his arms over his face.  "Arkwan," he said.
"Brother.   When you told us the story of the dance, I could feel that
the God had been in you, because you wanted me to feel it.  Last night,
when Nakien sang, the villagers did not feel the God, because you didn't
want them to.  I ..."

Tektu didn't say any more.   Arkwan said:  "Tektu.  Brother.   We got
our man's tattoos together.    I am Arkwan.   I would like it if you
could look me in the face."

Tektu put his arms down, and slowly lifted his head.   Some tears fell,
but he held Arkwan's eyes.   It was Arkwan who looked away.

Arkwan cut a switch from a peelbark, and also a number of arrow shafts,
although he still had no straightener.   They went back to Nakien.

"Here is the switch, Nakien.   Tektu has helped me understand.   Last
night, I did not help you as I should have with your song.   I see that
now.   I can do better.  But I do not think I can be what you want.  I
can't go into a village and make them think I am a God.  I can't."

Nakien said: "Whip him, Tektu."

Arkwan undid his belt and lay down on the ground.

Tektu took the switch.   "Not on the ground, Ark, Arkwan.   Lie across
my pack."

Tektu fumbled and dropped the switch, but then he whipped hard, but only
a hand of strokes.  Then he stopped.   "That is enough," he said.
Nakien did not say anything, and then Arkwan and Tektu went hunting.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The heat broke at last, with a thunderstorm, and they stopped for the
night as the rain began to fall.   The moon had waxed again; it was, as
Hu used to say, half.   Danha snuggled close to Arkwan, under their
cloaks, in each other's arms, their bodies pressed together.  The rain
drummed on the tight wool cloth, and trickles of water came in here and
there.  He kissed her, and whispered, "Kunera."

"Do not call me that again," she said.

"I'm not calling you that, it's where I want to put my penis," Arkwan
said.   Since the night on the village threshing floor, at the new moon,
when he had spilled his seed rather than have a second marriage night,
he had begged, tickled, and kissed her, but she had kept her knees
together.

"Do you want to get married? she asked.

"No," he answered, then asked: "why do you want to marry a slave?"

"Should I go home?" she asked, "I wouldn't be happy there.   I am only
happy here.  I want to do more, work more.  I am as good a shot as
Tektu, I could help with the hunting.  I want to get wool, and a
spindle.  I will give a bead of gold for them, next time we come to a
village.  Then I can spin for you. "

"Then I want you to stay," Arkwan said.   "But I want to have more than
this for my wife."    They were now lying in a puddle.

"This is what I want from a husband," Danha said, giving his penis a
hard twisting pinch, "not a ridgepole or doorposts.   But have you
thought about the baby?"

"What baby?" Arkwan asked.

"The one you are about to beget, Waksa Penis."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Tonight, we shall be warm, and have something to eat besides venison,"
Nakien said.   It had been raining, on and off, for three days..   Mud
was everywhere.   They had all slipped and fallen so often that they
were covered with it.   Arkwan had put his clothes in his pack, and used
a bit of rope as a belt for his dagger. but the others' clothes were
mudcaked and sodden.  Neither Tektu nor Danha had any other clothes.

They had spent the last two nights huddled together, all four of them,
under wet cloaks, and this morning they had neither dry tinder nor
burning coals to light a fire.  There was no more food, and their
bowstrings were wet.   So Arkwan would be glad to reach a village.  But
what was he going to do when Nakien sang his song of the Young God at
the dance?

The village was just where Nakien had said it would be, and they saw it
long before they reached it.  It was perched on a hill.   The houses
were all white, and wisps of smoke rose into the cloudy sky.   As they
climbed the hill, the village dogs were loosed, and the travelers
prepared to defend themselves, back to back, using their bows as
quarterstaffs.   One dog charged ahead of the others, his tail wagging,
singing and barking in ecstasy.   It was Lumpkha.

"Lumpkha!   Down!  Don't shoot, Father, it's Lumpkha."   A boy came
running down the path, slipped on the mud, and rolled and skidded past
them down the hill.   Only one boy on the green earth fell down in just
that way.   It was Hu.   As he rolled past, they heard him shout,
"Nakien."

Arkwan ran after Hu, tripped over Lumpkha, and fell on his face.   But
he reached Hu in time to help him out of the thorn bush that had stopped
his slide down the hillside.   Hu had a bad gash over his eye, his
loincloth was torn, his cloak was in tatters, but no broken bones.  He
clutched Arkwan, and sobbed.   "Father, I heard you were alive, but I
didn't believe it.    How did you survive?   Grandfather's house was
burned to the ground!    It was you who shot from the roof.   It had to
be.   Wasn't it?"

"I survived in the pit in the stables," Arkwan said..   I had time,
before I started shooting, to make it bigger.   I used all the mead and
beer.   But how did you escape?   I thought you must have been taken as
a slave."

Nakien, Danha, and Tektu had come down the hill, and were in time to
hear Hu's story.  Hu used the speech of the southlands.

"After Grandfather was killed, Great-Uncle Bohina, who hadn't wanted to
offer battle in the first place, told us to scatter and hide," Hu said.
"But as we pulled back, the nomads swarmed after us.  We ran between the
houses with them at our heels.  Mother, Tanyata, and I ran into
Tanyata's mother's house, and barred the door.   Mother screamed in
pain; she was having the baby."

"But she can't have, it wasn't time," Arkwan said.

Hu said, "It was time.  Nine moons."

"What is 'nine'?" Arkwan asked.

Hu didn't answer, but continued his story: "The nomads didn't try to
break down the door for a while.   They just watched it.    They broke
into some other houses first.   But then they started on our door.   We
thought we might kill one or two, but there was no chance of escape.
Then you started to shoot.    All the nomads had to run.    I said, "Now
is the time to go.   We might escape the village and get into the
woods.  Mother will just have to come with us."

"But Tanyata said, 'No!   We must each go out a different window.'"

"I said, 'But we can't leave Mother.'"

"'Don't you see, Hu,' Tanyata said, 'her chance is best if we don't stay
together?'"

"And she was right about that.  When you and Mother used to run after
Tanyata and me, to give us a whipping, we always ran in different
directions.   So the plan was, that Karipas and Mother would go out the
door, and then run in different directions.   Mother was in pain, but
she could run.    Tanyata and I would go out of windows in back.   When
I dropped out of my window, I saw Tanyata shoot a nomad.   I think she
was trying to draw them away from Mother, or maybe away from me.   There
were nomads everywhere.  I got into the sheep fold, and hid under the
sheep.   Then I whistled for Lumpkha and Niri, and opened the sheepfold
gate.

"You know, Father," Hu said, using the speech of their own village,
"when you and mother coupled on the grass, there was no way to get close
to you.  Except one.   We taught Lumpkha and Niri to drive the sheep to
where you were.   I just hid behind the sheep.   But if we told you, the
trick wouldn't work again.   I was often close enough to have touched
you with a spear.   Then I would tell Tanyata what you had done, and
show her.   I liked that part.  Then we would tell you that we were in
the trees, and hadn't really seen anything, and you would give me a
whipping.  Afterwards Tanyata would give me kisses, since I took the
strokes for her.  I liked that part too."

Hu continued his story in the southland  tongue: "So I know how to hide
among sheep, and those sheep were accustomed to me.  When the nomads
charged grandfather's house, I was with the sheep, moving toward the
edge of the village.   I made it to Great-Uncle Bohina's plum tree, and
hid in the upper branches until night.   I escaped the village just
before dawn, and hid in the woods.  Lumpkha found me.  The nomads only
stayed another night.   Then I went back to the village to look for food
and clothing.  There were piles of the dead.   The nomads had done
nothing for their own dead, they lay where they fell.  They had been
starving; they were skin and bones.  I took the nomad's clothing, and
dragged their bodies out of the village, and tossed them into the pit
where we dug clay.    The bodies of the villagers were horrible.  The
nomads had . . . had. . .   When the King came, and his warriors, they
say I screamed and ran from them.  They had to hunt me through the woods
with dogs.   I don't remember it.   I found Tanyata, she was, she had
been, . . ."

"But how did you come here?" Arkwan asked.

"When I was . . ., when I could speak again, the King asked me what I
wanted to do.   Of course I said I wanted to fight the nomads.   But the
first time, when we ran down and killed a few stragglers, children and
old women, I couldn't kill them.   I guess I am not a warrior."

"You fought well, Hu, at our village," Arkwan said.  "A hero could not
have done more."

"I couldn't go with the King, and not fight.   Besides, I couldn't
control my horse.   Ghoiokh, the black bard, was with the King.  You
remember him, he sang the battle of Kalakhoam.  I traveled south with
him.   I was hoping to find Nakien and Fiya.   Nakien, is Fiya all
right?   He's not . . . dead?"

"Fiya is well, Hu," Nakien said.  "He is sailing across the sea.  He saw
your father, and asked about you.  Your father told him he thought you
were alive, but captured by the nomads.   But Fiya will come here,
before winter."

"Here?" Arkwan asked.  "Why here?"

Hu said: "He will come here, Father, because this is the village of
Sugga the law-singer."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The villagers watched them as the walked through the village, but no one
greeted them.   Sugga's house was large, but in need of new thatch, and
new plastering.

Hu took Sugga's left hand, and she put her right hand over his face, her
fingertips on his lips.   "My father has come." he said.

"You are very excited, Ko," she said.   "Has someone come?"   Hu
nodded.   "Is it a bard?   A warrior?   A merchant?   Is it someone you
know?"   Hu nodded.   "Someone from your village?"  A nod.   "A
relative?"   A nod.  "With a penis?"  A nod.  "Your father?"  Hu nodded,
and smiled.

Sugga said, "Ko, that is wonderful.  Let me touch him."

Hu said, "Say your name, Father, when she touches your lips.   She will
guess the sound.  If you nod, that will be her name for you.   She calls
me 'Ko.'"

Sugga put a hand on his lips, and the other hand on his throat.  Arkwan
said "Arkwan."   Sugga said "Itrill."  Arkwan nodded.

"Be in health, Itrill father of Ko, and be welcome," she said.

Sugga sniffed him, and ran her hands over his face, and all over him.
She got her hands muddy, and rubbed her fingers together. She felt the
bow and the quiver over his shoulder, and felt the grass rope he was
using as a belt, and seemed surprised by the absence of a loincloth.
She fingered his balls and penis carefully, and his hands, and his
knees.   She even knelt down and felt his feet.  Then she noticed the
dagger, and drew it from its sheath.   She felt it carefully, especially
the guard and the pommel, tried the edge, and licked the blade.

Sugga said, "Let someone offer Waksa Itrill a bath, and food, and wine."

"How can I tell her I am no Waksa, but a slave?"   Arkwan asked.

Nakien took Sugga's hand next.   Sugga put her hand on his lips, then
sniffed and ran her hand over his face.   "Nakien!" she said.   He
nodded.  She playfully slapped his face.  "Don't nod, Nakien.  Did you
think I might not know my old lover?  My best student?"   She hugged him
and kissed him.  "Nakien.   Nakien.   I did not expect you until
winter.   I wish I could hear all your new songs, and all your stories
of the village women.   Perhaps you can tell me one of the stories with
your hands.   And your lips.  And your penis."

Next Sugga touched Danha's lips as she spoke her name.   "Kinnih,
Tinnih, Dinnih," Sugga guessed.   Danha nodded, very slightly, at
"Dinnih."

"Welcome, Dinnih.  Health and safety, and fine children, easily born,"
Sugga said, and ran her fingers over Danha's body.   "We must sit and
spin together, Dinnih," she said, after feeling Danha's fingers.   "I
can tell you all the gossip."    Sugga felt Danha's wet and muddy
clothing, and her hair.   Danha wished she had worn her necklace and
hair pins.   "Are you Nakien's student?   Slave?   Are you Waksa
Itrill's wife?   Was that yes or no?    Nod clearly.  His lover?"
Danha nodded her head up and down several times.

"Tektu!  Tek! Tu!" Tektu shouted, when Sugga touched his lips.   Sugga
said  "Nakien, can you tell me this young man's name?   I can't tell
what he is saying."

"Tektu," Nakien said, when Sugga's fingers were on his lips.  "Digwa,
Tegwa," Sugga guessed.   Nakien nodded slightly on "Tegwa."   Then he
said "Tektu," nodding as he said "Tek," but holding his head still for
"tu".  "Tegdah, Tegtah," Sugga guessed.  Nakien nodded.

"Health, Tegtah," Sugga said.

"Is Dinnih your mother, Ko?" Sugga asked, turning to where Hu stood and
putting her hand on his lips.   Hu said: "No."    "Has your father told
you that your mother is alive?   That she is dead?   So he doesn't
know?"   Hu nodded.   Then he took Sugga's hand off his lips.   "Do you
Father?    Her body was not in the village.    And Grandmother's
wasn't."

"I thought she had been killed," Arkwan said. "Sujasa, I mean.   My
mother is dead."

Sugga said: "Ko, let go of my wrist.  Tell me what it is.  Is it bad
news?  Good news?  Still no news?"  Hu nodded.   Sugga gave Hu a hug.
"Ko," she said, "I want you to be friends with Nakien.  Your questions
about the law; it will be so much easier to ask him than me.   And you
mustn't be jealous if I let him enter my body, it is only for old time's
sake.  Your penis is the one I want.   Sing him 'The Law of Ploughed
Fields.'    But first get your Father and his woman into a bath.  And
see about some food.   Nakien, you stay with me.  Ko, bring him a
cloak.   Nakien, take those wet clothes off.   I'll warm your bottom for
you."

"She can't hear what anyone says," Hu said, "but I don't suppose it
makes any difference.  She never stops talking long enough for anyone
else to say anything."  Tektu took off his sodden muddy loincloth, and
slapped and rubbed his bottom and penis.  Danha took off her wet tunic,
and Hu stripped as well, and Arkwan took off the only thing he was
wearing, a rope to hold his dagger.  He noticed that Hu, who had no
tattoos on his chest, did not have any on his penis either, even though
he had been wearing a man's loincloth.   Hu led them outdoors to a
little hut.

Hu said: "I will bring hot stones from my house, I mean, Sugga's
house.   Meanwhile, you may want to go in; at least it is out of the
rain."

Danha squatted next to Arkwan, and put her arm around his shoulders.
"Tell me about your wife," she said.

Arkwan said: "I thought she was dead.   I thought I heard her die.  I
still wonder if she can really be alive.  And I thought Hu was a slave
of the nomads.   I should be happy he is free, and happy that my wife
may be alive.   But I feel as if I have an oak tree on my shoulders.   I
want to fight the nomads.   I thought I might rescue Hu that way.    But
Hu never needed rescue.   I am the slave, not him.   And now, perhaps I
could rescue Sujasa.  It's as if the tree was lifted, then dropped on me
again."

"Do you still want to fight the nomads?" Tektu asked.  "I will fight
beside you, Brother."

"Nakien talked of selling me to King Taslan," Arkwan said.   "Then,
slave or not, I could fight.   But I can't do anything, now, to make
that happen.  Nakien wants to take me into a village, and make them feel
that the God is in me.    If I could do that, perhaps he would let me
fight.   Or perhaps he wouldn't."

Tektu said: "When you told me the story of the dance, just told it,
there was no doubt the God had been in you, had used your legs to walk
and your penis to enter women.   Hearing the story, when you told it,
made it not just something in a story, and then I could feel the God in
your penis.  And most of all in your eyes."

"Well, it wasn't like that at the village, when Nakien sang his song,"
Arkwan said.   "He sang, and I was supposed to show I was a God."

Danha said: "You should tell the story of the dance to Hu, Arkwan.
Tell it the way you told Tektu and me."

Arkwan put his face on Danha's neck.   "Kunera, I am so afraid that Hu
won't be able to look me in the eyes."

"In the eyes, Father?  What are you talking about?"  Hu said.   "Here
are some stones.   They are not really hot yet, but they will warm the
place up.  Let me welcome you properly.   Health, Danha, and welcome.
If you are Father's woman, I hope we will be friends.   Health, Tektu,
and welcome.   May I ask, why are you traveling with Nakien?"

"Tektu is my brother," Danha said.

Arkwan said: "And mine, Hu, and Fiya's; we all three got man's tattoos
on the same day, from Nakien's hand.   And speaking of man's tattoos, I
can't have understood what Sugga said, about you not being jealous of
Nakien."

Hu answered: "You understood, Father.   Sugga does not know that I am
still a boy.   When I first came, I tried to tell her.  But I couldn't
get her to ask 'are you still a boy?' so that I could answer with a
nod.   Every time I put her hand on my penis or my chest, she just
thought I wanted to couple with her.   I thought she would ask someday,
as I have no beard and my penis doesn't either, but she never did.  I
want to get tattoos.   But there is no one here who can do the snakes.
Now that you are here perhaps someone can copy yours."

"You should get tattoos on your penis.   That is the custom here.
Sugga will have to know.   You shouldn't go on fucking her, with your
boy's penis."

"Yes, Father.   I have missed you so much.   I should have gotten the
tattoos long ago, or found a way to tell Sugga.  Will you whip me?"

Arkwan said: "Get the tattoos, Hu.   That will hurt enough."

"I have my father again, to tell me when I've been wrong and to whip me
for it.   As you used to do.  A sore penis is not going to stop me from
getting that whipping."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"It's not hot in here, what were you thinking, Ko."   It was Sugga.
She felt along the wall until she encountered flesh: Tektu's hip.
"Waksa Itrill, come into the house.  Nakien is trying to tell me a
story.   Something about a dance."

"You should hear this too, Hu," Danha said.

"I was going to see about some food," Hu said.

"We are famished," Danha answered, "but it can wait."

"Waksa Itrill, Nakien has told me there was a dance.  Were you there?"
Nod.   "Was anyone else who is here, at this dance?"  No nod.  "Was it
at midsummer?"  Nod.  "This midsummer just past.?"  Nod.   "Was it at
your village?"  No nod.  "Was it at some village I might know of?"
Nod.  "Can you show me where?"  Arkwan put the handle of his dagger in
Sugga's hand.   "Was it at the village of Kros bronze maker?"  Nod.
"Is this a story about the law of midsummer?  Is it about boys or girls
who run between the fires?  Is it about a God coming to the dance?"
Nod.  "A God with a penis?"  Nod.   "The Sky-Father?"    Arkwan put his
hand over Sugga's mouth.   "The God we do not name?"  Nod.

"I love stories about the Young God at village dances," Sugga said.  "At
my first dance, and of course I could still hear then, a man grabbed me
and entered me.   I had never felt a stiff penis before, not even with
my hands.   I was sure he was the Young God.   I didn't think a man
could be like that, could make me feel like that.    I keep looking for
a penis as good as that one.    But then he spoke, and it was just a
village boy, who had run between the fires, so for that one night could
do anything he wanted.   I never felt that boy's penis again.   Perhaps
he had a huge penis, or perhaps it seemed huge because I thought he was
the God.   I still think about that penis.   You have a nice long one,
Waksa Itrill, and it didn't swell when I fingered it.   'Slowly to rise
is woman's delight; and lasteth well, all through the night,' as I
always say.   But I don't want Ko to get too jealous."

How does Hu put up with this chattering?  Arkwan wondered.   She
couldn't be more different than Tanyata.

"But the Young God really came, just this past midsummer."   Nod.  "And
you were there, at the village of Kros."   Nod.  "I never felt or heard
a real God.   There are no carvings of the Young God.  Did you see the
God's face in the carving of some other God?"   No nod.   "Did he just
come, without using a wooden God?"  No nod.  Arkwan took Sugga's hand,
and ran it down his face.  She was silent.    Arkwan waited.  He heard
the bleating of sheep, and smelled the stew cooking.   "Was the God's
face seen in the face of a man?" Sugga asked.   Arkwan nodded.   "Was it
your face, Waksa Itrill?"  A nod.   Sugga grabbed his penis and held it,
her hand shaking.

"Did you put this, this penis, did you enter women, at the dance?" Sugga
asked.   But her hand was not on his face.   Arkwan took her hand, and
placed it on his face, and then nodded firmly.

"Did you grab them, rape them?"  No nod.   "Did they offer their
bodies?"   A nod.   "All of them?"  A nod.   "And you entered them?"  A
nod.   "All of them, like in the stories?"  A nod.   Arkwan's penis was
starting to swell.   Sugga put her hand back on it.   "Did the woman
seem to get great pleasure from it?"

"Hand me a stick from the fire, Tektu," Arkwan said.   He took Sugga's
hand, and held the glowing brand close to her palm.  Sugga said: "Hot.
The touch of the God burned them.   The penis burned them inside."
Arkwan put her hand on his face, and nodded.    "Did they scream and try
to run away?"   No nod.  "Did they seem to get pleasure, even though it
burned?"   Arkwan gave a small nod.

"Your penis is not hot now, but I want to feel the God's penis inside
me," Sugga said.   "I have wanted this all my life."

"I don't mind, Father," Hu said.

"Hu!"  Arkwan said.

"I do mind," Danha said.

Hu's face fell.   Arkwan went to him, and took him in his arms.  "Hu, I
should not shout at you.  Not for any reason."

Hu said.  "I am only a boy, and she is Sugga the law-singer.   Even so,
I should have known you would not couple with my woman.   I was wrong to
suggest you would.   Will you whip me?"

"No, Hu, I don't think . . ."

"What is happening?" Sugga said.   "No one is talking to me."  Arkwan
put her hand on his face, and waited.   "Will you couple with me, Waksa
Itrill?" she asked.   Arkwan kept his head very still.

Sugga took her hand from Arkwan's face, and folded her arms across her
chest.   "Our guests will need food, Ko, and then perhaps there is room
for all of us in the bath."

Hu opened the oven, and pulled out a shoulder of pork, but then put it
back.    He filled a bowl with stew from a cooking pot by the fire, and
presented it to his father as if it had been the honor cup, although it
was just a wooden bowl with a horn spoon, and some rabbit stew with very
little rabbit in it.    He gave a bowl to Sugga, and then searched
through a basket and found some more spoons.   Hu, Nakien, Danha, and
Tektu ate out of the pot; there wasn't a lot.   Then Hu searched through
baskets, and found a few moldy figs, and some hard bread that the mice
had been at; he passed these around.   Then he took the pork out of the
oven, and cut a slice for his father.   He watched his father's face as
he took a bite.

"This," Arkwan said, "is the best roast pork I have ever eaten."   And
he quickly ate it all, and then looked at the joint.

"How do you make it taste like that?" he asked, as Hu cut slices for
everyone.   He cut the pieces for Sugga into very small bits.

"Salt, honey, dill, and wine," Hu answered.   "And the meat should not
be too fresh.  But most of all the oven must be very hot."   He gave his
father some more.

Hu went to an alcove, and came back with a large basket.   Nakien cut
some more meat of the joint with his own dagger, but Tektu snatched
it.   Hu took out a plump skin, and filled a horn drinking cup, and gave
it to his father.

"I had wine at Danha's village," Arkwan said.  "I like it.  But this
wine is a little different, this is, this is. . .  This is the drink of
the Gods!"

"I thought you might like it," Hu said.

Sugga took off her tunic, and they all splashed through the rain to the
bath.   The fire by the bath house was blazing in spite of the rain, and
Hu passed in rocks that were glowing red.   He ladled on a generous
amount of water, and soon the heat was scalding, the steam almost
stifling.   Sitting in the heat and darkness, Arkwan began to feel
pleasantly tired.   He remembered, for some reason, the sound of his
mother's flute.

"Do you want to talk about the God at the dance?" Sugga asked.   Nakien
said "Yes," and Arkwan supposed he had also nodded.   Sugga said: "Do
you want to talk about the law of midsummer?"   "No."   Sugga said: "The
top of my head?   Oh.  A priest-hat.  Priests?"   "Yes."  "The priests
can't have liked it that the God used Waksa Itrill's eyes, and his
penis."   "Yes."  "Have the priests caused a problem?   Does Waksa
Itrill need protection?."  "No."

Sugga was quiet for a while.    A draft from the door chilled Arkwan's
neck.  Sugga said: "But you hope to make a problem for the priests,
don't you, Nakien?"   "Yes."  "Will you tell the story in many
villages?"  "Yes."   "Have you made a song?"  "Yes."    "And Waksa
Itrill goes with you?"  "Yes."

"Move over, Nakien, I want to talk to Itrill," Sugga said.    "You
entered every woman at the dance?"   Arkwan nodded and said: "Yes."
"Did you put seed in them all?"  "No."  Sugga said: "Well I suppose some
things even a God can't do.  Did you put seed in any of them?"
"No."    "Not even one?"   "N-No!"   Sugga said: "Well, if you say so.
In the song, the God we do not name fathers a child, born that same
night: the Kohiyossa.    Waksa Itrill, are you all right?"

Sugga had let go of his face, but she soon found it again.   There was a
hiss; Hu was putting more water on the rocks.  "Was it the word
'Kohiyossa' that made you jump, Waksa?"   "Yes."   "Do you know the
story of the Kohiyossa?"    "No."

Sugga began: "At the dance, the God we do not name entered each and
every woman, from the girl who got her woman's tattoos that night, to
the oldest, most wrinkled crone.   Perhaps as wrinkled as me.   But
there was one woman who surpassed in beauty all the others.   He coupled
with her last, and in her alone did he put his seed.   She gave birth
that night to a baby boy, born with a golden cap on his head.   Although
this boy was the son of the God, he was human too, and was destined to
sicken and die, like all of us who are born of women.   Nine months
later nine women gave birth to sons, fathered in rape by the nine
Smashers.   The God's son had a  golden cap, but they were born with
black hair, black as soot.   On the same day that the nine black-haired
boys were born, a tree fell, hit by lightning.   The God's golden son
was under it.   But his mother ran in and snatched him from its path,
and tossed him to safety, but was herself crushed under the tree.   She
tossed the boy so hard, that he lay as if dead.  A human baby would have
died from that landing.   But a God's son is not killed so easily.  The
mother's love as she lay crushed and dying was so strong, that he
lived.  But the human part of him died that day, and he recovered purged
of human weakness; deathless as his father."

"The God's son, and the nine black-haired sons of the Smashers, grew up
together, and were friends.   But while he was kind, and honest, and
loyal, and good, they were the most wicked disobedient boys that ever
have been.    But whenever they were punished, he would refuse to deny
that he had been part of their mischief, and so all ten would be whipped
together.    When they were men, they were in a great battle.   They
formed his bodyguard, and bravely gave their lives for him, when other
friends had run away.    Others say that the Kohiyossa's nine wicked
friends will give their lives for him in the final battle, that will
mark the end of this age of the earth.   No other God will survive that
battle, for no other God will have such a loyal bodyguard.   Only the
nine wicked boys give hope that the next age will begin in peace."

"Had you heard the word 'Kohiyossa' before today, Waksa Itrill?"
"Yes."

"Did you hear it at the village of Kros?"   "Yes."

"Did you hear it at the dance?"  "No.."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"There is no more heat in these stones.   We may as well go back in the
house," Hu said.   They went outside.   The rain had become a light
drizzle, and the moon was nearly full.    There was a large cooking skin
in a basket by the fire, and Hu filled a scoop from it and poured it
down Sugga's back, and then did the same for Arkwan.

"Why are you pouring soup on me, Hu?" Arkwan asked.

"It is not soup, Father, it is water."

"You cook the water that you use after a bath?"

"Is it not more pleasant than cold water, on a cool night?" Hu said, as
he poured more water down Arkwan's front, and rubbed with his hand to
remove the last of the mud.

"It just seems funny to wash in soup." Arkwan said.

But Danha liked the warm water, and so did Nakien.   Tektu thought it
wasn't a proper thing for a warrior.  Hu gathered some coals from the
outside fire in a chipped pot, and in the house he used them to light a
tallow lamp.   Then he rubbed the water off Sugga's body with a cloth,
and rubbed her hair with it.  He handed the cloth to Arkwan, who rubbed
his body as well, although he didn't see the point of it.   "This is
very smooth wool," he said.   "It is linen, Father," Hu answered.

Hu put grass and wet green leaves in a pot, and added the coals, and
closed it up for the morning.   "I think it is time for sleep," he said,
and showed them the sleeping place.   There was a bear skin.   When
Arkwan lay down it felt like floating on water, or like being held by
his mother as a child.

"Hu, Why does it feel so, so, like drink in a bladder?"

"Don't you like it, Father?"

"I don't think so.  What is it?"

"Wool.   In bags.  Under the bearskin."

"Let me try," Danha said, and cuddled up to Arkwan's chest, her head on
his arm, and a leg slid between his.  Hu put bags of wool under their
heads.

Hu handed Nakien a bundle of twigs, tied together.  He spread a cloth
over Arkwan and Danha, blew out the lamp, and cuddled into his father's
back.  Tektu lay against Danha's back.

"This is like a bath," Arkwan said.  "I shall need more water soup
poured over me."

Sugga said: "I want you to use a real switch, Nakien.   That is just
something Ko made.  He won't use a real switch.   I suppose he thinks I
am too old to take a real whipping.   Don't you have a real switch?
Well I suppose that will have to do."    There was a swish sound of
twigs striking the law-singer's bottom, stoke after stroke.

"Hu, slip between us, as you used to do between me and Mother," Arkwan
whispered.

"May I, Danha?" Hu asked.

Danha said: "Come over, Hu.   Your father and I will not couple
tonight.   We are not married, and your father does not wish to marry
me.  To couple here would be 'openly and known,' Nakien says, and would
be a marriage night, one of three to make us married."

Hu climbed over his father, and slipped between them, facing Danha.  He
kissed her.  "Danha, I call Sujasa 'Mother', but my own mother is
dead.   I am not Sujasa's son by blood, any more than I am Father's.  I
will think of you as a mother, since you are my father's woman.   I hope
you do not mind that I call Sujasa, 'Mother,' and you 'Danha.'"

Danha gave him a hug, and he turned over, and curled up tight, his knees
against his chest.  Danha snuggled her breasts and thighs into his back
and bottom.   Hu felt as if he were back in the little hut by the
sheepfolds, his parents' bodies pressing him between them, their arms
crossed over him.

"Now I'll warm your bottom, Nakien," Sugga said.

"Tell me about the Kohiyossa, Father,"  Hu asked.

Arkwan said: "I will, Hu.   Does Sugga whip you, too, every time you
couple together?"

"She only whips me when I don't know a line in a law song, and I don't
mind that.   But I whip her before we couple together.  I don't like
whipping her much."   Hu continued in the speech of their own village:
"I didn't like it when you whipped Tanyata, but that was only because I
wanted to whip her myself."   Danha gave Hu's pap a pinch, and he
continued in the southland speech: "She, that is Tanyata, the girl I was
going to marry, loved any sort of game where she got whipped if she
lost, and got to whip if she won.   But she would never play that way
with me.   Only once, our last midsummer.  We ran between the fires, and
she said I could do anything I wanted, even whip her.   But even then,
she wouldn't whip me.   So I gave her a whipping, and then I put my
tongue in her cunt, and then another whipping, all night long.  We
kissed, and she took my penis in her mouth, even though I was too young
then for it to get stiff.   But she said 'Next year Hu, we will run
between the fires again.  You will be able to fuck me then.  We will get
tattoos, and the next night we will get married.'    But instead she is
dead.   The nomads . .  ."

Arkwan said: "Hu, the merchant Nute loved a woman once, but she died.
Nute thinks that because of their love, they will be reborn on the green
Earth, and be together again.   So you and Tanyata may dance again, on
some warm midsummer night, in some age yet to come.   For this age, we
can do nothing for Tanyata.  But somehow, I don't know how, we will find
a way to fight the nomads, and that may help to rescue your mother.
Somehow we will."

Hu said: "The message I got from King Taslan. . .  You know about that?
Kahul was taken in a fight with the nomads, who sent back his head?"

Arkwan said: "I had heard that Kahul was dead and that Taslan was chosen
king."

Sugga's voice: "Shove it in hard, Nakien!"

Arkwan continued: "What did Taslan say?   Did you hear that Taslan has
paid tribute to the High King!"

Sugga's voice: "Oiya! Oi.  Ya!  ah! aya! aya!  Oi! Oi!"

Hu said: "So we are men of the High King now, and not of our own King.
The High King doesn't even know our speech.  Poor Taslan.  I was there
when he was made king; no one wanted anyone else as king.  He married a
woman named Freygga, to have a Queen for the sacrifice, but he didn't
much like her, and when the time came his penis wouldn't stay hard!
And the white stallion they found was no better.   Kapi wouldn't let him
near her.   And when Taslan fucked the cow, his penis was stiff as you
please, and poor Freygga had to listen to all the jokes; people said, no
wonder, the cow was better looking.   The message from Taslan was that
he had heard that you were a slave of Kros bronze maker, and that he
would send to Kros to see if this was true.  He sent no promise that he
would buy you.    I suppose the tribute took everything he had.  But if
you are the slave of Kros, why are you here?"

Arkwan said: "Kros sold me to Nute the merchant.  Do you know him?
Fiya is with him now, they are sailing to islands across the sea."

Hu said, "I had heard of him.   So you are his slave?"

Arkwan said: "Nute gave me to Nakien, to repay him for something.   I am
Nakien's slave now."

"And what does Nakien mean to do with you?"

"That," Arkwan said, "is a long story."

"Father, the villagers here are proud of Sugga, and proud of the
gathering of teachers of the law.   But pride doesn't feed their
children.  There is not much good grazing here.  I don't like asking
them for food.  I hope we can go hunting tomorrow, if Nakien lets you.
I'm such a bad shot, that when Lumpkha finds game, and I miss, even
Lumpkha gives me that look.   You know, the look you gave me when I did
something wrong.   But you are the best hunter.   And if we hunt
tomorrow we can talk."

After a bit, Hu said: "I don't know how, Father, but you will be free.
Somehow we will do that."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

But it was Hu who made the first kill, a large hare.

"Is it a buck?" Nakien asked.  "It must be, look at the size of it."

"A buck!" Hu shouted, when he had collected his kill.   He carried the
dead hare as he would a lamb or a puppy.

"Tie your son to that tree, Arkwan.   Take his cloak off, no point in
getting blood on it.  Help him, Tektu."

Hu didn't understand, and for a moment he resisted in confusion, but
Arkwan and Tektu were firm, and he submitted.   Arkwan used the rope
Danha and Tektu had made.   Nakien cut the hare, as if for skinning, but
then put the hare's balls in Hu's hand.   He put the bloody arrow in the
other hand, and smeared the hare's blood on Hu's lips.   Then he put the
body of the hare under Hu's penis.  He took a few things out of his
pouch, including the needle. He drove a stake in the ground, and tied a
string to the tip of Hu's penis, and pulled it tight and tied it to the
stake.   He used sticks as wedges under the hare's body, drawing the
penis very tight.

Hu looked down at his penis, and said: "Nakien, Danha said that if she
had coupled with Father last night, it would have been one night out of
three to make a marriage.   Surely it takes only one night."

Nakien pricked a row of tattoo, released the wedges, and rubbed in the
charcoal.  He said: "But the law is: "A bard may marry. . ."

"I know that," Hu said, as Nakien put in the wedges, "three days shall
they travel, and three rest."    Nakien pricked another line of tattoo.
Hu said: "But that is by the side of the trail."   Nakien released the
wedges, and rubbed charcoal.   Hu said: "In a house, it would be one
night."

Nakien put in the wedges, and pricked another line of tattoo, and
released them.  Nakien said: "But it is not Arkwan's house, not his
ridgepole."   He rubbed more charcoal.

"One night in any house makes a marriage," Hu said, as Nakien stretched
his penis tight and pricked it.

Nakien rubbed charcoal and said: "If a bard coupling in a house was a
marriage, I would have more wives than you have needle pricks in your
penis.   This law is about a bard's marriage.   Think about a bard's
life: he comes to a village, he may well couple with a village woman,
and then he travels on, and she stays.   They are not married.
Marriage, among bards, is when they travel together.   But a bard's
coupling with a village woman may well be in a house."

Hu said: "Finish the pricking."   And he didn't say any more until it
was over, just looked at his penis as Nakien completed the design.
When he was released, he said, gasping, "It does ... hurt."    He put
his hands on his penis, and Arkwan had to pull them off.    Then Hu went
off by himself.  Nakien put away his equipment.   After a while, Hu came
back; his eyes were red.   "I'm still going to get that whipping,
Father.   But perhaps not today."

They flushed thicket after thicket.   Lumpkha had not lost his skill,
but they had no luck, until at last a buck and a doe broke and ran
toward Arkwan and Tektu.   Arkwan shot at both of them, but the buck was
only scratched, and pounded away through the woods.   The doe dropped to
the ground.  "Your kill, Tektu," Arkwan said.   "No, yours," Tektu said,
"there is my arrow, in her haunch."

"Mine can't have killed her," Arkwan said.   And when he came up to her
she was not dead, and he killed her with his dagger.

"You gave yourself so we could eat, Doe," Arkwan said.  "You lay down,
so I could kill you.   You could have run way; but you would have died
of pain and loss of blood, for the ravens to eat.    I think we would
kill little game if they did not choose to be killed, Tektu.  I have
seen it again and again, how they walk into my arrows, or show
themselves when I did not know they were there.   Since this doe gave
her life, she will walk again on the green earth.   She may run through
the woods again with the same buck, and have more fawns to follow her.
Look at her teats: this year's fawn must have died.   If she had a baby
to care for, she would have run, desperately, with our arrows in her.
We will not crack her bones for marrow; that will help her to live
again."

Arkwan carried the doe, and they headed back to the village.   "We can
talk," Arkwan said.  "We may scare away some game, but at least we will
not be hungry tonight.   Keep looking, anyway."

"When did you hear the name 'Kohiyossa,' Father?" Hu asked, using the
speech of their own village.

Arkwan said: "When I was captured, we . . . but first I should tell you,
when I escaped from the village, your grandmother was with me.   And a
baby boy we found in the village.   Mother had been raped.   Many times
I think.   She screamed horribly, for a long time.   There were marks of
torture on her body.    We went south.   I was hoping to find King
Kahul."

Hu said, "Father, the baby.   Where did you find him?"

"Behind our smoke-house."

Hu said: "He was your son, Father.  My brother."

Arkwan said: "He can't have been, Hu.  He was not new-born.   He had
hair, and teeth.  I should know, for when I tried to feed him, he bit my
paps until they were bloody.   And I don't think your mother was on the
point of giving birth.  I have seen women who were much larger."

"Father," Hu said, "she was in labor.   And Karipas was midwife for the
clan Akillas, after she married, and for her own clan before that.   A
day at most, she said.  And it is not unknown for a baby to be born with
hair and teeth."

"But he did not look new-born," Arkwan said, "and there were other women
in the village with big bellies."

"If he was the son of any village woman, Father, he was new-born when
you saw him.   Epra's boy was the youngest boy in the village, and he
could talk.   The babies in the village were all girls.  And is it
likely that a nomad woman would leave her baby son behind the
smoke-house?   So the baby must have been son of a village woman, and
must have been new-born, even if he didn't look it.    We know Mother
was on the point of giving birth, and she ran from Karipa's house toward
our house.   The running, or the fear, must have brought on the birth."

"I don't know, Hu, I suppose it is possible."

"Father," Hu asked, "where is that baby?"

"I think he may be with Tlossos bronze maker," Arkwan answered.   He
told Hu the story of the great house-post.   "Grandmother died to save
the boy, Hu.   The post was already sliding when she went into the pit.
She knew she wouldn't have time to climb out, only to save the baby."

"That is the story of the Kohiyossa," Nakien said.

Tektu said, "Kohiyossa?  Are all of you going to talk bar-bar-bar?
What are you saying about the Kohiyossa?"

Arkwan, in the speech of the southland, said: "We carried a baby from my
village to the village of Kros.   Hu thinks it may have been my own
son."

"And I think it may be the Kohiyossa," Nakien said.

"When my mother saved the baby, I heard the villagers say 'Kohiyossa'.
That was the first time I heard the word,"  Arkwan said.

"But there are many differences with the story of the Kohiyossa," Hu
said.   "The rescue of the Kohiyossa was supposed to happen after the
God came to the dance, not before."

"That does not matter," Nakien said.   "Arkwan," Nakien asked, "what
color was the baby's hair?"

"Red.   Like Hu.  Lighter."

Nakien said: "The golden cap.    You were captured along with the
Kohiyossa.   The villagers can't have been surprised when the God chose
you, and used your legs, your eyes, and your penis."

"But the story about the Kohiyossa was supposed to be something that
happened long ago," Hu said.

Nakien said: "The Kohiyossa will not grow old, and will not die, unless
he is killed.   But the nine black-haired boys are as we are.   If they
will die in the final battle, at the end of our age, then their birth
wasn't long ago.   Perhaps they will be born of the women the Smashers
raped, at the village of the bronze makers.   So the end of our age has
come.  I will not live to see the final battle, but you will, Hu, before
you are old."

Tektu said: "I think I have always known this, without knowing that I
knew.  I will see the final battle, but not the end of it.   Arkwan,
Brother, I need to get better at fast shooting.  Can't you whip me?
Some day, I will defend the Kohiyossa, your son."

"But this boy is not the Kohiyossa," Arkwan said.   "Not if he is my
son.   My child was not born in a night; my wife carried him for many
moons."

Nakien said: "True."

Hu said: "But he could have been born of a coupling at midsummer,
Nakien.   He could even be your son."

Nakien said: "They say that in the frenzy of strong desire, men do not
know what women they enter.   My midsummer nights are as frenzied as
any, but I remember.   I wanted Sujasa, but did not get her.   And I do
not know who did."

Arkwan said: "I know one, besides myself.  Taslan."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"But Taslan's son or mine, he is not the son of a God," Arkwan said.

"If your wife was naked, and it was midsummer, he is your son, Arkwan,"
Nakien said.

"But it wasn't midsummer!" Hu shouted, very excited.   "I did the
watching as you told me.   I thought I got the night wrong.   But since
then Sugga sang 'The Sky-Watchers.'   Grios was wrong; I am sure of that
now."

Nakien said: "You were right, Hu.  But if the case came to me for
judgment,  I would say it did not matter.   Everyone thought it was
midsummer."

Hu said, "Nakien, I would like to be your slave in my father's place.
I am no hunter, and no warrior, but I know a few law songs."

"I will not agree to this," Arkwan said.

"A slave's agreement is of no importance," Nakien said.   "Hu, I will
not agree, not yet.  Learn more, and then, perhaps."

Arkwan said: "You must not do this, Hu."

"I will do it, Father.   If you are free, you can fight for the King.
I plan to go with Nakien in any case.   I wanted to; I wanted to go with
Fiya.  Only you, and Tanyata, and Mother, held me.   And I want to go
with Nakien even more now.  The law in his hands is alive; it is life
itself.   I know enough of the law songs now, to see that the law is
more than just the words."   Hu looked straight into Nakien's face: "But
I do not always agree with him.   I do not think a night is midsummer,
just because people think it is.   And in this case, they didn't think
it was midsummer.   The King and Queen were late, remember.   They were
late, because that wasn't midsummer night.  They came the night before,
and found us all dancing on the wrong night.     Taslan coupled with
Mother, a married woman, on a night he knew was not midsummer.   The boy
has a claim on him, a claim on the King."

Nakien said: "If you ever become my slave, Hu, you will have to stop
doing that."

"What?"

"Being right."

Tektu said: "Hu, I know the God used your father's legs, and his eyes,
and his penis.   I know because I can feel the hand of the God on him.
It is stronger on him, than on any carved wooden God.  Most of all, I
feel it in his eyes.   Don't you feel it?"

"No.  Father's eyes have always been like that."

Tektu said: "I think this boy is the Kohiyossa.  So I don't think he is
Taslan's son.  I think he was born of seed from Arkwan's penis.  I think
the God used Arkwan's penis, not Taslan's, that midsummer night."

Arkwan said: "I felt only the frenzy that night, the strong desire.
There was no one who saw the face of the God in my face.  Not that
night."

Nakien said, "But you didn't use Hema in your village, Arkwan; Gods are
not seen so easily.   This boy could be the Kohiyossa, it makes sense.
And that night wasn't midsummer.  The God used your penis to father the
child, and then used it again after a year and a day."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After supper, which was venison, Sugga took down the switch of twigs
from a peg in the wall, and said: "Ko, I want you to sing the Law of
Ploughed Fields.   I'd like Nakien to hear this."   She sat down and
rested her back against a basket.

Hu took his father by the hand, and led him to Sugga, and took the
switch from Sugga's hand and put it in his father's, and then let Sugga
feel the hand with the switch in it.

"Very well," Sugga said, "if you are tired of being whipped by a blind
woman.   But Nakien shall count the lines."

Sugga put her hands on Hu's lips and throat, and he began:

   "I sing the song of the sons of the Father; who first used oxen to
pull the plough,
   "Sky-born and bright were the minds of the brothers; long have we
followed laws they left us,
    . . .

Sugga nodded in time with the song, and her lips moved.   Only once did
Hu falter.   Sugga supplied the line, and he continued on.   "Nakien, I
can't tell everything, by feeling his throat.  Did he make many
mistakes?"

Nakien tapped Sugga's wrist.  "One mistake, besides the one line he
missed?"   Nakien nodded.   "It is: 'plough with a bull and a mare,' Hu,
not 'an ox and a mare'."

Hu put his father's hand, holding the switch, into Sugga's, and moved it
up and down a hand of times.   "Very well, Ko," she said, "Waksa Itrill,
will you give your son a hand of strokes for making a mistake in the
song?"

Nakien said: "Hu, no bard on the green Earth, except Sugga, can sing
'Ploughed Fields' without a mistake.  I never have."

Hu removed his loincloth, and Arkwan applied the switch. "I don't like
to make mistakes and just ignore them," Hu said.

"Nakien, are you going to leave soon?" Sugga asked.   Nakien nodded.
"Does Waksa Itrill intend to go with you?"   A nod.

"Can't you tell her I'm a slave and not a Waksa?" Arkwan said.

"Ko, you must go with your father if you wish.  My villagers can look
after me.   Nakien, do you plan to sing your new song in each village?
About the Young God at midsummer?"    Nakien nodded.   "And Itrill will
tell his story, and say he was the one the God touched?"   Nod.  "Have
you sung the song already?"   Nakien tapped Sugga's wrist once.  "You
sang it in one village only, so far?"  Nod.  "Since you were young,
Nakien, you've wanted people to see the Gods as you do.  When Itrill
told his story, did they feel the hand of the God on him?"   Nakien kept
his head still.  Sugga said: "They didn't?   I felt it, with my hand on
his penis, knowing it was the God's penis.   But you will keep
trying?"   A nod.

Hu said: "So that is why you want Father as a slave.   Father, would you
go with him, if you were free, and if you did not have the nomads to
fight?"

"Hu, I don't know," Arkwan answered.   "At the dance, men fell on their
bellies and put their faces to the ground.   The women gave themselves
willingly, but I don't think they were really willing.   Tektu, who I
call Brother, would not look me in the face.   I was afraid you would
not.   I am just Arkwan; I don't feel any different.   I don't want
people to see the God when they look at me.    But the God did touch me,
did use my legs, my penis; I know that now.   I am willing to tell the
story."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I want your penis tonight, Ko," Sugga said.  "The night with Nakien was
just for old memories.  I told you not to be jealous."

Hu said: "Nakien, lend me your pricking needle."    Nakien took it from
his pack.   Hu put Sugga's hand on his penis, then pricked her palm
lightly, making little rows.   "Man's tattoos?"  Nod.   "Someone has
them?"   Nod.   "In your family?"  Nod.   "Your father?"   No nod.
"You?"   Nod.  "You have them?"   A nod.  "Well, of course you do."

Sugga thought for a bit.   "Ko, do you have tattoos on your chest,
snakes, as they do in the north?"  No nod.   "You have tattoos on your
penis?"  Nod.   "Did you get tattoos in your village?"  No nod.

Hu put Sugga's hand on his penis again, and pricked her again.   "You
want to tell me about getting your tattoos?"   Nod.   "Did a bard prick
you?"  Nod.   "White?"  Nod.   "Nakien?"   Nod.   "In winter?
Spring?   Summer?"  Nod.   "Last summer?   Before last summer?    This
summer?"  Nod.   "Ko, what are you saying.   You've been with me all
summer.   And Nakien just ... Ko, has Nakien pricked you since he
came?"   Nod.   "Today?"  Nod.   "And before, you were a boy?"   Nod.

Hu got the switch, and put it in his father's hand, and put his father's
hand in Sugga's, and moved them vigorously up and down.   "Your father
came, and found you were still a boy, but you were coupling with a
woman, a very old woman."   Hu nodded.   "He whipped you?"   No nod.
"He made you get tattoos?"   Nod.   "He is going to whip you?"  Nod.
Sugga said: "Nakien, judge this case.   I am too angry."

"Do you have grain, Hu?" Nakien asked.    Hu found a jar of barley, and
Nakien put Sugga's hand into it.   She said: "That is severe, Nakien, I
thought you would be more lenient," and she lifted her hand out,
clutching a little barley.   Nakien put the barley into a little bag.
He said: "Hu, you will get one stroke for each grain.  You must cut a
switch, but Sugga must judge it, so do not cut one too thin.   And Hu,
don't cut one too thick, either.   The law says nothing about that, but
I will not allow it.   She has been kind; I judged a handful of barley,
and she has taken out only a little."

"I am ready," Hu said.

"At first light tomorrow, Hu, you may go for a switch.  I know you want
to be whipped by your father, but Sugga may whip you herself if she
chooses."

Sugga said: "Nakien, if Ko's penis is sore, I guess you get another
night.   Don't bother with the switch.  But I want to feel your teeth on
my cunt."

"I can't stand that woman," Danha whispered, when she lay down with
Hu.   "I'd rather get my woman's tattoos again that spend another day
with her.   Her voice is worse than a tattooing needle.   I couldn't
spin calmly with her constant dreadful talking, and then she would
insist on feeling my thread, and telling me how badly I was spinning."

Hu said: "I'm going to get my whipping from Father, and not from her.
When I lived with Father, and I did something wrong, he would give me a
look.  It felt like a cold hand on my guts.   And when that happened I
wanted a whipping; he didn't always give me one.   Since I escaped from
our village, I've done a lot of wrong things.  I couldn't stop
myself.    But I longed for Father, and his look, and his whippings."

Arkwan had come up behind Hu.   "I think Nakien means to leave
tomorrow," he said. "Do you plan to go with us, Hu?"

"I don't think I can, if Nakien doesn't want me, and I guess Nakien will
tell me to stay here, and to learn more law from Sugga.   I'll beg him
to let me go with you, though.  I wonder what Nakien plans to do about
the Kohiyossa."

"What about the Kohiyossa?"   Danha asked.

Hu said: "Father brought my brother, a baby, to the village of Kros
bronze maker.  My grandmother gave her life to rescue him.   Tektu is
sure he is the Kohiyossa, and Nakien thinks he is."

"What is his name?"  Danha asked.

Arkwan said: "I did not name him.  I did not know he was my son."

Hu said, "He should have a name from his father, even if they have given
him another name among the bronze makers."

Arkwan said: "I burned the house of Annuas to the ground.   But we may
raise the ridgepole again.  Until then, the house of Annuas lives in Hu,
and his brother.   I give my son the name: Annuas."

Danha said: "The Kohiyossa is a God, deathless.   And he is your
brother, Hu.  A baby boy growing up in the village of Kros bronze maker,
and he is a God.   He will be in the final battle."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Danha woke up.  It was night, but Hu was awake, and was lying on his
back, rigidly.   "Hu, is something wrong?"

"It's my penis.   It really hurts."

"I'll wake Nakien."

"I don't think we need to do that."

"Hu, I've known boys, I mean men, who have gotten tattoos.  This isn't
right.   I want to know what Nakien thinks."

Tektu woke when Danha stood up, and he jumped up, grabbing his bow and
putting an arrow to the string, as Arkwan had taught him.  Sugga woke
when Danha waked Nakien.  Only Arkwan slept on.   "This happens
sometimes with tattoos," Nakien said, when they had lit a lamp and he
had looked at Hu's penis.  He will be sick for a day, or more.  He may
see things, perhaps Gods.   We must stay by him."

Nakien led Sugga to Hu, and put his hand in hers. "Is he sick?" Sugga
asked.  Nakien nodded.  Sugga felt Hu's face, and ran her hands down his
body.  Nakien stopped her before she touched his penis.   "The tattoo
has gone wrong?"  Nod.   "Nakien, why did you have to tattoo him?   I
would never have known he was a boy."

"Should we ask the priest to do a sacrifice?" Danha asked.

"We could," Nakien said.  "To the Sky-Father.   He made the law that men
should have tattoos."

"You can ask Kratik for a ram," Hu said.   "He has been very kind.   I
wish I could have given him something for all he has done for me."

Sugga held one of Hu's hands, and Tektu held the other, and they waited
for dawn.  Then Nakien went to find Kratik.

"We should wake Father," Hu said.   "You will have to wake him over and
over again, but I guess you know that."

Nakien came back.   "Kratik has said they will sacrifice, not a ram, but
a bull."

Arkwan didn't go back to sleep again, once he understood that Hu was
sick.  "Father," Hu said, "there will be a feast tonight, when the
villagers eat the bull they have given to the Sky-Father.   I want you
to tell the story of the God we do not name."

"I will stay with you, Hu," Arkwan said.

"Tektu can stay with me.  And Danha.  No, I want Danha with you.
Kratik's daughter Kahela can stay with me.    I want you to tell the
story in this village.   You don't have to say that Annuas is the
Kohiyossa.   Just tell them how Grandmother saved him.   And tell the
story of the dance.    And tell them Annuas is your son.   He is your
son, Father, I'm certain he is.  At least, he is Mother's."

Arkwan said: "Why do you want me to do this, Hu.   Why here, tonight?
When you are sick?"

Hu said: "You said you were willing to tell the story, Father, but you
are afraid that people will look at you as the God, that they will be
afraid to look at your eyes.   But if you are going to tell the story,
that is something you have to face.   So face it;  you taught me
that.    And this village is a good place.   They are very solid people,
very sensible.   They know me; and Annuas is my brother, after all."

Arkwan said: "I will tell the story."

"There is more at stake now, Father.   If Annuas is the Kohiyossa, and I
think he is, then the final battle is coming.   The warriors of the
Kohiyossa must be gathered."

Tektu said: "The warriors of the Kohiyossa.  I am the first."

"Kratik son of Yatt stands before the house of Sugga headwoman," Kratik
called, standing politely outside the door.   Hu said: "Be in health,
son of Yatt; honor this house."

"Be in health, son of Arkwan," Kratik said, even before putting his hand
in Sugga's.  Kratik said: "We will sacrifice a bull for the health of
your son, Waksa Arkwan.  You are welcome to participate in the
sacrifice, and to eat with us.   But perhaps you will want to stay with
Hu.

Hu said: "Kratik, will you ask Kahela if she will come to me?  She will
miss the feast.   But tell her I would like to have her, if she will
come."

"She would be here already, if I had not forbidden it," Kratik said.
"I will let her come."

"I will participate in the sacrifice, Kratik son of Yatt," Arkwan said,
"and attend the feast."

When Kratik left, Hu asked: "Father, is the Kohiyossa safe where he is?"

"I think so, Hu.   Tlossos bronze maker told me the Kohiyossa would be
safe until I came.  But I don't know what Kros thinks.   The priests may
want Annuas killed, just because some people think he is the Kohiyossa."

"So Tlossos thinks Annuas is the Kohiyossa, and will try to defend him?"
Hu asked.

"He and others," Arkwan said.

"So there are some here, who will defend the Kohiyossa, and there are
others in the village of Kros.   It would be well if each knew of the
others."

"I will go to the village of Kros," Tektu said.

Hu said: "It would be better not to travel alone.  And you are no bard,
and no merchant.  Can you even find the village of Kros?  I hope, when
Father tells the story, there will be many from this village who will
want to defend the Kohiyossa.   Perhaps someone with experience in
travel.  But you must be careful, and quiet.   Find out if Annuas is
safe, or if it would be better to bring him to Father.   Tell Tlossos
that the Kohiyossa has other friends.   But don't let the priests
know.   Travel as a merchant."

Tektu said: "No one will take me for a merchant, and I have nothing to
trade.   I will go to my own village.   Mother will whip my bottom
bloody, but I have friends who will let me have a load of cloth.    I
can go to Kros and trade it for bronze."

Hu said: "I don't know what Rohish our priest will do, when he hears the
story.    He wants to think that it is his rituals that bring the
Gods.   I don't know what he will do, if he thinks the end of this age
has come.   I don't want him to know, not yet, that we are gathering the
warriors of the Kohiyossa."

Tektu repeated: "The warriors of the Kohiyossa."

Kahela walked through the door without shouting a greeting, which caused
Arkwan and Tektu to grab their bows.   With two arrows pointed at the
ground under her feet, she said "Health, Father of Hu.   I am Kahela
daughter of Kratik."   Kahela brought a pot of barley and lamb stew that
smelled so enticing that Hu ate quite a bit of it, even though he said
he was not hungry.

"Where will you go next, Nakien?" Hu asked.

"Continue east." Nakien answered.  "It has been hard with four people.
We used to leave each village with our packs heavy; maybe more for
Fiya's singing than for my judgments.    But since I sent Fiya away with
Nute, we would have gone hungry without your father's bow.    To the
east the villages are not so far apart."

Hu said: "Take Lumpkha with you.   With Lumpkha and Father, you will
always have meat in the hills; perhaps not so much in the eastern
plains.  What do you think of going north, and looking for the High
King."

"I think it is time for you to rest, Hu," Nakien said.

"I will rest soon, and for a long time I think," Hu said.   "If you just
want to tell people that Gods walk the green earth, any village will
do.   But have Father tell his story before the High King, or before
King Taslan if you find him first.    Taslan will not take your slave,
not unless he can give something in return.    Let Taslan and all his
heroes know that the Kohiyossa has been born."

Nakien did not answer.   He said: "Let Danha lie on one side of him, and
Kahela on the other.   Hu, you must rest now."

Sugga began to spin, and Arkwan brought wood and water, honed his
dagger, and did small repair to items in their packs. Nakien sat,
leaning back against a bag.   Tektu went outside to practice shooting.
Toward mid-day, Hu said there was pain all over his body.   Nakien
looked grave, but would not say what he feared.   After a bit, a red
rash appeared on Hu's ankles.  He fell into a troubled sleep, tossing
and turning, and speaking unconnected phrases.  "Frenzy takes him," he
said, and "fire burns him."

"He is reciting bits of The Law of Midsummer," Nakien said.    He put
Sugga's hand on Hu's brow, so she could feel the heat of his fever.

"They will be waiting for you at the temple, Waksa, the temple of the
Sky-Father at the top of the hill." Kahela said.

Arkwan took off his cloak, his belt, and his loincloth, and put on Hu's
loincloth, still stained with charcoal and blood.   He used a bit of
rope to hold it up.   "Come along, Tektu," he said, taking his dagger.
At the temple, the bull's horns had been decorated with garlands, and he
was not in a good mood.  The priest said: "Health, Waksa Arkwan, and
health for Waksa Hu also.  I am Rohish son of Kiron.   This brave bull
goes to the Sky-Father; his name is Inka.  His sire was Juba the
beautiful."

Arkwan said    "You didn't bring your dagger, Tektu.   Always better to
keep your weapons to hand.   Go around in front of him.   Try not to get
killed."    The bull looked at Tektu, and snorted.   Rohish said, "Wait,
Waksa, I can summon more men," but Arkwan walked up along Inka's flank,
and thrust his dagger into the side of the bull's neck.   Inka twisted
so suddenly that Arkwan was knocked over, and Inka lowered his head and
charged, but stumbled and fell dead before he could sink his horns into
his killer.   Arkwan had to lift the bull's head in order to pull out
his dagger.  "Honor, son of Juba," he said.

Hu had not changed when Arkwan and Tektu returned to Sugga's house, and
they sat by his side.    "I think he is sleeping more quietly now,"
Nakien said, "and the rash has not spread."   At sunset Kratik came to
say that the villagers had gathered.    Nakien told Arkwan to wear his
good cloak and belt, but Arkwan ignored him, and put on Hu's old torn
cloak instead.   Arkwan was still covered in Inka's blood.   "If Hu
wakes up," Arkwan said to Tektu and Kahela, "send for me."

At the temple of the Sky-Father, Rohish led Sugga to a carved seat of
wood.    The roasted beef was piled on the altar, in front of the wooden
God.    Arkwan selected a section of neck-bone, and cast it into the
fire.   Rohish filled an honor cup, put Sugga's hands around it, and
then handed it to Arkwan.   Arkwan poured a generous libation, but then
stood the cup on the altar, untasted.  And he took his portion of meat,
but set that aside as well.   Rohish didn't quite know what to do about
this, but decided to go ahead with the ritual.   The meat was passed
out, and the villagers began to eat.

Arkwan stood.   "I am Arkwan," he said.   "Hu is my adopted son.   We
lived in the north, in the lands of King Taslan.   This past winter,
nomads from beyond the mountains attacked our village.   I escaped,
thinking Hu either dead or taken as a slave.    I had with me my mother
and my baby son, Annuas.   We traveled south, hoping to reach our king,
but in the winter snow we lost our way, and we traveled beyond the lands
of our king, and came to a village in the lands of the High King.   The
village of Kros, bronze maker.    We were taken as slaves."

Arkwan continued: "On the day we were captured, at the village of Kros,
they were building a great house, and they had the trunk of an ancient
tree, to raise as the center post.   Into the hole they tossed a child,
my son Annuas.    And then they tipped the post and sent it sliding into
the pit.   My mother jumped into the pit, and just before the post
crushed her, she threw him clear.   He landed hard, but he lived."

The villagers were very quiet.   The meat, half-eaten, was resting in
their laps.   Arkwan continued: "I served Kros as a slave until
summer.    On midsummer night I was at the dance; I helped to carry
wood.  I did not join the dance, for I am only a slave.   But then,
although I did not want to dance, my legs leaped up and danced.   When I
came to the passage between the fires, my legs took me in, although the
flames burned my skin.    I climbed a burning log, which broke beneath
me.  I would have fallen into the heart of the fire, but a hand struck
me from behind, and knocked me clear.   When I came out of the fire, men
fell on their knees before me, and put their faces to the ground.   I
continued to dance.   My body moved as it would, not as I wanted.  Each
woman I saw, tore off her clothes, and we coupled.   The touch of my
body burned them, and my penis inside of them burned, yet each clung to
me, and I had to pull away."

"Some men of the village, who had been dancing, followed me as I danced
around the circle.   Their bodies were covered with soot and ashes, and
their penises were swollen to a huge length and size.  Women did not
submit to them willingly, but they seized them, beat them, stripped
them, and raped them.   Men who tried to defend the women were beaten
also."

"When I woke in the morning, my legs were again mine, and I could walk
where I wanted to go.   Men no longer put their faces to the ground
before me.   Although I had passed through the fire, and my loincloth
had been burnt off my body, I had no burns, except a burn in the shape
of a hand, across my bottom, where I had been struck and knocked clear
of the fire.    A priest accused me of rape, and I was brought before
Kros for trial.   The woman I was said to have raped, would not accuse
me.   She said the the God we do not name had used my body, and it had
been the God's face, and not mine, she had seen.   But the priest asked
for judgment of death."

The villagers started to whisper to each other.   Arkwan waited for
quiet, and then continued: "The merchant Nute bought me from Kros.
Kros made him pay a great sum in bronze, more than the worth of any
slave.   Nute bought me to save my life.    Then Nakien demanded me from
Nute.   So I am now the slave of Nakien, the white bard.   I have not
drunk of the honor cup, since I am a slave."   Arkwan sat down.

"Why should we believe you, slave?" Rohish asked.

"He is the father of Hu," Kratik answered, "and Nakien tells this tale
as well.   Do you doubt Hu?   Or Nakien, whom Sugga called the wisest
and most honorable of bards?   All men know that the God we do not name
dances at midsummer; why do you doubt that He danced this past
midsummer, at the village of Kros?"

"We have our Gods, in our temples," Rohish said.   "If this slave starts
to dance, and to rape our women, shall we call him a God?"

"Our Sky-Father, there in His temple, is touched by the Sky-Father.   No
one doubts that.  The Sky-Father sees with the God's wooden eyes, and
hears our prayers with wooden ears.    But of the God we do not name,
there is no carved God of wood.   With what eyes does He look?   With
what ears hear?    How does He dance, as all know He does, unless He
uses the body of a man?"

Tektu and Kahela walked up to the fire.   From the slowness of their
pace, Arkwan knew what the news would be.   "Hu is dead," Kahela
said.    Nakien led Sugga to her house.

Rohish said: "Honor to Hu," and made a libation.   All the villagers who
had jugs of wine did the same, and passed the jugs so that everyone
could pour some.

Kratik said: "Sugga is our headwoman, but Hu was her eyes and her
ears.   When we went to Sugga with disputes, Hu never judged us, but
listened so well to each side, that many times we made up our quarrels
without a judgment.   I will help to heap the earth above his grave."
There was a general shout of: "And I."

"His death was peaceful, Arkwan," Kahela said, speaking loud so the
village could hear.  "Just before he died he shouted 'Tanyata!'   Tektu
told me she was the girl he wanted to marry.   But before that Hu spoke
of the Kohiyossa.    Is it true, Arkwan?   Is the Kohiyossa born, from
seed of your penis, from when the Young God used your penis as his own?"

"Hu thought so," Arkwan answered.  "I am a slave, and Annuas my son is a
slave's son.  I do not claim that my son is a God."

"Some say the Kohiyossa was born long ago," Kratik said, "but others
have said that his birth was yet to be, that it would not come until our
age of the earth was ending.   I feel that our age is coming to a
close.   This rescued boy could be the Kohiyossa, the Rescued One.
Where is Annuas now, Arkwan?"

Arkwan said: "He was with Tlossos, a bronze maker at the village of
Kros.    Tlossos also thinks that Annuas is the Kohiyossa, and he
pledged his safety."

"I will go to Tlossos," Tektu said.  "Hu commanded me."

"I will go with him," Kahela said.  "I will bring the Kohiyossa to you,
Arkwan, if he is in danger where He is."

Kratik said: "Kahela! You shall be whipped!   You must not think of such
a thing.    Bring me my whip.   My bullhide whip."

A villager stood.  "I will go with Kahela, and guard her.   What does
Nakien say?   Is this baby the Kohiyossa?"

Nakien stood, and spoke in the practiced, steady voice of the white
bards: "All who were at the dance at midsummer, saw the face of the God
in Arkwan's face.    So there is no doubt that the God we do not name
used the body of Arkwan, the penis of Arkwan, at that dance.    This
baby Annuas was born of seed of that penis.   The tale, known to you
all, says that the God would come to a dance, and beget a son.   The son
would be rescued from under a falling log, by a woman who gave her life
for His.   All this has come to pass.   I judge that this boy, born with
a cap of golden hair, is shown to be the God's son."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

They laid Hu at a spot well away from the village, with his bow and
quiver.  Nakien gave him a white cloak, which he had from Sugga when he
became a bard, and which Sugga had been given by one of her teachers.
Other than the cloak, Hu was naked; they did not cover the swollen and
discolored penis, nor hide the red blotchy rash which covered most of
his body.  Lumpkha lay down at Hu's feet.    Nakien led Sugga into the
shallow grave, and she ran her hands over him. Sugga screamed, and
pulled out her hair, and scratched her face until the blood ran.
Arkwan wanted to give his bronze dagger, but Nakien would not allow
it.    Arkwan put in Hu's hand the little bag of barley grains; token of
the promise which, in this age of the world, Arkwan had been unable to
keep.   Arkwan called Lumpkha, and for a while it seemed that the dog
would not come, but then he slowly got up on his long legs, and came out
of the grave.   Then they tossed in flowers, and each put a branch
across the grave.    But then Rohish came hurrying up with an honor cup,
and they lifted the branches again to put it by Hu's side.    Then
Kahela came running up, with Kratik chasing after her.   She got into
the grave and gave Hu a kiss, and refused to come out again.

"Kahela, will you not go with me to the Kohiyossa?" Tektu said.   "Hu
commanded me to go, and I will need your help."

Kratik said: "Let me bring men, and we will drag her out."

Tektu stood aside, and Kratik turned to shout to the villagers, who were
gathered at a respectful distance, each with a basket of dirt.   But
then Kratik turned again.   "I can't stop her from going, if she will
go," he said.   "Kahela, you may go with Tektu to the Kohiyossa, and I
will help all I can.   Now will you get out of the grave?"    Tektu
helped Kahela out of the grave, and they put back the branches.   Then
Kahela gave the sign for the villagers to come.

They came one at a time.   "Be well, Poradis," Kahela said to the first,
after he had emptied his basket, "I will go to the Kohiyossa.   Will you
come?"

"Health and safety, Kahela," Poradis said.  "My bow will guard you.
And the Kohiyossa."

"I will serve the Kohiyossa, if you need me," the next man said.   Then
a pregnant woman asked Nakien: "How long will it be, until the final
battle?"

"Some who will fight in it, not Gods but men, are now in the womb,"
Nakien answered.   "So the child in your womb will see it."

The woman said: "Perhaps no one, born of woman, and not a God, will live
beyond that battle.   But we think our best hope is with the Kohiyossa."

"I will give one of my sheep to the Sky-Father, to ask his help," Rohish
said.

And so it went.   Many men, and some women, offered to serve the
Kohiyossa, and all offered good wishes, at least.   Many who said
nothing when they emptied their first basket, had decided to offer
support by the time they had returned with their last.  When the last
basket had been emptied, they all sat down to a feast, which consisted
largely of Inka, the sacrificed bull.   Last night, once they had heard
that Hu had died, no one had eaten any more, and using the leftovers
from the sacrifice for the funeral was, after all, no more than thrift.

When the villagers had returned to the village, Nakien told Arkwan,
Tektu, Danha, and Kahela to sit in front of the mound.   "I will go
north with Arkwan to seek Taslan, or the High King," Nakien said.
"Kahela, talk with your father.   Let him choose some older man to go
with you and Tektu to the village of Kros.   And if Tlossos thinks the
Kohiyossa is not safe where he is, bring him here.   Do not try to find
us in the north!   Taslan is fighting the nomads; it is not a place of
safety.   Send us a message, whatever happens.    I know little of
Tlossos, except that his daggers are said to be better than those of
Kros.   But I think you should trust him.   But beware of priests, even
those who seem friendly.    And beware, too, of Kros."

Arkwan said:  "Tlossos may doubt that you come from me.   Tell him that
when I left the village with Nute, he walked beside the cart, and told
me the Kohiyossa would be safe.    Tlossos has a slave, Pataka, who was
my friend.  A red haired man, a nomad.   Beware, also, of Kafassios son
of Kros.   Be careful.   Be secret.  Let Kros think you wish a dagger he
made, and not one by Tlossos.   Do not be seen to speak too much with
Tlossos, until you have seen how things lie.   And fare well, Tektu son
of Nohas.   Health and safety to you, and to you, Kahela daughter of
Kratik."

For the first time, Kahela looked at the ground, and would not look at
Arkwan when she spoke to him.   "Your heart's desire, Wak ... Arkwan,"
she said, in a low choking voice.

Tektu took her arm.  "You must look at Arkwan when you talk to him.   He
is not a God, only a man.   And he is not a Waksa.   He is a slave.
And before that he was a shepherd boy."

Kahela lifted her eyes to Arkwan's.   "Honor, father of Hu," she said.
But then she began to wail, and tear her hair, and Tektu held her arms
so she would not scratch her face.

"We should go now," Nakien said.  "Gather our packs and go."

"And what of me?" Danha asked.

"Marry her!" Tektu shouted.

"Do you wish your sister to be the wife of a slave?" Arkwan asked.

"If she will have you, Brother.   What do you want?   Do you think she
will go home, now?"

"I want to do more for a wife, than make her the wife of a slave."
Arkwan said.

Tektu said: "She will be tired, and cold, and often hungry, following
you, Brother.   There will be whippings, hard work, and danger.  But
this is what she wants.  You have a baby already, I think.   I tell you
this, even if Danha will not.  You cannot provide a life of safety and
comfort for her, nor for your child.   But she will not leave you to be
the pampered wife of some weaver or dyer at home.   I would think her a
fool if she did.   Married or not, she will follow you, and bear your
child.  Why do you think it will harm her, to marry her?"

"I am content," Danha said.  "I do not desire a marriage."

Tektu said: "Our age is coming to an end.  It will not be peaceful.
There will be no safety, no comfort, for anyone.  Marry her, Brother.
And Brother, fare well.   Sister, health, and your heart's desire.   And
a healthy child, easily born.   Nakien, fare well."

Arkwan and Nakien each waited politely for the other to speak; Arkwan
turned aside.   Nakien said: "Tektu son of Nohas, Kahela daughter of
Kratik, fare well."

Arkwan and Tektu embraced and kissed, and then Tektu embraced and kissed
his sister.   And then Nakien, Arkwan, and Danha walked away from the
mound.  They did not get far.   Arkwan came running back.   "Tektu,
Kahela," Arkwan said, "when Fiya comes, tell him the story.   And make
sure you tell him everything Hu said.   He may seek us in the north, if
he wishes."

"We will do all this, Arkwan.  And we will leave word for him as well.
And I have no doubt that Fiya, our brother, will be one of the warriors
of the Kohiyossa."      Arkwan ran to catch up with Danha and Nakien.
Lumpkha ran at his heels.

------

August 2003

David Nunes da Silva
WEQGRIQIHSOT [AT] spammotel [DOT] com

[ This is part two of two : complete at:
http://home.alamedanet.net/files/Authors/sandy/wwwhodges/Arkwan.htm ]

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Appendices:

The date of this story is 2435 B.C.E.  The location ranges from the
Julian Alps to the Adriatic sea.
To put the date in context,

   * The last of the three Great Pyramids was then about 120 years old.
   *
   * �tzi, the man found frozen in an alpine glacier, had been in the
     ice for 800 years.  This was only about 120 km from Arkwan's
     village.
   *
   * Gilgamish, king of Uruk in Mesopotamia, had lived about 100 years
     earlier.
   *
   * The first major stone construction at Stonehenge, the ring of
     bluestones, dates from about this time.
   *
   * The earliest written records of the Hittites and related kingdoms
     date from 500 years later.  The Hittite kingdoms may have existed
     by 2435 BCE.
   *
   * Troy was a town, but had buildings with a large central room, of
     the type now called a megaron.  The central fire pits in these
     rooms were up to 3 m. across.  The walls were half-timbered, with
     mud brick between wooden posts and beams, on stone foundations.
     The city burned down about 2300 BCE.
   *
   * On the island of Lemnos, near Troy, was the town now called
     Poliochni, twice as large as Troy; a small city.   There were no
     towns of this size on Crete or anywhere on the Greek islands nor
     mainland.    Poliochni had a place with rows of seats: a theater or
     perhaps an assembly hall.
   *
   * In the Cyclades, and parts of the mainland west of the Aegean,
     there were fine two storey brick houses, one per town, with tile
     roofs and red plaster interior walls; one house was 25 m. x 12 m.
     The characteristic pottery and architecture of this people has been
     given the name "Korakou culture" on the west mainland,
     "Keros-Syros" on the Cyclades.   They used seals: a bag or basket
     would be sealed with a lump of clay, impressed with a mark from a
     stone seal.   They may have used scales and weights.
   *
   * There was as yet no writing on Crete.   On Crete, houses were very
     large - individual family units were strung together to make one
     building.
   *
   * By 2435, in a few places on the Aegean islands and the western
     mainland, there were settlements with bronze artifacts, pottery,
     and buildings like those of Troy; these may have been immigrants.
     This culture is called Lefkandi I on the mainland, and Kastri group
     on the islands.
   *
   * Over the centuries after 2435, many large villages of the original
     Korakou and related cultures were burned down, and rebuilt by
     people with the Anatolian culture; which for this period is called
     the Tiryns culture.   Many villages on Crete were destroyed and
     burnt at this time, but there is not a marked change in culture.
   *
   * The "Bell-Beaker Phenomenon" was drawing to a close in 2435.
     Individual burials under round mounds, of adult males provided with
     bow and arrows, copper daggers, and a decorated pot, appear in a
     band from the Iberian peninsula to the Hungarian plain, around 2900
     BC.   Cultures related to the Bell-Beakers appear at the same time
     over an even wider area.
   *
   * Prior to 2900 BCE, in the Neolithic, there were typically long
     houses in which there were many family units.  The families in one
     long house were, we may guess, all related.  Villages are often
     very large, and are occupied for hundreds of years.
   *
   * After 2900 BCE, settlements are smaller and contain only
     single-family houses, and settlements tend to be short-lived.
     Burials were in individual graves, sometimes with a mound, unlike
     the chamber tombs of the Neolithic, which served a whole community.
   *
   * The settlement on wooden piles on lake Garda, at Polada, about 200
     km away, was established about 2050 BCE.
   *
   * Tree-ring data from the Bodensee, shows that 2435 followed a string
     of relatively harsh winters, following a decade or so of better
     weather.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Midsummer night 2437 : Arkwan, Sindjas, Patkha, and Zakha run between
the fires, and get their man's tattoos.

    early autumn new moon : Sujasa gets woman's tattoos following her
first menstruation.

Midsummer night 2436 :  King Kahul and Queen Mea, and prince Taslan,
with their warriors, attend the midsummer feast at village of Eos.
Nakien is there also, with his student Fiya.    Fiya, Hu, and Tanyata
run between the fires, and dance with the men and women, although they
get no tattoos.

       Winter: Two days after the Sky-Father sacrifice :  Eos's village
attacked by nomads.

       Early spring: Day of the purgation rite : Arkwan's mother killed
at the village of Kros bronze maker

Midsummer night 2435 :  Arkwan dances at the fires at the village of
Kros bronze maker.   New moon.
        first day : trial - Nute buys Arkwan
        second day - Nute and Arkwan on road - Arkwan sings "Rhonan the
Horseman."
        third day - Nute and Arkwan arrive at village of Nohas
        fourth day - Nute and Arkwan go to river, meet up with river
boat
        fifth day - Arkwan, Tektu, and Fiya get tattoos

        night after full moon - Danha and Arkwan's first marriage night

        two days before new moon - Arkwan tells Nakien full story of
midsummer dance
        day before new moon - Tektu whipped
     second new moon of summer - Nakien sings song about the dance -
Arkwan spills seed to avoid second marriage night
       day after new moon - Nakien & Co. lose their way

        first quarter - rain starts
         Four days before full moon  - Nakien & Co. arrive at village of
Sugga law-singer
         Three days before full moon  - Nakien, Arkwan, Tektu & Hu hunt.

         Two days before full moon - Hu dies
         Day before full moon - Hu is buried.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Egypt was ruled in 2435 by a man named Ka-ka-i, Souls of (Re), who took
as his throne name Nefer-ir-ka-Re, Soul as beautiful as Re.   He was the
great-grandson of Men-ka-f-Re, Soul as eternal as Re, who built the
last of the Great Pyramids.   Men-ka-f-Re was succeeded by his son, but
at some point after the son's death there was no male person of the
royal family left, and Ka-ka-i's father, whose mother was from the royal
family, became king.  Ka-ka-i's father took the throne name
Weser-ka-f-Re, Soul as strong as Re.   Weser-ka-f-Re married, or was
already married to, another royal princess: Khent-ka-wes, Her souls in
front (of Re), a grand-daughter of Men-ka-f-Re.    So Weser-ka-f-Re had
a mother and a wife of the royal family, but he did not have a royal
father.   Khent-ka-wes was depicted wearing the snake crown.   Usually,
it is the king who wears the snake crown, combined with his other
crowns.   So perhaps for some ceremonial purposes she was the reigning
monarch, and he was king as her husband.

According to a much later papyrus, Weser-ka-f-Re and the two kings who
followed him, were triplet sons of the god Re.  Born one cubit long,
with limbs covered with gold and heads crowned with lapis lazuli.
However it seems clear that the three kings were not brothers, but
Ka-ka-i, at least, was the son of Weser-ka-f-Re.   Weser-ka-f-Re called
himself the son of Re.  It is possible that he claimed to be the son of
Re literally, and denied that he had a human father.   (Three boys each
a cubit long, to say nothing of associated stone and metalwork,
certainly implies one unusual parent.)

Compared to Men-ka-f-Re's Great Pyramid and the huge temple he built for
his own posthumous worship, Weser-ka-f-Re built a small pyramid and a
small temple to himself.   Instead, he devoted resources to a huge
temple to the God Re.   His sons Sah-w-Re and then Ka-ka-i followed this
pattern, and the three huge temples, which all continued to operate,
consumed a large amount every year.  Ka-ka-i is the first king whose
birth name we know, since he used it in inscriptions alongside his
throne name and his three or four other official names.   After Ka-ka-i
other kings also used their own names.

A cache of documents in hieratic dates from Ka-ka-i's reign.  Egypt:
Neferirkare Kakai, Third King of the Old Kingdom 5th Dynasty

     There are records of monthly inspections of workshops, with
     each tool inspected and its condition recorded. The
     Nefer-ir-ka-Re archive reveals a world of detailed and very
     professional administration. Elaborate tables provide monthly
     rosters of duty: for guarding the temple, for fetching the
     daily income (or 'offerings') and for performing ceremonies
     including those on the statues, with a special roster for the
     important Feast of Seker. Similar tables list the temple
     equipment, item by item and grouped by materials, with details
     of damage noted at a monthly inspection. Other records of
     inspection relate to doors and rooms in the temple building.
     The presentation of monthly income is broken down by
     substance, source and daily amount. The commodities are
     primarily types of bread and beer, meat and fowl, grain and
     fruit.

Egyptian goods are rarely found across the Mediterranean at this period,
except in Lebanon, where they traded for cedar.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The 800 years from the death of �tzi the ice-man, to the death of Eos,
were eventful ones in Europe.   Most notably, there was what is called
the Bell Beaker phenomenon.    This event occurred, more or less
simultaneously around 2900, across most of western and central Europe.
Round burial mounds, raised often over a single man, appear.  The dead
man is provided with a pottery cup, holding about a liter and a half.
Often he has a copper dagger, and sometimes a stone wrist-guard, to
protect the wrist from the bowstring, and flint arrowheads.    Various
explanations are provided for the Bell Beaker phenomenon: some think the
men in these Beaker burials are smiths.   But I think the obvious is
more likely correct: these are lords, and the Bell Beaker phenomenon is
an invasion.   But this does not mean there were "Beaker Folk," or at
least not many of them.  Rather, the appearance is of an invasion of
elite replacement: the invaders came in and made themselves lords of the
existing population.

There is some evidence that the beakers held mead when they were placed
in the grave.  Beakers are occasionally found outside of burials.  It
seems reasonable that mead was drunk out of these large vessels in
life.   We can guess that at feasts, it was a matter of honor to drink
from such a vessel, which made it an appropriate grave gift to a man
entitled to the honor.

Near Stonehenge, there is a classic Beaker burial called the Aylesbury
Archer.   His time and his weapons are such that he could be the Prince
Taslan of this story, and trace elements show that he was in fact born
near the Alps.   Certainly, a Prince Taslan of the eastern Alps, could
have ended his life in Britain: some people of the Copper Age lived on a
continental scale, even if, at the same time, most people were peasants
who never went more than 50 km from where they were born.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Boats and the Adriatic.   A boat sank near the island of Dokos, in the
Aegean, around 2200 BCE..   Its cargo included 1000 items of pottery,
both fine and practical; mostly bowls, but also pithoi, amphorae,
basins, jugs, askoi, and sauceboats.   Also many andesite millstones and
an unknown quantity of perishable goods.   I have seen no estimate of
the size of this boat, but it must have been as large as the boat in
this story.

Almost no early shipwrecks have been found in the Adriatic north of
Greece, not even any dating from periods when we know there was a lot of
shipping.   There must be some reason, perhaps having to do with fishing
practices, that they have not been found.   There was shipping trade on
the Adriatic in 2435 BCE, as the amber trade routes terminate at its
northern end.   Also, there were settlements on the islands.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Horses, riding, carts, and wheels.   There were horses in southeast
Europe in 2435 BCE, but they are rare, and there is no evidence that
they were ridden.   When the use of horses for transportation does later
begin, they are used to pull carts or chariots, they are not ridden.
There are no pictures of riders on horses until much later.   No bit nor
harness has been found.   There is a claim that horses of central Asia
show bit wear to their teeth as early as 4000 BCE, but this is
disputed.   However horses were certainly domesticated and used for
carts by 2000 BCE in Asia, and probably quite some time before that.
After 1900 BCE, horse-drawn chariots appear, explosively, all over the
place.   So it seems likely that if using horses to pull chariots had
been worked out much before 1900 BCE, that invention would have had such
an big effect, that we would know about it.

However, this argument only tells us that the use of horses as
transportation was not effective, not that it did not occur.    Horses
may have been domesticated by 2435 in Europe, raised to be eaten.    Or
they may have been hunted.    A foal taken when its mother is killed, is
easily tamed.   So whether horses were domesticated or tamed, people
could have climbed onto their backs.    These horses were small, what we
would call ponies.   It is possible to ride both bareback and without a
bit; naturally, there is not good control of the horse.

So for purposes of trying to guess what happened, as opposed to what can
be shown to have happened, I think that riding a horse was something
that a few people could do in 2435, although even for these few it was
not very practical.   It is just the sort of thing that a legendary
warrior would be said to be able to do.   After all, if a legendary
bronze age warrior could walk out along his chariot tongue, why not sit
on his horse's back?   I think that Homer's audience, as well that for
the Tain Bo Cuailnge, knew how to ride, so it didn't occur to the
composers of these poams, to make riding an heroic accomplishment of the
chariot age.

Incidentally, the notion that chariots were just "battle-taxis" that
merely took warriors to the battle, is nonsense.  It is not what
happened and it is not even what Homer said happened.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The house of Eos, and the village.   This is an "imaginative
reconstruction."  If I described a late Copper Age house, but listed
only those features which can be proved, my description would create a
false picture of a squalid hovel.   Instead, I have listed those
features which I think they are more likely than not to have existed.
While many details of this picture must therefore be wrong, I hope it is
a fair picture of the overall of the degree of comfort and elegance of a
late Copper Age house.  I hope it gives a better idea of what it was
like to live in such a house, than can be given by listing only those
details that can be proved.    The nominal date is 2435 BCE; the
location, high in the Julian alps, near what is now the border of Italy
and Slovenja.   This reconstruction is based on archaeology,
ethnographic comparisons, and surviving documents of much later
cultures.  And of course, pure imagination.

The ground floor of the house of Eos was about 15 meters long and 8
wide, and the second story projected out another meter or so all around;
the roof was thatch, with projecting eaves.   The house was oval, with
one end squared off.   Posts, set into the ground, formed the exterior
wall, with more posts in the interior.  Between the posts,  the outside
wall was wattle and daub:  thin branches woven into panels tied to the
uprights, plastered with mud.   The house was divided with interior
walls, screens, and curtains.   Part of the downstairs was used for the
cattle during the coldest nights, but an interior wall divided this
space from the living area..   The inside walls were finished with a
layer of mud that dried to a light color, almost white.   An abstract
pattern, made with a comb, decorated the walls; this had been done by an
itinerant artist.  The floor was a layer of mud over stone slabs, was
almost as hard as brick, and was kept swept..   There were rugs of
sheepskin, wolfskin, and bearskin.  The door and window openings could
be closed: the doors and windows were made of wood and wickerwork, and
covered with sheepskin and stuffed with grass.  They sealed tight, and
were closed at night, or when it was cold and windy.  The doors and
windows turned on a sort of hinge: a post formed one edge of the door,
and it pivoted in a socket.  There was enough wood in the door so that
it provided some defense against intruders.  The doorway to the stables
was wide, for the cattle, and closed with a double door.  The only
interior door was from the stables to the living area.  There was a
separate outside door to the living area, this was also the formal and
ritual entrance.  The doorposts were carved, one in the form of a man
with an erect penis, the other post had a design of dogs killing a
deer.   The designs were repeated on the inside of the posts, so there
was another face and another penis facing in.  Porches extended over the
doors.  The main living room downstairs had an oven, and there was a
smoke hole.  The downstairs ceilings were almost three meters high.  In
the day the rooms were light, airy, fairly clean, and colorful.  On
winter nights the firelight was supplemented with tallow lamps.

There were many storage alcoves, and there were sixty large pottery
storage jars, besides wooden boxes, wicker baskets, sheepskin bags, and
cloth bags; for food and clothing  Jars served to keep out mice and
other pests.  There were also supplies of flint, string, scrap wood,
tallow, and many other things. The flint was from hundreds of km away,
from the north.  Bone tools included needles, awls, and pins, and there
were also bone tubes used for pigments.   Jars, baskets, and cloth were
all colorfully decorated.  Stored food included mushrooms, barley,
barley flour, acorns, onions, figs, fresh and dried plums, apples, feta
cheese, cracker-bread, lard, dried smoked mutton, pork sausage, lentils,
salt, and honey.  Some of the bags hung on pegs; there were also wooden
plank shelves.  Dried herbs hung from pegs.  In addition, several very
large jars had been set into the ground.   These were used for the
fermentation of mead, another alcoholic drink made of sheep's milk, and
for making cheese.   One held water.  Pegs held bows and quivers of
arrows, ready to be grabbed quickly.   Also stored in the house were
some precious heirlooms; a cup Eos won in his days as a king's warrior;
a belt woven by the old queen's hands, and given to Eos's mother, who
was the old king's little sister, as a wedding gift.

The large oak posts of the exterior wall, extended to the roof.  The
upper storey extended beyond this line of posts, so they made a series
of bays or alcoves.   A ladder provided access to the upper floor, which
was used for storage, drying, and workspace.  The large loom was kept
here.  The basic house construction was of logs lashed to logs, although
mortise and tenon was used also.  Branches of the post trees had been
left for supporting the cross-beams.   If there was no branch in the
right place, the post was notched.   There were about 140 square meters
of living space, including the closets and other storage areas, but not
including where the oxen were kept.

There were no metal cooking pots.   Clay pots were used on the fire, or
food was cooked by dropping red-hot stones into liquid contained in a
skin, which was either held by a basket or in a hole scooped in the
floor.   Or food was roasted or baked.   Pottery cups, and cups and
spoons made of wood or horn, were used for eating and drinking.   Salt,
brought by traders from the mines at Hallstatt, was used sparingly.
Some of the food was from hunting, or gathering in the forest.  Garlic,
and various herbs, including dill, provided flavor.   Fermentation was
an important means of food storage; particularly in winter, many meals
included alcohol.  Quite a lot of cooking was done outdoors, especially
roasting whole animals in pits using heated stones.  Every household
would give feasts for the whole village.

Arkwan liked to sing, and after his voice broke he had a pleasant bass
voice.  His mother played the flute.  But her hands were almost always
occupied with the thousand tasks of running her household.  Eos's two
wives owned not a single item of jewelry, but this was unusual.
Woman's hair was worn in elaborate coils and braids, kept in place by
pins and cloth bands.   Men cut their hair short, and wore distinctive
caps.   Clothing was bright, and embroidered.   All the married women of
the village used the same colors and patterns, and the same arrangement
of hair; as alike as a uniform.

There were no chairs, benches, or beds.   In addition to the skin rugs,
tied bundles of grass served as mattresses, these were put away during
the day.   The family slept naked, cuddled together in a heap, usually
in curled-up positions on their sides.  Married couples faced each
other, arms and legs intertwined; men slept on their left sides, women
on their right.  Children often slept in facing pairs as well, with
friends or siblings.  Relatives and friends who came to visit, wandering
bards and traders, and the children's friends, would all join the pile
of naked bodies, when it was chilly.  There were woven wool blankets.
In the daytime, people sat on the skin rugs, or on mats.  An old person
might lean back against a basket.   But it was not considered any
hardship to sit or sleep on the floor; their bodies were not so soft
that they thought they needed to be cushioned.  The grass mats, when
used, were for warmth.  People did use pillows for their heads.   In the
cold of winter, clothing might be worn at night, but at other times
fleas were less of a problem when clothing was taken off at night.   The
fire was not kept burning all night long, and the smokehole could be
closed.

Almost all the time since humans have been human, children have watched
their parents having sex, from infancy.   But by Copper Age times, with
large multi-room houses, couples could have sex without an audience if
they wanted to, and often they did want to.   Eos liked to have sex with
one of his wives, without the other one being within arm's reach.  So
when Eos and one of his wives wanted sex at night, they  would leave the
comfort of the family sleeping place, and go naked up the ladder to the
upper floor, where a curtained alcove provided protection from drafts,
and privacy.   When they were finished, they came back: parents did not
spend the night in a separate room, away from the oven; nor did they
leave their children to sleep without the warmth and comfort of their
parents.   But sometimes it was just too chilly to go upstairs, or
someone was too eager.   So Arkwan, like every other child of the
village, grew up directly and closely observing his parents and his
friends' parents having sex.  There was no association of sex with
night.  A proverb said that husband could claim he was serving his wife
well, if he had sex with her three times every day.

There were customary places for shitting outside, but no pits.

Outside, belonging to Eos, there were sheep pens and byres of wattle and
daub, beehives, a smokehouse, and another oven.   Outside the house, but
under the projecting upper floor and the eves, was a space used for
keeping things dry, including firewood.   Slaughtered sheep were hung
here until eaten.  Houses were some distance apart, with trees,
including plum, apple, and lime, growing among them.  Although the
climate was warmer than today, there were no olive trees in this high
mountain village.   There was a village threshing floor.  There was no
well; water was brought from a stream, some distance away, using pots
and skins.

Almost all the women of the village menstruated at the same time each
month.

On the day it was destroyed, the village had 149 inhabitants.   41 boys
and 30 girls.  Of those who had been initiated as adults, twelve were
younger than 20, although no one in the village knew her or his exact
age.    Those younger than 20 were 5 young men, including Arkwan,
Sindjas and Patkha, and 7 young woman, including Sujasa.   Of these,
only Sindjas, Patkha and two women were unmarried.  Twelve women and
nine men were between 20 and 30.   Ten women and fifteen men were
between 30 and 40, including Eos.  Eleven women and seven men were
between 40 and 50.  One man was 56 and another was 67.  Husbands were
typically older than wives.   One other man, besides Eos, had two
wives.  One man habitually dressed as a married woman, and another man
lived with him.   Seven of the villagers, including Arkwan's mother,
were slaves.

There were 71 dogs, counting puppies.   Seven oxen; no bulls nor cows.
No cats.  426 sheep.  93 pigs.   Of course no chickens. The sheep were
"woolly" sheep, although unlike modern sheep they did have thick guard
hairs as well as woolly hairs, and the ewes had horns.  There were 21
households in the village; a household could in some cases include two
separate house buildings.    Many of the dogs, including Lumpkha and
Niri, were descended in part from a pair of huge British dogs that the
old King had given Eos's father.

Military training was important.   The bow was the preeminent weapon of
the copper age, and both boys and girls trained.   Older boys trained in
addition with spear and shield.   But some women used the spear in
battle.   The spear was a hooked spear, or halberd.  In spite of the
extreme violence of the times, the village had no surrounding wall.
The bow dictated battle tactics.   Arrows could injure at some distance,
but they were not accurate; also, arrows can be seen coming, and dodged
or taken on the shield.   It was important not to be shot at from two
sides; it was important to keep moving; it was important not to present
a massed target; and above all it was important to spend as little time
as possible close to the enemy archers.   A basic tactic was a sudden
charge, to bring overwhelming force against a weak point of the enemy,
and to overrun and slaughter them.   And when attacked by a superior
force, the tactic was to scatter and give ground, and then regroup.
The villagers could not hope to defend the perimeter of the village, it
would spread their force too thin.   Rather, they offered battle on
chosen ground.   The enemy would often accept battle, since to loot the
village without first dealing with the villagers, would have been
dangerous.    The villagers took part in raids, as well as defending
against them, and raids were fequent.   A raid would be to capture some
livestock, and perhaps take slaves, as well as all the other loot that
could be carried off; it was unusual for a village to be destroyed by a
raid.

The village was divided into patrilineal clans.   These were not of huge
importance, but you had to marry outside your own clan.   Some
ceremonial duties, such as burials, were organized by clan.  Each clan
traced their ancestry to a common ancestor, and many of these had lived
at the time the village was first settled, in 2559 BC.

Between the midsummer night when Arkwan got his man's tattoos, and the
next midsummer, when prince Taslan was at the dance, nine babies were
born, of whom only four, all girls, were still alive by the following
midwinter day.      In the same period there were three marriages,
including Arkwan's and Sujasa's.  Zakha,  who got his man's tattoos on
the same night as Arkwan, coupled that night with a woman from a
neighboring village who had come to dance naked at the fires.   They
were married the following night.   The third marriage was Sujasa's
father, a widower with no sons, with a widow from the village; she had a
boy, whom he adopted, thus gaining a male heir for his proud and ancient
house.  In that same year, Patkha's sister left to become the wife of
one of the King's warriors, and another young woman left the village to
marry a farmer in a nearby hamlet.   There was a cemetery some distance
from the village; inhumation was usual.   There were two burial mounds,
not near the cemetery.  One was over Eos's father.  The cemetery served
the surrounding community, which included several isolated hamlets, as
well as the village.  Graves were tended in an annual ceremony, an
important ritual was held at sunrise.   Babies and fetuses were
sometimes buried in the village itself.

The village had three wooden statues: two Gods and one Goddess.  The
statues were carried about as part of the several annual ceremonies.
Sheep were sacrificed to them, although this just meant that the
villagers killed a sheep and ate it.  Grios the priest had a pointed
hat, and a gold armring, which he wore on ceremonial occasions.   This
village had no priestess.

The village made its own pottery; there were four households who
maintained kilns.  One household made high quality jars. A fair quantity
of various goods, including all the flint, was brought in by traders.
Also the oxen.  Pottery jars of food, such as olive oil, were brought in
by traders, then used for food storage; this pottery was much finer than
the local village pottery.  Woven cloth was the main item given in
exchange, also some honey.  The honey used for trade was put in the best
jars.   Neither flax nor hemp was grown in the village, the rather
inadequate fields were mostly used for barley and lentils.   There were
some sloping mountainside fields that were tilled using hoes, as they
could not be ploughed.    Here they grew, among other things,
strawberries.

A few households had two, three, or four adult males; brothers or a
father and sons.   Some had no adult males.  Although he was headman,
the house of Eos was not uniquely fine nor well-provisioned, although it
was the only one to have a full second floor.  He also kept four oxen,
and had the only large outdoor oven.   But these were more
responsibilities of headship than privileges.  Other houses had a kind
of balcony or loft, used for storage.  No household was especially well
off, but some households were especially poor, often the result of
illness.

As in every village before or since, the primary occupation of the
inhabitants was gossip.

------- -- ---- - --- -- --------- -----
David Nunes da Silva
WEQGRIQIHSOT [AT] spammotel [DOT] com

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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