Chapter Twenty One
I arrived in the village at dawn, just as the sun was getting ready to break the horizon. I came back to the same guard, whistling softly to alert him of my return. He smiled when I approached, asking me jokingly, “Did you bring me food?”
“Yes.” I said, and he laughed quietly, thinking I was joking in return.
When I opened my pack and showed him the nuts, his brow furrowed in confusion. He obviously recognized them, but had no idea why I would consider them food.
It was my turn to laugh, and I told him, “I’ll show you how to eat them after everyone wakes up; getting this food out is loud.”
This confused him even more, and laughing softly once again, I walked over to the firepit to rest until the tribe rose. I threw wood on the coals and sat before it, watching as the flames began to dance.
When Catto came out, he found me in the same place he had last seen me.
“Did you sit here all night?” he asked with a half smile.
I shook my head and opening my pack told him, “No, I went for a walk and found food to eat, and plants that we will grow to make more food. It was a very good night.”
He eyed me skeptically and looked in my pack. Seeing the nuts he began to laugh, “You can’t eat those; they are as hard as a rock. They’re only good for throwing.”
“You’ll see.” I promised, and placing a pecan on a large rock, I smashed it with another rock. The shell broke cleanly, leaving a full nut.
I handed the nut to Catto, “Taste it.” I ordered.
All the villagers around the fire, including the guard, watched him in anticipation. As he chewed a surprised smile broke over his face.
“It’s good,” he said, “really good.”
The villagers laughed at his reaction. With this I poured all the nuts from my pack onto the ground, showing them how they needed to be cracked between two rocks. I warned them to eat only the soft meat inside, not the hard shells. The air was soon filled with the sound of rocks banging and nuts cracking, as the villagers quickly got to work.
Catto and I went off to the side, and I began to tell him all I had done the night before. He was amazed, but somewhat skeptical at the distance I had travelled. As we were speaking Kalou joined us, and I jokingly reassured them that I would not require us to travel that fast on our journey today.
I became very excited as I told them about the wheat plants I had found. They wanted to know why these plants were so important, so I described to them the entire process of making bread, from planting the wheat to baking the bread in an oven.
As I expected, they didn't understand all the specific information I gave them about growing and baking, but what concerned me was their inability to grasp why you would want to do what seemed to them an enormous amount of work just to make something to eat. While Kalou clearly understood why we should grow potatoes next to the village, she asked several times how growing grain and baking bread could be easier than hunting in the forest.
I tried to explain, but their lack of understanding wasn’t because of a language barrier. We were now able to communicate very well in a mix of their language and mine. Their inability to understand me on this issue was something much deeper.
I believed that Catto and Kalou were two of the brightest and most open-minded people in this village. Their inability to understand why you would even want to go through the process of growing grain, changing it into flour and using that flour to make bread was because this concept was such a fundamental change in the way their people had always existed.
Since time began for them, they had subsisted solely by hunting and gathering what they needed to eat. Every day they went out and killed or gathered their food for that day. The next day they did it all over again, never looking further than one day ahead.
I was asking their minds to take a monumental leap, from a subsistence mindset to an organized and planned existence, where crops were grown and harvested, and food was stored to be eaten later. This was a radical change from their traditional lifestyle, but if these two couldn’t understand why they should want to change, nobody would.
I had known it would take time to change their culture; that molding them to my liking would not happen overnight. But now I was worried that it might not happen at all. I finally told Catto and Kalou not to think too much about what I had said, that we would take things one step at a time. In reality, I was just trying to reassure myself.
I understand that we can grow potatoes here at our village. That is a very good idea. But what does he mean that we can turn plants into something else, and then make that into something else that we will eat. How can you crush little seeds and turn them into something to eat? Why would you work that hard when you can just grow potatoes? That makes no sense.
While we were talking we had thrown potatoes in the fire to roast, and now, ready to eat, I needed to clean up. As always, a group of villagers, both adults and children, followed me around, listening and watching everything I did. I encouraged this, though it was sometimes awkward.
I gathered them around and explained as clearly as I could that we needed to go to the stream to clean up. Now that I knew their language and we could communicate, I explained that washing our hands and faces helped keep us from getting sick. I would teach them about bathing later, after I was able to make soap.
I demonstrated how I washed my hands and face, and many of the villagers did the same. I was pleased to see that the elder, Garon, was one of those washing in the stream. He had also been listening to the conversation about growing wheat and baking bread. Garon was very intelligent, and I believed he understood my language as well as Catto and Kalou, and at times perhaps he understood me even better.
I needed to make Garon believe that everything I did was for the tribe, and not for my own good and the advancement of my power over his people. Though there were three elders, as the recognized leader of the village his acceptance of my changes would allow the transition to my ways and leadership to go more smoothly, and allow me to take over the tribe without the need for violence.
After eating I went to Garon, and shooing everyone away, I asked him if I could place something of great value in his care. He was surprised, but agreed and led me to his hut. From my pack I carefully took the rolled up painting my mother had made so many years ago. With everything I had put in there recently, it was a miracle that it had not been ruined.
“Please do not open it,” I asked, “but can you keep it safe for me? I hope to fill my pack with plants and food, and I don’t want it to get damaged.”
Nodding, he quietly took the hide and placed it under a fur on the far side of his hut.
“Thank you Garon.” I said, and continuing on, I told him where Catto, Kalou and I were going, and what we hoped to accomplish.
I finished by telling him, “We should be back late tomorrow, and if things go well, after that we will begin planting to grow food for the tribe.”
“I know why you go, and it is good for the people. I do not like that you stay in the forest overnight; it is not safe.” He paused, and staring into my eyes intently in a way that made me very uncomfortable, he finally said, “But you will keep Catto and Kalou from harm. Safe journey, and may you find what you look for.”