Chapter 55

“So do you like my idea of art tuition, and developing an art trade?” Vickie persisted.

“I do. It is brilliant. When you recall how many religious objects people used to buy, probably there is a market for Earth Mother figurines in a variety of sizes and materials, from the basic trade item to the quality and expensive end of the market. If we built up a goodly stock of art trade items, possibly these sea merchants would be good customers.”

“But we don’t know if there is any artistic talent among us.”

“Why not start now? Have an art competition within the tribe, to see who can come up with the best Earth Mother figure? That should get them thinking about how the deity should be represented.”

“John, if we don’t find much talent, can we extend it to the Farfarers?”

“I don’t see why not, but run all this past Chief Numa, to get her backing. I am sure she will have no objections to a possible new trade item.”

“I’ll go speak to the ladies that work with our hides, and see if they can produce the sort of parchment that I was talking about. I think it is not easy to make, but it was a regular product for centuries.”

“John, what about vellum? Isn’t that a similar use of hide?”

“Vellum? Oh, yes. That is more or less the same thing, only of a higher quality, I believe; made with superior skins and used by priests for copying sacred texts. I will be happy with anything our tribe can produce that can survive for a year or two. Being animal hide, it will be susceptible to mould and dampness if too cold, and brittleness if too hot and dry, but you can’t have everything in our new world. A couple of years will be fine for most uses I might have for it; mostly copying lists and such.”

“Okay. I’ll talk it over with Numa, and see what kind of soft stone they have here. I’d like to see soapstone, or jade: something smooth an d preferably beautiful to look at, but even good quality limestone would do the job. Weren’t ancient stone-age carvings made of limestone?”

“I am sure you are right. You can only carve a rock if you have something harder to carve it with. Limestone is pretty easy to carve with flint or obsidian. If we want to produce pictures for trade, we need to do them on stone or wood, to give them a longer lifespan.”

Numa was curious about this new suggestion from Vickie.

“What is this ‘art’ that you talk about? What does it mean?”

Vickie puzzled over how to describe it. Meaning was subjective, so not easy to put into words. She tried her best.

“It is a way of conveying an emotion or feeling about something without using words. It describes an object, a person, or a view of something outside of you: a tree, a mountain or a stream, and the picture conveys the meaning. You create an image of what you see; an image that speaks to other people, an image that makes you say ‘Ah! that is beautiful, or meaningful.”

Numa frowned her incomprehension.

“But I can look at a tree or mountain or stream and say to myself, ‘That is beautiful.” Why should someone make an image of it, when they can simply look at it and admire its beauty?”

Vickie was hard pushed to explain. After thinking, she fixed on change.

“Numa, if you see a rainbow after a shower of rain, how can you convey that rainbow to someone who has never seen a rainbow? Or a fish you see jumping out of a river? Or the changing colours of a leaf before it falls off a tree? You are creating a visible memory of something which has moved on in time.

If you had created an image of your father before he died, you would still have that image of him as an extra memory, and you could show it to new people and say, ‘This is my father, who died defending me and my sister.’

The creation of an image can be a means of fixing a memory you want to preserve, among other wonderful aspects of art.”

Numa retaliated with, “I can tell you all about my father: what he was like, what he did for our tribe, what he did for us, what his voice was like when he spoke softly, and how he could be frightening when he spoke loudly. Can your image tell me that?”

“Some of it, yes; other parts, no. The picture can speak down the generations, where your memory and words can’t. An image is a point in time; your memories of him are a whole series of mental images. The point about the art image is that it coveys the essence of what he was. The way his eyes twinkled and his face lit up when he was happy.

His smile in the image; the way he looks out at the viewer, all tells you he is a man to admire or love or be afraid of. A good artist can do several pictures of the same subject, with each one showing another aspect of the man, just as one image of weather only shows one type of weather at a time.

Art is like that: a quick look at that moment, but a clever artist can capture him in that moment, and make you say, ‘Yes. That is my dad’.”

“I think I am seeing what you mean by your words, but I would rather see one of these images, to make a better judgement of what you say.”

“Well, this is why we need to hold a competition in the tribe: to discover if anyone has the artistic ability to make a representation of something or someone. I am not expecting anything particularly good; not for a first try. All we need is to discover who has talent worth encouraging.”

“Pardon? What do you intend to do with this person, if you find him or her?”

“Encourage: explain how art works, the different mediums you can use to create art, the different techniques that can be used to good effect, the subtle use of colour to convey emotion...”

Numa complained, “You have lost me, Vickie. Most of what you said did not mean anything to me.”

“That is because art does not seem to exist here at the moment: there is nothing available to compare with. Back in our time, there was a multitude of art to be found on display. That is what my mind is drawing on: my memories of art. Our people who studied the past showed us ancient art painted on cave walls, or stones made into images of people or things such as gods, so it had been around for thousands of years by my time.”

“So you do not think of us as incapable of being artists?”

“Gosh, no! Just because you don’t have representational art here and now, doesn’t mean you can’t do it. It is like women as warriors and hunters. Men here long thought that women couldn’t and shouldn’t do such things, so you didn’t. John showed it was possible and acceptable, so you did it. Much the same applies to art. You have to try it, to find out if you can. If you don’t try it, you don’t know.”

“Hmm ... I would be willing to try anyway, just to see if your plan turns out well. It could be interesting, but what if no-one shows any inclination to do your ‘art’?”

“We try again with the Farfarers. Can you imagine, if the Farfarers have more budding artists than John’s tribe? What a let-down that would be!”

“Ah. In that case, I hope we have a few artists among us, Vickie.”

John was chatting to some of the ladies who worked with hides in a far corner of the cave at the extreme edge of the entrance. This was due to the annoying smell that arose from tanning leather, so he made a particular point of thanking them for their arduous task in unwelcome circumstances.

“I appreciate the effort you ladies put into this essential part of our preparation of hides for making into excellent leather for many purposes. You do a great job at it. I should have been here before, to express our thanks, and for that lapse, I apologise to you. Every person who works for the tribe is valuable, so don’t let anyone say you are not important: you are a really vital part of our moccasin manufacturing process.”

The ladies were effusive in their thanks for his recognition of their service for the tribe, so he cut that short by asking, “Tell me, ladies, have you ever heard of leather being scraped so thin that you can almost see through the skin?”

This caused confusion, as they had to admit they hadn’t.

One of the older ladies enquired, “Why do you ask that, High Chief?”

“Now there you have me, ladies: my ulterior motive for being here. When coming to thank you, it set me thinking. A recent discovery made me plan on making a copy of the list I found, but that needs a sheet of thin but strong material to make the image on, and we don’t have anything like that, except flat pieces of wood or stone, and those are rather bulky, and heavy in the case of stone.

It occurred to me that very thin leather might do the job, but it would need to have all the flesh scraped off it, until only the skin remains, and that would need to be stretched over a frame to keep it from curling up. Someone once told me about this material, and called it parchment or vellum, depending on the quality of leather used.

It requires considerable talent and effort to produce it, so I don’t know if it is possible for you to make some, but if you could have a try, I would be most grateful. If you succeeded, I would be delighted and make sure that Chief Numa knew that you were talented ladies worth rewarding.”

The woman had by now a broad and pleasant smile on her face.

“High Chief, be assured that we will do our best to come up with something that will work. Before we do anything, I will myself visit the Farfarers and discover if any of their hide workers know of this technique. It sounds very useful. I will seek you out as soon as we have something to report, sir.”

“Thank you for looking into it, ladies.”

Having got that prospect put in motion, John returned to erecting houses on the slope in front of the cave. Looking over the site, he became aware of its limitations on extent. Four or five houses were all that anyone could reasonably expect to build here, before running out of space. He would need to scout around for additional building space, but that would mean either cutting down many trees, or building on land above the cave. The latter possibility would split the tribe into two different residential areas, and he was not sure he wanted to see that happen, because one lot would think themselves in a superior location; probably those living at the higher level. That would be divisive.

He worried over this aspect of tribal life, and one choice he looked at was a complete move of the tribe to another site, such as The Farfarers were doing with their tribe. That tribe did not have an underground repository to factor in, but he did, and it was important for their own future.

He wondered if the tribe could be relocated some distance away, and the cave remain as a workshop-cum-storage area, plus the store-rooms hidden at the back. It would need to have adequate protection from interlopers.

The other alternative was to split the tribe in two; make it two tribes, suitable for expansion. He was not certain how Numa would view that option, unless she was Chief of both branches of the tribe.

Before even considering such a drastic change, he needed a reconnoitre to search for a site with resources that could be developed. This could be a level area for agriculture, or a mineral site where they could do quarrying or mining of whichever resource was to be found. Preferably both.

He knew very little about finding mineral resources. Perhaps one of the books in the cave’s hidden library might be on mineralogy; he would have to explore that possibility.

He realised he could not logically embark on a number of houses here if they were thinking of moving the tribe. It must be a case of, talk it all over, kick the options around, and see what arose from that conference.

First he would have to talk it over with his family. There were the local wives and the uptime wives, who might have opposing views on the options, so he had to allow for that outcome. To facilitate sensible discussion, he needed to draw up the pros and cons for each option, to give them adequate information for arriving at a decision they were all easy with, or at least did not reject in anger. A unanimous conclusion was not likely, he thought. Did he have to explain the concept of decision by committee, or should he suss out the general trend and get Numa to make the decision as Chief, and impose it on all?

Fuck it all! He said to himself. Tell them the situation, and leave them to decide what to do. He should not push them into his own preference, for that was not true leadership. Leadership was guiding them to make their own decisions, and offering advice where it was sought.

With that policy decided in his mind, he moved to work on the next house. He would start the discussion over the next meal, and take it from there. This house would need to be completed, no matter what transpired, even if it ended up as a store.

As he worked, his mind remained active, and he speculated as to what the artwork would be. Must it all be based on what they saw around them? Could they apply a little imagination in designing the image? He expected that many of the books in the library would have pictures included. That could offer ideas of what could be pictured anew. He chuckled at the thought of pictures of cars, aeroplanes, rockets, ships of all kinds; then there were animals of other continents and eras, even prehistoric dinosaurs!

He imagined a stone artwork of a child’s model dinosaur being discovered by archaeologists thousands of years from now, and the ‘experts’ concluding it was proof that dinosaurs and man lived side by side: that would be hilarious!

It was almost as funny as those people who claimed that because pyramid-like constructions were found all over the world, they must be landing sites for supposed alien flying saucers!

The mundane reality was that to build high and secure, you have to build inwards to keep the stresses inwards, therefore make it more stable, and so you inevitably end up with a tall structure in a pyramid shape that will survive the pressures arising from the mass of the materials.

Even more, the extreme weight of the structure requires solid bedrock to stand firm on. If you build with sides that are too steep, the structure collapses, especially if you build on a base of sand. In time, architects learned how you could build important structures that would last: use the pyramid shape with a reasonable pitch to the sides. Simple, human, structural design.

He stopped daydreaming and concentrated on the work in hand. He was pleased when two warriors spotted what he was attempting and came out to help. He thanked them and told them what was needed. They did it, and the house started to come together. As soon as all the walls were in position, he had the warriors hold them steady while he added supporting and strengthening poles outside the walls, all the way round. He used the one stone as a hammer, pounding each stake deep into the foundation to strengthen the walls into rigidity. As soon as that was done, he concentrated on the corner braces at roof level to complete the structural integrity of the house. All that remained was the sloping roof to be added and fixed to the walls. That was NOT a one-man job, and he was grateful that the weather was calm, for he had to get up to the cross-braces level to strap the roof panel down and get it screwed into place. His assistants formed themselves into a two-person ladder to get him up to the height where he could work on the screws with the battery-powered screw-driver. He had to be swift, so as not to put too much strain on his human ladder. It only took a few seconds per screw, and then it was a move to another corner and the same again, so the roof was secure in just a handful of minutes.

Looking back on his handiwork, he had another idea for times of rain. Initially, he and Brando decided to just let the rain run down to the front overhang, and the water would drop away from the wall, but this still allowed water to land on anyone entering or leaving the house. Having thought about it, John decided he didn’t need a gutter to catch the run-off. If he added a strip of wood, angled to one side, the water should run down until it hit the strip, then be diverted to one side, out of the way. He decided that the strip should be around an inch high, so that even torrential rain should not flow over the strip.

He used one of the wooden stakes for the job. He placed the stake where it needed to be, and marked it for the cut, just an inch beyond the roof edge to encourage the run-off to continue outward. Three screws fixed it tight to the roof panel, but John added a touch of filler where the strip touched the panel, to make sure water didn’t get under the angled strip. He had found the filler amongst the stored tools. He was pleased with the result it gave him.

All he needed now was a rain shower for testing purposes. Even a rainstorm would suffice, to really push it to the extreme. It might be a long time before they got rain, but the spring that fed their pool inside the cave never seemed to cease flowing, so there had to be enough rainfall percolating into the hillside to keep the spring fed with new water. As he seemed to recall, springs could appear a long distance from where the water entered the porous rock. As long as the porous layer was capped by a non-porous rock layer, the spring would appear where the porous rock was exposed, as long as it was at a lower level. The porous rock even acted as a filter, making the newborn water free from contaminants.

He was thinking of getting a gourd or something to hold water, and pour it over to check that the diverting strip worked, when a call from the cave told him the next meal was ready. The warriors expressed interest in food, so he joined them.

As most were concluding their eating, John introduced his thought.

“Ladies, this tribe is growing in numbers, so we should start thinking about what we will do when we outgrow this cave. I know it is a large cave, it is completely open at the entrance, so not so good for the wet season. There are a limited number of houses that we can build on the slope outside, partly due to space restrictions, and partly due to the limited number of structural panels we have access to. There may be some space on the plateau above us, but that is an exposed site.

Should we be thinking of a new site for the tribe like the Farfarers have done, or should we split the tribe into two smaller tribes, each in new locations? I am just throwing these ideas around, to see what everyone thinks of them.”

His short speech seemed to fall into a deep hole, for no-one spoke for a while. He hoped it was because they were thinking through the options; the advantages and drawbacks. Then he realised they were all staring at Chief Numa, waiting for her words ex cathedra.

This proved what a strong presence she now had in the tribe, that they waited for her to voice an opinion. She had made her mark, and now was given respect by the rest of the tribe.

John waited, to hear what she had to say. At last, she produced a statement.

“High Chief John has proposed a variety of choices for our future. All are valid and serious choices, but none of them are required to be decided upon at this time. It is my opinion that we should explore the various options, and go through them in more detail before we consider a decision. Any move will have to be planned out thoroughly, taking into account the suitability of any proposed site, its distance from here; its water supply, its access to woodland foodstuffs, herbs of all kinds, animal resources for our hunters, and plant food for our sheep among other necessities.

I am averse to splitting the tribe for the present, for I think we can expand further before getting to that stage, but that should not prevent us from planning ahead. There is also the matter of the important tools and weapons we have in storage inside the cave. I can’t see that resource being moved with any ease at all.

My view is that talking should start, and exploration be made of what might be the good and bad aspects of any move. That should include scouting the more distant surrounding lands to estimate resources available, and to make sure the land we like is not already taken.”

She seemed to have finished, but went on, “We should also take note of trade goods that we make or produce, and how these would be affected. I have finished for now.”

There was a solemn silence as the others took this in. There was a lot to absorb and reflect upon. Only one immediate response came out. It was from Raka.

She announced, “I don’t want to be far away from the stores with all the tools that I hope to use. Can I live at the cave, Chief, even if the rest want to move?”

Numa glanced at John before replying. He shrugged, leaving it up to her.

“Raka, as our Maker, you need access to tools, so you should be able to remain, but not alone. You need protection, for a lone woman is too easy to overcome by a large group, no matter how capable she is.

Our tools also need to be protected from depredation, so I believe we need a minimum number able to protect the cave and its contents. John, how many would you estimate are required?”

John knew it was his turn as a technical adviser, so he replied, “The number will depend on the ability of the protectors to use some of the weapons we have stored there. I would guess about five as a basic team of protectors, after I have given them training in the use of the bang-style weapons. That is the only way such a small team could manage to fend off a large band of attackers. Otherwise you are back to a much larger group defending with arrows and spears.”

Numa took this into account, and declared, “Then we cannot move any major part of our population away until such training is complete. I was thinking that splitting our tribe makes defending ourselves more dangerous, so it may be wise to have some more warriors trained in your bang weapons to defend those moving away from the cave. John, can they all be taught these weapons at the same time, or do they need to be shown one at a time?”

“Some of the training would be done as a group; the basics of how the weapons work, and the theory of how to use them effectively. Practical use would need to be personal, but would need much less time if everyone first knows about the weapons and how they are best used. Practical training involves teaching the warrior not to be afraid of the machine’s noise and jerking action, for you have to hold it steady to be effective. Being disturbed by the noise and movement could be fatal to the user.

I think part of the general training should include me showing live firing, so the noise is known before you start to try using the weapon. It is like using a sharp knife: You have to know to be careful or you will cut yourself with the knife. It is much the same with the bang weapons: You can hurt yourself if you lose control of the weapon.

There is also the matter of ammunition; the word for the small projectiles they shoot out. We probably have a lot of this ammunition in the store, but when it is all used, there is no more, and the bang weapon becomes no more than an odd-shaped club. It is important for the warriors to learn this while training.”

Numa found herself getting annoyed.

“John, it seems that these tools and weapons are dangerous to everyone not correctly trained in their use. I can’t see us being ready to split the tribe for quite a while. Is there anything we can do in the meantime, towards finding a new site or sites? Is it safe to send out people to explore without warrior protection?”

“You are correct about the protection, Chief Numa. The explorers will have their attention on what they are looking for. They need warriors to be watching for enemies or dangerous creatures. The smaller the exploration team, the fewer warriors that will need to go with them.”

“I grant you that point, John. I will ask for volunteers for this exploration task. We shall want people who know what might be a good site, with water supply and other resources, and I suppose land clear of forest for our sheep to graze. You said something about sources of good stone, and metals if they can be found. I hope that good wood from tall straight trees would be worth locating, for we will have to build new houses.”

John voiced his concern over housing.

“We should design new houses using natural wood to be similar to what we are putting together with our stored panels. Working out a construction programme for a standard house could be a good preparation for us. Brando may be useful in that operation, as he has a good practical mind as a Maker.”

Raka intruded, “I am also a good practical Maker, John. I can do much the same as Brando, and I am more often around than he is.”

“I apologise, Raka. I did not try to offend you. Two Makers are better than one. Perhaps sometime you Makers will get together and form your own trade grouping for Makers, what was once called a Guild. You can share new ideas and techniques, that sort of interchange, to enhance your trade.

Anyway, you can make a start of designing how we would build houses without panels, just using wood in the form of planks linked together, using several cross strips crewed to them to hold them tight together. We might enhance the link by pasting a thin strip covering over the joint where they fit together. You and Brando may have other ideas on how to join wood.”

“Hmm ... that sounds more like it: design a house with local materials instead of what comes out of the store room. I could start thinking about the problems. For example, I am not enthusiastic about your outside pinning of the wall panels. I would prefer to have a thick timber lying flat on the foundation, and have the wall planks fitted into grooves in the timber, then glued and pinned with long nails into the flat base.”

“I like that plan, Raka. If your planks ended with pointed plugs, these could fit into bored holes in the flat timber and glued into position. That could be more secure than a simple slot for the plank.”

Raka’s eyes lit up with delight.

“I’ll test that out, John. It could be fun to find if it works as you say.”

Numa put in, “If you two can stop talking details for the moment, we can maybe get started on preparations for scouting for new sites. We can use one scouting expedition to look for both a new site for the whole tribe, and possibly two smaller sites for off-shoots. We can discuss these after they are found, before arriving at a decision.”

John left it to the wives to respond. Vickie spoke her opinion.

“Numa, I want to be wherever my husband is. To my mind, splitting the family is a misstep, so my feeling tends to go towards a single new site where we can all live. By all means find a site for an offshoot of the tribe, but let that happen naturally please, over time as we expand.”

“I see where you are going with this, Vickie, but remember that another of John’s wives is at the Farfarer site, so we already have a slight splitting of the family group. Perhaps we could instigate a joint site for people for both tribes to live together. It is a valid proposal, and we shall take it among other proposals that come to me from others.”

Vickie was happy to leave it at that. He could see that Sheila was thinking on the same lines as Vickie, while Jean had no strong commitment to keeping the family together at one site. He waited to see if Jean would speak, but she held her peace.

It was the locally-born wives who next agitated for their preferences, but there was little consistency in the choices they championed, so Chief Numa told them to talk about it among themselves and come back to her when they had a definitive opinion that they could support with rationally-argued arguments.

The arrival of the fisher messenger interrupted the talk. The teenager came with another basket of sea produce, trailing along behind him on a small sled. John congratulated him on his transport, of which he said, “Our Maker thought it was silly to carry the heavy load on our backs when we could slide it along, so he made this sled with the rawhide rope to pull it with. We found we had to tie the basket onto the sled, as it kept falling off at every bend or going over a bump. In using it, I came to the conclusion that if the pulling rope was changed to a long handle, I would have even better control over it. I’ll mention that to our Maker when I get back.”

John was amused at the simple solution arrived at, but told him, “You could do that, but it will need a hinge where it connects to the sled. You can have that with two thick prongs that stick out, with your handle between the prongs, and a strong stick fixed through a hole that goes through all of them but sticks in the prongs, leaving the handle free to swing up and down. I also think that your Maker needs to go talk to the Maker at the Farfarers tribe. His name is Brando, and he makes wheels that can turn your sled into a carrying unit that will run more easily.”

The intelligent young man seemed interested in the technical proposal, but even more so the link to another Maker. “I’ll do that, High Chief. I have been told to collect the return trade items today if possible, but I am short of time today to get back before dark, so if it suits, I’ll bed down somewhere and take that load tomorrow.”