A background thought

From: BEThexton <bethexton_at_BvBoZ2TZKwutKcGboxNOWw9svRTcifEeaAz9GHwHyFpgd3CP-zCVARZExy2a2IAcoT>
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 20:58:42 -0000


It has bugged me just a bit that our clan questionnaire had us prefering the sheltering hills, but the bulk of our steads are down in a valley. Then I figured it has to be a narrow enough valley in the hills :) Anyway, thinking about it I came up with this:

"When our clan came here we followed the Broken-Head stream up into the hills. From the plains it doesn't look promising, but as you know once past Harvar's Hill, the valley widens out and has good farm land. We claimed all the land along the Broken-Head, right up to where it came out of Mud Lake. Mud Lake is haunted by wild spirits and our ancestors didn't want to share the tula with them.

Although we claimed the upper reaches of the stream, it ran fast and wild through the rocks, a torent in sea season and trickle by the end of fire season. The little good land along its shores was hard to reach and frequently flooded, so only a few hunters ventured up the stream for many years. We settled along the calmer lower stretches, where the stream burbles between banks of good earth.

Eventually Swen noted that right at the headwaters there is land that isn't too bad, if it weren't for the sea season flooding from mud lake. Swen spent a year at that spot, and learned how to sacrifice to the daimone of the stream. He returned to the clan, and consulted with the god talkers and our leaders, and they agreed to perform the quest to support the stream against the lake.

Swen completed the quest, and since then the stream isn't so wild in sea season, but doesn't run so low either in fire season. Also, the stream keeps the lake from flooding so badly, making the land near the headwaters farmable. Some of the men and adventuress women joined in sacrificing to the White Water daimone, and she taught them how to boat through her rapids safely, no matter the season.

Swen and his family built a stead at the headwaters, and they live there to this day. Passing up and down the stream, they found another patch of good land and a stead has stood there for over a generation now.

Every generation or so one of us repeats the quest to support the stream, and still some among perform her sacrifices so can boat her safely."            

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