Earth's Eulogy, page 10
Abilio said, “Great warrior I am glad I could please you. Considering you could not speak our language at all a few moons ago, my sister has done a fantastic job of teaching you our language.”
Paul said, “Why are you calling me a great warrior?”
Abilio said, “I saw you kill two lions by yourself.”
Paul was surprised and said, “You were there? I had no idea. Fighting those lions was so dangerous and scary, I am lucky I escaped alive.” Then Paul gestured towards Abilio’s bowie knife and said, “In fact, I used leather from one of the lions to make the wrap on your hilt.”
Abilio was surprised and said, “Then this gift honors me more than I thought, thank you.” Then Abilio turned toward his sister and said, “Why didn’t you tell him that I knew about the two lions?”
Chazia said, “Look around; we have been busy.”
Abilio said, “You couldn’t be that busy; it’s the dry season.”
Chazia shot back and said, “Well, if you’re not that busy during the dry season, why didn’t you ever come by and visit. You took the kids and me away from the village, then have me marry a complete stranger, the first time I see him, and then you don’t even care enough to come visit.”
Abilio got mad and said, “You should be grateful I am here at all.”
Chazia said, “Why?”
Abilio said, “Tomorrow night, the village will have their feast for the planting festival.”
Paul asked, “Planting festival?”
Abilio answered, “We consider the time we put seeds in the ground to be the new year. So, the day before we plant seeds we have a big festival where bread and meat are cooked, we play games and sing songs. The day after the festival, we start tilling the ground and planting seeds.”
Paul perked up when he heard that the village would be planting seeds in two days, and he asked, “I have a lot of good seed, If I brought it would they plant it?”
Abilio thought about it and said, “I don’t know why they wouldn’t. But before we go to the festival, we have an important job to do.”
Paul asked, “What?”
Abilio put a big smile on his face and yelled, “HUNTING!”
Paul looked down and said, “I don’t know how to hunt.”
Abilio started laughing and said, “That’s funny!”
Paul said, “No, really, I don’t have a clue.”
Abilio smirked and said, “You’re not going to trick me. You are a great warrior, and all great warriors are great hunters!”
Chazia said, “Brother, me and my children have eaten well, but my husband is not a hunter, he is a great farmer, though. In all these months, we haven’t had any meat.”
Abilio started to believe them, but he still had doubt and asked, “Are you serious?”
Paul said, “I never even learned how to use a bow.”
Abilio took his bow off his shoulders and handed it to Paul, and gave him an arrow, “Sure, you don’t know-how. Show me how bad you are.” Abilio was pretty sure they were playing a joke on him.
Paul easily drew the bow back, it was easy as it only had a draw weight of thirty or forty pounds, but Paul did not know how to notch the arrow correctly, aim correctly, hold the arrow to the bow correctly, or release the string correctly. When Paul shot the arrow, it looked like a bird was having a seizure.
Abilio was shocked. He wanted to laugh at Paul, but he saw Paul kill two lions and did not want Paul to beat him up. Abilio said, “You’re not kidding. You couldn’t kill anything shooting like that. How in the world did you become a great warrior when you can’t hunt?”
Paul told him, “What does hunting have to do with fighting? I spent twenty-two years learning martial arts from men that spent sixty or more years practicing it. I fought men from all over the world and developed skills and reflexes. I studied anatomy to I better understood what to hit, and what not to hit.”
Abilio was shocked, “You learned to fight from someone who was 60?”
“One of my masters was 60, another was 72, and another was 83.”
Abilio said, “That’s not possible, nobody could live that long… How old are you?”
Paul said, “31 now”
Abilio and Chazia both gasped, and Abilio said, “How did you get that old? The oldest person in the village is the witch doctor, and he is twenty-four. The oldest person I ever knew was the last witchdoctor, and he lived to be twenty-six.”
Paul said, “People where I come from, and most people in the world live a lot longer than you do here in Africa. We drink clean water, eat every day, put on clothes to reduce the chance of being poisoned by bugs, don’t fight with our neighbors, or kill each other trying to seize power in the village. And yes, Chazia told me how you fight other villages throughout the year, and how the last few chiefs were killed by their replacement.” Then Paul got very angry and said,” And girls don’t get married or have sex at ten years old. They are much older, so a woman dying in childbirth is incredibly rare. Most people where I come from die after they are 70 years old from old age.”
Abilio asked, “Can you help me live a long time? I am sixteen now, going on seventeen soon. Nobody expects to live past 20 and count each day after 20 to be a blessing.”
Paul’s heart broke. Here this young man was looking at death in the face every day, and Paul thought of him as a kid. Paul said, “Yeah, I can help you.” Abilio looked relieved, then Paul asked, “Can you teach me how to hunt?”
Abilio said, “Yes! In fact, we can start your first lesson by showing you how to shoot the bow.”
Chapter 16 November AD 71 The Village
The next day Abilio, Paul, and Paul’s family made their way to the village for the seed planting festival. Paul went through the seeds he brought from the seed vault, and he put some of the best grain for this part of Africa in a clear plastic container, and then put it in the wheelbarrow. It wasn’t hard to figure out what seeds went where since most of the seed containers had a sticker with a world map and an arrow pointing to where the seed grew on that world map.
Under the seed container, Paul put a couple of iron knives and three pig spearheads. Paul intended to make a good first impression and bribery… I mean, gifts go a long way for making good impressions.
Paul had also gotten a bunch of seeds for the bug-repelling flowers, and herbs for Chazia to give to the village women. Paul hoped they saved a lot of lives.
Before they left, Paul made sure everyone was wearing some of the flowers and herbs that repelled bugs, like the lavender flower, as a corsage. Paul told the children if he saw them without their little corsage, they would be getting a good spanking, and Chazia said that once Paul got through spanking them, she would give them a real beating. Chazia thought that Paul was too soft when it came to beating the children, especially when the children did something that could potentially get themselves killed. Paul believed that Chazia was a little hard, but a sore butt, or the way Chazia spanked the children, bruised legs, were better than a dead child.
Abilio was a legitimately good hunter, and so on the way to the village, he brought down an antelope. The antelope went on top of the seed container in the wheelbarrow. Paul refused to let Abilio carry it on his back as it would attract flies, and possibly the tsetse fly. It was best to have the raw meat a few feet in front of them.
There was no road from Paul’s home to the village, and they had to cross through woods, fields, over creeks, and broken countryside to get there. When Paul asked Abilio about it, Abilio had never heard of anything like a road. Just another problem, Paul hoped to be able to fix one day.
Once they made it to the village, Paul couldn’t help but notice the poverty. These people had nothing. The pathways between their huts were covered in human filth, the people as a whole were small and scrawny, and as Paul looked closer, there wasn’t a grey hair among them. They were all young people doing their best.
Then the people saw them, and screamed, and shouted warnings. Young men ran to grab their bows, but Abilo started shouting, “It’s me, Abilio and my sister Chazia.” A lot of the villagers couldn’t hear them, so Abilo quickly took off his shirt.
Once Abilo was shirtless, one of the villagers yelled out, “Abilo is that you.”
Abilo said, “Yes, and this is Paul, my sister, and her family.”
Several of the warriors came forward and looked closer at them and smiled and said, “Chazia, its been months. Its good to see you again. Abilo, why do you and your sister look so different?”
Abilo said, “You know how we hang of cloth hangings in the doorway of our huts?”
Several warriors nodded their heads in agreement
Abilo said, “Well, my sister made a cloth hanging with holes for me and made me wear it.”
One of them looked to Chazia and asked, “Why?”
Chazia said, “My husband Paul said that the sleeping sickness comes from flies. We must do our best to keep them away, part of keeping the flies away is wearing clothing.”
As she said that they got a good look at Paul. Paul was HUGE; he was five feet, five inches tall. A whole half a head taller than the tallest man in the village. And his skin was white, and he had a weird thing he was pushing.
One of the young warriors looked at Paul and asked, “How did you get so big?”
Paul said, “Big? Most of the guys I grew up with were taller than me.”
When Paul said that, their eyes grew big. There were more men like this out there except they were all bigger? Best, be nice to the big man.
Paul asked, “Where is your Chief? I have a gift for him.”
The warriors said, “Follow us.”
Paul started to take the wheelbarrow with them when he realized the antelope was in there, alongside the seeds for the insect-repelling flowers and herbs. Paul turned to Chazia and said, “You take the wheelbarrow and give the gifts to the women, and later I will come back for it and give the rest of the gifts to the chief.”
Chazia said, “You can’t go to the chief empty-handed.”
Paul said, “I will let the chief have my bowie knife as something of a starter gift.”
With that, Paul went to see the Chief and Chazia started going to the women of the village and giving them gifts.
On the way to the Chief, Paul was shocked to see cattle in the middle of the village, and to Paul’s irritation adding more waste to the village. He asked the warriors, “What are those?”
The warrior said, “Those are our cattle, we use them for milk, meat, and sometimes we put heavy loads on their back for them to carry.”
Paul stopped and said, “Can you give me a minute to write something down.” Granted, Paul had to say written in English, as their language did not have that word yet. Paul took out a notepad and jotted down “Chazia, do not tell anyone we have more gifts for the chief, I am going to try to trade those gifts for one of his animals, and don’t tell anyone what this note says.” Paul didn’t know the word for cattle in his wife’s tongue, so he used the word animal. Then he told one of the warriors, “Would you please take this to my wife she will understand what it means.”
The warrior looked confused, but he did what he was asked.
When Paul was brought before the Chief, Paul was shocked by how young he was. He couldn’t be more than twenty years old.
When the Chief saw him, he looked surprised and said, “Who are you?”
Paul was a little irritated that nobody informed the Chief he was coming; this just shows bad management on the Chief’s part, but he was a young man with a lot to learn. Paul answered, “I am Paul. I married Chazia.”
The Chief’s eyes went wide, and he said, “Abilio told me you were a great warrior, and that you killed two lions all by yourself.”
Paul’s face went red. He was a little bashful about the story and said, “Well, you see, I was out in the woods looking for pyrite when I stumbled across the two lions. One started roaring, but I knew lions had a habit of trying to distract their prey with their roars, so I looked for his buddy. When he came out, he pounced at me. I threw my ax at him while he was in the air, rolled under his leaping body, and, well, my ax stunned that one. I turned with my spear and plunged it through his ribs. Then the other one attacked me. By attack, I mean he lept at me. When he did that, I stepped toward the lion and to the side,” Paul showed them what he was talking about.” Then when he shot past me, I brought my ax town on its spinal cord, killing it.”
Paul continued and brought out his bowie knife, “In fact chief, the bindings on the hilt of this knife are made with leather I made from one of those lions, and I wish to gift it to you?’
The Chief was very happy to receive the knife, but since he was the Chief, he was too proud to say thank you, instead he said, “I accept your gift.”
Paul said, “If you like that gift, I have some more iron products I would like to trade with you.”
The Chief said, “Trade?”
“Yes, sir. Trade.”
The Chief's face became indignant, and he said, “I am the chief I do not bargain.”
Paul realized he was going to have to be diplomatic and said, “Of course you do not have to bargain. But I can only produce so much iron as I am now. If you would give me one of your cattle, then I could produce much more iron.”
The Chief said, “Abilio told me you turn dirt into iron, how would cattle help you with that?”
Paul said, “Chief, I can not turn all dirt into iron, only certain types. In fact, I only know of one type of dirt that I can turn into iron, although there are many others. The dirt is called pyrite. If I had one of your cattle to carry more of the pyrite from its source, then I could make much more iron for you.”
The Chief did not have to think very long about this deal. If Paul wanted to make him rich, he would let him. The Chief said, “You may take one of the cattle, but not any of the full-grown ones. Take one of the calves.”
The way the Chief said it, it was clear that the Chief thought that he was putting Paul in his place. But Paul preferred one of the younger cattle, as they were easier to train. As long as Paul got one who was weaned, he didn’t care.
The Chief said, “Wait until after the feast before you chose one of the young cattle. Until then, why don’t you join in some of the festivities? Why don’t you compete in warriors rock?”
Paul said, “What is warrior rock?”
The Chief got up and said, “I will show you. Guards, call the men, its time to see which warrior will take the rock this year.”
The Chief took Paul just outside of the village to a large boulder, a boulder so large it could easily hold a hundred men, and said, “All the warriors get on this rock, and when I say begin, all the warriors begin fighting. When only one warrior is left on the rock, he wins! If a warrior falls off the rock, then he can get back on it. This game goes until there is only one left. No weapons are allowed, but everything else is.”
Paul thought to himself, “yep, this is a game teenagers would come up with; violent, brutal, and with only one clear winner.” Paul told the Chief, “Sounds like fun. It's been more than a year since I have been in a good sparing situation.” With that, Paul went on the giant boulder
As the warriors came and started getting on the rocks, Paul began to see just how small the village was. Around thirty young men were getting on the rock. There were twice as many young women around their age, and maybe twice their number in children. This village had no more than three hundred people in it, and most of them looked malnourished.
Over to the side, Paul saw a strange man, who had a beard with something sticking out of it and smoking. Maybe an incense stick, or something like that. Paul was guessing that this man was the witch doctor. Considering the strangeness of the man, Paul could see how people would associate him with spirits and magic.
While Paul was taking his first real good look at the people of the village, the Chief yelled out, “Begin!”
Chapter 17 November AD 71 Planting Festival
As the Chief yelled, "Begin!" it became clear that this game was used to settle old grudges. Abilio and some of his friends directly charged some of the Chief's guards. Other villagers were throwing wild haymakers, one man fell, and another began kicking him on the ground. Paul thought to himself, "If any of these boys knew how to fight somebody could get hurt."
About the time he was thinking how badly these villagers fought, one of them ran over to him and threw a huge haymaker punch. As the punch was coming at Paul, Paul was shocked at how slow the man punched. Chazia's children had faster punches than this supposed warrior. As Paul was thinking this, he almost forgot to block, but at the last moment, he did an outside block. The warrior threw another slow punch with his other hand, and Paul was again surprised at how slow the punch was and blocked it at the last second again.
At this point, Paul started thinking, "How do I get this guy off this rock without hurting him?" It would be pretty easy if the guy was wearing clothing, as clothing is great to grab and pull, but this guy was naked except a loincloth. As he threw another punch, Paul decided to trap it, and then judo throw the guy off the rock. Nobody on the rock noticed, they were too busy trying to hurt their enemies, but off the rock, the Chief, the witch doctor, the women, and children all noticed one of the young warriors flying off the rock in an arc. It wasn't that hard to trace that arc back to the great warrior.
Paul had everyone's attention.
A few seconds later, the warrior, poorly stomping on his enemy, decided to charge Paul. Like he was going to tackle him. Paul couldn't help but think of how poor of a decision this was simply because Paul was a lot bigger than the guy. Then again, considering how most of the warriors were more concerned with not getting hit, instead of hitting their opponent, a tackle would work well against an opponent who was constantly moving backward.
Paul decided to do something fancy, and mean because the youth had irritated Paul in the way he stomped on his opponent. A classic self-defense move against someone who was charging you was to grab their shirt, fall back in such a way that you do a backward shoulder role once your butt hits the ground, and once the roll is done, you are back on your feet. During your roll back you are holding on to their shirt, and you put your foot near their chest. Once your role is 75% done, you kick them and let go. Sending them flying in the direction they were charging. Simple. It's a lot of fun to try in class with pads. But this guy didn't have a shirt, so Paul was going to have to pull on his hair, and they didn't have pads, just dirt, and rock.
