The Days of Peleg (22 page)

“Don’t worry, ‘Bassu. We’ll be back on the sea before nightfall.”

She tipped her head up to give him a kiss. “You still know how to show a girl a good time.”

Serug and three friends had wandered off into the forest toward the south, along the eastern edge of the cove, shortly after the boy had left. It was now two hours after Captain Phaxâd had ordered the resumption of their expedition, and they still had not returned.

Peleg was just finishing some calculations, since this morning had been a special one with both the sun and moon in the sky. He was just starting to become concerned, when he heard Serug’s voice leading the others as they emerged from the undergrowth.

“We’ll be eating fine tonight, men!”

Peleg looked up and saw the four men carrying a large animal which was hanging from large support sticks. Its legs were tied together, and it was obviously freshly slain.

“Serug!” called Peleg as he went towards them. “We have to be back on the ship in less than an hour!” He looked at their catch.

“A
Lulim
?” he asked, noticing that this animal seemed to resemble the red deer which lived in the eastern mountains back home.

“Nope,” said Serug as the men lowered their prize to the ground. “It’s a rare kind of boar, a special treat found in the far eastern coastlines of Kèdem. It’s called a
Šenbar
.”

He grinned at Peleg.

“You really should brush up on your culinary knowledge.”

He looked back at the boar with a slightly puzzled look. “I wonder how these things got way over here?”

Just then three men emerged from the forest to the north following the boy that had left earlier. They took a few steps onto the beach, and then stopped. Although their arrival was startling, Peleg was more astounded by the fact that they all looked alike—just like the young boy that had run away earlier—only older.

Back home, in a random collection of people, he was used to seeing assortments of all possible hair and eye colors, skin shades, and varieties of facial and muscle features. Even siblings, although they obviously shared features from their parents, often had differing eye, hair, and skin coloring. This group all shared the same dark reddish-tan skin color, black hair, strong nose, and intense eyes.

Peleg called out for Captain Phaxâd who rushed out of his tent and joined Peleg. Together they approached the four visitors.

“Peleg,” Phaxâd began. “Learn what you can in the next hour.”

“Captain,” Peleg protested. “That’s not enough time. Besides, Serug has just caught a wild boar, and they need to dress it before they can prepare it.”

Phaxâd thought for a moment.

“All right. I will instruct them to prepare their
Šenbar
—but prepare it for storage, not dinner. And you have until sundown to speak with these men. We will sleep onboard tonight and set sail first thing in the morning. Clear?”

Peleg agreed, reluctantly. “I’ll see what these men want.”

He walked over to the new arrivals with his hands outstretched. As he neared them, he realized that there were minor differences in their appearance, and in fact had strong individual characteristics. From a distance their similarities had been striking, and even now it still seemed very strange for a group of men to look so much alike.

The men of the
Urbat
continued their cleanup, and began moving supplies to the ship. Captain Phaxâd kept a watchful eye on Peleg and his new contacts.

Inmaquo surveyed the strangers who seemed intent on leaving as quickly as possible. He had silenced his young stepson who had excitedly pointed to the dark man whom he had met earlier. This same man now approached, and it appeared he had been given the task of communication.

“I don’t see the tall, pasty one,” said Tañqin. “He’s the one who could hear my whistle.”

“Silence,” whispered Inmaquo. “We must see what this one intends.”

The stranger now stood in front of them with his hands outstretched, as if he were planning on strangling them. But his face seemed kind, and his bright indigo eyes showed an alertness which the young Tañqin must have missed.

He pointed to himself and said, slowly, “Bay-lik”, which apparently was his name. He motioned for them to be seated near the sand sketches that Tañqin had begun earlier that day, and the five sat down and began a formal first contact on this beach which was new territory for all of them.

Inmaquo recited his name. He named the other two men, Panqal and Valchoa, followed by his stepson.

Upon hearing his name, Tañqin said, “Clan-guide Inmaquo. You can see where I started drawing a rough map of our journeys in the sand here.” He then pointed to the portion which the one called ‘Bay-lik’ had drawn. “See here, where he claims to come from the House of the Sun—and lands west of where
Mèsha
was first declared?”

Inmaquo looked towards the outline. The journeys of his clan, and those before him, were encoded on the leather scroll which was in the container strapped to his shoulder harness. After the days when the ground and skies opened and their world was buried by water, those who survived lived in great fear as they began to build a new city. Most believed there was great safety in their new buildings, but their Founder,
Chaq-ťan
, warned of a great curse. Should any similar disasters occur, their new city could be destroyed in an instant, and all would be lost.

Chaq-ťan of Eber
had fled the rebuilding with his children and their families, proclaiming
Mèsha
, a multi-generational undertaking of human and global survival. The fear of adventuring into the unknown was great, but the fear of remaining—and encountering the impending curse—was far greater. There was no higher priority than this obligation to the future of humanity. Thirteen families and their servants fled the city and began a mission to cover the earth. Eventually, four of these families joined together and formed the clan system which Inmaquo (and soon Tañqin) now continued. They had traveled the coastlines, following game, and splitting into new clans as their offspring became ready. Should a new calamity befall humanity, the odds of human survival were greatly increased as the clans extended further and further across the face of the earth.

Now Inmaquo found himself seated across from a man who must be a descendant of the city dwellers—one who had survived the curse they had fled. But they obviously had not survived unscathed. Their inability to speak, and clash of chaotic skin colors and other features indicated massive mutations in their past.

However, they did seem to have overcome their fears and begin adventuring into the world. There must be a privileged class who had great knowledge of ship building, for Inmaquo had never imagined a vessel such as this.

He turned to his partners.

“Please leave us, for a moment. I must speak with this Bay-lek alone.”

He was met with stunned silence. Finally, Valchoa protested.

“Clan-guide. Surely you need our help with communication.” He pulled himself up from the ground. “After all, I’m the best artist in the clan.”

“Father, I met him first,” Tañqin interrupted. “I know I can help.” No one was more stunned by his impulsive familiarity than Tañqin himself.

His stepfather glared at him, and the three slowly arose and left the area.

Inmaquo looked into Bay-lek’s eyes. He had decided to honor the spokesman for this strange crew as a fellow clan-guide.

Peleg was becoming flustered as he saw his limited communication time dwindle away. They had managed to exchange names, and then after a brief conversation amongst themselves, the leader, whose name had sounded (to Peleg) like
Inim-ku
, (which meant ‘One who curses’ in Peleg’s tongue), had looked thoughtfully at his sand drawing, and then sent the others away.

The leader of this small band of hunters was now seated across from him, looking intently into his eyes. Without breaking focus, he reached under his arm and brought out a long, cylindrical wood-bark canister. He pressed it to his lips, and then held it out to Peleg, indicating that Peleg should place his hand on it, which he did.

The leader sang a short song, then looked up to the sky. He then opened the canister by removing a lid, and took out a scroll made of deerskin.

He placed it in front of Peleg and slowly began to unroll it.

Peleg was surprised to see what appeared to be a mosaic painting, rather than words. There was a triangular-motif background, with vibrant, multi-colored designs scattered across the leather. He noticed that a large section was blank, and that this must be a work in progress.

An asymmetrical, meandering line traveled in a slight curve, bisecting the other designs. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the “line” was comprised of small circles with small spaces in between, and he noticed that small triangles were scattered randomly along this line.

Inmaquo touched his arm lightly, and pointed to the end of this line, in the bottom, right-hand portion of the scroll. He then pointed out towards the beach where the young boy had begun his sketch that morning. He pointed back to the line in the scroll, then opened his arms wide, turning at the waist, indicating the cove where the
Urbat
was anchored.

Slowly realization began to dawn on Peleg. This was a map, and the cove, and rough outlines of the coasts to the north were shown by this line.

Inmaquo pointed to himself, then pointed in the direction of the three others who had left (but were certainly nearby). He included them with a clasp of his hand, then pointed to the last small triangle near the end of the line.

Peleg realized that the triangle must indicate a small community or a collection of families. He began to trace the line further up (northward) along the scroll until he reached another triangle. Here there were two triangles, close together, apparently indicating a second family, or perhaps one that had split off to go their own way.

As he continued following the line, he became aware that he was traveling backwards in time. It was a generational history of their travels. There were more triangles as he reached the top of the animal hide, and then the line began to curve sideways (eastward). The line then dipped downward, and Peleg began to realize why the boy had left in such an excited state. The line appeared to outline (in a very general sense) the coast of the Eastern Continent—which had surely (by now) been mapped by the
Kibrat Erbettim
.

He looked up sharply, startling his companion. Inmaquo tensed, but when he saw the faraway look in Peleg’s eyes, he relaxed.

Peleg thought about Captain Phaxâd’s comment concerning wild animals. They
could
have walked! There must be a land connection at the top of the world, and the continent which they were exploring now was directly connected to the one of his homeland.

A chill went through him as he suddenly realized that the
Kibrat Erbettim
—assuming they had made it across the Northern solstice and down to the equator—would never make it home. For a moment he worried about a similar possibility for the
Urbat
’s return to the south, but he remembered the map that Kupé had given him. It indicated that there was a southern route around this land.

The leader of these migratory people touched his arm and broke him out of his reverie. Peleg looked at him, and Inmaquo quickly drew a circle in the sand with short arcs emanating from it. He pointed to the sun to indicate that he had just sketched its symbol. He then made some smaller circles around it, and then proceeded to damage portions of them until Peleg realized he was portraying phases of the moon.

Once Inmaquo was convinced that Peleg understood, he pointed to the image which represented the full moon, then pointed to one of the circles that comprised the line of their travels. The meaning was clear: Each small circle represented a month of travel!

Peleg’s jaw dropped. There must be more than one thousand circles in this path! He quickly counted in groups of sixty. Yes, there were twenty-four groups with fifty-five circles remaining. He divided the total by thirteen and was stunned to see that, if this chronicle were accurate, it placed the beginning of their journey at just under five years
before
the Great Awakening!

But this line started east of his homeland—and far to the east of the great city with the
Platform of Heaven and Earth
where all humanity had lived—at least before its destruction. This meant that a small band of adventurers had traveled towards the lands of Indus
before
the Great Awakening!

A quick, yellow motion flashed in his peripheral vision, and he saw Serug bounding towards him. With a panicked start, the tan leader of these four migratory hunters snatched the skin scroll and had it rolled up and inserted into its container before the impulsive intruder could see its secrets.

Inmaquo called out and his three companions emerged instantly from the undergrowth at the beach’s edge. They ran towards them asPeleg held out his hand to stop Serug’s advance.

“Serug,” he called out. “You’re going to ruin everything!”

Serug had stopped a short distance away. “Captain Phaxâd says its time to go.”

It was getting dark. Inmaquo had risen quickly and hidden the scroll beneath his clothing, as if its existence was not to be known, even by his own men.

The four men stood side by side as they faced Peleg and Serug, who was still standing back. Suddenly, the hunters pressed their palms together, fingertips pointing upward, bowed at the waist, then turned and fled into the trees.

“Serug!” Peleg was beside himself. “Don’t ever interrupt a contact like that again! I was just starting to understand a little about them!”

“Sorry,” Serug shrugged. “Captain Phaxâd said to come and get you. I didn’t mean to make them leave.”

Peleg looked into the woods after the vanished men. “Well, I don’t think we can do any more now.”

He walked toward Serug, gave him a rough push and walked past him towards the waiting dinghy. Then he reached back and gave him a pat on the shoulder to show there were no hard feelings, and the two friends continued the walk together.