I think mechanized harvesting of potatoes sacrifices the perennial nature of the crop. On top of that, they required the manual picking up of the potatoes, until modern automated harvesters.
Lands of Red and Gold, Act II
- Thread starter Jared
- Start date
I think mechanized harvesting of potatoes sacrifices the perennial nature of the crop. On top of that, they required the manual picking up of the potatoes, until modern automated harvesters.
Potato plant's perennial, yeah, but I'm not sure if people growing it as a crop used it as a perennial even before mechanized harvesting.
I've thought about this too, and mentioned the problem once or twice before. I don't have definitive answers yet, but I do have some thoughts.
Firstly, early mechanisation of Aururian agriculture isn't happening. It's much harder to mechanise yams or even wattles. Nothing like wheat or small grains, which are probably the earliest crops to mechanise. General technology will need to improve considerably before even semi-mechanisation of yams or wattles is possible. Ditto murnong.
However, there are possible processes which allow mechanisation or semi-mechanisation of yams, murnong and wattles. They would be later to develop than many other forms of mechanisation, and require either multiple machines and/or still a human labour component, but it is possible.
For yams and murnong, the key is that to make them perennial, you need to replant part of the plant. That's the key. For red yams, that means cutting the top part of the tuber off (after harvest) and replanting it. The tuber doesn't need to go into the same place it was before, as happens in traditional hand harvesting. It just needs to go into the ground again.
The advantage of replanting part of the tuber is that the red yam then regrows much quicker earlier in the season than the equivalent of planting fresh seed. So it's definitely worth doing in terms of yield. However, doing this would require either manual replanting (probably the early solution) or a new specialist machine which drills the severed tuber head back into the ground and then smooths the soil over it. So a two or three-step process (depending on how easy it is to managing cutting the end off the tuber).
Murnong are similar, except that all which is required is to replant one of the tubers - murnong produce four or eight tubers, depending on variety. They also grow more shallowly than red yams, so if anything it would be easier to manage the initial harvest.
DIfficult? Yes. Comparatively more expensive than small grains? Yes. But definitely conceptually possible to mechanise the harvesting. (And in calories per hectare, red yams and even murnong yield higher than small grains.)
Wattles are a different story. There are various efforts to mechanise the harvesting of wattles today in OTL, though understandably not much money has gone into it since they're only an experimental crop in Australia. (Grown more in parts of West Africa, but there it's just cheaper to harvest by hand than experiment with designs for new mechanical harvesters.) But two possible means have been identified. Either a machine which vigorously shakes the main trunk, making the pods fall (onto pre-set collection plates), or one which brushes the outer edge of the branches and knocks off the pods.
Either of these kinds of wattle-harvesters look potentially feasible, though no economically viable methods have been developed in OTL that I'm aware of. But there's no conceptual barrier to it happening (eventually) in a timeline where mechanisation of wattle-harvesting would be a major economic boost.
Some forms of potatoes are grown as perennials (or were pre-mechanisation, anyway), but it was more commonly grown as an annual.
And thus we arrive at a difference of terminology.
In our timeline, a combine harvester is a machine that reaps, threshes, and winnows grain.
In this timeline, it could also refer to a combination of harvester and replanter for some tuber, whether it's Red Yam or Murnong or, say, Potatoes, if they decided to make a machine for the perennial cropping of spuds.
In our timeline, a combine harvester is a machine that reaps, threshes, and winnows grain.
In this timeline, it could also refer to a combination of harvester and replanter for some tuber, whether it's Red Yam or Murnong or, say, Potatoes, if they decided to make a machine for the perennial cropping of spuds.
There could even be two kinds of combine harvesters, one for grain, one for root vegetables.
For scholarly works, the nations of the Five Rivers (Tjibarr, Yigutji, Gutjanal) collectively. Scholars, especially physicians travel pretty freely between those three nations and share knowledge, so it's more of a common corpus than several separate national ones.
For literary works, they would be rivalled, perhaps even exceeded, by the Yadji. The Yadji also have a substantial literary corpus dating back to the the quasi-feudal era of the Empire of the Lake, and continuing through to the present. That corpus was still developing after European contact; the last of the Ten Classics was written after 1619.
Edit: P.S. The next instalment has been delayed much longer than expected, due to various work commitments. I don't think I can make it as long as originally planned, but there should be a short update ready in a couple of days.
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Both being of crucial importance to the modern labor economics of farming, enabling perhaps even fewer people to work in agriculture than must in our world.
Perhaps the mechanisation challenge could lead to the greater adoption of weeping/alpine rice in Aururian agriculture? I know that so far you've kept it confined to the Hunter Valley because you only found out about it relatively recently. But perhaps the gap in time between the development of economical mechanised harvesting for annual small grains (which could be easily adapted to alpine rice) and the development of same for perennial tubers and wattles could provide a window where it would be advantageous for other Aururian peoples to start cultivating it on a large scale. Just a thought.
The rate of mechanisation for agriculture ITTL is going to be odd from an OTL perspective. From a nineteenth-century equivalent, things will be less mechanised. This is because many places that grew small grains in OTL (e.g. northern USA, Argentina) will have a mixture of wheat and wattles, so the wattles won't be mechanised until much later. On the other hand, whenever the red yam gets mechanised, large chunks of the world's agriculture will suddenly need much fewer people.
There will be such a window, yes. How long it will last I'm not sure, but weeping grass has already been expanding in eastern Aururia even before European contact. It may well spread much further during the pre-mechanisation era. The advantages of a decent perennial cereal could be significant in some good chunks of the world.
Lands of Red and Gold #101: Let the Hunt Begin
Lands of Red and Gold #101: Let the Hunt Begin
“In the ride, there is truth.”
- Attributed to the Hunter
* * *
The Neeburra. So it is called by both its inhabitants and its neighbours, although another history will call it the Darling Downs. A land of rolling hills and abundant rainfall (by Aururian standards). A land long at the fringes of Aururian agriculture, marginal for their traditional crops, and thinly-populated when compared to its neighbours to south and east.
Two related peoples dwell in the Neeburra: the Butjupa and Yalatji. Politically divided into many small chiefdoms, for centuries their main hobby had been fighting amongst themselves. They had gradually converted to the Tjarrling faith, an offshoot of orthodox Plirism; a process which was much of the reason they had perfected the art of civil war. (And sometimes uncivil war).
The Neeburra lay off the main trade routes for most of its history, and so was viewed by its neighbours as a backwater. That isolation became partially eroded when some Butjupa and Yalatji migrated north to discover new gemfields; discoveries which allowed them to trade for many new things, particularly horses, cattle, guns, and other weapons.
Despite the changes in trade, their neighbours continued to view the Neeburra as a backwater. Over their long history, bold religious visionaries had occasionally emerged who led raids against their neighbours, particularly the Kiyungu of the Coral Coast. On the whole, though, other Aururians had the untroubled belief that the Butjupa and Yalatji were too busy fighting amongst themselves to significantly trouble the rest of the continent.
That belief, alas, would be proved wrong.
* * *
The following excerpt is taken from Bareena Uranj, a Tjarrling religious tract which is usually known in English as the Orange Bible, although that is not a translation. Bareena Uranj was composed circa 1750-55 by Weelungmay son of Munginday son of Ilangi, a man of Bungudjimay heritage, who compiled a variety of oral sources into an account of the Hunter’s life and times. Weelungmay was familiar with the Christian Bible, having read the translations created during the short-lived Prophet’s rule of Daluming. As with most Bungudjimay, he preferred the Old Testament to the New, and many parts of Bareena Uranj show an unmistakable similarity in language with parts of the Bible.
Chapter 3: [1]
1. This was the time of upheaval, of death and plague, when much of what was old became lost, and much came that was new.
2. In this time men of insight needed to sift through the endless novelty as a panner sifts through the riverbed for gold, finding the flecks of great truth amongst the mass of the profane.
3. For the Warego [visionaries/heroes] were on the world in those days, and afterward, and they were the heroes without rival, men of renown, forged in adversity, who found insight through suffering, who knew sorrow but gained wisdom [2].
4. The Men of the North [Yalatji] and Men of the South [Butjupa] had been the first to follow the wisdom of the Heir. Much had been given to them in insight in the time since, and it was inevitable that greater wisdom would be found above the sacred soil of the Neeburra [Darling Downs].
5. It came to pass that in the five hundredth and thirtieth year after the Heir succeeded the Good Man [3], two men were born in the lands of the North.
6. Burren and Tjuwagga [4] were brothers of spirit; they were one in wisdom, and each loved the other as himself [5].
7. Burren was a Priest [6], the son of Jakandanda the son of Mutjigonga, born in Cankoona [Toowoomba] in the summertime when the riders moved their cattle to the higher lands in the summer heat.
8. Tjuwagga was born at a time out of season, when the rarest of frozen snow touched the high country above Cankoona. Rare was his birth, and whether through fortunes of time or strength of mind, he gained insight.
9. Tjuwagga was not born a Priest [7], but from his youngest years all who knew him noted his perception beyond his years, his courage, and his determination. Tjuwagga was fostered with Burren from a young age, and all who encountered them assumed that they were both Priests, for they both showed knowledge more than would be expected from children.
10. Burren lived in devotion, and followed the diet of a Priest from the moment he could speak to make his purity known. Never did he touch meat or complete egg, save at the most pressing need [8].
11. Tjuwagga chose to follow the same limits, to honour the brother of his soul.
12. Burren and Tjuwagga were schooled in all the manly fields for Apostles: letters, prayer [9], riding, courtesy, swords, guns, and cooking.
13. From the youngest of ages Burren displayed a gift of calmness, of bringing to balance the most disturbed of animals. Most keenly did he display his gifts with horses, of which he was always fond.
14. It was said before his fourteenth birthday that Burren could calm any horse, no matter how wild or unfamiliar with men, and break it to his will. So it was that men called him the Horse Brother.
15. Tjuwagga learned the craft of riding, as all men should, but in his youngest days he pursued more knowledge of swords, guns and letters than he did of horsemanship. Out of love for his soul-brother, he became a rider.
16. In the five hundred and forty-third year after the Heir succeeded the Good Man [i.e. AD 1694], Tjuwagga took a ride on a black horse, whose name is unknown, but which had a wild heart. The black horse panicked and fled, with Tjuwagga atop and in no control, and with death awaiting if he fell.
17. Burren alone claimed another horse, and chased after the black horse and its rider. While riding alongside, he spoke words of purity and balance to the black horse, calming it sufficiently for Tjuwagga to regain control. Thus did Burren save the life of his soul-brother.
Chapter 4.
1. The days of the Warego were a time for heroes, the days when no man could hope for the sanctity of peace or the surety of tenure [i.e. of land].
2. In the elder times before the plagues, society had much order. No harmony is perfect, then or ever, but men followed their Apostles and the proper rules of society and land. War was known, as it will ever be known, but a man could reasonably hope to live out the measure of his days without seeing war too often.
3. Since the days when the red breath [tuberculosis] first reached the Neeburra, order vanished. Harmony became a ghost of times forgotten, something looked for but never seen.
4. Thus marked the days of the Warego, when war, abandonment of land, plague or famine could strike down a man at any time. No longer could men rely on living their lives with surety, for that had vanished, feared never to be re-seen.
5. Tjuwagga learned of this history with his letters, and he said, “In a time when men cannot rely on order or security without, they can only conduct themselves with honour, courtesy and dignity within.”
6. In this time the Warego arose, heroes who through privation and struggle gained reverence, who knew not peace but were masters of war.
7. Burren and Tjuwagga were born in this time, knowing from their earliest moments the struggle of raid and warfare, both by their own people and on their own people.
8. In their fifteenth years Burren and Tjuwagga were first permitted to ride forth on raids, with Jakandanda their father leading a raid into the lands of the South where they claimed cattle and wealth, and Tjuwagga killed his first man.
9. Tjuwagga said, “There is no order or security except that which we ourselves create.”
10. For three years Burren and Tjuwagga conducted raids, first under their father’s guidance then, from their seventeenth year, under their own command. To north, west, south and east they raided, most times within the North and the South but once over the Korroboree [Bunya Mountains] to the Coral Coast, and twice to the south into the Mountains of Tin [Northern Highlands, NSW].
11. In their boldness and far-ranging raids, Burren and Tjuwagga were without rivals [i.e. heroes], and all the Men of the North and the South knew their names.
12. In the Year of the Heir 548 [AD 1699], Burren and Tjuwagga led a bold raid south, into the lands of the River-Men [10]. They came to a village on the River Gurrnyal [Lachlan], marked from afar by a tower with spinning blades [windmill].
13. Tjuwagga led most of the horsemen to circle around the village and strike from the farther side, while Burren waited with the remnant to capture any River-Men who sought to flee with their goods.
14. Tjuwagga led his riders with courage and boldness, setting fire to the blades as they spun, driving the River-Men to flee quickly, leaving their houses and goods free for the plundering.
15. Only when Tjuwagga had set his riders to loot did he look past the village and see the smoke of battle [i.e. smoke from gunpowder]. He rode his black horse with all haste through the village, but the deed had been done.
16. Tjuwagga found his soul-brother bleeding on the ground beside his fallen horse. He wrapped him in the grey banner which they used to signal to their soldiers, but the blood could not be staunched. Burren died there beside Gurrnyal; a Warego [hero] fallen.
17. Tjuwagga wept long and honourably for his fallen soul-brother, between the water and the burning tower. Some say that he spilled so many tears there that he used up his life’s allotment, and never again would he weep for the span of his days.
18. When his last tears were spilled, Tjuwagga unwrapped the banner from around fallen Burren, and saw the bloodstains which marked an irregular pattern. He said, “In memory of Burren, I mark this as my banner from this day forward. My brother’s blood is spilled, but not lost. Under the banner of blood, will fresh blood be spilled. Under this banner, I will conquer.”
* * *
[1] Chapters 1 and 2 of Bareena Uranj give a brief account of the Good Man and how he passed his wisdom to Tjarrling (“the Heir). They also contain a condemnation of orthodox Plirite schools and exaltation of the Tjarrling sect (or religion, depending on the perspective of the commentator).
[2] A passage where Weelungmay’s language was clearly influenced by Genesis 6:4.
[3] That is, they were born in 1681. The Good Man died in 1151, although the exact year of his birth is disputed (probably 1080).
[4] The name Tjuwagga is a Yalatji word which means approximately “seeker” or “hunter”, with connotations of being a person in constant pursuit of their chosen aim. This name was in fact a title which Tjuwagga chose for himself, rather than being the name he was given when born. In keeping with Plirite and Tjarrling practice, this title became in effect his true name, and they would usually translate the word into its closest equivalent in other languages, rather than transliterating it. Tjuwagga was most widely translated into European languages as de Jager (in Dutch) or the Hunter (in English).
[5] Another passage where Weelungmay’s language was clearly influenced by his exposure to Biblical tales, in this case the story of David and Jonathan (1 Samuel 18:1).
[6] That is, Burren was a member of the semi-hereditary class of warrior-priests that the Tjarrlinghi view as spiritual successors to the Heir and the Good Man. English translations of Bareena Uranj often render the original Tjarrlinghi term (Wirrulee) inconsistently as Priest, Warrior or Apostle, depending on context.
[7] The text is notably silent on the name of Tjuwagga’s father. This is because he later took a new true name which meant that he was remembered for himself, not his ancestry; even if they knew the name of his father, Tjarrlinghi would not pass it on.
[8] Many (though not all) Tjarrlinghi priests believe that consuming meat induces disharmony, since it brings a life to an end sooner than its natural time. They likewise avoid “complete eggs”, that is, eggs where a male duck may have been in contact with the female and there is therefore a possibility that the eggs could have been fertilised. For those who follow these dietary restrictions, they should only be avoided at a time of most pressing need, i.e. when it is a matter of life or death.
[9] Meaning the knowledge of the forms and times for ritualised prayer which Tjarrlinghi and Plirite priests are expected to perform on behalf of the population.
[10] That is, the Five Rivers. The kingdom of Yigutji was the most frequent target for Butjupa and Yalatji raiders during this era (as here), although Tjibarr was also targetted.
* * *
Thoughts?
“In the ride, there is truth.”
- Attributed to the Hunter
* * *
The Neeburra. So it is called by both its inhabitants and its neighbours, although another history will call it the Darling Downs. A land of rolling hills and abundant rainfall (by Aururian standards). A land long at the fringes of Aururian agriculture, marginal for their traditional crops, and thinly-populated when compared to its neighbours to south and east.
Two related peoples dwell in the Neeburra: the Butjupa and Yalatji. Politically divided into many small chiefdoms, for centuries their main hobby had been fighting amongst themselves. They had gradually converted to the Tjarrling faith, an offshoot of orthodox Plirism; a process which was much of the reason they had perfected the art of civil war. (And sometimes uncivil war).
The Neeburra lay off the main trade routes for most of its history, and so was viewed by its neighbours as a backwater. That isolation became partially eroded when some Butjupa and Yalatji migrated north to discover new gemfields; discoveries which allowed them to trade for many new things, particularly horses, cattle, guns, and other weapons.
Despite the changes in trade, their neighbours continued to view the Neeburra as a backwater. Over their long history, bold religious visionaries had occasionally emerged who led raids against their neighbours, particularly the Kiyungu of the Coral Coast. On the whole, though, other Aururians had the untroubled belief that the Butjupa and Yalatji were too busy fighting amongst themselves to significantly trouble the rest of the continent.
That belief, alas, would be proved wrong.
* * *
The following excerpt is taken from Bareena Uranj, a Tjarrling religious tract which is usually known in English as the Orange Bible, although that is not a translation. Bareena Uranj was composed circa 1750-55 by Weelungmay son of Munginday son of Ilangi, a man of Bungudjimay heritage, who compiled a variety of oral sources into an account of the Hunter’s life and times. Weelungmay was familiar with the Christian Bible, having read the translations created during the short-lived Prophet’s rule of Daluming. As with most Bungudjimay, he preferred the Old Testament to the New, and many parts of Bareena Uranj show an unmistakable similarity in language with parts of the Bible.
Chapter 3: [1]
1. This was the time of upheaval, of death and plague, when much of what was old became lost, and much came that was new.
2. In this time men of insight needed to sift through the endless novelty as a panner sifts through the riverbed for gold, finding the flecks of great truth amongst the mass of the profane.
3. For the Warego [visionaries/heroes] were on the world in those days, and afterward, and they were the heroes without rival, men of renown, forged in adversity, who found insight through suffering, who knew sorrow but gained wisdom [2].
4. The Men of the North [Yalatji] and Men of the South [Butjupa] had been the first to follow the wisdom of the Heir. Much had been given to them in insight in the time since, and it was inevitable that greater wisdom would be found above the sacred soil of the Neeburra [Darling Downs].
5. It came to pass that in the five hundredth and thirtieth year after the Heir succeeded the Good Man [3], two men were born in the lands of the North.
6. Burren and Tjuwagga [4] were brothers of spirit; they were one in wisdom, and each loved the other as himself [5].
7. Burren was a Priest [6], the son of Jakandanda the son of Mutjigonga, born in Cankoona [Toowoomba] in the summertime when the riders moved their cattle to the higher lands in the summer heat.
8. Tjuwagga was born at a time out of season, when the rarest of frozen snow touched the high country above Cankoona. Rare was his birth, and whether through fortunes of time or strength of mind, he gained insight.
9. Tjuwagga was not born a Priest [7], but from his youngest years all who knew him noted his perception beyond his years, his courage, and his determination. Tjuwagga was fostered with Burren from a young age, and all who encountered them assumed that they were both Priests, for they both showed knowledge more than would be expected from children.
10. Burren lived in devotion, and followed the diet of a Priest from the moment he could speak to make his purity known. Never did he touch meat or complete egg, save at the most pressing need [8].
11. Tjuwagga chose to follow the same limits, to honour the brother of his soul.
12. Burren and Tjuwagga were schooled in all the manly fields for Apostles: letters, prayer [9], riding, courtesy, swords, guns, and cooking.
13. From the youngest of ages Burren displayed a gift of calmness, of bringing to balance the most disturbed of animals. Most keenly did he display his gifts with horses, of which he was always fond.
14. It was said before his fourteenth birthday that Burren could calm any horse, no matter how wild or unfamiliar with men, and break it to his will. So it was that men called him the Horse Brother.
15. Tjuwagga learned the craft of riding, as all men should, but in his youngest days he pursued more knowledge of swords, guns and letters than he did of horsemanship. Out of love for his soul-brother, he became a rider.
16. In the five hundred and forty-third year after the Heir succeeded the Good Man [i.e. AD 1694], Tjuwagga took a ride on a black horse, whose name is unknown, but which had a wild heart. The black horse panicked and fled, with Tjuwagga atop and in no control, and with death awaiting if he fell.
17. Burren alone claimed another horse, and chased after the black horse and its rider. While riding alongside, he spoke words of purity and balance to the black horse, calming it sufficiently for Tjuwagga to regain control. Thus did Burren save the life of his soul-brother.
Chapter 4.
1. The days of the Warego were a time for heroes, the days when no man could hope for the sanctity of peace or the surety of tenure [i.e. of land].
2. In the elder times before the plagues, society had much order. No harmony is perfect, then or ever, but men followed their Apostles and the proper rules of society and land. War was known, as it will ever be known, but a man could reasonably hope to live out the measure of his days without seeing war too often.
3. Since the days when the red breath [tuberculosis] first reached the Neeburra, order vanished. Harmony became a ghost of times forgotten, something looked for but never seen.
4. Thus marked the days of the Warego, when war, abandonment of land, plague or famine could strike down a man at any time. No longer could men rely on living their lives with surety, for that had vanished, feared never to be re-seen.
5. Tjuwagga learned of this history with his letters, and he said, “In a time when men cannot rely on order or security without, they can only conduct themselves with honour, courtesy and dignity within.”
6. In this time the Warego arose, heroes who through privation and struggle gained reverence, who knew not peace but were masters of war.
7. Burren and Tjuwagga were born in this time, knowing from their earliest moments the struggle of raid and warfare, both by their own people and on their own people.
8. In their fifteenth years Burren and Tjuwagga were first permitted to ride forth on raids, with Jakandanda their father leading a raid into the lands of the South where they claimed cattle and wealth, and Tjuwagga killed his first man.
9. Tjuwagga said, “There is no order or security except that which we ourselves create.”
10. For three years Burren and Tjuwagga conducted raids, first under their father’s guidance then, from their seventeenth year, under their own command. To north, west, south and east they raided, most times within the North and the South but once over the Korroboree [Bunya Mountains] to the Coral Coast, and twice to the south into the Mountains of Tin [Northern Highlands, NSW].
11. In their boldness and far-ranging raids, Burren and Tjuwagga were without rivals [i.e. heroes], and all the Men of the North and the South knew their names.
12. In the Year of the Heir 548 [AD 1699], Burren and Tjuwagga led a bold raid south, into the lands of the River-Men [10]. They came to a village on the River Gurrnyal [Lachlan], marked from afar by a tower with spinning blades [windmill].
13. Tjuwagga led most of the horsemen to circle around the village and strike from the farther side, while Burren waited with the remnant to capture any River-Men who sought to flee with their goods.
14. Tjuwagga led his riders with courage and boldness, setting fire to the blades as they spun, driving the River-Men to flee quickly, leaving their houses and goods free for the plundering.
15. Only when Tjuwagga had set his riders to loot did he look past the village and see the smoke of battle [i.e. smoke from gunpowder]. He rode his black horse with all haste through the village, but the deed had been done.
16. Tjuwagga found his soul-brother bleeding on the ground beside his fallen horse. He wrapped him in the grey banner which they used to signal to their soldiers, but the blood could not be staunched. Burren died there beside Gurrnyal; a Warego [hero] fallen.
17. Tjuwagga wept long and honourably for his fallen soul-brother, between the water and the burning tower. Some say that he spilled so many tears there that he used up his life’s allotment, and never again would he weep for the span of his days.
18. When his last tears were spilled, Tjuwagga unwrapped the banner from around fallen Burren, and saw the bloodstains which marked an irregular pattern. He said, “In memory of Burren, I mark this as my banner from this day forward. My brother’s blood is spilled, but not lost. Under the banner of blood, will fresh blood be spilled. Under this banner, I will conquer.”
* * *
[1] Chapters 1 and 2 of Bareena Uranj give a brief account of the Good Man and how he passed his wisdom to Tjarrling (“the Heir). They also contain a condemnation of orthodox Plirite schools and exaltation of the Tjarrling sect (or religion, depending on the perspective of the commentator).
[2] A passage where Weelungmay’s language was clearly influenced by Genesis 6:4.
[3] That is, they were born in 1681. The Good Man died in 1151, although the exact year of his birth is disputed (probably 1080).
[4] The name Tjuwagga is a Yalatji word which means approximately “seeker” or “hunter”, with connotations of being a person in constant pursuit of their chosen aim. This name was in fact a title which Tjuwagga chose for himself, rather than being the name he was given when born. In keeping with Plirite and Tjarrling practice, this title became in effect his true name, and they would usually translate the word into its closest equivalent in other languages, rather than transliterating it. Tjuwagga was most widely translated into European languages as de Jager (in Dutch) or the Hunter (in English).
[5] Another passage where Weelungmay’s language was clearly influenced by his exposure to Biblical tales, in this case the story of David and Jonathan (1 Samuel 18:1).
[6] That is, Burren was a member of the semi-hereditary class of warrior-priests that the Tjarrlinghi view as spiritual successors to the Heir and the Good Man. English translations of Bareena Uranj often render the original Tjarrlinghi term (Wirrulee) inconsistently as Priest, Warrior or Apostle, depending on context.
[7] The text is notably silent on the name of Tjuwagga’s father. This is because he later took a new true name which meant that he was remembered for himself, not his ancestry; even if they knew the name of his father, Tjarrlinghi would not pass it on.
[8] Many (though not all) Tjarrlinghi priests believe that consuming meat induces disharmony, since it brings a life to an end sooner than its natural time. They likewise avoid “complete eggs”, that is, eggs where a male duck may have been in contact with the female and there is therefore a possibility that the eggs could have been fertilised. For those who follow these dietary restrictions, they should only be avoided at a time of most pressing need, i.e. when it is a matter of life or death.
[9] Meaning the knowledge of the forms and times for ritualised prayer which Tjarrlinghi and Plirite priests are expected to perform on behalf of the population.
[10] That is, the Five Rivers. The kingdom of Yigutji was the most frequent target for Butjupa and Yalatji raiders during this era (as here), although Tjibarr was also targetted.
* * *
Thoughts?
Not detailed ones, although post #18 gives a bit of information about the tokens used as currency (not coinage, strictly) in Tjibarr. In the Cider Isle, kunduri is effectively a currency.
I'll try not to make it too long to read, though.
Keep it up, Jared!
Merci. More coming, of course, though how quickly depends on balancing other life commitments.
With overtones of Shaka Zulu-esque nation-building to follow, perhaps.
Certainly a pivotal moment for Aururia; this will be the biggest religious revolution over significant chunks of the continent.
The fusion of Plirite and Abrahamic beliefs is mostly a post-Hunter development, incidentally; it's not a major thing for most of his personal activities. It is a significant part of his legacy, though.
Horses are at least known in most of the major agricultural Aururian societies. The east coast has the fewest; farther to sail to bring the horses, and not as systematic in trade. The Butjupa and Yalatji have taken up horse-riding in the largest way due to their social changes (to semi-nomadic lifestyle), but the Five Rivers uses a lot of horses too, as do the Yadji.
Horses are used in smaller numbers amongst the Atjuntja and Mutjing; not unknown, but more Aururians use donkeys there.
Have the Aururians been introduced to wheeled transport yet?
Do they have paved roads?
Do they have paved roads?
They most probably have paved roads within cities, I bet. A necessity for pedestrian cities, but not something always found.
I seem to recall they have dog pulled carts or the like and Tjibarr, I think that is the place, is known for its roads (it is the Roman equivalent of the place).