Long ago, when all the world was much,
much newer than it is now, before Golbeki Tepi, the Pyramids, or even the
practice of farming or making clothing, all people lived alike, foraging and
hunting as best they could.
Some people were much as we are. Some people were somewhat hairier. For ages, it was not an issue of any kind. These tribes hunted together, ate together, and even intermarried.
Eventually, the smoother men became interested in tool making. It was the latest thing. Someone had noticed that a broken rock of a certain kind gave him an advantage in butchering, or wood cutting, or whatever a man might want to cut.
The hairier men, scarcely hairier, weren’t interested. They stuck to the old ways, concentrating on the arts of the mind, singing, chanting, and dancing. They didn’t see the use of tools when they could accomplish what they wanted by singing it into being.
One of the smoother men began to think in terms of organization. He had an idea that if he could get the men of his tribe to work under his headship that he would be greater and greater. A lot of the smoother men were agreeable. It made them feel great themselves to belong to such a fine fellow. It is a mystery of psychology, but there it is! It’s like that team jersey thing.
This man, or someone like him, approached the forest singers. He felt that he should be able to find their leader and dicker with him about signing up under his headship.
First, there was no leader among the hairier men. Each one lived under the Creator’s rule. That’s how they might have explained themselves, anyhow.
So, naturally, these forest singers had no interest in living as vassals of this would-be chief. They thought the idea was hilarious. They laughed at him. I should give this guy a name. How about Kien? Well, Kien was naturally outraged. After all, the men of his tribe had fallen right into line. How dare these other guys obstruct progress. It almost like something uncanny had been whispering into his ear at night. Where did these ideas come from?
Kien said that the hairier men were cowards and lazy who sat around all day singing and telling each other stories, and living equally with their wives, which by the way, Kien did not approve of. He thought it weak and frivolous behavior.
Discord arose. But not warfare. The tribes were too intermingled, and no one really wanted to kill each other, not yet anyhow. The tribes began to avoid each other. It was unpleasant.
Finally, the wives of the forest singers began to tell their men that a decision must be made, that this climate of opposition was unbearable. So, some of the hairier men set out to locate Kien and request that a meeting be called so that they could all agree on what was to be done to avoid all-out killing of each other.
Kien said OK, and called his guys to stand around and look tough and support him. He had it in mind to really lay down the law with these lazy, unmanly forest louts, and get them onside at last.
The forest singers and their wives left their bairns in the forest and met Kien and his forces on a little grassy hill. The hairier men and the smoother men, all unclothed for such was the times they lived in faced each other silently. A camera recording them would have shown them as not that different externally. But cameras don’t record minds, do they?
The oldest singer, grey and wise, walked to Kien and spoke.
“This is what we will do. We will live as we have since the beginning in the mountains and forests. You will not rule us or even see us. We will leave you in peace. That is our finale word.” And since he was so forceful in his speech and intention, that is what was decided. The tribes would separate.
In later years it was said that Kien and his men had driven the cowardly singers away to the backcountry. But that wasn’t true.
Centuries came and went, as they do. The smoother men became even smoother. Cities arose, civilizations, science and writing and all of it, in a haze of activity and striving and sorrows. Much of it we know about.
The forest singers and their wives and sons and daughters faded into the mountains and the forests of remote lands and prospered in their own ways. Also, since their was no more intermarriage, they became distinctly more characteristic in appearance. They got hairier and hairier and even often grew to gigantic size.
As time went on, the singers were forgotten in the worlds of the smooth men. Mostly forgotten. From time to time one might be glimpsed and then tales of terrible gigantic creatures would be circulated. They were subsumed into myth.
The world of human men almost entirely forgot their forest singing brothers, as it mostly is today.
Is it not so?
Some people were much as we are. Some people were somewhat hairier. For ages, it was not an issue of any kind. These tribes hunted together, ate together, and even intermarried.
Eventually, the smoother men became interested in tool making. It was the latest thing. Someone had noticed that a broken rock of a certain kind gave him an advantage in butchering, or wood cutting, or whatever a man might want to cut.
The hairier men, scarcely hairier, weren’t interested. They stuck to the old ways, concentrating on the arts of the mind, singing, chanting, and dancing. They didn’t see the use of tools when they could accomplish what they wanted by singing it into being.
One of the smoother men began to think in terms of organization. He had an idea that if he could get the men of his tribe to work under his headship that he would be greater and greater. A lot of the smoother men were agreeable. It made them feel great themselves to belong to such a fine fellow. It is a mystery of psychology, but there it is! It’s like that team jersey thing.
This man, or someone like him, approached the forest singers. He felt that he should be able to find their leader and dicker with him about signing up under his headship.
First, there was no leader among the hairier men. Each one lived under the Creator’s rule. That’s how they might have explained themselves, anyhow.
So, naturally, these forest singers had no interest in living as vassals of this would-be chief. They thought the idea was hilarious. They laughed at him. I should give this guy a name. How about Kien? Well, Kien was naturally outraged. After all, the men of his tribe had fallen right into line. How dare these other guys obstruct progress. It almost like something uncanny had been whispering into his ear at night. Where did these ideas come from?
Kien said that the hairier men were cowards and lazy who sat around all day singing and telling each other stories, and living equally with their wives, which by the way, Kien did not approve of. He thought it weak and frivolous behavior.
Discord arose. But not warfare. The tribes were too intermingled, and no one really wanted to kill each other, not yet anyhow. The tribes began to avoid each other. It was unpleasant.
Finally, the wives of the forest singers began to tell their men that a decision must be made, that this climate of opposition was unbearable. So, some of the hairier men set out to locate Kien and request that a meeting be called so that they could all agree on what was to be done to avoid all-out killing of each other.
Kien said OK, and called his guys to stand around and look tough and support him. He had it in mind to really lay down the law with these lazy, unmanly forest louts, and get them onside at last.
The forest singers and their wives left their bairns in the forest and met Kien and his forces on a little grassy hill. The hairier men and the smoother men, all unclothed for such was the times they lived in faced each other silently. A camera recording them would have shown them as not that different externally. But cameras don’t record minds, do they?
The oldest singer, grey and wise, walked to Kien and spoke.
“This is what we will do. We will live as we have since the beginning in the mountains and forests. You will not rule us or even see us. We will leave you in peace. That is our finale word.” And since he was so forceful in his speech and intention, that is what was decided. The tribes would separate.
In later years it was said that Kien and his men had driven the cowardly singers away to the backcountry. But that wasn’t true.
Centuries came and went, as they do. The smoother men became even smoother. Cities arose, civilizations, science and writing and all of it, in a haze of activity and striving and sorrows. Much of it we know about.
The forest singers and their wives and sons and daughters faded into the mountains and the forests of remote lands and prospered in their own ways. Also, since their was no more intermarriage, they became distinctly more characteristic in appearance. They got hairier and hairier and even often grew to gigantic size.
As time went on, the singers were forgotten in the worlds of the smooth men. Mostly forgotten. From time to time one might be glimpsed and then tales of terrible gigantic creatures would be circulated. They were subsumed into myth.
The world of human men almost entirely forgot their forest singing brothers, as it mostly is today.
Is it not so?
🌸
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