Kolbrin - Lothan

 This item is extremely important as it is rich in technical detail.  We also appear to see the early world of Stone Henge as well.

Most important though we get a complete description of the lading of a large ship of the times.  You cannot make this up and i have seen it no where else.  Particularly when i was looking for this.

They are clearly sailing out of the Mediterranean as they carry those types of goods and oils.  Thus it is likely a run through to Britain.  They pasxs the sunken Azores and we get a

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CHAPTER EIGHT

THE ROLLS OF RECORD - 2

Lothan, Captain of Men of Valour, Victorious over the Sons of the New Moon and Guardian of the Hidden Wisdom. Maker of Roads in the Red Lands and Builder of the Secret Fort. By Abisobel, once Scribe of the God Eloah in Ladosa, Keeper of Records in the New Temple, to his Fathers in Wisdom at the Temple of Iswarah, Greetings. May you live long on Earth in prosperity, peace and health, and depart in knowledge.

We left the good land, hearts heavy-laden with grief.  The ships were five and I looked to mine and found it good. It was built of alonwood and stout-masted. All about it, casks were lashed. Along the planking the cords that moved were free, but all clear spaces were filled with things wrapped about and bound. There was much leather for the sails and leathern scoops. There were half a score of large buckets of wood hooped about and handled with plaited leather. Between the eyes of the ship the guide pole was raised, beneath which were stored all kinds of unusual things made of wood and cordage used by men of the sea. There was a machine for slinging stones and another for hurling fire. There were high shieldguards which could be strapped to the side. A store contained every kind of weapon and much armour. There were pots for cooking and braziers. There was a store behind the mast and in it were over five score jars of oil and not less of wine and vinegar.

Casks of food there were and more stored in baskets. Many large pitchers were lashed about and dried meat stored in cloth. Dried dates and figs and small fruits there were in large quantities. Water was not lacking, nor the dishes for eating. There were nets for fishing and hooks for catching birds.

The chief among the men of the sea was skilled in the notched stick called 'thumb of the night', which guided him across the widths of the sea. We brought up against Keftor, where Nebam departed, for they were troublesome. Men of Melkat came who had been wrecked, and we took a score who were men of valour. We passed many lands by the sea, where once broad sea-girt Posidma reigned, before blovm apart by underworld fires. By the lands of Hogburim we went over the wide sea to the gate of Athlesan and beyond it across the sea of Tapuim. 

[ this sounds like the Azores and the run into Gibraltar and the Mediterranean or more plausibly a run to the Irish Sea going the other way..  -  arclein ]

One ship and forty men and the households of six men were lost on the way. Three ships have I left, with one brought up on the land. Twelve men have I lost in battle and ten have gone with sickness. There are, with me, two hundred fighting men. One hundred and ten men of skill and one hundred bondsmen. Sixty households with their cattle and sheep and com and tools and wagons. All things with us are numbered and the tally grows daily.

The encampment is well made and encircled with a wall where water does not lie. Trees and soil are the material of its constraction. Great trees are about us, but no stone for building, for the soil is deep. The waters rise not over the fields where men have cut water passages, but there is much rain.

Wild men are in the land, who write on their skins.

They are hairy ones whose gods are the plants of the field. Their quarters are like baskets over the ground and they are unwashed. The women are like hellcats, uttering wild cries among the trees, but the men are quiet and come in silence.

They have temples of poles, roofed over in part and encircled by great logs, with logs laid over. Skins and painted leather are hung about, but no cloth. They place plants on altars, that their high gods may consume the essence of life w^ithin them and draw it back into themselves.

Virgins they keep in cages, why I know not, but the women in cages are virgins and well cared for. Is virginity uncaged like a hound unleashed?

The wild men are unlearned and without soft speech. They are cousins to the wild dog, yet with children they are gentle. The children of Fikol, the stoneworker, were lost among the trees and wild beasts beset them at night.

The wild men found them there and carried them away and fed them. Then came the searchband of men of valour upon the place, and the children, seeing them, ran away from the wild men. The men of valour slew the wild men, thinking they had taken the children, for they knew not their speech. Since then we have seen their ways.

One hundred and ten of the wild people we have as bondsmen and bondswomen. The men work with the soil and wood about the encampment. The wall I caused to be built out into the water and it encloses a pier against the bank, where ships can moor.

Within the wall and circle of water I have built the temple, but not all go in there with me. We are not one people. The gates of the temple are on pillars of wood and turn on a stone, and wooden are the pillars within.

Great beams support the roof, and the walls are of wood and mud brick. The floor is of sand finely raked, and before the heir the altar rests on stones. There are no images designed to confuse men, for though the temple is poor it does not enshrine ignorance. We have no evil men with us. There are men of valour and men of skill, men of the land and men of the sea, no more.

Beneath the altar is the Grave of Life, kept dry with mortar. In its place is the Great Chest of Mysteries and in the Urns of Life are the records. Well kept they are and safe from the unlearned, all the records of the Eastern Quarter. Thus all things have been done according to your divining, and it is good.

(Between that just copied and that which follows there was a full plate, but the writing upon it was ineffective.)

In the land at the edge of the Earth there is little sun and the people grow sick with water. The dampness causes a sickness among us, where the teeth become loose in the gums and skin peels. Flesh puffs up and holds the marks of fingers.

The people of the land beset us and we cannot find them among the trees. Lothan was slain, with twelve men of valour, three days journey inland among the trees. He died in the night. Two men were caught by the wild men who burnt them in cages.

Men have come in ships from the Land of the Sons of Fire, who are our brothers. Alman, the scribe, and Kora, the builder, came. Hoskiah who is a man mighty in battle, having gone from us brought them here by Kedaris.

Of the Sons of Fire there are four hundred, but few are fighting men. They are not men of valour. They are men of the sea and cultivators and men who trade. There are builders among them and men skilled in the ways of wood and stone, for they came to establish a city in this place.

This, the Kingdom of the Trees, is no place for a city. Trees shut us in and hold us captive. They conceal those who lie in wait to do us harm. A house is built and trees take over the roof, and plants creep over the walls. Com is planted and rots, while weeds smother other growing food. Greyness is everywhere, even the face of the sun is pale here.

Men shiver without heat and the air is not pure and mixed with water. Wild dogs lurk among the trees, to tear the unwary to pieces. There are few stones and they are covered with slime. The wild fruits and herbs are poisonous and men have died eating them. The wild men in this place eat their own children and anoint their bodies with the fat of the dead. There is a race of men with great hairy bodies and the heads of dogs, who carry children off to feast on them. Arutha, wife of Amora, died in the embrace of one. They have hides that no arrow can pierce.

The Book of Heaven is open to the Sons of Fire, in it they found the road across the waters. They are filled with the wisdom of wanderers. As we came by the sea in the hands of seafarers, so shall we go out. We long for the welcome omens of the shining arrows of the night. Our people are weary and there is muttering among the men of valour, for they fear the Spirit of the Trees. His breath surrounds us. His grey fingernails corrupt our possessions. He has caused our cattle to die and our crops to wither. Against him we are powerless. He was robbed of this land hewn out from among the trees, he will never forget.

The Great Secrets and Sacred Wisdom are secured for our children. We place them and ourselves in the hands of the Sons of Fire. We shall leave this place and sail towards Hireh, towards the West, where lies the Land of White Stone. There we may build with stone and brick.

Here is the tally of our departure: Of those who came with Lothan, ninety men of valour and the households of thirty- five. There are seventy men of valour who came later, and those of the Sons of Fire. Eighty-two men of  skill and eight households newly formed. There are the men of valour who came with Hoskiah and the households among them. There are nine households which came later.

There are two hundred and forty bondsmen. Of these one hundred and ten carry slings and clubs. Some have fighting axes of stone and stave shod with metal, but there is no sharpened weapon among them.

One hundred and four among all the households are children and unmarried women, for many have died of the sickness belonging to this place. There are slaves, but most have died or perished among the trees.

The cattle are gone and there are a few sheep and goats. There are, for each man of valour, two measures of com at morning and for others one measure. Of com there are sixty great baskets. Of herbs dried by fire, forty-five ankrim. There is fish fi'ied by fire and some meat.

There are a hundred and ten baskets of cuped nuts, which are bitter and go sour. The Men of the Trees eat them and for such people it is proper food. There are narah nuts which grow in this place, sweet but not stomach filling, and nuts which are good for cakes in quantities.

There is much weapon metal melted down and gold and silver in pieces. There are all kinds of tools for the men of skill and much pottery in the households. But much has gone to the Men of the Trees, and of cloth there is little, and men are clothed in skins and the woven fibre of plants.

The Harbour of Sorrow we leave behind and with four ships sail towards the sunsetting. One ship goes to the Land of the Sons of Fire. Spirit of Lothan, remain among us as we go far away among men who are strangers to us!