"They use, but do not make. They fight
incessantly amongst themselves, though they are nearly
identical, being distinguishable only by hems of robes, or
curves of caps, and whether their horses are black or brown.
They observe no distinction of rank or familiarity, in who
they fight, or who they fuck. They are just as comfortable
sleeping with their cousins as killing them."
“They [Swira] do not conquer, control, or plan. They fight,
but not for any particular reason. And that is why they will
never win.”
The earliest speakers of Swíra
were nomadic herders dominating the plains north of Tepatic
civilization. Moving hither and thither without settling and
working the earth permanently, without letters or shrines, living
clannishly, with a warlike honor-obsessed ethos, and mystical
religious and magical practices, they were everything the Tepat
considered barbaric. They alternately traded with, and harrassed,
Tepat's northern frontier, and Tepat set about trying to
acculturate, and sometimes simply break, them. Unfortunately for
Tepat, the Swíra were ultimately destined to overrun Tepat and
establish their feudalistic empire over it.
Klamen was the main chronicler of Pre-Classical
Swiric culture. He observed, among other things, a Swíra wedding
feast with drunkenness; a psychedelic religious ceremony; a
funeral in which the mourners walked in a circle around the
corpse, wailing, screaming, cutting their flesh, and smearing dirt
on themselves; and a tribal meeting in which the warriors would
run through fires and under sparks to demonstrate their lack of
fear.
The Land - The land around Tepat, from its end to the
safety of the cities of the merchants of the East Coast, across
the mountains, were wild to the Tepat - sparse, harsh, fallow
until they could conquer them, and sparse. But they were not in
fact empty; it was full of foreign tribes.
The land beyond Tepat stretches for an interminable stretch, much
farther than Tepat itself, through a bewildering variety of
environments. Starting in the south, it is at first imperceptibly
indistinguishable from the same broadleaf forests of much of
Tepat, intermingled with few conifers. Furthermore, the main
rivers of Tepat continue straight through it, dragging along a
thin chain of such trees. Between these neat bosques, the land
dries out and turns into grassland.
Barbarians by any other name - All of these people were
once known to Tepat as nyam, "barbarians." The Swira and
their kin were often known as the prototypical barbarians, and as
such known simply as Nyam - people knew what they were
talking about. This is no longer politically correct, and so they
are referred to as Sul "Swira," or yat ti-syol wal
"differently-civilized people" - but nevertheless, that's how many
people think of them.
OLD SWÍRA GRAMMAR (PDF)
The Old Swíra language was a robustly polysynthetic language, with few unbound forms, excepting a few discourse particles and unpossessed nouns. Most parts of the sentence accrued to the massively long verb; everything got drawn into it like a black hole. The Classical language was an amalgam of Old Swíra and related dialects with an infusion of learned Tepat vocabulary. The modern language has simplified its verb morphology, become more analytical, and become more consistently SVO, as they attempt to become "rational" like their Tepatic predecessors.
The “Endless Winter,” which, despite its name, ended a
very long time ago, was an extremely long period of cool
temperatures, and probably an expression of a global climatic
fluctuation with a period of millennia. (There were other
smaller-scale fluctuations, such as an El-Niño-La-Niña-like event
that happened every ten years or so for a duration of one to two
years, and involved slight reverses in weather patterns. It could
be more or less severe, with almost nothing happening in some
years, and other times, extreme changes could occur that lasted
more than three years, and potentially making economies swell, or
collapse - more to be said on this later.)
The peoples of Northern Tiptum belong primarily to two major language families, the Taknic and Nastowic language families. Swira is a member of the Nastowic language family. Both groups have long been in contact with each other. The Taknic family originated around the great northern lake, while Proto-Taknic originated somewhat south, on the edge of the woodland, the steppe, and the eastern mountains. While Taknic speakers radiated out along the waterways extending from the lake, Nastowic spread across the steppe, and is most closely associated with the twists and turns of the story of the horse.
The first people of the Nastowic branch were hunters. In the earliest period, people of Proto-Nastowic descent occupied the northern plains, where they hunted, either on the grassland or in the woodland nearby.
Following the Endless Winter, and its changes in weather and landscape, there opened up a warmer, drier, vaster, grassy steppe. The plain was full of gazelle, antelope, bison, aurochs, wild horses, and all manner of running, grazing beasts.
People of many tribes speaking many different languages poured into the steppe from all sides. Among these, the speakers of the Western Nastowic languages - Towic, Para-Towic, and Proto-Swiric, which at this point were undifferentiated - expanded to fill the whole plain. So did the ancestors of Wepum, who had split earlier. At this point, many words for plain life are inherited from Proto-Nastowic, but many are unique to Western Nastowic. Along the riverbanks, some peoples had already taken up simple farming, but when the horse came, these also fled the rivers to the hinterlands to partake of the hunt.
The domestication of the horse is associated with the so-called
Thûq Nyam (Yuk Tepat, ‘First Barbarians,’ which are associated
with the Para-Towic branch of the Nastowic languages, although
ancestors of the Towic speakers and some Taknic speakers also
picked up on this quickly. This leap forward in lifestyle made
them undisputed masters of the grasslands. Hence many Swiric words
relating to horses originate in the Para-Towic branch of the
family, and some in the Towic branch, and even words of Para-Towic
origin are often filtered through Towic.
Horses took over the role of dogs and humans in pulling sleds and travois, and more. The next great Towic radiation was associated with the development of the wheel, of wheeled carts - and the chariot. Soon the large grazing animals were becoming few in number, and even growing extinct, but elsewhere, new sources of livelihood came from trading horses to sedentary southerners, and sheep and goats, which had been domesticated into the mountains to the southeast, and were already eagerly adopted by plainsmen. In exchange for horses, some sourthern plainsmen also brought up water buffalo that had been domesticated in Milim.
Like the Romans thinking of the Huns, Tepat considered the
barbarian style of warfare ‘devious.’ Various sources, at various
stages of evolution: Words related to religion, magic, social
organization. Some concepts, such as Valhalla and Valkyries, come
from Milim. Words for mushrooms and visions. Taboo influenced
hunting words.
Above: Swīra folk art depicting the Thunderlord riding his steed atop a cloud over plains of galloping horses, horse dung, and mushrooms. In this image, the sun, moon, and a star appear over his head. His shield-drum is inscribed with the Tepatic glyph pom ‘thunder’ and his axe with the glyph pyal 'axe.'
The Swíra traditionally wore a kind of long robe. The ends of the robe fastened over the opposite shoulder, and the whole thing was held together by a belt made of leather straps. The space formed by the robe's flap and the belt served as a kind of pocket. The robe was traditionally made of hide; winter robes would be lined with wool. In later times, they increasingly wore clothes of tree cotton, produced by Tepat and gained through trade. This was usually restricted to high-ranking chiefs, and became a symbol of prestige. Extra undershirts were useful in winter, as were hooded cloaks. In the summer, breeches, without tunics or robes, would be worn by men, and women would wear thin, loose dresses. Foot gear included airy, breathy summer moccasins, fall and spring boots made of leather, and bulky winter boots made lined with wool, and woolen socks. Both men and women wore long, braided hair, which they imagined as a repository of vitality.
Since the Swíra were nomadic and couldn’t afford to have massive, bulky property weighing them down, wealth was expressed not in a greater quantity of objects (other than sheep), but in higher quality, better craftsmanship, and greater ornamentation of everyday objects, thus collapsing the distinction between the utilitarian and the artistic. Among the items so ornamented were drinking horns; knife handles; stirrers and ladles; bows and bowcases; shields; shirts; hats; yupi hides; stools; chests; rugs; and cauldrons.
The Swíra lived in moveable round tent-like homes known as yupi.
As told in their creation stories, the yupi itself was a
microcosm of the world itself - round and vaulted - and the first
hunter had made the world as the first tent.
Basic structure. A large circular piece of hide, covered
with felt, would be placed on the ground. The yupi structure would
be made of at least three long, forked branches. The branches
would be leaned against each other so that the forks would
interlock, forming a stable tripod-like structure. Other poles
would be laid against the crown formed by the interlocked forks.
Poles, typically three, would be arranged together to make a cone,
and lashed together. Further poles may be lain over the three
essential ones and bound together. These three poles would be
forked at the top end, and ‘catch’ each other when they rested
against each other.
Then the poles would be covered with felt, and finally a
well-tanned overcoat of hide would cover that. In ancient times,
they were made out of the hides of aurochs, but after the adoption
of herding, they were made out of cattle hides or felted wool. The
laying of the cover around the outside left a hole in the center
of the top, where the poles locked, to let smoke out. To stabilize
the structure, a stone would be tied to the poles via a rope, and
other stones would be placed around the outside of the yupi.
The entire structure was collapsible into a lightweight mass that could be transported on a horse or on dogsleds. Later, larger yupi could be carried on a couple of horses or a horse-drawn wagon.
Hearth and Home. Fire was the ‘heart’ of the the home,
originally in a circle of stones in the center of the tent. Over
this, a further tripod of small poles could be made to hang bowls
over the fire. Later people used iron tripods to lift the fire off
the floor. cast-iron hearth. The main fuel was animal dung, but
wood was frequently used when available. In later times, this was
supplemented with coal.
Seating. In tribal life, the Swíra sat and slept on the
ground. The ground was covered with mats of various sorts which
were often elaborately decorated. The inside of the yupi
would often be decorated with woven rugs. Swíra slept under lots
of blankets inside cocoon-like felt bags on pads of folded
felt.The large rocks used to stabilize the yurt were used as seats
and tables by poor folk. For better folk, or where wood and metal
were available, they were used to make highly stylized stools and
benches. People usually sat cross-legged on the ground or on
folded sheets, but chiefs or important guests would sit on
ornamented stools placed at the north side of the tent. In
congregation, Swíra sat in circles, especially for religious
gatherings, which would feature a shaman at the head of the party.
Waterproofing. The hides and mats were specially
waterproofed. Items would be water-proofed by coating them with
lard, wax, or pine resin. This included canvas sheets, which were
treated to waterproof them, and then wrapped over the yupi
as a whole when it rained.
Seasons. In summer, the hide may be layered over the poles
directly without felt under it. During hot weather, the bottom
edges of the yupi would be rolled up to allow airflow through the
home. Fires would be made outside at night, instead of inside the
yupi. In winter, more felt would be layered over the yupi.
Additionally, rags and wads of felt would be packed into the edges
of the floor to seal them off and prevent heat loss.
Migration. The Swíra usually moved seasonally, but would typically return to the same campsite at the same time of year. However, although the general location might be the same, the yupi was never set up at exactly the same spot it was previously. The yupi was always set up at least a few feet away from any visible imprint left by a previous yupi.
Camps. While a few people lived in a solitary tent on
the plain, more often they gathered in small camps of a few tents
of related people. The arrangement of the camps differed according
to which people erected them: the tents may be laid out in a line,
in a circle, or in a wedge-shaped pattern, like a flock of geese.
Where camps were circular, the circle was often open, facing the
south. While these small camps were common throughout the year, at
certain times, people would gather in larger groups, especially
the winter season, before New Year. These large camps would be the
focus of much feasting, communication, and decision-making.
For the most part, the majority of the diet consisted of meat,
and fatty meat at that. The Swíra diet consisted primarily of
meat, from both domestic and game animals, and including fowl,
fish, and occasionally invertebrates. In addition to human flesh,
three kinds of animals were also specifically forbidden: dog,
wolf, and snake. The dog was “man’s friend;” the wolf was the
totem animal of the Swíra; and the serpent was a holy, powerful,
and often dangerous creature. If the snake-eater did not die
outright from the poisonous flesh, heaven itself was liable to
curse him.
Veggies. By contrast, vegetable matter was scarcer in the diet. They knew wild onions and garlic, and berries, and they had a long familiarity with flowering plants like the sunflower and Jerusalem artichoke; however, they did not exactly "farm" these; the most they might do is bury tubers near their traditional camps, and leave them, to dig them up when food was scarce. Onions, being easy to cultivate, and growing quickly so that they can be harvested before moving to a new site. For those living near rivers, wild rice was gathered from its thickets along the banks. Most fruits consisted of berries, although wild apples and other wild fruits were sometimes gathered and enjoyed.
They sometimes bought flour or grains from the Tepat when they encountered them in their expansion south. Some staples were acquired from settled Tepatic farmers and traders, such as flour and beer. Eventually, some Swira near towns began to make small gardens themselves for their own onions and sunflowers, and eventually potatoes as well.
Flavors - Swíra cuisine is much less spicy and seasoned than cuisine to the south. Instead of met syrup or sugar, maple syrup and sugar, or sometimes honey, are used as sweeteners. Other flavorings include spruce and onions. Spruce is common in many areas where the Swíra lived, and also provides the main source of vitamin C.
Stew for dinner again. The main dish, putako, was a kind
of stew. The meat of an entire goat or sheep was cut up into cubes
and placed in a large pot. It could be seasoned with salt and wild
herbs, and vegetables such as leeks and tubers would be added
where available.The traditional method: Meanwhile, stones would be
heated in a fire. When red-hot, the stones would be dropped into
the pot with the meat. Water would be added to the pot, until
about two-thirds of the way to the level of the meat. The pot
would be covered and to maintain steam pressure inside, more rocks
would be weighted on top of the lid and rags would be tucked into
the space around the edge of the lid, to prevent steam from
escaping between the edge of the lid and the pot.
Barbecue. Yet another way of cooking was to use the animal
itself as a vessel. The meat and other add-ins would be mixed and
stuffed back into the empty skin of the goat, along with hot
stones, and the whole thing would be held over the remains of the
fire, cooking the outside while the stones cooked the inside.
Eventually the goatskin would be ripped open again and the goodies
taken out.
Drink - While there was water and milk aplenty, even
better was wine. The Swíra, naturally, loved inebriation, drinking
on all occasions. Only fermented drinks were known in the oldest
days. The Swíra themselves fermented berries, honey, and tree sap,
but mostly horse milk. In the far northern reaches of the Swíra
range, where winter nights were especially long and cold, these
beverages were occasionally concentrated by simple freeze
distillation. Mead or kumiss was left outside overnight, and in
the morning ice on top was thrown out, leaving behind liquid of
higher alcoholic concentration.
Alcohol was usually drunk out of a cup carved out of a ram’s horn. (In the late period, pottery and silverware from Tepatic trade were also used.) It would be given to the oldest person in the yupi, who would drink as much as he or she wanted, and give it back. Then it would be refilled and passed to the next person in a clockwise direction. Oftentimes, when offered a drink, a person would be asked to sing, and then the person would sing before drinking from the horn.
Beer, wine, and distilled beverages were introduced from Tepat
and became important trade goods. The occasional bottle was
usually reserved for shows of hospitality at feasts. In the towns
where Tepatic and nomadic traders mingled, though, and in
autonomous homelands, these drinks flowed much more freerly, and
alcoholism became a serious problem.
Nomads also spiked drinks with fungi, through which they could see spirits and talk to them. This was especially important during religious events.
Feasting at Home - The Swíra would sit inside their yupis at feasts, held for various occasions. The Tepatites noted that the people ate in communal groups, sharing meat which they ate with knives as the only utensils. They also drank considerably at such feasts. The men would sit along the left (east) side of the yupi, and the women on the right (west). They would sit in order of age from the north (back) to the south (left) side of the yupi. Thus the oldest people would sit at the back, and the youngest at the front. In the hunter-gatherer age, whenever one person bagged a huge game animal, he would invite everyone he knew to come eat it. He would urge everyone who came to eat as much as he could, because otherwise the meat would rot. This tradition of hospitality continued into the pastoral age. People lived far apart, and when a relative, friend, or even stranger showed up unexpectedly, they would be tired and hungry, and people would hurry to cook them dinner and give them a place to sleep. Swíra prided themselves on generosity and whenever a feast was hosted, they would urge people to gorge themselves with food and drink. The custom was so prominent that Tepatites believed the Swira ate continuously at all times of day, because they were served food every time they set foot in a home.
Eat Not the Young - Strict Swira did not eat eggs, in
accordance with rules against not eating the very young, nursing
mothers, or nesting birds. Calves, lambs, and kids were rarely
killed until they were yearlings. (Similarly, they were not
supposed to kill babies, but adopt dead enemy children. The Swíra
maintained their numbers by adoption and assimilation of war
captives into the families of dead warriors to replace their life
force.) For sacrifices, there are requirements that it be a bull
in the prime of life, that has fathered calves. Traditionally,
when a shaman was engaged for her services, they were not paid in
money, but generally given gifts. They were fed by the family, and
often housed by them for the duration of the ceremonies. It was
bad form to offer money directly. (Similar procedures were
warranted for traveling bards.) This evolved into a regulation
that priests do not touch gold or silver.
Archery - The main skill in warfare was archery. The Swira
practiced archery with a game in which they tried to shoot arrows
through a rolling hoop. The hoop was netted, and pushed along by a
man with a forked stick. In archery competitions .... The Swíra used a small compound bow,
made of two pieces of wood and bound in the middle with horn and
hoof glue. The front of the bow was covered with sinew, and the
inner surface with horn. It was kept in a case when not in use to
protect against moisture, especially during the summer. Arrows
were tipped with bone, stone, wood, horn, or iron, depending on
local materials and the arrow’s purpose. There were many kinds of
arrows; for example, “singing arrows,” made with bone tips with
holes drilled in them, which made a high-pitched whistling sound
when they flew, and could be used to signal to other hunters, or
to distract an animal while another, lethal shot was aimed.
Side arms - In addition, there were various kinds of small swords, knives, and axes that could be used in close-range combat or for working, butchering, and eating, etc. They were the second course of action when use of the bow was not possible. It was only in the imperial Swiric age that use of larger longbows and longswords spread, when much combat was done on foot in environments unfavorable to high-speed mounted archery.
Because of the dryness of the steppe and the inconvenience of
storing large quantities of water, water was conserved. Usually,
washing was restricted to the face, hands, and maybe armpits and
erogenous zones. Hair was brushed rather than washed. Full-body
bathing, and washing clothes, was reserved for special occasions.
The desire not to pollute fresh water entailed that washing and
bathing water was carried from the well or river in a vessel and
bathing conducted elsewhere, and the water was dumped on the
ground, instead of back in the river. Similarly, urination always
occurred on the ground; urination in water was a serious offense.
The Swíra preferred to defecate in sandy areas, for several
reasons: there was usually nothing growing there that could be
eaten by humans or animals, and the loose sand could easily be
used to cover up the feces.
Thunderking and Ashwing. The horse, whose approaching stampedes sound like a coming storm, is associated with thunder. The Thunderking Makorō rides his eight-legged horse Ashwing Sūtala, bearing an axe that he hurls to earth, causing lightning where it strikes. This intelligent axe then flies back to him to be thrown again. Connecting heaven and earth, lightning is a display - and gift - of heavenly power to the earth, and its remnants, such as burnt wood and fused sand are collected as items of peculiar potency.
The North Against the South. In particularly violent storms, the Thunderking leads the spirits of the sky in battle between the spirits of the North and the South. The Swīra associate themselves and other nomads with the northern spirits, and the people of Tepat with the southern spirits. When dark clouds blow north, it means that the battle turns in favor of the southern spirits. When the clouds blow south, it means the northern spirits are winning, and is taken as a favorable omen for mounting raids on agricultural settlements.
The Horse Mushroom. The so-called “horse mushroom” urainer (or urazuma) sprouts from old dung in grassy fields after summer downpours. The tīmi (“seer”) gathers the mushrooms while voicing prayers of gratitude to the horse and the rain. After drying, the fungus is stewed in water from which horses have drunk, over a fire of dried horse dung, and stirred with a horsehair whisk.
Enjoying the horse’s fruit. The seer first offers drops of soup and mare’s milk to the heavens and the earth, before drinking. He then takes up his drum and makes thunder. Both the drum and its stick are decorated with pieces of gold that evoke lightning. The other honored guests are then divide the rest of the soup, and having drunk, fall into a dream brought on by the ever more frantic drumming. In a flash, their souls leap from their bodies and fly into the air, as they begin their all-night journey to speak with the spirits of heaven and earth. Waiting outside, others come in with bone cups to gather the seer’s urine, which is nearly as effective. The last of the concoction, along with spores and urine, is sprinkled on grass or water for horses, on horses themselves, and on horse dung in the fields, with prayers for the return of the “horse’s harvest” next year. When praying for rain in the summer, it is best to use dried caps that have been preserved from the rains of the previous year, so that the heavens will remember the fertility of the past.
The ties that bind the nomadic Swíra:
Kinship - The first, earliest, and most important of the relationships was that of blood, between members of the same family and clan. The word for this is composed of two terms, otu-natu, referring to the two kinds of kinship. Every Swira person had connections to two clans. The first was the otu, the father's relatives, to which each person nominally belonged. However, each also could call on the support of the natu, the mother's relatives.
Marriage - Love and Marriage 8/3/2020 - Nomadic
marriage practices -usur- practice of exchanging wives, or
inheriting them from deceased relatives; levirate; chief marrying
the wife of a previous chief as an establishment of legitimacy.
Also, occasionally, sororate marriage – if a woman dies in
childbirth, the man inherits the younger sister, even if she is
married.[ Cf. levirate. Also Sudanese ‘ghost marriage.’] “May as
well get used to each other. May as well have sex with your
brother’s wife, as you may be getting her someday.” Tepatic
stereotype that barbarians are all inbred cousin-fucker, and that
at worst, they will have sex with literally anyone. They just fuck
and kill, that's all they do.
Swíra men were very fond of women and their pleasures, and so many passionate trysts or unmarried love affairs were conducted during youth. Partners were not expected to be virgins at the wedding (but did observe a celibate period during the engagement). However, once married fidelity was jealously regarded. An unfaithful woman would be severely abused by her husband and probably abandoned; he would have no obstacles to seeking out a new spouse. An adulterous man would likely be severely beaten or killed by his male inlaws.
Feudalism -
Blood brotherhood could be sealed by a ritual in which both friends cut their forearms and then tied them together so that the blood mixed together. It was believed that betrayal of a blood brother was a serious crime; because the blood was mixed, it was equivalent to committing an offense against oneself, and the person would be punished in kind to the way that he had sinned against his blood brothr. In very late Swira times, the relationship would become more and more formalized, and would become almost like a form of male-male marriage, just without sex (usually). Men would be asked when they would “find a nice blood brother,” just as they might try to find a nice woman for a wife. It was assumed that a proper man would take both a wife and a blood-brother, and remain faithful to both. In fact, in some ways it was more like our romantic ideal of marriage than actual Swíra marriage was, because marriage was often influenced by many practical and social considerations (and political ones, among the aristocracy), but a man was often freer to choose a friend according to his liking, provided he didn’t choose a subordinate or something else ridiculous. In its eventual fossilized form, a tiny nick would suffice to perform the ceremony, which should be witnessed. Women were sometimes known to do something similar, by pricking their fingers with a needle or the spindle of a spinning needle and touching their fingers together. In later ages when a mere nick was sufficient, curmudgeons would often reflect on the legends of big gory cuts and lots of blood, and moan about the state of Swiric masculinity, saying that “Back then, Swíra women were made of tougher stuff than the men today.”
The Nemesis - In addition, some recognized a fifth “relationship,” Xxxx: the nemesis relationship, or sworn enemies. Anyone violating the three relationships was considered to have committed the highest sin possible and risked severe punishment, including death, from various sources. (Swíra society practiced three kinds of punishment: branding/flogging, exile, and execution.) Vassals who acted against their lords would be killed sadistically, and faithless lords would be abandoned. The greatest offense was to betray a blood-brother. A man who did so deserved immediate, unpardonable death. He would receive no protection from anyone else. Other grave offenses were incest, violence against close kin, and betrayal of a kinsman’s trust. Many blood-brotherhoods seem to have been homoerotic associations as well, although these were not violations of marital fidelity. The Swíra did not keep slaves, or not for any length of time. An enemy who was captured rather than killed, and who did not kill himself, was usually adopted into the tribe or clan of his captors and from then on fully participated in tribal life.
Secret Societies. The ancient Swíra had many sacred, secret societies. Many of them were warrior societies. These evolved into more formalized and open institutions during the imperial era, such as the Ukuru and Eagle Societies. They also included such societies as the Non-returners, who vowed not to step backwards in a battle, and so would throw a spear in the ground, pinning their robe down, during battles so they could not run away. There were also Chaos societies, which had magic ceremonies based on anticlockwise magic, fought left-handed, and always did the opposite of what was expected in battle. They folded their robes with the right flap over the left, rather than left over right. One deity enumerated a list of offenses the Swíra considered abominable. To betray one’s parents, siblings, offspring, or cousins To lie with one’s parents, siblings, offspring, or cousins To betray one’s sworn lord For a great lord to sacrifice or lead his vassals into knowing destruction To betray a blood-brother To lie with another woman when one has a wife To lie with another man when one has a husband To kill a shaman To violate sacred objects or sacred ground To curse one’s kin, lord, or blood-brother To horde food to oneself, against one’s kin and friends To refuse to carry out punishment against an adulterer, traitor, or slayer of one’s relations To spill or put blood into waters that are sacred To make permanent holes in the ground Trade was carried on among foot-hunting, horse-hunting, and pastoral groups. All such groups were nomadic, and preferred each other to settled, agricultural groups that were regarded as being less free and less noble — slaves essentially. In the late Classic period, nomadic groups began to raid agricultural settlements near the borders.
Feudalism - Swíra feudalism depended more on a system of
livestock grants than land grants. Large chiefs, who owned
thousands of animals, would hire poorer Swíra to look over their
herds. In return, the poorer men were granted some of the animals
for their own use. The poor men owed a tithe, herding services,
and support of the chief’s adventures in war. As a general rule,
the rich in Swiric and Amtom communities were expected to be
generous, but their gifts were generally of consumable goods, not
of income-generating assets, such as animals or land. However,
animals were exchanged by Swíra chiefs for their weddings.
Many chiefs gained their prestige through skill in war. Whenever a war party was concluded successfully, the person who had initiated it was entitled to the lion’s share of the spoils. He would divide the spoils among those who had participated in the raid with him. In accordance with the tendencies in generosity, he would usually keep captured horses for himself and give gold, weapons, cloth, and so on to his followers.
Full-time shamanizing - As society became stratified,
feudal relationships emerged and also ecstatic experiences and
spirit journeys became restricted to professional or hereditary
shamans. Eventually the shamans themselves increasingly became
independent of regular work. Previously they had herded like
everyone else, but as they shamanized full-time, they hired their
customers to tend their sheep, or relied on gifts of sheep from
people who requested their services.
Tent and Livestock - Women inherited and owned the yupi tent, while men inherited and owned the livestock. They were each presented at a couple’s wedding, at which point they began living together in a separate tent. The son then received a gift of livestock equivalent to approximately 1 / (n + 1) where n is the number of sons. The new family would then move away. The last son would continue living with the parents, either together or in a separate, adjacent tent, and take care of the parents, and upon the parents’ death, would receive the remainder of their herd. Territories were held by the clan or tribe, while moveable property was held by families or individuals, and individuals had their own personal possessions, such as clothes or tools, which could be given as gifts or accompany them to the afterlife.
Life is nasty, brutal, and short. While the Tepatic idea that barbarians lived in a state of nature, and were always killing each other or themselves, and thus never met a real natural death, is an extreme exaggeration.
It was believed that most primitive Swíra must have died from suicide, which was considered the noblest course of action when one was dishonored (by defeat, say) or beginning to go senile. A Swíra man or woman lucky enough to live to an advanced age feared the day he or she would grow too weak to care for himself or became unable to remember anything, and would by custom wander into the woods to die of exposure or by hanging oneself. This practice was so usual that Klamen asserted they were not even aware people died naturally of old age, but were only aware that their power was declining, and so would eventually face dishonor as a result. However, really this was mostly the product of extreme times, and not something that happened as a matter of course. It mostly appeared in times of famine, not as a matter of course.
But still, yeah, it was kind of dangerous.
The leading cause of death is suicide, followed by death in
battle, old age, homicide, and hunting accidents, depicting a
quite violent society.
The Swíra valued daring and would honor those who had performed feats demonstrating their bravery, indifference to risk, and tolerance of pain. Such demonstrations varied in formality. Sometimes they may have been required, as in initiation ceremonies, or to answer a challenge to one’s manhood. Other times they may have been undertaken on personal initiative, for one’s own “love of honor.” Certain kinds of feats may have been more or less “typical” or standardized, although any kind of feat could be accepted, no matter how uncommon, provided the man faced danger. Two apparently ingrained ones that Klamen mentioned were trial by fire and trial by hornet.
Trial by Fire. In trial by fire, several large fires would
be made, with the men running around and between them. Then they
lit torches from the fires and clapped them, causing lots of
sparks to fly, over the men who ran under them, letting the sparks
fall on them. Then men would begin a gauntlet, and as each person
ran through it individually, his friends would slap him with the
torches. Finally, the men would jump through the fires themselves,
or throw objects into the fires and try to grab them out.
Trial by Hornet. In trial by hornet, the goal was to seek
a large hornet’s nest, rip it off with one’s bare hands, and run
back to the village shirtless while holding the nest and being
repeatedly stung. The participants “grimaced, and shouted angry
words, but did not cry.” The other villagers would cheer the man
holding the nest in the manner of “truant schoolboys cheering a
classmate who had made off with a juicy apple from some orchard.”
Fungibility of Prestige. There was some sort of scale or
collective judgment according to which some feats were worth more
than others. The performance of particular feats, or of an
impressive array or quantity of feats, might give the doer special
privileges, such as the right to certain adornments announcing the
man’s skill, or the bestowal of a title or a new name. Other
benefits were less formal, for example, widened marriage prospects
or weight given to the person’s pronouncements in war councils,
etc. There is also evidence that women sometimes took part in
these events for their own desire.
Feats and Honor - Feats were also part of warfare, which
led to strange (to the Tepat) behavior, because feats were
calculated not to bring some particular result in warfare, but to
reflect the quality of the warrior performing the feat. Thus a
Tepat source recording a Swiric cattle raid on a frontier outpost
notes with astonishment that three Swíra warriors who broke
through raced into the government building, through the throng of
guards, slapped the face of the post commander and then rode off
again without killing the commander or any of his guard. For the
Tepat, getting that close without killing the chief was a wasted
opportunity; to the Swíra, being able to blatantly defy the enemy
chief and get away with it was an act that would win them the
highest respect possible in their tribe. The “murderer’s society”[
May have originated in Milim, spreading to Tepat and Swira, while
disappearing in Milim and Tepat later] It was also extremely
common to die by another’s hand. Wars between neighboring tribes
were common. Dueling with swords was the acceptable way to settle
disputes about one’s honor or rival courtships for the same woman.
Dueling was not necessarily to the death,
but it was often pursued to that point in order to avoid the
shame of defeat. Men were expected to avenge the deaths of
relatives and friends by murdering the person responsible, and
thus sometimes starting wars. Homicide was also a punishment for
adultery and sometimes other crimes. The phenomenon of war, or
more generally the ideas of struggle and valor, dominated the
thinking of the Swíra. Similarly the east-coast city states were
culturally dominated by trade. In Swíra, public discourse was
framed in terms of war, a war of words. On the East Coast, it
was framed in terms of trade, of “buying someone’s words,” a
marketplace of ideas.
Duels - Differences were settled by dueling. A dueling area would be defined, sometimes by a large bear skin, and then the victor would be the contestant who drew first blood. A man who stepped out of bounds forfeited. Loss was not obligatorily fatal, but sometimes the losers committed suicide. Ritual suicide was used to rectify personal dishonor. Execution was rarely needed for Swíra tribesmen because they usually committed suicide anyway to rectify their personal guilt. Honor was gained in warfare. Society depended on relationships among men, one a relationship of equals between blood brothers, the other the loyalty of men to their lords, superiors, or clan chiefs.
“Five deeds”
In exchange, adornments and names are granted
The post-conquest Swira are / were a different matter, as their culture of honor developed further, among the warrior aristocracy that resulted.
Dying (and Killing) Honorably - Stabbing was better than poisoning, but stabbing someone in the front was better than stabbing them in the back. When defeated, the proper and honorable way to die was to lift one’s chin to offer one’s throat to the blade to be slit. A man was expected to offer his throat to the blade and demonstrate his willingness to face death. In this position, the head was raised up proudly to heaven, and met the gaze of the one who slew you. Having one’s throat slit from the front allowed one to see the approach of the blade until the moment of incisions, and look death in the eye. If one was beheaded, one’s head was bowed, and could not see the approaching blade. Thus, it was more shameful, both to endure and to inflict. “offer one’s throat” = “to self-sacrifice” Sari - includes theft, betrayal, lying, cheating, adultery, and also poisoning, but excludes death by weapons, and violent rape and burglary. Sari crimes are “secretive,” accomplished by deception rather than force, and are scorned by true men. Open challenges, like battles and duels, are considered more “honest.” This led early Swira to claim to the incredulous Tepat that they did not kill each other, since they did not consider deaths in duels to be murder. Sari can also describe the character of an untrustworthy or contemptible person - dishonest and cowardly. Vengeance and blood payments - “Among many Indians of the northern Pacific coast of North America, blood payment was mandatory after killings in order to make peace possible, even when actual blood vengeance was also required. In most places there was no fixed standard, each group demanding as large an amount as possible. If agreement was not reached, feud might result.” (<-- Impetus for the emergence of government: install order by regulating the amount of payments.) Horse injuries - So accustomed were the Swíra to horses that it was considered unthinkable that a grown human would be killed or injured in ordinary dealings with a horse. When such occurred, it was considered a sign that the victim had angered the gods, and if the injured person survived, they often required the services of a tīmi in order to determine how to make amends before healing could be assured.
The Wolf and the Horns Wolves had figured throughout Swiric history. The lineage of the rulers had been established by a wolf having sex with a man / woman; later, the first rulers were regarded as having been adopted and raised by a she-wolf. Werewolves were treated as heroes in mythology. The immediate forerunner of the dynasty that conquered Tepat was said to have learned strategy and tactics from watching wolves attack herds of horses. Swira horns. Swira making the ‘horns’ as a salute and in victory, similar to Turkish Gray Wolf salute.
10/30/2021 - “Horned” - invisible “horns” branching out from the heads / minds of Swira to communicate with the other world.
Death and Burial 12/15/2021 - Swiric death rituals. When they are no longer needed, the old wander off alone to die. But first they leave behind an object charged with their soul. Great care goes into the selection of the object. The object is left behind to “transmit” to their hereafters. It acts as a signal of resignation, detachment that allows them to give up and die. It also serves as an inheritance to those who come after. The objects are kept and treasured by descendants. (Does Arekaya do this when she wanders out of the yurt? Yes, and later when she was wandering with her brother, she attempted to leave him too, and she almost died, and that’s when she had a very important experience, and perhaps they found the way to the Shaman after that.) They also have a tradition of cutting and keeping the hair, or pieces of a person who has died. In a certain way, the defeat of enemies is somewhat like this. The Swira warriors (who had long hair) would take hair from their enemies and twist it into cords or braids, and then incorporate them into a kind of sash. It served as a record of deeds. But also it was a kind of memorial of their enemies, that they kept part of them and absorbed some of their essence. Perhaps it was more insulting NOT to keep some of their essence, as happened with Nuruimi? Chariot and horse burial grave complexes in Swira. Mythical city. Kul-Tegin built an empire in the steppes.
Inheritance - Tent and Livestock - There were several inheritance patterns. I will describe one here. Women inherited and owned the yupi tent, while men inherited and owned the livestock. They were each presented at a couple’s wedding, at which point they began living together in a separate tent. The son then received a gift of livestock equivalent to approximately 1 / (n + 1) where n is the number of sons. The new family would then move away. The last son would continue living with the parents, either together or in a separate, adjacent tent, and take care of the parents, and upon the parents’ death, would receive the remainder of their herd. Territories were held by the clan or tribe, while moveable property was held by families or individuals, and individuals had their own personal possessions, such as clothes or tools, which could be given as gifts or accompany them to the afterlife.
11/18/2021 - Burial customs vary among the nomadic tribes. Some tribes buried the body underground (but never in cairns, as Tepatic people sometimes believed!). Modun was buried this way. Others made “sky towers,” like the Tibetans, where the bodies were eaten by scavenging buzzards. Others wrapped bodies in shrouds and put them up in trees where they were eaten by animals.
Sacrifice of a sheep, to the dead man, that its spirit may accompany him - followed by consumption of the sheep by his survivors.
1/8/2020 - Sky Burial - The ancient Swira practiced Sky
Burials, declining to bury their dead, but placing them on
mountaintops to be eaten by scavenging animals, though with
rituals, and often surrounded by stones, and dedicated with an
offering of milk. This was their thanks, then, to all the animals
which had given their lives for them in their lives, and the
mourners would refuse meat for one month, saying, “It is the
animals’ turn to feast.” Alternatively, some bodies were buried
under grass in shallow graves, after a prayer requesting the
earth’s permission to dig and to bury the body. Care was taken to
replace precisely the grass, also surrounding it with stones. By
leaving the body to rot, it would return to the grass, and be
eaten by animals they herded or hunted. And so, they were all
connected in the great Circle of Life. If the body was carried to
the burial on an animal, that animal should be set free. During
the settled Swira period, other funeral practices were adopted,
but the traditional ones also became far more complex, with lords
building specialized towers, resembling mountains, in which to
“bury” their dead. Once a poor man buried his father. Although he
could not afford it, he set free the horse. The horse came back in
gratitude and brought good luck.
Particular hilltops were known for being places to leave the
dead.
Aside from the Swira, there were many tribes. Some of them
include:
They were wedded to a free nomadic existence to an even greater
degree than other nomadic tribes. Although, they called others
"Violators" or "Bloodshedders." Because of this, the Unpenetrators
were effectively prohibited from farming or gardening. Because of
this, any grain or vegetable products - any agricultural products
at all that they used - were the result of trade or raiding, and
thus had a (sometimes mutual) dependence on nearby settled
populations.
Since they could not produce any themselves, any that they used
came from other people.
This itself became a point of contention; some leaned into this,
and traded with - or exploited - settled people. (It was hard to
see, to Tepatites, why they would seem to be inconsistent in this
point - they could hardly conceive that each "band" was
autonomous, without really any king to impose law.) But some saw
this as too far too, because the goods were still the work of
violating the earth, even if the Unpenetrators did not do it
themselves. Hence, schisms began to occur, and the bands
separated.
“I call upon anyone else. Who has witnessed this?” Then they recounted the tales of the past year. The deed-doer and his witnesses talked back and forth, recounting the story of his accomplishments. The elders nodded. The bard made up jokes and soaring lines, and came back composing a verse about their deads, to be woven into a comprehensive narrative, with those of other heroes. The heroes “put their tuq into it.” They added to their sashes, and painted on their hides. The sashes were used in recounting, again and again. They sang, danced, ate, and drank. Sometimes, new names were earned. Then, like Japanese people choosing a word to represent the past year, the past year was retroactively named. The Red Festival / Festival of Meat The White Festival / Festival of Milk - following the summer solstice. Kumiss has been freshly brewed, and milk freshly made. Visions The vision quest was like a koan.
Leather money 7/2/2025 - Swiric leather money - Some Swira tribes invented a kind of paper money (or rather, leather money) whereby a tiny edge part of an animal hide - such as an ear - was used to stand in for the entire hide, essentially as proof of having a whole such hide, and was taken as have the value of a standard pelt, and traded as such. The ear would be branded with the brand of the herder, and additional trust could be assured by the reputation of the herder. As sheep were absorbed into larger and larger herds, and the herders confederated into larger and larger hordes, the personal brand of the overall chief of the confederation became a de facto official currency, long before chiefs got around to enforcing currency with legal mechanisms. Hence, “ear” meant money, or a unit of money, and “brand” meant “mint.” “They [Swira] do not conquer, control, or plan. They fight, but not for any particular reason. And that is why they will never win.”
12/10/2025 - The Pillar of Heaven or World Axis - said to be the center of the world, the pillar erected in the ‘tent’ the first Hunter erected, the axis upon which the vault of heaven turns. A large isolated high rock formation in the middle of the plains, seemingly inexplicable. Slavery, Serfdom, and Submission Roman house slaves were sometimes like ‘family’ and maintained semi-legal ties even after manumission. See A.H. question about slaves earning money and buying freedom (and why masters didn’t just seize all their slaves’ savings). Bridal abduction -
The First Hunter shot and killed the Great Beast. He made darkness around him, so that he not be disturbed. He then lay the carcass on its back and skinned it, from the belly. Having skinned the animal, he stretched the carcass out under him for a workspace, then staked it flat at each of the corners of the cosmos. Working with the body as a bowl, he cut the belly open and removed the organs. He cut through each joint and separated the meat into pieces, laid upon the hide. These he made into the earth. He gathered the blood inside the hollow of the skin. This became the water. Then he made the joints into the rocks of the earth. He set up the long bones as posts or pillars, and tied them with sinews, then he cut the remainder of the hide and stretched it to cover over the bones, to make a tent. This tent cover was the vault of the sky. He gathered the warmth of the flesh and blood in the center to make a fire. Then the two eyes he hung above him on the inside of the tent ceiling. The left eye became the moon and the right eye became the sun. The whole vast carcass and the skin became the world, and life, plants, spirits, and animals sprang forth from the flesh, or were drawn out from the beast’s womb. The hunter then sprinkled the milk of its teats upon the earth in libation, and where the drops fell life sprang up.
The archer feels pain in his own eye, and prays at night to the moon for forgiveness. The moon teaches him sorcery.
A shaman does not choose his vocation, he is chosen by the
spirits. "Only a crackpot would become a tīmi," Don Juan said. "A
true man of knowledge does not seek to be one, but must be tricked
into so becoming."
A mountain was created and a lake destroyed in Tiptum, imprinting on the memory of the Proto-Tepatics, spreading wide from there. Only a god could have so done. The lake is sacred.
They opened a bath in the bottom of the crater.
There are many paths to knowledge, which all arrive at the same destination, just as there are many routes up the mountain from each side, and some are short and steep, others gentle but long. Whether by hallucinogenic drugs, meditation, yoga, dreamfaring, mental illness, trance-dancing, self-mortification and pain inducement, sleep-deprivation, starvation, and chanting, and confrontation of danger. Each involves a risk, danger, a confrontation with death.
Six wise men saw the light on the mountain and climbed, from a different side, encountering different dangers, to arrive at the well. Each encounter corresponded to one way of knowledge. (Notice that reason is not among them.)
Eight sages were called by a spirit to the holy mountain. Each one converged on the mountain, from a different side, and unaware of the others. Each one found a different trail and followed it up to the mountain, and each one encountered something different on the way to the top. They arrived at the peak at the same time, and met each other, and discussed their experiences.
One encountered a man crucified upon a tree, dripping blood. At each place where his blood spill, something happened. The dying man told the sage to cut a fruit from a tree and make a bowl, to catch his tears. He did so, and drank the tears. As he did so, the spirit of the man filled him, and he was filled with sadness, and saw.
One man, as he stood at the bottom of the mountain, heard two mice chattering to each other. They talked about a mushroom that grew in the high forests, and described it. The sage, following the path up, found the mushroom, and gathered and dried it, according to the mice’s words. When he ate, he fell sick, and spilled out the mushroom, which leapt away from him; then he fell into darkness, thinking he died. But then he rose, with great strength, and ran up the mountain.
Another man encountered a dangerous animal, and he had to keep awake to avoid being surprised. He became feverish and fell asleep against his wishes, and then when in a nightmare, the creature spoke to him, and revealed knowledge. When he had appeared in the dream, the beast instructed him to eat a berry that he had collected earlier, and having done so, the man knew that he was in a dream, and the world was absurd; he arose and found he could manipulate reality, and flew away.
Another man was dragged into a dance until he dropped down exhausted.
Spirit Animals. Ancient Swira had personal guardian spirits; in Amtom, another myth distributed these among the tribes, perhaps in a way like the Buddha assigned zodiac animals. This myth, like grammatical structures, is mirrored with stultifying diverse uniformity across each clan and tribe.