First Day, part 1. [1 Trandary 4261]

[sythyry]

[OOC note: this is the first material from the World Tree authors that has gotten past year 4260!]

At dawn, as the last of the winter got rolled up and tucked away by the weather elementals, the Herethroy children came singing around the apartment, and around every home:

We got created today, today, so give us some candied cabbage.
Four thousand two hundred sixty years, today, today, so give us some candied cabbage.
Or maybe it's one more, today, today
And sweet-leeks would do just as well, on today
You ought to be glad that it's just us today
'Cause Sleeth got created today, today,
And they won't stop with candied cabbage.

We built a big city, today, today, so give us some candied cabbage
Four thousand two hundred sixty years, today, today, so give us some candied cabbage.
Or maybe it's one more, today, today
And big plums would do just as well, on today
You ought to be glad that it's just us today
'Cause Zi Ri were useless today, today
And they ate all the candied cabbage.

… and on through all seven verses. So we gave them some candied cabbage.

Havune was supposed to get the candied cabbage, but the thought seems to have leaked out through the spearhole in his belly. Dustweed and Tethezai are at Tethezai's home -- Dustweed is being shown off, or flung in the faces, of various major nobility that Tethezai is on social terms with. I, of course, was out of town. I hate to admit it, but it was Dubaille who got the candied cabbage -- without being asked -- without begging money from any of us, or even asking to be paid back -- without even complaining. And he got a reasonable amount of it, and a respectable pink-and-orange dyed kind, not the cheapest sort.

Dubaille asked me, "All the species didn't get created on First Day, did they? Is that song wrong?"

Havune, who has been dripping affan as much as blood, explained history to him in detail.

1. The Herethroy and Sleeth got created on the first First Day. The other prime species got created over the next five years. (Some nonprimes had been created earlier -- much earlier -- fifty years or more -- but they don't count.) The song does start with the Sleeth, but doesn't go in order after that.
2. The first First Day was in year 1. It is now year 4261. That means that Herethroy have been running around and singing and chomping cabbage for 4,260 whole years. So it's not "one more."
3. Candied cabbage reliably dates to year 46. Some of the first roundletter manuscripts -- the ones that my absolutely-not-useless ancestors preserved -- talk about cabbage being boiled in honey. That's in common, or nearly, so it's more like "round leafy head-sized vegetable, sweet sticky liquid from insect home, fire-as-a-verb, long time slow", but you can get the point.
4. Nobody eats sweet-leeks any more, so the song has to be fairly old. They only grow slightly underwater, which makes them hard to farm, and expensive. And they don't keep very well once they're cut. (Havune is wrong here -- the Orren in Threeze were looking forward to gathering some when Spring came -- but they're not common in cities.)
5. Inihithre didn't get built on First Day as a city. It was a sort of lean-to, or so they say. They weren't terribly concerned with records at that point, and there's nobody alive who remembers it -- Glikkonen and all were created towards the end of the fourth year, and by that time Inihithre was a few dozen huts and rain-shelters and storehouses and such.
6. Havune's fiances did leave him some fresh plums,the last we shall have 'til summer, which we may eat if we like.

I consider myself choofed in matters of early history and being engaged both. Despite all my grandparents and great-grandparents participation in these matters, I didn't know all of this in any organized way. I haven't even met all my living created ancestors, and I have only spent two years and change with any of them, and I was rather younger at the time.

Thery and Yarwain are at the door, so I shall stop writing for now.

Comments

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

So do rarified college students such as yourself go out asking for candied treats when it's time for the Zi Ri to sing of their birth, Sythyry? Or is this something done only by children?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Only the Herethroy do that singing... I suppose the Sleeth would technically be allowed to too, since they were made at the same time as the Herethroy, but they don't. Not that they'd be asking for candy.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

What would they be asking for? Herethroy children?

[postrodent.livejournal.com]

Hmm, candied cabbage. Your monster readers are all mentally filing that with Scandinavian salty licorice under "Confections I will never ever try", but I'm perversely curious. Is it only eaten by Herethroy?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you have a different variety of cabbage? Ours is fleshy and dense-leafed. It's sharp when it's raw, bland and a little sweet in a vegetablly sort of way (more like a carrot than a plum), but less sweet) when it's lightly cooked, and sort of nasty with a hint of rotten egg when it's overcooked. The candied kind is lightly cooked (well, the cheapest grade is overcooked, which is what I expected Dubaille to get but he didn't). It's not too different from a marshmallow, really.

[Sythyry's opinion of a marshmallow is, a candy made by boiling a mallow plant from a marsh in sugar syrup.]

[Bard may make some for you! It's probably not hideous if done properly, RL.]

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

Happy First Day to you!

Befriend a Herethroy today! And a Sleeth!

[OOC to Brad: Yes, I know that 'befriending sleeths' is not a good idea. But... it's First Day!]

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Bard!

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

incense?
Smellies?
*perk!*
Happy First Day
Umm this monster only has candied honeydew melon filled shortbread cookies. Think that would buy off singing children?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I live with a Cani! We often have incense or some such going. I now intend to say what it is more often.

Happy First Day to you! But ... um ... if you're not prime, why are you celebrating it?

But those cookies should buy off children Herethroy ... or adult Zi Ri!

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

I wish resurection cultists Merry Christmas too. You don't have to belong to hope other folk are enjoying their lives.

While you don't need to go to any trouble, an occasional mention of typical and atypical incense would be greatly appreciated. Currently we have a choice of japanese style lavender (very mild, it assumes you actually just want the whole flower and is not spiked with an essential oil) or nag champa (I have no idea how to describe that). All the smellies have not been unpacked. Actually I am not sure they made the move. What a sterling chance to buy fresh!

Children run around demanding sweets here, but there isn't a song involved. But they do have to wear a costume. And it is later, in autumn. It used to be a kind of Change Of The Year, but is now stripped of most of the meaning. Ah well.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

There is a song that kids sing demanding figgy pudding, but it's no-longer-sung for a completely different holiday.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

We monsters obviously are behind World Tree advanced civilization in confection extortion ditties.
Shame on us!

Created First!

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Of course.
*purr*