While embarking on a rather extensive traveling schedule, I ran across a number of highly unusual folks. I have long struggled to adequately describe them, and I will embark upon my most thorough attempt in these next few pages. Please bear with my verbose descriptions as I feel there is no way to adequately express the manner of these people using verbiage common to everyday life.
I would normally begin with appearance in my sociological descriptions, but among all of the tendencies of this culture, appearance is easily not in the top ten. I will, if I have the time, describe their appearance.
The dwellings of this strange race are perhaps the most interesting of all cultural aspects. In many regards, each hut is more akin to a temple than to a standard dwelling in other cultures. Every hut has a large common area filled with the most peculiar of altars. At first, I expected a naïve version of child sacrifice, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they abhorred such practices.
However, this altar still seemed to define much of their existence. Every evening around dusk, the entire clan would enter the altar room and find a place to sit or lay. Some would sit on primitive chairs and others found the ground or a table to be more accommodating. They would clamor about for a few moments in meaningless gibberish until the patriarch would issue the final command. At that point, fire and thunder would descend from heaven, emblazing the altar with a fire few have seen before. The fire danced about from yellow to red to blue to green and white; in some odd way, it was the most complete spectrum of colors ever produced in fire. The room would glow as the fire shifted colors.
The sounds from the fire were likewise amazing; at one moment, you could hear the thunder from above speaking to you in this eerie audible sense. The next moment you could hear the crackle of wood or the rushing of wind. All the while, the clan was ensconced in this disturbing tradition.
The clan continued in this pattern for a seemingly endless period of time, with clan members shifting from point to point across the room. Inevitably arguments would break out regarding the altar and a strange bone which seemed to indicate power.
The bone was blackened as though it had been burned, and it was adorned with many fine stones. The patriarch began the evening with this bone, but it had progressed throughout the clan during the night. It seemed as though everyone clamored for this special bone as though it had some sort of ancestral power. At the very least, the person who held this bone was the happiest of the entire clan while they held it in their hands.
Eventually, however, the fire would wane and clan members would depart to their sleeping quarters. And when the last person exited the altar room, the flame would mysteriously end, leaving a calm crackling sensation in the room. But soon silence and darkness replaced all other sensations, leaving the room helplessly empty.
The mornings were likewise a strange experience. Clan members would appear and disappear in a non-regular fashion, moving from their quarters to another sacred room. This room must have been filled with exercises of personal sacrifice, because each member was fiercely private and would not allow you to join them during this daily ritual.
It was not uncommon for a variety of sounds to emanate from this closed door, and I only wish that I could recount the sounds. Each member had his or her own ritual, and as much as I asked, I could never ascertain what exactly was involved in that ritual. But I do know that the rituals took a rather large range of time. As far as I can tell, the more spiritual chaps took more time; you could see their spiritual nature in their faces as they exited the room. And certainly even the least spiritual of the group experienced a daily change because of the personal sacrifices.
At some point, all of the clan would meet in the altar room again for the daily dispersion. I was not permitted to follow the dispersion, but I saw that everyone departed away from the dwelling for a period of time. And the peace that I experienced the night before all but faded away as I watched this nearly perfect culture degrade into a frazzled mess as they embarked on this daily departure. It was as if all of the gains in the personal-sacrifice room were lost in only a few moments.
As dusk approached again, the clan members would all return and begin the ritual in the altar room. Every night was a truly riveting experience.
Once a week, the clan members would embark on a different routine than their daily one. Instead of diverging into many different locations, the entire clan would travel together for the day. The morning routine of personal sacrifice was maintained, and so was the frazzled departure. Fights were much more commons on these special together-days.
The clan would travel several miles and meet up with many other clans. My guess is that this is the weekly inter-clan meeting, although I still cannot be sure of it. Upon arriving at the central location, the clan would split apart again, with each going their own way. I tried to discern the reason for this, but in my short few weeks there, I could never ascertain why.
The clan members would travel to rooms—rooms which had two or more altars. But in many cases, the altars were not in use, and I could not see the special bone either. Most of the times, the groups would discuss community matters, and inevitably one or two would doze off. The meetings were a spectacle in the sense they were dull. You could see it on the faces. And I wondered why not light the altars like the clans did in their dwellings? You could tell that the clan members were much happier when they were worshipping the altars.
These small assemblies soon dispersed into one giant assembly of the whole town. It was a spectacle unlike any other. Score and scores and scores of people crammed into a little room with two of the largest altars I had ever seen. Soon the shades were drawn and the altars glowed with fire from above. The sounds were richer than the altars at home, and the crowd joined in a rousing rendition of some cultural chants. The clans would stand in sit in some indiscernible fashion, with some moving their hands and other sitting still. The leaders of the assembly likewise had a series of distinct motions. But the reasons for these motions still baffle me to this day.
The mass chants soon ended with the passing of baskets throughout the room. Some people placed things in the baskets, others removed from the baskets. I watched carefully to see where they went, but I was thwarted when I saw they were removed to a room in the town center. Another assembly leader stood and issued words for the group. Once again, many of the group dozed off, but a few of the clans seemed particularly interested, clapping or screaming in approval or disgust.
Soon the ending word was issued and the crowd dissipated from the assembly. Each clan returned to its dwelling where it began the daily altar lighting earlier than any of the other days. I suppose it is the special assembly day when you get to celebrate in front of the altar for so many hours.
All in all, I am still baffled by my time with the Nait-Sirhc. They are perhaps some of the oddest people in the world, with so little to actually look forward to. The altar was a spectacle among spectacles, and it certainly brought them immense happiness. But I can’t help but wonder if they picked a god that wasn’t as satisfying as they hoped.