Chapter 15
Of Clothes

MENU

1_THE HAIR
2_THE BASE
3_THE FLAT FORM
4_THE SCRIBEMENT
5_THE OUTHOUSE

1_THE HAIR

Time moved in this way,

BOY had carefully removed the suture bones from AMI’s shoulder and there were only tiny marks. It healed without a scar, just a thin line with four dots on the sides.

It was clear that hair now grew quickly on both AMI and BOY. Not fuzz but real hair. Mostly their heads and arm and leg pits. BOY had hair on his face and chest. AMI roamed her fingers through his hair and giggled. AMI liked the hair but missed seeing his face. Their fuzz was now hair and grew longer. Their hair grew long and his face was covered. He said,

My face, for you to see, I will make a sharp blade of the metal and cut the hair away. The hair we can save to make soft. Soft will provide comfort.

We will need more than hair for our future needs. We need ‘base’ to make form for comfort and warmth, for protection and the unforeseen.

2_THE BASE

Every few days, BOY had added fresh water to the trench where the fiber plants lay soaking. He inspected and turned the fibers over each time. A few decks passed and the fibers from the fiber plants soaking in the trenches became soft enough to fall apart into individual fibers. He called those fibers ‘base’. The base turned a dull grey when ready. BOY harvested them from the trenches. He gathered them, and brought them to the cave where he hung them loosely in rows over a cord to dry under big-light.

A deck later, when the base was dry, he brought three short logs and laid them side-by-side. AMI then spread the dry base across the logs. BOY pounded the base with a large round rock and broke the inside of the base into tiny chunks, which they removed. They found the tiny chunks made good animal bedding and reduced the animal smells.

They combed the base with a comb made of long, sharp thorns pushed through a thin strip of wood. The comb sorted them into short and long fibers. They piled the base in stacks, by length. There were a lot of long and short fibers. What use were they? They somehow knew to make clothing of these fibers. AMI said,

We have the fibers. The fibers can be woven into flat form and shaped to make warm clothing and bedding and comfort. With soft flat forms it will be much easier to clean ourselves, and we can wash the flat forms for more use.

BOY said,

We can make very strong rope and tools of great use. Now we must make them willing to join in strength. We must make oil from the fiber plant seeds and coat the fibers in oil. For now ‘bwa’ will work well.

BOY tested their ability to join by rubbing bwa on the fibers and twisting them together. The spit glued the fibers and the fibers held strong, and he made them bigger.

But spit was limited and only a little fiber could be made at a time. They mashed and crushed the hulled fiber seeds and floated the crush in water to separate the oil. It was much easier to soak the fibers in oil. BOY said,

The fiber grows fast, we have more ready to soak in the wet trench.

He filled the trench with new fiber stalks and leaves and then filled the trench with fresh water. AMI said,

I can draw the long fibers through the oil and twist them together as they rise. You are my fiber. BOY, please feed the fibers to me.

They continued and continued and made long, thick and very strong threads. They made many more. Some became cords, some became much stronger thicker rope.

3_THE FLAT FORM

Then BOY hammered several little thin pieces of hot metal into pins and he hammered them into the top of a log. They were in a row and close together. They resembled nails. AMI tied the ends of many long fibers onto the nails. Then she placed a smaller log on the ground at the distance she wanted and BOY nailed the same amount of nails at the same distance across the log. They then tied the other end of the fibers to the small log and moved the small log to tighten the fibers. It was a field about two feet wide and three feet long.

BOY placed the wide edge of a stick alternately through the field of strings and then turned the stick to its wide side, making an opening between the top and bottom threads. AMI now starting at the top took a thread and passed it through the opening. She pulled the thread tight at both ends. Then he turned the wide side of the stick down and pushed the thread high up the field.

Then AMI took more fibers and wove them in and out across the field of fibers alternating with the previous row. BOY placed the stick alternating behind her work and pushed the fibers tight. They continued this way for a time and at the end she had made a sheet of cloth two feet by three feet. She turned the ends of the strings into the sheet and pulled them snug.

She wondered how to use it. Then she made a loop at one end and hung it over BOY’s neck and down his back like a cape. He thought it felt warm and he leapt off the ledge and ran about the field with AMI and their friends chasing after. The cape flew high behind him and looked dashing in a strange sort of way. The cape was of greys with some brown and yellow streaks. The others tried to catch the cape. He was too fast, even Ahoo couldn’t catch it. BOY jumped off the fence and felt the wind in his cape. He said,

AMI, you must make more. The feeling is warm and comfortable.

BOY trotted around and rubbed the cloth against AMI’s body. It felt good. It felt warm. It felt protective. He wrapped it around her head with her face peeking out. They laughed and they went back to make more. AMI said,

First I will make hand covers for you to wear when you work.

AMI had noticed how calluses and cuts were on BOY’s hands when he came back from toiling in the field or on the fence and other things. She would place honey over the wounds and cover with a soft leaf, and the cuts would heal. But hand protectors would make sense.

She cut four oversize pieces the shape and size of BOY’s hands from the now tanned hide of the long tooth and stitched pockets of material over the hand and finger parts. BOY put his hand in the first one. It fit. He stretched them and tried them against logs and the cave wall. They were strong and protected his hands. He said,

This will make work much easier. Thank you, I love you the covers. They fit perfectly. I will use them today.

Gloves were the start. AMI made foot covers the same and she made two large flat forms with an opening for a head and two openings for arms. She made a wide sash for it to close and stay warm. It looked incredibly like a toga to me. AMI made togas for both. BOY made a wreath of flowers for AMI’s new hair. It sat on her head like a crown. She made cloth to clean with and he collected thin reeds to poke things out of their teeth. AMI said,

I can make a loose mesh of the fibers. The loose net can be used to catch things we need. If we place the net in the running waters of the river and the creeks we can catch fish.

4_THE SCRIBEMENT

They were making everything, from the Codes. AMI said 

When I use the finest threads from the fiber plant and push them together very tightly I can make scribement to put marks upon. We can mark many more things than we can on the wall. The fiber plant can give us strong, long lasting scribement. We can then make better scribement with the waters and a few helpers. Baba has the soft fur we can use for many ways. Let us use it for comfort and warm.

Wow she was talking about making paper from the fiber plant. Also, Baba grew wool, and they used it for clothes and comfort. The wool could be washed, raked, and combed and pushed to flat form. Baba quite enjoyed having less fur in hot times.

As the decks and returns passed, I saw how they turned the fiber plant into clothing of all sorts. They made boots with laces, and hats for weathers. There were bags to carry with and curtains for dividers. They made dishrags and towels and cleaners for the burfs.

They made very strong ropes. They made a soft saddle for Snort. The fiber was good. I had the feeling this was only the start.
BOY said,

AMI, not all things are pleasant but still must be done. We have need to dispose of our waste in a safe and clean way. Our waste must return to its parts and be separate from our living. I will build a disposal shed that will work for many returns.

5_THE OUTHOUSE

Early on, before any children were born, I watched BOY building an outhouse away from the cave. It backed into the side and the bottom of a sharp slope far to the rise side of the cave. He checked all around to ensure there were no waters nearby. It should face the fall and be sheltered from the fall light. He told AMI this was an important building, and must be built well.

First he needed level ground where the ground could be dug. The ground had to be high enough above ground water to prevent moisture seeping in, or hidden killers seeping out. He started with his long handled hoe and dug a deep hole straight down and about four feet square. He had to remove and break away rocks and rows of sediment.

It was hard cutting and it must have taken a few decks but it was perfect, there was no water anywhere and the sides were rock and hard sediments. AMI collected long sticks and made clays for BOY. AMI carried all the rocks and soil and debris away.

Then he lined the inside of the hole with tight fitting sticks and filled awkward spots with rocks and he sealed all the cracks between with clays. He laid four straight logs around the edges of the hole and squared them using the waters in the basin and adjusting where needed. Over the four logs he built a floor of cross logs with two different sized holes on one side. Then he built the frame of logs and walls of long sticks with an overlapping bark roof covered in thick sod. AMI brought screening of fibers and round clay pipes they had fired. Each pipe fit snugly together over top of each other going up.

The roof hung out over the door. I did not see inside but BOY worked in there and the next thing I knew, a clay pipe poked through the roof with a raised lid to keep water out, and a tight screen over the open end of the pipe to keep the insects out. I assumed the other end of the pipe went through the floor into the pit. BOY sealed all the openings with clays and made a tight fitting door. The door had a round hole cut in it for air circulation and a tight fiber screen covered the hole. He set screened side openings for air circulation near the floor and sealed everywhere with the clays.

Inside he kept a pot of ashes and fine dust of wood inside to sprinkle into the pit after use. They instructed each child when they were very young, nothing else must go in, only ashes and wood dust over the burf and the bwa.

There was always to be a pot of covered water inside, and bare corn cobs to clean. On the sides he made two candle holders to bring light inside and placed three candle holders on the outside walls. No one was to go out there at night without a protector and an Ahoo.

So they were making all sorts of protective clothing. What would they decide to make next?

Time continued to appear in this way to Of Foods