The natives were wearing simple clothes all made from the hides of animals, which
was unusual consider that the culture tended to call for a bit more sophisticated clothing.
A mixture of woven and hide clothes was the normal attire. The normal clothing was also
more sophisticated. Instead of just raw hides, the culture had cut the pieces of hide and
stitched the pieces together to form them. Here, in the strange ritual, the clothes were
more ragged and tied to the body, instead of stitched together.
The elders had painted crude symbols on their arms and legs. The same pigment
used to make the decorations on the second basket was used to paint the depiction of the
full moon. It was strange to see these symbols. For during the time Lady Fayeth had
spent here, she had never seen any depiction of the moon in the natives’ art. In fact, she
could not remember any circular shapes in their art. Most of the designs were composed
of intersecting lines, or various squares, triangles, or linear designs. Here, during the
strange ritual, was the first sight of circular designs.
The real shock came in the next phase of the ritual.
Two of the villagers, both talented hunters came into the circle carrying long staffs
with hooks on the ends. Wrapped around each hook, and apparently weighing a
significant amount given the flexed muscles of the men, was a large snake. Lady Fayeth
recognized them as being fumarspedo, a type of snake known for their incredible speed
when hunting their prey. The two men placed the two snakes around the baskets in a
figure eight, each snake’s body wrapping around one basket, and the head of one snake
lying next to the tail of the other. Apparently, the snakes were either dead or asleep. The
chanting and droning increased to a fervor as the two men, both covered in paintings of
overlapping circles, plunged the tail of one snake into the mouth of the other all together
in one movement.
Immediately, the snakes started slithering around the baskets in a figure eight
pattern and the two men jumped backwards and found their place in the circle, which was
large enough for the entire village to line up along. This apparently carefully practiced
ritual intrigued Lady Fayeth, and this was to be only the first of many peculiar rituals she
would witness. She watched carefully as the droning heightened to a screaming and the
snakes, intent on catching each other, swirled around faster and faster until a cloud of dust
and sand flew around the baskets.
From inside the cloud of dust and flying sand, Lady Fayeth could see the snakes,
slithering in a never-ending figure eight, their bodies beginning to glow from the intense
friction and heat they generated from traveling so fast, each snake pushing the other to
move faster and faster. The screaming was beginning to hurt Lady Fayeth’s ears when the
snakes and the baskets suddenly exploded into flames. The screaming stopped and a quiet
hush fell over the villagers. Several of the villagers were lying on the ground, some had
fallen from the blast of the volatile fluids in the snakes’ bodies suddenly expanding and
others had fainted from sheer physical exertion.