The beginnings of Settlements

[AKA Azure]

This tale was recently told in Cerbies.



Long ago, our ancestors weren't settled folk. They traveled all the time, and as they traveled, they gathered and hunted for what they needed. Oh, they made baskets out of bark, branches and reeds, and carried bags made from the stomachs of their prey. In it they'd store berries, grains, and other gleanings. It was saved up against the hungry times.

There were not many of them, so as soon as one area was hunted out, they'd move on to another. The world was wide and there was much to see. Why sit still and see the same vistas all the time? Why stay still and work hard when a day's travel could bring you to somewhere new and untouched? Farming, for any who've done it takes work! Much more then gathering and hunting as you travel. So what would make these ancestors of ours stop and work so hard? The answer is simple, ale or brew, or one of its distant ancestors rather.

One of the containers, a bag most likely, gathered moisture in its depths. The grain there turned, and slowly changed. Luckily for us, the bag lay untouched for quite some time. When it was needed, the bag was opened and some of the grain passed around. But a strange smell arose from the depth of the bag, a...tantalizing odor

Someone, and we don't know who, tried some of that liquid and enjoyed it. He or she was wise enough to share it with others and the taste was so good, so worthwhile, they decided to try to replicate it. Unhappily for them, they didn't have enough spare grain to make enough for everyone. A clamor arose and someone else remembered that spilling grain on the ground one year, meant it was growing there the next year

So some decided to try and stay in one place and try to grow grain on purpose. They kept enough hunters with them to be able to scour the area for meat during this year. Oh, it was a difficult time, but they managed.

And when the rest of the tribe returned the next year, there were containers of fermented grain waiting for them. That was enough to convince folks to stay in one place and raise more grain. Over time they learned other skills as well - that of raising animals and making better shelters. But it all started....with a simple bag of fermented grain.