copyright © 2006-2010 Dennis Paul Himes
The contents of this page are preliminary. They won't become canonical until the first complete version of the Tale of Tifa Walbatnuwa Siina is up. - DPH
This was originally written in the Seezzitonian language in about the year 456'2. The events of the story take place in the years 332'2 to 334'2, or about 1526 BCE by our calendar.
The Tale of Tifa Walbatnuwa Siina is based on a true story. Just how true is not certain, but several of the major events of the story are supported by the historical record, and, except for a few minor anachronisms, none of the events are contradicted.
This is the first known version of Tifa's story. Whether or not it was the first to be written, it was the first to become famous. It became very popular as soon as it was first published. In the years since many version of the story have appeared, the most famous of which is the play Tifa Siina written by the DDiimudonian playwright Meenoa Xixa in 101'1'3. Today, Xixa's play is better known than Maamala SSamauwa Enissowa's version, and most new adaptations are taken from Xixa's version, although Xixa himself certainly drew mostly on Enissowa.
Not much is known about Maamala SSamauwa Enissowa. Only a handful of works of his survive, all historical narratives, all but this one set during the imperial conquests (i.e. hundreds of years earlier than the time of this story). His name tells us he was from Enisso. Tradition says that he spent much of his life on the island of DDiimudo (i.e. Tifa Walbatnuwa's home island). The Tale of Tifa Walbatnuwa Siina was by far the most popular work of his during his lifetime, or, indeed, during any period.
The original text was not divided into chapters. The division into chapters used here originated with an edition published in 113'3 and has become traditional.
A Domubwaina was a man who had mated with a wainu.
Which of course makes Tifa and Nomemu first cousins. However, incest taboos only applied to matrilineal relationships, and Tifa and Nomenu were not matrilineally related.
The Pozino culture, which Tifa was a member of, was a marriage culture. A man joined his wife's family after marriage, which is why Tifa's uncle is a Jaama and not a Siina. Pozino marriages were usually held in the month of Peebezit, in the late (Northern Hemisphere) summer, which would make the couple newlyweds when the woman next went into heat.
Normally a Pozino man would not mate outside of marriage (not openly, anyway), but exceptions could be made for prestigious matings with a woman from another non-marriage culture, and no mating was more prestigious than with the wainu. When Laasa Vituwa conquered Pozino he declared that from thenceforth the first mating of the wainu each year would be with a member of the Siina family, which was the most prominent of the Asemeeaa clan families which had ruled Pozino for hundreds of years. The Elder Brothers would pick the new domubwaina every year from among the unmarried Siinaa.
The Elder Brothers' name (Dadneenaa Laalaa Yeexaa) was misleading, as they were mostly not brothers. They were husbands and brothers of the women in the main line of the Siinee family. Specifically, any husband or brother of a First Mother or a First Mother's daughter. Of course, when an unmarried First Brother married, he was no longer in the family and therefore no longer a First Brother.
The First Mother (Wau Lulu Siinu) was the symbolic matriarch of the Siinee family. This office was held for life, and was inherited by the eldest daughter. Although the First Mother had a lot of influence, she was not really a matriarch; the Eldest Brothers really ran the family.
Because he had been the member of the Siinee family chosen to mate with the wainu that year. Poto was where the Central Royal Family, (including the emperor and wainu) lived.
Walbatno is a circular lake, only about half a mile (.8 km) in diameter. It is the symbolic center of the city of Xaulbato (although it actually was, and is, on the western side of the city). According to tradition, Xaulbato began as a settlement on its shores. During the time of the story, it was lined with mansions belonging to the great families of Pozino, along with some temples and a park. The Siinee house, was, as the story says, at the lake's northernmost point, although the Jaamee house was actually more south southeast than due south. The two rivers were the lake's inflow, to the northeast, and its outflow, to the southeast.
When the imperial capital was moved to Xaulbato, about 120 years after this story was written, an artificial island was built in the middle of Walbatno, and the new imperial palace was built on it. This palace still stands. It's now a museum.
Walbatno is an amazing place in modern Xaulbato. There is a law restricting the height of buildings to the building's distance from Walbatno, plus a small constant. The effect of this is that when you stand on the roof or a balcony of the imperial palace you're at the bottom of a cone consiting of tops of buildings stretching off into the distance on all sides. Buildings in modern Xaulbato peak at over a mile in height so the cone is over a mile deep and several miles wide. Sometimes the edge of the cone is in the clouds and you're at the bottom of a bowl of open air with a cloud lid.
Tifa's mother's name was derived from the name of the lake.
Naasenopiit are a large variety of naasmiit, a grain which in one form or another constituted a major portion of an asit's diet in the Imperial Era (and still does today).
Patujee is a fruit drink.
Because EEta is himself both a (former) Siina and a domubwaina.
When EEta mated with the then wainu Suseu Umuwu the mating produced Sifu Suseuwu, the current wainu.
Since it was not mating season no one would think twice about a man and a woman being alone together.
Of course, the typical visitor to Poto would not be able to get an audience with the emperor, but someone from a prominent family such as the Jaamee would.
to conquer it and found the Empire
The chosing would mostly be a formality. A woman of her class could marry pretty much any man of the same class whom her father didn't disapprove of.
"Center of life" (Meenoit Feeboneeyit) was another name for the wainu.
The Polpinoitist religion (at this point in history, at least) taught that life flowed from God to people through the wainu.
Note that Nomenu considers sharing a mate with a wainu to be be a greater honor than sharing a father with her.
By the SSildifian calendar (which is still followed throughout most of Umuto today) the new year begins with the Southern Hemisphere spring equinox, which is the fall equinox in DDiimudo. The Elder Brothers would announce their pick for the Siina to mate with the wainu during the new year's celebrations. Since the first mating would happen during the early Southern Hemisphere fall, that gave the domubwaina-to-be half a year to travel to Poto.
When a man mated with a woman it was traditional that he present her with a present. It was also traditional for a guest to give a present to his host upon arrival (and receive one from his host upon departure). Tifa would not actually have made either of these presents, but would rather have had them made and paid for them.
Elaborate belts were common among upper class women. Gold is an ever rarer metal on Umuto than it is on Earth, so a belt made of gold (or more likely, with gold decorations on a sturdier base) would have been a valuable present, suitable for wainu.
The Tauwo Campaign, by Tifa SSamuwa, was an account of the conquest of the Tauwo region by the general who had lead the campaign. This conquest put the final piece of the known world into the empire. The gift would have been an elaborately decorated book known as a siftebinseesit. It has been speculated that there was some significance to the fact that the general had the same given name as Tifa Walbatnuwa, but most scholars think that's just a coincidence.
Throwing money into the sea at the beginning of a voyage for good luck was a holdover from pre-Polpinoitist pagan days. It was officially disapproved of but commonly done. It is still done by sailors even today.
Actually four zzaatiit, which would be about 11 and a half inches.
Money during this time (and during most of Umutonian history) was in the form of metal bars, about three quarters of an inch in diameter and of varying lengths. It was manufactured in long lengths (often about six feet) and cut as needed to make smaller denominations.
Imumo is a bay on DDiimudo south of Xaulbato.
Four red naaxit fish were the symbol of the Siinee family. Ships during the Imperial Era had painted sails indicating their owners. Imperial ships would have the occluding moon symbol.
Xilit means "hope", or "desire".
An interesting aspect to the study of alien sapients is the variations in the order of scientific and technical progress. For the most part Imperial Umuto was similar in technology to that of the early Roman Empire, but shipbuilding was closer to that of a millenium and a half later, which is perhaps not surprising on a world which consists entirely of islands. The ships of the time could, in fact, have reached Naadad without much problem, had they known that it was there to be reached.
A ship's captain (daadota) and a secretary (zbeena) would be ttazbaa, or members of a social class intermediate between Tifa's and most of Tifa's servants (or ship crew). It was conceivable, for instance, for a ttazba to marry a Siinu (at least at this point in Imperial history), something which would be unthinkable for an ordinary sailor, for instance.
I've made this climb. It's not high, but it's steep even by Umutonian standards. Asiit are in general much better climbers than humans, but I've been told that this is considered difficult even for them.
You'd be right if you thought this might be foreshadowing. However, a human (at least in my culture) might misinterpret it. Being rained on was considered fortunate in the Imperial culture.
Naaxapo was the ancestral home city of the Siinee family. At this time, however, the Siinee had lived Pozino for hundreds of years and Naaxapo was just a fishing village. Still, members of the family would often visit when sailing down the East coast of DDiimudo.
Southern DDiimudonian burial customs included planting a tree over the grave of the deceased, at least for that of a prominent asit. An ancient graveyard would become a small forest.
The point on the Southern tip of DDiimudo.
The open sea between the island of DDiimudo and the Inono Islands.
"The Thousand Islands" are the Inono Islands (a sub-archipelago to the SSildifian Archipelago). Maamala SSamauwa actually writes, "the 576 islands", but that sounds like an exact number in English. In the base 24 number system of Seezzitonian, however, it's a round number (24 squared). "The 576 islands" was a set phrase for describing Inono, and not meant to be taken literally. Depending on how you count them, there are actually over a thousand islands in Inono.
Blo was the island on which Maamala SSamauwa Enissowa set another of his stories, The Missing Pirate, which took place hundreds of years earlier, when Inono was the northernmost part of the empire.
Normally asus go into heat in the autumn, when the temperature starts dropping and the days start to shorten. In tropical areas such as Inono, however, there are no seasonal triggers. An asu there will go into heat at various times due to several factors. It can be induced, though, by sending her into a cool dark cave. (Which is not as bad as it sounds, as some of these caves are very luxurious.) In Inono this was accompanied by a ceremony which involved pouring water on the asu. It was an honor to the domubwaina-to-be to have him pour the water.
A doddima is the ruler of an island.
Misso and Meelo are small islands in Inono whose claim to fame during the Imperial era was one of the largest titit bridges ever seen on Umuto. Titiit are sea animals which look like small crabs, but which behaviorally resemble social insects. They build large structures in shallow water, usually where there's a strong current. Besides providing living quarters and defense, these structures contains traps for creatures drawn through it by the current. There was one of these structures between Misso and Meelo, about a quarter mile long, which was high enough and strong enough to walk across. The titiit abandoned it suddenly around the year 432'3 (676 years after Tifa's visit). It's still not completely understood what causes titiit to abandon their structures.
In spite of having three moons, tides on Umuto are less than on Earth, even when the moons are aligned. They're still large enough to be noticed, though.
Zvano is the northernmost major island in Ponomo. The equator crosses it, and Meenoit Umutoyit is on it.
This is a bit of poetic phrasing from Enissowa, based on the supposition that, being at the center of the world, the Meenoit Umutoyit would be right under the center of the sky.
This practice was customary for travelers visiting Meenoit Umutoyit while travelling from one hemisphere to the other, especially (as Tifa was) for the first time. The first touch would be at the corner in the direction of the originating hemisphere and the second in that of the destination hemisphere.
Sa Umuwa was the emperor's brother. It was customary for the governor (domineeddiima) of Ponomo to be a high ranking male in the royal family.
A xijzzait is one of an order of very large fish, roughly equivalent to a whale on Earth. The largest xijzziit are in fact larger than the largest whales, although the one butchered here was probably somewhat smaller. The xijzzait would of course not be butchered by the governor himself, although he probably made the first symbolic cut. The resulting xijzzait feast would feed a great many notables and their servants, with plenty left over.
A seeddo is a kind of tree, tall even for Umuto. It only grows on the island of Enisso.
Enisso was the home island of Maamala SSamauwa Enissowa.
Jaivo Point is the northernmost point of Enisso.
Vbelo is a city in southern Enisso.
Fpaamo is a city in the region of Seezzito on the island of Poto. It's a port on Pateexo Bay. It was at this time the second largest city in Seezzito, and the third largest city in the empire.
The Southern Islands celebrated a summer festival from the 13th to the 20th of IIvbezit. One popular activity during this festival for young asaa was to climb a tall thin pole. Often this was done as a race. Sometimes the pole was greased. Even though asiit are very good climbers compared to humans climbing the festival pole was not a simple task.
The perplexing thing about this passage is that climbing festival poles was generally not done by upper class asaa such as Tifa. The significance of Tifa's doing so has long been a matter of debate among scholars of Imperial literature. Some say that it demonstrates Tifa's ignorance of southern customs. Others say that it demonstrates Tifa's competitive spirit. Others say that it's forshadowing an event later in the story in which Tifa participates in an athletic contest.
Yeepo was the capital of the SSildifian Empire.
The mayor of Yeepo was was an elected office, although only a small percentage of Yeepo residents were elegible to vote (and some voters were not residents of Yeepo). The mayor's power was limited, as the emperor made all of the important decisions for the city. The mayor, however, did have the right to appoint one of the five members of the Succession Council
A city scarf was, earlier in Potonian history, a physical verification of permission to be in a city. It was given to visitors upon entering and surrendered upon leaving. At this point in history, however, that practice was long obsolete, and only lived on as a symbolic gift to honored visitors. In Vermont, where I come from, symbolic keys to a city sometimes serve the same purpose.
The Miller's Palace was the royal palace while Yeepo was the imperial capital. It's on the top of a hill named Miller's Hill. According to tradition, a mill had been located there sometime in antiquity.
The Miller's Palace was actually a complex of buildings, some of them eight stories high, covering dozens of acres. Most of it was destroyed during the World War, which began in 328'1'3 (1148 years after Tifa's arrival in Yeepo).
The White Hall (Xaminaazzo SSamapo) was a large room in the main building of the Miller's Palace. It no longer exists, but many representations of it survive. It was mostly built of white marble.
The River Spear (Ufonit Peepoyit) was a golden spear which was a symbol of Imperial power. According to legend it was solid gold, however it was tested during the First Scientific Revolution and was found to be insufficiently dense. It is now lost. Finding it has become a common plot device in asit fiction.
Because she's been ill, and therefore out of the sun. It should be noted that because asus go into heat during the autumn and winter pale skin can be sexually attractive to an asa.
SSamau (which also happened to be Maamala SSamauwa Enissowa's mother's name), means "white (woman)". This is a reference to her fur, not to her skin.
Mixing water was (and still is) a common metaphor for sex. This is a reference to Tifa's impending mating with the wainu.
Orderliness, in the sense of creating and preserving order, was a highly valued virtue in the Polpinoitist religion.
Feather cloaks were made of the equivalent of bird feathers. There are two classes of animals on Umuto which fulfill the role of birds on Earth, and while neither of them have feathers as such, some have hair which comes close, and that is what this cloak would be made of.
The report which Tifa handed to the emperor was just a summary of major events in Pozino over the past year. His ship, however, would have also carried more detailed reports from various imperial officials on DDimudo to various officials in the imperial capital. The emperor's understanding of how the northern empire was faring would depend largely on this kind of report.
Seezzitonian generally eat four meals a day, upon rising, in midday, late afternoon/early evening, and before retiring. I've named them breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper in English. One peculiarity which was originally unique to Seezzito (although it was adopted by a few other places during the Imperial era) was the practice of eating only sweet food during lunch. As I explain it to human visitors, "They eat dessert for lunch.". This is generally instead of, not in addition to, dessert at other times of day.
the emperor, Aspa Umuwa
As in the English translation, the Seezzitonian uses the present tense where the past would be expected. He is clearly refering to Sifu.
Every year during the Bridge Day festivities a series of sspentufee matches were held in the Yeepo area, culminating in a championship match on Bridge Day itself for the Imperial sspentufee championship. The champion's prize was the right of first mating with the suyeu. This was the only opportunity for a lower class asa to mate with a member of the Central Royal Family.
He means a man from a family of no status.
She used words here which specifically refer to a competition for the right to mate with a woman.
This, of course, describes Tifa's impending mating with her cousin, Sifu.
This is not a set phrase. She deliberately said "can take" rather than "take".
Tifa's secretary. Two or three other servants would also have come along.
Probably in vehicles pulled by noit, which are bovine animals, although they can travel faster than most Terran bovines.
A road which runs along the right bank of the Pafo River.
Literally "the chest of".
The DDiizzo Mountains, the highest in the southern archipelago.
The No Mountains, in between the Pafo River and the ocean.
the source of the Pafo River, in the Xaapo Province
That is, the meanings of the glyphs carved into the cliffs. Everyone speculates on their meanings when they're first encountered, myself included.
Because he will have touched all five Poinop. He is speculating about future years, since DDiilo is at the other end of the SSildifian Archipelago.
This is a somewhat strange passage, because Lo is not on the way to DDiino. It's a significant detour. It's been speculated that Maamala SSamauwa put this passage in because he wanted to mention all of the main tourist sites on Poto (or that he added Fuwo for that purpose -- without the trip to Fuwo passing Lo on the way to DDiino makes more sense.)
Lo is an ancient site in Xaapo near the Pottapo border. The stone refered to in the story is a round flat boulder, about forty-five feet in diameter, which has a glyph carved into its top surface. As with the glyphs along the Enlatto Cliffs it is hard to date because it has been repeatedly deepened to counteract the effects of erosion.
The stone is in a small field, a couple hundred feet across, on one side of which are some cliffs rising a hundred feet or so. At the base of these cliffs, facing the stone, are eleven caves. The wall of these caves contain numerous paintings and carvings, mostly pictures of asiit and glyphs. These paintings and carvings can be reliably, if imprecisely, dated, and were made about 1'1'1'1'1, about 26,000 Umutonian years ago. The glyphs of the Lo stone and the Enlatto Cliffs are similar in style to the glyphs in the Lo caves, and in fact there are some duplicates in the caves and on the cliffs, so they are thought to be related, and probably made about the same time.
Lo is also the Seezzitonian word for "somewhere", but this is thought to be a coincidence.
Zinzbeltu's Trail is a trail which travels the length of Poto, mostly along the ridge of the DDiizzo Mountains. The part Tifa walked goes along the cliffs above Lo, overlooking the stone.
According to legend, Zinzbeltu's Trail was made by an asu named Zinzbeltu, who is credited with making pretty much every footpath in the SSildifian Archipelago, as well as being the first asit to summit every mountain there. Zinzbeltu is the feminine version of zinzbelto, a plant whose leaves cause irritation when touched, similar to Earth's poison ivy.
Itpiit (singular itpait) are a large food animal. They look somewhat similar to hornless rhinoceroses.
Naasmop is a general term for several different related types of grain, which in one form or another constituted a major portion of an asit's diet in the Imperial Era (and still does today). While growing, a plant of this grain is a naasmo (plural naasmop). After it's harvested each grain is a naasmit (plural naasmiit).
Jaujo is a squash-like vegetable. Similarly, the plant is a jaujo, and the harvested vegetable is a jaujit.
DDiino was the capital of Pottapo Province. It was the largest city on Umuto at this time. It's still one of the largest cities on the planet. At its heart is a hill, DDiino Hill, which is actually not very high, but seems so because it's surrounded by a flat plain as far as one can see. On top of this hill is a castle, which was originally a small walled town. This castle was, during the Imperial Era, the seat of the DDyauwee family, the rulers of Pottapo before it was conquered by Seezzito. The DDyauwee family was still very powerful. They owned much of the fertile farmland of Pottapo, and appointed one of the five members of the Succession Council.
DDiino Castle at this time was stone in its lower levels, and wooden in its higher. It was the tallest building in DDiino (and perhaps on Umuto) without even considering the fact that it was built on the crest of a hill. It was destroyed in 329'1'3 (1149 years after Tifa's visit) during the World War.
Ela Jauwa Doya was nephew of Ela Popipuwa Dona, the head of the DDyauwee family. Doya was a title meaning "heir apparent". The Doya had the right to the second mating of the wainu (providing that her first mating, which would be with Tifa this year, did not result in a pregnacy).
A nisfait xapoyit, or house banquet, is a Pottapo meal for an honored guest. This term is used for meals served by families of any status. A house banquet by the DDyauwee, such as Tifa recieved in DDiino, would be a notable honor, but not as much as a nisfait walzuxoyit, or city banquet, which would be a feast with hundreds of guests.
As noted above, when Laasa Vituwa conquered Pozino he declared that from thenceforth the first mating of the wainu each year would be with a member of the Siina family, which was the most prominent of the Asemeeaa clan families which had ruled Pozino for hundreds of years. The DDyauwee, which had often been given the right of first mating before then, were then guaranteed the right of second mating.
Asiit are mostly fur covered. A bur holds the same metaphoric implication as a stain does in many human languages.
The current emperor, Aspa Umuwa, was fathered by a DDyauwee.
Really more northeast. In Poto many of the geographical features extend north-northeast to south-southwest, and directions more or less parallel to this direction are often informally referred to as just "north" and "south".
Umufo Lake is the largest lake in the SSildifian archipelago.
Umufo Lake is large enough that a ship in the middle of it cannot see the horizon.
Seepofmo doesn't get a lot of respect. Of the four provinces in Poto, Seezzito and Pottapo are the two of the most important regions in the history and economy of the planet, Xaapo has a lot of significant archeological sites, and Seepofmo is more or less what's left over.
A ssttino is a type of tree which grows mostly in Seepofmo. The branches of this tree merge with neighboring ssttino trees forming a connected network which can stretch for miles. These trees are big enough that an asit has no qualms about walking along all but the smallest of these branches, even though they're high enough that a fall would be fatal. Nowadays most of them have railings, but I've walked over some which haven't, although I've never been quite at ease doing so.
The trunks of these trees are made into dwellings and put to other building-like uses. A ssttino grove is in fact a whole city above the ground.
Although I use two words, "ssttino grove", the Seezzitonian uses one, ssttiino. It's believed that this was originally an archaic plural of ssttino. The modern (and regular) plural is ssttinop.
Vyo is a major pass across the DDiizzo Mountains. Zinzbeltu's Trail and the border between Seezzito and Seepofmo run across the height of land there.
Tifa attempted his crossing of Vyo in the middle of summer. Sleet in the DDiizzo Mountains is unusual, but not unknown, that time of year.
This Seezzitonian word used here is xaddo, which is a hut for poorer travelers. It would have provided not much more than a place on a shelf (or on the floor) to sleep, and maybe simple meals. Tifa would not have been planning to stay in a xaddo; it would have been a case of making do in an emergency.
Probably a cart full of ddleelit nuts, pulled by a single noit. DDleeliit were at the time mostly grown in Seepofmo.
A ddipit is a deer-like animal. It was not kept as livestock during that era. It's not clear how Tifa came across some ddipit meat. Na Popinuwa might have bought some from a hunter, or perhaps Na Popinuwa or Tifa himself hunted it. The innkeeper would probably have cooked it for them.
It's not clear why Eza would ask this question. There was only one wainu, and she was always a close relative of the emperor. Perhaps he expressing his incredulity that some guy at an inn in the mountains would claim rights to the most prestigious mating possible. On the other hand, the word wainu originally refered to the equivalent asu in any family. Even though the documentary evidence we have indicates that this general meaning had died out long before this time, it has been suggested that it survived in some communities, and that Eza was wondering if Tifa was using it in that manner.
Meaning, "are you from a culture where an asu and an asa mutually agree to mate, or from a culture where asaa compete for the right to mate with an asu?"
It would me much more common for the asu's family to choose a mate among her suiters.
There are no marriage cultures on Poto. He most likely had never hear the word "marry" (mafeewayeesabob, literally, "we marry each other") before.
Fpilto is a small town in Seepofmo. The mating practices Eza describes are actually common to all of Seepofmo.
Eza is actually mistaken. Tifa did not keep from refrain from proposing to Nomemu because he was afraid of having to mention Nomenu to Sifu (and certainly not vice-versa). He did so because custom required that the Siina chosen for the first mating be unmarried and unengaged.
After mating season is over.
The sspentufee championships start out with hundreds of participants. This is winnowed down to eight in the early rounds. The hand rounds consist of a round robin between those eight, and then another round robin between the four top finishers among those eight. The final, championship match between the top two of those four takes place on Bridge Day. The rounds of eight and four are called hand rounds (Walasspentiit EEtidyiit) because an asit has four fingers in each hand.
No relation to EExa Bintuwa, the Xilit's captain.
Why does she use the players' metronymics here? I'm not sure, frankly.
The Seezzitonian text is "sspemudotee estoltee". In Seezzitonian "winning a mating" and "winning a contest" are each a single word, making it impossible to relay in English the smoothness of the phrase and the implied natural contrast present in the Seezzitonian.
Huge public dances are a common accompaniment to public events, even now. In the imperial period they were usually all male, but these days they're usually performed by both sexes. 1152 is a round number in base 24 (200), but this was probably an exact count regardless.
SSildifo blossoms were symbols of the royal (SSildifian) family.
This was not, apparently, a common practice for suyeus.
Although some adaptations of the story have specified what it was that SSamau whispered, most of them, including Meenoa Xixa's play, leave it as mysterious as Maamala SSamausa did.
This is actually a best of nine match. Technically it was best of eight with a tiebreaker if necessary, but regardless the first player to win five games won.
This is a literal translation of the Seezzitonian, "woloddu bodo", which has the same metaphorical meaning as in English.
This is not meant to imply that men used to fight to the death for SSamau Ujuwu. There is an old and widespread myth among asiit of the southern archipelago that during ancient times men would regularly fight to the death over the right to mate with prominent or very desirable women. There is no evidence that this was ever true, however, and most historians reject it.
Because he's traveled from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern.
The question of exactly what illness Sifu was suffering from has been a subject of much speculation among historians of the SSildifian Empire. The most widely accepted answer is baujee, which is a bacterial infection. This is not universally accepted, however.
Really a command.
Wearing red (for an asu) has long been a metaphor for being in heat. It's still common today. The origin of this expression is unclear. The obvious possibility would be a culture where it was literally true that asus in heat wore red, but no such culture has ever been identified. It occasionally becomes a fad, but clearly the fashion is derived from the metaphor in that case. It has been proposed that the metaphor arises from the fact that an asu in heat will sometimes have a reddish tint to her skin, but it's an extremely subtle effect. On the other hand, all outward signs of heat seem a lot more subtle to me than they to to an asit.
Every asit culture has its own rituals for the mating of an asa and an asu. There were certainly additional rituals when the asu was the wainu. What exactly these were, though, is not precisely known. While asiit are generally more open and matter-of-fact about sexual matters than humans, there were still aspects of it which were considered not proper for public discussion. In general, the arrangements for a mating were much more openly discussed than the actual mating.
