“You know what time of year it is don’t you?” He looked over at Tobal.
Tobal was puzzled, “It’s April.”
“That’s right,” Rafe said. “The full moon in March or early April is a very special time when we celebrate the beginning of spring and Osteria.”
“What’s Osteria? What’s that mean? I’ve never heard of anyone celebrating Osteria before.”
Rafe answered, “When we live in the woods we try living in harmony with nature. We try to understand the tides and energies of the seasons. Have you ever felt the energy of spring before, the energy of the spring thaw? Have you felt nature coming back to life again after the cold winter? When you tap into that energy it makes you feel alive and great! We study the natural forces of nature and how to adapt to them.
The yearly cycle has major festivals to celebrate the energy changes that are important to us. There are eight major festivals in the year. Four of them are solar festivals and four of them are lunar festivals. You will learn more about them later.”
“Consider yourself lucky to have your initiation during Osteria because it will give the added power of spring.”
“Anyway,” Rafe continued. “We are going to the gathering spot for the celebration and for your initiation into the clan. That way you’ll get to meet everybody. The gathering place is about 30 miles north of here.”
“What initiation?”
“Your official initiation into our clan as a brother. It is when you will be introduced and welcomed to the other members of our clan.”
“Our clan?”
“Forget it for now. We’ve got to get moving.” Rafe pulled out his map and laid it flat on the ground. He showed Tobal.
“You remember last night? You said we were right here,” He made a little mark on the map with his pencil. “Oh, by the way, don’t forget to make marks on these maps. Mark all of the places you want to remember.” Then he pointed to a spot on the map Tobal recognized as the campsite. Tobal nodded.
“OK,” said Rafe, “We spin the map around so it’s facing north just like before,” he spun the map around. “Have the string straight north like we did before. 30 miles is how far on the map?”
Tobal looked at the gridlines and did a quick calculation. “30 miles will put us right about here”. He pointed to a spot on the map about 3 inches north of their campsite. He noticed there was an “x” marked on Rafe’s map at that spot.
“That’s right,” Rafe chuckled. “What can you tell me about getting there?”
“What do you mean?” Tobal asked.
“Look at the map. Do we go in a straight line or what? Describe the terrain we need to cross.”
Tobal looked more closely at the map and noticed something strange. “What’s this,” he asked suddenly?
Rafe looked smug. “What are you talking about?”
“Well,” Tobal continued, “the lines get real close together and then there is just one thick dark line. It must be a cliff or ravine. Do we have to climb down a cliff?”
“That’s right,” Rafe grinned again. “We can’t go in a straight line to the gathering place. We can almost go in a straight line until we get to the cliff but then we need to find a way down into the valley from above. Fortunately I know the way down. It’s not too far out of our way and for all practical purposes, we will just head straight north today.”
“Now,” Rafe said, “take all the knots out of your cord. You will be tying new knots today.”
“New knots?” Tobal said blankly.
“That’s right, we don’t keep knots in the cord forever. We’re already where we wanted to be. The cord is a tool to get you where you want to be, not to tell you where you’ve been.”
“Oh,” Tobal said sheepishly.
“30 miles is how many knots in the cord?”
“60 knots,” said Tobal.
“Right and we’ve got a day and a half to do it.” Rafe got up. “Let’s get going.”
Three times Tobal saw deer in the distance. They were still herded and eating the browse on the smaller pine trees and scraping for fodder underneath the snow. They looked thin but Rafe told him they would start gaining weight soon when the last of the snow left.
As they snow shoed north toward the gathering place Rafe dug around in the snow and pointed out different plants. He explained their uses and showed Tobal how to make sure plants were safe to eat.
“Look,” Rafe said, “there are two ways of doing this. I can go along and point out all the things that are good to eat and all the things that are bad to eat or I can do something else. I’m going to teach you the right way. This is winter and there are not many plants around right now but in a month or two this entire area will be filled with things to eat. There will be times when you might be in a strange area or come upon a strange plant that you’ve never seen before. You might need something to eat. This one plant might be the difference between you starving or not starving. The first thing that you do with a plant you are not sure about is to pick a leaf and place it against your skin. Preferable soft skin like the skin on your belly which is more sensitive than the skin on other parts of your body.”
He dug in the snow and found a plant with some frozen leaves on it. “Hold this leaf against your belly held with a piece of cloth tied around your waist. Keep it there for a few hours and then check for signs of irritation or an allergic reaction. If you get a rash or it hurts, the chances are it is not good to eat. It might be usable for other things, but not to eat. We’ll talk about herbs for medicine later. Right now, we’re just finding food.”
Tobal took the leaf and cut a strip of gray cloth that Rafe handed him, tying the leaf against his belly as directed. Then they continued toward the gathering place. Two hours later they stopped to rest.
“Ok,” Rafe said. “Take a look at the leaf now.”
Tobal checked and there was no rash or irritation on his skin.
“The next step is to crumble them up so they are bruised and wet with sap. Now place them back against your skin,” Rafe directed.
Two hours later Rafe again asked him to check the leaf. Again there was no reaction as Tobal examined the skin on his stomach. All he could see was maybe a small red spot from the friction of rubbing. The skin was not tender and didn’t hurt or anything. He told Rafe everything was fine.
“Good, now put it in your mouth and taste it. Just taste it. If it tastes bitter or burns spit it out.”
Cautiously Tobal stuck his tongue out and tasted the leaf. Nothing happened, it just tasted like a plant.
“Now this is important. Go ahead and chew it 10 times, then spit it out.”
Tobal put the leaf back into his mouth and chewed 10 times. He could feel the flavor getting strong in his mouth. Hastily he spit the leaf out.
“It tastes like wintergreen,” he said.
“Yup,” Rafe laughed. “It’s wintergreen. Not much food value, but it has an oil that is flavorful. There aren’t many plants to eat yet so we will use what we can find.”
After he had spit out the leaf the taste stayed in his mouth as they continued. He felt his mouth go dry. Other than that there was no adverse reaction. Later Rafe gave him another leaf and told him to chew it 20 times and then hold it in his mouth. While it was strong tasting, the taste did not get any worse and after awhile became more bearable.
“That means you can probably eat the plant for food. Go ahead and swallow it.”
Tobal struggled to swallow the leaf and almost felt like throwing up.
“Don’t eat too much at a time if you are not used to it. You might get the runs.” Rafe grinned wickedly. “Getting the runs in the woods is not a very good idea.”
Tobal groaned weakly and managed to hold the leaf down. There was a knot in his stomach and he didn’t think he would be getting much nourishment from the leaf.
As they continued northward Rafe told him that wintergreen was not really a good plant to eat. It was mostly used for flavor and medical uses like making the stomach feel better. Rafe continued to dig out various plants and herbs as they went along. There was not much to find since it was early April and snow covered most of the area they were traveling. It was too early for any fresh vegetation.
They used some dried herbs Rafe had in his pack as seasoning in their jerky flavored soup that evening. Rafe pulled out a few tubes of food from sanctuary and combined it with jerky and herbs in the canteen cups. To Tobal’s surprise it was tasty and filling. They finished the meal with a steaming cup of wintergreen tea that was refreshing and pleasing.
Rafe pointed at Tobal’s pack. “There’s a book in your first aid kit about the plants that grow in this area. When you get the chance read it and study it. You need to know those plants and how to find them.”
Camp was in a small clearing much like the first one and Tobal went to bed early. He was exhausted. They had made about 20 miles and were looking forward to a fairly easy day tomorrow arriving at the gathering place in plenty of time for the celebration. He drifted off to sleep thinking about the next day and his coming initiation.
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