Starvation

I prefer to post while rereading. Otherwise, many details would be missed unless extensive notes were taken, which would be too much like hard work. Blogging remains a leisure activity although, with this subject matter, it could become a research project.

To post while reading or rereading is to engage in a dialogue. The text replies to earlier remarks. I realized that the Exaltationists could not after all have changed history in Bactria because their intelligence source, the Bactrian letter, was a fake.

I have argued that the Tulat would starve while paying tribute to the Cloud People - and Aryuk's family nearly does. They fail to deliver their last tribute for the season. Aryuk explains to Wanda:

"'This has been a hard summer. Fish, shellfish, small game, everything was scant. We went hungry because we must spend time getting things and traveling for the Mammoth Slayers...We must make ready for winter. If we worked any more for the Mammoth Slayers, we would starve.'" (The Shield Of Time, p. 206)

I still think that they would have starved by now anyway but my present point is that the text goes a lot further towards recognizing this issue than I was giving it credit for.