At Bullgore Station, the evening meal is mostly meats. Apparently, human beings can remain healthy on meat alone provided that they eat the whole animal. However, the Rogaviki add:
fish
fowl
eggs
breads
mare's milk
mare's cheese
fruits
herb teas
beer
mead
wine
liquor
- an impressive list although it excludes vegetables and coffee.
Are the Rogaviki a bit like the Freeholders in "Outpost of Empire" in Poul Anderson's Technic History? Apparent savages who defeat Imperial invaders.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, but the Freeholders were actual human beings. And did not entirely defeat the Empire but came to a compromise with it. The Empire could have utterly crushed the Freeholders if it had wanted to.
Ad astra! Sean
Given the Roaviki demographic pattern, the Empire could have destroyed them simply by a policy of tip-and-run raiding.
They don't breed fast -- most of their women don't breed at all.
So just kill more than are born, and in a while they'll collapse.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Or have raiders killing those bison herds the Rogaviki were so dependent on. The effort expended trying to protect them will expose the Rogaviki as well to that kind of "tip-and- run raiding."
Ad astra! Sean
Incidentally, Paleolithic humans and other hominins mostly -did- have meat-heavy diets.
Stable bone isotope ratio analysis indicates that Neanderthals ate nothing but big grazing animals, for example.
They hunted mammoths, too. And occasionally they went after cave lions, probably for religious/symbolic reasons.
Cave lions were lions... but averaging about 1,000 pounds weight as adults. Big as a medium-sized horse, in other words.
The Neanderthals hunted them with clubs and stabbing spears...
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Those Neanderthals were tough hombres!
Ad astra! Sean
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