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2012 TREASURE HUNT CLUE #9: The Bukno-Baha have a decent hunting range. What is the farthest north (nearest major landmarks) that they are known to frequent on the mainland? (Answer: They range as far north and east as the Greenstone Mountain and the shores of Sky Mirror Lake.) (This is a Story about the Human Tribes -- see listing for related stories.) Nonoli ran out from her kalu, their tent home, the fat braid bouncing against her right cheek as her loose black hair rippled in waves behind her left ear with the movement. She was not the only one -- other wives and children were looking up from outdoor chores or pouring out of their balaka homes to welcome the returning men. Nonoli's recently-chosen husband, Tamyon, had just returned home with the rest of the adult male hunters after being gone for several weeks, and all were laden with bundles of smoked meat wrapped in the rawhides of their kills. It had obviously been a successful trip. With a smile that held not only affection but also pride in his accomplishment in the hunt, Tamyon met his wife and gently embraced her. Nonoli could tell he still felt the lingering sheepishness of his large size that had first made him less than admired among the Bukno-Baha people, but she trusted his strength and openly hugged him back. Then, stepping away, she reached to the ground beside him for his share of the kill that was now her share of the dried meat and hide to prepare for food and leather use. Beckoning her tired husband to sit near her while she found a space among the other women and resting husbands where she could work, she begged him to tell her all about the mountain near that big lake that the hunters had gone to for this hunting trip. Tamyon did so, in a slow, quiet stream of few words at first, then building enthusiasm if not volume at his small wife's encouragement and interest. The hunters of the Bukno-Baha had climbed, he said, higher than the trees dared to. Once the trees fell away from the view, the lake could be seen laid out to the north, like a big bowl of sky in the ground. This sky-in-the-water could be seen from closer, of course, but from the heights a person could see so much more of the bright blue reflection at once, over a much broader expanse of water. Wild goats dared to scramble among the rocky heights where the trees did not dare to grow. The Bukno-Baha men dared, too, and brought many goats down with their strong arms pulling back bows and letting their wives' finely crafted arrows fly. Nonoli knew already, of course, that goats were the main part of the kill that her husband and the others had returned with, but she did not interrupt his story. A person could also see, Tamyon went on, that the rocks on the mountain had a greenish color. They were good knapping stones, and the hunting party had brought back many to make weapon heads from. He admitted with a shy smile that he had also picked one stone up that was too small to be of practical use as a weapon. He had just wanted to bring it home for a memento of the trip, he explained as he produced it from a small pouch and offered it to his wife to look at. With delight, Nonoli took it and looked it over in her hands. Faint green lines ran through the pebble almost like the veins and arteries that ran through the goats and other types of hunted animals she so often carved into usable pieces of meat. She wondered about it, and asked Tamyon if he knew what the green was in the stone, handing it back. She had seen, and knapped, many stone weapon heads herself, and could immediately see for herself that this type of rock would be good for more of the same type of workmanship, but this green stone color was something new to her. Her husband merely shrugged, dropping the stone back into its pouch, then spread his hands in a gesture that showed his lack of knowledge. Just a green color to some of the rock, he supposed. Nonoli nodded thoughtfully at that, then gestured with a smile for Tamyon to continue his story.
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