Page 56 - Brugger Karl The chronicle of Akakor

The Chronicle of Akakor

The merciless war of the White Barbarians lasted for three years. Three times the sun passed from east to
west before the war was over. Then the land at the Great River seemed as if it had been swept clean. It
resembled the infinite waste of the oceans where even the big ships of the White Barbarians are lost. The
savage tribes were exterminated. Barely a third of the population had survived. But the strength of the
White Barbarians was also exhausted.

For the next decades, the Ugha Mongulala had a much needed breathing space. They could withdraw and
rearrange the defense of the remaining regions. My people took courage once again. They sacrificed incense
and bees’ honey, and venerated the memory of the dead.

The tribes of the Chosen Servants assembled. They gathered in front of the golden mirror to
give thanks for the light and to weep for the dead. They lit the rosin, and magic herbs, and
incense. And for the first time in history, the Chosen Servants also sang the song of the black
sun, in pain and sorrow:

Woe on us,

The sun shines black.

His light covers the earth with sorrow.

His rays foretell death.

Woe on us,
The warriors did not return,

They fell in the battle on the Great River,

The archers and the scouts,

The slingers and the lance throwers.

Woe on us,
The sun shines black.

Darkness covers the earth.

The Advance of the Rubber Gatherers

Peace on the eastern frontier of the empire lasted only for a short period. Barely fifty years after the terrible
war on the lower reaches of the Great River, the White Barbarians had recovered from their losses. They
prepared for a new attack on the Great Forest. From Manaus, as they call their largest city, they advanced in
a broad front to the upper reaches of the Great River, the Red and the Black Rivers. And again they were
driven by their insatiable greed. The White Barbarians had discovered the secret of rubber.

My people have known the secret of the rubber tree for thousands of years. Our priests use its sap to make
medicines and poisons. They also used it for the colors of the war paint and for the building of houses. But
my people respect the laws of nature. They collected only small quantities of the rubber, as the White
Barbarians call the sap of the trees. They avoid everything that might endanger the life of the forest.

The White Barbarians ruthlessly laid waste to nature. They sent hundreds of thousands of men into the liana
wilderness, driven by the promise of quick wealth, prodded by their leaders’ weapons. Within a short time,
the formerly fertile country was changed into a desolate desert. This renewed advance by the White
Barbarians became even more dangerous for Akakor than their campaigns 100 years earlier. At that time,
they had been content with quick booty. Now they stayed on in the forests. They settled and cultivated the

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