The San village
was akin to all clan villages in that it was entirely enclosed with one main
gate as access. The enclosure was a huge wooden fence constructed of logs as
thick as a man’s waist and towered three times the height of an average person.
Other villages used man-made and natural barriers- cliff-faces, mountains, a
ravine- but whatever it was, all villages were enclosed. For generations the
gates had nevertheless stood open. The paranoia after Drasso had gradually
ceased. Within, each family maintained abodes, from where they left each
morning to tend the fields, or to the task earning their place in the village.
Each evening, before the sun set, they returned. One day in every eight was
given over to rest…and the periodic feast day. At night only travellers were
found on the paths and ways that connected villages and clan holds, but
travellers were few.
