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Save Point: Collecting Silphium

620-617 BCE, Somewhere Near Cyrenaica

Or,

"The Laser Dealer"

Part 1

Being An Account of Certain Adventures In My Youth and How I started Out in the Trade

"(As a result of) various and many indiscretions of such nature as is easy to imagine, into which youths fall commonly without prompting, and for which reason they will not be mentioned here, some short time later I found myself in the Northern parts of Africa, specifically, in Cyrenaica, and listening to the merchants of that place, and their camels.

As all men know, who have not spent their lives asleep, just inland of the main port in that place are the fertile grounds of Israsa, known as the Gardens of Hespirides and Syrtis, and beyond that is the great Fountain of Apollo, where the Greek Battus and his men founded the city of Cyrene. At that distant time the silphium was not yet known, but for its lush growth of crops and fruit trees and of all good things, the people of that continent, known geographically as Libya, were heard to say that there was a hole in the sky there, meaning, that there was much rainfall.

Much later, and only a short time ago, less than the life of a man, there was a remarkable event in which a black rain fell over the entirety of the area, being calculated by traders as four thousand stadia in extant, based on reports from their travels of where the rain had been. Those who had seen the fall spoke of it as being like thin pitch, the fall occurring after a vast storm of thunder and lightnings more fit to Zeus than Apollo.

The rain sank into the soil, and was swiftly absorbed; and where it had fallen, there sprung up all number of the silphium plant, also known as laser, growing luxuriantly as an obstinate weed. The fields of the grazing animals and the wilds alike were soon infested with this remarkable growth.

As the silphium is known to all, grated from the stalk and as resin, whether used for healing of ills or as flavored herb, I will make no summary here. But a plant so remarkable deserves description, if only so those who have been deceived so many times by the smallest amount of adulterated and worthless resin, or tricked with common fennel in its place, may imagine the full appearance of it as it springs forth rampant in the wild.

The true herb, unlike fraudulent plants to which it has but a slight resemblance, bears numerous long black roots or tendrils, which branch outward and cling, penetrating the soil for up to a cubit in depth. Although it has a distant similarity to parsley, and the solid firm stalks of fennel, all the parts of it are equally dark and black, save only for the uncanny golden umbrel of substantial size that rises to the sun at the apex of the plant. Of the thicker stalks, one may harvest them in part to let them grow back, or make an incision to draw forth the resin, likewise taking only so much as not to kill the plant. The silphium drains the soil of its good humors and draws them into itself, so the ground beneath it becomes desolate, and the plant if killed will not grow back, leaving a patch of dead earth. It cannot be cultivated again, although one may dig the root up whole and transport it in a pot of terracotta, or by any other suitable means.

Seeing the opportunity for fortune that any man might, having found myself in a place auspicious to such, I resolved to pay close attention and involve myself; in short, to become a laser dealer.

The prospect of profit, in this occupation, lying both within and without the law, follows from the understandable desire of the people of Cyrenaica, to retain as much of the trade unto themselves as possible. But, that they may deal with foreigners, they are obliged to speak to them; in short, as much dealing may follow upon an exclusive commodity as a common one.

Having learned many things very quickly, such as how one may sharpen the edge of a coin so as to open a rivals saddlebags with silver, or defend against an unscrupulous fellow dealer, one day I was in the marketplace with my mentor, a skillful old trader who remembered the black rain, and the discovery of the silphium, and its many uses. All about, merchants knelt atop carpets, haggling to the smallest coin for sealed jars of resin, selling dried stalks and leaves cropped to length.

It happened, as we were waiting to gauge the days market, that I noticed an exceptional character there whom I had never seen before, a tall barbarian woman of great height and strength, baked to a tawny golden by the Libyan sun, with long brightly shining white teeth nipping at her lips. All her dress was of worn brown leather, studded with brass at the seams, and she was carrying on her back a bushel-basket of the dried stalks; seemingly without fear that she should be assaulted for this burden worth its weight in pure silver. I asked my master who she was.

He replied, that she was the most legendary of traders for the wild silphium; because, when the weed had sprung up, it was in many a case on existing farms, territories and claimed lands. Those who had owned such took its possession, newly become silphium farmers to maintain the growth of the plant, or where that growth was sparse, allowing the animals to graze on it for that peculiar virtue by which it improves the health and meat of the beasts. In unclaimed land there was no set ownership, and as plants need be left to grow back, if they were not to die by being removed fully, finding and harvesting became a dangerous gamble. Many of the wild plants were already gone, with those that remained in remote and hard-to-find places, fiercely protected by those who had found them first, guarded by unseen fish-hooks strung at eye-level, and hidden spiked pits.

A hunter of wild silphium must expect to be followed and stalked; to meet with danger; to weigh up swiftly hard decisions such as whether simply to tear up the root and flee, or try with patience and cunning to abstract the plant whole along with its soil and add it to some hidden farm, where it may well in its turn fall prey to the same fate again at the hands of their rival. I declared that I was seeking to make my fortune by trade, not seeking pointless dangers as some adventurer; but that she was a very attractive woman, and certainly, not short of the herb; meaning that she could enjoy herself freely in the bedchamber without fear of the consequences.

Although my master thought it unwise, I resolved to engineer a meeting with this woman; not for some night-time encounter, but to find out what she knew, that I did not. Learning that, although she made a point of taking different lodgings whenever she stayed overnight in the town, she was more likely to purchase her daily meal in some places than others, I sought to contrive at a chance encounter. I was not the first at this; neither was I fool enough to think I would be the last.

After several nights trying, of which my main benefit was only foodstuffs expensive yet delicious, at great long last I found myself finally in the right place at the needed time.