THE SHENDAR TOILET |
Though doing all things like cooking, weaving, eating and talking on the
floor, the
Shendar, having a high hygienic standard soon have
invented the toilet named after them.
The Construction.
The toilet meets all requirements needed for such a device: It is comfortable,
the needed things easy to reach and it is easy to clean, or get rid of the
disposals. The most important thing needed for it is the mil'no
plant. As a plant adapted to half arid to arid conditions some
varieties grow near every oasis or water hole and often in places without open water
as well. Its young leaves are smooth and soft and have the ability to suck in
water drops immediately. The main characteristic however is its very strong
fragrance and sterilizing properties. Even in dried state it has a very strong,
though not unpleasant smell - the older the leaves, the
stronger it is. This plant is harvested by the
Shendar in
regions like the mountains around Nirmenith or the Yar'Dangs
north of Strata where it grows in abundance
and is dried by the Shendar
for later use.
The toilet itself: It is possible to sit on a
construction of planks, which are planed very smoothly,
oiled and then impregnated with the juice of the mil'no
plant. These planks lay on four stools constructed with
three sticks each, two longer and a short one, about half a palm thick and
bound together with leather bands. The planks can be fixed to this stools, but
removed easily as well, to be cleaned or replaced if needed. Under these
planks, in the right place, a
wide bucket is positioned, consistingt of thick leather
with a wide opening.
In the simple version one sits on the first, broader
plank and holds on the other, smaller one in order not
to fall into the bucket. An even
more comfortable variation has two additional small boards,
90 degree to the two main ones, loosely fixed, which can
be adjusted to the desired width: Sitting there is in fact very comfortable.
On bottom of the bucket is a layer of sand, followed by a thin layer of dried
mil'no plant. Between the left
two stools a smaller bucket is hanging with fresh leaves for cleaning purposes.
These leaves are for cleaning the backside.
When finished the excrements are covered with dried leaves of the mil'no
plant and then all is covered with some sand provided in an extra bucket
hanging between the right two stools. The buckets are emptied and cleaned as
often as required, the debris buried away from the water but in reach of the
roots of a plant.
The mil'no tent contains a bowl, a jug with fresh water
with a few very young mil'no leaves swimming in it to
clean face and hands and a bucket for the used water as well. When available
the icemilk is
used as well for flavoring the water and adding a refreshing component.
History.
The mil'no plant is in use as far back the Shendar
can think. The toilet
itself evolved over the time from a simple save place inside the housings to
the comfortable form of today over a long period of time.
First the Shendar
looked for relief as many do still today somewhere outside
their camp. But with the dangers of the desert night with snakes,
scorpions, desert
lions and other predators on the hunt first women held
their kids inside and provided them a place where to go if this special need
arose.
This was imitated by the whole society after some time and a place inside the
camp was separated for this purpose. It was in the beginning simply a hole in
the ground, which was covered with sand - and already mixed with the dried
mil'no plant.
But after a time it was clear that when returning to the same place or water
hole it was not always possible to avoid the place where the last mil'no hole
had been and so the Shendar
started with buckets inserted in a hole in the
sand. These could be removed and emptied at an appropriate place.
Though this was a big improvement, the mess around the bucket, which wasn't
possible to avoid in every case brought forward the idea
or solution to this problem. With the bucket placed exactly where it
was needed, possible if sitting better above
it, the Shendar
toilet was invented already some hundreds of years ago by a man whose name isn't remembered by now, but he isn't
forgotten...
Information provided by
Talia Sturmwind
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