Lands of Red and Gold #96: Footnotes of History
“Easy to condemn a man as evil for what he does, but oft better to know a man as evil for what he fails to do.”
- Attributed to Pinjarra
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Note: The following excerpts contain two kinds of footnotes. The first kind is those which are notes or annotations in the original allohistorical text, and these are marked with square brackets and initial letters FN, e.g. [FN1]. The second kind of footnotes is those added by the historical author, and these are marked simply with square brackets and the relevant number, e.g. [1].
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From “Incredible Life: Immortal Clements”
By C Ashkettle (1916) [1]. Cumberland [2]: Smith & Weston [3].
Pinjarra [FN1] was dignified and well-proportioned, with broad shoulders and well-muscled arms. His skin was dark for a man of the Five Rivers, his hair thick and curly, and he wore one of the longest beards I have ever seen on a man. He wore an anjumi like a Yadji [FN2], all checked with squares of lime green and carmine, and he wore a pendant of Mutjing jade [4].
Pinjarra habitually dressed to match the old depictions of the Good Man: a black-collared, grey tjiming that fitted loose around his neck, long sleeves with wide cuffs that hung low beneath his wrists, while the main bulk of the garment was wrapped twice round his torso and held in place with an azure sash, with a hem that just covered his knees [FN3].
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From: “Together Apart”
Karl Steinmann’s [5] classic 1944 translation [6] into English [7] of Pinjarra’s [8] original work Majura Namatji [9]
A ruler [FN4] is not a governor. A ruler watches, considers, and steers, but does not govern. A ruler’s role is to choose the right people to govern, those with the best knowledge, character and insight. A ruler should appoint their chosen governors, then leave them to act in accord with their talents.
Consider Weemiraga of the Old Empire [FN5]. A monarch of renown, of undoubted ability that men still remember and revere, six grosses to the year after his death [FN6]. Yet in truth Weemiraga’s accomplishments were as a general, not a monarch. As a conqueror, he was unrivalled, gaining new lands for the Empire, and earning such recognition that he was adopted into the imperial family, and in time chosen as emperor [10].
For all his military talents, Weemiraga failed to understand the difference between commanding an army and ruling an empire. He governed the Empire as if it were an army, giving orders based on his own understanding, expecting them to be obeyed, but never giving proper heed to the beliefs of others. His administration weakened the Empire while he ruled, through revolt and mismanagement, and provoked ruinous civil war after his death.
For it is truth that no one man can form a true government. No individual man can know everything, nor understand everything, nor rule everything. A single man must always rely on others to inform him of the many contradictory desires of the people, and in turn to implement his decisions. A ruler who tries to govern alone will weaken the people he rules.
The better role of the ruler is to appoint men to govern, watch them, and understand when to intervene and replace them. But the replacement must never be by direct government from the ruler. Everyone who governs must be overseen, and must be judged. If the ruler governs, then who can judge him? Who can stop the ruler from weakening the state, save by revolt which will only accomplish greater weakening?
In short, a ruler should bring marang [11] to the state, not govern the state.
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[FN1] While Pinjarra is more associated with where he dwelt in later life, he was born in 1675 in Natta [Goornong, VIC], a small town in what was then southern Gutjanal. The town often changed hands between Gutjanal and the Yadji, most recently a year before Pinjarra’s birth.
[FN2] An anjumi is a kind of headband that formed part of the traditional costume of men and women under Yadji rule from about the fourteenth to the late seventeenth century. An anjumi had a variety of patterns and decorations which conveyed information about a person’s place of residence and their social rank. While Clements never discussed this with me, other sources indicate that Pinjarra developed the habit of wearing an anjumi during the time he lived in Wingan [12].
[FN3] The tjiming was part of ancient, traditional costume in the late Imperial era and in its successor kingdoms, particularly Lopitja [13]. Clements described it to me as part of ancient history, but for all his recollection of the past, he did not take much notice of how it has undergone a recent revival.
[FN4] The term which Pinjarra used for ruler was ariki, which he borrowed from Māori. He appears to have wanted a neutral term for leader which did not have any previous associations of king, emperor, or priest. This was a linguistic innovation; no previous examples have been recorded of ariki being used in such a sense, although the usage was adopted by many who were influenced by Pinjarra [14].
[FN5] Weemiraga ruled the Watjubaga Empire [15], as it is most commonly known in modern times, from 838 until his death in 853 AD. The year of his birth is not certain, but is thought to have been about 780. First a general and then an emperor, many anecdotes of his life survived during Pinjarra’s time, and some still persist until modern times. Pinjarra used tales of Weemiraga in many of his works, not just Together Apart. His referral to it as the Old Empire was a personal affectation, since Pinjarra usually referred to the Yadji as the New Empire [16].
[FN6] During Pinjarra’s era, as now, native Gunnagal and Wadang speakers counted using a base-12 system. To Pinjarra and his original intended audience, six grosses, that is, six dozen dozens, had a similar symbolic significance as six centuries would to native English speakers.
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[1] Carl Amodius Ashkettle (1868-1935), a famous writer, actor, philanthropist, and chronicler [17].
[2] Cumberland is the allohistorical city that occupies roughly the same region as the historical city of Geelong, Victoria.
[3] Smith & Weston is a publishing house that mainly produces travelogues, natural histories, and biographies. Their decision to publish Ashkettle’s controversial biography created something of a stir [18].
[4] Mutjing jade is what the later seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Aururians call a form of nephrite jade mined near Munmee [19]. While this gemstone was locally known and mined during the pre-Houtmanian period, it became much more well-known because of the actions of Marulan, a Black [20] merchant from Tapiwal [Robinvale] in what was then the kingdom of Tjibarr. In 1676-77, Marulan pulled off one of the greatest commercial coups in history. He recognised that the Mutjing gemstone was related to the much-desired jade of the Old World. Marulan forged a commercial pact with the Tjula and Mudontji bloodlines of the Nuttana to purchase all available jade from the plague-ravaged [21], traumatised Mutjing who were still suffering under Dutch rule, and then sell it in Cathay and China for immense profits [22].
[5] Karl Gottlieb Steinmann (1899-1972), besides being an accomplished translator of Aururian and Cathayan texts, was also an accomplished poet in his own right, together with running a highly successful import/export firm.
[6] That is, the most recent classic translation. There have been many translations of Pinjarra’s works into Indo-European languages; the earliest translation of Majura Namatji into a European language (French) was completed in 1726 [23]. The most influential English translation (before Steinmann’s) was published in 1794 as part of the Magna Meliora [24], but by Steinmann’s era that translation was considered venerable at best and archaic at worst. Other, more recent English translations of Majura Namatji exist, but Steinmann’s version remains the most influential.
[7] Pinjarra knew six languages to varying degrees: Wadang, Gunnagal, Junditmara, Dutch, English and Latin [25]. His books were primarily written in Wadang or Gunnagal, as with this volume. However, he was familiar enough with the remaining languages to include apposite quotations in each language in some of his works. Some of his personal correspondence is written in Junditmara or Dutch, but no surviving correspondence was composed in English or Latin.
[8] Pinjarra (1675-1746) was an Aururian social philosopher, chronicler, historian, advocate, geologist, and visionary (among other things). By ethnicity he was a Yotjuwal [26], but there is no reliable surviving evidence to suggest that he ever spoke that language. He was born in a land which historically had been fought over by Gutjanal, the Yadji and occasionally Tjibarr, and he appears to have learned the languages of those realms rather than the then-dying Yotjuwal language. During his life he moved between the Five Rivers and Durigal several times, and almost never went outside of those realms, except for a relatively brief time as a captive of the Hunter’s forces. Some consider Pinjarra to be the progenitor of panollidism [27], although most consider him simply as part of the intellectual tradition which led to it.
[9] The phrase majura namatji was originally a Tjibarri expression but was borrowed verbatim into the languages of neighbouring states (Yigutji, Gutjanal, the Yadji and the Seven Sisters). A direct translation of the phrase is almost impossible; various translators have rendered the phrase into English in ways such as “Contrary Interdependence”, “Together Apart”, “Mutual Individualism”, or more liberally as “Uncommon Purpose”. In more recent scholarship, it is most common simply to use the phrase without translation.
[10] Weemiraga conquered the areas around historical Melbourne, Victoria and the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. See post #9 for more information.
[11] Marang is the Nangu (and hence Plirite) word which means “balance”. Here, Steinmann has actually translated Pinjarra’s original term into marang, which started as the Nangu word for balance but is now known more widely.
[12] Wingan is the allohistorical name for the town known historically as Daylesford, Victoria. Wingan is a highland [28] town near the continental divide, which was usually under Yadji rule but was occasionally captured by Gutjanal. Wingan had some gold mines that were mostly exhausted before European contact, with the excavated areas being flooded to support traditional Yadji aquaculture. Wingan was more noted for its abundant mineral springs which the Yadji emperors (among other, more recent inhabitants) believed to possess healing and restorative properties [29].
[13] Lopitja [Wilcannia, New South Wales] was the capital of a short-lived kingdom of the same name along the Anedeli (River Darling). Lopitja was founded during a period of aberrantly wet, cool climate which meant that the Anedeli’s environs became fertile, and in that time it grew to become a powerful kingdom. Lopitja was abandoned when the climate reverted to the drier norm. In modern times it is mostly remembered for being the birthplace of the Good Man, the founder of Plirism.
[14] And in one of allohistory’s little ironies, Pinjarra had adopted a Māori word to mean a neutral term for ruler at just that time when the Māori sense of the word ariki was shifting from a general term for leader to becoming synonymous with “king”.
[15] Watjubaga – in its native tongue, the Five Rivers – was Aururia’s largest pre-Houtmanian empire, at least in terms of area. (Estimates vary for its total population, although it was probably the largest in that category, too.) Watjubaga had long vanished by the time of European contact with Aururia, but it remained part of the historical memory of most of its former subject peoples. It left a considerable legacy, perhaps the most obvious aspect of which is that its core territory was still known as the Five Rivers for centuries afterward, up to and after European contact.
[16] However outdated such a term may have been by the time of Pinjarra’s death.
[17] Chronicler is an allohistorical term which is roughly equivalent to reporter or journalist.
[18] Some might even say that it had an explosive outcome [30].
[19] Munmee is the allohistorical name for the city which historically is called Cowell. During the Seven Sisters period, Munmee was one of a number of city-states which were ruled by local monarchs but which were under the broad hegemony of the Nangu on the Island. With growing Dutch influence, Munmee became an effective subject of their rival state of Luyandi [Port Kenney] in 1648, and part of a Dutch protectorate in 1659.
[20] i.e. Marulan was a merchant from the Blacks of the Dead Moon [new moon], one of the eight endlessly-competing factions in Tjibarr.
[21] That is, the diphtheria epidemic which went through Aururia during the early 1670s, with the Seven Sisters suffering its highest toll in 1672, and the pertussis (whooping cough) outbreak which struck several Mutjing cities and towns in 1674 [31]. This does not refer to the later outbreak of smallpox that reached the Seven Sisters in 1682 [32], or to the influenza which struck in the 1690s [33].
[22] The nation formerly known as China was split into two competing states during the 1630s, as plagues and famines weakened the authority of the ruling Ming dynasty. The new You took control of northern China, while the surviving Ming fled south and became known as the Southern Ming. Once they became aware of the division, Europeans gradually revived the name of Cathay (which was fading, but not quite lost) to refer to the You, while preserving the name China to refer to the state ruled by the Southern Ming.
[23] That is, only nine years after Majura Namatji was first published in 1717.
[24] A Latin phrase which means approximately “greater, better things”. A term used by later scholars to refer to a late eighteenth and early nineteenth century European intellectual movement which initially studied comparative religion, and thus translated Hindu, Buddhist and Plirite texts into European languages. Some Magna Meliora scholars expanded their translations to related philosophical texts such as Majura Namatji.
[25] Wadang is the language spoken by the dominant ethnicity in the kingdom of Gutjanal (as it existed at the time of European contact). Similarly, Gunnagal is the language of the largest ethnicity in the kingdom of Tjibarr, while Junditmara is the language of the ruling ethnicity in the Yadji realm (Durigal).
[26] The Yotjuwal are a people who lived along parts of the continental divide (Great Dividing Ranges), roughly between historical Seymour and Bendigo. Caught between the Five Rivers kingdoms on one side and the growing Yadji realm on the other, and relatively few in number compared to either, the Yotjuwal never formed a major state of their own. With the development of more organised states on both sides, some of the Yotjuwal were gradually assimilated into neighbouring peoples, although many of them retained a separate sense of identity even where they did not preserve their language.
[27] The term panollidism is derived from two (slightly misused) Greek roots, pan (all) and aollidin (in a body, together), with the later root being elided to form panollidism.
[28] Highland by Aururian standards, that is; its elevation is about 600 metres.
[29] And they were occasionally correct in those beliefs. The mineral springs around Wingan are rich in mineral salts, and so for any visitor who happened to be deficient in those minerals, Wingan water could provide some health benefits. On most occasions, however, the only benefits that Wingan water provided were as a placebo.
[30] Although others would say that anyone who makes a pun that bad should have their artistic licence revoked.
[31] Unlike many other epidemics, the quarantines imposed by Dutch, Nangu and Tjibarri authorities meant that this pertussis outbreak was contained within the Seven Sisters. Even some parts of the Seven Sisters were spared from pertussis.
[32] This smallpox epidemic first appeared in Narranuk [34] in 1681, and reached the Seven Sisters the following year. This marked the third time that smallpox had reached Aururia, but the first time it became a continent-wide epidemic. Smallpox had previously appeared twice in Wujal [35] in 1657 and 1673, after being carried on Nuttana trading ships (once on infected bedding, once spread between crew members). However, these outbreaks did not spread rapidly throughout the city, since many of Wujal’s inhabitants were already immune to smallpox, either those who had previously contracted it while sailing to the Old World, or Papuans who had survived it in childhood. Wujal’s leaders imposed efficient quarantines until the smallpox outbreaks subsided, and so they did not spread any further. A similar practice meant that an earlier outbreak of diphtheria (in 1663) had also been contained within Wujal. Smallpox and diphtheria only spread continent-wide after they appeared in other ports which were less efficient at imposing quarantine.
[33] Influenza outbreaks had happened in parts of Aururia before the 1690s, principally on the northwest coast where they were carried by Portuguese traders. However, a combination of the lower population density there (non-agricultural peoples, plus the death toll from previous plagues), more familiarity with epidemic diseases meaning that some peoples avoided contact with carriers, and the relatively rapid onset of influenza meant that these epidemics burned out before reaching the main agricultural parts of the continent. The first exception was Teegal [36], which suffered its first outbreak in the 1680s. Influenza finally spread into south-eastern Aururia in the 1690s after it was carried there by a Nangu trading ship which had been visiting Witte Stad [37] and returned home to the Island [Kangaroo Island].
[34] Narranuk is the allohistorical city which occupies the location that would historically be called Taree. Narranuk is the capital of a small kingdom inhabited largely by the Loomal people. During the Proxy Wars (1642-1661), the Dutch East India Company secured an exclusive trade deal (arms for spices) which turned Narranuk into an effective VOC protectorate. Narranuk was occupied by English, Dutch and (once) French forces [38] at different times during the Anglo-Dutch Wars, but at the end of those wars it was restored to Dutch control.
[35] Wujal is the allohistorical name for the town which is historically called Cooktown, Queensland. Founded in 1634 as a resupply station, Wujal grew quickly due to the exodus of Nangu from the Island during the 1640s and 1650s. For several decades it was the premier Nuttana trading port, although by the 1680s the other main Nuttana ports of Dangelong [Cairns] and Nerridella [Townsville] were growing into rivals.
[36] That is, the former Atjuntja lands (see post #97). Teegal is the Dutchified version of the Atjuntja name for their lands, Tiayal (the Middle Country).
[37] That is, the great city of the Atjuntja, which they call the White City [Albany, WA], and which has been translated into Dutch as Witte Stad.
[38] Or more precisely, by English, Dutch and French-backed forces. The troops used in such conquests were recruited from a wide variety of places, mostly in the Third World or Asia; the single largest group was always Pakanga (Māori) mercenaries.
[39] There is no footnote 39.
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Thoughts [39]?
