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ART, as of Monday, the 1st of December -- If you are among the select-but-growing few who have been allowed to read the previous Adam out of Eden Documents, Books 1, 2 & 3, you already know the story about Elaine and myself, Art Forest, raising a baby Bigfoot. Spanning from 20 years ago up to last September, we neatly finished the document with a "happy ending", as if it were a novel instead of a factual report. At that time we had said everything we needed to say, but our lives are still going on and now there's more story to tell, as well as more people who simply insist upon contributing to a Book 4 of our perhaps never-finished Document. Although now the focus seems to be more about the impact of Sasquatches/Nokhons upon our own civilization, so perhaps this book should rather be entitled Adam Into Babylon. We'll see how it develops.
It's been almost three months since the Nokhon Nation Project was announced to the world on Monday, the 25th of August and the number of people involved--both Nokhon and Nokhso--has grown exponentially. We started with a cadre of six "humans" and six "squatches", but now we must number about 20 of each, counting only locally active individuals. I am inclined to say that's it's coming along nicely, but we are each and all aware that there is an inevitable shit-storm coming our way--and probably quite soon. For example, we simply can't keep shyøma a secret much longer, there are already rumors afloat in the media world, and we are expecting a severe conflict with fundamentalist religious America about the Kha-rats and Nokhon sexual morality in general. Nokhons are already getting hate-mail from white supremists simply for being big and hairy-- just wait until they discover that those innocent children of Nature are all prodigiously promiscuous sex fiends under the light of the Full Moon. But for the moment, we are a happy crowd. So many things have gone right: several large governmental land allocations for the Nokhon people; the economic success of the Squatch & Friends music album, which basically finances the entire project; and our own fantastic love lives, expanded and augmented to a degree no one had anticipated. Adam and Melly... well, maybe I'd better let them tell their version, it's pretty complicated-- except that they are happy about being together at last, that part is basic. We also had a wonderful summer here in Washington State (don't always get those) and our resurrection of Naked Lake has been an ongoing social event for friends of both races. Together we built a large floating dock on one of the small lakes in our allocated forest area, put up a heavy-duty (Bigfoot-sturdy) rope swing into the water for summer fun. It has since become a first stop for new squatches interested in exploring our Nokhso culture, a half-way haven as it were. Most of the human crowd are regulars from the original Naked Lake (now logged off and thoroughly spoiled by commercial interests), so they know how to interact with a just-arrived Bigfoot: by inviting them to the party. So we have a place where the races can meet. It's winter now, but that doesn't bother Sasquatches much, they still jump into the water anyway. We hairless wee folk have stopped doing that for a while, and nobody's very interested in getting naked when it's so cold, but there's a lot of social activity out there anyway. Still working on the dock so that it'll be even better than the old Naked Lake when the warm weather comes back next season.
Fortunately, the immigration of Nokhontli into American society has not been overwhelming. Critics of the Nokhon Nation Project had warned of limitless hordes swarming like locusts, tens of thousands of hairy brute-men leaving the forests for the big city life, moving in on us to mooch our welfare system dry. For one thing there are hardly so many squatches on the entire North American continent, and for another, most of them still prefer to live as they always have-- ascetically, non-materialistically --so there's absolutely no mooching going on. As mentioned, we average about 10-15 Nokhons staying with us at a time. Most of the squatches coming to us are young (under 50 years of age), the older Nokhons are set in their ways and have no wish to rethink their entire existence or to violate Atli, their cultural law. But the young are often dissatisfied with the ancient rules and many of them come to live in one of the two big community tents we have set up for them, at least in the winter. Living collectively is a new experience for them; Nokhons are not a tribal society. Traditionally there should not be more than three-- max four --Nokhons living together, including children. Neighbors are a long way off, their population is normally spread out thin over a large area, their customs do not allow them to live in clusters or large groups. The community, mlønoli, gathers only for the monthly kha-rat under the Full Moon and then everyone goes back into isolation to continue their individual contemplation of Atli. This is how it's always been. Until now. But like people everywhere, the young are instinctively gregarious, they want to hang out with their friends. That is half-allowed while they are children but not after their Enduring and coming of age. So when they came to us they enjoy the communal lifestyle going on here, for a while at least. But a constant party can be wearying and eventually they will want to find a place of their own, especially if they had found a mate or two to live together with. Even more so because here in Betweenland they are free to make a different kind of home than the ancient traditions have demanded. The traditional bakhl allowed by Atli requires that Nokhons live in spartan and primitive shelters, being hidden from sight is more important than practicality or coziness. Here they could build much nicer homes, simple but comfortable without the requirement of being invisible. They also now have access to all the housing concepts that men have used since the beginning of time. No squatch wants to live in a two-story palace of glass and steel, but teepees and yurts, domes and sod huts appeal to them. Hobbit houses. Doug Wielson has become our resident architect; he gives advice to those who would build their own bakhl farther out in the woods, shows them examples of various time-tested designs, often going out to the site and helping assemble a house. He considers it fun, and the Nokhons are usually very happy with their new houses, featuring astounding new details such as floors, doors, fireplaces, windows, all built for free with natural materials. On and off we have among us a Nokhon Orator, The Great Dambaraggan, a highly respected shaman in his own society. Theirs is an oral culture, wherein history and law have been passed along verbally over the generations, since the Nokhontli have never known a written language. He has graciously volunteered to assist in the school we have established, both to teach young Nokhons English and us tiny hairless humans how to speak Nokhontli. We've been recording his lessons on digital video, which has proven very efficient, given the seemingly endless nature of Atli literary canon. Adam and Pokey have also been making videos to teach English so that our Nokhon guests can function in our world. For young Nokhons, who have been forbidden technology all their lives, learning by audio-visual media presentations is a major step into the modern world. And they like it. Adam, like Dambaraggan, was bred to be an Orator, and Pokey seems to be becoming one. At first Adam was the only perfectly bilingual among us, but Pokey has been studying the Nokhon language under Dambaraggan and is now amazingly proficient. Even his English has improved, considering that he'd been a lackluster D-student in High School, wallowing in the defeats of his American Indian heritage, which he has since overcome. As for Melly and Lissandra, they have been busy with so many projects that I can't keep up: but they seem to be handling their business with aplomb. Between being media darlings as ambassadors for the Nokhon Nation, successful rock stars-- and now movie stars!--they are also both serious students of anthropology at the UW, and maybe witches-in-training among Nokhontli women. And yet they still find time to have fun. Or maybe they just consider everything fun, because they both seem happy all the time. The other girls, our now-famous bigfoot beauties Magga and Masnia, have acclimated to the American Way of Life beyond anyone's expectations. Fortunately they have enough sense to maintain control over how much the media is allowed to pester them: young human media darlings are often destroyed by so much fame and money so fast, but those squatch chicks can always vanish back into the woods when it gets to be too much. They still don't quite understand money or why they should spend it on stuff they don't need. Although Masnia HAS comprehended that money is a tool of power in our society. She almost never spends it, but invests it. Masnia is wonderfully cute-- but scary. None of us knows exactly how old she is (officially 19), but suspect that she might actually be 13-17. Her age had seemed problematic when Adam arrived with his too-young lover (who is sexually adventurous and seems to have the ability to seduce anyone, male or female), but how do you judge a girl who not only learns absolutely fluent English and Spanish within months of coming out of the woods, but also the language of higher finance? She reads ticker tapes fluently too. She has also become our resident investment expert for the Nohon Nation accounts, and she's good at it. Adam says that she was bred to be an Elder, a top leader of the Nokhon race. She has clout. "Masnia always gets what she wants," is the litany and it seems to be true. Good thing for all of us she's such a sweet kid who only wants nice things for everyone else (the seductions are certainly very nice). Elaine and I are busy too, mostly with keeping Hacienda Forest running. This is the base for all operations, our big old log cabin has many rooms and we often have several guests, besides the 7-10 regulars who live here most of the time. It has also become more of a functioning farm than ever before: we grow acres of vegetables, have lots of chickens, and keep horses for riding. We grow the food for our squatch guests and teach them how to do it their selves, since agriculture has never been allowed them before. They help with all sorts of physical work, another concept they've never understood, but they like using their hands and learn fast. I haven't met a stupid Nokhon yet, at least among those who are adventurous enough to come here and join us. Elaine often expresses concern that we might be doing a disservice by teaching Children of Nature how to be dependent upon our human systems of survival; subject to weather, market economics, and installing in them a work ethic that they really have no use for. They can live on nettles in the woods, they are immune to natural or man-made catastrophes. They have always survived, that is their function: to survive when high-tech cultures collapse again and again, as they have throughout history. Elaine dreads that we will only teach them to become slaves, just like most poor humans. Adam usually mentions that: "most Nokhons want more out of life than sheer miserable survival, but until now any other option has been strictly forbidden. We are not kidnapping anyone, they only come here because they want to."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world somewhere within the Himalayan Mountain Range, the destinies of both Nokhon and Nokhso may be decided without our input or control. Everyone knows the popular Sherpa myths about Yeti --their version of Bigfoot-- but few of us know anything about the secret "city" the Nokhontli call Shamballah, their capitol and holiest of holies. It is the abode of the Ultimate Nine Elders of Shamballah; effectively, the world-wide Nokhon Government, where there has been a political restructuring going on. And where important changes of policies potentially dangerous to Western Civilization are being decided. They may, for example, decide to destroy our civilization in order to save the world from all those nasty things we tend to do to it. It all sounds so absurd: lost city of the Abominable Snowmen, a hidden Shangri-La of shamans with enough magical power to generate a worldwide EPM, capable of wiping out all electrical technology in a moment. The entire telecommunications, financial and transportation systems of Western Civilization would no longer function. Can they really do that? It appears as if they have done so before, to earlier civilizations who have also threatened nature on a global scale. A Nokhon expedition from Aket has gone to negotiate with Shamballah, but as far as we know they have not arrived yet and we only hear from them sporadically. That's not too surprising: we gave them a cell-phone with charger, but there is probably no electricity where they are going, plus the fact that neither of the two squatches nor the century-old white man are accustomed to using such complex technology. Still, we have not given up waiting for their call. In fact, Adam has recruited several young Nokhons to go with him to the Himalayas if the call for help ever comes in. They have even trained for the mission-- not with weapons, like standard humans would do --but climbing mountains in the Cascades, using ropes and pickaxes and modern climbing equipment as Nokhons generally would not.
I already have several chapters posted into ADAM II-- or Book Four, or Adam Into Babylon, or whatever we end up calling it. At the moment, for those of us involved in writing and editing, it still seems to answer to The Document. We will be posting more chapters soon as our noble staff of bold, brave & street-wise reporters finally get around to finish writing some. This is all on a Wikipedia-style voluntary basis and some of our contributors become quite passionate about telling their version. Some of the chapters are transcribed from vocal recordings of Nokhons who have added their input to the whole story. Those we translate and post here as American English text. Perhaps many of those chapters read as if I (Art) had written them myself, simply because I personally rewrite them for comprehensibility (Nokhons have not learned our methods of presenting a story: character, plot, timing, drama, comedy; it all gets crunched up together). Also, the Nokhon language uses visual signals for clarity, so squatches are at a disadvantage when it comes to expressing themselves into a voice recorder. Therefore we record with video whenever we can, but that is not always possible in the field. And although I have become more or less fluent in Nokhontli I am still not a native speaker, but if I have a problem with the actual translation I can always confer with Adam, who is still the most perfectly bilingual of us all. We here at the NNP Language Institute will try to assemble the collected chapters in a correct chronological order of events, although there can be overlapping reports across the spectrum of personal experiences, depending on who saw what and how close. Personally, I'm hoping this continuing story will be even more entertaining than the first part, which we all felt was kind of fun. Depends on what sort of trash shows up, I suppose. Well, that's my version of an intro. Lots going on just now, so off I go. Art
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