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Setting an Enemy's Town of Fire

Sometimes revengeful enemies creep up to a village in the middle of the night. If they find the watch asleep and the town quiet, they approach it in dead silence. They shoot burning moss, fastened to their arrow heads, onto the roofs of the houses. Since the roofs are made of palm branches, thoroughly dried by the summer sun, they burn readily.

As soon as the attackers perceive that the roofs are aflame, they flee. It is very seldom that they are caught, for the people of the village have no time to pursue them; they are all occupied with fighting the flames. However, the damage done by the fires is small; it costs no more than the labor necessary for erecting new huts.

Monday, 15-May-95 14:17:42 PDT