Feast of Sighs

The Dayah do not have a name for their religion; things simply are as they are.  They believe that everything has spiritual essence - called "ahli" in the Dayah language.  There is little mysticism in this; a thing has ahli in the way it might have heat or poison or wisdom.  In the great forest the Dayah call home, everything is born from a collection of its mother and father's ahli.  It lives powered by the ahli of food, water and breath, and dies when its ahli can no longer sustain it.  

A pineapple plant, man or bat may have ahli in equal measure; and the Dayah do not consider themselves greater or less than a sloth or tree by comparison.  They refer to the other beings that make up the endless forest as other tribes of beings.  Some examples of their descriptions might be "the flying people" (birds, bats and flying insects collectively); "the monkey tribe from the high branches,” to cite a particular troop of primates, or "the children of the big red fern" to refer to a notable glade of plants...

According to the Dayah, ahli is a fluid thing.  One breathes it in the air, drinks it from the water and takes it from food that is eaten - in that order of quantity.

Taking this belief to the next step, the Dayah believe that, when they linger in an area or eat the flesh of another living thing, they take that essence into themselves.  They literally are what they eat.  As such, it is not uncommon for Dayah to seek out food with traits they wish to acquire.  A teller of tales may hunt the rrratXan bird, which sings songs that last for hours and is said never to forget anything; while a great hunter may relish the flesh of super-predators, in hopes of enhancing her own prowess.

When hunting, it is believed to be important to deliver a death that is as swift and painless as possible.  Otherwise, the fear, aggression or suffering of the quarry may taint the meat, and cause imbalance or sickness in the eater via the creature's dying ahli.  It is also considered disrespectful and dangerous to let something rot or spoil - disrespectful to the creature that offered itself for consumption and to the Dayah who made the often considerable effort to acquire it; and dangerous because an offended spirit of the slain creature may call to the portions of itself that have already been eaten, and the spoiled ahli may create sickness in the flesh of the eater.  

For this same reason, the Dayah consider it a waste to let the bodies of their dead rot away.  They consider themselves just another forest people, no different from a fern or spider, and so they see nothing wrong with eating the flesh of their fellow human beings.  They do not hunt one another, any more than they hunt the pets they keep to help them hunt or gather; but when one of them dies, it would be a waste not to make use of the meat that is left.  The body is examined by the Eldest Hand (the five most elderly members of the tribe) and the circumstances of the death are considered for signs of impure ahli.  If there are signs of disease, infection or spiritual impurity, the meat is stripped away from the body and burned.  Otherwise, it is eaten.  It is considered a great gift to receive the flesh of a wise elder, strong warrior, etc.  Their bones are made into highly valued tools and their tendons are made into thread.

From a less mystical perspective, the act of devouring or systematically burning the body - of seeing it vanish piece by piece - is a way of putting the person in the past, while also taking something of them into the future.  This act is known as the Feast of Sighs - both of sighs sorrow and of full bellies.  During the Feast, the head of the deceased is removed, and given a place of honour.  It is thought that the deceased also witnesses the devouring and that this helps the ahli to disburse and move on.  The head is then taken away to some secret spot by the family, and left for the creatures of the forest, whose relatives might have given their own ahli to fuel the deceased’s life.  If, after a time, the family returns and finds there are no signs of decay (a rarity in the humid forest), it is assumed that the person had some business that has caused part of his or her ahli to remain in the world.  In such instances, the skull is removed, and the flesh of the head is preserved as a fetish known as a naama’ (literally “old head”).  These are treasured as sources of wisdom from the past.

Occasionally, outside tribes have seen these items or rites, or witnessed their own fallen warriors being consumed by the Dayah.  These folk believe that they are witnessing the acts of psychopaths or monsters; but to the Dayah, these interlopers are just creatures of a more exotic sort.  Why insult their strength and memory by not eating them?

The misperception of Dayah savagery is further enhanced by the behaviour of the Dayah during their cannibalistic rites.  The Dayah are a people who are fond of music, song and fancy decorations.  They enjoy any excuse to frolic, using songlines for navigation and telling tales as the fire burns low.  For this reason (and for the spiritual reasons outlined above) the ahli of food is often accompanied by ceremony.  In some cases, this is something as simple as cheerfully greeting Toucan as his dead body is brought back on the hunter's spear, and offering his body thanks before it is eaten.  However, the more esteemed the meal, the greater the fanfare; and the body of a gigantic (by Dayah standards) foreign warrior is considered a great prize.  They tend to be doubly vehement in these revels, to ensure that the departed stranger understands how much they are valued.  The result tends to be a wild flurry of song, dance, noise and bright colours that can be startling; especially as the assembled party cracks the marrow out of human rib-bones and places the strange quarry's head on an altar.


Technical Stuff:
Damn, this image has been a long time in coming!  It has been almost a year since my last Dayah Forest pic, and I had been planning this image for some time before that.  If the eagerness to bring this to fruition weren't enough, the Dayah section of my dA gallery has been represented by a pic of Toko Tuin Ukmal Ichi's arse the entire time.    Anyway, for those of you who like my Dayah stuff, here you (finally) go!  Hopefully, seeing some familiar faces in the crowd will make up for their absence.  
There are also a number of new faces - many of whom are unnamed.  However, special mention goes to the fellow in the middle row, second from the left, with the tree cat on his shoulder.  This character is named Glira Rujuluu Ukshang, and was created by Ndzoodzoo .  She actually created Dayah fanart; go and look at it!  ndzoodzoo.deviantart.com/art/D… .  The cat on Rujuluu Ukshang's shoulder is a mangtXi (tree cat), a species which has been mentioned in a few of my other pics (and got it's own awesome friend-art!) whom the hunter considers a brother.  I believe his name is Ra Malju Ichi Tii Glira Rujuluu Ukshang - giving him the most megasyllabic Dayah name to date!  Rujuluu Ukshang calls him "Niehi" as a nickname.  
Ndzoodzoo also reminded my of a character who appeared in my second-ever Dayah pic "The Pool," and has not showed up since.  She can be seen on the far right, with her family of kalwalla (emerald cormorants).

There is a literary accompaniment to this story.  If you're interested, it can be found here:  www.deviantart.com/djake/art/T…

Created in GIMP, using a Wacom Intos Pro
Creation Time:  Way to effing long!    I lost track of time spent a long time ago, but this one was upward of 60 hours.  Frankly, I'm tired of looking at it...  
PS:  For those who are curious - yes, the image of Toko Tuin was totally copied from a previous pic of her, edited and pasted into place.  She was originally meant to be in the foreground, but I removed her at the line-art stage, to better showcase the "feast."  I was almost finished the drawing (i.e. I had already merged the layers) when I realized that I had forgotten to draw her back in.  Don't judge me!