Characters

1. My name is Bann. I am 35 years old. I worry about my man Farr. He looks very sick when he has pains in his chest and the kneeling and bending we have to do to gather food are too much for him now. It is a hard life. I have only two children alive still after bringing eight into this world. Mall is 20 and Coll is 16. My other daughter had a difficult birth last year and died so we are rearing her baby girl. I am an old woman now and lucky to be still alive after having all those children. Most of my friends are dead.
2. My name is Farr. I am an old man of 40. I get terrible pains in my chest when I do heavy work and my back aches when I kneel and bend to gather food. I worry about those farmers that have come to stay on the high ground up the hill. They look down on us because we follow the old ways of gathering and hunting. They think we are old-fashioned and I suppose we are because our type of food is not as plentiful as it used to be, but I have seen some of their pregnant women doing work they shouldn't do, like digging up the ground and carrying heavy animals. Those farmers have less respect for their women than we do - they are all for the boys because they need their strength for farming.
3. I am Mall. I am 20 years old and my friends say I am good-looking and strong. I have a woman friend called Femm. She loves to paint and carve and so do I. Out hunting up the hills one day, I watched strange folk from a distance. They were farming, which means they were sowing seeds and fencing in new kinds of animals called cattle and sheep. I think it makes sense to farm. I sneak back through the trees sometimes to observe what they do and I have tried sowing a few seeds myself on the patch of ground where Femm and myself are building our new house.
4. I am Coll. I am a 16 year old girl. I am strong and healthy. I think I am closer to my father than anyone and I try to help him because he is not well and he is old. We love trying out sounds together or 'playing music' as some people would say. We try out things like chanting, drumming, making whistles from reeds, etc. When Mall and Femm go off to the next beach to gather food, I mind the children. My father is afraid I will take a partner from the new folk called farmers. He says life is hard for their women but I think their ways are modern and some of their boys are very decent and attractive.
5. I am Femm, 20 years old with two children, Girr (4) and Bo (2). Their father died two years ago. He ate strange plants when he was starving with the hunger out hunting in the forest and died instantly. His body was brought home and buried near our settlement: I would like the spot to be marked with a stone monument for the sake of the children. I saw the farmers up the hill making one that I would like. I am quite cheerful, making the best of things and trying to rear my children as best I can. Mall is very good to them and we are getting married soon. I love decorating and making my little house as nice as I can. I have no relations left, only the children, but Farr and Bann give me every help they can and we are all looking forward to celebrating my marriage with Mall.
6. I am Garsun. I live on the hillside. We are farmers and I don't think it fair that my mother looks down on the people who live near the beach. I think Coll is 'cool,' though it is not easy to talk to her because their language is different from ours. Sometimes I get tired of eating the stuff we grow on the farm. Coll's family know how to gather and cook things that we farmers have forgotten about.