Tristolaria Day 4 - Creative Writing

Day 4: “All Hail Anktu”.  This seemed to be the main form of greeting between everybody, whether formal or informal in Tristolaria, - "the greeting of choice".

This caused me to resolve to find out more about Anktu Robircha. As I mentioned in an earlier
posting, Anktu had obtained the methodology of using moss to make bread from Finland. This was
seen as a daring escapade in Tristolanian mythology, perpetrated by a man who had become a
national hero. In truth, I suspect that the Finns were glad to get rid of it. It was only ever used as a last
resort for example during times of great hardship as in a situation such as the second world war.

On the plus side however in Tristolaria, the situation had been dire. Starvation was ever present as
food crops would not grow easily in the climatic conditions and animals were even rarer.

Birds did breed in the country usually nesting on the ground as trees were few and far between. This
later fact meant that arrows were not easily come by (you need fairly long straight branches to make
arrows that hit the target) and as explosives were unreliable due to the weather ( yes you guessed!)
hunting birds was basically done by slingshot. A hit and miss method, unfortunately more miss than
hit in the hands of the Tristolarians.

Gastropods (snails to you) were plentiful, and frogs were everywhere but after a very unsuccessful
trip to France, the eating of snails and frogs legs was banned by  A.T. Zalekiat, whilst he was still
Chief Minister and was never revived. And frankly who could blame the population.

In this situation, the ability to make bread from moss was a real godsend, manna from heaven, you
could say. It was no surprise to find that an image of Anktu had been put slap in the middle of a new
currency note. A decree from on high had introduced a new high denomination note, just to please
the man (and woman and child and - more of this later) in the street and score a political point from the "victory over hunger campaign". This led to a career for Anktu from which followed to the
introduction of several further uses for moss elevating his national popularity to previously unheard
of heights.

The growth of industry and the raising of living standards for the whole population led to his
becoming a legend in his lifetime. His present project is the search for a waterproof fabric
manufactured from moss, or its products. A subsidiary project is the search for a potential candidate
as a food animal i.e. one that could exist on moss, rather than grass. In this latter project, rumour
had it that he has again been in Finland. But more of his life's works in a later posting. For now here is the 1024 bryta note in all its glory:-

I did manage to obtain an old copy of the original image used for the note, I was absolutely sure there was something about this face (that hat, that beard) , that pipe and that shillelagh that I thought that I  recognised ..... but couldn't put my finger on it at all. More to come on this issue I expect.

After a little thought, I pencilled in a little more hair…..which seemed to belong on the face. And did I say that he was only 3feet 11 inches tall (without the hat).