White Arctic terns beat white wings edged in black, chasing schools of fish through the strait. Black-footed albatrosses spread ink-dark, gray-tinged pinions and soared above the high coastal cliffs. This was north of the forty-eighth parallel, the border between America and Canada in later generations, the northwesternmost corner of Washington State—and the Makah whaling grounds.
Old hunter Jinghai led a dozen or so Makah skiffs, towing wooden rafts piled with whale meat, around the steep headland toward the tribal camp more than twenty li away. The Kingdom's two Longships, meanwhile, were loaded full of freshly cut whale meat and followed the Makah fleet toward the southeastern coast.
Perhaps today's hunt had brought in a rich harvest; perhaps they respected the fleet's formidable strength; or perhaps they revered the strange shaman-priests aboard the Longships... When it came to dividing the spoils, the Makah kept their promise and showed themselves quite generous.
"Main God! The meat from this one giant whale must weigh tens of thousands of jin! Both Longships are full, and we still haven't taken all of our share. We've loaded at least twenty thousand jin..."
Scholar Miki looked around the flagship at the whale meat piled up like a mountain, amazement spreading across his face. Everyone had taken part in butchering the whale, and by rough estimate there were a full twenty tons; the fleet had taken more than half. Each Longship carried five or six tons of meat, so two ships made eleven or twelve tons—more than twenty thousand jin! In all his life, he had never seen so much meat!
The Mexican plateau was densely populated, and every tribe was desperately short of meat. Commoners ate pumpkin and bean as their daily food, and often went year after year without tasting meat even at festivals. Only young