Chapter Seven A Suitable Helper
Genesis 2:18
For the first time in weeks, Ephron felt both relaxed and rested. Though it was not even midnight, he had slept well and eagerly anticipated working where he would not be blamed for whatever happened. He slid a cover to open a slit in the inner wall. Starlight and torchlight flooded into the room where his unmarried brothers slept. He put on his protective leather blacksmith garments and found another set of the same garments. These had to protect from the bottom of the foot to the hair on the top of the head. The Hittite custom of either not cutting the hair at all or at least leaving the hair shoulder length meant the hair had to be covered to protect it from the flames as well. Protecting the beard was especially difficult and a soft bib/apron for just the beard worked well for Ephron. It was tied to his leather cap and slid into place with very little effort. It was nice to step out into the cool air after closing the slit.
Ephron first examined the bricks he had poured earlier. It would be better if they could dry longer before firing, but he did not have that luxury. Convinced they would hold together in the fire, he loaded the first batch onto the sled, put the extra outfit on top along with some extra leather pieces for additional protection if his assistant was larger than he was. When everything was secured by two sets of iron tongs on top, Ephron dragged the sled over to the ovens.
“Are you willing to talk to your sister?”
Ephron looked toward the voice and saw his sister Hepa working beside a half dozen other women working at the various stages of baking bread.
“I am so sorry,” said Ephron. “How are you? You look well. And how is your husband and my brother-in-law, AriTesup?”
“My husband and all six of your nieces and nephews are doing well. They made many new friends among their cousins today. You really should meet them.”
“I intend to do just that,” said Ephron. “As soon as we have enough shelters so they will not freeze this winter. Oh, and have enough food to eat and clothes to wear.”
“Well, you do not have to do that all by yourself,” said Hepa. “We all know that Zohar is too ill to work. But you are not the only one who knows how to build a forge.”
Ephron stared at the iron racks for baking the bricks. He considered the difficulty of lifting the iron and silently prayed that his assistant would be capable of doing this lifting.
“Nebajoth told me that you were going to start training an assistant tonight,” said Hepa.
“Very true,” said Ephron. “But Anah and Taku wanted to choose the assistant. If they want that responsibility, they are welcome to it.”
“In this case, your father made the decision,” came a voice next to one of the bakers.
“Shelometh?” asked Ephron.
“This is not my idea,” said Shelometh.”
“Understood,” said Ephron.
Ephron examined Shelometh's cloth dress with his head cocked at an odd angle.
“What?” asked Shelometh. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Please let me explain. That's what sisters are for,” said Hepa. “Here is a napkin. It's just a piece of cloth, made of linen like your dress. We will use this napkin for an object lesson.”
Hepa handed the small piece of cloth to her brother, Ephron.
“During the tanning process,” said Ephron as he put on thick leather gloves before sliding the door to the oven's fire box open, “we progressively soak the leather in different solutions, usually oils. With the proper tanning, the leather can withstand some heat.”
Ephron took the bronze tongs and placed a hot ember on one corner of the iron sled. Next he took a small piece of treated leather and set it on the ember. The leather smoked and turned black, but that was all. Ephron then lifted the leather off of the ember. He then took the ember, which by this time was no longer red, and placed it on the small cloth napkin. It instantly burst into flames leaving nothing but ashes.
“You can still feel some heat through the leather,” said Ephron. “And direct contact with a hot coal will burn through the leather in several seconds. But your cloth dress will kill you. Even with the leather protection, cloth under the leather will still catch on fire. ”
“Well, the only clothes I have are cloth,” said Shelometh.
Ephron and Hepa looked at each other, then walked across a few dozen cubits to the dark, vacant tables and benches where they unfastened a tarp which fell down, making a dark changing area. Then they walked back to the ovens. Hepa picked up the thick leather uniform Ephron had set on top of the bricks.
“Here's a complete leather outfit,” said Ephron. “When you have changed, let Hepa examine you to be certain that you are entirely covered. I am not only talking about modesty. I mean everything – hair, face except for eyes, plus your arms, feet – everything. Anything exposed can be burned. And please bring your cloth garments to Hepa. We must be certain they are safely out of the way of any flames.”
Shelometh took the leather uniform and walked over to the makeshift changing room while the female bakers snickered. Ephron slid the door open again and filled the firebox with wood. A roaring backdraft engulfed Ephron in flames. The roaring fire died down in seconds but the snickering stopped and Shelometh watched in the distance, peeking around the curtain.
Ephron calmly backed off and positioned the first tray of bricks to slide into the firebox. There was not enough room with the burning wood, so Ephron took a long iron rod and knocked down the burning coals so that he could set the tray of bricks inside. He built up a pile of stones outside of the doorway. Two of the female bakers wearing untreated leather helped him set the tray on the stone pile. Then they stood back while he slid the tray inside. By the time the tray of bricks was inside the firebox and the door was closed, Shelometh had joined them.
“That doesn't look very efficient,” said Shelometh.
“A regular brick kiln will let us slide a tray in one side while we pull another tray out the other side,” said Ephron. “Wood fires do not work very well for brick kilns. The cities of Shinar have underground kilns with burnable gases from subterranean vents. Very efficient. This is about the worst possible arrangement. It is also all we have to work with for now. Our job is to take care of that problem. Let us slide some more bricks over.”
“We are going to just drag these bricks over here and shove them in the stove like this?” asked Shelometh.
“If you have a better idea,” said Ephron, “I am open to suggestions. Your grandfather twice removed, Anah, and my brother Taku said they had better ideas so now they have the responsibilities. Understand, a better idea means finishing ovens, foundries, and walls faster while still eating.”
They grabbed the second skid and began dragging it toward the ovens. It was easier to slide without the additional weight of the tongs, leather uniform and other tools. They left the tools at the back of the oven.
“If you converted the ovens to a kiln for a day of brick making?” asked Shelometh.
“It would take more than a day, with everyone who knows how to work on the kilns involved,” said Ephron. “That would be two days without ovens, probably three because something usually goes wrong. And when anything goes wrong, the person who had the idea gets blamed. And those people working on the kiln are the ones training everyone, so a lot of others tasks, such teaching people how to sharpen tools, collecting grains, and cutting firewood are not taking place because they are working on making bricks.”
By this time they were back to the ovens. Ephron handed Shelometh the firewood, opened a second door, and she was briefly engulfed in the flames of a backdraft. Ephron handed her an iron poker and together they made an opening for the skid. This time, all of the bakers helped to lift and it slid in place without first resting on a pile of stones. Ephron thanked the bakers and slid the door closed. They began the walk back to the forge area.
“You will notice that there are only three oven doors large enough to slide our iron skids into. That
works out very well because we only have four skids, so on our fourth trip, we slide out the first skid and replace it with the fourth skid. Then for the rest of the night, we drag a hot skid back with us, take off the fired bricks and replace them with wet bricks.”
“Is that enough time in the oven?” asked Shelometh.
“Sort of,” said Ephron. “They will be completely dry and they will be strong enough to stack. After we stack them into a kiln, the heat of the kiln will finish firing them. We could not leave them only partially fired if these bricks were not going to be reheated with enough heat to finish the firing.”
“How many days will this take?” asked Shelometh.
“Oh, we will fire, or should I just say heat, all of these bricks to build a small kiln tonight,” said Ephron.
Shelometh looked at the number of bricks still in their molds, then looked at Ephron.
“Please don't be offended,” said Shelometh. “But I believe that you have lost your mind.”
Completely ignoring that comment, Ephron continued explaining.
“And as we stack the heated bricks over here, we are building the kiln,” said Ephron. “We have two iron doors and iron runners to set the doors in already. It is just a matter of stacking the bricks properly. With the help of Adonai, we should not need to use the ovens again after tonight. And we will get many more, and larger, bricks out of a kiln.”
Except for lifting the iron skids in and out of the fireboxes, the work was not too difficult. It was certainly easier than hunting with a spear. And with the help of the bakers, the lifting was not too bad. The motives of the bakers were somewhat selfish, knowing that the sooner these kiln bricks were fired, the sooner the ovens would be left for cooking only. They fell into a silent and efficient routine.
“I thought you were crazy,” said Shelometh several hours later after another skid came out of the oven firebox and they replaced it with a skid of unfired bricks. “But we are well over half finished.”
“Lunchtime,” said Hepa, handing them each a cup of water and a cup of milk. They tore apart a large roll to pass pieces around and each had a bowl of steaming stew, sharing mealtime with the bakers.
“The firebox for the kiln is already finished,” said Ephron. “So are the four chimneys because they are part of the stone wall and were left in place. We also have two large stones to use as platforms, so, we do not need to make more bricks for the platforms. The skids will not have to sit directly on the firewood in the kiln. That is actually extremely dangerous. Not only might the skid tip and spill the bricks into the fire, but the uncontrolled heat might crack the iron or crack the bricks. But that is risk I chose to take. And if one of the skids breaks, then it is my fault.”
“Are you really going to be our queen?” asked a girl who seemed to be no older that fourteen.
“Excuse me,” said Shelometh. “I am so sorry. What is your name again? Hepa is your mother? Is that right?”
“My name is Tichu.”
“And my name is Uzuel,” said a girl who looked to be about ten. “Tichu's my sister, Hepa is my mom and AriTesup is my daddy. And I think you will make a great queen.”
“What's a queen, anyway?” asked Tichu. Everyone laughed.
“I do not think Hattus will have a queen or a king any time soon,” said Ephron. “We are a family. And families help each other.”
“Kings and queens take things from other people,” said Shelometh. “And I am not going to take anything from you or anyone else. And Ephron just this afternoon let other people be in charge of making decisions. So no, I am not going to be your queen.”
“But you are going to marry my uncle?” pressed Tichu. “That's what grandpa said.”
Instead of jumping in to change the subject, Hepa and Ephron just looked at Shelometh.
“Did either of you put her up to this?” asked Shelometh.
“Not at all,” said Ephron.
“Well, we did talk about it,” said Hepa. “But I certainly did not lead them or expect them to ask you.”
“That's not an answer,” said Uzuel.
“Is ‘I do not know’ a good enough answer?” asked Shelometh. “Your grandfather agreed to wait until his father, the ancestor of all of us, Heth, arrives. When Heth gets here, we will all talk to him.”
“That's cool,” said Uzuel. “I've never seen Heth. When will he get here?”
“Sometime next week,” said Ephron. “ Maybe a little later. And we need to get more ovens working before he gets here. I do pray that he is not bringing too many people with him.”
“My daddy says you can do things with metal and stone that no one else on earth can do,” said Uzuel. “Is that true?”
“Well, I know what I can do,” said Ephron. “And I can do things with metal and stone that no one else here can do. But I certainly do not know about everyone on earth. And just because I can do a little more, does not mean that most of you aunts and uncles, and your parents, are not as good as I am. I just do different things.”
“You work harder,” said Hepa. “You are confident that you can do something, so you go ahead and do it. Any of us could build a kiln in one night, without another kiln to fire the bricks, but only you did it.”
“Please give Shelometh credit,” said Ephron. “And you all worked on it too.”
“So why did you just let Taku and Anah take over?” asked Shelometh.
“Take over?” asked Ephron. “The only real decision that mattered was the one I was in charge of making, which was to help your family. Once the decision was made that your tribe was going to winter here, all the other decisions became necessary, but it was less important who made them. We need to know who is working where, when, and for how long. No one will be completely satisfied with being told what to do by someone else. Taku and Anah are not only competent, but they are well-liked and are likely to get more done managing the food and clothing tasks faster than I could. That leaves shelter, and the most important task related to that, which is cutting wood and stone, required a forge.”
“What's a forge?” asked Uzel.
“It’s the furnace that makes the fire that allows us to make more tools,” said Ephron. “We cannot use the ovens anymore because you need to bake more bread. When everyone gets up at sunrise, the kiln needs to be ready so others can make and fire bricks. Almost all of the adults of Zohar's tribe can do this, so there should be a lot of bricks by the end of the day tomorrow.”
“So we'll have more ovens in a day?” asked Tichu.
“No,” said Ephron. “There are no more iron doors to make more ovens. We have to make a smelter first.”
“I thought you said we needed a forge?” said Shelometh. “Now I'm confused.”
“A kiln makes bricks,” said Ephron. “We need tens of thousands of bricks. This is just a tiny kiln, but we only have three doors and four skids, so there is no need to make room for more than two skids. Next we build a smelter. A smelter refines metal ore. The large pieces of good metal that come out of a smelter are called blooms. The poor quality metal is called slag. Slag will be set aside and when we have time, slag can be used for things which do not need to be very strong, like our small oil lamps. But to make the oven doors we need good-quality iron. A smelter .. Well … it smelts the iron ore so that we have mostly the kind of metal we want.
“Blooms melt some of the slag, but a bloom has to be pounded with a hammer on an anvil to get rid of most of the slag. Once most of the slag is pounded out of the bloom, the remaining iron is less than a quarter of the size of the original iron ore. Usually it is much less, like a tenth the size of the original iron ore. Next a bloom can be heated in a forge until it is liquid. The liquid iron is poured into molds for oven doors, skids, and the like. Blooms are sometimes called sponge iron. Sponge iron can be heated even more, and forged by beating it into saws and axheads on an anvil by a blacksmith.”
“So, you do not need a forge to make more oven doors?” asked Shelometh.
“Sort of
confusing,” said Ephron, “But there are many kinds of forges. To make an oven door, we need a forge to heat up the iron to the point it melts and we can pour it. We also need a small forge for a blacksmith, or blacksmiths, to temper the axheads and saw blades. This can be after the larger forge pours them, but a blacksmith can just pound an axhead or saw blade from a bloom. But we do not have enough iron ore to make very many oven doors, saws, skids, or axheads. The best way to get iron ore, a lot of iron ore, is to get caravans to come to Hattus. That means building a bridge over the Marashantiya River, which means some of the iron ore we have must be used to make more saws and axheads and we must take at least a few days to work on the bridge.”
“So when do we get more ovens?” asked Uzuel.
“Ask Uncle Taku,” smiled Shelometh. “He wants to make those decisions.”
“Why, I do not know,” smiled Ephron.
“Well if we do not make food, then no one will have anything to eat,” said Uzuel. “So the ovens are most important.”
“Actually,” said Ephron, “We need to make the ovens out of stone. The bricks we are making tonight are not going to last very long. So it is best to make everything out of stone to begin with.”
“But you didn't mention making anything out of stone,” said Tichu.
“That's because even with oiling the saws,” said Ephron, “stone wears the tools out faster. So we need even more iron ore to cut stone, which is one reason why the cites of the plains of Shinar do not use stone. We should actually use titanium-based bronze, but we do not have any titanium ore. We would need to trade with the caravans for titanium.”
“All that stuff just makes my head hurt,” said Uzuel. “I just want more ovens.”
“Then we better get back to work,” said Ephron.
Using the slots in the floor for the iron doors from the dismantled stone kiln, Ephron and Shelometh finally had a fire going by the time the earliest group was awake for breakfast.
“I saved these bricks in a mold for a kiln test,” said Ephron. “Tawananna should be in charge of a team to spend the day making bricks.”
“Yes, Tawananna will spend the day making bricks,” said Tawananna. “Now we're even. I can sneak up, too.”
“Who's working with you?” asked Ephron. “This is the last batch of bricks in a mold and I would like them to see how this works.”
“You didn't tell him?” Tawananna asked Shelometh.
“He seems to know everything,” said Shelometh. “I thought is might be nice to keep him in the dark about something. Truthfully, I just forgot. We have been busy. We tore this kiln down and rebuilt it twice, after firing the bricks.”
Ephron was busy checking air flow up the chimney and ignored the banter.
“Our dear old Dad decided to pair us with his choices,” said Tawananna.
“Ooo!” said Shelometh. “Now you sound like me. That's not good.”
“Now what do I do?” said Elon.
“Change clothes,” said Ephron. “No cloth while brickmaking or metalworking. Cloth catches on fire. Shelometh, more wood please. We'll get this fire up to shove the bricks in while Elon can watch.”
“Stand back please,” Shelometh asked her brother.
“How can I watch if I stand back?” asked Elon.
Tawananna, already dressed in leather, opened her hand. “This is a small piece of cloth like you are wearing. Now stand back and keep your eyes on this piece of cloth.”
Shelometh slid open the door of the west-facing firebox and flames from a backdraft leaped out, surrounded Shelometh, and disappeared almost instantly. The small piece of cloth flamed and disappeared while leaving her gloved hand untouched. She then added wood and used the poker to make the fire hotter.
“Do not think that these leather outfits will provide much protection,” said Ephron. “That kind of overconfident cockiness can get you severely burned. But they do protect you from rapid flareups. Take off everything that's cloth.”
“Everything?” said Ephron.
“Everything,” said Shelometh.
“But …” said Elon.
“You are such a wimp,” interrupted Shelometh. “If your little sister can do it, you can do it.”
“Stop whining,” said Ephron. “I thought you were a very good hunter. Changing clothes is much easier than hunting.”
Shelometh shut the door to the firebox and Ephron was convinced the kiln was working properly. Shelometh slid the south door to the kiln open and helped Ephron slide the skid in.”
“When you have stuffed more clay into the brick molds,” said Ephron, “you will be able to slide them through, with two people taking one skid out on one side while two people slide bricks in the other side. For now we only have four skids and two shelves, so that is all we can do at a time.”
“That is the tiniest kiln I have ever seen,” said Yovov. Elon was changing and did not hear his father.
“Volunteering to work it?” asked his daughter. “As soon as enough bricks are poured into molds, it will need four workers.”
“I watched you,” said her father. “You are doing just fine.”
“And I am going to bed,” returned Shelometh.
Elon returned in his leather outfit, looking very much like Ephron.
“Shelometh is correct,” said Ephron. “You need four people mixing and pouring bricks. Then you need four to operate the tiny kiln most efficiently. Shelometh and I are done working the kiln, so you need to decide who has this privilege for tomorrow night as well. We are building a smelter tomorrow night. So tomorrow you will also need people to operate the kiln, but four more to operate the smelter the next night after we build it. For now, good night. May Adonai bless and keep you.”