"Hey, do you see it clearly? This white thing is what I call as salt. This is what we needed."
Edward spoke and knelt down while holding a small wooden stick in his hand. He gently scraped the top layer of salt forming over the area so that he could clearly ascertain the exact situation.
"There will be some mud and sand mixed in it. We'll have to deal with that too but for now, try to collect the upper most layer of salt formed. Do you understand?"
Edward instructed one of the men whom he had brought along with him for this journey.
"Chief, this salt is mixed with sand from the ground. Is this what we use in eating? Do you want to separate the sand from this or is sand part of it?" asked one of the more curious men.
"Well, it seems like you're a smart one. You should first collect the salt according to the way I teach you, meaning from the upper layer, and then we are going to do the next step."
Edward used two clay pots to pour the salt containing impurities into the semi-water tank and pour it back and forth several times to separate the impurities as sediments. The sand is heavier than salt sank and collected at the bottom of the water, easily separating salt from sand.
"Haha, I can see it I can somewhat understand how you're doing this."
Roc squinted his eyes to clearly see the various layers that had formed in the water. He suddenly realized:
"Brother light, how will you separate this now?"
"Of course I would have planned for that too Roc!"
Edward poured ¾ of the water from the first pot into the second pot. This left behind a small amount of water and all the sand impurities from in the water which had collected at the bottom of the jar.
As for the second pot, soon a fire was made and the second pot was heated to evaporation. Clean salt was burned out of the water.
Edward sprinkled a little salt while roasting the antelope with his fingers and then handed the final product to everyone.
As soon as everyone took the first bite of the meat they had an expression of disbelieve and shock on their faces!
Everyone began madly eating the meat which they already considered previously as the most heavenly food.
They swallowed big bites of the meat without even chewing it properly. When they were done they had faces full of satisfaction along with smiles. They even started licking their fingers. They had never experienced such a wonderful taste before and were surprised to learn that just adding this white thing could change the flavor so much.
"Light bro, it's so delicious, I really didn't think of it much before. The meat with salt added is so delicious!" Roc spoke with a look of total bliss on his face.
"There's nothing the Chief can't do!" said a tribesman.
"We are the first to eat salted barbecue! Meat before was so bland. We can never go back to eating that!" said another tribesman.
Everyone was full of praise.
On the second day, two more salt fields were added. Edward calculated that with the six people he had, working on 3 fields was the most efficient.
On the third day, after the decontamination, he got a few bag full of clean salt. As a rough estimate, he felt that this much salt could tide over things for quite some time unless any unforeseeable circumstances presented themselves.
That very same evening of the third day, next to the campfire, he said to everyone:
"Hear me, everyone! The whole process of salt making is now completely familiar to you guys. The purpose of bringing you here is for us to collect salt. Now, this salt can't be used forever but….."
Edward raised the few bags of salt in his hand, high up in the air as he continued, illuminated by the yellow-orange glow of the bonfire.
"For now we have to return back to the tribe and in the future, you will do this without me. Everyone has done an excellent job and as a reward, you all will join the hunting team from henceforth!"
Being able to hunt with bows and arrows and join the hunting team was the wish of everyman for the sake of prestige and strength. Not just that but their conditions along with their food was better than the rest of the tribe. Listening to Edward, everyone was jubilant.
A few bags worth of salt was packed along with the remaining antelope meat and skin. Edward and Roc lead the group from the front to hurry everyone up.
He had to hurry back.
Seeing that it was already late autumn, all of the people needed better clothes, more food reserves, and thus more prey and animal skins. The hunting lacked the presence of Roc to lead them and so their efficiency was greatly reduced. Thus Edward needed Roc back with the rest of the hunting team.
Another very important reason was that he missed Night and Daisy. He knew that the two girls must be thinking about him and was thus looking forward to his return day and night.