The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

Here, Eat This Root

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

Here, Eat This Root
A close-up of the pencil draft of the border.

I had no idea there were so many medicinal plants. Notice that the Arms on this side of the layout are just roughly drawn -- only one of the roundels needed to be finished, then used to transfer to the piece twice. Those sections of the border that could be mirrored over done by folding the tracing paper over and reproducing the design.

This work proceeded by fits and starts and it took around two weeks of making myself sit down after work and for an hour or two on the weekends to get it finished. When it was done, it had around 26 different plants -- enough medicinal herbs to fill a pharmacy suitable for Captain Kirk's Kahn-ut-tu woman, Nona! At this point I paused in my labors to gloat (always a mistake) over what a great free hand design I'd come up with. It was perfect! The following day I picked up the tracing paper layout, set it down over the piece, and found that the two didn't match. How could this be? I shifted the paper around.

It. Didn't. Match.

************
A humorous digression, which I really needed at that point:

A Brief History Of Medicine

I have an earache.

2000 B.C. - Here, eat this root.

1000 A.D. - That root is heathen, say this prayer.

1850 A.D. - That prayer is superstition, drink this potion.

1940 A.D. - That potion is snake oil, swallow this pill.

1985 A.D. - That pill is ineffective, take this antibiotic.

2000 A.D. - That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root.

-- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).