Following the Trail (10)

The Goat clan maintained numerous settlements and waystations throughout the land, stockpiling goods and trading with the settlements of other clans.

They transported goods by loading them onto the backs of domesticated livestock such as horses, cattle, donkeys, and goats.

The Goat clan seemed to be something like a huge trading company in human society.

However, the Goat clan members themselves apparently only led the livestock by the reins and never rode them.

That was because, as their name suggested, the Goat clan regarded goats as ancestral spirits, and there was also the Horn Tribe, who revered cattle as ancestral spirits.

Using them as labor and for transporting cargo was unavoidable, just as the Goat clan did.

Likewise, it was acceptable to hunt them for food, as the Black Bear clan had.

But apparently, riding on the back of a beast revered as an ancestral spirit by the beastfolk was considered disrespectful.

I still didn't really understand the principles behind the beastfolk's views of their ancestral spirits, but I supposed they had their own reasons.

I traveled with the Goat clan from one waystation to the next...