Messenger — Nomlaki

A messenger trains to run from village to village and to remember everything each headman says. Others feed him since he does nothing else but run and train to run. He runs sixty miles in a day to announce the first feast of the spring. For each village, he carries a string with a knot for each day that must pass before the feast. He runs all day and returns, and when he catches his breath he tells everything he’s been told.