In 1513, French explorer Henri Luste discovered an archipelago off the coast of what is now Western Sahara. Most of the islands were uninhabited but upon one of the furthest, largest islands Luste and his explorers found a small group of natives. The Frenchmen named them, “Neldormieres.”
It was strange to find people where the Neldormieres lived. They were far from mainland Africa, and only subsisted on fruits, small mammals and fish. They were effectively cut off from larger populations of humans.
Luste and his explorers quickly realized that the Neldormieres were peaceful; they did not seem to have any weapons or advanced tools of any kind. Upon contact, the Neldormieres were in awe of the Frenchmen and began readying a feast, supplemented by some of the stores from Luste’s ship. A huge celebration ensued. Accounts describe, “a general feeling of well-being emanating from all parties,” and “it is clear, after only being with these people for all of one afternoon, they are truly special.”
Nightfall came, fires were started, and the head tribesman of the Neldormieres began telling a story. The Frenchmen could not understand but believed there were many references to the stars, the head tribesman’s “massive arms often exalted the heavens.” All the Neldormieres listened attentively and were wide awake. After a few hours, the Frenchmen, although not wanting to be rude, tried to continue listening but were too tired and headed back to the ship. Luste stayed behind, fascinated by the creation stories, but slowly, as the night went on, started to doze off himself.
Initially, the Neldormieres did not notice what was happening to Luste. When the head tribesman reached a poignant part of his story and was about to begin an intricate dance, he looked to Luste and saw that he was asleep. Mistaking him for dead, the head tribesman hushed the gathering. The Neldormieres did not know what to do, and many ran for their lives. They believed that they had somehow killed Luste, when actually, he was only sleeping. Worried that they would incur the wrath of the Frenchmen, the Neldormieres hastily decided they would hide Luste’s body. When they went to pick him up, he startled awake.
Luste was highly confused by what was going on; in his personal journal he is unsure of whether he “dreamt up the entire situation” or not. “How jarring it is to be awoken endlessly in the middle of the night by so many curious faces so far from home.” As the night continued, the Neldormieres were shocked to find that every time Luste “died,” he would come back to life at the touch of their hands.
In the morning, Luste’s men arrived on the island to find the Neldormieres surrounding something. Luste was nowhere in sight. Some of the Frenchmen went back to the ship for their weapons while others pushed their way through the crowd to see what was happening. Luste was laid out in the middle, snoring away. The Neldormieres had no idea what was going on.
What the Frenchmen later discovered, after subsequent nights spent on the island, was that the Neldormieres did not sleep. Every night, they would make large fires and every night, a different tribesman told stories. There were “no formal structures anywhere, and like nomads of life, these people roamed their island unphased, all day and all night. It seems, that after having been isolated from civilization for so long, the Neldormieres have forgotten how to sleep.”
Microfiction
