Waz Jyay Chelei - The Rite of Journeying

The Rite of Journeying is a coming of age tradition among the Niechellai. For both males and females it is the same process to start, but differs wildly beyond the first part.

Setting Off

When a jay or nlu begins their Rite of Journeying, they first gather their supplies and carry with them keepsakes from their family. Then they watch from afar as their parents and siblings mourn them. It is an emotional time and very sad, but it serves to let the family mourn the missing youth without worry as to their welfare and it lets the youth leave knowing they must find their way now.

The Journey

When a jay or nlu begins their trek, they must hunt and fish and gather for themselves. They must build their own shelters and cook their own food and craft their own tools, much like their Rite of Changing before this. It once again reinforces the need for community and help and the despair of being alone. As they travel, the purpose of their waz jyay chelei becomes clear.

For a jay to undertake this tradition, they must want to leave their family and home to learn something they cannot from anyone else. It could be a particular craft or it could be magic or hidden knowledge. It is not considered shameful to leave in pursuit of the betterment of ones self, especially when that betterment also improves the community. The jay must undertake this perilous journey without help, and with only the tools they made and the keepsakes and the mount their family gave them.

Once at the place they want to study under, they are adopted into that family and word is spread that they are at that tshunein as part of that syuth. There they learn and perfect their craft until they are married, as they would have done if they had stayed at their own home.

All that one can learn is the summit of the teacher's knowledge, and it is for this reason that a particularly driven jay will sometimes leave on a second Waz Jyay Chelei, leaving behind their new home to seek out a teacher that can teach them yet more of the skills they wish to develop or, as has been the case several times, to learn an entirely new skill in the efforts of achieving their dream.

When a nlu undertakes the waz jyay chelei, she is leaving home not to learn something but rather to take a husband. The Niechellai leave courtship to the women, and boys focus on learning their craft to an unparalleled degree so as to gain recognition when they are married and become adults.

The nlu treks through the dangerous plains between tshunein (villages) to each one to find a jay that shares a compatible dream and has good skill at crafting the weapons she uses. With each syuth she is taken on a hunt and allowed to share in the meal afterward and if she was good, she is allowed time with the jay she chooses.

If the jay is someone she could love, the nlu can offer marriage. If the jay accepts, the two are wed and set out to make their own myie and syuth.