On the next day of calm weather, die stone was taken out of the sictch and set up in a spot in direct sunlight but protected from the wind. The heat of the sun baked the gum to a hard, smooth coating. Before the next expected sandstorm, the stone was placed so that the wind would blow directly on die coated face. When the storm arrived, the sand which it carried would abrade die coated face, wearing it away, hut would etch the stone directly m those areas uncovered by the scribing tool. After the storm subsided, the sculptor would remove the remaining coating and examine the surface. The face was then re-coated, and the process repeated as many times as necessary (sometimes ten or twenty tunes) to produce the different patterns of decoration and bas-relief that were desired. Since only a major storm could produce the sand-blasting force that made a distinguishable effect on the stone face, such sculptures were often years in the making. Patterns of great delicacy and beauty could be created in this way, and many Fremen were justly recognized as master artists at wind-etching. Perhaps the most prominent among them during the Atreidean period was Karmara al-Jofar, who etched the architraves in the great meeting hall of Paul Muad'Dib's palace at Arrakeen. Yet those who compared them said that even aWofar's best work did not match, in intricacy and delicacy of line, that of the Master of Rifana Sietch, an unknown desert Fremen of the 9800s. Unfortunately, no work of the Master of Rifana Sietch is known to survive, although the discovery on Rakis has led to an understandable caution in definite statements about what is or is not lost to posterity. Inscriptions were popular subjects for wind-etchings. That reproduced below reads al-xishf cd-muzakki, "the grown fawn," and hung as a sign above a tavern entrance in Arrakeen. As this example shows, a wind-etched stone could be used outdoors as a sign or frieze on the cornice of a building. But when used outdoors, the sculptures needed to be constantly protected by applications of varnish over the whole surface. The abrading layer had to be uniform in thickness to allow the relief to show, and it needed to be reapplied at intervals depending on the amount of weathering that had taken place. As a result of the care that outdoor sculptures required, artists seldom thought of their work as something separable from them, or as something with which they were finished when the etching was completed The attitude of the desert Fremen sculptor was more like that of a keeper of livestock or a grower of plants, whose care for his charges continued through his life. W.E.M. Further reference: Gwaitl Iivz-Gwiltan, Atreidean Sculpture, Chapter 3, "Wind-Etching" (Paseo Institute of Galacto-Fremen Culture) FREMEN WATER CUSTOMS. The intricate mystic rites with which the Fremen surrounded almost every contact with water are made far more understandable when one considers the environment which inspired them: the harsh, sand-covered surface of Arrakis, possibly the most inhospitable world ever colonized by human beings.