een ds the ultimate bond between individuals whether or not they belonged to the same tribe For instance, a person from one sietch who saved the life of a member of another was owed a water debt, not only from the person saved but from his or her tnbe as well Such a debt to another was considered a heavy burden, and was paid and cancelled as quickly as possible The water of one group's dead, if shared with another, also created a bond this one indissolvable Once such a sharing had taken place, the two groups were no longer seen as distinct, they were melded into one larger organization, since water, once mixed, was impossible to divide A living person's water-provided it was in the form of blood and not just water earned in a hterjon or stillsuit catcbpocket- created an unbreakable bond as well If a stranger, or even an enemy, couid force or convince a member of a Fremen tnbe to drink of his blood, he was Wadquiyas with the tribe joined to them as one of their own, and safe from having his water taken unless he offended the tnbe (It was for this reason, incidentally, that no Fremen would ever at tempt to wound an enemy in a fight by biting him even if doing so meant certain victory) Pledges of loyalty to a single person, such as that of each member of a tnbe to its naib, were also made m the name of water-in this case, to the water of the individual A tribe's pledge to its leader did not end, nor its acceptance of die new leader's rights begin, until die funeral service for the dead naib was completed and his water free THE WATER OF UFE Nowhere in the Fremen histories is mere a ntual so closely guarded, so sparsely documented, as that of die Water of Life All that is known for certain is that, on infrequent occasions, a select group of watermeir(Renien consecrated for and charged with die ntual duties concerning water) went out into the desert captured a small sandworm, and returned with it to a special underground chamber which could be filled with water from the communal basin The watermen then, after having been blessed by the tribe s Reverend Mother, dragged the worm into the water and held it there until it drowned Their leader stood watch m the water at the worm s mouth, waiting for the creature to begin its death flumes When that mo meflt came, he signalled the men holding the front of the worm to lift it from the water so diat he could capture its last, liquid exhala tion m a special water bag, this liquid was the Water of Life In its raw form, this 'illuminating' poison was deadly When altered withm the body of a Reverend Mother, however it became safe for consumption by the uninitiated and was used by the Fremen in their sietch orgies (times of heightened awareness of one another's thoughts and emotions which served to bind the tribe ever more closely together) A single drop of the changed poison was sufficient catalyst to alter even large amounts of the.