WISE ONE WAS glad when they came to where the mountain
“made finish” and dropped away, far down. This had not
been a good place. There had been nut-trees, and they had eaten
nuts. They had killed some of the little nut-eating animals, but
not many, for they were hard to catch. They had found no
moving-water on top of the mountain, only small pools of
still-water from the last rain, and it had not tasted good. And the
sleeping-place they had found had not been good either, and it had
been one of the nights when both of the night-time lights had been
in the sky, and the animals had all been restless, and they had
heard a screamer, though not near. Screamers ate only meat and
hunted in the dark. That had been why they had found no hatta-zosa.
Hatta-zosa did not stay where there were screamers. Neither did
People, if they could help it.
They stopped, looking out over the tops of the trees to the
country beyond. There was another mountain far to the sun’s
left hand; its top stretched away, from sun-upward to sun-downward,
with nothing but the sky beyond it. It was not steep, and its side
was wrinkled with small valleys that showed where moving-waters
came down. There must be a big moving-water below, so close to the
bottom of this mountain that they could not see it. It must be a
large one, because of all the little ones on both sides that flowed
into it, and he was afraid it would be hard to cross.
The others were excited about the wide valley on the other side,
and talked about what good hunting they would find there. They
couldn’t see the moving-water below, so they didn’t
think about it.
They started down, and as they went the mountainside grew
steeper, and they had to cling to bushes and stop to rest against
trees and use their killing-clubs to help them. As they went, they
began to see the moving-water below. The sound of it grew louder.
Finally they were seeing it all the time, and could see how big it
was.
Big She began talking about turning back and climbing up to the
top again.
“Moving-water too big; we not can cross,” she
argued. “Go down, no place to go. Better we go back up
now.”
“Then go beside it, way it come from,” Lame One
said. “Fine place to cross where it little.”
“Not find good-to-eat things,” Big She said.
“Not find good-to-eat things since last daytime. Why Wise One
not find good-to-eat things?”
Stabber became angry. “You think you wise like Wise
One?” he demanded. “You think you find good-to-eat
things?”
“Hungry,” Fruitfinder complained. “Want to
find good-to-eat things now. Maybe Big She right. Maybe better go
back, go down other side.”
“You want, you go back up mountain,” he said.
“We go down. Cross moving-water, find good-to-eat things
other side.”
Carries-Bright-Things agreed; so did Lame One and Other She.
They started climbing down again; Big She and Stonebreaker and
Fruitfinder followed without saying anything. At length the
mountain became less steep, and through the trees they saw the
moving-water in front of them. They went forward and stopped on the
bank.
It was big, wide and swift. Lame One picked up a stone and threw
it as hard as he could; it splashed far short of the other bank.
Other She threw a stick into it, and in an instant it was carried
away out of sight. Even if they had been willing to risk losing
their killing-clubs and the bright-things, they could never have
swum across it. Big She pointed at it with her club.
“Look! Look at place Wise One bring us!” she
clamored. “No good-to-eat things; no way across the river.
Now, climb all the way back up mountain.”
“Climb up high-steep place?” Other She was
horrified.
“You try cross that?” Big She retorted. Then she
looked downstream and saw where the river curved away from the
mountain. “Maybe go down there.”
“That way moving-water we cross last day-time come
down,” he said. “Hesh-nazza that way. Eat all takku, be
hungry, now.”
Big She had forgotten about the hesh-nazza, and Big She was
afraid of hesh-nazza, more even than the others. Once a hesh-nazza
had almost caught her. She went back to insisting that they climb
the mountain again. Fruitfinder thought they should, too. Stabber
thought they ought to go up the river, which was the only thing to
do. Finally all the others, even Big She, agreed.
It was hard going. The river flowed close against the mountain
now, there was no bank, and they had to go in single file, clinging
to bushes and trees as they went. Big She began complaining again,
and so did some of the others.
Then, suddenly, they were around the shoulder of the mountain
and there was a wide level place in front where a small valley
opened out, with a little stream small enough to cross easily. Here
the river was three or four stone-throws wide, and flowed among and
over stones, shallow and flashing in the sunlight, and on both
sides were long stony beaches, littered with old driftwood.
They started across. Mostly it was less than waist deep. In a
few places it was deeper, and they formed a chain, each one holding
to somebody else’s killing-club. Finally, they were on the
beach on the other side, and everybody, even Big She, was
happy.
There was much driftwood here, even whole trees. This must be a
place where the moving water was high over the banks in rain-time.
They all looked at the driftwood, and talked about what good
killing-clubs it would make. They would have stopped to make new
clubs, except that they were all hungry. They decided to hunt for
food and then come back after they had eaten. So they started away
from the river, into the woods, calling to one another.
There were no nut-trees here, but they found the pink fingerlike
growing things. They were good, but one could eat a great deal of
them and still be hungry. But zatku also liked to eat them, and
they found where zatku had been nibbling and, hunting carefully,
found three. That was more zatku in one day than anybody could
remember. And they found other things to eat, animals and
growing-things, and by a little after sun-highest time none of them
was hungry.
So they made their way back to the beach, and as they went they
found where three fallen trees, washed out by the floods, lay
together with a little gulley under them. This was a good
sleeping-place; they would remember it and come back when the sun
began to get low.
They looked again at the driftwood on the beach, dry and hard
and white as the bones of animals. Wise One found nothing that
would make a better club than the one he carried. It was a good
club. He had worked a long time to make it. Some of the others
didn’t have good clubs, and they found straight branches that
could be worked down. Some of the stones on the beach were very
hard, and Stonebreaker, who was good at such work, began chipping
them, making chopping-stones. Big She and Fruitfinder and
Carries-Bright-Things squatted with him, watching him work and
talking to him. Other She found a good piece of wood and a flat
stone and sat down, holding the stick against one of the old trees
and rubbing it with the stone to shape it. Lame One was also making
a new club, and so was Stabber, who sat a little apart from the
others. Wise One went over and sat with Stabber, who showed him the
new club he was making. It was long, for stabbing.
“Good place, this,” Stabber said as he worked.
“Many good-to-eat things. Find three zatku.” He was
amazed at that. “More zatku here, many-many. And hatta-zosa.
Find where they eat bark on trees.” He rubbed the pointed end
of his new club, sharpening it. “We stay here?”
“We have sleeping-place; maybe stay next day-time,”
he said. “Then go, find little moving water, follow to where
comes out of ground. Go up to top of mountain, go down other
side.”
“Other side like this. Why not stay here?”
“Other side more to sun’s left hand. Big One Place
to sun’s left hand. Find Big Ones, make friends. Big Ones
help us. Big Ones very wise, we learn from them,” he said.
“You want to find Big Ones?”
“I want to find Big Ones,” Stabber said.
“Others not want, others afraid. Listen to Big She.” He
laid down the stone and took the club in both hands, inspecting it.
“Big She think she knows more than Wise One. Stonebreaker,
Fruitfinder listen to her.”
That was how bands broke up. It had happened once, long ago,
when Old One was still alive and leading the band. There had been
quarreling about where to go to hunt, and four of the band had gone
away angry. They had never seen them again. Stabber’s mother
had stayed with the band; Stabber had been born two new-leaf times
after that. He didn’t want that to happen now. Eight People
made a good band: not too many to find food for all, and enough to
hunt line-abreast so that one would see what another missed, and
enough to make a good hatta-zosa killing. And he did not want
quarreling; it was not fun when People quarreled.
But he was going to the Big One Place, to find the Big Ones and
make friends with them, even if he had to go alone. No, Stabber
would go with him, and he thought Carries-Bright-Things would, too.
And that would be another trouble-thing. If the band broke up,
there would be quarreling about the bright-things.
Maybe Lame One and Other She would go with him, too. But who
would lead the others? Big She wanted to lead, but she was not Wise
One. She was Foolish One, Shoumko; if the others let her lead, soon
they would all make dead. He wanted to keep the band together.
The sun went slowly across the sky toward its sleeping-place;
the shadows grew longer. Stonebreaker was still chipping the hard
stone, making a knife to use for cutting up hatta-zosa for the
meat-sharing. They would carry it as long as they could, and the
stone hand-chopper he had made. He wished they could carry more
things with them, but a person had only two hands, and the
killing-club must always be carried. Soon the tools Stonebreaker
was making would be left behind and forgotten, or lost in crossing
a moving-water. It was a wonder they had carried the bright-things
as long as they had.
Lame One and Other She had finished their clubs; they went up
the river along the bank. Stabber finished the weapon he was
making; together they went down the river, past where the stream
they had crossed the day before came in from the other side. They
talked about the hesh-nazza they had seen the day before, and
wondered where it was now. It could not cross, because the river
was too deep and swift, and it was too big to get around the
shoulder of the mountain to the shallow water where they had
crossed.
They circled into the woods away from the river, coming back.
They found no animals, but they each caught several of the little
lizards and ate them. When they came back to the driftwood place,
Lame One and Other She were back too, and had brought a hatta-zosa
they had killed. They all ate, and by this time the sun was making
colors in the sky, very pretty. They all watched until the colors
were gone, and then went to the sleeping-place they had found.
Everybody was happy, and they talked for a long time before going
to sleep.
The next morning the sun made red colors all over the sky, even
before it came out of its sleeping-place. They were prettier than
last sundown-time, but everybody knew that it would rain, and
nobody liked rain. They went to where Lame One and Other She had
killed the hatta-zosa the day before, and killed three more of
them. By the time they had eaten the last one, drops of rain were
beginning to fall, and the sun had hidden itself and the sky was
gray and black. They ran all the way back to the
sleeping-place.
For a long time, they huddled together under the fallen trees;
they could not keep completely dry, but they were out of the worst
of the rain. Their fur was wet and clung to them, but they were not
really cold, and they had eaten plenty of meat, which made them
feel good.
Finally, the rain stopped. The things in the woods began to stir
again, and after a while there were thin gleams of sunlight.
Everybody was glad. They crawled out and talked about what they
would do, and decided to go away from the river, toward the high
ground, where they had not been before, and see what was there.
Because they might find a better sleeping-place, they carried with
them the knife and chopper Stonebreaker had made, and the
bright-things.
They went to sun-upward, bearing up the slope toward the
sun’s left hand. They found many of the pink finger-things
growing in shady places, and ate them. Zatku had been eating there,
too; they hunted in tight circles, and soon found one, and then
another. By this time they were all praising Wise One for bringing
them to this good place, even Big She.
“Better than to sun’s right hand,” he told
them. “More warm; this is everybody-know thing. We go to top
of mountain, down other side. Everything better there.”
Big She tried to argue; this was a good place; why go someplace
else? Fruitfinder agreed with her. The others all said, “Wise
One know best.”
“How you know, better across mountain?” Big She
challenged.
“Because is so. Is everybody-know thing.” He tried
to think how he knew, but couldn’t. He knew why he wanted to
go toward the sun’s left hand, but he couldn’t explain
about finding the Big One Place without starting more quarreling.
“Long-ago People tell,” he said. That was something
they would not argue about. “Long-ago People hear from other
People,” he went on, improvising. “Far-far to
sun’s left hand is good place. Always warm. Always find
good-to-eat things. Many zatku, many hatta-zosa, all kinds of
good-to-eat growing-things. Everything all the time, not something
one time, something another time. Groundberries, redberries,
treenuts, all good things all the time.”
He didn’t know there was anything like that to the
sun’s left hand at all; he was just making talk that it was
so. But he was Wise One; the others thought that he knew.
“You listen to Wise One,” Stabber said. “Wise
One take us to good place.”
“I not hear talk like that,” Big She objected.
“You not remember,” Stabber jeered. “You not
remember hesh-nazza day before.”
“My mother make talk like that.” He wondered if
maybe she hadn’t, and wished he could remember more about
her. A gotza had killed her when he had been very small. “Old
One make talk, say she heard from other People.” He turned to
Carries-Bright-Things. “Old One your mother; she tell
you.”
Carries-Bright-Things looked puzzled. He knew she couldn’t
remember anything like that, but she thought she ought to. Finally,
she nodded.
“Yes. Old One tell me,” she said.
“Everybody-know thing,” Lame One said. “All
long-ago People tell about good place to sun’s left
hand.”
Other She fidgeted. She couldn’t remember anything like
that at all, but all the others said they did. Maybe she had
forgotten. They started off again, and found another zatku.
But Wise One hadn’t heard any such long-ago People
stories. He had just made talk that he had. He couldn’t
understand how he had been able to make not-so talk like that.
WISE ONE WAS glad when they came to where the mountain
“made finish” and dropped away, far down. This had not
been a good place. There had been nut-trees, and they had eaten
nuts. They had killed some of the little nut-eating animals, but
not many, for they were hard to catch. They had found no
moving-water on top of the mountain, only small pools of
still-water from the last rain, and it had not tasted good. And the
sleeping-place they had found had not been good either, and it had
been one of the nights when both of the night-time lights had been
in the sky, and the animals had all been restless, and they had
heard a screamer, though not near. Screamers ate only meat and
hunted in the dark. That had been why they had found no hatta-zosa.
Hatta-zosa did not stay where there were screamers. Neither did
People, if they could help it.
They stopped, looking out over the tops of the trees to the
country beyond. There was another mountain far to the sun’s
left hand; its top stretched away, from sun-upward to sun-downward,
with nothing but the sky beyond it. It was not steep, and its side
was wrinkled with small valleys that showed where moving-waters
came down. There must be a big moving-water below, so close to the
bottom of this mountain that they could not see it. It must be a
large one, because of all the little ones on both sides that flowed
into it, and he was afraid it would be hard to cross.
The others were excited about the wide valley on the other side,
and talked about what good hunting they would find there. They
couldn’t see the moving-water below, so they didn’t
think about it.
They started down, and as they went the mountainside grew
steeper, and they had to cling to bushes and stop to rest against
trees and use their killing-clubs to help them. As they went, they
began to see the moving-water below. The sound of it grew louder.
Finally they were seeing it all the time, and could see how big it
was.
Big She began talking about turning back and climbing up to the
top again.
“Moving-water too big; we not can cross,” she
argued. “Go down, no place to go. Better we go back up
now.”
“Then go beside it, way it come from,” Lame One
said. “Fine place to cross where it little.”
“Not find good-to-eat things,” Big She said.
“Not find good-to-eat things since last daytime. Why Wise One
not find good-to-eat things?”
Stabber became angry. “You think you wise like Wise
One?” he demanded. “You think you find good-to-eat
things?”
“Hungry,” Fruitfinder complained. “Want to
find good-to-eat things now. Maybe Big She right. Maybe better go
back, go down other side.”
“You want, you go back up mountain,” he said.
“We go down. Cross moving-water, find good-to-eat things
other side.”
Carries-Bright-Things agreed; so did Lame One and Other She.
They started climbing down again; Big She and Stonebreaker and
Fruitfinder followed without saying anything. At length the
mountain became less steep, and through the trees they saw the
moving-water in front of them. They went forward and stopped on the
bank.
It was big, wide and swift. Lame One picked up a stone and threw
it as hard as he could; it splashed far short of the other bank.
Other She threw a stick into it, and in an instant it was carried
away out of sight. Even if they had been willing to risk losing
their killing-clubs and the bright-things, they could never have
swum across it. Big She pointed at it with her club.
“Look! Look at place Wise One bring us!” she
clamored. “No good-to-eat things; no way across the river.
Now, climb all the way back up mountain.”
“Climb up high-steep place?” Other She was
horrified.
“You try cross that?” Big She retorted. Then she
looked downstream and saw where the river curved away from the
mountain. “Maybe go down there.”
“That way moving-water we cross last day-time come
down,” he said. “Hesh-nazza that way. Eat all takku, be
hungry, now.”
Big She had forgotten about the hesh-nazza, and Big She was
afraid of hesh-nazza, more even than the others. Once a hesh-nazza
had almost caught her. She went back to insisting that they climb
the mountain again. Fruitfinder thought they should, too. Stabber
thought they ought to go up the river, which was the only thing to
do. Finally all the others, even Big She, agreed.
It was hard going. The river flowed close against the mountain
now, there was no bank, and they had to go in single file, clinging
to bushes and trees as they went. Big She began complaining again,
and so did some of the others.
Then, suddenly, they were around the shoulder of the mountain
and there was a wide level place in front where a small valley
opened out, with a little stream small enough to cross easily. Here
the river was three or four stone-throws wide, and flowed among and
over stones, shallow and flashing in the sunlight, and on both
sides were long stony beaches, littered with old driftwood.
They started across. Mostly it was less than waist deep. In a
few places it was deeper, and they formed a chain, each one holding
to somebody else’s killing-club. Finally, they were on the
beach on the other side, and everybody, even Big She, was
happy.
There was much driftwood here, even whole trees. This must be a
place where the moving water was high over the banks in rain-time.
They all looked at the driftwood, and talked about what good
killing-clubs it would make. They would have stopped to make new
clubs, except that they were all hungry. They decided to hunt for
food and then come back after they had eaten. So they started away
from the river, into the woods, calling to one another.
There were no nut-trees here, but they found the pink fingerlike
growing things. They were good, but one could eat a great deal of
them and still be hungry. But zatku also liked to eat them, and
they found where zatku had been nibbling and, hunting carefully,
found three. That was more zatku in one day than anybody could
remember. And they found other things to eat, animals and
growing-things, and by a little after sun-highest time none of them
was hungry.
So they made their way back to the beach, and as they went they
found where three fallen trees, washed out by the floods, lay
together with a little gulley under them. This was a good
sleeping-place; they would remember it and come back when the sun
began to get low.
They looked again at the driftwood on the beach, dry and hard
and white as the bones of animals. Wise One found nothing that
would make a better club than the one he carried. It was a good
club. He had worked a long time to make it. Some of the others
didn’t have good clubs, and they found straight branches that
could be worked down. Some of the stones on the beach were very
hard, and Stonebreaker, who was good at such work, began chipping
them, making chopping-stones. Big She and Fruitfinder and
Carries-Bright-Things squatted with him, watching him work and
talking to him. Other She found a good piece of wood and a flat
stone and sat down, holding the stick against one of the old trees
and rubbing it with the stone to shape it. Lame One was also making
a new club, and so was Stabber, who sat a little apart from the
others. Wise One went over and sat with Stabber, who showed him the
new club he was making. It was long, for stabbing.
“Good place, this,” Stabber said as he worked.
“Many good-to-eat things. Find three zatku.” He was
amazed at that. “More zatku here, many-many. And hatta-zosa.
Find where they eat bark on trees.” He rubbed the pointed end
of his new club, sharpening it. “We stay here?”
“We have sleeping-place; maybe stay next day-time,”
he said. “Then go, find little moving water, follow to where
comes out of ground. Go up to top of mountain, go down other
side.”
“Other side like this. Why not stay here?”
“Other side more to sun’s left hand. Big One Place
to sun’s left hand. Find Big Ones, make friends. Big Ones
help us. Big Ones very wise, we learn from them,” he said.
“You want to find Big Ones?”
“I want to find Big Ones,” Stabber said.
“Others not want, others afraid. Listen to Big She.” He
laid down the stone and took the club in both hands, inspecting it.
“Big She think she knows more than Wise One. Stonebreaker,
Fruitfinder listen to her.”
That was how bands broke up. It had happened once, long ago,
when Old One was still alive and leading the band. There had been
quarreling about where to go to hunt, and four of the band had gone
away angry. They had never seen them again. Stabber’s mother
had stayed with the band; Stabber had been born two new-leaf times
after that. He didn’t want that to happen now. Eight People
made a good band: not too many to find food for all, and enough to
hunt line-abreast so that one would see what another missed, and
enough to make a good hatta-zosa killing. And he did not want
quarreling; it was not fun when People quarreled.
But he was going to the Big One Place, to find the Big Ones and
make friends with them, even if he had to go alone. No, Stabber
would go with him, and he thought Carries-Bright-Things would, too.
And that would be another trouble-thing. If the band broke up,
there would be quarreling about the bright-things.
Maybe Lame One and Other She would go with him, too. But who
would lead the others? Big She wanted to lead, but she was not Wise
One. She was Foolish One, Shoumko; if the others let her lead, soon
they would all make dead. He wanted to keep the band together.
The sun went slowly across the sky toward its sleeping-place;
the shadows grew longer. Stonebreaker was still chipping the hard
stone, making a knife to use for cutting up hatta-zosa for the
meat-sharing. They would carry it as long as they could, and the
stone hand-chopper he had made. He wished they could carry more
things with them, but a person had only two hands, and the
killing-club must always be carried. Soon the tools Stonebreaker
was making would be left behind and forgotten, or lost in crossing
a moving-water. It was a wonder they had carried the bright-things
as long as they had.
Lame One and Other She had finished their clubs; they went up
the river along the bank. Stabber finished the weapon he was
making; together they went down the river, past where the stream
they had crossed the day before came in from the other side. They
talked about the hesh-nazza they had seen the day before, and
wondered where it was now. It could not cross, because the river
was too deep and swift, and it was too big to get around the
shoulder of the mountain to the shallow water where they had
crossed.
They circled into the woods away from the river, coming back.
They found no animals, but they each caught several of the little
lizards and ate them. When they came back to the driftwood place,
Lame One and Other She were back too, and had brought a hatta-zosa
they had killed. They all ate, and by this time the sun was making
colors in the sky, very pretty. They all watched until the colors
were gone, and then went to the sleeping-place they had found.
Everybody was happy, and they talked for a long time before going
to sleep.
The next morning the sun made red colors all over the sky, even
before it came out of its sleeping-place. They were prettier than
last sundown-time, but everybody knew that it would rain, and
nobody liked rain. They went to where Lame One and Other She had
killed the hatta-zosa the day before, and killed three more of
them. By the time they had eaten the last one, drops of rain were
beginning to fall, and the sun had hidden itself and the sky was
gray and black. They ran all the way back to the
sleeping-place.
For a long time, they huddled together under the fallen trees;
they could not keep completely dry, but they were out of the worst
of the rain. Their fur was wet and clung to them, but they were not
really cold, and they had eaten plenty of meat, which made them
feel good.
Finally, the rain stopped. The things in the woods began to stir
again, and after a while there were thin gleams of sunlight.
Everybody was glad. They crawled out and talked about what they
would do, and decided to go away from the river, toward the high
ground, where they had not been before, and see what was there.
Because they might find a better sleeping-place, they carried with
them the knife and chopper Stonebreaker had made, and the
bright-things.
They went to sun-upward, bearing up the slope toward the
sun’s left hand. They found many of the pink finger-things
growing in shady places, and ate them. Zatku had been eating there,
too; they hunted in tight circles, and soon found one, and then
another. By this time they were all praising Wise One for bringing
them to this good place, even Big She.
“Better than to sun’s right hand,” he told
them. “More warm; this is everybody-know thing. We go to top
of mountain, down other side. Everything better there.”
Big She tried to argue; this was a good place; why go someplace
else? Fruitfinder agreed with her. The others all said, “Wise
One know best.”
“How you know, better across mountain?” Big She
challenged.
“Because is so. Is everybody-know thing.” He tried
to think how he knew, but couldn’t. He knew why he wanted to
go toward the sun’s left hand, but he couldn’t explain
about finding the Big One Place without starting more quarreling.
“Long-ago People tell,” he said. That was something
they would not argue about. “Long-ago People hear from other
People,” he went on, improvising. “Far-far to
sun’s left hand is good place. Always warm. Always find
good-to-eat things. Many zatku, many hatta-zosa, all kinds of
good-to-eat growing-things. Everything all the time, not something
one time, something another time. Groundberries, redberries,
treenuts, all good things all the time.”
He didn’t know there was anything like that to the
sun’s left hand at all; he was just making talk that it was
so. But he was Wise One; the others thought that he knew.
“You listen to Wise One,” Stabber said. “Wise
One take us to good place.”
“I not hear talk like that,” Big She objected.
“You not remember,” Stabber jeered. “You not
remember hesh-nazza day before.”
“My mother make talk like that.” He wondered if
maybe she hadn’t, and wished he could remember more about
her. A gotza had killed her when he had been very small. “Old
One make talk, say she heard from other People.” He turned to
Carries-Bright-Things. “Old One your mother; she tell
you.”
Carries-Bright-Things looked puzzled. He knew she couldn’t
remember anything like that, but she thought she ought to. Finally,
she nodded.
“Yes. Old One tell me,” she said.
“Everybody-know thing,” Lame One said. “All
long-ago People tell about good place to sun’s left
hand.”
Other She fidgeted. She couldn’t remember anything like
that at all, but all the others said they did. Maybe she had
forgotten. They started off again, and found another zatku.
But Wise One hadn’t heard any such long-ago People
stories. He had just made talk that he had. He couldn’t
understand how he had been able to make not-so talk like that.