rudely constructed, shed-like, or nondescript, the long communal houses lay like dark beads in a landscape of green, in a warm, temperate clime. in front stretched a fen, and beyond the fen flowed a river. to right and left and in the background waked and slumbered the forest, chief possessor yet of the earth. before the houses that were large enough and long enough to lodge, when they chose to stay indoors, several hundred women, men, and children, ran a strip of naked, sun-baked earth. here the children played, and here went on industrial processes, and here were held, beneath one huge tree, the general councils, pow-wows, folk-meets.
the people of the long houses ate fish which they caught by means of weirs and with harpoons and hooks fashioned from bone. they ate in their season fruits and nuts, and they were acquainted with certain mealy roots and seeds of grasses. they ate those animal denizens of forest or plain that they could kill with club and spear or take in pit and snare. in times of scarcity they ate flesh food of a low order. in times of huge scarcity, when it was that or the wasting away of the group and its passage into the land of death, they might slay and eat the aged of their own kind.
in the matter of weapons the people of the long houses yet depended upon the spear, but were upon the threshold of the bow and arrow. in the heat of summer they wore{32} brief garments of woven grass; in the colder weather they garbed themselves in skins sewed with a bone needle and a fibre thread. year by year, life by life, they were moulding a flexible, strong, not unmusical language. they could count beyond ten. simple calculations were coming into the scope of most. here and there finer brains undertook calculations not quite so simple. they used a ceremonial burial of the dead, and they placed beside the body weapons and other objects which might be useful in some vague other world. they observed the moon and the larger stars, and to every single thing under heaven they attributed a will to save or to damn. they had a body of customs, not yet stiffened into law. women, the makers and possessors of children, the original devisers of houses and clothes and such things, the earliest lawgivers and gatherers of people into societies, were yet, through the greater range of matters, the authoritative sex. they were the mothers, the instinctively turned to even after childhood, the dimly deified. but men were powerful encroachers, and they encroached.
to the two alike had once fallen the fierce, the incessant warfare against their old kindred the beasts. now, the women abetting, the men had almost taken over that department of living. men were the manufacturers of spear and spearhead, the experimenters with stone axe and stone knife. they were the steady feelers toward bow and arrow, the chief hunters now of dangerous beasts, strengthening in muscle, gaining in height, careless of inflicted pain, watchers of flowing blood, quarrellers with chance—met other hunting bands from other long houses, adventurous, bold, standing by wide rivers, meditating a raft, a boat, or from hill-tops watching the climbing stars,{33} roaming afar from the houses and returning. wilder than his mate was the male and more violent, as became one who had nothing to do with children. nor he, nor she, believed that he had anything to do with children—nor with the making of them, nor with the owning them after they were made.
a cluster of women came down to the bank of one of the ribbon-like water-courses winding through the fen. here was a bed of clay. the women carried a number of uncertainly shaped vessels of plaited rush and osier. these they laid upon the earth, and sitting down by the stream, fell to dashing water over the clay, and, when the latter was sufficiently softened, to gathering it up and kneading it with the hands. when the mass was very smooth and plastic, each woman took one of the osier shapes, set it between her knees, and began to daub it within and without with clay. they wet their hands and worked with palm and fingers and thumb, and also with a spatula-like piece of wood, bringing the clay into one surface, smoothing and finishing it off. when bowl and jar were dried in the sun, then water might be carried without grave loss and meat might be cooked without the osiers burning in the fire. an idea came to one of the women. she took a mound of wet clay and with her hands and the spatula she worked until she had a bowl of the clay itself without any osier inner walls. “ha!” she cried. “look!” setting the bowl aside in the sun, she took more clay and made a jar-like shape. the other women suspended work to watch her. they leaned forward, interest in their eyes. an old woman, sitting by, watching not working,—old aneka the wise woman,—made a sound of approval. “good!” said aneka. “it is good to think and to put one thing and{34} another thing together! now you can make pots without braiding reeds.”
back on the sun-hardened strip before the houses a fire was burning. at a fair distance from this rose a young tree and to the tree was tied a creature with his wolf descent written plain. a woman came from the nearest house, in her hands a piece of raw meat. when the wild dog saw the meat he made a bound and strained fiercely at the thongs which held him. the woman laid the meat upon the ground, not far from the fire. then she took a billet of wood and, passing before the tied creature, showed it to him not once but many times. this done, she placed the piece of wood upon the ground as far from him in the one direction as was the piece of meat in the other. next in order, she took a long, stout stick, seasoned and sharpened, and striking one end into the embers, watched it until it was aflame. all this time the half-dog, half-wolf, was making a noise. woman, dog, meat, stick, and fire had for observers a number of naked children. now she turned upon these and ordered them within the house, and when they protested and went reluctantly, she threatened them with voice and stick. the ground clear, the woman, the burning stick in her hand, went and untied the creature to be tamed. he sprang at her, but she lunged as fiercely with the brand, and he gave back and cowered. she spoke in a voice of command, pointed out the billet of wood, and spoke again. the creature gathered himself together and made a leap—toward the piece of meat. she was there before him, squarely between him and it, the burning wood sending forth sparks. again he gave back and hung uncertain, growling deeply. she gestured for the twentieth time toward the bit of wood. “bring{35} me that! then you shall eat.” he would have liked to tear her into pieces, but after many minutes of this work,—rushes toward the meat, beatings-back with stick and voice and eye,—he brought her the billet of wood. “good! now, go eat!”
east of the long houses spread a space of earth firmer than the neighbouring fen, more open than the neighbouring forest. three women were here. they had wooden staves, and at the end of each was bound at right angles a large, rudely sharpened flint. with these the women were loosening the fat, black earth. beside them lay a heap of roots and plants taken from the forest.
beneath a tree sat a lean man watching. in weather such as this, and with no ceremonial toward, the men of the long houses went all but nude. but the lean man dressed every day, and that with punctiliousness and ornamentation. he had this morning, beside other apparel, a string of small, dried gourds passing over one shoulder and under the other. they rattled when he moved.
“ha!” chanted the hoeing women—
“we are going to see
that which we shall see!
we are going to put
yuba in the earth!
if she rots there, bad!
if she grows there, good!
yuba! grow big!
yuba! make children!
then shall we eat
without going to seek.
then shall we have
yuba to our hand!
yuba and her children,{36}
sweet to the tooth!
then none will hunger,
though the fish go away!
then none will hunger,
though the men kill no meat!
then those who laugh,
saying, ‘what do you do,
scratching there in the earth?’
they will come to us begging.
they will cry, ‘give us yuba!’”
the man with the gourds chose the attitude of contempt before an infant industry. he spoke in a guttural voice. “you are like fish and have no sense! i go into the forest and when i am hungry, i look around me, and i sing, ‘yuba! yuba!’ ‘here i am!’ says yuba plant. ‘dig me up!’—but you say, ‘let us tie yuba to the houses!’” he shook the gourds. “you are more foolish than the fish. they do not go about to make the river angry. but you go about to make yuba angry!”
the women leaned upon their hoes and regarded with apprehension the heap of yuba roots. the sun lay golden all around. “she does not look angry! we think she likes to come near the houses.”
but the man with the gourds remained indignant. “ha! no, she does not! all kinds of things are coming to be angry with you women!” he shook the rattling string. “what will you give me if i go to the forest and sing and dance for you before yuba?”
“we are going to dance before her here,” said the farmers. “we are going to make a great yuba dance!—why don’t you go hunting? all the men are hunting.”
the sitter under the tree shook from a gourd a number of long and sharp thorns. “yes, they are hunting! they{37} are hunting big trouble. but i, too, hunt big trouble, and i hunt better than they.” he spoke with growing unction. “yesterday i went into the forest. i did not go with others—i went by myself. i found big trouble’s footprints. i found where he had broken the canes and laid down. i stuck long thorns in his footprints.” he talked with gestures no less than with words. “i put thorns in the earth where he rolled. so to-day big trouble is going like this—” he got up and limped painfully about, then sat down and with his long nail drew a mark across the ground before him. “i did so before his footprints. now, wherever he goes, the pit is before him! now they will hunt big trouble easily. now he will go straight to the pit they have made and fall in it.” he fell himself, doubled-up, upon the ground to show the manner of it, then retook his first posture and shook the gourds. “they think they are hunting big trouble. but haki and one other hunted him first! now i sit still and wait for the men to come home. they will give me so much meat.” he measured with his arms. “i will burn a part of it for one other.”
the awe he meant to evoke was faintly apparent. the farmers laughed uneasily, with a catch of the breath. “don’t put thorns in our footprints!” said one; and another, “rub out the pit you’ve made before us there!” he smeared it over with the palm of his hand, then shook the gourds and looked sidelong and slily at the working women. “will you give me yuba if she stays here and grows for you?”
“oh, we’ll give you plenty!” answered the farmers. they laughed as they said it, but they laughed uneasily. however, they went on singing, using the first hoes.{38}
“then none will hunger,
though the fish go away!
then none will hunger,
though the men kill no meat!
then those who laugh,
saying, ‘what do you do,
scratching there in the earth?’
they will creep to us softly,
they will cry, ‘give us yuba!’”
far off, in the deep woods, the men of the long houses were hunting big trouble, hunting him far and wide. big trouble had chosen to make such a path to the river as brought him into close quarters with the houses. moreover, on more occasions than one, he had strayed aside from the path; he had come brushing and trampling and ruining against the place itself, all in the dead of night, waking and terrifying! so now big trouble was to be killed. to that end, for many days, they had been digging a pit in the wood, deepening and widening the mouth of a gully near to old haunts of big trouble. when it was deep enough and sharply shelving enough, they set at the bottom pointed stakes and then they covered all with a net of vines, artfully made to look like the very floor of the forest; strong enough, too, not to give beneath the weight of any slight forest creature. but let big trouble try it—! for days, also, they had been talking and training, exercising their muscles, trying their spears and clubs, asking help of the great turtle who was mysteriously their especial friend—the great turtle at the mouth of the great river, who came from the water and laid her eggs upon the sand. now they were all in the deep wood, driving big trouble, disturbing him with flung club and spear, getting him to go toward the pit. big trouble was so big, and{39} covered with such a fell of shaggy, red-brown hair that a flung club or spear troubled him little, and on the whole he was good-natured, and since he did not eat flesh, would not hurt them in turn—not unless they mightily angered him. then, indeed, he would hunt with a vengeance, filling the air with trumpetings, tearing down the forest, shaking the earth, seizing the unlucky with his trunk and trampling them into an awful pulp! to hunt big trouble was to hunt in peril and excitement and with a fearful joy—a hunting that needed beforehand rites and ceremonies, and when it was accomplished, rites and ceremonies.
women as well as men hunted big trouble, though not anything like so many women as men. but when a woman wished to hunt, she hunted; hunted for food now as long since, hunted for joy in activity, danger, and excitement. it was a dwindling custom, but they hunted yet. half a dozen now stalked big trouble with the men and threw their spears against him.
by the time the sun was high, big trouble had rolled his bulk very near the hidden pit. he was growing angry. the hunters had now to act with extreme wariness. just before he reached the pit, he turned. he would go no farther. he stood trumpeting and all the hunters got behind thick trees and crouched trembling. big trouble glared with his small, red eyes. shaggy, with red-brown hair, with hugely long, curving tusks, vast and dusky, the mammoth stood swaying from side to side, growing angrier and angrier, searching with those now vicious, deep-sunk, red eyes. the hunters shrank to be smaller and smaller behind the trees. their hearts grew small within them. big trouble did not mean to go on, had stopped definitely short of the snare! he would stay there for{40} hours, watching, and if any one moved he would make his fearful, trampling rush.... time passed, much time. the sun that had been up in the plains of the sky began to travel down the sky, down and down the sky. big trouble kept as he was; only now and then he trumpeted.
a young man and woman left the screen of a wide-girthed tree. they darted into the open. big trouble saw them out of the red corner of his eye. he swung his bulk about and, trumpeting, charged. immediately the two were behind a greater tree than the first. big trouble passed, trumpeting, and the wind of him shook the leaves. baffled, he stopped and stood swaying, angrier than before, angrier every moment. the two left the second tree and fled before him. he followed, darkness and weight arush through the forest. the man and woman gained the third tree. big trouble passed, then he turned. the two left their tree and raced before him, racing straight now to the pit. big trouble came after them, and he shook the earth and air. the two took life in their hands, made themselves light, bounded upon and across the roof of vine and leaf. it gave a little beneath their feet, but only a little. as near skimming as might be, they won to the farther side, and with a long cry of triumph rushed to shelter. on, after them, thundered and trumpeted big trouble. his forefeet came down upon the roof of the pit; he felt it break beneath him, but could not stop himself. over and down he plunged, down with a frightful noise. the stakes caught him, the steep sides wedged him in. big trouble was not going any more to trouble the long houses.
the two who had toled big trouble into the pit marched in triumph back to the houses, at the head of the hunters.{41} the two were big and strong, young, and according to the notions of their people, well-favoured. back they and all the hunters came, shouting and chanting, through the leafy world with the red sun sinking behind them, and borne along, slung over a pole, the seven-feet-long curved, ivory tusks of big trouble. out to meet them came the too old to hunt and the too young, came the man with the thorns and the gourds, came the women, all who had not hunted. singing and shouting, the two tides met in the red sunset, beneath the black trees.
“big trouble is dead!
he will plague us no more!”
the sun was going down—the hunters were tired, tired! they ate what was given them, fell upon the earth and went to sleep. but the next day the long houses made a feast of commemoration—big trouble being gone forever.
gata, who had hunted big trouble and raced over the roof of his pit, left the feasting ring about the council tree. the sun hung low, the river flowed, a crooked brightness. most of the folk of the long houses were hoarse with singing and shouting, and drowsy with food and drunk with dancing and with a brew that they made out of forest fruits. many were asleep, others noisy with no reason, others grunting and dull-eyed. gata had danced, but she had not eaten and drunken to disorder and heaviness. now she rose and left the feast, for she was tired of it. she expected one to follow. she had been watching amru where he sat under the tree. neither had he eaten and drunken and danced to stupidity.
here and there in the fen were higher places, islands as{42} it were, covered with a short grass. she took a path that led to such a spot. on either hand the reeds stood up, and they waved and sighed in the evening wind. the long houses disappeared from sight. looking back she saw amru upon the path.
here, where it lifted from the fen, the earth rested warm. the sun moved red through a zone of mist. the tall reeds made a wall for the grassy island. gata and amru sat facing each other on the round earth, round like a shield, above the fen. a last ray from the sun brightened gata’s hair that was darkly red. with the flat fen about them, and behind the low forest, they looked larger than life. they leaned toward each other, they pressed their hands together, their bodies together. lifted by the lifting earth, they looked one piece.
the sun touched the rim of earth and coloured the river through the fen. gata and amru lay embraced.
almost as soon as the sun sank, the moon rose. it came up round and golden—only the people of the long houses did not know gold. still the folk slept, tumbled like acorns beneath the council tree. a few old people did not sleep, but sat nodding, nodding, and women who had young children did not sleep. but all the strong men slept, some lying like fallen trees, and others snoring and grunting. the man with the gourds, who had watched the farmers, did not sleep. he had a mind and a conscience that often kept him awake. now, as the moon came up, he wandered forth from the littered strip before the houses. “one other” often commanded his presence by night. now he walked by the fen and regarded the moon. the night was hot, but the lean man felt a wildness and exaltation that kept him above the heat. he wore skirt and{43} baldric and headdress of grass and mussel shells and coloured feathers, and he moved at tension through the hot, moist air.
going so, he overtook another who had left those who gorged upon mammoth meat—aneka the wise woman. he shook his coloured headdress; jealousy stung him. “ha, aneka! it is haki who walks here by night and talks with one other!—why do you not stay and watch children so that they do not eat that-which-poisons?”
aneka, wrinkled and brown, gazed at him and then over the fen to the golden moon. “there is much spite in you, haki! i am older than you and i walked here first.”
they turned into the path through the fen. haki waved his arms. “you and all the people cry to the great turtle. i cry to one other!”
“one other?” asked aneka. “where is she?”
haki looked at her aslant. his voice sank. “hush! he has gone into the ground for the night. he lives in the sun.”
the long houses used feminine pronouns when they spoke of the supernatural. aneka stared at haki. “he?” she said. “how bold are you, o haki!”
but haki, having plucked a feather from the future, came back to the present and its so solid seeming realities. a thrill of fear and awe of the great turtle ran through him, with thought of what vengeance she might take. “i call to the great turtle too!” he said hastily. “one other and the great turtle are friends.”
“can one other make children?” asked aneka.
it was the wall that towered before the male’s assertion of equality. nothing with the masculine pronoun could do that! the people of the long houses knew all about{44} mating. they had words in plenty for that. but they had no word like “father.” haki uttered a guttural sound, half despair, half anger. he walked in silence while the moon climbed the sky. then revolt again raised its head. “one other will find out how!”
aneka knew plants that poisoned and plants that healed. stooping, she gathered a plant that used one way was poisonous and used another was healthful. aneka was old and knew much. throughout life she had had a watchful eye and comparing mind. but it was not her way to tell all that she knew.... she gathered stalk and leaf and moved with haki in silence.
they were now somewhat deep in the fen. presently, the path curving like a tusk of big trouble, they came to the shield-like, lifted place. the moon bathed it white. clothed in that silver gata and amru lay asleep.
the old wise woman and the early medicine man stood and gazed. the moon looked very large, the fen very wide. the two interlaced figures seemed large with the rest of the world. aneka and haki watched awhile, then turned aside without waking the sleepers. their path, bending, led them again to the edge of the fen, to the quarter whence they had come. haki walked perhaps cogitating the pair, perhaps cogitating one other who had gone into the ground for the night, one other and his possibly developing powers. but aneka looked over her shoulder at the full, bright moon.
that moon waned and other moons waxed and waned, and gata and amru remained companions and most fond of each other. that was not so usual among the people of the long houses. only at great intervals arose among them some example of enduring attachment between woman{45} and man. so novel was it that when it markedly happened the group paid attention. it was a social phenomenon of the first importance, and though they gave it no such sounding name, and indeed no name at all, they noted it.
for many days after the slaying of big trouble, gata and amru hunted in company. the forest received them in the morning; they returned at eve, bearing game or wearing trophies to show that certain four-footed enemies of the long houses were enemies no more. the people praised them. children were told, “grow up to be like gata and amru!”
moons brightened, moons darkened. at last it was seen that gata was making a child. after that, as the custom had grown to be, she hunted no more.... amru was jealous of the child that gata was making. he felt a fierceness toward it as though it were a man fighting with him for gata’s favour. from that he passed to anger with gata herself. gata could not like amru as much as amru liked gata. she would be showing superiorities! savage pride was hurt. amru and gata had a loud quarrel, after which they parted as companions.
gata went to the forest and walked there alone. amru and other men were making a boat. boats were a mystery belonging to men. men had had that notion, had experimented with it, and then had declined to share knowledge and honours. men went ostentatiously apart when they would make a boat. they kept a thicket screen between them and the long houses, and they stationed watchers. the women heard the thud of the falling tree, and they smelled the smoke when began the hollowing process—but for the rest it was a mystery. when the boat was made, it was held to belong to men.{46}
amru was strong and skilful and many of the folk had a liking for him, and he tended to become a leader. now with other young men he was making a boat.... gata walked alone by the edge of the forest. she could see, between her and the river, the curling smoke where the men worked. she carried a spear, and felt no especial terror of the forest. the forest and its creatures composed an old, familiar pattern in her brain. within her was aglow another ancient pattern....
she sat down between the outcropping roots of a tree. a play of emotions filled her, kept her in a manner of iridescent dream. around spread the forest floor of perished leaves, multitudinous, layer after layer of perished leaves. overhead were the green leaves, quivering and thrilling. the savage woman sat and felt, and as best she could thought.... imagination waked in her. somewhere or other, she distinctly saw herself, moving beneath the trees, holding against her shoulder the child that would be born. she knew with certainty that she would be fond of it.... after this, she thought of amru. she sat quite still, her spear beside her, her dark red hair shadowing her face. she felt at once old and young—as though she had lived long, and as though sky and earth were new....
near the tree grew flowering bushes, and in the branchy mass of one was set a bird’s nest, filled with callow young. gata fell to watching the nest and the bird that perched beside it. hunter’s experience, savage experience, gave at wish an immobility of body, a mimicry of rooted life. gata seemed as unmoving as the trunk of the tree. the nestlings opened their mouths and stirred their unfeathered bodies. the bird spread its wings and went farther into the flowery thicket. when it returned it had food in{47} its beak. it fed its young. in a moment came, too, the male bird—it also bore food and fed the young. the mother bird perched once more beside the nest. the he-bird perched upon a second branch and sang. “sweet! so sweet!” was its song, and the she-bird and the young birds seemed, liking it, to listen. gata listened likewise.
the human group by the forest and the fen, as human groups everywhere upon the ancient earth, struggled with mysteries. why was thus and thus so? given a fact, what went before the fact, and what was to come out of it? the mind struggled, the mind pondered then as ever, and then as ever small, chance observations might put fire to long and long accumulated fuel.... “sweet! sweet!” sang the he-bird, and the she-bird listened, and the young birds opened and shut their mouths and pushed with their wings. gata sat and watched. a compound happening, seen in her existence a myriad times with the physical eye, now, quietly and easily, took meanings unthought of before. why did the he-bird bring food to the young birds? why did the he-bird, as well as the she-bird, watch the nestlings and drive away harm? why did the one, as well as the other, teach the young birds to fly?... “sweet! so sweet!” sang the he-bird, and the she-bird listened, and the young birds opened and shut their mouths and pushed with their wings, and all around were the flowering bushes....
suns rose from the fen and sank behind the forest, and amru and his fellows finished making their boat. it was a longer boat, a more skilfully made boat than any the houses had yet seen. there was great triumph when, all pushing and pulling and lifting together, the men got it into the narrow stream by which they had worked, and{48} then down this into the wide, slow-flowing river. the next thing was to be an expedition—a seeing what was up the river, farther than any had yet gone!
twelve young men went upon the expedition. they hewed and trimmed saplings with which to pole the boat, for the oar was not yet. the long houses, women and men, watched them depart. it was a high occasion, one that called for vociferation, chanting, laughter, shouts to boat and boatmen until all had dwindled to a dark splinter upon the river, until a horn of the earth came between them and the houses. a number of the men followed along the bank for a distance, but after a time the forest grew chokingly thick and they desisted. haki, shaking his string of gourds, tossing his arms in the air, went and returned with the followers.... until the point of earth came between, gata watched amru, standing in the boat, in his hands the shaft of a young tree. gata and amru had not ended their quarrel.
the horn of earth hid the long houses. the boat could no longer hear the shouting and chanting. the fen dropped away and on both sides of the river stood the forest. it was very thick, it stood knee-deep in black, quaking earth. it dropped upon the flood leaves and petals and withered twigs, dropped them into the boat. the boat with the young men poling moved close to shore. the river was wide, but it looked to these argonauts wider than wide, wide and fearful! that was ever the way with the impassable, with the heretofore unpassed. they hugged the shore. that was daring enough, so strange as yet was the fact of a boat at all!
after some time they came to the mouth of an affluent of the great river. they knew the nearer bank of this{49} stream; nothing new to be gained by following it in a boat instead of afoot, ashore, among cane and trees! amru gazed at the farther bank, turning the pole in his hands. he harangued the eleven. the adventurers poled across the affluent, drawing long breaths when it was done. full of pride, they laughed exultingly. amru stepped nearer chieftainship.
the twelve kept on, close to the shore, up the wide river. this shore was new. they peered through the rank waterside growth, but they saw nothing that they might not see nearer the long houses. before the sun set they had gone a considerable distance. they found a bank of sand, and here they beached their boat, and gathering dead wood rubbed sticks together and made a fire. they had dried meat with them and made their supper of this. night fell. the fire burned on, for protection against the serpent world and the four-footed world. one watched and eleven slept. morning coming, they roused and had breakfast. in great good spirits they looked at the river and at their boat, the beautiful work of hand and brain! the twelve felt enterprising, gay, and bold. they pushed off the boat, climbed in, took their poles in hand. this day they went a long distance. the river became narrower, the world up here was new. in the afternoon they fastened the boat to a tree, took their spears and hunted meat. having killed, they made a fire near the boat-tree, cooked and ate. stars tipped the black trees of the opposing shore, stars mirrored themselves in the stream. one man watched, eleven slept. dawn came; they sprang up and untied their boat.
amru looked across the stream. mist hung upon the opposite bank; then, parting, allowed a vision of a plain-{50}like space of grass backed by hills sharp and soaring against a fleckless sky. amru stared; then he said, “let us go across the river,” and turned the sapling in his hand like an oar.
the twelve crossed the river in their hollowed and shaped trunk of a tree. that was a great thing to do and they applauded themselves. amru felt affection for the boat that had done so well by them. he caressed it with his hand. suddenly he gave the boat a name. “tree-with-legs!” he said. “ko-te-lo!” and felt pride again in amru’s prowess.
this shore was higher than that which they had left, higher and less heavily wooded. they found a shelving place up which they lifted and hauled ko-te-lo. then, as they rested, sitting around ko-te-lo, they praised their collective prowess, and one among them said that the great turtle had helped them across. but amru said that before they started he had gone into the forest with haki and that haki had sung and danced to one other who lived in the sun. and then, because amru felt very bold this morning, he said that one other was like a man and not like a woman, and that he thought with haki that it would be one other who helped with the boat. that was natural, said amru, since men made and used boats and not women. the great turtle was like a woman and helped women. men wanted some one like men. one other had a long house in the sun, and spears and clubs and boats—many boats.
the eleven listened, attracted but doubtful, somewhat awed and alarmed. “but he cannot make children—one other cannot make children!”
amru felt anger. having been bold he must become{51} bolder yet—that seemed a necessity in the case. having entertained the idea of one other, he must turn the idea away or make of it an inmate, clothe it, and give it powers. he wished to keep authority with the eleven, and it seemed to him that that could not be done if there was retraction. he must yet further aggrandize one other. “he makes them with his hands,” he said. “he cuts them out of trees and sings to them and they come alive!”
the eleven pondered that. possibly it might be done. amru’s words made them see a hugely tall, strong, much-decorated man, a great hunter and spear-thrower, cutting shapes out of trees that presently came alive and stood and walked. had they not themselves fashioned ko-te-lo out of a tree? the eleven did not greatly care for haki, but for amru who seemed to agree with haki they did care. they had for amru a sentiment of admiration. he was treading firmly the unrolling path to chieftaincy. and all the long house men desired claims with which to set off woman’s claim. their hearts began to lean away from the great turtle, toward the big hunter in the sun—he who could make persons.
the sun came up over the hills. they looked at the great ball with a freshened interest. but the landscape grew brighter and gayer and they turned toward more familiar explorations. if they climbed a hill they might see afar. amru proposed that course and lifted from the boat his spear of tough wood with well-sharpened flint head. the others were content to follow him. they saw that ko-te-lo was well placed above the water, then, armed with spear and club and flint knife, they took their way up the waves of earth. they might meet serpents and four-footed enemies. they did not look for{52} foes who walked on two feet, and yet these were the ones they met.
out of a ravine between hills rose a hunting band as well armed as themselves and outweighing them in number. there was some parley, but it led nowhere. the stronger party flung a spear—in a moment began a conflict that grew more and more fierce and red. when it ended four of the twelve lay slain. the eight, whelmed by numbers, lost spear and club and knife, had at last only naked bodies. the eight were captives. they glared, and amru more redly than any, baring his teeth.
the victor group was one, it seemed, somewhat advanced in the notion of warfare everywhere, upon one’s own kind no less than other kinds. the settlement to which the eight were borne had that aspect. the people were fiercer, wilder than those who dwelled by the great river.
one of the eight died from a spear wound. another had his brains beaten out one day by an infuriated giant of the tribe. the six in captivity saw three moons appear, wax and wane. then they escaped—amru the planner and leader.
a storm came up and blew between them and the tribe among the hills. they got down to the river—they found ko-te-lo where they had hidden her. the people behind them knew naught of boats or boat-making. the six put off and poled for the other side of the river. a current caught them, carried them down, dashed them against a rock, the storm howling around. ko-te-lo overturned—one of the six was drowned. the five got their boat righted, entered her again and came at last to their natal side of the flood. they put ko-te-lo where she could not run{53} away, then they lay down in cane and mire and slept like the dead. the storm beat the woods and roared and howled for a day and a night. they lay close until it was over and the sun shone out and the earth sent up steam. then the five and ko-te-lo turned homeward.
they had adventures, but not great adventures, poling down the stream, poling down the stream as fast, as steadily, as the five could go. between the north bank and the south bank, between the sunset and the morning red, amru thought of gata.—ko-te-lo and the five came in sight of the long houses.
haki saw the boat upon the distant reaches. waving his arms, bending and leaping, shrilly chanting, he cried the news. women, men, children, the place rushed to the water’s edge. the five approaching broke into chanting. with a wild and deep rise and fall and swing of voice, they told the adventures of ko-te-lo and the twelve. before ko-te-lo touched the bank the long houses knew the gist of it—how the twelve had travelled and for so huge distances—the crossing of the water and the naming of ko-te-lo—the hunters encountered and how they were not stronger men, but more men—the slaying of the four—of the two—captivity—escape—the behaviour of ko-te-lo—the drowning of the one—the final escape of the five—the journey home. amru’s voice was the fullest, the most powerful and the richest. “amru led them!” he chanted, and the four added their strength. “amru led us!” “all brave men!” chanted amru, and the four sounded with him. “all brave men!” chanted amru, “we who are dead and we who are alive!” he stood in the prow of the boat and shook the young tree-trunk in his hand.... the voice of the long houses out-{54}swelled toward ko-te-lo and amru and the four. all had been thought dead. to have five—and the five bravest, amru and the four—was triumph! ko-te-lo reached the bank amid a frenzy of voices, of gestures of welcome. the long houses would not let the feet of the explorers touch earth.
triumph meant ceremonial feasting and dancing.... that evening such a feast was toward as had not been since the death of big trouble! it was a feast for the return of amru and the four and likewise it was a birth feast.
the middle house was the greatest, the most substantial, the finest of the structures. before it stood the carved-upon, the ochre-painted stone, sign and symbol of the great turtle. the houses could not remember how long it had been there, it had been there so very long. it had stood there before these houses were built, when they had only very little, rude houses of fresh boughs.
the middle house was high and wide and deep, a brown cavernous interior with a central hearth of stones. here a fire burned, smoke escaping through a hole in the roof. the entrance to the house gaped wide as a true cavern mouth. now, seen from within, another fire burned upon the baked earth terrace before the middle house and the other houses. around this fine in an ellipse went the leaping, the dancing figures of the feasting, the commemorating people of the long houses. from within, from where gata lay by the fire upon the hearth, it seemed that they went in an endless line, no end, no beginning. only when the people in the middle house itself came between hearth and entrance-way did she lose the line, the endless line that yet brought amru, time and time again, before the{55} door. she lay upon wolf-skins, and beside her the day-old babe. aneka sat by the fire, and women and men and children passed in and out. in the corners of the shadowy house were kept spears and shields and adornments fitted for such occasions. men came to take these, changing from one dress to another. without, within, beat the firelight. the house, the night without, were filled with forms, now dark, now bright. the forms had drums and rattles. bom—bommm! bom—bomm! went the drums.
the ellipse about the fire without broke. it became a serpentine line and entered the middle house. if amru was a favourite, gata was no less a favourite. amru’s triumph for amru magic—gata’s triumph for gata magic! in a world of mother-right, births were births. the dancers danced in the night without; they came with measured pace into the middle house and circled the hearth, the fire, the woman and her babe. amru danced at the head of the young men.
gata raised herself upon the wolf-skins. her eyes dwelled upon amru, followed amru as he moved. she, also, had forgotten their quarrel. he seemed her delectable comrade, tall and ruddy, amru the great hunter, amru the boat-maker! the feast was his. the feast was hers. she looked at the babe upon the wolf-skin. the feast was the child’s. the feast was amru’s, gata’s, and the child’s. her eyes shone bright, her cheek was ruddy as amru’s own. the dancers went around her—they went around her and the hearth and the fire and the child. she looked at amru, tall and ruddy, dancing there. he was dancing before her; his body swayed like flame, his body rose like flame and touched the roof-pole. she heard a singing of birds, she smelled the flow{56}ering bush. boom! beat the drums. boom! boom! the fire swung, the fire climbed.
gata rose upon her knees. she began to chant. her voice was rich and full—strength seemed to have come in flood—it seemed that, to-morrow, she might hunt big trouble—save that big trouble was dead and done with! the drums stopped beating, the ring stood still. persons yet without the house now came inside. there grew a throng. the fire-shine pushed from the hearth outward. gata chanted.
“folk of the great turtle—the turtle who dwells
both inside and out of her house!”
“she is possessed!” cried the folk. “she is going to tell truth!”
“wise is haki and wise is aneka, but wisdom
drops in the wood for who picks it up!
where i found wisdom i lifted it, and bore it by day and by night.
carrying it safe in the darkness, watching and saying naught.
now will it live in the light that stirred in the dark,—
now will i tell you truth about woman and man and a child.”
bending, she took the child from the wolf-skin, held it high in her hands. the light leaped and caressed it. the great ring of women and men seemed to come into relation with it; they slanted toward it, it seemed to draw their bodies, to act as a magnet. gata chanted on.
“shout and dance, folk of the turtle! cry, ‘gata is mother!’
true and happy that is—but of this child two are mothers!”
aneka rose beside her. “she has been given lash-lash to drink! she is singing foolishness! beat the drums and dance!—woman, woman, you had better go throw yourself into the river{57}—”
but gata’s voice sprang still. and the people of the long houses stood like a listening wood. a murmur had arisen, but it passed like a sigh. all hung intent.
“now, rub the forehead and answer, you who sit by the council tree,
you who say, nodding your heads, ‘boats are men’s work,
children are women’s work!’
now, answer, for i will question you, folk of the turtle!
from the body of woman comes forth boy and girl—
in my hands lies him who will be a man—
how should a woman make both woman and man?
woman only?
no wise one among you gives answer,
no woman and no man,
haki nor aneka!
is it not a strange thing, folk of the turtle?
now, tell me again and give answer again,
have you seen how often a child is like to a man,
one child to one man?
has a man naught to do with a child that is like him—
a child that is like him—”
the people cried out, “wisdom is on her!” the links of the ring shifted. amru stood before her. he spoke. “yes, we have seen. why is that, gata? and why are men fond of children?”
gata, holding the child aloft, rose to her feet. the flame-light wrapped her. it made of her hair a sunrise cloud, it made her flesh like flowers.
“folk of the great turtle—the turtle that watches the river
flow into the sea!
now will i tell you a truth—a truth that will bind us together.—
mother is gata—and mother is amru!
mother alike are gata and amru!
amru and gata came together.
to gata’s strength amru gave his strength.
to amru’s strength gata gave her strength.
then the moons rose like dancers out of the fen{58}—
many round moons—i counted them—many a dancer!
then came forth him who will dance strongly, who will build boats,
who will grow like amru, whom i will name amru,
for he is amru!...
what woman have you seen make a child in a world of no men?
i am mother, and amru—amru and gata make children!”
like a flame she sank from her height, she lay among the wolf-skins, the babe against her knee.
the people of the long houses broke into loud, excited speech. generations had walked as unconscious observers; now things observed took on order and meaning, came alive. haki began to chant, and on the wall of the middle house there leaped and danced his tall shadow. amru sat on the earth floor beside gata—he put out a finger and touched the babe’s hand.... but aneka said, “woman, woman, you had better go throw yourself into the river{59}—”
