THE STONE AGE by H.G. Wells ep2 finis
From H. G. Wells - 1897
The story is set during the Stone Age, and tells of a caveman named Ugh-lomi, who bonds with the young woman Eudena and kills his rival, the de facto tribal leader Uya. Whilst in exile, Ugh-lomi becomes the first man to ride a horse, and to combine stone and wood to fashion an axe. He uses this weapon, along with his wits, to survive encounters with cave bears, hyenas and rhinos, and ultimately claim the position of tribal leader for himself.
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A Story of the Stone Age - part two
by H. G. Wells
UGH-LOMI AND UYA
In the days before
Ugh-lomi killed the great cave bear there was little trouble between the horses
and men. Indeed they lived apart — the men in the river swamps and thickets,
the horses on the wide grassy uplands between the chestnuts and the pines.
Sometimes a pony would come straying into the clogging marshes to make a
flint-hacked meal, and sometimes the tribe would find one, the kill of a lion,
and drive off the jackals, and feast heartily while the sun was high. These
horses of the old time were clumsy at the fetlock and dun-coloured, with a
rough tail and big head. They came every spring-time north-westward into the
country, after the swallows and before the hippopotami, as the grass on the
wide downland stretches grew long. They came only in small bodies thus far,
each herd, a stallion and two or three mares and a foal or so, having its own
stretch of country, and they went again when the chestnut-trees were yellow and
the wolves came down the Wealden mountains.
It was their custom
to graze right out in the open, going into cover only in the heat of the day.
They avoided the long stretches of thorn and beechwood, preferring an isolated
group of trees, void of ambuscade, so that it was hard to come upon them. They
were never fighters; their heels and teeth were for one another, but in the
clear country, once they were started, no living thing came near them, though
perhaps the elephant might have done so, had he felt the need. And in those
days man seemed a harmless thing enough. No whisper of prophetic intelligence
told the species of the terrible slavery that was to come, of the whip and spur
and bearing-rein, the clumsy load and the slippery street, the insufficient
food, and the knacker’s yard, that was to replace the wide grass-land and the
freedom of the earth.
Down in the Wey
marshes Ugh-lomi and Eudena had never seen the horses closely, but now they saw
them every day as the two of them raided out from their lair on the ledge in
the gorge, raiding together in search of food. They had returned to the ledge
after the killing of Andoo; for of the she-bear they were not afraid. The
she-bear had become afraid of them, and when she winded them she went aside.
The two went together everywhere; for since they had left the tribe Eudena was
not so much Ugh-lomi’s woman as his mate; she learnt to hunt even — as much
that is, as any woman could. She was indeed a marvellous woman. He would lie
for hours watching a beast, or planning catches in that shock head of his, and
she would stay beside him, with her bright eyes upon him, offering no
irritating suggestions — as still as any man. A wonderful woman!
At the top of the
cliff was an open grassy lawn and then beechwoods, and going through the
beechwoods one came to the edge of the rolling grassy expanse, and in sight of
the horses. Here on the edge of the wood and bracken, were the rabbit-burrows,
and here among the fronds Eudena and Ugh-lomi would lie with their
throwing-stones ready, until the little people came out to nibble and play in
the sunset. And while Eudena would sit, a silent figure of watchfulness,
regarding the burrows, Ugh-lomi’s eyes were ever away across the greensward at
those wonderful grazing strangers.
In a dim way he
appreciated their grace and their supple nimbleness. As the sun declined in the
evening-time, and the heat of the day passed, they would become active, would
start chasing one another, neighing, dodging, shaking their manes, coming round
in great curves, sometimes so close that the pounding of the turf sounded like
hurried thunder. It looked so fine that Ugh-lomi wanted to join in badly. And
sometimes one would roll over on the turf, kicking four hoofs heavenward, which
seemed formidable and was certainly much less alluring.
Dim imaginings ran
through Ugh-lomi’s mind as he watched — by virtue of which two rabbits lived
the longer. And sleeping, his brains were clearer and bolder — for that was the
way in those days. He came near the horses, he dreamt, and fought,
smiting-stone against hoof, but then the horses changed to men or, at least, to
men with horses’ heads, and he awoke in a cold sweat of terror.
Yet the next day in
the morning, as the horses were grazing, one of the mares whinnied, and they
saw Ugh-lomi coming up the wind. They all stopped their eating and watched him.
Ugh-lomi was not coming towards them, but strolling obliquely across the open,
looking at anything in the world but horses. He had stuck three fern-fronds
into the mat of his hair, giving him a remarkable appearance, and he walked
very slowly. “What’s up now?” said the Master Horse, who was capable, but
inexperienced.
“It looks more like
the first half of an animal than anything else in the world,” he said.
“Fore-legs and no hind.”
“It’s only one of
those pink monkey things,” said the Eldest Mare. “They’re a sort of river
monkey. They’re quite common on the plains.”
Ugh-lomi continued
his oblique advance. The Eldest Mare was struck with the want of motive in his
proceedings.
“Fool!” said the
Eldest Mare, in a quick conclusive way she had. She resumed her grazing. The
Master Horse and the Second Mare followed suit.
“Look! He’s
nearer,” said the Foal with a stripe.
One of the younger
foals made uneasy movements. Ugh-lomi squatted down and sat regarding the
horses fixedly. In a little while he was satisfied that they meant neither
flight nor hostilities. He began to consider his next procedure. He did not
feel anxious to kill, but he had his axe with him, and the spirit of sport was
upon him. How would one kill one of these creatures —? These great beautiful
creatures!
Eudena, watching
him with a fearful admiration from the cover of the bracken, saw him presently
go on all fours, and so proceed again. But the horses preferred him a biped to
a quadruped, and the Master Horse threw up his head and gave the word to move.
Ugh-lomi thought they were off for good, but after a minute’s gallop they came
round in a wide curve, and stood winding him. Then as a rise in the ground hid
him they tailed out, the Master Horse leading and approached him spirally.
He was as ignorant
of the possibilities of a horse as they were of his. And at this stage it would
seem he funked. He knew this kind of stalking would make red deer or buffalo
charge, if it was persisted in. At any rate Eudena saw him jump up and come
walking towards her with the fern plumes held in his hand.
She stood up, and
he grinned to show that the whole thing was an immense lark, and that what he
had done was just what he had planned to do from the very beginning. So that
incident ended. But he was very thoughtful all that day.
The next day this foolish
drab creature with the leonine mane, instead of going about the grazing or
hunting he was made for, was prowling round the horses again. The Eldest Mare
was all for silent contempt. “I suppose he wants to learn something from us,”
she said, and “Let him.” The next day he was at it again. The Master Horse
decided he meant absolutely nothing. But as a matter of fact, Ugh-lomi, the
first of men to feel that curious spell of the horse that binds us even to this
day, meant a great deal. He admired them unreservedly. There was a rudiment of
the snob in him, I am afraid, and he wanted to be near these beautifully-curved
animals. Then here were vague conceptions of a kill. If only they would let him
come near them! But they drew the line, he found, at fifty yards. If he came
nearer than that they moved off — with dignity. I suppose it was the way he had
blinded Andoo that made him think of leaping on the back of one of them. But
though Eudena after a time came out in the open too, and they did some unobtrusive
stalking, things stopped there.
Then one memorable
day a new idea came to Ugh-lomi. The horse looks down and level, but he does
not look up. No animals look up — they have too much common-sense. It was only
that fantastic creature man, could waste his wits skyward. Ugh-lomi made no
philosophical deductions, but he perceived the thing was so. So he spent a
weary day in a beech that stood in the open, while Eudena stalked. Usually the
horses went into the shade in the heat of the afternoon, but that day the sky
was overcast, and they would not, in spite of Eudena’s solicitude.
It was two days
after that, that Ugh-lomi had his desire. The day was blazing hot, and the
multiplying flies asserted themselves. The horses stopped grazing before
midday, and came into the shadow below him, and stood in couples nose to tail,
flapping.
The Master Horse,
by virtue of his heels, came closest to the tree. And suddenly there was a
rustle and a creak, a thud . . . Then a sharp chipped flint bit him
on the cheek. The Master Horse stumbled, came on one knee, rose to his feet,
and was off like the wind. The air was full of the whirl of limbs, the prance
of hoofs, and snorts of alarm. Ugh-lomi was pitched a foot in the air, came
down again, up again, his stomach was hit violently, and then his knees got a
grip of something between them. He found himself clutching with knees, feet,
and hands, careering violently with extraordinary oscillation through the air —
his axe gone heaven knows whither. “Hold tight,” said Mother Instinct, and he
did.
He was aware of a
lot of coarse hair in his face, some of it between his teeth, and of green turf
streaming past in front of his eyes. He saw the shoulder of the Master Horse,
vast and sleek, with the muscles flowing swiftly under the skin. He perceived
that his arms were round the neck, and that the violent jerkings he experienced
had a sort of rhythm.
Then he was in the
midst of a wild rush of tree-stems, and then there were fronds of bracken
about, and then more open turf. Then a stream of pebbles rushing past, little
pebbles flying sideways athwart the stream from the blow of the swift hoofs.
Ugh-lomi began to feel frightfully sick and giddy, but he was not the stuff to
leave go simply because he was uncomfortable.
He dared not leave
his grip, but he tried to make himself more comfortable. He released his hug on
the neck, gripping the mane instead. He slipped his knees forward, and pushing
back, came into a sitting position where the quarters broaden.
It was nervous
work, but he managed it, and at last he was fairly seated astride, breathless
indeed, and uncertain, but with that frightful pounding of his body at any rate
relieved.
Slowly the
fragments of Ugh-lomi’s mind got into order again. The pace seemed to him
terrific, but a kind of exultation was beginning to oust his first frantic
terror. The air rushed by, sweet and wonderful, the rhythm of the hoofs changed
and broke up and returned into itself again. They were on turf now, a wide
glade — the beech-trees a hundred yards away on either side, and a succulent
band of green starred with pink blossom and shot with silver water here and
there, meandered down the middle. Far off was a glimpse of blue valley — far
away. The exultation grew. It was man’s first taste of pace.
Then came a wide
space dappled with flying fallow deer scattering this way and that, and then a
couple of jackals, mistaking Ugh-lomi for a lion, came hurrying after him. And
when they saw it was not a lion they still came on out of curiosity. On
galloped the horse, with his one idea of escape, and after him the jackals,
with pricked ears and quickly-barked remarks. “Which kills which?” said the
first jackal. “It’s the horse being killed,” said the second. They gave the
howl of following, and the horse answered to it as a horse answers nowadays to
the spur.
On they rushed, a
little tornado through the quiet day, putting up startled birds, sending a
dozen unexpected things darting to cover, raising a myriad of indignant
dung-flies, smashing little blossoms, flowering complacently, back into their
parental turf. Trees again, and then splash, splash across a torrent; then a
hare shot out of a tuft of grass under the very hoofs of the Master Horse, and
the jackals left them incontinently. So presently they broke into the open
again, a wide expanse of turfy hillside — the very fellow of the grassy downs
that fall northward nowadays from the Epsom Stand.
The first hot bolt
of the Master Horse was long since over. He was falling into a measured trot,
and Ugh-lomi, albeit bruised exceedingly and quite uncertain of the future, was
in a state of glorious enjoyment. And now came a new development. The pace
broke again, the Master Horse came round on a short curve, and stopped dead
. . .
Ugh-lomi became
alert. He wished he had a flint, but the throwing flint he had carried in a
thong about his waist was — like the axe — heaven knows where. The Master Horse
turned his head, and Ugh-lomi became aware of an eye and teeth. He whipped his
leg into a position of security, and hit at the cheek with his fist. Then the
head went down somewhere out of existence apparently, and the back he was
sitting on flew up into a dome. Ugh-lomi became a thing of instinct again —
strictly prehensile; he held by knees and feet, and his head seemed sliding
towards the turf. His fingers were twisted into the shock of mane, and the
rough hair of the horse saved him. The gradient he was on lowered again, and
then — “Whup!” said Ugh-lomi astonished, and the slant was the other way up.
But Ugh-lomi was a thousand generations nearer the primordial than man: no
monkey could have held on better. And the lion had been training the horse for
countless generations against the tactics of rolling and rearing back. But he
kicked like a master, and buck-jumped rather neatly. In five minutes Ugh-lomi
lived a lifetime. If he came off, the horse would kill him, he felt assured.
Then the Master
Horse decided to stick to his old tactics again, and suddenly went off at a
gallop. He headed down the slope, taking the steep places at a rush, swerving
neither to the right nor to the left, and as they rode down, the wide expanse
of valley sank out of sight behind the approaching skirmishers of oak and
Hawthorn. They skirted a sudden hollow with the pool of a spring, rank weeds
and silver bushes. The ground grew softer and the grass taller, and on the
right-hand side and the left came scattered bushes of May — still splashed with
belated blossom. Presently the bushes thickened until they lashed the passing
rider, and little flashes and gouts of blood came out on horse and man. Then
the way opened again.
And then came a
wonderful adventure. A sudden squeal of unreasonable anger rose amidst the
bushes, the squeal of some creature bitterly wronged. And crashing after them
appeared a big, grey-blue shape. It was Yaaa the big-horned rhinoceros, in one
of those fits of fury of his, charging full tilt, after the manner of his kind.
He had been startled at his feeding, and someone, it did not matter who, was to
be ripped and trampled therefore. He was bearing down on them from the left,
with his wicked little eye red, and his great horn down, and his little tail
like a jury-mast behind him. For a minute Ugh-lomi was minded to slip off and
dodge, and then behold! The staccato of the hoofs grew swifter, and the rhinoceros
and his stumpy hurrying little legs seemed to slide out at the back corner of
Ugh-lomi’s eye. In two minutes they were through the bushes of May, and out in
the open, going fast. For a space he could hear the ponderous paces in pursuit
receding behind him, and then it was just as if Yaaa had not lost his temper,
as if Yaaa had never existed.
The pace never
faltered, on they rode land on.
Ugh-lomi was now
all exultation. To exult in those days was to insult. “Ya-ha! Big nose,” he
said, trying to crane back and see some remote speck of a pursuer. “Why don’t
you carry your smiting-stone in your fist?” He ended with a frantic whoop.
But that whoop was
unfortunate, for coming close to the ear of the horse, and being quite
unexpected, it startled the stallion extremely. He shied violently. Ugh-lomi
suddenly found himself uncomfortable again. He was hanging on to the horse, he
found, by one arm and one knee.
The rest of the
ride was honourable but unpleasant. The view was chiefly of blue sky, and that
was combined with the most unpleasant physical sensations. Finally a bush of
thorn lashed him and he let go.
He hit the ground
with his cheek and shoulder, and then, after a complicated and extraordinarily
rapid movement, hit it again with the end of his backbone. He saw splashes and
sparks of light and colour. The ground seemed bouncing about just like the
horse had done. Then he found he was sitting on turf, six yards beyond the
bush. In front of him was a space of grass, growing greener and greener, and a
number of human beings in the distance, and the horse was going round at a
smart gallop quite a long way off to the right.
The human beings
were on the opposite side of the river, some still in the water, but they were
all running away as hard as they could go. The advent of a monster that took to
pieces was not the sort of novelty they cared for. For quite a minute Ugh-lomi
sat regarding them in a purely spectacular spirit. The bend of the river, the
knoll among the reeds and royal ferns, the thin streams of smoke going up to
Heaven, were all perfectly familiar to him. It was the squatting-place of the
Sons of Uya, of Uya from whom he had fled with Eudena, and whom he had waylaid
in the chestnut woods and killed with the First Axe.
He rose to his
feet, still dazed from his fall, and as he did so the scattering fugitives
turned and regarded him. Some pointed to the receding horse and chattered. He
walked slowly towards them, staring. He forgot the horse, he forgot his own
bruises, in the growing interest of this encounter. There were fewer of them
than there had been — he supposed the others must have hid — the heap of fern
or the night fire was not so high. By the flint heaps should have sat Wau — but
then he remembered he had killed Wau. Suddenly brought back to this familiar
scene, the gorge and the bears and Eudena seemed things remote, things dreamt
of.
He stopped at the
bank and stood regarding the tribe. His mathematical abilities were of the
slightest, but it was certain there were fewer. The men might be away, but
there were fewer women and children. He gave the shout of home-coming. His
quarrel had been with Uya and Wau — not with the others. “Children of Uya!” he
cried. They answered with his name, a little fearfully because of the strange
way he had come.
For a space they
spoke together. Then an old woman lifted a shrill voice and answered him. “Our
Lord is a Lion.”
Ugh-lomi did not
understand that saying. They answered him again several together, “Uya comes
again. He comes as a Lion. Our Lord is a Lion. He comes at night. He slays whom
he will. But none other may slay us, Ugh-lomi. None other may slay us.”
Still Ugh-lomi did
not understand.
“Our Lord is a
Lion. He speaks no more to men.”
Ugh-lomi stood
regarding them. He had had dreams — he knew that though he had killed Uya, Uya
still existed. And now they told him Uya was a Lion.
The shrivelled old
woman, the mistress of the fire-minders, suddenly turned and spoke softly to
those next to her. She was a very old woman indeed, she had been the first of
Uya’s wives, and he had let her live beyond the age to which it is seemly a
woman should live. She had been cunning from the first, cunning to please Uya
and to get food. And now she was great in counsel. She spoke softly, and
Ugh-lomi watched her shrivelled form across the river with a curious distaste.
Then she called aloud, “Come over to us, Ugh-lomi.”
A girl suddenly
lifted up her voice. “Come over to us, Ugh-lomi,” she said. And they all began
crying, “Come over to us, Ugh-lomi.”
It was strange how
their manner changed after the old woman called.
He stood quite
still watching them all. It was pleasant to be called, and the girl who had
called first was a pretty one. But she made him think of Eudena.
“Come over to us,
Ugh-lomi,” they cried, and the voice of the shrivelled old woman rose above
them all. At the sound of her voice his hesitation returned.
He stood on the
river bank, Ugh-lomi — Ugh the Thinker — with his thoughts slowly taking shape.
Presently one and then another paused to see what he would do. He was minded to
go back, he was minded not to. Suddenly his fear or his caution got the upper
hand. Without answering them he turned, and walked back towards the distant
thorn-trees, the way he had come. Forthwith the whole tribe started crying to
him again very eagerly. He hesitated and turned, then he went on, then he
turned again, and then once again, regarding them with troubled eyes as they
called. The last time he took two paces back, before his fear stopped him. They
saw him stop once more, and suddenly shake his head and vanish among the
hawthorn-trees.
Then all the women
and children lifted up their voices together, and called to him in one last
vain effort.
Far down the river
the reeds were stirring in the breeze, where convenient for his new sort of
feeding, the old lion, who had taken to man-eating, had made his lair.
The old woman turned
her face that way, and pointed to the hawthorn thickets. “Uya,” she screamed,
“there goes thine enemy! There goes thine enemy, Uya! Why do you devour us
nightly? We have tried to snare him! There goes thine enemy, Uya!”
But the lion who
preyed upon the tribe was taking his siesta. The cry went unheard. That day he
had dined on one of the plumper girls, and his mood was a comfortable
placidity. He really did not understand that he was Uya or that Ugh-lomi was
his enemy.
So it was that
Ugh-lomi rode the horse, and heard first of Uya the lion, who had taken the
place of Uya the Master, and was eating up the tribe. And as he hurried back to
the gorge, his mind was no longer full of the horse, but of the thought that
Uya was still alive, to slay or be slain. Over and over again he saw the
shrunken band of women and children crying that Uya was a lion. Uya was a lion!
And presently,
fearing the twilight might come upon him, Ugh-lomi began running.
The old lion was in luck.
The tribe had a certain pride in their ruler, but that was all the satisfaction
they got out of it. He came the very night that Ugh-lomi killed Uya the
Cunning, and so it was they named him Uya. It was the old woman, the
fire-minder, who first named him Uya. A shower had lowered the fires to a glow,
and made the night dark. And as they conversed together, and peered at one
another in the darkness, and wondered fearfully what Uya would do to them in
their dreams now that he was dead, they heard the mounting reverberations of the
lion’s roar close at hand. Then everything was still.
They held their
breath, so that almost the only sounds were the patter of the rain and the hiss
of the raindrops in the ashes. And then, after an interminable time, a crash,
and a shriek of fear, and a growling. They sprang to their feet, shouting,
screaming, running this way and that, but brands would not burn, and in a
minute the victim was being dragged away through the ferns. It was Irk, the
brother of Wau.
So the lion came.
The ferns were
still wet from the rain the next night, and he came and took Click with the red
hair. That sufficed for two nights. And then in the dark, between the moons he
came three nights, night after night, and that, though they had good fires. He
was an old lion with stumpy teeth, but very silent and very cool; he knew of
fires before; these were not the first of mankind that had ministered to his
old age. The third night he came between the outer fire and the inner, and he
leapt the flint heap, and pulled down Irm the son of Irk, who had seemed like
to be the leader. That was a dreadful night, because they lit great flares of
fern and ran screaming, and the lion missed his hold of Irm. By the glare of
the fire they saw Irm struggle up, and run a little way towards them, and then
the lion in two bounds had him down again. That was the last of Irm.
So fear came, and
all the delight of spring passed out of their lives. Already there were five
gone out of the tribe, and four nights added three more to the number.
Food-seeking became spiritless, none knew who might go next, and all day the
women toiled, even the favourite women, gathering litter and sticks for the
night fires. And the hunters hunted ill: in the warm spring-time hunger came
again as though it was still winter. The tribe might have moved, had they had a
leader, but they had no leader, and none knew where to go that the lion could
not follow them. So the old lion waxed fat and thanked heaven for the race of
men. Two of the children and a youth died while the moon was still new, and
then it was the shrivelled old fire-minder first bethought herself in a dream
of Eudena and Ugh-lomi, and of the way Uya, had been slain. She had lived in
fear of Uya all her days, and now she lived in fear of the lion. That Ugh-lomi
could kill Uya for good — Ugh-lomi whom she had seen born — was impossible. It
was Uya still seeking his enemy!
And then came the
strange return of Ugh-lomi, a wonderful animal seen galloping far across the
river, that suddenly changed into two animals, a horse and a man. Following
this portent, the vision of Ugh-lomi on the farther bank of the river
. . . Yes, it was all plain to her. Uya was punishing them, because
they had not hunted down Ugh-lomi and Eudena.
The men came
straggling back to the chances of the night while the sun was still golden in
the sky. They were received with the story of Ugh-lomi. She went across the
river with them and showed them his spoor hesitating on the farther bank. Siss
the Tracker knew the feet for Ugh-lomi’s. “Uya needs Ugh-lomi,” cried the old
woman, standing on the left of the bend, a gesticulating figure of flaring
bronze in the sunset. Her cries were strange sounds, flitting to and fro on the
borderland of speech, but this was the sense they carried: “The lion needs
Eudena. He comes night after night seeking Eudena and Ugh-lomi. When he cannot
find Eudena and Ugh-lomi, he grows angry and he kills. Hunt Eudena and
Ugh-lomi, Eudena whom he pursued, and Ugh-lomi for whom he gave the death-word!
Hunt Eudena and Ugh-lomi!”
She turned to the
distant reed-bed, as sometimes she had turned to Uya in his life. “Is it not
so, my lord?” she cried. And as if in answer, the tall reeds bowed before a
breath of wind.
Far into the
twilight the sound of hacking was heard from the squatting-places. It was the
men sharpening their ashen spears against the hunting of the morrow. And in the
night, early before the moon rose, the lion came and took the girl of Siss the
Tracker.
In the morning
before the sun had risen, Siss the Tracker, and the lad Wau-hau, who now
chipped flints, and One Eye, and Bo, and the snail-eater, the two red-haired
men, and Cat’s-skin and Snake, all the men that were left alive of the Sons of
Uya, taking their ash spears and their smiting-stones, and with throwing stones
in the beast-paw bags, started forth upon the trail of Ugh-lomi through the
hawthorn thickets where Yaaa the Rhinoceros and his brothers were feeding, and
up the bare downland towards the beechwoods.
That night the
fires burnt high and fierce, as the waxing moon set, and the lion left the
crouching women and children in peace.
And the next day,
while the sun was still high, the hunters returned — all save One Eye, who lay
dead with a smashed skull at the foot of the ledge. (When Ugh-lomi came back
that evening from stalking the horses, he found the vultures already busy over
him.) And with them the hunters brought Eudena bruised and wounded, but alive.
That had been the strange order of the shrivelled old woman, that she was to be
brought alive — “She is no kill for us. She is for Uya the Lion.” Her hands
were tied with thongs, as though she had been a man, and she came weary and
drooping — her hair over her eyes and matted with blood. They walked about her,
and ever and again the Snail–Eater, whose name she had given, would laugh and
strike her with his ashen spear. And after he had struck her with his spear, he
would look over his shoulder like one who had done an over-bold deed. The
others too, looked over their shoulders ever and again, and all were in a hurry
save Eudena. When the old woman saw them coming, she cried aloud with joy.
They made Eudena
cross the river with her hands tied, although the current was strong, and when
she slipped the old woman screamed, first with joy and then for fear she might
be drowned. And when they had dragged Eudena to shore, she could not stand for
a time, albeit they beat her sore. So they let her sit with her feet touching
the water, and her eyes staring before her, and her face set, whatever they
might do or say. All the tribe came down to the squatting-place, even curly
little Haha, who as yet could scarcely toddle, and stood staring at Eudena and
the old woman, as now we should stare at some strange wounded beast and its
captor.
The old woman tore
off the necklace of Uya that was about Eudena’s neck, and put it on herself —
she had been the first to wear it. Then she tore at Eudena’s hair, and took a
spear from Siss and beat her with all her might. And when she had vented the
warmth of her heart on the girl she looked closely into her face. Eudena’s eyes
were closed and her features were set, and she lay so still that for a moment
the old woman feared she was dead until her nostrils quivered. At that the old
woman slapped her face and laughed and gave the spear to Siss again, and went a
little way off from her and began to talk and jeer at her after her manner.
The old woman had
more words than any in the tribe. And her talk was a terrible thing to hear.
Sometimes she screamed and moaned incoherently, and sometimes the shape of her
guttural cries was the mere phantom of thoughts. But she conveyed to Eudena,
nevertheless, much of the things that were yet to come, of the Lion and of the
torment he would do her. “And Ugh-lomi! Ha, ha! Ugh-lomi was slain?”
And suddenly
Eudena’s eyes opened and she sat up again, and her look met the old woman’s
fair and level. “No,” she said slowly, like one trying to remember, “I did not
see my Ugh-lomi slain. I did not see my Ugh-lomi slain.”
“Tell her,” cried
the old woman. “Tell her — he that killed him. Tell her how Ugh-lomi was
slain.”
She looked, and all
the women and children there looked, from man to man.
None answered her.
They stood shamefaced.
“Tell her,” said
the old woman. The men looked at one another.
Eudena’s face
suddenly lit.
“Tell her,” she
said. “Tell her, mighty men! Tell her the killing of Ugh-lomi.”
The old woman rose
and struck her sharply across her mouth.
“We could not find
Ugh-lomi,” said Siss the Tracker, slowly. “Who hunts two, kills none.”
Then Eudena’s heart
leapt, but she kept her face hard. It was well, for the old woman looked at her
sharply, with murder in her eyes.
Then the old woman
turned her tongue upon the men because they had feared to go on after Ugh-lomi.
She dreaded no one now Uya was slain. She scolded them as one scolds children.
And they scowled at her, and began to accuse one another. Until suddenly Siss
the Tracker raised his voice and bade her hold her peace.
And so when the sun
was setting they took Eudena and went — though their hearts sank within them —
along the trail the old lion had made in the reeds. All the men went together.
At one place was a group of alders, and here they hastily bound Eudena where
the lion might find her when he came abroad in the twilight, and having done so
they hurried back until they were near the squatting-place. Then they stopped.
Siss stopped first and looked back again at the alders. They could see her head
even from the squatting-place, a little black shock under the limb of the
larger tree. That was as well.
All the women and
children stood watching upon the crest of the mound. And the old woman stood
and screamed for the lion to take her whom he sought, and counselled him on the
torments he might do her.
Eudena was very
weary now, stunned by beatings and fatigue and sorrow, and only the fear of the
thing that was still to come upheld her. The sun was broad and blood-red
between the stems of the distant chestnuts, and the west was all on fire; the
evening breeze had died to a warm tranquillity. The air was full of midge
swarms, the fish in the river hard by would leap at times, and now and again a
cockchafer would drone through the air. Out of the corner of her eye Eudena
could see a part of the squatting-knoll, and little figures standing and
staring at her. And — a very little sound but very clear — she could hear the
beating of the firestone. Dark and near to her and very still was the
reed-fringed thicket of the lair.
Presently the
firestone ceased. She looked for the sun and found he had gone, and overhead
and growing brighter was the waxing moon. She looked towards the thicket of the
lair, seeking shapes in the reeds, and then suddenly she began to wriggle and
wriggle, weeping and calling upon Ugh-lomi.
But Ugh-lomi was
far away. When they saw her head moving with her struggles, they shouted
together on the knoll, and then she desisted and was still. And then came the
bats, and the star that was like Ugh-lomi crept out of its blue hiding-place in
the west. She called to it, but softly, because she feared the lion. And all
through the coming of the twilight the thicket was still.
So the dark crept
upon Eudena, and the moon grew bright, and the shadows of things that had fled
up the hillside and vanished with the evening came back to them short and
black, And the dark shapes in the thicket of reeds and alders where the lion
lay, gathered, and a faint stir began there. But nothing came out therefrom all
through the gathering of the darkness.
She looked at the
squatting-place and saw the fires glowing smoky-red, and the men and women
going to and fro. The other way, over the river, a white mist was rising. Then
far away came the whimpering of young foxes and the yell of a hyaena.
There were long
gaps of aching waiting. After a long time some animal splashed in the water, and
seemed to cross the river at the ford beyond the lair, but what animal it was
she could not see. From the distant drinking-pools she could hear the sound of
splashing, and the noise of elephants — so still was the night.
The earth was now a
colourless arrangement of white reflections and impenetrable shadows, under the
blue sky. The silvery moon was already spotted with the filigree crests of the
chestnut woods, and over the shadowy eastward bills the stars were multiplying.
The knoll fires were bright red now, and black figures stood waiting against
them. They were waiting for a scream . . . Surely it would be soon.
The night suddenly
seemed full of movement. She held her breath. Things were passing — one, two,
three — subtly sneaking shadows . . . Jackals.
Then a long waiting
again.
Then, asserting
itself as real at once over all the sounds her mind had imagined, came a stir
in the thicket, then a vigorous movement. There was a snap. The reeds crashed
heavily, once, twice, thrice, and then everything was still save a measured
swishing. She heard a low tremulous growl, and then everything was still again.
The stillness lengthened — would it never end? She held her breath; she bit her
lips to stop screaming. Then something scuttled through the undergrowth. Her
scream was involuntary. She did not hear the answering yell from the mound.
Immediately the
thicket woke up to vigorous movement again. She saw the grass stems waving in
the light of the setting moon, the alders swaying. She struggled violently —
her last struggle. But nothing came towards her. A dozen monsters seemed
rushing about in that little place for a couple of minutes, and then again came
silence. The moon sank behind the distant chestnuts and the night was dark.
Then an odd sound,
a sobbing panting, that grew faster and fainter. Yet another silence, and then
dim sounds and the grunting of some animal.
Everything was
still again. Far away eastwards an elephant trumpeted, and from the woods came
a snarling and yelping that died away.
In the long
interval the moon shone out again, between the stems of the trees on the ridge,
sending two great bars of light, and a bar of darkness across the reedy waste.
Then came a steady rustling, a splash, and the reeds swayed wider and wider
apart. And at last they broke open, cleft from root to crest . . .
The end had come.
She looked to see
the thing that had come out of the reeds. For a moment it seemed certainly the
great head and jaw she expected, and then it dwindled and changed. It was a
dark low thing, that remained silent, but it was not the lion. It became still
— everything became still. She peered. It was like some gigantic frog, two
limbs and a slanting body. Its head moved about searching the shadows
. . .
A rustle, and it
moved clumsily, with a sort of hopping. And as it moved it gave a low groan.
The blood rushing
through her veins was suddenly joy. “Ugh-lomi!” she whispered.
The thing stopped.
“Eudena,” he answered softly with pain in his voice, and peering into the
alders.
He moved again, and
came out of the shadow beyond the reeds into the moonlight. All his body was
covered with dark smears. She saw he was dragging his legs, and that he gripped
his axe, the first axe, in one hand. In another moment he had struggled into
the position of all fours, and had staggered over to her. “The lion,” he said
in a strange mingling of exultation and anguish. “Wau —! I have slain a lion.
With my own hand. Even as I slew the great bear.” He moved to emphasise his
words, and suddenly broke off with a faint cry. For a space he did not move.
“Let me free,”
whispered Eudena . . .
He answered her no
words but pulled himself up from his crawling attitude by means of the alder
stem, and hacked at her thongs with the sharp edge of his axe. She heard him
sob at each blow. He cut away the thongs about her chest and arms, and then his
hand dropped. His chest struck against her shoulder and he slipped down beside
her and lay still.
But the rest of her
release was easy. Very hastily she freed herself. She made one step from the
tree, and her head was spinning, Her last conscious movement was towards him.
She reeled, and suddenly fell headlong beside him. Her hand fell upon his
thigh. It was soft and wet, and gave way under her pressure; he cried out at
her touch, and writhed and lay still again, with her hand upon him.
Presently a dark
dog-like shape came very softly through the reeds. This stopped dead and stood
sniffing, hesitated, and at last turned and slunk back into the shadows.
Long was the time
they remained there motionless, with the light of the setting moon shining on
their limbs. Very slowly, as slowly as the setting of the moon, did the shadow
of the reeds towards the mound flow over them. Presently their legs were
hidden, and Ugh-lomi was but a bust of silver. The shadow crept to his neck,
crept over his face, and so at last the darkness of the night swallowed them
up.
The shadow became
full of instinctive stirrings. There was a patter of feet, and a faint snarling
— the sound of a blow.
There was little
sleep that night for the women and children at the squatting-place until they
heard Eudena scream. But the men were weary and sat dozing. When Eudena
screamed they felt assured of their safety, and hurried to get the nearest
places to the fires. The old woman laughed at the scream, and laughed again
because Si, the little sister of Eudena, whimpered. Directly the dawn came,
they were all alert and looking towards the alders. They could see that Eudena
had been taken. They could not help feeling glad to think that Uya was
appeased. But across the minds of the men the thought of Ugh-lomi fell like a
shadow. They could understand revenge, for the world was old in revenge, but
they did not think of rescue. Suddenly a hyaena fled out of the thicket, and
came galloping across the reed space. His muzzle and paws were dark-stained. At
that sight all the men shouted and clutched at throwing-stones and ran towards
him, for no animal is so pitiful a coward as the hyaena by day. All men hated
the hyaena because he preyed on children, and would come and bite when one was
sleeping on the edge of the squatting-place. And Cat’s-skin, throwing fair and
straight, hit the brute shrewdly on the flank, whereat the whole tribe yelled
with delight.
At the noise they
made there came a flapping of wings from the lair of the lion, and three
white-headed vultures rose slowly and circled and came to rest amidst the
branches of an alder, overlooking the lair. “Our lord is abroad,” said the old
woman, pointing. “The vultures have their share of Eudena.” For a space they
remained there, and then first one and then another dropped back into the
thicket.
Then over the
eastern woods, and touching the whole world to life and colour, poured, with
the exaltation of a trumpet blast, the light of the rising sun. At the sight of
him the children shouted together, and clapped their hands and began to race
off towards the water. Only little Si lagged behind and looked wonderingly at
the alders where she had seen the head of Eudena overnight.
But Uya, the old
lion, was not abroad but at home, and he lay very still, and a little on one
side. He was not in his lair, but a little way from it in a place of trampled
grass. Under one eye was a little wound, the feeble little bite of the first
axe. But all the ground beneath his chest was ruddy brown with a vivid streak,
and in his chest was a little hole that had been made by Ugh-lomi’s
stabbing-spear. Along his side and at his neck the vultures had marked their
claims. For so Ugh-lomi had slain him, lying stricken under his paw and
thrusting haphazard at his chest. He had driven the spear in with all his
strength and stabbed the giant to the heart. So it was the reign of the lion,
of the second incarnation of Uya the Master, came to an end.
From the knoll the
bustle of preparation grew, the hacking of spears and throwing-stones. None
spake the name of Ugh-lomi for fear that it might bring him. The men were going
to keep together, close together, in the hunting for a day or so. And their
hunting was to be Ugh-lomi, lest instead he should come a-hunting them.
But Ugh-lomi was
lying very still and silent, outside the lion’s lair, and Eudena squatted
beside him, with the ash spear, all smeared with lion’s blood, gripped in her
hand.
Ugh-lomi lay still, his
back against an alder, and his thigh was a red mass terrible to see. No
civilised man could have lived who had been so sorely wounded, but Eudena got
him thorns to close his wounds, and squatted beside him day and night, smiting
the flies from him with a fan of reeds by day, and in the night threatening the
hyaenas who came too near with the first axe in her hand; and in a little while
he began to heal. It was high summer, and there was no rain. Little food they
had, during the first two days his wounds were open. In the low place where
they hid were no roots nor little beasts, and the stream, with its water-snails
and fish, was in the open, a hundred yards away. She could not go abroad by day
for fear of the tribe, her brothers and sisters, nor by night for fear of the
beasts, both on his account and hers. So they shared the lion with the
vultures. But there was a trickle of water near by, and Eudena brought him
plenty in her hands.
Where Ugh-lomi lay
was well hidden from the tribe by a thicket of alders, and all fenced about
with bulrushes and tall reeds. The dead lion he had killed lay near his old
lair on a place of trampled reeds fifty yards away, in sight through the
reed-stems, and the vultures fought each other for the choicest pieces and kept
the jackals off him. Very soon a cloud of flies that looked like bees hung over
him, and Ugh-lomi could hear their humming. And when Ugh-lomi’s flesh was
already healing — and it was not many days before that began — only a few bones
of the lion remained scattered and shining white.
For the most part
Ugh-lomi sat still during the day, looking before him at nothing, sometimes he
would mutter of the horses and bears and lions, and sometimes he would beat the
ground with the first axe and say the names of the tribe — he seemed to have no
fear of bringing the tribe — for hours together. But chiefly he slept, dreaming
little because of his loss of blood and the slightness of his food. During the
short summer night both kept awake. All the while the darkness lasted things
moved about them, things they never saw by day. For some nights the hyaenas did
not come, and then one moonless night near a dozen came and fought for what was
left of the lion. The night was a tumult of growling, and Ugh-lomi and Eudena
could hear the bones snap in their teeth. But they knew the hyaena dare not
attack any creature alive and awake, and so they were not greatly afraid.
Of a daytime Eudena
would go along the narrow path, the old lion had made in the reeds until she
was beyond the bend, and then she would creep into the thicket and watch the
tribe. She would lie close by the alders, where they had bound her to offer her
up to the lion, and thence she could see them on the knoll by the fire, little
and clear, as she had seen them that night. But she told Ugh-lomi little of
what she saw, because she feared to bring them by their names. For so they
believed in those days, that naming called.
She saw the men
prepare stabbing-spears and throwing-stones on the morning after Ugh-lomi had
slain the lion, and go out to hunt him, leaving the women and children on the
knoll. Little they knew how near he was as they tracked off in single file
towards the hills, with Siss the Tracker leading them. And she watched the
women and children, after the men had gone, gathering fern-fronds and twigs for
the night fire, and the boys and girls running and playing together. But the
very old woman made her feel afraid. After a long space towards noon, when most
of the others were down at the stream by the bend, she came and stood on the
hither side of the knoll, a gnarled brown figure, and gesticulated so that
Eudena could scarce believe she was not seen. Eudena lay like a hare in its
form, with shining eyes fixed on the bent witch away there, and presently she
dimly understood it was the lion the old woman was worshipping — the lion
Ugh-lomi had slain.
And the next day
the hunters came back weary, carrying a fawn, and Eudena watched the feast
enviously. And then came a strange thing. She saw — distinctly she heard — the
old woman shrieking and gesticulating and pointing towards her. She was afraid,
and crept like a snake out of sight again. But presently curiosity overcame her
and she was back at her spying-place, and as she peered her heart stopped, for
there were all the men, with their weapons in their hands, walking together
towards her from the knoll.
She dared not move
lest her movement should be seen, but she pressed herself close to the ground.
The sun was low and the golden light was in the faces of the men. She saw they
carried a piece of rich red meat thrust through by an ashen stake. Presently
they stopped. “Go on!” screamed the old woman. Cat’s-skin grumbled, and they
came on, searching the thicket with sun-dazzled eyes. “Here!” said Siss. And
they took the ashen stake with the meat upon it and thrust it into the ground.
“Uya!” cried Siss, “Behold thy portion. And Ugh-lomi we have slain. Of a truth
we have slain Ugh-lomi. This day we slew Ugh-lomi, and tomorrow we will bring
his body to you.” And the others repeated the words.
They looked at each
other and behind them, and partly turned and began going back. At first they
walked half turned to the thicket, then facing the mound they walked faster,
looking over their shoulders, then faster; soon they ran, it was a race at
last, until they were near the knoll. Then Siss who was hindmost was first to
slacken his pace.
The sunset passed
and the twilight came, the fires glowed red against the hazy blue of the
distant chestnut trees, and the voices over the mound were merry. Eudena lay
scarcely stirring, looking from the mound to the meat and then to the mound.
She was hungry, but she was afraid. At last she crept back to Ugh-lomi.
He looked round at
the little rustle of her approach. His face was in shadow. “Have you got me
some food?” he said.
She said she could
find nothing, but that she would seek further, and went back along the lion’s
path until she could see the mound again, but she could not bring herself to
take the meat; she had the brute’s instinct of a snare. She felt very
miserable.
She crept back at
last towards Ugh-lomi and heard him stirring and moaning. She turned back to
the mound again; then she saw something in the darkness near the stake, and
peering distinguished a jackal. In a flash she was brave and angry; she sprang
up, cried out, and ran towards the offering. She stumbled and fell, and heard
the growling of the jackal going off.
When she arose only
the ashen stake lay on the ground, the meat was gone. So she went back, to fast
through the night with Ugh-lomi; and Ugh-lomi was angry with her, because she
had no food for him; but she told him nothing of the things she had seen.
Two days passed and
they were near starving, when the tribe slew a horse. Then came the same
ceremony, and a haunch was left on the ashen stake; but this time Eudena did
not hesitate.
By acting and words
she made Ugh-lomi understand, but he ate most of the food before he understood;
and then he grew merry with his food. “I am Uya,” he said; “I am the Lion. I am
the Great Cave Bear, I who was only Ugh-lomi. I am Wau the Cunning. It is well
that they should feed me, for presently I will kill them all.”
Then Eudena’s heart
was light, and she laughed with him; and afterwards she ate what he had left of
the horseflesh with gladness.
After that it was
he had a dream, and the next day he made Eudena bring him the lion’s teeth and
claws — so much of them as she could find — and hack him a club of alder, and
he put the teeth and claws very cunningly into the wood so that the points were
outward. Very long it took him, and he blunted two of the teeth hammering them
in, and was very angry and threw the thing away; but afterwards he dragged
himself to where he had thrown it and finished it — a club of a new sort set
with teeth. That day there was more meat for them both, an offering to the lion
from the tribe.
It was one day —
more than a hand’s fingers of days, more than anyone has skill to count — after
Ugh-lomi had made the club, that Eudena (while he was asleep) was lying in the
thicket watching the squatting-place. There had been no meat for three days.
And the old woman came and worshipped after her manner. Now while she
worshipped, Eudena’s little sister Si and another, the child of the first girl
Siss had loved, came over the knoll and stood regarding her skinny figure, and
presently they began to mock her. Eudena found this entertaining, but suddenly
the old woman turned on them quickly and saw them. For a moment she stood and
they stood motionless, and then with a shriek of rage she rushed towards them,
and all three disappeared over the crest of the knoll.
Presently the
children reappeared among the ferns over the shoulder of the hill. Little Si
ran first, for she was an active girl, and the other child ran squealing with
the old woman close upon her. And over the knoll came Siss with a bone in his
hand, and Bo and Cat’s-skin obsequiously behind him, each holding a piece of
food, and they laughed aloud and shouted to see the old woman so angry. And
with a shriek the child was caught and the old woman set to work slapping and
the child screaming, and it was very good after-dinner fun for them. Little Si
ran on a little way and stopped at last between fear and curiosity.
And suddenly came
the mother of the child, with hair streaming, panting, and with a stone in her
hand, and the old woman turned about like a wild cat. She was the equal of any
woman, was the old chief of the fire-minders, in spite of her years; but before
she could do anything Siss shouted to her and the clamour rose loud. Other
shock heads came into sight. It seemed the whole tribe was at home and feasting.
But the old woman dared not go on wreaking herself on the child Siss
befriended. Nevertheless it was a fine row.
Everyone made
noises and called names, even little Si. Abruptly the old woman let go of the
child she had caught and made a swift run at Si who had no friends; and Si,
realising her danger when it was almost upon her, with a faint cry of terror
made off headlong, not heeding whither she ran, straight to the lair of the
lion. She swerved aside into the reeds presently, not realising whither she
went.
But the old woman
was a wonderful old woman, as active as she was spiteful, and she caught Si by
the streaming hair within thirty yards of Eudena. All the tribe now was running
down the knoll and shouting, ready to see the fun.
Then something
stirred in Eudena and, thinking all of little Si and nothing of her fear, she
sprang up from her ambush and ran swiftly forward. The old woman did not see
her, for she was busy beating little Si’s face with her hand, beating with all
her heart, and suddenly something hard and heavy struck her cheek. She went
reeling, and saw Eudena with flaming eyes and cheeks between her and little Si.
She shrieked with astonishment and terror, and little Si, not understanding,
set off towards the gaping tribe. They were quite close now, for the sight of
Eudena had driven their fading fear of the lion out of their heads.
In a moment Eudena
had turned from the cowering old woman and overtaken Si. “Si!” she cried, “Si!”
She caught the child up in her arms as it stopped, pressed the nail-lined face
to hers, and turned about to run towards her lair, the lair of the old lion.
The old woman stood waist-high in the reeds, and screamed foul things and
inarticulate rage, but did not dare to intercept her; and at the bend of the
path Eudena looked back and saw all the men of the tribe crying to one another
and Siss coming at a trot along the lion’s trail.
She ran straight
along the narrow way through the reeds to the shady place where Ugh-lomi sat
with his healing thigh, just awakened by the shouting and rubbing his eyes. She
came to him, a woman, with little Si in her arms. Her heart throbbed in her
throat. “Ugh-lomi!” she cried, “Ugh-lomi, the tribe comes!”
Ugh-lomi sat
staring in stupid astonishment at her and Si.
She pointed with Si
in one arm. She sought among her feeble store of words to explain. She could
hear the men calling. Apparently they had stopped outside. She put down Si and
caught up the new club with the lion’s teeth, and put it into Ugh-lomi’s hand,
and ran three yards and picked up the first axe.
“Ah!” said
Ugh-lomi, waving the new club, and suddenly he perceived the occasion and,
rolling over, began to struggle to his feet.
He stood, but
clumsily. He supported himself by one hand against the tree, and just touched
the ground gingerly with the toe of his wounded leg. In the other hand he
gripped the new club. He looked at his healing thigh; and suddenly the reeds
began whispering, and ceased and whispered again, and coming cautiously along
the track among the reeds, bending down and holding his fire-hardened
stabbing-stick of ash in his hand, appeared Siss. He stopped dead, and his eyes
met Ugh-lomi’s.
Ugh-lomi forgot he
had a wounded leg. He stood firmly on both feet. Something trickled. He glanced
down and saw a little gout of blood had oozed out along the edge of the healing
wound. He rubbed his hand there to give him the grip of his club, and fixed his
eyes again on Siss. The fighting spirit now swiftly and suddenly overflowed.
“Wau!” he cried,
and sprang forward, and Siss, still stooping and watchful, drove his
stabbing-stick up very quickly in an ugly thrust. It ripped Ugh-lomi’s guarding
arm and the club came down in a counter that Siss was never to understand. He
fell, as an ox falls to the pole-axe, at Ugh-lomi’s feet.
To Bo it seemed the
strangest thing. He had a comforting sense of tall reeds on either side, and an
impregnable rampart, Siss, between him and any danger. Snail-eater was close
behind and there was no danger there. He was prepared to shove behind and send
Siss to death or victory. That was his place as second man. He saw the blunt of
the spear Siss carried leap away from him, and suddenly a dull whack and the
broad back fell away forward, and he looked Ugh-lomi in the face over his
prostrate leader. It felt to Bo as if his heart had fallen down a well. He had
a throwing-stone in one hand and an ashen stabbing-stick in the other. He did
not live to the end of his momentary hesitation which to use.
Snail-eater was a
readier man, and besides Bo did not fall forward as Siss had done, but gave at
his knees and hips, crumpling up with the toothed club upon his head, smiting
him down. The Snail-eater drove his spear forward swift and straight, and took
Ugh-lomi in the muscle of the shoulder, and then he drove him hard with the
smiting-stone in his other and, shouting out as he did so. The new club swished
ineffectually through the reeds. Eudena saw Ugh-lomi come staggering back from
the narrow path into the open space, tripping over Siss and with a foot of
ashen stake sticking out of him over his arm, and then the Snail-eater, whose
name she had given, had his final injury from her, as his exultant face came
out of the reeds after his spear. For she swung the first axe swift and high,
and hit him fair and square on the temple; and down he went on Siss at
prostrate Ugh-lomi’s feet.
But before Ugh-lomi
could get to his feet, the two red-haired men were tumbling out of the reeds,
spears and smiting-stones ready, and Snake hard behind them. One she struck on
the neck, but not to fell him, and he blundered aside and spoilt his brother’s
blow at Ugh-lomi’s head. In a moment Ugh-lomi dropped his club and had his
assailant by the waist, and had pitched him sideways sprawling. He snatched at
his club again and recovered it. The man Eudena had hit stabbed at her with his
spear as he stumbled from her blow, and involuntarily she gave ground to avoid
him. He hesitated between her and Ugh-lomi, half turned, gave a vague cry at
finding Ugh-lomi so near, and in a moment Ugh-lomi had him by the throat, and
the club had its third victim. As he went down Ugh-lomi shouted — no words, but
an exultant cry.
The other
red-haired man was six feet from her with his back to her, and a darker red
streaking his head. He was struggling to his feet. She had an irrational
impulse to stop his rising. She flung the axe at him, missed, saw his face in
profile, and he had swerved beyond little Si, and was running through the
reeds. She had a transitory vision of Snake standing in the throat of the path,
half turned away from her, and then she saw his back. She saw the club whirling
through the air, and the shock head of Ugh-lomi, with blood in the hair and
blood upon the shoulder, vanishing below the reeds in pursuit. Then she heard
Snake scream like a woman.
She ran past Si to
where the handle of the axe stuck out of a clump of fern, and turning, found
herself panting and alone with three motionless bodies. The air was full of
shouts and screams. For a space she was sick and giddy, and then it came into
her head that Ugh-lomi was being killed along the reed-path, and with an
inarticulate cry she leapt over the body of Bo and hurried after him. Snake’s
feet lay across the path, and his head was among the reeds. She followed the
path until it bent round and opened out by the alders, and thence she saw all
that was left of the tribe in the open, scattering like dead leaves before a
gale, and going back over the knoll. Ugh-lomi was hard upon Cat’s-skin.
But Cat’s-skin was
fleet of foot and got away, and so did young Wau–Hau when Ugh-lomi turned upon
him, and Ugh-lomi pursued Wau–Hau far beyond the knoll before he desisted. He
had the rage of battle on him now, and the wood thrust through his shoulder
stung him like a spear. When she saw he was in no danger she stopped running
and stood panting, watching the distant active figures run up and vanish one by
one over the knoll. In a little time she was alone again. Everything had
happened very swiftly. The smoke of Brother Fire rose straight and steady from
the squatting-place, just as it had done ten minutes ago, when the old woman
had stood yonder worshipping the lion.
And after a long
time, as it seemed, Ugh-lomi reappeared over the knoll, and came back to
Eudena, triumphant and breathing heavily. She stood, her hair about her eyes
and hot-faced, with the blood-stained axe in her hand, at the place where the
tribe had offered her as a sacrifice to the lion. “Wau!” cried Ugh-lomi at the
sight of her, his face alight with the fellowship of battle, and he waved his
new club, red now and hairy; and at the sight of his glowing face her tense
pose relaxed somewhat, and she stood weeping and rejoicing.
Ugh-lomi had a
queer unaccountable pang at the sight of her tears; but he only shouted “Wau!”
the louder and shook the axe east and west. He called to her to follow him and
turned back, striding, with the club swinging in his hand, towards the
squatting-place, as if he had never left the tribe; and she stopped weeping and
followed as a woman should.
So Ugh-lomi and
Eudena came back to the squatting-place from which they had fled many days
before from the face of Uya; and by the squatting-place lay a deer half eaten,
just as there had been before Ugh-lomi was man or Eudena woman. So Ugh-lomi sat
down to eat, and Eudena beside him like a man, and the rest of the tribe
watched them from safe hiding-places. And after a time one of the elder girls
came back timorously and carrying little Si in her arms, and Eudena called to
them by name, and offered them food. But the elder girl was afraid and would
not come, though Si struggled to come to Eudena. Afterwards, when Ugh-lomi had
eaten, he sat dozing, and at last he slept, and slowly the others came out of
the hiding-places and drew near. And when Ugh-lomi woke, save that there were
no men to be seen, it seemed as though he had never left the tribe.
Now there is a
thing strange but true: that all through this fight Ugh-lomi forgot that he was
lame, and was not lame, and after he had rested behold! He was a lame man; and
he remained a lame man to the end of his days.
Cat’s-skin and the
second red-haired man and Wau–Hau, who chipped flints cunningly, as his father
had done before him, fled from the face of Ugh-lomi, and none knew where they
hid. But two days after they came and squatted among the bracken under the
chestnuts a good way off from the knoll and watched. Ugh-lomi’s rage had gone,
he moved to go against them and did not, and at sundown they went away. That
day too, they found the old woman among the ferns, where Ugh-lomi had blundered
upon her when he had pursued Wau–Hau. She was dead and more ugly than ever, but
whole. The jackals and vultures had tried her and left her —; she was ever a
wonderful old woman.
The next day the
three men came again and squatted nearer, and Wau–Hau had two rabbits to hold
up, and the red-haired man a wood-pigeon, and Ugh–Lomi stood before their women
and mocked them.
The next day they
sat again nearer — without stones or sticks, and with the same offerings, and
Cat’s-skin had a trout. It was rare men caught fish in those days but
Cat’s-skin would stand silently in the water for hours and catch them with his
hand. And the fourth day Ugh-lomi suffered these three to come to the
squatting-place in peace, with the food they had with them. Ugh-lomi ate the trout.
Thereafter for many moons Ugh-lomi was master, and had his will in peace. And
on the fulness of time he was killed and eaten as Uya had been slain.
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