<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="bk5">A Story of the Stone Age</div>
<hr /><p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</SPAN></span></p>
<h2>A STORY OF THE STONE AGE</h2>
<h3>I—UGH-LOMI AND UYA</h3>
<p><span class="smcap">This</span> story is of a time beyond the memory
of man, before the beginning of history, a time
when one might have walked dryshod from
France (as we call it now) to England, and
when a broad and sluggish Thames flowed
through its marshes to meet its father Rhine,
flowing through a wide and level country that
is under water in these latter days, and which
we know by the name of the North Sea. In
that remote age the valley which runs along the
foot of the Downs did not exist, and the south
of Surrey was a range of hills, fir-clad on the
middle slopes, and snow-capped for the better
part of the year. The cores of its summits still
remain as Leith Hill, and Pitch Hill, and Hindhead.
On the lower slopes of the range, below
the grassy spaces where the wild horses grazed,
were forests of yew and sweet-chestnut and
elm, and the thickets and dark places hid the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</SPAN></span>
grizzly bear and the hyæna, and the grey apes
clambered through the branches. And still
lower amidst the woodland and marsh and
open grass along the Wey did this little drama
play itself out to the end that I have to tell.
Fifty thousand years ago it was, fifty thousand
years—if the reckoning of geologists is correct.</p>
<p>And in those days the spring-time was as
joyful as it is now, and sent the blood coursing
in just the same fashion. The afternoon sky
was blue with piled white clouds sailing
through it, and the southwest wind came like a
soft caress. The new-come swallows drove to
and fro. The reaches of the river were spangled
with white ranunculus, the marshy places were
starred with lady's-smock and lit with marsh-mallow
wherever the regiments of the sedges
lowered their swords, and the northward-moving
hippopotami, shiny black monsters, sporting
clumsily, came floundering and blundering
through it all, rejoicing dimly and possessed
with one clear idea, to splash the river muddy.</p>
<p>Up the river and well in sight of the hippopotami,
a number of little buff-coloured animals
dabbled in the water. There was no fear,
no rivalry, and no enmity between them and
the hippopotami. As the great bulks came
crashing through the reeds and smashed the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</SPAN></span>
mirror of the water into silvery splashes, these
little creatures shouted and gesticulated with
glee. It was the surest sign of high spring.
"Boloo!" they cried. "Baayah. Boloo!" They
were the children of the men folk, the smoke of
whose encampment rose from the knoll at the
river's bend. Wild-eyed youngsters they were,
with matted hair and little broad-nosed impish
faces, covered (as some children are covered
even nowadays) with a delicate down of hair.
They were narrow in the loins and long in the
arms. And their ears had no lobes, and had little
pointed tips, a thing that still, in rare instances,
survives. Stark-naked vivid little gipsies,
as active as monkeys and as full of chatter,
though a little wanting in words.</p>
<p>Their elders were hidden from the wallowing
hippopotami by the crest of the knoll. The
human squatting-place was a trampled area
among the dead brown fronds of Royal Fern,
through which the crosiers of this year's
growth were unrolling to the light and
warmth. The fire was a smouldering heap of
char, light grey and black, replenished by the
old women from time to time with brown
leaves. Most of the men were asleep—they
slept sitting with their foreheads on their knees.
They had killed that morning a good quarry,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</SPAN></span>
enough for all, a deer that had been wounded
by hunting dogs; so that there had been no
quarrelling among them, and some of the
women were still gnawing the bones that lay
scattered about. Others were making a heap
of leaves and sticks to feed Brother Fire when
the darkness came again, that he might grow
strong and tall therewith, and guard them
against the beasts. And two were piling flints
that they brought, an armful at a time, from
the bend of the river where the children were at
play.</p>
<p>None of these buff-skinned savages were
clothed, but some wore about their hips rude
girdles of adder-skin or crackling undressed
hide, from which depended little bags, not
made, but torn from the paws of beasts, and
carrying the rudely-dressed flints that were
men's chief weapons and tools. And one
woman, the mate of Uya the Cunning Man,
wore a wonderful necklace of perforated fossils—that
others had worn before her. Beside
some of the sleeping men lay the big antlers of
the elk, with the tines chipped to sharp edges,
and long sticks, hacked at the ends with flints
into sharp points. There was little else save
these things and the smouldering fire to mark
these human beings off from the wild animals<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</SPAN></span>
that ranged the country. But Uya the Cunning
did not sleep, but sat with a bone in his
hand and scraped busily thereon with a flint, a
thing no animal would do. He was the oldest
man in the tribe, beetle-browed, prognathous,
lank-armed; he had a beard and his cheeks
were hairy, and his chest and arms were black
with thick hair. And by virtue both of his
strength and cunning he was master of the
tribe, and his share was always the most and
the best.</p>
<p>Eudena had hidden herself among the alders,
because she was afraid of Uya. She was still a
girl, and her eyes were bright and her smile
pleasant to see. He had given her a piece of the
liver, a man's piece, and a wonderful treat for
a girl to get; but as she took it the other woman
with the necklace had looked at her, an evil
glance, and Ugh-lomi had made a noise in his
throat. At that, Uya had looked at him long
and steadfastly, and Ugh-lomi's face had fallen.
And then Uya had looked at her. She was
frightened and she had stolen away, while the
feeding was still going on, and Uya was busy
with the marrow of a bone. Afterwards he had
wandered about as if looking for her. And now
she crouched among the alders, wondering
mightily what Uya might be doing with the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</SPAN></span>
flint and the bone. And Ugh-lomi was not to
be seen.</p>
<p>Presently a squirrel came leaping through
the alders, and she lay so quiet the little man
was within six feet of her before he saw her.
Whereupon he dashed up a stem in a hurry and
began to chatter and scold her. "What are you
doing here," he asked, "away from the other
men beasts?" "Peace," said Eudena, but he
only chattered more, and then she began to
break off the little black cones to throw at him.
He dodged and defied her, and she grew excited
and rose up to throw better, and then she
saw Uya coming down the knoll. He had seen
the movement of her pale arm amidst the
thicket—he was very keen-eyed.</p>
<p>At that she forgot the squirrel and set off
through the alders and reeds as fast as she
could go. She did not care where she went so
long as she escaped Uya. She splashed nearly
knee-deep through a swampy place, and saw in
front of her a slope of ferns—growing more
slender and green as they passed up out of
the light into the shade of the young chestnuts.
She was soon amidst the trees—she was
very fleet of foot, and she ran on and on until
the forest was old and the vales great, and the
vines about their stems where the light came<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</SPAN></span>
were thick as young trees, and the ropes of ivy
stout and tight. On she went, and she doubled
and doubled again, and then at last lay down
amidst some ferns in a hollow place near a
thicket, and listened with her heart beating in
her ears.</p>
<p>She heard footsteps presently rustling
among the dead leaves, far off, and they died
away and everything was still again, except the
scandalising of the midges—for the evening
was drawing on—and the incessant whisper of
the leaves. She laughed silently to think the
cunning Uya should go by her. She was not
frightened. Sometimes, playing with the other
girls and lads, she had fled into the wood,
though never so far as this. It was pleasant to
be hidden and alone.</p>
<p>She lay a long time there, glad of her escape,
and then she sat up listening.</p>
<p>It was a rapid pattering growing louder and
coming towards her, and in a little while she
could hear grunting noises and the snapping of
twigs. It was a drove of lean grisly wild
swine. She turned about her, for a boar is an
ill fellow to pass too closely, on account of the
sideway slash of his tusks, and she made off
slantingly through the trees. But the patter
came nearer, they were not feeding as they<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</SPAN></span>
wandered, but going fast—or else they would
not overtake her—and she caught the limb of a
tree, swung on to it, and ran up the stem with
something of the agility of a monkey.</p>
<p>Down below the sharp bristling backs of the
swine were already passing when she looked.
And she knew the short, sharp grunts they
made meant fear. What were they afraid of?
A man? They were in a great hurry for just a
man.</p>
<p>And then, so suddenly it made her grip on
the branch tighten involuntarily, a fawn started
in the brake and rushed after the swine. Something
else went by, low and grey, with a long
body; she did not know what it was, indeed
she saw it only momentarily through the interstices
of the young leaves; and then there came
a pause.</p>
<p>She remained stiff and expectant, as rigid
almost as though she was a part of the tree she
clung to, peering down.</p>
<p>Then, far away among the trees, clear for a
moment, then hidden, then visible knee-deep
in ferns, then gone again, ran a man. She
knew it was young Ugh-lomi by the fair colour
of his hair, and there was red upon his face.
Somehow his frantic flight and that scarlet
mark made her feel sick. And then nearer, running<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</SPAN></span>
heavily and breathing hard, came another
man. At first she could not see, and then she
saw, foreshortened and clear to her, Uya, running
with great strides and his eyes staring.
He was not going after Ugh-lomi. His face was
white. It was Uya—<i>afraid</i>! He passed, and
was still loud hearing, when something else,
something large and with grizzled fur, swinging
along with soft swift strides, came rushing
in pursuit of him.</p>
<p>Eudena suddenly became rigid, ceased to
breathe, her clutch convulsive, and her eyes
starting.</p>
<p>She had never seen the thing before, she did
not even see him clearly now, but she knew
at once it was the Terror of the Woodshade.
His name was a legend, the children would
frighten one another, frighten even themselves
with his name, and run screaming to the squatting-place.
No man had ever killed any of his
kind. Even the mighty mammoth feared his
anger. It was the grizzly bear, the lord of the
world as the world went then.</p>
<p>As he ran he made a continuous growling
grumble. "Men in my very lair! Fighting and
blood. At the very mouth of my lair. Men,
men, men. Fighting and blood." For he was
the lord of the wood and of the caves.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>Long after he had passed she remained, a
girl of stone, staring down through the
branches. All her power of action had gone
from her. She gripped by instinct with hands
and knees and feet. It was some time before
she could think, and then only one thing was
clear in her mind, that the Terror was between
her and the tribe—that it would be impossible
to descend.</p>
<p>Presently when her fear was a little abated
she clambered into a more comfortable position,
where a great branch forked. The trees rose
about her, so that she could see nothing of
Brother Fire, who is black by day. Birds began
to stir, and things that had gone into hiding for
fear of her movements crept out....</p>
<p>After a time the taller branches flamed out at
the touch of the sunset. High overhead the
rooks, who were wiser than men, went cawing
home to their squatting-places among the elms.
Looking down, things were clearer and darker.
Eudena thought of going back to the squatting-place;
she let herself down some way, and then
the fear of the Terror of the Woodshade came
again. While she hesitated a rabbit squealed
dismally, and she dared not descend farther.</p>
<p>The shadows gathered, and the deeps of the
forest began stirring. Eudena went up the tree<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</SPAN></span>
again to be nearer the light. Down below the
shadows came out of their hiding-places and
walked abroad. Overhead the blue deepened.
A dreadful stillness came, and then the leaves
began whispering.</p>
<p>Eudena shivered and thought of Brother
Fire.</p>
<p>The shadows now were gathering in the
trees, they sat on the branches and watched her.
Branches and leaves were turned to ominous,
quiet black shapes that would spring on her if
she stirred. Then the white owl, flitting silently,
came ghostly through the shades.
Darker grew the world and darker, until the
leaves and twigs against the sky were black,
and the ground was hidden.</p>
<p>She remained there all night, an age-long
vigil, straining her ears for the things that
went on below in the darkness, and keeping
motionless lest some stealthy beast should discover
her. Man in those days was never alone
in the dark, save for such rare accidents as this.
Age after age he had learnt the lesson of its
terror—a lesson we poor children of his have
nowadays painfully to unlearn. Eudena,
though in age a woman, was in heart like a little
child. She kept as still, poor little animal, as
a hare before it is started.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>The stars gathered and watched her—her
one grain of comfort. In one bright one she
fancied there was something like Ugh-lomi.
Then she fancied it <i>was</i> Ugh-lomi. And near
him, red and duller, was Uya, and as the night
passed Ugh-lomi fled before him up the sky.</p>
<p>She tried to see Brother Fire, who guarded
the squatting-place from beasts, but he was not
in sight. And far away she heard the mammoths
trumpeting as they went down to the
drinking-place, and once some huge bulk with
heavy paces hurried along, making a noise like
a calf, but what it was she could not see. But
she thought from the voice it was Yaaa the
rhinoceros, who stabs with his nose, goes always
alone, and rages without cause.</p>
<p>At last the little stars began to hide, and then
the larger ones. It was like all the animals
vanishing before the Terror. The Sun was
coming, lord of the sky, as the grizzly was lord
of the forest. Eudena wondered what would
happen if one star stayed behind. And then
the sky paled to the dawn.</p>
<p>When the daylight came the fear of lurking
things passed, and she could descend. She was
stiff, but not so stiff as you would have been,
dear young lady (by virtue of your upbringing),
and as she had not been trained to eat at<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</SPAN></span>
least once in three hours, but instead had often
fasted three days, she did not feel uncomfortably
hungry. She crept down the tree very cautiously,
and went her way stealthily through the
wood, and not a squirrel sprang or deer started
but the terror of the grizzly bear froze her marrow.</p>
<p>Her desire was now to find her people again.
Her dread of Uya the Cunning was consumed
by a greater dread of loneliness. But she had
lost her direction. She had run heedlessly
overnight, and she could not tell whether the
squatting-place was sunward or where it lay.
Ever and again she stopped and listened, and
at last, very far away, she heard a measured
chinking. It was so faint even in the morning
stillness that she could tell it must be far away.
But she knew the sound was that of a man
sharpening a flint.</p>
<p>Presently the trees began to thin out, and
then came a regiment of nettles barring the
way. She turned aside, and then she came to a
fallen tree that she knew, with a noise of bees
about it. And so presently she was in sight of
the knoll, very far off, and the river under it,
and the children and the hippopotami just as
they had been yesterday, and the thin spire of
smoke swaying in the morning breeze. Far<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</SPAN></span>
away by the river was the cluster of alders
where she had hidden. And at the sight of that
the fear of Uya returned, and she crept into a
thicket of bracken, out of which a rabbit scuttled,
and lay awhile to watch the squatting-place.</p>
<p>The men were mostly out of sight, saving
Wau, the flint-chopper; and at that she felt
safer. They were away hunting food, no
doubt. Some of the women, too, were down in
the stream, stooping intent, seeking mussels,
crayfish, and water-snails, and at the sight of
their occupation Eudena felt hungry. She rose,
and ran through the fern, designing to join
them. As she went she heard a voice among
the bracken calling softly. She stopped. Then
suddenly she heard a rustle behind her, and
turning, saw Ugh-lomi rising out of the fern.
There were streaks of brown blood and dirt on
his face, and his eyes were fierce, and the white
stone of Uya, the white Fire Stone, that none
but Uya dared to touch, was in his hand. In a
stride he was beside her, and gripped her arm.
He swung her about, and thrust her before him
towards the woods. "Uya," he said, and waved
his arms about. She heard a cry, looked back,
and saw all the women standing up, and two
wading out of the stream. Then came a nearer<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</SPAN></span>
howling, and the old woman with the beard,
who watched the fire on the knoll, was waving
her arms, and Wau, the man who had been
chipping the flint, was getting to his feet. The
little children too were hurrying and shouting.</p>
<p>"Come!" said Ugh-lomi, and dragged her by
the arm.</p>
<p>She still did not understand.</p>
<p>"Uya has called the death word," said Ugh-lomi,
and she glanced back at the screaming
curve of figures, and understood.</p>
<p>Wau and all the women and children were
coming towards them, a scattered array of buff
shock-headed figures, howling, leaping, and
crying. Over the knoll two youths hurried.
Down among the ferns to the right came a
man, heading them off from the wood. Ugh-lomi
left her arm, and the two began running
side by side, leaping the bracken and stepping
clear and wide. Eudena, knowing her fleetness
and the fleetness of Ugh-lomi, laughed aloud at
the unequal chase. They were an exceptionally
straight-limbed couple for those days.</p>
<p>They soon cleared the open, and drew near
the wood of chestnut-trees again—neither
afraid now because neither was alone. They
slackened their pace, already not excessive. And
suddenly Eudena cried and swerved aside,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</SPAN></span>
pointing, and looking up through the tree-stems.
Ugh-lomi saw the feet and legs of men
running towards him. Eudena was already
running off at a tangent. And as he too turned
to follow her they heard the voice of Uya coming
through the trees, and roaring out his rage
at them.</p>
<p>Then terror came in their hearts, not the terror
that numbs, but the terror that makes one
silent and swift. They were cut off now on two
sides. They were in a sort of corner of pursuit.
On the right hand, and near by them, came the
men swift and heavy, with bearded Uya, antler
in hand, leading them; and on the left, scattered
as one scatters corn, yellow dashes among
the fern and grass, ran Wau and the women;
and even the little children from the shallow
had joined the chase. The two parties converged
upon them. Off they went, with Eudena
ahead.</p>
<p>They knew there was no mercy for them.
There was no hunting so sweet to these ancient
men as the hunting of men. Once the fierce passion
of the chase was lit, the feeble beginnings
of humanity in them were thrown to the winds.
And Uya in the night had marked Ugh-lomi
with the death word. Ugh-lomi was the day's
quarry, the appointed feast.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>They ran straight—it was their only chance—taking
whatever ground came in the way—a
spread of stinging nettles, an open glade, a
clump of grass out of which a hyæna fled snarling.
Then woods again, long stretches of
shady leaf-mould and moss under the green
trunks. Then a stiff slope, tree-clad, and long
vistas of trees, a glade, a succulent green area
of black mud, a wide open space again, and
then a clump of lacerating brambles, with beast
tracks through it. Behind them the chase
trailed out and scattered, with Uya ever at their
heels. Eudena kept the first place, running
light and with her breath easy, for Ugh-lomi
carried the Fire Stone in his hand.</p>
<p>It told on his pace—not at first, but after a
time. His footsteps behind her suddenly grew
remote. Glancing over her shoulder as they
crossed another open space, Eudena saw that
Ugh-lomi was many yards behind her, and
Uya close upon him, with antler already raised
in the air to strike him down. Wau and the
others were but just emerging from the
shadow of the woods.</p>
<p>Seeing Ugh-lomi in peril, Eudena ran sideways,
looking back, threw up her arms and
cried aloud, just as the antler flew. And young
Ugh-lomi, expecting this and understanding<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</SPAN></span>
her cry, ducked his head, so that the missile
merely struck his scalp lightly, making but a
trivial wound, and flew over him. He turned
forthwith, the quartzite Fire Stone in both
hands, and hurled it straight at Uya's body as
he ran loose from the throw. Uya shouted, but
could not dodge it. It took him under the ribs,
heavy and flat, and he reeled and went down
without a cry. Ugh-lomi caught up the antler—one
tine of it was tipped with his own blood—and
came running on again with a red trickle
just coming out of his hair.</p>
<p>Uya rolled over twice, and lay a moment before
he got up, and then he did not run fast.
The colour of his face was changed. Wau overtook
him, and then others, and he coughed and
laboured in his breath. But he kept on.</p>
<p>At last the two fugitives gained the bank of
the river, where the stream ran deep and narrow,
and they still had fifty yards in hand of
Wau, the foremost pursuer, the man who made
the smiting-stones. He carried one, a large flint,
the shape of an oyster and double the size,
chipped to a chisel edge, in either hand.</p>
<p>They sprang down the steep bank into the
stream, rushed through the water, swam the
deep current in two or three strokes, and came
out wading again, dripping and refreshed, to<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</SPAN></span>
clamber up the farther bank. It was undermined,
and with willows growing thickly
therefrom, so that it needed clambering. And
while Eudena was still among the silvery
branches and Ugh-lomi still in the water—for
the antler had encumbered him—Wau came
up against the sky on the opposite bank, and
the smiting-stone, thrown cunningly, took the
side of Eudena's knee. She struggled to the
top and fell.</p>
<p>They heard the pursuers shout to one another,
and Ugh-lomi climbing to her and moving
jerkily to mar Wau's aim, felt the second
smiting-stone graze his ear, and heard the
water splash below him.</p>
<p>Then it was Ugh-lomi, the stripling, proved
himself to have come to man's estate. For running
on, he found Eudena fell behind, limping,
and at that he turned, and crying savagely and
with a face terrible with sudden wrath and
trickling blood, ran swiftly past her back to the
bank, whirling the antler round his head. And
Eudena kept on, running stoutly still, though
she must needs limp at every step, and the pain
was already sharp.</p>
<p>So that Wau, rising over the edge and
clutching the straight willow branches, saw
Ugh-lomi towering over him, gigantic against<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</SPAN></span>
the blue; saw his whole body swing round, and
the grip of his hands upon the antler. The edge
of the antler came sweeping through the air,
and he saw no more. The water under the
osiers whirled and eddied and went crimson
six feet down the stream. Uya following
stopped knee-high across the stream, and the
man who was swimming turned about.</p>
<p>The other men who trailed after—they were
none of them very mighty men (for Uya was
more cunning than strong, brooking no sturdy
rivals)—slackened momentarily at the sight of
Ugh-lomi standing there above the willows,
bloody and terrible, between them and the halting
girl, with the huge antler waving in his
hand. It seemed as though he had gone into the
water a youth, and come out of it a man full
grown.</p>
<p>He knew what there was behind him. A
broad stretch of grass, and then a thicket, and
in that Eudena could hide. That was clear in
his mind, though his thinking powers were too
feeble to see what should happen thereafter.
Uya stood knee-deep, undecided and unarmed.
His heavy mouth hung open, showing his canine
teeth, and he panted heavily. His side was
flushed and bruised under the hair. The other
man beside him carried a sharpened stick. The<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</SPAN></span>
rest of the hunters came up one by one to the
top of the bank, hairy, long-armed men clutching
flints and sticks. Two ran off along the
bank down stream, and then clambered to the
water, where Wau had come to the surface
struggling weakly. Before they could reach
him he went under again. Two others threatened
Ugh-lomi from the bank.</p>
<p>He answered back, shouts, vague insults,
gestures. Then Uya, who had been hesitating,
roared with rage, and whirling his fists plunged
into the water. His followers splashed after
him.</p>
<p>Ugh-lomi glanced over his shoulder and
found Eudena already vanished into the
thicket. He would perhaps have waited for
Uya, but Uya preferred to spar in the water
below him until the others were beside him.
Human tactics in those days, in all serious
fighting, were the tactics of the pack. Prey that
turned at bay they gathered around and rushed.
Ugh-lomi felt the rush coming, and hurling
the antler at Uya, turned about and fled.</p>
<p>When he halted to look back from the
shadow of the thicket, he found only three of
his pursuers had followed him across the river,
and they were going back again. Uya, with a
bleeding mouth, was on the farther side of the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</SPAN></span>
stream again, but lower down, and holding his
hand to his side. The others were in the river
dragging something to shore. For a time at
least the chase was intermitted.</p>
<p>Ugh-lomi stood watching for a space, and
snarled at the sight of Uya. Then he turned
and plunged into the thicket.</p>
<p>In a minute, Eudena came hastening to join
him, and they went on hand in hand. He dimly
perceived the pain she suffered from the cut
and bruised knee, and chose the easier ways.
But they went on all that day, mile after mile,
through wood and thicket, until at last they
came to the chalkland, open grass with rare
woods of beech, and the birch growing near
water, and they saw the Wealden mountains
nearer, and groups of horses grazing together.
They went circumspectly, keeping always near
thicket and cover, for this was a strange region—even
its ways were strange. Steadily the
ground rose, until the chestnut forests spread
wide and blue below them, and the Thames
marshes shone silvery, high and far. They saw
no men, for in those days men were still only
just come into this part of the world, and were
moving but slowly along the river-ways.
Towards evening they came on the river again,
but now it ran in a gorge, between high cliffs of<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</SPAN></span>
white chalk that sometimes overhung it. Down
the cliffs was a scrub of birches and there were
many birds there. And high up the cliff was a
little shelf by a tree, whereon they clambered to
pass the night.</p>
<p>They had had scarcely any food; it was not
the time of year for berries, and they had no
time to go aside to snare or waylay. They
tramped in a hungry weary silence, gnawing at
twigs and leaves. But over the surface of the
cliffs were a multitude of snails, and in a bush
were the freshly laid eggs of a little bird, and
then Ugh-lomi threw at and killed a squirrel
in a beech-tree, so that at last they fed well.
Ugh-lomi watched during the night, his chin
on his knees; and he heard young foxes crying
hard by, and the noise of mammoths down the
gorge, and the hyænas yelling and laughing far
away. It was chilly, but they dared not light a
fire. Whenever he dozed, his spirit went
abroad, and straightway met with the spirit of
Uya, and they fought. And always Ugh-lomi
was paralysed so that he could not smite nor
run, and then he would awake suddenly. Eudena,
too, dreamt evil things of Uya, so that
they both awoke with the fear of him in their
hearts, and by the light of the dawn they saw a<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</SPAN></span>
woolly rhinoceros go blundering down the valley.</p>
<p>During the day they caressed one another
and were glad of the sunshine, and Eudena's
leg was so stiff she sat on the ledge all day.
Ugh-lomi found great flints sticking out of the
cliff face, greater than any he had seen, and he
dragged some to the ledge and began chipping,
so as to be armed against Uya when he came
again. And at one he laughed heartily, and
Eudena laughed, and they threw it about in derision.
It had a hole in it. They stuck their
fingers through it, it was very funny indeed.
Then they peeped at one another through it.
Afterwards, Ugh-lomi got himself a stick, and
thrusting by chance at this foolish flint, the
stick went in and stuck there. He had rammed
it in too tightly to withdraw it. That was still
stranger—scarcely funny, terrible almost, and
for a time Ugh-lomi did not greatly care to
touch the thing. It was as if the flint had bit
and held with its teeth. But then he got familiar
with the odd combination. He swung it
about, and perceived that the stick with
the heavy stone on the end struck a better blow
than anything he knew. He went to and fro
swinging it, and striking with it; but later he
tired of it and threw it aside. In the afternoon<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</SPAN></span>
he went up over the brow of the white cliff, and
lay watching by a rabbit-warren until the rabbits
came out to play. There were no men
thereabouts, and the rabbits were heedless. He
threw a smiting-stone he had made and got a
kill.</p>
<p>That night they made a fire from flint sparks
and bracken fronds, and talked and caressed by
it. And in their sleep Uya's spirit came again,
and suddenly, while Ugh-lomi was trying to
fight vainly, the foolish flint on the stick came
into his hand, and he struck Uya with it, and
behold! it killed him. But afterwards came
other dreams of Uya—for spirits take a lot of
killing, and he had to be killed again. Then
after that the stone would not keep on the
stick. He awoke tired and rather gloomy, and
was sulky all the forenoon, in spite of Eudena's
kindliness, and instead of hunting he sat chipping
a sharp edge to the singular flint, and
looking strangely at her. Then he bound the
perforated flint on to the stick with strips of
rabbit skin. And afterwards he walked up and
down the ledge, striking with it, and muttering
to himself, and thinking of Uya. It felt very
fine and heavy in the hand.</p>
<p>Several days, more than there was any
counting in those days, five days, it may be, or<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</SPAN></span>
six, did Ugh-lomi and Eudena stay on that
shelf in the gorge of the river, and they lost
all fear of men, and their fire burnt redly of a
night. And they were very merry together;
there was food every day, sweet water, and no
enemies. Eudena's knee was well in a couple
of days, for those ancient savages had quick-healing
flesh. Indeed, they were very happy.</p>
<p>On one of those days Ugh-lomi dropped a
chunk of flint over the cliff. He saw it fall, and
go bounding across the river bank into the river,
and after laughing and thinking it over a little
he tried another. This smashed a bush of hazel
in the most interesting way. They spent all the
morning dropping stones from the ledge, and
in the afternoon they discovered this new and
interesting pastime was also possible from the
cliffbrow. The next day they had forgotten
this delight. Or at least, it seemed they had
forgotten.</p>
<p>But Uya came in dreams to spoil the paradise.
Three nights he came fighting Ugh-lomi.
In the morning after these dreams Ugh-lomi
would walk up and down, threatening him and
swinging the axe, and at last came the night
after Ugh-lomi brained the otter, and they had
feasted. Uya went too far. Ugh-lomi awoke,
scowling under his heavy brows, and he took
his axe, and extending his hand towards Eudena<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</SPAN></span>
he bade her wait for him upon the ledge.
Then he clambered down the white declivity,
glanced up once from the foot of it and flourished
his axe, and without looking back again
went striding along the river bank until the
overhanging cliff at the bend hid him.</p>
<p>Two days and nights did Eudena sit alone by
the fire on the ledge waiting, and in the night
the beasts howled over the cliffs and down the
valley, and on the cliff over against her the
hunched hyænas prowled black against the sky.
But no evil thing came near her save fear.
Once, far away, she heard the roaring of a lion,
following the horses as they came northward
over the grass lands with the spring. All that
time she waited—the waiting that is pain.</p>
<p>And the third day Ugh-lomi came back, up
the river. The plumes of a raven were in his
hair. The first axe was red-stained, and had
long dark hairs upon it, and he carried the
necklace that had marked the favourite of Uya
in his hand. He walked in the soft places, giving
no heed to his trail. Save a raw cut below
his jaw there was not a wound upon him.
"Uya!" cried Ugh-lomi exultant, and Eudena
saw it was well. He put the necklace on Eudena,
and they ate and drank together. And
after eating he began to rehearse the whole<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</SPAN></span>
story from the beginning, when Uya had cast
his eyes on Eudena, and Uya and Ugh-lomi,
fighting in the forest, had been chased by the
bear, eking out his scanty words with abundant
pantomime, springing to his feet and whirling
the stone axe round when it came to the fighting.
The last fight was a mighty one, stamping
and shouting, and once a blow at the fire
that sent a torrent of sparks up into the night.
And Eudena sat red in the light of the fire,
gloating on him, her face flushed and her eyes
shining, and the necklace Uya had made about
her neck. It was a splendid time, and the stars
that look down on us looked down on her, our
ancestor—who has been dead now these fifty
thousand years.</p>
<h3>II—THE CAVE BEAR</h3>
<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the days when Eudena and Ugh-lomi fled
from the people of Uya towards the fir-clad
mountains of the Weald, across the forests of
sweet chestnut and the grass-clad chalkland,
and hid themselves at last in the gorge of the
river between the chalk cliffs, men were few
and their squatting-places far between. The
nearest men to them were those of the tribe, a
full day's journey down the river, and up the
mountains there were none. Man was indeed a<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</SPAN></span>
newcomer to this part of the world in that ancient
time, coming slowly along the rivers, generation
after generation, from one squatting-place
to another, from the south-westward.
And the animals that held the land, the hippopotamus
and rhinoceros of the river valleys,
the horses of the grass plains, the deer and
swine of the woods, the grey apes in the
branches, the cattle of the uplands, feared him
but little—let alone the mammoths in the
mountains and the elephants that came through
the land in the summer-time out of the south.
For why should they fear him, with but the
rough, chipped flints that he had not learnt to
haft and which he threw but ill, and the poor
spear of sharpened wood, as all the weapons
he had against hoof and horn, tooth and claw?</p>
<p>Andoo, the huge cave bear, who lived in the
cave up the gorge, had never even seen a man
in all his wise and respectable life, until midway
through one night, as he was prowling
down the gorge along the cliff edge, he saw the
glare of Eudena's fire upon the ledge, and Eudena
red and shining, and Ugh-lomi, with a gigantic
shadow mocking him upon the white
cliff, going to and fro, shaking his mane of
hair, and waving the axe of stone—the first axe
of stone—while he chanted of the killing of<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</SPAN></span>
Uya. The cave bear was far up the gorge, and
he saw the thing slanting-ways and far off. He
was so surprised he stood quite still upon the
edge, sniffing the novel odour of burning
bracken, and wondering whether the dawn was
coming up in the wrong place.</p>
<p>He was the lord of the rocks and caves, was
the cave bear, as his slighter brother, the grizzly,
was lord of the thick woods below, and as
the dappled lion—the lion of those days was
dappled—was lord of the thorn-thickets, reed-beds,
and open plains. He was the greatest of
all meat-eaters; he knew no fear, none preyed
on him, and none gave him battle; only the rhinoceros
was beyond his strength. Even the
mammoth shunned his country. This invasion
perplexed him. He noticed these new beasts
were shaped like monkeys, and sparsely hairy
like young pigs. "Monkey and young pig,"
said the cave bear. "It might not be so bad.
But that red thing that jumps, and the black
thing jumping with it yonder! Never in my
life have I seen such things before!"</p>
<p>He came slowly along the brow of the cliff
towards them, stopping thrice to sniff and peer,
and the reek of the fire grew stronger. A
couple of hyænas also were so intent upon the
thing below that Andoo, coming soft and easy,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</SPAN></span>
was close upon them before they knew of him
or he of them. They started guiltily and went
lurching off. Coming round in a wheel, a hundred
yards off, they began yelling and calling
him names to revenge themselves for the start
they had had. "Ya-ha!" they cried. "Who
can't grub his own burrow? Who eats roots
like a pig?... Ya-ha!" for even in those
days the hyæna's manners were just as offensive
as they are now.</p>
<p>"Who answers the hyæna?" growled Andoo,
peering through the midnight dimness at them,
and then going to look at the cliff edge.</p>
<p>There was Ugh-lomi still telling his story,
and the fire getting low, and the scent of the
burning hot and strong.</p>
<p>Andoo stood on the edge of the chalk cliff for
some time, shifting his vast weight from foot
to foot, and swaying his head to and fro, with
his mouth open, his ears erect and twitching,
and the nostrils of his big, black muzzle
sniffing. He was very curious, was the cave
bear, more curious than any of the bears that
live now, and the flickering fire and the incomprehensible
movements of the man, let alone
the intrusion into his indisputable province,
stirred him with a sense of strange new happenings.
He had been after red deer fawn that<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</SPAN></span>
night, for the cave bear was a miscellaneous
hunter, but this quite turned him from that enterprise.</p>
<p>"Ya-ha!" yelled the hyænas behind. "Ya-ha-ha!"</p>
<p>Peering through the starlight, Andoo saw
there were now three or four going to and fro
against the grey hillside. "They will hang
about me now all the night ... until I
kill," said Andoo. "Filth of the world!" And
mainly to annoy them, he resolved to watch the
red flicker in the gorge until the dawn came to
drive the hyæna scum home. And after a time
they vanished, and he heard their voices, like a
party of Cockney beanfeasters, away in the
beechwoods. Then they came slinking near
again. Andoo yawned and went on along the
cliff, and they followed. Then he stopped and
went back.</p>
<p>It was a splendid night, beset with shining
constellations, the same stars, but not the same
constellations we know, for since those days all
the stars have had time to move into new
places. Far away across the open space beyond
where the heavy-shouldered, lean-bodied
hyænas blundered and howled, was a beechwood,
and the mountain slopes rose beyond, a
dim mystery, until their snow-capped summits<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</SPAN></span>
came out white and cold and clear, touched by
the first rays of the yet unseen moon. It was a
vast silence, save when the yell of the hyænas
flung a vanishing discordance across its peace,
or when from down the hills the trumpeting of
the new-come elephants came faintly on the
faint breeze. And below now, the red flicker
had dwindled and was steady, and shone a
deeper red, and Ugh-lomi had finished his story
and was preparing to sleep, and Eudena sat and
listened to the strange voices of unknown
beasts, and watched the dark eastern sky growing
deeply luminous at the advent of the moon.
Down below, the river talked to itself, and
things unseen went to and fro.</p>
<p>After a time the bear went away, but in an
hour he was back again. Then, as if struck by
a thought, he turned, and went up the
gorge....</p>
<p>The night passed, and Ugh-lomi slept on.
The waning moon rose and lit the gaunt
white cliff overhead with a light that was pale
and vague. The gorge remained in a deeper
shadow and seemed all the darker. Then by
imperceptible degrees, the day came stealing in
the wake of the moonlight. Eudena's eyes wandered
to the cliff brow overhead once, and then
again. Each time the line was sharp and clear<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</SPAN></span>
against the sky, and yet she had a dim perception
of something lurking there. The red of
the fire grew deeper and deeper, grey scales
spread upon it, its vertical column of smoke became
more and more visible, and up and down
the gorge things that had been unseen grew
clear in a colourless illumination. She may
have dozed.</p>
<p>Suddenly she started up from her squatting
position, erect and alert, scrutinising the cliff
up and down.</p>
<p>She made the faintest sound, and Ugh-lomi
too, light-sleeping like an animal, was instantly
awake. He caught up his axe and came noiselessly
to her side.</p>
<p>The light was still dim, the world now all in
black and dark grey, and one sickly star still
lingered overhead. The ledge they were on was
a little grassy space, six feet wide, perhaps, and
twenty feet long, sloping outwardly, and with
a handful of St. John's wort growing near the
edge. Below it the soft, white rock fell away in
a steep slope of nearly fifty feet to the thick
bush of hazel that fringed the river. Down the
river this slope increased, until some way off a
thin grass held its own right up to the crest of
the cliff. Overhead, forty or fifty feet of rock
bulged into the great masses characteristic of<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</SPAN></span>
chalk, but at the end of the ledge a gully, a precipitous
groove of discoloured rock, slashed
the face of the cliff, and gave a footing to a
scrubby growth, by which Eudena and Ugh-lomi
went up and down.</p>
<p>They stood as noiseless as startled deer, with
every sense expectant. For a minute they heard
nothing, and then came a faint rattling of dust
down the gully, and the creaking of twigs.</p>
<p>Ugh-lomi gripped his axe, and went to the
edge of the ledge, for the bulge of the chalk
overhead had hidden the upper part of the
gully. And forthwith, with a sudden contraction
of the heart, he saw the cave bear half-way
down from the brow, and making a gingerly
backward step with his flat hind-foot. His
hind-quarters were towards Ugh-lomi, and he
clawed at the rocks and bushes so that he
seemed flattened against the cliff. He looked
none the less for that. From his shining snout
to his stumpy tail he was a lion and a half, the
length of two tall men. He looked over his
shoulder, and his huge mouth was open with
the exertion of holding up his great carcase,
and his tongue lay out....</p>
<p>He got his footing, and came down slowly, a
yard nearer.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Bear," said Ugh-lomi, looking round with
his face white.</p>
<p>But Eudena, with terror in her eyes, was
pointing down the cliff.</p>
<p>Ugh-lomi's mouth fell open. For down below,
with her big fore-feet against the rock,
stood another big brown-grey bulk—the she-bear.
She was not so big as Andoo, but she
was big enough for all that.</p>
<p>Then suddenly Ugh-lomi gave a cry, and
catching up a handful of the litter of ferns that
lay scattered on the ledge, he thrust it into the
pallid ash of the fire. "Brother Fire!" he cried,
"Brother Fire!" And Eudena, starting into
activity, did likewise. "Brother Fire! Help,
help! Brother Fire!"</p>
<p>Brother Fire was still red in his heart, but
he turned to grey as they scattered him.
"Brother Fire!" they screamed. But he whispered
and passed, and there was nothing but
ashes. Then Ugh-lomi danced with anger and
struck the ashes with his fist. But Eudena began
to hammer the firestone against a flint.
And the eyes of each were turning ever and
again towards the gully by which Andoo was
climbing down. Brother Fire!</p>
<p>Suddenly the huge furry hind-quarters of
the bear came into view, beneath the bulge of<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</SPAN></span>
the chalk that had hidden him. He was still
clambering gingerly down the nearly vertical
surface. His head was yet out of sight, but
they could hear him talking to himself. "Pig
and monkey," said the cave bear. "It ought to
be good."</p>
<p>Eudena struck a spark and blew at it; it
twinkled brighter and then—went out. At that
she cast down flint and firestone and stared
blankly. Then she sprang to her feet and
scrambled a yard or so up the cliff above
the ledge. How she hung on even for a moment
I do not know, for the chalk was vertical
and without grip for a monkey. In a couple of
seconds she had slid back to the ledge again
with bleeding hands.</p>
<p>Ugh-lomi was making frantic rushes about
the ledge—now he would go to the edge, now
to the gully. He did not know what to do, he
could not think. The she-bear looked smaller
than her mate—much. If they rushed down
on her together, <i>one</i> might live. "Ugh?" said
the cave bear, and Ugh-lomi turned again and
saw his little eyes peering under the bulge of
the chalk.</p>
<p>Eudena, cowering at the end of the ledge,
began to scream like a gripped rabbit.</p>
<p>At that a sort of madness came upon Ugh-lomi.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</SPAN></span>
With a mighty cry, he caught up his axe
and ran towards Andoo. The monster gave a
grunt of surprise. In a moment Ugh-lomi was
clinging to a bush right underneath the bear,
and in another he was hanging to its back half
buried in fur, with one fist clutched in the hair
under its jaw. The bear was too astonished at
this fantastic attack to do more than cling
passive. And then the axe, the first of all axes,
rang on its skull.</p>
<p>The bear's head twisted from side to side,
and he began a petulant scolding growl. The
axe bit within an inch of the left eye, and the
hot blood blinded that side. At that the brute
roared with surprise and anger, and his teeth
gnashed six inches from Ugh-lomi's face. Then
the axe, clubbed close, came down heavily on
the corner of the jaw.</p>
<p>The next blow blinded the right side and
called forth a roar, this time of pain. Eudena
saw the huge, flat feet slipping and sliding, and
suddenly the bear gave a clumsy leap sideways,
as if for the ledge. Then everything vanished,
and the hazels smashed, and a roar of pain and
a tumult of shouts and growls came up from
far below.</p>
<p>Eudena screamed and ran to the edge and
peered over. For a moment, man and bears<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</SPAN></span>
were a heap together, Ugh-lomi uppermost;
and then he had sprung clear and was scaling
the gully again, with the bears rolling and
striking at one another among the hazels. But
he had left his axe below, and three knob-ended
streaks of carmine were shooting down his
thigh. "Up!" he cried, and in a moment Eudena
was leading the way to the top of the cliff.</p>
<p>In half a minute they were at the crest, their
hearts pumping noisily, with Andoo and his
wife far and safe below them. Andoo was sitting
on his haunches, both paws at work, trying
with quick exasperated movements to wipe
the blindness out of his eyes, and the she-bear
stood on all-fours a little way off, ruffled in appearance
and growling angrily. Ugh-lomi
flung himself flat on the grass, and lay panting
and bleeding with his face on his arms.</p>
<p>For a second Eudena regarded the bears,
then she came and sat beside him, looking at
him....</p>
<p>Presently she put forth her hand timidly and
touched him, and made the guttural sound that
was his name. He turned over and raised himself
on his arm. His face was pale, like the
face of one who is afraid. He looked at her
steadfastly for a moment, and then suddenly he
laughed. "Waugh!" he said exultantly.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Waugh!" said she—a simple but expressive
conversation.</p>
<p>Then Ugh-lomi came and knelt beside her,
and on hands and knees peered over the brow
and examined the gorge. His breath was
steady now, and the blood on his leg had ceased
to flow, though the scratches the she-bear had
made were open and wide. He squatted up and
sat staring at the footmarks of the great bear
as they came to the gully—they were as wide
as his head and twice as long. Then he jumped
up and went along the cliff face until the ledge
was visible. Here he sat down for some time
thinking, while Eudena watched him. Presently
she saw the bears had gone.</p>
<p>At last Ugh-lomi rose, as one whose mind
is made up. He returned towards the gully,
Eudena keeping close by him, and together they
clambered to the ledge. They took the firestone
and a flint, and then Ugh-lomi went down to
the foot of the cliff very cautiously, and found
his axe. They returned to the cliff as quietly
as they could, and set off at a brisk walk. The
ledge was a home no longer, with such callers
in the neighbourhood. Ugh-lomi carried the
axe and Eudena the firestone. So simple was
a Palæolithic removal.</p>
<p>They went up-stream, although it might lead<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</SPAN></span>
to the very lair of the cave bear, because there
was no other way to go. Down the stream
was the tribe, and had not Ugh-lomi killed Uya
and Wau? By the stream they had to keep—because
of drinking.</p>
<p>So they marched through beech trees, with
the gorge deepening until the river flowed, a
frothing rapid, five hundred feet below them.
Of all the changeful things in this world
of change, the courses of rivers in deep valleys
change least. It was the river Wey, the river
we know to-day, and they marched over the
very spots where nowadays stand little Guildford
and Godalming—the first human beings
to come into the land. Once a grey ape chattered
and vanished, and all along the cliff edge,
vast and even, ran the spoor of the great cave
bear.</p>
<p>And then the spoor of the bear fell away
from the cliff, showing, Ugh-lomi thought,
that he came from some place to the left, and
keeping to the cliff's edge, they presently came
to an end. They found themselves looking
down on a great semi-circular space caused by
the collapse of the cliff. It had smashed right
across the gorge, banking the up-stream water
back in a pool which overflowed in a rapid. The
slip had happened long ago. It was grassed<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</SPAN></span>
over, but the face of the cliffs that stood about
the semicircle was still almost fresh-looking
and white as on the day when the rock must
have broken and slid down. Starkly exposed
and black under the foot of these cliffs were the
mouths of several caves. And as they stood
there, looking at the space, and disinclined to
skirt it, because they thought the bears' lair lay
somewhere on the left in the direction they must
needs take, they saw suddenly first one bear and
then two coming up the grass slope to the right
and going across the amphitheatre towards the
caves. Andoo was first; he dropped a little
on his fore-foot and his mien was despondent,
and the she-bear came shuffling behind.</p>
<p>Eudena and Ugh-lomi stepped back from the
cliff until they could just see the bears over the
verge. Then Ugh-lomi stopped. Eudena pulled
his arm, but he turned with a forbidding
gesture, and her hand dropped. Ugh-lomi stood
watching the bears, with his axe in his hand,
until they had vanished into the cave. He
growled softly, and shook the axe at the she-bear's
receding quarters. Then to Eudena's terror,
instead of creeping off with her, he lay flat
down and crawled forward into such a position
that he could just see the cave. It was bears—and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</SPAN></span>
he did it as calmly as if it had been rabbits
he was watching!</p>
<p>He lay still, like a barked log, sun-dappled,
in the shadow of the trees. He was thinking.
And Eudena had learnt, even when a little girl,
that when Ugh-lomi became still like that, jaw-bone
on fist, novel things presently began to
happen.</p>
<p>It was an hour before the thinking was over;
it was noon when the two little savages had
found their way to the cliff brow that overhung
the bears' cave. And all the long afternoon
they fought desperately with a great boulder
of chalk; trundling it, with nothing but their
unaided sturdy muscles, from the gully where
it had hung like a loose tooth, towards the cliff
top. It was full two yards about, it stood as
high as Eudena's waist, it was obtuse-angled
and toothed with flints. And when the sun set
it was poised, three inches from the edge, above
the cave of the great cave bear.</p>
<p>In the cave conversation languished during
that afternoon. The she-bear snoozed sulkily
in her corner—for she was fond of pig and
monkey—and Andoo was busy licking the side
of his paw and smearing his face to cool the
smart and inflammation of his wounds. Afterwards
he went and sat just within the mouth<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</SPAN></span>
of the cave, blinking out at the afternoon sun
with his uninjured eye, and thinking.</p>
<p>"I never was so startled in my life," he said
at last. "They are the most extraordinary
beasts. Attacking <i>me</i>!"</p>
<p>"I don't like them," said the she-bear, out of
the darkness behind.</p>
<p>"A feebler sort of beast I <i>never</i> saw. I can't
think what the world is coming to. Scraggy,
weedy legs.... Wonder how they
keep warm in winter?"</p>
<p>"Very likely they don't," said the she-bear.</p>
<p>"I suppose it's a sort of monkey gone
wrong."</p>
<p>"It's a change," said the she-bear.</p>
<p>A pause.</p>
<p>"The advantage he had was merely accidental,"
said Andoo. "These things <i>will</i> happen
at times."</p>
<p>"<i>I</i> can't understand why you let go," said
the she-bear.</p>
<p>That matter had been discussed before, and
settled. So Andoo, being a bear of experience,
remained silent for a space. Then he resumed
upon a different aspect of the matter. "He has
a sort of claw—a long claw that he seemed to
have first on one paw and then on the other.
Just one claw. They're very odd things. The<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</SPAN></span>
bright thing, too, they seemed to have—like
that glare that comes in the sky in daytime—only
it jumps about—it's really worth seeing.
It's a thing with a root, too—like grass when it
is windy."</p>
<p>"Does it bite?" asked the she-bear. "If it
bites it can't be a plant."</p>
<p>"No——I don't know," said Andoo. "But
it's curious, anyhow."</p>
<p>"I wonder if they <i>are</i> good eating?" said the
she-bear.</p>
<p>"They look it," said Andoo, with appetite—for
the cave bear, like the polar bear, was an
incurable carnivore—no roots or honey for
<i>him</i>.</p>
<p>The two bears fell into a meditation for a
space. Then Andoo resumed his simple attentions
to his eye. The sunlight up the green
slope before the cave mouth grew warmer in
tone and warmer, until it was a ruddy amber.</p>
<p>"Curious sort of thing—day," said the cave
bear. "Lot too much of it, I think. Quite unsuitable
for hunting. Dazzles me always. I
can't smell nearly so well by day."</p>
<p>The she-bear did not answer, but there came
a measured crunching sound out of the darkness.
She had turned up a bone. Andoo
yawned. "Well," he said. He strolled to the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</SPAN></span>
cave mouth and stood with his head projecting,
surveying the amphitheatre. He found he had
to turn his head completely round to see objects
on his right-hand side. No doubt that eye
would be all right to-morrow.</p>
<p>He yawned again. There was a tap overhead,
and a big mass of chalk flew out from the
cliff face, dropped a yard in front of his nose,
and starred into a dozen unequal fragments. It
startled him extremely.</p>
<p>When he had recovered a little from his
shock, he went and sniffed curiously at the representative
pieces of the fallen projectile. They
had a distinctive flavour, oddly reminiscent of
the two drab animals of the ledge. He sat up
and pawed the larger lump, and walked round
it several times, trying to find a man about it
somewhere....</p>
<p>When night had come he went off down the
river gorge to see if he could cut off either of
the ledge's occupants. The ledge was empty,
there were no signs of the red thing, but as he
was rather hungry he did not loiter long that
night, but pushed on to pick up a red deer
fawn. He forgot about the drab animals. He
found a fawn, but the doe was close by and
made an ugly fight for her young. Andoo had
to leave the fawn, but as her blood was up she<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</SPAN></span>
stuck to the attack, and at last he got in a blow
of his paw on her nose, and so got hold of her.
More meat but less delicacy, and the she-bear,
following, had her share. The next afternoon,
curiously enough, the very fellow of the first
white rock fell, and smashed precisely according
to precedent.</p>
<p>The aim of the third, that fell the night after,
however, was better. It hit Andoo's unspeculative
skull with a crack that echoed up the
cliff, and the white fragments went dancing to
all the points of the compass. The she-bear
coming after him and sniffing curiously at him,
found him lying in an odd sort of attitude, with
his head wet and all out of shape. She was a
young she-bear, and inexperienced, and having
sniffed about him for some time and licked him
a little, and so forth, she decided to leave him
until the odd mood had passed, and went on
her hunting alone.</p>
<p>She looked up the fawn of the red doe they
had killed two nights ago, and found it. But it
was lonely hunting without Andoo, and she returned
caveward before dawn. The sky was
grey and overcast, the trees up the gorge were
black and unfamiliar, and into her ursine mind
came a dim sense of strange and dreary happenings.
She lifted up her voice and called<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</SPAN></span>
Andoo by name. The sides of the gorge re-echoed
her.</p>
<p>As she approached the caves she saw in the
half light, and heard a couple of jackals scuttle
off, and immediately after a hyæna howled and
a dozen clumsy bulks went lumbering up the
slope, and stopped and yelled derision. "Lord
of the rocks and caves—ya-ha!" came down
the wind. The dismal feeling in the she-bear's
mind became suddenly acute. She shuffled
across the amphitheatre.</p>
<p>"Ya-ha!" said the hyænas, retreating. "Ya-ha!"</p>
<p>The cave bear was not lying quite in the
same attitude, because the hyænas had been
busy, and in one place his ribs showed white.
Dotted over the turf about him lay the smashed
fragments of the three great lumps of chalk.
And the air was full of the scent of death.</p>
<p>The she-bear stopped dead. Even now, that
the great and wonderful Andoo was killed was
beyond her believing. Then she heard far
overhead a sound, a queer sound, a little like
the shout of a hyæna but fuller and lower in
pitch. She looked up, her little dawn-blinded
eyes seeing little, her nostrils quivering. And
there, on the cliff edge, far above her against
the bright pink of dawn, were two little shaggy<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</SPAN></span>
round dark things, the heads of Eudena and
Ugh-lomi, as they shouted derision at her. But
though she could not see them very distinctly
she could hear, and dimly she began to apprehend.
A novel feeling as of imminent strange
evils came into her heart.</p>
<p>She began to examine the smashed fragments
of chalk that lay about Andoo. For a
space she stood still, looking about her and
making a low continuous sound that was almost
a moan. Then she went back incredulously
to Andoo to make one last effort to rouse
him.</p>
<h3>III—THE FIRST HORSEMAN</h3>
<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the days before Ugh-lomi there was little
trouble between the horses and men. 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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Down in the Wey marshes Ugh-lomi and
Eudena had never seen the horses closely, but<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</SPAN></span>
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!</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</SPAN></span>
silent figure of watchfulness, regarding the
burrows, Ugh-lomi's eyes were ever away
across the greensward at those wonderful grazing
strangers.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Yet the next day in the morning, as the
horses were grazing, one of the mares whinnied,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>"It looks more like the first half of an animal
than anything else in the world," he said.
"Fore-legs and no hind."</p>
<p>"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."</p>
<p>Ugh-lomi continued his oblique advance.
The Eldest Mare was struck with the want of
motive in his proceedings.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>"Look! he's nearer," said the Foal with a
stripe.</p>
<p>One of the younger foals made uneasy movements.
Ugh-lomi squatted down, and sat regarding<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</SPAN></span>
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!</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 were persisted in. At any rate
Eudena saw him jump up and come walking
towards her with the fern plumes held in his
hand.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 "<i>Let</i> 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 there
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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</SPAN></span>
came out in the open too, and they did some unobtrusive
stalking, things stopped there.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The Master Horse, by virtue of his heels,
came closest to the tree. And suddenly there
was a rustle and a creak, a <i>thud</i>....
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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He dared not leave his grip, but he tried to
make himself more comfortable. He released<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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 grassy downs that fall northward nowadays
from the Epsom Stand.</p>
<p>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....<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Then the Master Horse decided to stick to<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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, his great horn down and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</SPAN></span>
his 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.</p>
<p>The pace never faltered, on they rode and
on.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The rest of the ride was honourable but unpleasant.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</SPAN></span>
Eudena, and whom he had waylaid in the
chestnut woods and killed with the First Axe.</p>
<p>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 for 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>For a space they spoke together. Then an<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</SPAN></span>
old woman lifted a shrill voice and answered
him. "Our Lord is a Lion."</p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>Still Ugh-lomi did not understand.</p>
<p>"Our Lord is a Lion. He speaks no more
to men."</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 be permitted
to 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."<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>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."</p>
<p>It was strange how their manner changed
after the old woman called.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</SPAN></span>
more, and suddenly shake his head and vanish
among the hawthorn-trees.</p>
<p>Then all the women and children lifted up
their voices together, and called to him in one
last vain effort.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</SPAN></span>
shrunken band of women and children crying
that Uya was a lion. Uya was a lion!</p>
<p>And presently, fearing the twilight might
come upon him, Ugh-lomi began running.</p>
<h3>IV—UYA THE LION</h3>
<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</SPAN></span>
through the ferns. It was Irk, the brother of
Wau.</p>
<p>So the lion came.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</SPAN></span>
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
kindly 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!</p>
<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</SPAN></span>
early before the moon rose, the lion came and
took the girl of Siss the Tracker.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>That night the fires burnt high and fierce, as
the waxing moon set, and the lion left the
crouching women and children in peace.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>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.
And then 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.</p>
<p>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
is slain?"</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</SPAN></span>
trying to remember, "I did not see my Ugh-lomi
slain. I did not see my Ugh-lomi slain."</p>
<p>"Tell her," cried the old woman. "Tell her—he
that killed him. Tell her how Ugh-lomi
was slain."</p>
<p>She looked, and all the women and children
there looked, from man to man.</p>
<p>None answered her. They stood shame-faced.</p>
<p>"Tell her," said the old woman. The men
looked at one another.</p>
<p>Eudena's face suddenly lit.</p>
<p>"Tell her," she said. "Tell her, mighty men!
Tell her the killing of Ugh-lomi."</p>
<p>The old woman rose and struck her sharply
across her mouth.</p>
<p>"We could not find Ugh-lomi," said Siss the
Tracker, slowly. "Who hunts two, kills none."</p>
<p>Then Eudena's heart leapt, but she kept her
face hard. It was as well, for the old woman
looked at her sharply, with murder in her eyes.</p>
<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</SPAN></span>
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 still was
the reed-fringed thicket of the lair.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>But Ugh-lomi was far away. When they
saw her head moving with her struggles, they
shouted together on the knoll, and 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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</SPAN></span>
alders where the lion lay, gathered, and a faint
stir began there. But nothing came out therefrom
all through the gathering of the darkness.</p>
<p>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 hyæna.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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
hills 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.</p>
<p>The night suddenly seemed full of movement.
She held her breath. Things were passing—one,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</SPAN></span>
two, three—subtly sneaking shadows....
Jackals.</p>
<p>Then a long waiting again.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Then an odd sound, a sobbing panting, that
grew faster and fainter. Yet another silence,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</SPAN></span>
and then dim sounds and the grunting of some
animal.</p>
<p>Everything was still again. Far away eastwards
an elephant trumpeted, and from the
woods came a snarling and yelping that died
away.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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....</p>
<p>A rustle, and it moved clumsily, with a sort
of hopping. And as it moved it gave a low
groan.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>The blood rushing through her veins was
suddenly joy. "<i>Ugh-lomi!</i>" she whispered.</p>
<p>The thing stopped. "<i>Eudena</i>," he answered
softly with pain in his voice, and peering into
the alders.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Let me free," whispered Eudena....</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>But the rest of her release was easy. Very<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</SPAN></span>
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 dropped. 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.</p>
<p>Presently a dark dog-like shape came very
softly through the reeds. Then stopped dead
and stood sniffing, hesitated, and at last turned
and slunk back into the shadows.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>The shadow became full of instinctive stirrings.
There was a patter of feet, and a faint
snarling—the sound of a blow.</p>
<hr class="tb" />
<p>There was little sleep that night for the
women and children at the squatting-place until
they heard Eudena scream. But the men<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</SPAN></span>
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 friend 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
hyæna 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 hyæna by day. All men
hated the hyæna 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.</p>
<p>At the noise they made there came a flapping
of wings from the lair of the lion, and three<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h3>V—THE FIGHT IN THE LION'S THICKET</h3>
<p><span class="smcap">Ugh-lomi</span> 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 hyænas with the first axe
in her hand; and in a little while he<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>For the most part Ugh-lomi sat still during<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</SPAN></span>
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 hyænas 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 hyæna dare not attack
any creature alive and awake, and so they
were not greatly afraid.</p>
<p>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, small and clear, as she had seen them
that night. But she told Ugh-lomi little of<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</SPAN></span>
what she saw, because she feared to bring them
by their names. For so they believed in those
days, that naming called.</p>
<p>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. 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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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 to-morrow we will bring his body to you."
And the others repeated the words.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>He looked round at the little rustle of her
approach. His face was in shadow. "Have
you got me some food?" he said.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</SPAN></span>
fell, and heard the growling of the jackal going
off.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>By acting and words she made Ugh-lomi
understand, but he ate most of the food before
he understood; and then as her meaning passed
to him 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."</p>
<p>Then Eudena's heart was light, and she
laughed with him; and afterwards she ate what
he had left of the horseflesh with gladness.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>It was one day—more than a hand's fingers
of days, more than anyone had 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 friend 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.</p>
<p>Presently the children reappeared among the
ferns beyond the shoulder of the hill. Little Si<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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 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.</p>
<p>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 for Si had no friends; and Si, realising
her danger when it was almost upon her,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</SPAN></span>
made off headlong, with a faint cry of terror,
not heeding whither she ran, straight to the
lair of the lion. She swerved aside into the
reeds presently, realising now whither she
went.</p>
<p>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 and laughing
ready to see the fun.</p>
<p>Then something stirred in Eudena; something
that had never stirred in her before; 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.</p>
<p>In a moment Eudena had turned from the
cowering old woman and overtaken Si. "Si!"<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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!"</p>
<p>Ugh-lomi sat staring in stupid astonishment
at her and Si.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"Ah!" said Ugh-lomi, waving the new club,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</SPAN></span>
and suddenly he perceived the occasion and,
rolling over, began to struggle to his feet.</p>
<p>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, 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>To Bo it seemed the strangest thing. He<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</SPAN></span>
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 butt 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.</p>
<p>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. 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 hand, 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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>But before Ugh-lomi could get up, 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.</p>
<p>The other red-haired man was six feet from
her with his back to her, and a darker red<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</SPAN></span>
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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</SPAN></span>
going back over the knoll. Ugh-lomi was hard
upon Cat's-skin.</p>
<p>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 spur. 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.</p>
<p>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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</SPAN></span>
glowing face her tense pose relaxed somewhat,
and she stood sobbing and rejoicing.</p>
<p>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 manfully 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 ceased
her weeping and followed quickly as a woman
should.</p>
<p>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, 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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</SPAN></span>
Ugh-lomi woke, save that there were no men to
be seen, it seemed as though he had never left
the tribe.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 a good way off from the knoll among
the bracken under the chestnuts 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.</p>
<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</SPAN></span>
and Ugh-lomi stood before the women
and mocked them.</p>
<p>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 even as Uya had been
slain.</p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />