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03 - Before Adam by Jack London · Before Adam

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  Speaker 1: Chapter six of Before Adam by Jack London. This LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain recording by Tom Weiss
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  Speaker 1: Tom's audiobooks dot com. While the more courageous of the
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  Speaker 1: youngsters played in and out of the large mouthed caves,
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  Speaker 1: I early learned that such caves were unoccupied. No one
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  Speaker 1: slept in them at night. Only the krevismouth caves were used.
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  Speaker 1: The narrower the mouth, the better. This was from fear
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  Speaker 1: of the preying animals that made life a burden to
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  Speaker 1: us in those days and nights. The first morning after
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  Speaker 1: my night's sleep with lop Ear, I learned the advantage
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  Speaker 1: of the narrow mouthed caves. It was just daylight when
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  Speaker 1: Old Sabretooth the tiger walked into the open space. Two
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  Speaker 1: of the folk were already up. They made a rush
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  Speaker 1: for it. Whether they were panic stricken, or whether he
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  Speaker 1: was too close on their heels for them to attempt
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  Speaker 1: to scramble up the bluff to the crevices, I do
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  Speaker 1: not know, But at any rate, they dashed into the
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  Speaker 1: wide mouth cave, wherein Loppier and I had played the
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  Speaker 1: afternoon before. What happened inside there was no way of telling,
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  Speaker 1: but it is fair to conclude that the two folk
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  Speaker 1: slipped through the connecting crevis into the other cave. This
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  Speaker 1: crevis was too small to allow for the passage of
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  Speaker 1: saber Tooth, and he came out the way he had
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  Speaker 1: gone in, unsatisfied and hungry. It was evident that his
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  Speaker 1: knight's hunting had been unsuccessful, and that he had expected
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  Speaker 1: to make a meal off of us. He caught sight
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  Speaker 1: of the two folk at the other cave mouth and
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  Speaker 1: sprang for them. Of course, they darted through the passageway
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  Speaker 1: into the first cave. He emerged, angrier than ever and
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  Speaker 1: snarling hand aemonium broke loose amongst the rest of us,
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  Speaker 1: all up and down the great bluff. We crowded the
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  Speaker 1: crevices and outside ledges, and we were all chattering and
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  Speaker 1: shrieking in a thousand keys, and we were all making faces,
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  Speaker 1: snarling faces. This was an instinct with us. We were
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  Speaker 1: as angry as sabre to though our anger was allayed
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  Speaker 1: with fear. I remember that I shrieked and made faces
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  Speaker 1: with the best of them, And not only did they
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  Speaker 1: set the example, but I felt the urge from within
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  Speaker 1: me to do the same things they were doing. My
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  Speaker 1: hair was bristling, and I was convulsed with a fierce,
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  Speaker 1: unreasoning rage. For some time, Old Sabertooth continued dashing in
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  Speaker 1: and out of first the one cave and then the other,
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  Speaker 1: But the two folk merely slipped back and forth through
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  Speaker 1: the connecting crevice and eluded him. In the meantime, the
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  Speaker 1: rest of us up the bluff had proceeded to action.
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  Speaker 1: Every time he appeared outside, we peld at him with rocks.
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  Speaker 1: At first, we merely dropped them on him, but we
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  Speaker 1: soon began to whiz them down with the added force
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  Speaker 1: of our muscles. This bombardment drew saber to his attention
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  Speaker 1: to us, and made him angrier than ever. He abandoned
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  Speaker 1: his pursuit of the two folk and sprang up the
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  Speaker 1: bluff towards the rest of us, clawing at the crumbling
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  Speaker 1: rock and starling as he clawed his upward way. At
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  Speaker 1: this awful sight, the last one of us sought refuge
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  Speaker 1: inside our caves. I know this because I peeked out
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  Speaker 1: and saw the whole bluff side deserted, save for Sabretooth,
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  Speaker 1: who had lost his footing and was sliding and falling down.
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  Speaker 1: I called out the cry of encouragement, and again the
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  Speaker 1: bluff was covered by the screaming horde, and the stones
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  Speaker 1: were falling faster than ever. Sabretooth was frantic with rage.
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  Speaker 1: Time and again he assaulted the bluff. Once he even
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  Speaker 1: gained the first crevice entrances before he fell back, but
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  Speaker 1: was unable to force his way inside. With each upward
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  Speaker 1: rush he made, waves of fear surged over us. At first.
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  Speaker 1: At such times most of us dashed inside, but some
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  Speaker 1: remained outside to hammer him with stones, And soon all
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  Speaker 1: of us remained outside and kept up the fusillade. Never
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  Speaker 1: was so masterly a creature, so completely baffled. It hurt
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  Speaker 1: his pride terribly. Thus to be outwitted by the small
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  Speaker 1: and tender folk. He stood on the ground and looked
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  Speaker 1: up at us, snarling, lashing his tail, snapping at the
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  Speaker 1: stones that fell near to him. Once I whizzed down
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  Speaker 1: a stone, and just at the right moment he looked up,
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  Speaker 1: it caught him full on the end of his nose,
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  Speaker 1: and he went straight up in the air, all four
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  Speaker 1: feet of him, roaring and caterwauling. What of the hurt
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  Speaker 1: and surprise? He was beaten, and he knew it recovering
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  Speaker 1: his dignity, he stalked solemnly out from under the rain
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  Speaker 1: of stones. He stopped in the middle of the open
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  Speaker 1: space and looked wistfully and hungrily back at us. He
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  Speaker 1: hated to forego the meal, and we were just so
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  Speaker 1: much meat, cornered but inaccessible. This sight of him started
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  Speaker 1: us to laughing. We laughed derisively and uproariously, all of us. Now,
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  Speaker 1: animals do not like mockery. To be laughed at makes
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  Speaker 1: them angry, and in such fashion or laughter effected saber tooth.
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  Speaker 1: He turned with a roar and charged the bluff again.
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  Speaker 1: This was what we wanted. The fight had become a game,
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  Speaker 1: and we took huge delight in belt him. But this
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  Speaker 1: attack did not last long. He quickly recovered his common sense,
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  Speaker 1: and besides, our missiles were shrewd to her. Vividly do
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  Speaker 1: I recollect the vision of one bulging eye of his,
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  Speaker 1: swollen almost shut by one of the stones we had thrown.
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  Speaker 1: And vividly do I retain the picture of him as
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  Speaker 1: he stood on the edge of the forest, whither he
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  Speaker 1: had finally retreated. He was looking back at us, his
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  Speaker 1: writhing lips lifted clear of the very roots of his
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  Speaker 1: huge fangs, his hair bristling, and his tail lashing. He
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  Speaker 1: gave one last snarl and slid from view among the trees,
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  Speaker 1: and then such a chattering as went up. We swarmed
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  Speaker 1: out of our holes, examining the marks his claws had
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  Speaker 1: made on the crumbling rock of the bluff, all of
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  Speaker 1: us talking at once. One of the two folk who
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  Speaker 1: had been caught in the double cave was part grown,
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  Speaker 1: half child, and half youth. They had come out proudly
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  Speaker 1: from their refuge, and we surrounded them in an admiring crowd.
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  Speaker 1: Then the young fellow's mother broke through and fell upon
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  Speaker 1: him in a tremendou in this rage, boxing his ears,
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  Speaker 1: pulling his hair, and shrieking like a demon. She was
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  Speaker 1: a strapping, big woman, very hairy, and the thrashing she
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  Speaker 1: gave him was a delight to the Horde. We roared
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  Speaker 1: with laughter, holding on to one another or rolling on
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  Speaker 1: the ground in our glee. In spite of the reign
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  Speaker 1: of fear under which we lived, the folk were always
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  Speaker 1: great laughers. We had the sense of humor. Our merriment
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  Speaker 1: was gargantauan. It was never restrained. There was nothing half
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  Speaker 1: way about it. When a thing was funny, we were
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  Speaker 1: convulsed with the appreciation of it. And the simplest, crudest
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  Speaker 1: things were funny to us. Oh, we were great laughers.
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  Speaker 1: I can tell you the way we had treated Sabretooth
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  Speaker 1: was the way we treated all animals that invaded the village.
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  Speaker 1: We kept our runways in drinking places to ourselves by
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  Speaker 1: making light miserable for the animals that trespassed or strayed
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  Speaker 1: upon our immediate territory. Even the fiercest hunting animals we
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  Speaker 1: so bedeviled that they learned to leave our places alone.
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  Speaker 1: Were not fighters like them. We were cunning and cowardly.
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  Speaker 1: And it was because of our cunning and cowardice, and
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  Speaker 1: our inordinate capacity for fear, that we survived in that
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  Speaker 1: frankfully hostile environment of the younger world. Lop ear I
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  Speaker 1: figure was a year older than I. What his past
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  Speaker 1: history was he had no way of telling me. But
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  Speaker 1: as I never saw anything of his mother, I believed
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  Speaker 1: him to be an orphan. After all, fathers did not
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  Speaker 1: count in our war. Marriage was as yet in a
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  Speaker 1: rude state, and couples had a way of quarreling and separating.
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  Speaker 1: Modern man what of his divorce institution does the same
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  Speaker 1: thing legally, but we had no laws. Custom was all
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  Speaker 1: we went by, and our custom in this particular matter
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  Speaker 1: was rather promiscuous. Nevertheless, as this narrative will show later on,
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  Speaker 1: we betrayed, glimmering at amirations of the monogamy that was
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  Speaker 1: later to give power to and make mighty such tribes
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  Speaker 1: as embraced it. Furthermore, even at the time I was born,
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  Speaker 1: there were several faithful couples that lived in the trees
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  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood of my mother. Living in the thick
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  Speaker 1: of the Horde did not conduce the monogamy. It was
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  Speaker 1: for this reason, undoubtedly, that the faithful couples went away
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  Speaker 1: and lived by themselves. Through many years, these couples stayed together,
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  Speaker 1: though when the man or woman died or was eaten,
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  Speaker 1: the survivor invariably found a new mate. There was one
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  Speaker 1: thing that greatly puzzled me during the first days of
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  Speaker 1: my residence in the Horde. There was a nameless and
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  Speaker 1: incommunicable fear that rested upon all. At first, it appeared
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  Speaker 1: to be connected wholly with direction. The Horde feared the northeast.
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  Speaker 1: It lived in perpetual apprehension of that quarter of the compass,
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  Speaker 1: and every individual gazed more freakly and with greater alarm
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  Speaker 1: in that direction than in any other. When lop Ear
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  Speaker 1: and I went towards the northeast to eat the stringy
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  Speaker 1: rooted carrots that, at that season were at their best,
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  Speaker 1: he became unusually timid. He was content to eat the leadings,
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  Speaker 1: the big tough carrots, and the little ropy ones, rather
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  Speaker 1: than to venture a short distance farther on to where
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  Speaker 1: the carrots were, as yet untouched. When I so ventured,
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  Speaker 1: he scolded me and quarreled with me. He gave me
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  Speaker 1: to understand that in that direction was some horrible danger,
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  Speaker 1: but just what the horrible danger was. His paucity of
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  Speaker 1: language would not permit him to say. Many a good
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  Speaker 1: meal I got in this fashion, while he scolded and
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  Speaker 1: chattered vainly at me, I could not understand. I kept
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  Speaker 1: very alert, but I could see no danger. I calculated
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  Speaker 1: always the distance between myself and the nearest tree, and
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  Speaker 1: knew that to that haven of refuge I could output
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  Speaker 1: the tawny one or old sabretooth. Did one or the
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  Speaker 1: other suddenly appear One late afternoon in the village a
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  Speaker 1: great uproar arose, the horde was animated with a single emotion,
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  Speaker 1: that of fear. The bluff sides swarmed with the folk,
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  Speaker 1: all gazing in pointing into the northeast. I did not
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  Speaker 1: know what it was, but I scrambled all the way
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  Speaker 1: up to the safety of my own high little cave
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  Speaker 1: before ever I turned around to see, and then across
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  Speaker 1: the river away into the northeast, I saw for the
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  Speaker 1: first time the mystery of smoke. It was the biggest
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  Speaker 1: animal I had ever seen. I thought it was a
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  Speaker 1: monster snake up and it rearing its head high above
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  Speaker 1: the trees and swaying back and forth. And yet somehow
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  Speaker 1: I seemed to gather from the conduct of the folk
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  Speaker 1: that the smoke itself was not the danger they appeared
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  Speaker 1: to fear, it as the toking of something else. What
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  Speaker 1: this something else was, I was unable to guess, nor
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  Speaker 1: could they tell me. Yet I was soon to know,
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  Speaker 1: and I was to know it as a thing more
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  Speaker 1: terrible than the tawny one, than old saber tooth, than
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  Speaker 1: the snakes themselves, than which it seemed there could be
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  Speaker 1: no things more terrible. End of chapter six, Chapter seven,
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  Speaker 1: Broken Tooth was another youngster who lived by himself. His
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  Speaker 1: mother lived in the caves, but two more children had
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  Speaker 1: come after him, and he had been thrust out to
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  Speaker 1: shift for himself. We had witnessed the performance during the
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  Speaker 1: several preceding days, and it had given us no little glee.
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  Speaker 1: Broken Tooth did not want to go, and every time
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  Speaker 1: his mother left the cave he sneaked back into it.
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  Speaker 1: When she returned and found him there, her rages were delightful.
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  Speaker 1: Half the Horde made a practice of watching for these moments.
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  Speaker 1: First from within the cave would come scolding and shrieking.
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  Speaker 1: Then we could hear sounds of the thrashing and the
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  Speaker 1: yelling of Broken Tooth. About this time the two younger
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  Speaker 1: children joined in, and finally, like the eruption of a
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  Speaker 1: miniature volcano, Broken Tooth would come flying out. At the
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  Speaker 1: end of several days, his leading home was accomplished. He
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  Speaker 1: wailed his grief unheeded from the center of the open
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  Speaker 1: space for at least half an hour, and then came
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  Speaker 1: to live with Loppier and me. Our cave was small,
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  Speaker 1: but with squeezing there was room for three. I have
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  Speaker 1: no recollection of Broken Tooth spending more than one night
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  Speaker 1: with us, so the accident must have happened right away.
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  Speaker 1: It came in the middle of the day, in the
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  Speaker 1: morning we had eaten our fill of the carrots, and
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  Speaker 1: then made heedless by play. We had ventured under the
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  Speaker 1: big trees just beyond. I cannot understand how Loppier got
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  Speaker 1: over his habitual caution, but it must have been to play.
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  Speaker 1: We were having a great time playing tree tag and
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  Speaker 1: such tag. We leaped ten or fifteen foot gaps as
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  Speaker 1: a matter of course, and a twenty or twenty five
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  Speaker 1: foot deliberate drop clear down to the ground was nothing
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  Speaker 1: to us. In fact, I am almost afraid to say
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  Speaker 1: the great distances we dropped. As we grew older and heavier,
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  Speaker 1: we found we had to be more cautious and dropping.
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  Speaker 1: But at that age our bodies were all strings and springs,
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  Speaker 1: and we could do anything. Broken Tooth displayed remarkable agility
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  Speaker 1: in the game. He was it less frequently than any
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  Speaker 1: of us, and in the course of the game he
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  Speaker 1: discovered one difficult slip that neither lop Ear nor I
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  Speaker 1: was able to accomplish. To be truthful, we were afraid
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  Speaker 1: to attempt it when we were in Broken Tooth always
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  Speaker 1: ran out to the end of a lofty branch in
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  Speaker 1: a certain tree. From the end of the branch to
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  Speaker 1: the ground it must have been seventy feet and nothing
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  Speaker 1: intervened to break a fall. But about twenty feet lower down,
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  Speaker 1: and fully fifteen feet out from the perpendicular was the
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  Speaker 1: thick branch of another tree. As we ran out the limb,
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  Speaker 1: Broken tooth facing us would begin teetering. This naturally impeded
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  Speaker 1: our progress, But there was more in the teetering than that.
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  Speaker 1: He teetered with his back to the jump he was
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  Speaker 1: to make. Just as we nearly reached him, he would
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  Speaker 1: let go. The teetering branch was like a springboard. It
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  Speaker 1: threw him far out backward as he fell, and as
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  Speaker 1: he fell he turned around sideways in the air so
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  Speaker 1: as to face the other branch into which he was falling.
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  Speaker 1: This branch bent far down under the impact, and sometimes
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  Speaker 1: there was an ominous crackling, but it never broke, and
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  Speaker 1: out of the leaves was always to be seen the
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  Speaker 1: face of broken tooth, grinning triumphantly up at us. I
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  Speaker 1: was at the last time Broken Tooth tried this. He
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  Speaker 1: had gained the end of the branch and begun his teetering,
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  Speaker 1: and I was creeping out after him, when suddenly there
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  Speaker 1: came a low warning cry from lop Ear. I looked
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  Speaker 1: down and saw him in the main fork of the tree,
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  Speaker 1: crouching close against the trunk. Instinctively, I crouched down upon
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  Speaker 1: the thick limb. Broken tooth stopped teetering, but the branch
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  Speaker 1: would not stop, and his body continued bobbing up and
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  Speaker 1: down with the rustling leaves. I heard the crackle of
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  Speaker 1: a dry twig, and looking down, saw my first fire man.
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  Speaker 1: He was creeping stealthily along on the ground and peering
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  Speaker 1: up into the tree. At first I thought he was
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  Speaker 1: a wild animal, because he wore around his waist and
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  Speaker 1: over his shoulders a ragged piece of bear skin. And
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  Speaker 1: then I saw his hands, feet, and more clearly his features.
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  Speaker 1: He was very much like my kind, except that he
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  Speaker 1: was less hairy, and that his feet were less like
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  Speaker 1: hands than ours. In fact, he and his people, as
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  Speaker 1: I was later to know, were far less hairy than we,
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  Speaker 1: though we in turn were equally less hairy than the
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  Speaker 1: tree people. It came to me instantly as they looked
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  Speaker 1: at him. This was the terror of the northeast, of
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  Speaker 1: which the mystery of smoke was a token. Yet I
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  Speaker 1: was puzzled. Certainly, he was nothing of which to be afraid.
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  Speaker 1: Red Eye or any of our strong men, would have
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  Speaker 1: been more than a match for him. He was old, too,
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  Speaker 1: wizened with age, and the hair on his face was gray. Also,
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  Speaker 1: he lived badly with one leg. There was no doubt
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  Speaker 1: at all that we could outrun him and outclimb him.
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  Speaker 1: He could never catch us, that was certain. But he
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  Speaker 1: carried something in his hand that I had never seen before.
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  Speaker 1: It was a bow and arrow. But at that time
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  Speaker 1: a bow and arrow had no meaning for me. How
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  Speaker 1: was I to know that death lurk in that bent
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  Speaker 1: piece of wood? But Lopier knew. He had evidently seen
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  Speaker 1: the fire people before, and knew something of their ways.
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  Speaker 1: The fireman peeped up at him and circled around the
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  Speaker 1: tree and around the main trunk above the fort. Lopier circled, too,
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  Speaker 1: keeping always the trunk between himself and the fireman. The
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  Speaker 1: latter abruptly reversed his circling. Lopier, caught on awares, also
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  Speaker 1: hastily reversed, but did not win the protection of the
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  Speaker 1: trunk until after the fireman had twang the bow. I
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  Speaker 1: saw the arrow leap up, Miss Lopier, glance against the limb,
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  Speaker 1: and fall back to the ground. I danced up and
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  Speaker 1: down on my lofty purse with delight. It was a game.
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  Speaker 1: The fireman was throwing things at Lopier, as we sometimes
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  Speaker 1: do things at one another. The game continued a little longer,
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  Speaker 1: but Lopier did not expose himself a second time. Then
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  Speaker 1: the fireman gave it up. I leaned far out over
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  Speaker 1: my horrorz on a limb, and chattered down at him.
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  Speaker 1: I wanted to play. I wanted to have him try
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  Speaker 1: to hit me with a thing. He saw me, but
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  Speaker 1: ignored me, turning his attention to Broken Tooth, who was
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  Speaker 1: still teetering slightly and involuntarily on the end of his branch.
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  Speaker 1: The first arrow leaped upward. Broken Tooth yelled with fright
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  Speaker 1: and pain it had reached its mark. This put a
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  Speaker 1: new complexion on the matter. I no longer cared to play,
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  Speaker 1: but crouched tremblingly close to my limb. A second arrow
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  Speaker 1: and a third sword up, missing Broken Tooth, rustling the
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  Speaker 1: leaves as they passed through, arching in their flight and
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  Speaker 1: returning to work. The fireman stretched his bow again. He
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  Speaker 1: shifted his position, walked away several steps, then shifted it
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  Speaker 1: a second time. The bowstring twanged, the arrow leaped upward
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  Speaker 1: and broken tooth uttering a terrible scream, fell off the branch.
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  Speaker 1: I saw him as he went down, turning over and
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  Speaker 1: over all arms and legs. It seemed the shaft of
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  Speaker 1: the arrow projecting from his chest and appearing and disappearing
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  Speaker 1: with each revolution of his body. Sheer down, screaming seventy
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  Speaker 1: feet he fell, smashing to the earth with an audible
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: thud and crunch, his body, rebounding slightly and settling down again.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Still he lived, for he moved and squirmed, clawing with
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: his hands and feet. I remember the fireman running forward
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: with a stone and hammering him on the head, and
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: then I remember no more. Also during my childhood, at
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: this stage of the dream did I wake up screaming
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: with fright to find Often my mother or nurse anxious
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: and startled by my bedside, passing soothing hands through my
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: hair and telling me that they were there and that
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: there was nothing to fear. My next dream, in the
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: order of succession, begins always with the flight of Lopier
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: and myself through the forest. The fireman in broken tooth
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: and the tree of the tragedy are gone. Lopier and I,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: in a cautious panic, are fleeing through the trees. In
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: my right leg is burning pain, and from the flesh
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: protruding heaven shaft from either side is an arrow of
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: the fireman. Not only did the pullan strain of it
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: pain me severely, but it bothered my movements and made
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: it impossible for me to keep up with Lopier. At
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: last I gave up, crouching in the secure fork of
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: a tree. Lopier went right on. I called him most plaintively,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: I remember, and he stopped and looked back. Then he
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: returned to me, climbing into the fork and examining the arrow.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: He tried to pull it out, but one way the
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: flesh resisted the barbed lead, and the other way it
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: resisted the feathered shaft. Also, it hurt grievously, and I
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: stopped him. For some time. We crouched there, LaPier nervous
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: and anxious to be gone, perpetually and apprehensively peering this
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: way and that, and myself whimpering softly and sobbing. Lopier
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: was plainly in a funk, and yet his conduct in
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: remaining by me in spite of his fear, I take
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: as a foreshadowing of the altruism and comrade ship that
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: have helped make man the mightiest of the animals. Once again,
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: Lopier tried to drag the arrow through the flesh, and
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: I angrily stopped him. Then he bent down and began
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: gnawing the shaft of the arrow with his teeth. As
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: he did so, he held the arrow firmly in both hands,
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: so that it would not play about in the wound,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: and at the same time I held on to him.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: I often meditate upon this scene, the two of us,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: half grown cubs in the childhood of the race, and
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: the one mastering his fear, beating down his selfish impulse
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: of flight in order to stand by and succor the other.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: And there rises up before me all that there was
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: there foreshadowed, And I see visions of Damon and Phitheus,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: of life sating crews and red cross nurses, of martyrs
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: and leaders of forlorn hopes, of Father Damien, and of
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the Christ himself, and of all the men of earth,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: mighty of stature, whose strength may trace that to the
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: elemental loins of Lopier and Big Tooth and other dim
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: denizens of the younger world. When Lopier had chewed off
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: the head of the arrow, the shaft was withdrawn easily enough.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: I started to go on, But this time it was
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: he that stopped me. My leg was bleeding profusely. Some
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: of the smaller veins had doubtless been ruptured. Running out
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: to the end of a branch, Lopier gathered a handful
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: of green leaves. These he stuffed into the wound. They
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: accomplished the purpose, for the bleeding soon stopped. Then we
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: went on together back to the safety of the caves.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: End of chapter seven, Chapter eight. Well, do I remember
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: that first winter after I had left home. I have
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: long dreams of sitting shivering in the cold. Lopier and
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: I sit close together, with our arms and legs about
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: each other, blue faced with chattering teeth. It got particularly
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: crisp along toward morning. In those chill early hours, we
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: slept little, huddling together in no misery, and waiting for
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: the sunrise in order to get When we went outside,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: there was a crackle of frost underfoot. One morning we
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: discovered ice on the surface of the quiet water in
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: the eddy, where was the drinking place? And there was
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: a great how do you do about it? Old marrow
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Bone was the oldest member of the Horde, and he
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: had never seen anything like it before. I remember the worried,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: plaintive look that came into his eyes as he examined
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: the ice. This plaintive look always came into our eyes
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: when we did not understand a thing, or when we
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: felt the prod of some vague and inexpressible desire. Red
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: eye too, when he investigated the ice, looked bleak and plaintive,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: and stared across the river into the northeast, as though
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: in some way he connected the fire people with this
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: latest happening. But we found ice only on that one morning,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: and that was the coldest winter we experienced. I have
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: no memory of other winters when it was so cold.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: I have often thought that the cold winter was a
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: forerunner of the countless cold winters to come, as the
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: ice sheet from farther north crept down over the face
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: of the land. But we never saw that ice sheet.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Many generations must have passed before the descendants of the
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Horde migrated south or remained and adapted themselves to the
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: changed conditions. Life was hit or miss and happy go lucky.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: With us. Little was ever planned unless was executed. We
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: ate when we were hungry, drank when we were thirsty,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: avoided our carnivorous enemies, took shelter in the caves at night,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: and for the rest just sort of played along through life.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: We were very curious, easily amused, and full of tricks
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and pranks. There was no seriousness about us, except when
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: we were in danger or were angry, in which cases
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: to one was quickly forgotten and the other as quickly
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: got over. We were inconsecutive, illogical, and inconsequential. We had
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: no steadfastness of purpose. And it was here that the
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: fire people were ahead of us. They possessed all these
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: things of which we possess so little. Occasionally, however, especially
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: in the realm of the emotions, we were capable of
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: long cherished purpose. The faithfulness of the monogamic couples I
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: have referred to may be explained as a matter of habit,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: But my long desire for the swift one cannot be
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: so explained any more than can be explained the undying
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: enmity between me and Red Eye. But it was our
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: inconsequentiality and stupidity. That especially distresses me when I look
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: back upon that life in the long ago. Once I
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: found the broken gourd, which happened to lie right side up,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: and which had been filled with the rain. The water
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: was sweet, and I drank it. I even took the
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: gourd down to the stream and filled it with more water,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: some of which I drank as some of which I
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: poured over loppier, and then I threw the gourd away.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: It never entered my head to fill the gourd with
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: water and carry it into my cave. Yet often I
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: was thirsty at night, especially after eating wild onions and
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: water trest, and no one ever dared leave the caves
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: at night for a drink. Another time I found a
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: dry gourd, inside of which the seeds rattled. I had
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: fun with it for a little while, but it was
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: a plaything, nothing more. And yet it was not long
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: after this that the using of gourds for storing water
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: became the general practice of the Horde. But I was
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: not the inventor. The honor was due to Old marrow Bone,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and it is fair to assume that it was the
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: necessity of his great age that brought about the innovation
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: at any rate. The first member of the horde to
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: use gourds was Marrowbone. He kept the supply of drinking
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: water in his cave, which cave belonged to his son,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: the Hairless One, who permitted him to occupy a corner
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of it. We used to see marrow Bone filling his
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: gourd at the drinking place and carrying it carefully up
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: to his cave. Imitation was strong in the folk, and
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: first one and then another and another procured a gourd,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: had used it in similar fashion, until it was a
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: general practice with all of us so to store water.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Sometimes old Marrowbone had sixpells and was unable to lead
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: the cave. Then it was that the hairless One killed
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: the gourd for him. A little later the hairless One
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: deputed the test to long Lip, his son, And after that,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: even when Marrowbone was well again, long Lip continued carrying
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: water for him by and by, except on unusual occasions,
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: the men never carried any water at all, leaving the
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: task to the women and larger children. Alapia and I
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: were independent. We carried water only for ourselves, and we
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: often mocked the young water carriers when they were called
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: away from play to fill the gores. Progress was slow
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: with us. We played through life, even the adults, much
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: in the same way that children play, and we played
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: as none of the other animals played. What little we
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: learned was usually in the course of play, and was
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: due to our curiosity and keenness of appreciation. For that matter.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: The one big day mention of the Horde during the
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: time I lived with it was the use of gourds.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: At first, we stored only water in the gourds, in
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: imitation of old marrow bone. But one day someone of
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: the women, I do not know which one, filled the
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: gourd with blackberries and carried it to her cave. In
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: no time, all the women were carrying berries and nuts
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: and roots in the gourds. This idea, once started, had
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: to go on. Another evolution of the carrying receptacle was
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: due to women. Without doubt, some woman's gourd was too small,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: or else she had forgotten her gourd. But be that
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: as it may, she bent two great leaves together, hitting
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: the seams with twigs, and carried home a bigger quantity
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: of berries that could have been contained in the largest gord.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: So far we got, and no farther in the transportation
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: of supplies. During the years I lived with the folk,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: it never entered anybody's head to weave a basket out
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: of willow wives. Sometimes the men and women tied tough
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: minds about the bundles of ferns and branches that they
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: carried to the caves to sleep upon. Possibly in ten
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: or twenty generations we might have worked up to the
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: weaving of baskets. And of this one thing is sure.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: If once we wove withes into baskets, the next an
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: inevitable step would have been in the weaving of cloth.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: Clothes would have followed, and with covering our nakedness would
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: have come modesty. Thus was momentum gained in the younger world.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: But we were without this momentum. We were just getting started,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: and we could not go far in a single generation.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: We were without weapons, without fire, and in the raw
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: beginnings of speech. The device of writing lay so far
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: in the future that I am appalled when I think
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: of it, even I was once on the verge of
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: a great discovery. To show you how fortuitous was development
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: in those days, let me state that had it not
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: been for the gluttony of lop ear I might have
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: brought about the domestication of the dog. And this was
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: something that the fire people who lived to the northeast
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: had not yet achieved. They were without dogs, for I
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: knew this from observation. But let me tell you how
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: Lapier's gluttony possibly set back our social development many generations.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Well to the west of our case was a great swamp,
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: but to the south lay a stretch of low rocky hills.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: These were little frequented for two reasons. First of all,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: there was no food there of the kind we ate.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: And next, those rocky hills were filled with the layers
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: of carnivorous beasts. But Lopier and I strayed over to
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: the hills one day. We would have not straight had
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: we not been teasing a tiger. Please do not laugh.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: It was old saber tooth himself. We were perfectly safe.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: We chanced upon him in the forest early in the morning,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: and from the safety of the branches overhead we chattered
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: down at him our dislike and hatred, And from branch
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: to branch, and from tree to tree, we followed overhead,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: making an infernal route, and warning all the forest dwellers
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: that old Sabretooth was coming. We spoiled his hunting for
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: him anyway, and we made him good and angry. He
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: snarled at us and lashed his tail, and sometimes he
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: paused and stared up at us quietly for a long time,
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: as if debating in his mind some way by which
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: he could get hold of us. But we only laughed
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: and held at him with twigs in the ends of branches.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: This tiger baiting was common sport among the folk. Sometimes
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: half the horde would follow from overhead a tiger or
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: lion that had ventured out in the daytime. It was
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: our revenge for more than one member of the horde
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: caught unexpectedly, had gone the way of the tiger's belly
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: or the lion's. Also, by such ordeals of helplessness and shame,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: we taught the hunting animals to some extent to keep
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: out of our territory. And then it was funny. It
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: was a great game, and so Loppier and I had
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: chased Sabertooth across three miles of forest. Toward the last
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: he put his tail between his legs and fled from
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: our gibing like a beaten curve. We did our best
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: to keep up with him, but when we reached the
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: edge of the forest, he was no more than a
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: streak in the distance. I don't know what prompted us,
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: unless it was curiosity, but after playing around a while,
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Lopier and I ventured across the open ground to the
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: edge of the rocky hills. We did not go far.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Possibly at no time were we more than a hundred
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: yards from the trees. Coming around a sharp corner of rock,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: we went very carefully because we did not know what
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: we might encounter. We came upon three puppies playing in
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: the sun. They did not see us, and we watched
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: them for some time. They were wild dogs. In the
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: rock wall was a horizontal fissure, evidently the lair where
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: their mother had left them, and where they should have
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: remained had they been obedient. But the growing life that
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: in Lopier and me had impelled us to venture away
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: from the forest had driven the puppies out of the
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: cave to frolly. I know how their mother would have
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: punished them had she caught them, but it was Lopier
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: and I who caught them. He looked at me, and
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: then we made a dashboard the puppies knew no place
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: to run except into the lair, and we headed them off.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: One rushed between my legs. I squatted and grabbed him.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: He sank his sharp little teeth into my arm, and
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: I dropped him in the suddenness of the hurt and surprise.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: The next moment he had scurried inside Lopier struggling with
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: a second puppy, scalded at me and intimated by a
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: variety of the sounds the different kinds of a fool
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: and a bungler that I was. This made me ashamed
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: and spurred me to valor. I grabbed the remaining puppy
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: by the tail. He got its teeth into me once,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: and then I got him by the nape of the neck.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: Lopier and I sat down and held the puppies up
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: and looked at them and laughed. They were snarling and
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: yelping and crying. Lopier started suddenly, he thought he had
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: heard something. We looked at each other and fear realizing
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: the danger of our position. The thing that made animals
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: raging demons was tampering with their young, and these puppies
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: that made such a racket belonged to the wild dogs well.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: We knew them running in packs the terror of the
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: grass eating animals. We had watched them following the herds
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: of Cabalan bison and dragging down the calves, the aged,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: and the sit We had been chased by them ourselves
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: more than once. I had seen one of the folk,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: a woman, run down by them and caught just as
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: she reached the shelter of the woods. Had she not
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: been tired out by the run, she might have made
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: it into a tree. She tried and slipped and fell back.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: They made short work of her. We did not stare
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: at each other longer than a moment. Keeping tight hold
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: of our prizes, we ran for the woods. Once in
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: the security of a tall tree, we held up the
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: puppies and laughed again. You see, we had to have
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: our laugh out no matter what happened. And then began
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: one of the hardest tasks I ever attempted. We started
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: to carry the puppies to our cave instead of using
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: our hands for climbing. Most of the time they were
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: occupied with holding or squirming captives. Once we tried to
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: walk on the ground, but were treed by a miserable
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: hyena who followed along underneath he was a wise hyaeno.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: LaPier got an idea. He remembered how we tied up
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: bundles of leaves to carry home for beds. Breaking off
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: some tough vines, he tied his puppy's legs together, and then,
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: with another piece of vine passed around his neck, slung
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: the puppy on his back. This left him with hands
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: and feet predeclined. He was jubilant and did not wait
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: for me to finish tying my puppy's legs, but started on.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: There was one difficulty, however, the puppy wouldn't stay slung
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: on Lapier's back. It swung around to the side and
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: then on in front. Its teeth were not tied, and
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: the next thing it did was to sink its teeth
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: into Lapier's soft and unprotected stomach. He let out a
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: the scream, nearly fell and clutched the branch violently with
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: both hands to save himself. The vine around his neck broke,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: and the puppy, its four legs still tied, dropped to
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: the ground. The hyena proceeded to dine. Lopier was disgusted
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: and angry. He abused a hyaena and then went off
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: alone through the trees. I had no reason that I
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: knew for wanting to carry the puppy to the cave,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: except that I wanted to, and I stayed by my task.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: I made the work a great deal easier by elaborating
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: on Lapier's idea. Not only did I tie the puppy's legs,
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: but I thrust a stick through his jaws and tied
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: them together securely. At last, I got the puppy home.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: I imagine I had more perfinacity than the average folk,
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: or else I should not have succeeded. They laughed at
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: me when they saw me lugging the puppy up to
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: my high little cave, but I did not mind. Success
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: crowned my efforts, and there was a puppy. He was
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: a plaything, such as none of the folk possessed. He
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: learned rapidly. When I played with him and he bit me,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: I boxed his ears, and then he did not try
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: again to bite for a long time. I was quite
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: taken up with him. He was something new, and it
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: was characteristic of the folk to like new things. When
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: I saw that he refused fruits and vegetables, I caught
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: birds for him and squirrels and young rabbits. We folks
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: were meat eaters as well as vegetarians, and we were
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: adept at catching small game. The puppy ate the meat
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: and thrived as well as I can estimate. I must
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: have had him over a week. And then coming back
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: to the cave one day with a nestful of young
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: hatched pheasants, I found LaPier had killed the puppy and
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: was just beginning to eat him. I sprang for Lopier.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: The cave was small, and we went at it tooth
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: and nail, and thus in a flight, and at one
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: of the earliest attempts to domesticate the dog, we pulled
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: hair out and handfuls and scratched the dip and gouged.
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  Speaker 1: Then we salked and made up. After that we ate
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: the puppy raw. Yes, we had not yet discovered fire.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Our evolution into cooking animals lay in the tight rolled
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: scroll of the future. End of Chapter eight recording by
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Tom Weiss Tom's audiobooks dot Com.