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Stories of the Cave People-Mary Marcy · Invisible Helpers

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  Speaker 1: Preface to Stories of the Cave People. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Stories of the Cave People by Mary Morsey Preface. No
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  Speaker 1: man or woman can begin to intelligently interpret the causes
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  Speaker 1: of social phenomena and human progress today without a practical
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of sociology and the general understanding of the underlying
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  Speaker 1: causes of social evolution. Man has risen from a stage
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  Speaker 1: of lowest savagery, little higher than the apes, buffeted by
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  Speaker 1: the hand of nature, dependent upon the wild game he
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  Speaker 1: might kill, or the food he found ready to hand,
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  Speaker 1: a fearing and furtive creature of the forests and of
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  Speaker 1: the plains, preyed upon by a thousand stronger foes, to
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  Speaker 1: a being able to provide warmth in clothing and shelter
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  Speaker 1: against the ragin means and the cold, and food against
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  Speaker 1: the seasons. He has become a master instead of a
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  Speaker 1: plaything of the elements. In a large measure, he has
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  Speaker 1: become arbiter of his own food supply, and hence his
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  Speaker 1: own destiny. He has subjugated in a marvelous degree the
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  Speaker 1: forces of nature and harnessed them to his needs. The
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  Speaker 1: ordinary man all over the world today does not know
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  Speaker 1: these things. He attributes all this wonderful progress to a
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  Speaker 1: supernatural agency, or to supernatural agencies. He believes that the
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  Speaker 1: institutions of today have existed since the beginning of time,
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  Speaker 1: that the gods created man exactly as we find him
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  Speaker 1: in the twentieth century. That the present ideas of morality, religion, law,
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  Speaker 1: and human justice have always prevailed. He is unable to
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  Speaker 1: tell whence we sprung and which way we are going
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  Speaker 1: amid a changing world. These only fixed things. He knows
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  Speaker 1: neither the origin nor the trend of anything. To him.
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  Speaker 1: The world, the human race, and all social institutions began
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  Speaker 1: as they are now and will be world without end.
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  Speaker 1: But science has shown us that the only stable fact
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  Speaker 1: in the world today is the process of change, how
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  Speaker 1: man has evolved through the ageless past, and the direction
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  Speaker 1: of the social current. In this little book, I have sought,
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  Speaker 1: in a series of stories or sketches, to present only
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  Speaker 1: the first steps in human progress, as elaborated by Lewis J.
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  Speaker 1: Morgan in his brilliant work on Ancient Society. If they
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  Speaker 1: stimulate the young folks to a more comprehensive study of
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  Speaker 1: the struggles of primitive man and the causes of his
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  Speaker 1: slow but study advance, they shall have fulfilled their purpose
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  Speaker 1: the author end of preface. Section one of Stories of
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  Speaker 1: the Cave People. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit librevox dot org. Stories of the
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  Speaker 1: Cave People by Mary Morsey. Section one A Song of
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  Speaker 1: the Cave People by Gerald J.
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  Speaker 2: Lively.
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  Speaker 1: Here now a tale, a tale of human genesis, a
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  Speaker 1: tale of first endeavor. The dawn flush in the night.
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  Speaker 1: It's a long long way to go to those days
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  Speaker 1: of long ago. But your baby feet have trotted, Oh ye,
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  Speaker 1: children of the light. Dark were our early days. Night
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  Speaker 1: and cold encumbered us, driving us to trees and caves
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  Speaker 1: who had no eyes to fight. Yet it's so seems
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  Speaker 1: very near, does that dreary age of fear, when we
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  Speaker 1: trembled in our shelters, that the noises of the night
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  Speaker 1: pray to all the stronger beasts mock of half the
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  Speaker 1: lesser ones, little less and lower ones marveled at our shame.
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  Speaker 1: Still from out our utter need. Came the thought, and
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  Speaker 1: came the deed, and we won our way to freedom
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  Speaker 1: with the all compelling flame noises. We misunderstood dreams that
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  Speaker 1: came to trouble us, shades that shrank and litened and
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  Speaker 1: danced about our way. Our world was full of hosts
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  Speaker 1: of goblins, gnomes, and ghosts. Are ye still afraid of goblins?
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  Speaker 1: Oh ye, children of the day stark but for flint
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  Speaker 1: and bone pitted we are wit against the saber tooth
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  Speaker 1: and cave bear and beasts. We slew for food, But
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  Speaker 1: the fiercest fight began when we slew our brother man O,
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  Speaker 1: children of the daylight, have ye lost the taste for blood?
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  Speaker 1: Dim is the tale we tell? Dust of time has
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  Speaker 1: muffled it far apart the happenings that may ye Lords
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  Speaker 1: of Earth by the ages in between times ye know,
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  Speaker 1: and Platoscene, have pity on our childish ways, and pride
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  Speaker 1: in all our worth. End of Chapter one, A Song
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  Speaker 1: of the Cave People.
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  Speaker 3: Section two Stories of the Cave People. This is a
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: LibriVox recording. All the Brivox recordings were in the public domain.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: org recording by Jeff Blanchard. Stories of the Cave People
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  Speaker 3: by Mary Marcy the Firebeast. No one among the cave
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  Speaker 3: people knew how to kindle a fire. On several occasions,
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  Speaker 3: when they found the trees in the forest of flame,
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  Speaker 3: strong Arm had borne back to the hollow a burning branch. Immediately,
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  Speaker 3: all the other cave people were seized with a desire
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  Speaker 3: to have torches, and they swarmed around the skirts of
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  Speaker 3: the blaze and secured boughs also. And on they sped
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  Speaker 3: toward home and the hollow amid roars of laughter and
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  Speaker 3: much pride, till the spacks from one of the branches
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  Speaker 3: blew into the frowsy hair of the stumbler and set
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  Speaker 3: him aflame. Instantly, all the cave people dropped their boughs
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  Speaker 3: in terror, and the stumbler beat his head with his hand,
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  Speaker 3: uttering shrill cries of pain. Only strong Arm advanced steadily
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  Speaker 3: toward the river, grunting his disgust. Bah bah, he said,
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  Speaker 3: many times, spitting the words from his mouth. Strong Arm
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  Speaker 3: was the great man of the tribe. No one among
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  Speaker 3: the cave people could jump so far or lift so
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  Speaker 3: large a rock as he. His back was broader than
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  Speaker 3: the shoulders of the other men. His head was less fat,
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  Speaker 3: and his eyes were very keen and saw many things.
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  Speaker 3: When they reached the hollow, strong Arm gathered dry leaves
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  Speaker 3: and sticks and built a huge bonfire upon the rocks,
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  Speaker 3: and the old woman and Graybeard came out of their
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  Speaker 3: cave to marvel at his work. The young men brought
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  Speaker 3: branches and leaves and fed the flames, And when night
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  Speaker 3: came on, the cave people sat around the fire and
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  Speaker 3: laughed together. For the wolves came out of their holes
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  Speaker 3: and showed their white fangs, and their yellow eyes gleamed
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  Speaker 3: through the darkness, but they hovered on the edge of
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  Speaker 3: the woods, for they were afraid. Far into the night,
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  Speaker 3: the cave people danced while the flame from the fire
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  Speaker 3: brightened the whole hollow. They beat their hands together and
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  Speaker 3: chanted in two tones from a minor strain, And not
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  Speaker 3: till they were worn out with dancing and fuel gathering
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  Speaker 3: did they crawl back into their caves. But in the
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  Speaker 3: morning the fire was dead. Gray ashes marked the spot
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  Speaker 3: of their gayety, and the cave people were filled with
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  Speaker 3: and wonder but they lent many things. The next time,
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  Speaker 3: strong Arm brought a blazing bow to the hollow. He
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  Speaker 3: discovered that the fire burnt best when the branches met
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  Speaker 3: the face of the wind, and in time they leaned
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  Speaker 3: to coax the coal to live through the night. By
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  Speaker 3: covering them carefully with ashes and damp moss, and at last,
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  Speaker 3: by watchful care, the cave people were able to keep
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  Speaker 3: the fire burning constantly. The cave women, with little children,
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  Speaker 3: who were unable to hunt with the men, came in
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  Speaker 3: time to be the natural caretakers of the fire. It
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  Speaker 3: was the foolish one who, first, in a fit of wantonness,
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  Speaker 3: threw a hunk of bear meat upon the coals, and
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  Speaker 3: it was strong Arm, the wise one, who fished it
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  Speaker 3: out again. For in those days bear meat was not
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  Speaker 3: to be had all the time, and famine followed close
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  Speaker 3: upon the heels of feasting. Often a chunk of bear
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  Speaker 3: meat was the most precious thing in the world. Strong
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  Speaker 3: Arm ate the steak which he had hoaked from the coals,
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  Speaker 3: and he found it delicious. Then he threw more chunks
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  Speaker 3: into the fire and gave them to the cave people.
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  Speaker 3: After that everyone threw his meat into the flames. By
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  Speaker 3: and by they stuck great hunks of raw flesh upon
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  Speaker 3: long sticks and broiled them over the fire no longer
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  Speaker 3: as darkness crept over the world, where the cave people
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  Speaker 3: forced into their caves for safety. Secure around the fire,
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  Speaker 3: they danced and chanted rude measures, wherein they mocked their enemies,
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  Speaker 3: the mountain lion and the gray wolves, who came forth
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  Speaker 3: in the night and watched them hungrily from a fire.
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  Speaker 3: Four times had the nut season come and gone since
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  Speaker 3: the birth of little laughing Boy, And he could remember
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  Speaker 3: one day only when the fire had not burned upon
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  Speaker 3: the rocks in the hollow. Ever since he had been
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  Speaker 3: able to walk, he had trotted at his mother's heels
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  Speaker 3: down to the shore when the air was chill, and
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  Speaker 3: had squatted very close to the coal, for the warmth
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  Speaker 3: was very pleasant to his small body. His mother, quack quack,
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  Speaker 3: which meant wild duck in the language of the cave people,
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  Speaker 3: always screamed shrilly to him and gesticulated wildly till he
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  Speaker 3: crept back out of danger, while she scoured the woods
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  Speaker 3: full logs and branches. But there came a day when
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  Speaker 3: he crawled down to the river and found no fire
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  Speaker 3: on the shore. Then his father's strong arm had gone
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  Speaker 3: upon a long journey many paths he had crossed, and
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  Speaker 3: his journey along the bank of the river to a
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  Speaker 3: friendly neighboring tribe, and he returned after several sons with
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  Speaker 3: the good fire in his hands. Since then the cave
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  Speaker 3: people had tended the fire more carefully than ever. Thus
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  Speaker 3: Laughing Boy came to know that the fire was a friend,
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  Speaker 3: a friend who protected the cave people from the wild
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  Speaker 3: animals of the forest. He knew also that it was
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  Speaker 3: very good to feel the warm flames near his brown
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  Speaker 3: body when the days were cool, and that it hurt
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  Speaker 3: very much if touched with his fingers. Laughing Boy always
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  Speaker 3: ran at the side of his mother, quack Quack, tagging
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  Speaker 3: at her heels or hanging on her shoulders. Although a
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  Speaker 3: very big boy as cave boys grew, he had never
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  Speaker 3: been weaned, and always when he grew cold or hungry,
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  Speaker 3: he ran to her side and pulled at her breasts,
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  Speaker 3: uttering queer little grunts and cries. In the bad season,
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  Speaker 3: quack Quack grew very thin as Laughing Boy nursed at
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  Speaker 3: her breasts. When he was four years old, and the
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  Speaker 3: fruit was dead, and the nuts and the berries were
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  Speaker 3: nowhere to be found. From the north fork of the river,
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  Speaker 3: to the bend far below. Quack Quack felt that she
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  Speaker 3: could no longer endure, but pushed him from her again
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  Speaker 3: and again, giving him bits of meat and fish to chew.
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  Speaker 3: When once the cave people had hunted twelve days without
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  Speaker 3: bringing home any large game, the eyes of people grew
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  Speaker 3: deep with hunger, and their faces were drawn and gaunt.
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  Speaker 3: A few fish they caught, and again found bitter roots
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  Speaker 3: and some scrubby tubes, but these meant only mouthful to
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  Speaker 3: the cave people. When they could one and all have
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  Speaker 3: devoured great hunks of meat. Strong arms sat on the
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  Speaker 3: bank of the river one whole day, but the storms
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  Speaker 3: had driven the fish upstream, and he caught only two
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  Speaker 3: small ones that fluttered and beat themselves against the sticks
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  Speaker 3: which he had rammed into the mud after the fashion
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  Speaker 3: of a fence. Quack Quack, who was often alone in
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  Speaker 3: the hollow, felt the gnawing pangs of hunger more keenly
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  Speaker 3: every day, as she weakly thrust laughing boy from her
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  Speaker 3: breasts again and again, and staggered into the forest after
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  Speaker 3: fresh fuel. And there came a time when the hunger
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  Speaker 3: and pain grew so strong that she remembered only that
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  Speaker 3: she must satisfy them. Then she pushed laughing Boy into
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  Speaker 3: the cave, which was a place that served to hair
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  Speaker 3: and strong arm for a home, and with a mighty effort,
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  Speaker 3: rolled a stone before the entrance. Laughing Boy too was
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  Speaker 3: very hungry, but she knew he was safe from the
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  Speaker 3: beasts of the forest. She hid his low wails as
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  Speaker 3: she turned her back on the hollow and hurried away
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  Speaker 3: towards the branch of the river, pausing only when she
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  Speaker 3: saw the scrub ends of the wild plants to examine them.
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  Speaker 3: But she found nothing to eat, only many holes where
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  Speaker 3: the cave people had thrust their sticks in a search
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  Speaker 3: of roots. Quack Quack continued on her way, almost forgetting
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  Speaker 3: the mountain lion and the dangers that assailed without, for
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  Speaker 3: the hunger passion was strong within her. The wild duck
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  Speaker 3: she sought and knew their haunts of old. It was
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  Speaker 3: because of her skill in catching them that she had
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  Speaker 3: earned her name among the cave people better than any other.
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  Speaker 3: She knew their habits and how to catch and kill
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  Speaker 3: one among them without alarming the flock. This she had
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  Speaker 3: discovered when she was a very little girl. In those days,
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  Speaker 3: it had been almost impossible for the cave people to
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  Speaker 3: catch the wild duck. While they were sometimes successful in
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  Speaker 3: killing one, the others always scattered in terror. Soon they
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  Speaker 3: began to regard the cave people as their enemies, and
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  Speaker 3: immediately one of them appeared. The alarm was given. But
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  Speaker 3: when Quack Quack, the mother of Laughing Boy, was ten
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  Speaker 3: years old, and the cave people were disgusted because the
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  Speaker 3: wild ducks eluded them so quickly, she found a way
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  Speaker 3: to deceive the flocks. She had waded out into the
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  Speaker 3: fork of the river with the great green leaves of
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  Speaker 3: the cocoanut palm, wet and flapping about her head, for
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  Speaker 3: the sun was very hot, and she stood quietly among
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  Speaker 3: the rushes when a flock of wild ducks swam slowly
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  Speaker 3: down the stream. Suddenly she stretched out her arm under
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  Speaker 3: the water and seized one of the ducks by the
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  Speaker 3: legs and drew him down. And then the rest of
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  Speaker 3: the flock, unsuspicious of danger, swam on slowly around the bend.
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  Speaker 3: Professor Starr says in his Some First Steps in Human
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  Speaker 3: Progress that this old method of catching wild ducks is
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  Speaker 3: still practiced by the tribes in Patagonia. Then the little
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  Speaker 3: brown girl ran out of the water, holding aloft the duck,
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  Speaker 3: which was dead. Her mother was very proud as well
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  Speaker 3: as the young brown girl, and all the cave people
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  Speaker 3: clapped their hands and said good good, and the young
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  Speaker 3: men said woman, meaning she was grown very wise. And
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  Speaker 3: after that everybody called her quack Quack, after the voice
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  Speaker 3: of the wild duck. And quack Quack grew very proud
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  Speaker 3: of her accomplishment and spent long hours hiding in the
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  Speaker 3: rushes for ducks. All the cave people put leaves or
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  Speaker 3: bag over their heads in order to hide themselves and
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  Speaker 3: try to catch them, as the brown young girl had done,
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  Speaker 3: but they always frightened away the flock, even when they
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  Speaker 3: were lucky enough to seize one of the ducks. Many
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  Speaker 3: years had passed since the brown girl discovered the new
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  Speaker 3: way of hunting, but the brown woman, whom they still
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  Speaker 3: called quack Quack, had not forgotten. She could not forget
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  Speaker 3: with the great hunger in her breast. As she slipped
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  Speaker 3: through the wood along the river bank, gently she stepped,
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  Speaker 3: making no sound, and every little while she parted the
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  Speaker 3: brushes lining the river with her hands and peered through.
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  Speaker 3: But there were no ducks, and she caught her breath
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  Speaker 3: each time eagerly, and went further on, twitching her ears nervously.
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  Speaker 3: When she was almost exhausted. After some time, she again
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  Speaker 3: parted the brush. Now her eyes flashed, her small nostrils quivered,
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  Speaker 3: and her hands worked convulsively, for there, not very far away,
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  Speaker 3: Evidently drowsing near the rushes, she saw a solitary wild duck.
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  Speaker 3: The brown woman drew in her breath and softly, very softly,
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  Speaker 3: withdrew from the brush and bent her steps further up
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  Speaker 3: the river. On her way, she tore a long strip
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  Speaker 3: of dead back from a tree and wounded carefully around
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  Speaker 3: her head and face. Then she plunged into the river
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  Speaker 3: until it rose above her shoulders. When she had waded
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  Speaker 3: very gently with the current down stream, the water was
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  Speaker 3: very cold, but Quack Quack clutched her hands sharply and
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  Speaker 3: stepped onward, deeper into the sluggish current, till only the
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  Speaker 3: rough bark which covered her head remained in view. Slowly,
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  Speaker 3: very slowly, she felt her way over the soft bottom,
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  Speaker 3: making no sound, causing not even a ripple in the water.
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  Speaker 3: A small bough floated at her side, and she kept
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  Speaker 3: pace with it, going no faster, no slower than it
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  Speaker 3: drifted till she came close, very close to the motionless duck.
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  Speaker 3: Then her hand shot forth and she dragged it sharply
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  Speaker 3: under the water. But it was alone. There was none
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  Speaker 3: to take flight. At its cries, and quack quack, the
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  Speaker 3: brown woman scrambled up the bank, wringing the duck's neck
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  Speaker 3: as she ran. She shivered in the wind and shielded
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  Speaker 3: herself in the brush, and then, lying flat on the ground,
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  Speaker 3: buried her teeth into the duck's breast. Swift she ate,
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: making loud noises with her lips and grunting joyfully, and
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  Speaker 3: not until the last portion was gone, till she rise
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  Speaker 3: and turned her face toward the hollow. Her stomach sagged
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  Speaker 3: with its heavy load, and she walked slowly, clotted with food.
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  Speaker 3: When the cave people saw her, they cried out, wild duck,
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  Speaker 3: Wild duck. They looked at her stomach, big and distended,
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  Speaker 3: and were very miserable, for they knew after what manner
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  Speaker 3: she had earned her name. The fire on the rocks
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  Speaker 3: in the hollow was cold and dead, and strong arm
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  Speaker 3: was very angry, but quack Quack said nothing. She heard
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  Speaker 3: the cry of laughing boy as she slipped into the cave,
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  Speaker 3: and she threw herself onto the bed of dead leaves
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  Speaker 3: and drew him, whimpering to her breast and Section two.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Section three of Stories of the Cave People. This is
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Recording by Lynda MARAE Nielsen, Vancouver, b c. Stories of
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: the Cave People by Mary Marcy, The ornament of Big Nose.
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  Speaker 2: As far back as any of the Cave people could remember,
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  Speaker 2: their fathers had used the bones of wild beasts as weapons.
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  Speaker 2: I suppose they discovered long before that the marrow inside
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  Speaker 2: these bones was very good to eat. Then they hammered
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: them with great stones till the bones split open. And
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: after they had eaten the marrow, somebody discovered the sharp
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: bones made very formidable weapons. No one had ever found
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  Speaker 2: sticks so strong and so sharp as these bone weapons.
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  Speaker 2: By and by all, the cave people processed great bones
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  Speaker 2: split at one end like a sharp sword. Almost every
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: day the ewes and maidens threw bones or sticks to
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  Speaker 2: display their skill. And the one whose aim was true
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  Speaker 2: and who showed most power in his arm, strutted about
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  Speaker 2: and struck out his chest in order that all the
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: other cave people might know how great he was. One
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  Speaker 2: there was whom they called big Nose. Now in the
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: time of the cave people, it was a marvelous thing
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: for a child to possess a nose that protruded. Generally,
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: cave noses were much like the noses of the tree people,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: with merely two two large nostrils in the center of
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: the face, slightly extended preceding the head, in order that
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: the owner might catch the smell of danger or of
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: good food. But him the cave people called big Nose
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: because his nose turned down instead of upward, and it
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: extended nearly half an inch beyond his face. When he
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: was only a slim, brown youth, Big Nose became able
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: to outthrow all the other young folks. He could fling
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: his rough bone javelin many feet further than any of
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: the others, and with greater force. At the edge of
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: the woods. He would hurl it far among the trees
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: and clip off every time the heads of the small
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: purple flowers that grew taller and slim in the forest.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: Big Nose grew proud and held his head very high
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: and he begun after a little while to wander farther
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: and farther into the woods alone, for he desired greatly
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: to meet the mountain lion or the green snake, in
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: order that he might kill them with his weapon and
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: become still greater in the eyes of the cave people.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: Everyone thought he was brave, but very foolish, for the
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: youths and maidens rarely wandered about in the forest alone.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: Too often had their brothers gone out and never returned,
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: and there was fear in their hearts. But in spite
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: of their warnings, Big Nose continued to hunt, and one day,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: when he had traveled beyond the great rocks, he discovered
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: a large tree lying prone upon the ground. The spring
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: storms had uprooted it and flung it down to die.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Big Nose sped on till he reached the oak tree.
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: When he heard from its branches a deep growl and
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: much scratching. Big Nose drew back quickly and sheltered himself
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: behind a great tree, waiting aloft. He held his bone spear,
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: ready to hurl it upon the enemy. He waited a
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: long time, but nothing came forth from the boughs of
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: the oak tree, and gradually he grew bolder and cautiously
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: advanced again. His ears twitched constantly, and he drew his
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: lips back from his teeth, just as dogs do when
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: they attack the enemy. Big Nose still heard the low growling,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: but he saw nothing. When he reached the fallen oak,
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: he saw that its branches were flung over a deep
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: hole in the ground. He peered into a carefully and
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: saw a black bear digging frantically with her paws. Evidently
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: she had blundered through the branches of the tree and
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: had fallen down into the hollow. When Big Nose found
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: there was no danger, he grew very happy and laughed
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: softly to himself. For the black bear stood upon her
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: hind feet and clawed the air trying to get out,
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: and he dropped stones upon her head till she grew
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: wild with rage and staggered about, trying to reach him
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: with her paws. Big Nose laughed softly and continued to
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: tease her till she stood again on her hind feet,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: exposing her throat in rage. Then he lifted his arms
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: above his head and flung the bone javelin into her
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: breast with all his strength. The bear dropped to the ground,
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: pawing at the bone, which protruded from her throat, dripping
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: with blood. Furiously, she tore about the pit, beating its
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: sides with her paws, and Big Nose was terrified when
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: he saw his bone weapon fall to the bottom of
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: the hollow, and he ran about, hunting for a long
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: stick with which he hoped to poke it out again.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: When he returned to the pit bearing sticks and boughs,
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: he found the bear pressing her paws to her breast
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: and growling with rage. Very carefully he bent over the
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: hollow and poked his weapon, but the bear discovered his
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: movements and turned quickly upon him. With a stroke of
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: her great paw, she slashed savagely at his arm and
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: laid it open to the bone. Big Nose choked back
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: a cry of pain. Then he rose to his feet
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: and staggered homeward. Softly he went, and his feet touched
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: the earth gently. Dry leaves did not crack under them,
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: and he made no sound. But his wound bled badly,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: and he grew weak with pain. Then he stopped at
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: the side of a dead tree and tore off a
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: strip of bark, which he rapped tightly around his arm,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: and he sped quickly, for the wild beast came forth
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: eagerly at the smell of blood, and he had no
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: weapon with which to defend himself. But he arrived at
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: the hollow in safety. And the old men among the
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: cave people nodded their heads and threw out their hands,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: as much as to say, we told you so. But
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: the ewes and maidens gathered around Big Nose with much interest,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: saying what what which, in the language of the cave
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: people means what is the matter? And the brown maidens
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: came near and gazed upon Big Nose with wonder and admiration.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Even Lightfoot, who had alone slain the man who came
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: down the river from the enemies the arrow people, was
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: pleased with Big Nose, and brought herbs with which to
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: wrap his wounds. But Big Nose waved them all aside
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: with a lofty gesture. Though the pain hurt him sorely,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: his face was calm, and he knew all the cave
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: people would think long of his bravery, And his blood
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: was warm, because Lightfoot looked upon him with love and
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: fire in her eyes. When all the eyes of the
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: cave people were directed upon him, Big Nose knelt quickly
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: on the ground and dug a small hole in the
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: earth with his arm that was uninjured. He pointed into it,
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: growling in imitation of the black bear, and they knew
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: he had discovered a bear that had stumbled into a hollow.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: Then Big Nose threw a stick into the hole, and
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: they understood that he had hurled his bone javelin upon
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: the bear. Snatching a second stick, he poked furiously to
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: show how he had sought to extricate his weapon. With
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: another deep growl, he pulled out his arm and held
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: his wound where all could see. It was in this
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: way that the cave people talked to each other. Their
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: words were few, and most of their ideas were expressed
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: by gestures. Quack quack, they said when they meant while duck.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: A deep growl signified the black bear, while a long
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: line made by drawing a finger through the dust or
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: sand gave everybody to understand the person spoke of a snake.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: If you have seen a pantomime show, you will understand
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: something of the manner of the gesture language of the
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: cave people. Even we civilized folks long accustomed to verbal
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: language say many things to each other every day by
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: facial expression and by gesture, and so even the children
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: among the cave people understood the adventures Big Nose had encountered.
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: When his pantomime monolog was finished, the men and women
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: of the tribe rose eagerly. They pointed first to the
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: whole Big nos had dug in the ground, and then
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: toward the forest, as much as to say, is the
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: bear still in the pit? And one of them asked
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Big Nose kill. Big Nose took his head and started
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: toward the wood, indicating that the cavemen were to follow.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: So the strong man started through the forest. They hurried forward,
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: keeping close together with their bone javelins in their hands,
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: for it was growing dusk. But all were hungry, and
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: kay people who have eaten little for twenty four hours
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: are willing to risk some danger for a meal of
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: fresh meat. They reached the pit safely. The bear still
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: growled savagely in pain, and it was after much jabbing
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: with their bone weapons that they despatched her speedily. They
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: dragged her from the hole and began at once to
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: skin and disembalker. They worked into the dark, hacking up
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: and distributing portions in order that each man might carry
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: back to the hollow his share of the burden. Very sharply.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: The cavemen drew in their breath, for the fresh blood
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: of the bear smelt good to them. But the terror
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: of the night was strong upon them, and they listened intently,
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: sniffing the air, twitching their ears and trembling with fear.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: For it is in the night that the wild beasts
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: creep forth for food, and the smell of fresh blood
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: reaches a long way off. So the cavemen huddled together
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: very close, each carrying a portion of the dripping carcass
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: of the bear. Big nose, too, bore a huge chunk
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: of the meat, which he chewed from time to time.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: His wounded arm ached sorely, but because of the pride
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: in his heart, he spoke not. But the way to
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: the hollow seemed very far, and his knees almost sank
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: beneath him. Each man bore his bone weapon, pointing away
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: from his fellows, in order that the hyaena, if it
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: sprang at them, might receive the sharp bone point strong
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: arm was he who thought most of the fire and
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: the safety it brought, But he was unable to express
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: his thoughts, for the sign of the fire among the
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: cave people was spoken in a gesture and guester language
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: is not understood in the darkness. One terrifying incident marked
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: the journey home. Soft footfalls crumbled the leaves, and two
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: green eyes spotted the black But the cavemen huddled together
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: and shrieked so loudly that the animal, whatever it was,
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: dashed away in fear. When they came to the hollow,
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: the cavemen called loudly to the other's and distributed big
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: chunks of bear meat, which they all ate eagerly with
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: great satisfaction. Then the people crept into their caves, rolled
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: great stones before the entrances, and slept. Many sons came
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: and went away again. And Big Nose was so proud
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: of his wound that he moved his arm with great care.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: The blood that covered it grew hard and black, but
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: he sought to preserve it there always in order to
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: recall to the minds of the cave people thoughts of
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: his courage. To him, it was a precious ornament, so
• 33:39
  Speaker 2: beautiful it caused the young men to regard him with jealousy,
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: and the young women with admiration. And Lightfoot, who was
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: very beautiful in the eyes of all the cave people,
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: refused to look any longer upon the other ewes of
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: the tribe. And when Big Nosed asked her to share
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: his cave, she was proud and happy and went to
• 34:05
  Speaker 2: live with him and became his wife. One there was
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: among the news of the cave people whom they had
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: never called man, which is to say, you are wise
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: and brave, therefore you are a man. Him they called
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: run Fast, because in spite of the hair grown heavy
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: upon his face, it was always his custom to run
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: away when trouble came. All the cave people were often
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: afraid for death, sometimes lurked in the shadows, and their
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: ignorance was so great that they were unable to explain
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: very common occurrences. But run Fast was more fearful than
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: the old women and the little children. Run Fast hated
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: Big Nose because Big nos had done all the things
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: he was afraid to do. But one day he crept
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: into the wood. He thought he knew of a way
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: that would cause all the cay people to look upon
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: him with admiration. He did not see laughing boy slipped
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: through the brush behind him. Run Fast did not travel
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: far he never went far from the hollow when he
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: was alone, and he did not see little Laughing Boy,
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: who watched him curiously from the bushes. Then run Fast
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: did a very strange thing. Seizing his split bone knife,
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: he scraped his arm till the blood ran and dropped
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: on the ground. Then he bounded tightly with a piece
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: of bark, just as Big Nose had done. He returned
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: to the hollow, screaming wildly until the cave people gathered
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: to learn the cause of his distress, and he repeated,
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: in the language of gesture the same story Big Nose
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: had told a few sons before. The strong men and
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: the women surveyed him sharply, for it did not seem
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: possible to them that run Fast had killed anything. But
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: Little Laughing Boy, who saw that run Fast was receiving
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: much attention because of the blood upon his arm, pushed
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: his way among the people. With a stone in his hand,
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: he rubbed fiercely up and down his forearm till the
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: blood flowed, pointing to run Fast and shaking his head.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: His meaning was plain. The key people understood him. It
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: was see me, I can scratch myself harder than run
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: Fast did. Then all the Cay people knew what run
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: Fast had done, and they cried baby Baby to run Fast,
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: and he was disgraced before them all after that, when
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: the young men of the tribe came home with blood
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: upon their bodies, the strong men shook their heads and
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: refused to believe tales of their adventures unless they brought
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: back something to prove their words. So it came to
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: be a custom among the Cave people that the men
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: or women who had killed a savage beast carried home
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: with him the tail or, the hide or teeth of
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: that animal. These they wore always as tokens of their bravery.
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: Thus the Cave people first adorned their bodies. End of
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: section three. Recording by Linda Marie Nielsen, Vancouver, BC, Number
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: four of Stories of the Cave People. This is a
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Recording by Linda Ree Nilsen, Vancouver BC. Stories of the
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: Cave People by Mary Marcy, Chapter four, When run Fast
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: went hunting for a wife. The Cave people were skillful
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: fish or folk. From the bark of a coconut palm,
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: which they bound to the forked branches of trees. They
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: made nants and caught the fish. The cave babies were
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: able to swim almost before they could walk. When for
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: the first time their fathers and mothers threw them into
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: the edge of the river, they would beat the water
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: with which their little hands, and with much splashing, make
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: their way toward the bank again. Boat making, however, came
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: slowly to the cave people. They knew, of course, how
• 39:12
  Speaker 2: logs or the trunks of trees float, but tree felling
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: was beyond their knowledge and their tools. Not until they
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: had learned to fashion cane rafts ruddly strung or bound
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: together with strips of bark, were the cave people able
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: to ride against the current of the river. But these
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: cane rafts were so light that they were able with
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: little effort to paddle upstream if they hugged the banks
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: of the river where the current was weak. When the
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: men of the Hairy folk, who dwelt far up the river,
• 39:52
  Speaker 2: descended upon the cave people and sought to take away
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: their women and their daughters, the cave people gave them
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: blow for blow, and in the an drove the intruders
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: back into the wood. And the secret of the matter
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: was a strange sickness that had came upon the women
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: of the Hairy folk, and had stricken them with an
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: unknown illness. The women of the Hairy Folk had died
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: in great pain, one by one, till only the old
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: and unattractive ones remained to the tribe, and the young
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: men of the Hairy Folk went forth to seek new wives. Now,
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: run Fast was the greatest coward among the tribe of
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: the Cave People, But after the Hairy Folk were driven away,
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: he felt that a great strength had come into his heart.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: Much hair covered his face, and his limbs were as
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: lithe as the branches of the willow, shining in the sun,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: like bars of burnish copper. But his courage was like
• 41:02
  Speaker 2: the water of cool springs running from him. Always. For
• 41:07
  Speaker 2: this reason, he had never been able to win for
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: himself a wife. Stripling lads had routed him and taken
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: the young woman he loved, and so he remained alone
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: in the tribe. Deep in his heart, run Fast knew
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: that it would be by brave deeds alone that he
• 41:29
  Speaker 2: could gain a wife. And it was the laugh of
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: the Cave people and the scorn of the young women,
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: as well as the hunger in his heart that drove
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: run Fast. One day along the river bank, he bore
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: only his bone weapon split at the end like a
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: strong javelin at his side, and beyond down past him
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: flowed the great river, And as he ran, he kept
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: close to the bank, for he knew that there only
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: would he be able to elude the fierce hyenas and
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: the black bear. It was the first time run Fast
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: had ever traveled forth from the cave people alone. There
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: was a trembling in his strong limbs, and upon breaking
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: of a twig or the falling of a branch, he
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: started forth closer to the river, and the water's rush
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: continually pasted him with a mad roar, and he knew
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: that he had only to throw himself into the current
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: to be borne swiftly back in the direction whence he
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: had come of this one thing, run Fast had no fear,
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: for he had been accustomed to the water for many seasons.
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: For many hours he traveled, only pausing at the edge
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: of the river and dipping his palms cupwise to drink.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: And when he grew hungry, run Fast skirted the edge
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: of the forest for nuts. Then he resumed his journey,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: for he remembered the word of strong Arm and his
• 43:12
  Speaker 2: gesture toward the sun. When strong Arms spoke of the
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: homes of the Hairy folk, this meant that it would
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: take one of the cave men a day of hard
• 43:23
  Speaker 2: walking to reach their dwelling places. When the western sky
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: was covered with the gold of the setting sun, run
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: Fast found a raft tied to a tree with a
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: piece of bark. The raft was rude and very heavy,
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: being merely the trunk of a great tree, across which
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: were bound branches and pieces of cane would serve to
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: prevent the log from rolling over in the river and
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: dumping the people into the water. Run Fast knew the
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: raft belonged to the Hairy folk, for acording to the
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: words of strong Arm, there remained but a little way
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: to travel before he would reach their homes, But he
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: marked the spot where the raft lay well. If the
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: Hairy folk discovered his approach, he had only to throw
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: himself upon the raft and be borne toward the hollow
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: where dwelt the tribe of the cave people. So eager
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: was run Fast to reach the enemy, that he slipped
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: through the wood like a shadow in the evening. The
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: rustle of the leaves was not heard as his feet
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: sped over them, and he was in the land of
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: the hairy Folk before he was aware. When he saw
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: the men walking about or squatting over a piece of
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: bare meat, run fast, slip into the brush, where unseen
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: he could watch the manner of living of these folks.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: His limbs trembled sorely, for the quick beating of his
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: heart refused to subside, so heavy was it with fear.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: But his heart set over and over again, that did
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: he but kill one of the men of the hairy folk,
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: or return to his people with one of their women,
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: all the cave people would look upon him with wonder
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: and admiration. He knew also that if the men of
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: the Hairy folk discovered him, he would have need to
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: run very swiftly to elude their vengeance. It was this
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: thought that brought the sweat to his brow and caused
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: his hair to bristle with fear. The longing to feed
• 45:46
  Speaker 2: his anger against the enemy burned within him, but fear
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: taught him reason. So he lay long among the bushes,
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: awaiting an opportunity to harm them men he saw limee
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: with distended bellies after a meal of fresh meat, but
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: no women. Darker it grew as the sun continued to
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: ride low in the west, and he had need of
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: all his new found courage to prevent his limbs from
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: running away. Came the time when he felt he could
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: endure the waiting no longer, that a woman walked forth
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: from one of the caves. Tall she was, and very thin,
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: and so heavy grew the hair upon her chin and
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: face that he first mistook her for a man. Heavily
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: she walked as though she were very old or weary
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: with much pain, and at her heels trotted a small
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: brown boy long run Fast watched her eagerly, for his
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: cave was lonely for want of a wife. His eyes gleamed,
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: and he heard his the yells of the men of
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: the hairy folk when he should carry off one of
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: their women at length. As the woman bent her steps
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: toward the caves, run Fast rushed upon her, like the
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: winds that came when the buds grow large. He made
• 47:19
  Speaker 2: no sound, but the brown boy who first saw him,
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: set up a cry of alarm. With the sweep of
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: his arm. Run Fast struck the boy to the earth
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: and seized the woman, whom he bore, clawing and scratching
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: to the bank of the river. The hairy woman showed
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: her great teeth, making hideous sounds of rage. She tore
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: at his hair and dug her teeth into his arms,
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: but nothing stopped. Run fast on he dashed, dragging, pulling,
• 47:55
  Speaker 2: and finally carrying her as he went. Soon they reached
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: the edge of the river where lay the raft, and
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: close upon their heels, mad with rage, came the men
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: of the hairy folk very quickly run fast, tore loose
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: the bark that held the raft, and drew the woman
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: into it with him. Then he gave a mighty shove
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: that sent them whirling into the river, where the current
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: caught the raft and bore it swiftly down stream. The
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: men of the Hairy folk were now on the bank
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: of the river, and some of them leaped into the water.
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: Others hurled their bone weapons toward run fast, but none
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: of them stuck home and beating down the woman, he
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: paddled with his hands, and they were soon beyond pursuit.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: At this season of the year, the current of the
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: river made about five miles an hour, and the distance
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: it had taken run fast. A hard day's journey to
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: cover would be made by the raft in a few hours. Continually,
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: the old woman struck at run Fast, and he had
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: great difficulty in keeping her from throwing herself into the river.
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: But a blow from his fist soon quieter, and she
• 49:18
  Speaker 2: ceased to struggle. By and by, the stars came out,
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: and the moon showed her face and covered the surface
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: of the river with a flood of gold. The old
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: woman snarled, but run fast held her very tightly in
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: his arms. His heart sung a song of pride and triumph,
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: for he knew that he would no longer be the
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: scorn of the cave people. No more would he be
• 49:46
  Speaker 2: compelled to sit alone in his cave, with the howl
• 49:50
  Speaker 2: of the Hyaena to make him more lonely. The day
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: of his triumph was at hand, and with tenderness he
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: drew the old woman close to his breast, And the
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: stars laughed and the moon smiled, while the raft floated steadily,
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: noiselessly down the river. But the face of the woman
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: was hard with pain, for she knew that men may
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: come and men may go. But the small brown boy
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: in the home of the hairy folk would be her
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: boy forever. Who can know the understanding of the dog,
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: which lost in a strange land finds his way home again,
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: or the animals of the forest, how they find the
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: old haunts through the unknown ways? And who among us
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: can say how run Fast understood that when the moon
• 50:45
  Speaker 2: rose high in the heavens, the raft would be nearing
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: the bend in the river which appeared before the hollow
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: wherein lay the homes of the cave people. For the
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: cave people were unable to count. One they made known
• 51:03
  Speaker 2: by the pointing of a foreign finger upward, and two
• 51:07
  Speaker 2: by pointing two fingers. But beyond this they had no
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: signs for the numbers, but flung out their hands as
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: though to say many. But run Fast knew even as
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: his brothers would have known under similar circumstances, And when
• 51:24
  Speaker 2: the raft curved about the bend, he paddled with his
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: hand to steer the boat close to the shore. Very cautiously,
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: he pushed the woman on to the bank before him,
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: for the beasts came often to the river edge to drink,
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: but he saw no danger. Then, making fast the boat,
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: he bore the woman of the Hairy folk over the
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: rocks to his cave and rolled a great stone before
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: the entrance, and his heart was glad and his blood
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: was warm, for he knew that no longer would he
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: be an outcast among his people. Two sons had come
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: and gone again, when run Fast bent his steps toward
• 52:11
  Speaker 2: the forest, and the old woman disappeared. Doubtless she turned
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: her face toward the home of the small brown boy
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: among the hairy folk. Run Fast was thus again made lonely.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: But the voices of his brothers cheered him always, They said,
• 52:30
  Speaker 2: man man when he appeared, for he had proven his
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: courage and his bravery among the tribe. The young women
• 52:39
  Speaker 2: looked tenderly at the strength of his limbs, and he
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: was become honored among his people. Charles Darwin says in
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: his Descent of Men in utterly barbarous times, the women
• 52:55
  Speaker 2: had more power in choosing, rejecting, and tempting their lovers,
• 53:00
  Speaker 2: or of afterwards changing their husbands then might have been expected.
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: He gives several illustrations. Page six, twenty Crowell Edition, end
• 53:15
  Speaker 2: of section number four. Recording by Lynda Marie Nielsen, Vancouver.
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: BC, Chapter five of Stories of the Cave People. This
• 53:32
  Speaker 4: is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 53:42
  Speaker 4: LibriVox dot org. Stories of the Cave People by Mary Mercy,
• 53:49
  Speaker 4: Chapter five, Little Laughing Boy. When the luscious fruit ripened
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: and fell, and a nut season came around the time
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: of joy, and plenty was at and for the cave dwellers.
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: The millions of fish sought the shallows of the river.
• 54:05
  Speaker 4: Nourishing plants with a strange bitter sweet flavor thrust up
• 54:09
  Speaker 4: their heads, and the nests were full of eggs for
• 54:12
  Speaker 4: the hand of him who cared together. It was then
• 54:15
  Speaker 4: only that the cave people were never hungry, With plenty
• 54:18
  Speaker 4: abounding always in the forest, they feasted continually and grew
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: fat against those periods of famine that spread through the
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: long after suns and the dreary wet seasons. True, it
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: was that their enemies of the forest throve and grew strong. Also,
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: the green snakes awoke and wound themselves around the branches
• 54:39
  Speaker 4: of the trees with eyes that glistened and glowed towards
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: every living creature, and the brush grew thick and abounded
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: with creeping things. The cubs of the black bear flourished,
• 54:49
  Speaker 4: and the fierce Hyaena yielded bounteously to her young. Great
• 54:54
  Speaker 4: flocks of stranger familiar birds darkened the sky and sweeped
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: down upon the very bushes and sweat them bare. But
• 55:02
  Speaker 4: for all these there was enough and to spare for
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: the wants of the cave dwellers. Even the limbs of
• 55:08
  Speaker 4: strong Arm, the wiser brave grew soft during this season,
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: for his stomach was always filled. The fierce rays of
• 55:16
  Speaker 4: the tropical sun beat down upon the heads of the
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: cave dwellers, filling them with a sweet drowsiness. There was
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: nothing to drive them forth from the shades of the hollow,
• 55:26
  Speaker 4: where the waters of the river washed the green rocks
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: and teemed with thousands of golden and silver fish. It
• 55:34
  Speaker 4: was not in the season of plenty that the cave
• 55:36
  Speaker 4: people learned new ways to trap the black bear or
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: to snare the wild pig. Nor did they at that
• 55:43
  Speaker 4: time seek to fashion new weapons, or to travel strange paths.
• 55:47
  Speaker 4: Rarely they plied the waters. These were not the days
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: of progress or discovery, and the minds of the cave
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: people retorpid, and they forgot many things they had learned
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: in the times of hunger and activity. The hands of
• 56:01
  Speaker 4: the youths and maidens lost a portion of their cunning,
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: and the older members of the tribe grew lazy and dull.
• 56:08
  Speaker 4: For the bread fruit ripened, and the tubers grew thick,
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: and all the land smiled with a bountiful supply of
• 56:14
  Speaker 4: daily food. The season of plenty was come, and the
• 56:17
  Speaker 4: cave people loved and laughed and feasted and were content.
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: Few dangers menaced during those days, and the members of
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: the tribe forgot fears and drowsed in peace. But the
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: children of the cave people grew strong, lifting their heads.
• 56:32
  Speaker 4: The fierce rays of the sun were unable to subdue them.
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: Laughing Boy, grown tall and straight, was weaned at last.
• 56:39
  Speaker 4: Always he laughed, showing his large white teeth like a
• 56:42
  Speaker 4: dark dog snapping at her bone, and he danced and
• 56:46
  Speaker 4: ran about, spilling the strong life that surged up within him,
• 56:49
  Speaker 4: and would not be stilled. With his young friend, the fish,
• 56:53
  Speaker 4: whom the cave people had given his name because of
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: his early skill in swimming, Laughing Boy had learned many things.
• 57:01
  Speaker 4: Their joy and juvenility seemed exhaustless, and their romps and
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: chatterings ended only with the days, not many years before
• 57:09
  Speaker 4: the fathers and mothers of the cave people had come
• 57:12
  Speaker 4: down out of the trees to dwell. The tree dwellers
• 57:15
  Speaker 4: found shelter in the natural caves that lined the river bank.
• 57:19
  Speaker 4: In time, they learned to walk erect on two legs.
• 57:22
  Speaker 4: The cave dwellers resembled them very closely. The arms of
• 57:26
  Speaker 4: the cave people had grown shorter as they ceased to
• 57:29
  Speaker 4: swing themselves constantly from tree to tree. The thumb of
• 57:32
  Speaker 4: the foot disappeared, and they now possessed a great toe
• 57:36
  Speaker 4: in its place. Still, the feet of the cave dwellers
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: retained the power of prehension they were able to hold
• 57:42
  Speaker 4: to cling awkwardly with them. In the children, this power
• 57:46
  Speaker 4: was very marked on the skirts of the forest. They
• 57:49
  Speaker 4: loved to clamber up the slim trees, boys on the
• 57:52
  Speaker 4: swaying bells, and swing themselves from branch to branch like
• 57:55
  Speaker 4: young monkeys. This gave them strength of limb and quickness
• 57:59
  Speaker 4: or visiops. Soon they learned to choose those branches strong
• 58:03
  Speaker 4: enough to bear their weight as they flung themselves through
• 58:05
  Speaker 4: great gaps of space to seize the boughs of a
• 58:08
  Speaker 4: neighboring tree. But the fear of the green snakes that
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: wound about and hid themselves among the leaves, kept them
• 58:15
  Speaker 4: near the hollow. Only on rare occasions did they penetrate
• 58:19
  Speaker 4: deep into the forest. Among many of the savages living
• 58:23
  Speaker 4: to day, great skill and agility prevails. We are told
• 58:28
  Speaker 4: of tribes whose members are able by a partial circling
• 58:31
  Speaker 4: of the trunks with their arms, and by the clinging
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: and pressing of flexible toes to mount trees in a
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: sort of walk. Jack London mutch that this is a
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: common practice of the natives of the Southa Islands, And
• 58:44
  Speaker 4: we are assured by several young friends that the art
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: has not wholly disappeared among our own boys. Many were
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: their feets accomplished among the swaying branches of the trees
• 58:53
  Speaker 4: by Laughing Boy and his friend the Fish in their
• 58:57
  Speaker 4: frolics many years ago. Their feet were never still, The
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: jabberings flowed without end, tireless as the birds they were,
• 59:05
  Speaker 4: and gay as youth itself. One day, as they played,
• 59:09
  Speaker 4: Laughing Boy found a flat, curved piece of wood. It
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: was as long as the arm of a man, and
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: had been split from a tree during a storm. Laughing
• 59:18
  Speaker 4: Boy hurled the stick far into the air at his friend,
• 59:21
  Speaker 4: the fish. But the fish threw himself from the bank
• 59:24
  Speaker 4: into the river to avoid it, and he screamed with
• 59:26
  Speaker 4: joy as he disappeared beneath the waters. Then a very
• 59:30
  Speaker 4: strange thing happened, for the flat stick swished through the
• 59:33
  Speaker 4: air like a great bird, far over the river. Then
• 59:37
  Speaker 4: it turned about and whirled slowly back again, where it
• 59:40
  Speaker 4: fell at the feet of laughing Boy. At once the
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: hair of his head rose with fear, and he ran
• 59:46
  Speaker 4: to his mother, uttering shrill squeals of alarm. Quack Quack
• 59:50
  Speaker 4: awoke from her sleep and snatched up a bone weapon,
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: for she thought one of the forest enemies had attacked
• 59:55
  Speaker 4: laughing Boy. But he pointed only to a strange curved
• 59:59
  Speaker 4: stick and slung to her in terror. All the while
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 4: he jabbered wildly. Quack Quack desired to quiet his fear,
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 4: so she flung the stick far out over the river
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 4: as he had done. Then again the big stick swished
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 4: through the air, turned about, and whirled gently back, striking
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 4: her arm. Then it fell at her feet, whereupon Laughing
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 4: Boy screamed and ran into the cave. Then a great
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 4: fear assailed quack Quack and she added her price to his,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 4: and all the cave people hurried to her side to
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 4: learn the cause of so much trouble. Again, the strange
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 4: stick was hurled toward the river, and once more it returned,
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 4: And all the cave people marveled and were afraid, for
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 4: they could not understand the stick that returned when it
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 4: was thrown strong arm. Only was brave enough to touch
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 4: it with his fingers. His face bore a strange wonder
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: that such things could be possible to a mere stick,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 4: And he carried it to his cave, where he hid
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 4: it among the rocks under the dead leaves. But when
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 4: the nuts were gone, and the season of plenty had
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 4: passed away, and there was need for the cave people
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 4: to hunt, he brought it forth again. After many seasons,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 4: a flat stick curved in the manner of the one
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 4: first famber laughing boy, came to be used as a
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 4: weapon by the cave people. Perhaps you have seen the
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 4: painted boomerang sold in some of our stores today. They
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 4: are the same shape as those first used by the
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 4: ancient cave dwellers. A small pasteboard boomerang cut the right
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 4: size and shape will interest the children when struck with
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 4: the lead pencil. It will whirl through the air and return,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 4: just as the larger and more formidable boomerangs did when
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 4: thrown at their enemies by the cave dwellers many thousands
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 4: of years ago. After a time, the alarm and excitement
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 4: caused by Laughing Boy's discovery of the first rude boomerang
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 4: died away. The strange stick no longer menaced them, and
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 4: the cave people returned to their feasting and their slumbers,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 4: and Laughing Boy and his young friend the fish resumed
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 4: their play. They chased each other up and down the hollow,
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 4: concealed themselves in the long grass that lined the river bank.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 4: At each discovery they tossed unrolled, over and over again,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 4: like puppies wild with the exuberance of young blood. It
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 4: was one of their great pledges to lie chattering in
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 4: the grass on the top of the river bank and
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 4: roll tumbling down into the clear waters, then, amid a
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 4: great splashing and much laughter, to clamber out and up
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 4: the slope again. Thus the children of the casall As
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 4: romped and grew strong during the season of plenty in
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 4: the days of old. One day it change that the
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: laughing Boy stumbled over a large cocoanut during his frolics
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 4: with his young friend. He seized it in his arms
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 4: and danced about, jabbering with glee that his friend might
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 4: know the treasure he had found. In an instant, the
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 4: fish was upon him, but laughing Boy rolled over in
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 4: the grass and bounded away with squeals of delight. Then,
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 4: for no reason in the world save that the blood
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 4: pounded riotously in his veins, he darted into the wood
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 4: bearing his prize. The fish followed close on his hills.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 4: As laughing Boy threw shrill mocking cries over his shoulder.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 4: The fish gave answer with a whirling stone, while more
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 4: mocking cries from laughing Boy announced that his aim was bare.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 4: And oh the fun of the chase through the deep woods,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 4: the rollicking laugh, and the deep shouts of the fish
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 4: as they startled the birds from the nest in the
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 4: old forest. The brush grew thicker with every step, and
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 4: the trees locked branches more closely with the neighbors for
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 4: want of room to stretch them freely toward the sun.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 4: When he reached the tall l'ultania palm, which marked the
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 4: point beyond which it was unsafe for the children of
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 4: the cave people to go alone. Laughing Boy concealed himself
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 4: in the brush he thought to be able to elude
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 4: his brown playmate, and while the fish sought him beyond
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 4: the bunya bunya to dash backward towards the hollow. In
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 4: a moment came the fish. But the deep breathing of
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 4: laughing Boy and a rustling of the bush which is
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 4: made known his hiding place. As his friend parted the thicket,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 4: laughing Boy had time only to crawl out on the
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 4: opposite side and dart onward. Ere he was caught. A
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 4: shout and a shrill chattering told his victory, and he
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 4: disappeared again. The fish grunted his displeasure, but he was
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 4: not far behind. In the tall bamboos, a laughing boy
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 4: again hid himself, and it was by the tripping of
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 4: the fish over a creeping vine that he escaped. But
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 4: his foot blundered on a cone from the bunya tree,
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 4: and the cocoanut slipped from his hands. The two boys
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 4: threw themselves downward and rolled over each other in their
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 4: eagerness to recover it. The fish gave a shout of
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 4: joy and made away, holding the cocoanut. Above his head
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 4: for Laughing Boy to see. A warm sweat covered their bodies,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 4: and their bronze skins shone like burnished copper. On and
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 4: on they ran further, and still further they plunged into
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 4: the depths of the forest. They forgot the dangers that
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 4: lurked there, and the wise water warnings of the cave people.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 4: They forgot their playmate, crooked Leg, who had wandered into
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 4: the wood and vanished from the face of the hollow.
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 4: Fears they had none, only laughter and the joy of
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 4: abundant youth. All this time, the grown members of the
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 4: tribe of the Cave people slept securely in the cool
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 4: of the hollow. Their protruding bellies told of continued eating,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 4: and no one among them marked the absence of the
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 4: fish and laughing Boy. Thicker and more dark grew the
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 4: forests which the boys penetrated. The way grew rough, and
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 4: the tough vines trailing through the undergrowth often tripped them. Still,
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 4: they lunged forward, with no thought of turning their faces
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 4: towards the hollow. It was a crackling in the brush
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 4: that warned them. The cocoanut rolled from the hands of
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 4: the fish, and the boys cramped low together. No sound
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 4: they made save the breath in their throats, which struggled
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 4: to be free Kusha. They strained their bodies into an
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 4: attitude of listening. Came again a soft rustling in the thicket,
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 4: this time nearer, and then through the long bamboosa they
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 4: saw the head and throats of a gray hyaena. For
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 4: a moment they paused while the sweat froze on their
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 4: brown skins. Their lips drew back in a snarl of
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 4: helpless rage. But the hyaena covered the ground with great bounds,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 4: and they flung their arms about a tall sapling. Their
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 4: breath burst from them in quick gasps, for they were
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 4: near spent with running. But they dug their toes into
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 4: the rough bark, and the strength of the fish enabled
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 4: them to speedily mount to the forked branches above. But
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 4: many moments, laughing boy clung half way up the trunk
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 4: of the tree, with the hyaena snapping at his heels
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 4: at every leap. So near she came that he curled
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 4: his feet up under his small body. The teeth of
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 4: the hyaena shone white, and her eyes glean A great
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 4: fear paralyzed him. The fish danced about on the limbs above,
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 4: chattering wildly till laughing boy gathered breath and courage to
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 4: continue his way to safety. There he sat huddled among
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 4: the leaves close to the fish, and for a long
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 4: time they gazed, quivering at the enemy below. But a
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 4: caution wholly knew had come to them, and they scrambled
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 4: into the branches of a neighboring banyan slowly and with care,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 4: thence on through several trees that brought them nearer to
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 4: the homes of the cave dwellers. With much shivering, they
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 4: made their way, pausing often to mark the progress of
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 4: the enemy. She moved as they advanced, persistently, like a
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 4: hungry dog watching a bone. Slowly and fearfully, the boys
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 4: continued toward the hollow through the interlocked limbs of the
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 4: great trees, but the Hyaena followed from a Bunya Bunya.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 4: The boys pelted her with cones, which she dodged easily. Unmoved,
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 4: she continued to gaze longingly upon them while the sluther
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 4: dripped from her lips. At one time, the boys almost
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 4: threw themselves into the coils of a huge green snake
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 4: that wound itself around the trunk of a cocoanut palm.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 4: They were not expecting new dangers. A quick leap, and
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 4: they swung downward, clinging closely to the bough of a
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 4: neighboring bunyard, and then scrambled up to safety once more.
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 4: Thus they made on, But the distance they had run
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 4: so joyously a short time before seemed now to stretch
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 4: before them without end. Sometimes they paused to rest and
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 4: gather breath. At these points they huddled together and whimpered
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 4: very low, or snarled, jabbering at the enemy as she
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 4: sat on her haunches waiting. But the glad time came
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 4: when they saw below the familiar berry bushes, beyond that
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 4: the arboreal way was not unknown. With the new freedom
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 4: and ease, they flung themselves forward. The leaps grew, daring
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 4: in their feet more sure, till at last they reached
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 4: the edge of the wood near the hollow. Here they
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 4: lifted their voices in sharp cries that aroused the cave
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 4: people from their torpor. Soon the sotulwart members of the
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 4: tribe had seized their bone weapons and hurried to the rescue.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 4: At first, the Hyaena did not retreat before them, but
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 4: darted in and out, slashing the cave people with her
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 4: great fangs, But the fierce stabs of many bone weapons
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 4: soon sent her fleeing back into the forest. Soon Quack
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 4: Quack soothed the whimpering of Laughing Boy, holding him close
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 4: to her breast. The nut seasons came, and the nut
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 4: seasons passed away, and Laughing Boy grew tall and strong.
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 4: Though his deeds were brave and his arm was long,
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 4: he hunted with the tribe, for he had learned the
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 4: wisdom of the cave dwellers. He knew that it was
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 4: not safe for a man or a woman to fight alone.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 4: The least of the forest enemies was able to destroy them.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 4: Strong men had wandered into the forest to return no more.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 4: But when the tribe went forth, great deeds were possible.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 4: Even the saber toothed tiger had been destroyed by the
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 4: thrusts of many. It was the strength of all the
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 4: cave people that made safe the lives of everyone. End
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 4: of chapter five.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: Section number six of Stories of Cave People. This is
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 2: Org recording by Linda Marie Nielsen, Vancouver, BC. Stories of
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: the Cave People by Mary Marcy, Chapter five, Hunting an
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: Echo to the Cave People, dreams were chief among the
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 2: great mysteries. None of the strange occurrences of the world
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 2: about them so filled them with wonder and awe as
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 2: the deeds they performed and the adventures they encountered. While
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: their bodies lay wrapped in sleep. Often it was difficult
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 2: for them to separate the dream world from the world
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: of reality. This may account for the reports of those
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 2: anthropologists who charge savage tribes with being the most amazing
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 2: liars in the world. It may be some of these
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: perimitive men and women have merely related the remarkable exploits
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 2: of their dreams, which they were not always able to
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 2: distinguish clearly from their actual experiences. Often a caveman might
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 2: go forth alone in the night, and, after traveling a
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 2: journey of many sons, slay fearlessly all the members of
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 2: a hostile tribe while he slept securely in his cave.
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 2: But when he reported his dream adventures to his wife,
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 2: she refused often to believe them. Whenever she stirred during
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 2: the night, she had found him at her side, or
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 2: perhaps she had groaned through the long darkness with the
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 2: colic that comes from too much eating of the early fruit.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 2: This she made known to the dreamer. Indeed, he had
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: slumbered peacey through all her trouble. Again, when a cave
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: dweller fell asleep beside his brothers and dreamed of dispatching
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 2: the saber toothed tiger with a single blow, the whole
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 2: tribe was ready to assure him, in the language of
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: the cave people, that he had not moved from his
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: resting place, but had slept continually. This was all very strange.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 2: When the fire dashed through the sky during a storm,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: or the waters of the river climbed up over the
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: bank and flooded the woods, they were not so wonderful
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 2: as these dreamed things. Many men and women of the
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 2: tribe had closed their eyes in the long sleep. But
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 2: when the cave people slumbered, the dead came back again
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: to journey and hunt the forests with their brothers and sisters.
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 2: And so in time the cave people came to believe
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 2: that their friends who had deserted the body still lived,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: that they had themselves fought and hunted while their bodies slept.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 2: The cave people knew well and that the dead come
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: back again. They knew also, for they had seen and
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: spoken with them in their dream journeyings. This was the
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 2: origin of the idea of spirit, at first only dim
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 2: and confused, but gathering strength as the years rolled away.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 2: The seed of the idea of immortality sprang also from
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 2: the dreams of perimitive men. Though the saber tooth tiger
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 2: devoured a brother, he would surely return again. They had
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 2: seen these things with their own eyes in dreams. The
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 2: cave people saw also their shadows that followed where they went,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: moving slowly when they walked, and swiftly when they ran,
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 2: keeping ever at their sides. When a caveman gazed into
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 2: the river, always a face looked back at him, and
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 2: the other members of the tribe told him he saw
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 2: his own image. This also was very strange. If he
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 2: journeyed as far as the Great Canyon and sent his
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 2: voice echoing among the big rocks, a call came bounding
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 2: back to him, although there was no other man there.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 2: Gradually he came to believe the cry was the voice
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 2: of a spirit, and that the face he had seen
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 2: in the waters of the river was the face of
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 2: a spirit. Also to all things, the Gay people attributed
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 2: animation to them. Everything was alive. Young trees were the
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: children of big trees, and great stones were the fathers
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 2: of small stones. Little they spoke of these things, for
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 2: their words were few, and it is impossible to tell
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 2: many things in a gesture language. Danger and confusion they
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 2: saw everywhere, for the whole world was filled with happenings
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 2: they could not understand. Many seasons had passed since they
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 2: had found the fire beast eating up the trees in
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 2: the woods. The small blaze they had kept alive in
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 2: the hollow had died long before when Quack Quack forgot
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 2: to feed it. In these days, the fire flashed only
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 2: through the heavens during a storm. Strong Arm had been
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 2: able to call it by striking a sharp stone against
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 2: the rock before his cave. When the darkness came on
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 2: and he struck the rock swiftly, a small spark fell
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 2: again and again. The Kay people saw these sparks, but
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 2: so quickly were they gone that no man or woman
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 2: was able to catch them or to feed them. The
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 2: dead leaves they had brought at this time. Big Nose
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: made a great discovery. He had chased a fat lizard
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 2: over the rocks and had seen it disappear into the
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 2: hollow of a tree that lay prone on the river bank. Immediately,
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 2: he poked violently with a long rod of bamboo in
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 2: order to drive the lizard out to him. The fresh
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 2: flesh of the lizard was sweeter than any other meat.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: On removing the rod, Big Nose found the end of
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: it warm from one side to the other. Big Nose
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 2: tipped his brown head like a great monkey in an
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 2: effort to understand this new experience. Then he trotted off
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 2: to make known these things to the tribe. Soon all
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 2: the cave people gathered around the dead tree, chattering curiously.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 2: Big Nose thrust the bamboo rod into the hollow trunk
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 2: and pulled it out again, but this time it was
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: not warm. The friction of the bamboo rubbed violently against
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 2: the dry wood of the tree had caused the heat before,
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 2: but Big Nose did not know this. For a time,
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 2: the cave people chattered and guesstillated about the tree, while
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 2: Big Nose continually made the fire sign, waving his fingers
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 2: upward like smoke arising. One by one, all the cave
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 2: people threw themselves upon their bellies and gazed into the
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 2: hollow trunk, but they saw nothing. At last, Big Nose
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 2: again thrust them bamboo into the tree, this time angrily,
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 2: jamming it in and out with all the strength of
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 2: his great arms, And the end of the rod came
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 2: forth warm again. Then every member of the tribe must
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 2: have his turn in thrusting. Each one sought to outdo
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 2: his fellows in the frenzy of his movements. Meanwhile, the
• 1:19:01
  Speaker 2: end of the rod had worne away, leaving a soft,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: inflammable sawdust in the old tree. And when Lightfoot sent
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 2: the rod in and out sharply with her strong brown arms,
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 2: the end of the bamboo came forth smoking. A flood
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 2: of excited chatterings greeted her success, and the cave people
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 2: cried food, food, which was the word they used for eat. Also,
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 2: for they thought the fire within the tree had begun
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 2: to eat the bamboo rod. Many of them ran about
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 2: gathering dry leaves to feed the fire. When the rod
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 2: came forth at last, with its end a dull glow,
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 2: Lightfoot laid it on the rocks in the dead leaves.
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 2: A soft breeze came from the river, and coaxed the
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 2: embers into a blaze, and the cave people jabbered frantically
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 2: as they gathered and wood. Often they threw themselves on
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 2: the rocks to gaze in wonder into the hollow tree.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 2: But many of them believed Lightfoot had driven the fire
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 2: from the tree trunk, just as they had often forced
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 2: out the lizard. Thus, for the first time in the
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 2: memory of the tribe of fire was kindled, and the
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 2: hand of a maiden Lightfoot had worked the miracle. The
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 2: cave people laughed and danced and sat in the hollow
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 2: long into the darkness, for security came with the fire,
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 2: and their forest enemies were afraid. But a time came
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 2: when great reins fell and the fire died away with
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 2: every drop and strong arm gathered a brand and carried
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 2: it into his cave, But the smoke from the burning
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 2: choked him and forced him out. Then he carried the
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 2: fire too the hollow of a tree that towered very high,
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 2: and he fed the fire in this hollow. There it
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 2: lived for many suns, eating slowly into the tree trunk.
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 2: On one side, the sun saw many strange mysteries. On
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 2: the day when the cave people first came upon the
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 2: great canyon. It was during the period of the year
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 2: that comes before the season of plenty. Keen hunger assailed
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 2: every living thing and sent them forth, sharp eyed, into
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 2: the forest. The wild hall grew stronger and wary from
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 2: the struggles of the hard and meager days. The green snakes,
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 2: hidden away waited continually for the small forest folk to
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 2: run into their coils. The lank black bear grew bold
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 2: and desperate with the hunger passion, and the cave people
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 2: acquired a new skill in hunting. Beside the strength of
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 2: their forest enemies, they were weak, indeed, but armed with
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 2: their long, sharp bone weapons and a wonderful cunning, they
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 2: fought in all their numbers and were able to triumph
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 2: over the animals of the forest. With eyes keen and
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 2: tense hands gripping their weapons, they followed the trail of
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 2: the black bear, which led them through strange ways. At
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 2: the breaking of a twig, they paused, and no falling
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 2: leaf escaped them. Sounds they made none as they slipped
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 2: through the deep woods, with one before the other. At
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 2: last they came to an open space where the trees
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 2: ceased to grow, and where the tracks of the bear
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 2: were lost. In a rocky way. Beyond them lay the canyon,
• 1:22:53
  Speaker 2: which had been once the bed of a river. Only
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 2: the waters of the spring rains lay in the hollows
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 2: of the rocks that lined its bottom. Here the cave
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 2: people halted, for they knew not which way the black
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 2: Bear had taken, nor how to follow her. As they
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 2: separated to seek further for her tracks, no word was spoken.
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 2: Only strong Arm gave a low grunt of approval as
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 2: his comrades departed. Then, in the silence of the old world,
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 2: it came the strange voice echoing down the great canyon,
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 2: grunting in the tones of strong Arm. The whole tribe
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 2: heard it, and they paused motionless, while their eyes swept
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 2: the canyon for him who had spoken, But they saw
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 2: no one. Silently they gathered together with weapons raised, but
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 2: the stillness remained unbroken. Then strong Arm raised his voice
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 2: in a soft woe, and in his own tone, the
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 2: echo answered him, WHOA. It was very strange. The cave
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 2: people could not understand, but they forgot the black bear
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 2: and sent their voices ringing down the great canyon. Came
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 2: again the echo, in many tones, back to them. Then
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 2: a great chattering arose among them, and even as they spoke,
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 2: the chatterings of many voices arose from the canyon. Were we,
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 2: said the cave people, And they gave a sign in
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 2: the gesture language, for they thought the sounds were the
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 2: voices of their enemies, the Hairy folk. With great caution,
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 2: they departed to the point whence the sounds had come,
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 2: not boldly, but by varied paths. They made their way, slowly,
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 2: concealing themselves behind the rocks and the trees. As they
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 2: progressed long the hunted one and all, but no man
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 2: they found, nor any signs of man, and they returned
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 2: at length to the mouth of the Great Canyon. Again
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 2: their voices rang down the bed of the old river,
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 2: this time defiantly, and the echoes replied once more, challenging them.
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 2: The cave people grew angry, and the search was continued,
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 2: but they found no one, and they were compelled to
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: return to their caves in the hollow with hearts heavy
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 2: with wrath against the Hairy folk. Often they returned to
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 2: the Great Canyon, burying their bone weapons. There they remained
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 2: long in hiding, awaiting the advent of the enemy, till
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 2: at last they learned no one was there then the
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 2: mystery grew more strange, for no man could tell whence
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 2: came the voices that replied to them. But there came
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 2: a time when the cave people believed that these pries
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 2: were the voices of the spirits. They came to hunt
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 2: with them in their dream journeyings. No longer were they afraid.
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 2: Only a great awe filled them, and much wonder concerning
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 2: these things. In a section number six recording by Lynda
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 2: Maree Nielsen, Vancouver, BC.
• 1:26:36
  Speaker 5: Section seven of Stories of the Cave People. This is
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 5: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 5: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 5: Recording by d Randall. Stories of the Cave People by
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 5: Mary Marcy. Section seven the flood. Early in the spring,
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 5: the snows began to melt on the mountain tops many
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 5: mouths above the hollow, and to run down into little
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 5: streams that lost themselves in the great river. Day by
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 5: day the waters of the river or rose along its banks.
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 5: The cave people gave little heed, for they had much
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 5: to do it this time to satisfy their hunger. Only
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 5: the old woman bent her eyes on the whirling waters
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 5: with fear and dread in her heart. Long before the
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 5: memory of the other members of the tribe, she recalled
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 5: a time when the waters had clambered over the river
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 5: banks and spread many a day's journey into the deep forests.
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 5: Many of her brothers and her sisters had been swallowed
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 5: up by the angry waters. The members of her tribe
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 5: had been scattered and joined new tribes. Since those days,
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 5: she had always feared the river when it rolled in
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 5: the spring. When she warned the cave people one and all,
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 5: they listened to her words, but they knew not what
• 1:28:07
  Speaker 5: to do. And always the river rose higher and higher,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 5: and its current grew more swift tearing away the young
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 5: saplings that grew low down and bearing them swiftly away.
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 5: But the Cave people had need of great skill these
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 5: days to satisfy the hunger of the tribe. A new
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 5: activity seemed born unto them. Eyes grew keen for the
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 5: tracts of the wild boar, and their ears were open
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 5: for a sound of the foot of the forest. Enemies.
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 5: Sharp eyes everywhere pierced the woods and glanced from the
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 5: branches of trees. For man and beasts had need to
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 5: be ever alert and watchful to survive the dreary period
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 5: of the hard seasons. The black bear appeared then and dangerous,
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 5: but the cave people eluded and outwitted her. Across yawning
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 5: cracks in the ground or over great hollows, they threw
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 5: branches of trees, and upon these branches they threw dead
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 5: fish and smeared the blood of the wild duck. Through
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 5: the woods. The smell of fresh blood reached the keen
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 5: nose of the bear, and she made her way thither
• 1:29:15
  Speaker 5: to satisfy the hunger that gnawed her continually. But the
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 5: branches gave way under her great bulk, and she fell,
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 5: crashing into the pit below, where the cave people killed
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 5: her with their long bone weapons. It was after one
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 5: of these great bear feasts, when the cave people had
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 5: fed the fire into a roaring blaze to protect them
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 5: from the animals that grew overbold at this season of
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 5: the year that the old woman renewed her warnings. The
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 5: waters of the Great River continued to climb upward, and
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 5: there remained but a little way before they should overflow
• 1:29:52
  Speaker 5: the banks. Then the old woman gathered the members of
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 5: the tribe together and told them the story of her
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 5: childhood days. The newers of the tribe came stumblingly to
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 5: her lips. Therefore she made known her thoughts, chiefly in
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 5: the gesture language. First, she pointed to the land across
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 5: the river, waving her wrinkled hands northward. That way lay
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 5: the home of her berth, many many years before. She
• 1:30:19
  Speaker 5: held up both hands to indicate that time was beyond
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 5: the power of counting. She had lived with her fathers
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 5: and mothers on a river bank. Very small she was
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 5: in those days. Her head came only to the thigh
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 5: of a man. Came a time when the waters of
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 5: the river crept up over the lands, just as they
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 5: had begun to steal over the wood north of the hollow,
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 5: the people of her tribe had climbed into the great trees.
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 5: But with the coming of every new sun, the waters
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 5: rose higher and higher. Long the waters continued to climb
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 5: till they became a great surging flood, creeping through the
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 5: forests and at last join the waters of the river
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 5: that flowed beside the homes of the cave people. Over
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 5: All the world there remained no dry land, And the
• 1:31:08
  Speaker 5: old woman, who was then a child, dwelt for many
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 5: sons with her fathers and mothers in the tall trees.
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 5: But there came one day a storm when the waters
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 5: foamed and whirled and tore up the trunks of the
• 1:31:21
  Speaker 5: great trees and hurled them into the flood. And the
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 5: limbs of the tree on which the old woman clung
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 5: were beaten and bent in the mighty struggle, till at
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 5: last she was whipped from the branches and thrown into
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 5: the waters as nuts are shaken from the trees, and
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 5: the old woman was borne away in the swift current.
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 5: She heard many cries as the waters threw her about,
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 5: and some of her people leaped into the flood to
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 5: save her, but she was beaten about like a leaf
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 5: in the wind, and unable to call to them. Soon
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 5: she found herself dashed against the trunk of a tree,
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 5: and she climbed upon it and clung to it for
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 5: a long time. Often she grew very weary and slipped
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 5: back into the waters, but always she clung to the
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 5: branches of the tree, till at last she had been
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 5: washed ashore, and she made her way into the new land,
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 5: till she came by and by to the homes of
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 5: the cave dwellers, tubers. They fed her and the eggs
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 5: of the wild fall, and she remained with them and
• 1:32:27
  Speaker 5: became a member of the tribe. Never again had the
• 1:32:30
  Speaker 5: old woman beheld the people of her own tribe, save
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 5: at night when she dreamed on her bed of dry
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 5: leaves in the deep cave. Sometimes they returned to her
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 5: then and told her strange things. Thus the old woman
• 1:32:44
  Speaker 5: told her story, and when she was finished, a trembling
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 5: seized her brown body, and she gazed long at the
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 5: swift waters of the river. Of the colors of the
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 5: leaves touched by the frosts of winter. Were her wrinkled
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 5: hands with which she pointed toward the river. And the
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 5: cave people were seized with fear also, for even as
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 5: they watched, small rivulets crept over the banks and trickled
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 5: down into the hollow, heavy rains fell all through the
• 1:33:11
  Speaker 5: day that followed, and the small streams of water that
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 5: overflowed the banks found their way into all the little hollows,
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 5: filling them. At night, when the cave dwellers sought their caves,
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 5: their hearts were filled with dread. Quack Crack crouched close
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 5: to strong arm, with her arms about little, laughing boy.
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 5: The rumbling and whirr of the waters sounded in their
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 5: ears as the swollen river tore downward in her course.
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 5: But after a time they fell asleep and forgot their terrors,
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 5: till the cries of their brothers and sisters aroused them
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 5: towards the morning. Now the cave in which strong Arms
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 5: leapt was upon a point above the caves of the
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 5: other members of the tribe. But when he arose and
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 5: rolled the great stone from the entrance of the cave,
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 5: the snarling waters curled about his feet and wet them.
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 5: And when he looked into the hollow, a strange sight
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 5: met his eyes, for the river had risen in the darkness,
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 5: covering the face of the world. Every moment the waters
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 5: surged savagely onward over the land into the deep woods,
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 5: as though they meant to devour the whole earth at
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 5: those points where the ground rose higher than the surrounding land.
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 5: Clustered at the cave, people chattering in terror and clinging
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 5: desperately upon whatsoever their hands found. Very quickly strong Arm
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 5: called Quack Quack and Laughing Boy, and he assisted them
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 5: to mount to the top of the cave, where Laughing
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 5: Boy whimpered with fear. They heard the voice of the
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 5: old woman calling shrilly to them, as she pointed towards
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 5: the branches of the tall trees in the forest, where
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 5: they might find safety. And many members of the tribe
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 5: cast themselves into the waters that rose every moment, and
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 5: swam towards the woods. But the waters tossed them, and
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 5: the current pushed them ever backward. Often they were struck
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 5: by great floating logs that rolled over and over when
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 5: they sought to climb up on them. Then, amid the
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 5: great tumult, was heard the voice of Lightfoot and the
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 5: sounds of Big Nose her man also, And when the
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 5: cave people looked about, they discovered a flood of huge
• 1:35:26
  Speaker 5: logs and dead trees that had been jammed before the
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 5: entrance of the cave, wherein dwelt these two barring the
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 5: way out. And every man in the whole tribe forgot
• 1:35:36
  Speaker 5: his desire for safety to answer the cry for help
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 5: that Lightfoot sent up. For among the cave dwellers there
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 5: was a great tenderness among the men and women of
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 5: the tribe. The word of a woman bore great weight,
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 5: for it was the joy of every man to please
• 1:35:52
  Speaker 5: and aid her. So strong Arm threw himself into the
• 1:35:55
  Speaker 5: water with a cry to his brothers, while Quackcrack remained
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 5: upon the top of the cave, holding laughing boy in
• 1:36:01
  Speaker 5: her arms, least he be harmed. Long the members of
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 5: the tribe struggled with the current till at last they
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 5: reached the cave of Lightfoot, where she struggled with the
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 5: logs that shut her in. With all their strength, these
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 5: strong men tugged and plucked at the trees, but with
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 5: every effort the water bore back on them, jamming the
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 5: logs into a wedge again between the cave and the rocks,
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 5: till the old woman thought they should all be drowned.
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 5: At last, however, strong Arm thrust a great stick between
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 5: the cave and the jam of trees, and Big Nose
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 5: and Lightfoot were able to add their strength in diverting
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 5: the danger. Soon they were free and making their way
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 5: with those who had saved them toward the woods. It
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 5: is well to note here too that the cave men
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 5: thought always of the women, lending them every aid, and
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 5: that there was not one forgotten amid grave Pierro, not
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 5: till it was too late to effect his rescue. However,
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 5: did the cave people remember Old gray Beard, who had
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 5: also become imprisoned in his cave at that time? The
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 5: waters tore about the tops of the rocks, and they
• 1:37:10
  Speaker 5: knew it was too late to help him. Although many
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 5: swam for the woods, few arrived there. Strong Arm, Quack,
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 5: Quack and Laughing Boy, who had followed their friends, soon
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 5: found themselves regretting the rocks above their cave. For all
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 5: the drift bore down the river by the swift waters
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 5: seemed hemmed and wedged about the woods. Over these logs,
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 5: it was impossible to pass, for they rolled and dipped
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 5: under the feet, dumping the cave people back into the
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 5: boiling water, sometimes crushing them between the great logs. Strong
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 5: Arm progressed beneath the debris, but he was unable to
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 5: find an opening to come up, and was compelled to
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 5: return to Quackquack and Laughing Boy, who swam about the
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 5: edge of the great mass of logs, awaiting him. Very
• 1:37:59
  Speaker 5: dizzy he was, and his lungs collapsed with his breath
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 5: as he appeared, for the struggle against the current was
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 5: almost beyond his strength. Again and again they sought to
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 5: reach the woods, where they might find shelter in the trees,
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 5: but each time they failed, it was impossible to advance,
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 5: and the strong current rendered it still more difficult to
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 5: go back. In every moment the waters rose, logs whirled
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 5: swiftly past, with many of the forest animals clinging to them.
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 5: Now and then they saw one of the hairy folk,
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 5: tossed and straining to reach the trees. The silent one,
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 5: who clung to one of the king rafts, was flung
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 5: into the whirling jam by the current and crushed like
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 5: a dry leaf in the hand. As far as the
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 5: eye could reach. The foaming waters tore their way through
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 5: the woods. But between the cave dwellers who clung to
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 5: the skirts of the jam, and the safety of the
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 5: forest trees, it seemed there floated and rocked and churned
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 5: all the trees of a great world of wars, woods
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 5: plucked out and cast there by the great river in
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 5: order to mock them. But the cave people clung tenaciously,
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 5: while the great masts of logs strained and tore each
• 1:39:10
  Speaker 5: other or were flung away in the current. At last,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 5: the great hollow tree in which strong arm had kept
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 5: the fire alive, was burned down for its truck was
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 5: old with fire and with rot. As it was tossed
• 1:39:25
  Speaker 5: onward in the mighty current. Strong Arm, with laughing Boy
• 1:39:29
  Speaker 5: and quack Quack close at his side, made their way
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 5: toward it with a great effort. As it whirled past them,
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 5: they flung their arms over the rough bark and clung
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 5: to it. Soon they were able to climb into the
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 5: burned out hollow of the tree, where they lay shivering
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 5: with fear. The trunk of the tree made a kind
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 5: of boat the cave people had never seen, for only
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 5: the burned out portion. At the end they opened and
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 5: dipped into the waters. In the hollow, they lay for
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 5: a long time till their strength returned and their fears fell.
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 5: Then they sat up and looked about. The rains had ceased,
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 5: and the sun made his way high in the heavens,
• 1:40:11
  Speaker 5: and they were borne swiftly along in the great log.
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 5: Often they crashed into the branches of trees that rose
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 5: just above the water, but always strong Arm, Quack Quack
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 5: and laughing Boy clung tightly. They did not mean to
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 5: be hurled into the waters again, but they were checked
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 5: in their fearful journey. At last, when the hollow log
• 1:40:32
  Speaker 5: was driven amid the interwoven trunks and branches of a
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 5: tall banyon. There it lay tossing in the boughs, as
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 5: safe as though it had been anchored securely, for the
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 5: current of the river sucked and drove it always more
• 1:40:46
  Speaker 5: strongly into the arms of the tree. Soon a great
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 5: chattering arose among the branches that dipped now and then
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 5: into the angry waters. And in a moment they beheld
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 5: the Foolish One and a man from the tribe of
• 1:40:59
  Speaker 5: the Harry folk, who called to them, And Laughing Boy
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 5: forgot his terrors as he seized a bow and made
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 5: his way into the tree for safety, while Quack Quack
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 5: and strong Arm followed him. Then arose such a jabbering
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 5: as was never before heard in the old banyon, while
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 5: strong Arm and the foolish One made known their adventures.
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 5: Also they talked to the man from the tribe of
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 5: the Hairy folk in the gesture language. Where the limbs
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 5: of the tree ran far out over the whirling waters,
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 5: Laughing Boy found the long, deep nests of the Uiyeh.
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 5: Often the branches bent beneath his feet and threatened to
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 5: give way under him, but his lightness enabled him to
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 5: secure these treasures, and together the foolish one, strong Arm
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 5: Quack Quack laughing boy, and the man from the tribe
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 5: of the Hairy folk made a supper upon the eggs
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 5: of the Uiyei. Then they sought out fort branches, where
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 5: they curled themselves up and fell asleep. The waters wared
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 5: and thundered beneath dead trees and old logs, beat against
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 5: their new refuge in the great banyon, But they wound
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 5: their arms and legs about the limbs of the tree
• 1:42:12
  Speaker 5: and found rest. Thus they dwelt in the old banion,
• 1:42:16
  Speaker 5: with a wild fall now and then a fish or
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 5: a few golds eggs to satisfy their hanger, while the
• 1:42:24
  Speaker 5: river sank lower and lower into its old channel. Every
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 5: day the waters receded and slipped back into the river
• 1:42:31
  Speaker 5: bed till strong Arm declared the time was come when
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 5: they might venture forth toward the land of their fathers.
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 5: End of section seven Section eight of Stories of the
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 5: Cave People. This is a liprivox recording. All liprivox recordings
• 1:42:54
  Speaker 5: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 5: please visit the brivox Dadur recording by D Randall. Stories
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 5: of the Cave people by Mary Marcy, Section eight. Bigfoot's
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 5: new weapon. The great flood that came in the spring
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 5: brought death and misery to the tribes of savages that
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 5: lived upon the banks of the river. Many were drowned
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 5: in the swift waters, while others were borne away and
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 5: scattered in strange lands. A few members of the tribe
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 5: of cave Dwellers found safety in the trees near the
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 5: old hollow far below. Many of their brothers and sisters,
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 5: with the men and women of other tribes, clung to
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 5: the great trees, where they also found security. Strong Arm,
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 5: Quack Quack, and Little Laughing Boy were among these, with
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 5: the Foolish One and the Hairy Man. They lived in
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 5: the Great Banyon until the river crept back into its
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 5: old channel. Then they descended upon the earth once more
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 5: and began their long journey towards the hollow where they
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 5: had lived with a small group of cave dwellers. The
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 5: people of their own tribe. All the face of the
• 1:44:08
  Speaker 5: world seemed covered with a layer of rich mud deposited
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 5: by the river. The sun grew warmer with every day,
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 5: and a hot steam arose continually from the earth. Strong
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 5: Arm and his little band made their way slowly, for
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 5: the moist air gave them a fever and weakened them.
• 1:44:27
  Speaker 5: Always it was very difficult to find food, for the
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 5: roots lay buried in the soft mud. It was necessary
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 5: to search in the branches of the trees for the
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 5: nests of birds, and occasionally they found a few golds eggs.
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 5: For two nights they had slept in the limbs of
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 5: trees while strong Arm watched wearily least an enemy approach. Already,
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 5: at this early stage in their journey, the rank grasses
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 5: of the tropics were springing up. A thousand creeping things
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 5: thrust out their heads from the mud and slime, and
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 5: the tracks of the black bear, the wooly haired rhinoceros,
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 5: and the saber tooth tiger were seen once more along
• 1:45:06
  Speaker 5: the river bank. Very cautiously, the small band of savages advanced,
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 5: for they had only rough sticks to use in defending themselves.
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 5: On the third day, they had traveled but a little way,
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 5: and of eggs they found none, nor any other thing.
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 5: Their stomachs cried for food, and they ventured beyond the
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 5: skirts of the wood, where dangers lurked, seeking something with
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 5: which to satisfy their hunger. Strong Arm advanced with caution
• 1:45:34
  Speaker 5: ahead of the little party. When he had gone but
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 5: a little way before him from the cane, there arose
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 5: suddenly a huge man. He was taller than any man
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 5: among the tribe of the cave dwellers, and with a
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 5: stout stick he struck strong Arm a blow on the
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 5: head that dashed him to the ground. Though the arm
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 5: of the big man was swift, it was not much
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 5: quicker than quack Quack, who threw herself upon him from behind.
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 5: Laughing Boy added his blows to hers, scratching and biting
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 5: the legs of the stranger with all his young power,
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 5: till he also lay motionless. A soft movement in the
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 5: king announced the presence of another and more wary enemy.
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 5: But the blows of Quack Quack, the hairy Man, and
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 5: the foolish One soon drove him from cover, where they
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 5: beat him freely till he threw up his hands in
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 5: a gesture of submission. Then, borne on the winds that
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 5: swept the old forest, came a faint smell of fresh
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 5: meat to the nostrils of the hungry group. The anger
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 5: of the travelers was soon forgotten, and strong Arm now
• 1:46:38
  Speaker 5: commanded the two strangers to lead them to the feast
• 1:46:41
  Speaker 5: with a great show of friendliness. They limped forward and
• 1:46:45
  Speaker 5: conducted their victors to a fire that blazed above a
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 5: pile of rocks, and they poked away the coals that
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 5: covered a basin fashioned among the stones like a great oven.
• 1:46:56
  Speaker 5: Covered with large leaves, lay the roasted body of a man,
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 5: which the two strangers dragged steaming from the flames. Then
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 5: the cave dwellers and the strangers seized each his portion
• 1:47:07
  Speaker 5: of the meat and fell to eating, And the flesh
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 5: of the roasted man seemed very good to them. Till
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 5: the new moon grew round and full, the cave people
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 5: and the hairy man remained with the strangers, while the
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 5: water slowly drained off the swampy river banks, and the
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 5: way toward their old home in the hollow became more safe.
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 5: They now had always the wonderful fire with which to
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 5: protect themselves against the forest animals. No caves there were,
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 5: and the trees abounded with the green snakes and many
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 5: other enemies. But for all these, the small group of
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 5: men and Quackquack the woman were not harmed. Upon the rocks,
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 5: they kept the fire burning continually, and at night they
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 5: slept securely, while some among them fed the blaze. Very soon,
• 1:47:54
  Speaker 5: the cave people began to call the shorter of the
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 5: two strangers Bigfoot, because his feet were very long. The
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 5: other they called Tall on account of his extreme height.
• 1:48:04
  Speaker 5: Although strong Arm, Quack Quack, and the foolish one were
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 5: from tribes strange to Bigfoot and Tall, they were all
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 5: able to understand each other perfectly by means of the
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 5: simple gesture language coming to all tribes in the lower
• 1:48:18
  Speaker 5: stage of savagery. Thus the hairy man, from still another
• 1:48:23
  Speaker 5: tribe had no difficulty in making himself understood, nor in
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 5: learning the thoughts or wishes of his companions. One day,
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 5: when hunting, the little band came upon a flint pit.
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 5: To the cave people, the old gravel bed meant nothing
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 5: but Tall and Bigfoot became greatly excited, and they grabbed
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 5: the flakes that had become chipped from the flint coarse
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 5: and dashed them violently against a great stone lying near
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 5: faint sparks flew. Then Tall covered the rocks with the
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 5: feathers of a dead fowl, and struck among them with
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 5: the flint flake. Soon the feathers were ignited by the
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 5: sparks and strong Arm and Quackcrack marveled at the fire
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 5: beasts which the strange Rock had been able to summon.
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 5: The tribe from whence Tall and Bigfoot came, had long
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 5: known the use of flint enkindling fires, and well they
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 5: knew the treasures they had found from them. The cave
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 5: people learned also, and strong Arm and quack Crack bore
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 5: with them always thereafter one of these strange and wonderful stones,
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 5: with which they soon became able to call forth the
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 5: fire beasts to their protection. More and more as the
• 1:49:33
  Speaker 5: days passed, Tall taught them wonderful things. The flesh they
• 1:49:37
  Speaker 5: cooked remained sweet for many days, and did not grow
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 5: rank with time, as rall meat did. Thus a new
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 5: hope sprang up in the hearts of the cave people,
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 5: for armed with these rude flints, they were able at
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 5: any time to kindle a fire and protect themselves from
• 1:49:54
  Speaker 5: the forest enemies. Also they cooked their food, and this
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 5: made possible the long danger journey to the land of
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 5: their fathers. In spite of the height of Tall and
• 1:50:04
  Speaker 5: the long limbs and great muscles of Bigfoot, they wished
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 5: always to carry out the desires of Quack Quack, not
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 5: only was she a woman, and for all women they
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 5: cherished a great tenderness, but also was she strong. And
• 1:50:18
  Speaker 5: both these men were unable to forget the blows she
• 1:50:22
  Speaker 5: had given them when first they had attacked the cave
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 5: dwellers and their little band to Quackquack. Therefore they looked
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 5: for commands, and they obeyed her words and gestures, while
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 5: they sought her good will. But in spite of all this,
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 5: strong Arm remained the leader over all, for he was
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 5: able to stand up before any man in the group,
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 5: and the words which he spoke and the desires he
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 5: made known were always for the good of the band.
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 5: So it came about naturally that when strong Arm and
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 5: quack Quack signified their desire to return to the hollow,
• 1:50:57
  Speaker 5: which was the old home of the cave people, that
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 5: the hairy Man, Tall and Bigfoot gave heed to them,
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 5: and they all made preparations for the journey. The large
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 5: bones which they had found were made formidable when they
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 5: were cracked and spit open at the end. Also, they
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 5: gathered knotted limbs from the trees, which the cave people
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 5: were accustomed to wave savagely around their heads, crushing in
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 5: the skulls of the enemy. But they prized nothing so
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 5: highly as the rough pieces of flint flakes which they
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 5: dug from the old gravel bed. Wonder and awe they
• 1:51:33
  Speaker 5: felt for these strange stones, and not a little fear
• 1:51:37
  Speaker 5: to them. Even inanimate things possessed life, and the small
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 5: flakes of flint were only a new queer sort of
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 5: animal that had hitherto befrinted them by calling forth the
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 5: great fire beasts. These might also be capable of doing
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 5: them harm. And it was with deep feelings of uncertainty
• 1:51:55
  Speaker 5: that they first began to use these wonderful flint rocks.
• 1:51:59
  Speaker 5: In the hunt which preceded their departure, the little band
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 5: were fortunate in snaring a fat, young boar. They speedily
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 5: killed him and dragged his body to the top of
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 5: a small rocky hill, and they pulled out the loose stones,
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 5: building a deep basin the like oven into which they
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 5: put the body. This they covered with green palm leaves.
• 1:52:21
  Speaker 5: Then a fire was kindled over this great oven, and
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 5: everybody made ready for the feast. But the fragrant odor
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 5: of roast meat reached the nose of the saber toothed tiger,
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 5: and he followed the scent till he came to the
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 5: small camp, and all the stray members of the little
• 1:52:37
  Speaker 5: band crouched low on the opposite side of the big
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 5: blaze in mortal terror, for here there were no caves
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 5: in which they could take refuge, and their numbers were
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 5: too few for them to fight the enemy safely in
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 5: the open. But all the loose stones they had dislodged
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 5: and pulled out when building the great oven lay about them,
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 5: and they gathered them up and piled them high like
• 1:52:59
  Speaker 5: a great wall, for they feared an attack from the rear,
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 5: and the rude wall of stones rose almost to their waists.
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 5: Very rarely, the tiger crept up the hill and approached
• 1:53:11
  Speaker 5: the flames. The wind bore the smell of the roasting
• 1:53:14
  Speaker 5: meat squarely into his teeth and lured him on. But
• 1:53:18
  Speaker 5: the wind carried two the thick smoke upon him, and
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 5: he choked and paused to reconnoiter. As the wind died down,
• 1:53:26
  Speaker 5: he advanced hungrily, but the smoke and sparks from the
• 1:53:29
  Speaker 5: flames sent him back to the foot of the hill.
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 5: The little band of savages watched him while their limbs
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 5: trembled and their hair stood on end. Between them and
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 5: the tiger wore the tall sheet of flames, but soon
• 1:53:44
  Speaker 5: he began to circle the hill, seeking an easy way
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 5: to attack below the route wall erected by them. The
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 5: terrifying smoke and flying sparks no longer threatened, and he
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 5: sniffed the air and advanced cautiously. In the meantime, the
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 5: small band of savages were rendered almost beside themselves with
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 5: fear of weapons. They had none. All their new sharp
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 5: bone spears lay at the foot of the hill with
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 5: the great knotted clubs. The foolish one started one of
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 5: the big stones rolling down upon the tiger, but it
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 5: passed instead of deterring him. Then strong arms seized a
• 1:54:23
  Speaker 5: large burning bough and hurled it straight into the great
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 5: beast's face. But the tiger crouched low on the ground,
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 5: and the blazing torch passed over his head without harming him.
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 5: Low he lay with his long striped tail swaying to
• 1:54:39
  Speaker 5: and fro like the tail of a great cat. His
• 1:54:43
  Speaker 5: eyes glowed with rage and fear, and his lips were
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 5: curled back in a snarl of furry. Of all things
• 1:54:50
  Speaker 5: in the old forest, the strange, red, flaming fire alone
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 5: had caused him to hesitate, the fierce unknown spat out
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 5: a breath of hot smoke had bitten to his muscular
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 5: throat and choked him, And the hot blaze held a
• 1:55:04
  Speaker 5: menace that thrilled his long, lank body with a new fear.
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 5: Still he did not give up. Never in all his
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 5: strong free life in the forest had he ever given up.
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 5: But he retreated to the foot of the hill, circling
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 5: round and round it once more. Long he continued, with
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 5: his body crouched low and his head thrown up, scenting
• 1:55:28
  Speaker 5: at once the rich odor of the roasting boar and
• 1:55:31
  Speaker 5: the thick smoke, so full of strange menace. Again and
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 5: again he advanced, driven by the hunger within him, only
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 5: to retreat because of the fear that would not be subdued.
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 5: But as the sun sank low in the west, the
• 1:55:46
  Speaker 5: little band scattered the flames and dragged out the roasted
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 5: body of the young boar. From this they tore eagerly
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 5: great chunks of the warm and dripping flesh and devoured them,
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 5: And one and all they thought no meat had ever
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 5: tasted so sweet before. During the feast, they watched the
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 5: tiger always, and they laid new branches upon the fire
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 5: to keep it alive, but ere any one was filled,
• 1:56:13
  Speaker 5: as savages were used to fill their stomachs. After a
• 1:56:16
  Speaker 5: long period of fasting, strong Arm made known his wishes.
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 5: Soon everybody understood his desire to reserve a portion of
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 5: the young boar, that should they prove unequal to the
• 1:56:28
  Speaker 5: task of driving off the tiger, they might fling to
• 1:56:31
  Speaker 5: him and escape. To his wide suggestion, all listened and obeyed,
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 5: except Bigfoot, who declined to relinquish his portion. It was
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 5: only after strong Arm had thrust him down the side
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 5: of the hill, threatening to hurl him to the hungry
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 5: beasts below, that Bigfoot yielded. Once more. Strong Arm had
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 5: proven himself the leader of the band. Once more had
• 1:56:55
  Speaker 5: his words resulted in the welfare of the group, For
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 5: the flames had being subsided a little. The smell of
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 5: the meat drew old saber tooth irresistibly, and he made
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 5: a bold and sudden dash upon the band. But strong
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 5: Arm was quick also, and a yell of warning he
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 5: gave as he threw a blazing bow upon him, But
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 5: the tiger leaped over it and made his way nearer.
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 5: Now the others seized burning branches and hurled them until
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 5: he must step straight upon the glowing coals to advance,
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 5: And the fierce fires under his feet, and the sparks
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 5: and flames about him, sent the old fear through his blood,
• 1:57:37
  Speaker 5: and sent the tiger down the hill and through the forest,
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 5: snarling and howling with pain. Long they hear his warrings
• 1:57:45
  Speaker 5: we echoing through the old woods. But when darkness came on,
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 5: they descended and gathered more branches than leaves to continue
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 5: the fire throughout the night. End of section eight. Section
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 5: nine of Stories of the Cave People. This is a
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 5: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:58:13
  Speaker 5: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:58:18
  Speaker 5: Recording by de Randall. Stories of the Cave People by
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 5: Mary Marcy. Section nine the first planting. When the great
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 5: flood which little laughing Boy imagined covered the face of
• 1:58:34
  Speaker 5: all the land had subsided, and the warring River fell
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 5: back into a portion of its old channel, the survivors
• 1:58:42
  Speaker 5: of the clans turned their feet towards the homes of
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 5: their fathers. There were many changes, Strange things had occurred.
• 1:58:51
  Speaker 5: Hundreds of members of the various hordes had been lost
• 1:58:54
  Speaker 5: in the flood, the river bed itself had been twisted
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 5: into a new and alarming shape that on the other
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 5: side of his bank, trees had been torn up, and
• 1:59:04
  Speaker 5: the waters had eaten into the earth and lapped the
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 5: foot of the low hills. The old hollow was filled
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 5: with many tons of new black earth, and many of
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 5: the caves were buried beneath the soil deposited by the river.
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 5: The hollow had been the home of the Cave people,
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 5: of Little Laughing Boy, his father's strong arm, and his mother,
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 5: quack Quack. They had escaped during the flood with the
• 1:59:28
  Speaker 5: Foolish One, a member of their own tribe, and had
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 5: been joined later on by the Hairy Man, a survivor
• 1:59:36
  Speaker 5: of the hairy folk, and they had clung together during
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 5: their dangers and journeyings for mutual strength and protection. When
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 5: they had encountered Tall and Bigfoot of one of the
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 5: man eating hordes, their numbers enabled them to overcome these
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 5: powerful enemies, who joined the band and fed Laughing Boy
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 5: his first taste of roasted human flesh. These men also
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 5: taught the cave people the wonderful power hidden away in
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 5: the flint pit, which they had discovered. How two pieces
• 2:00:08
  Speaker 5: of this strange rock could call forth the protecting fire
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 5: when struck sharply together, And how thin pieces of this
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 5: same rock made wonderful knives with which to hack and
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 5: slay the enemy. Indeed, it was the insistence of Bickfoot
• 2:00:25
  Speaker 5: in carrying away several pieces of this new rock that
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 5: caused the others to do likewise. Although it was a
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 5: long time before any of them returned to the flint
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 5: pit and began to use flint regularly in making weapons.
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 5: In spite of the large number of men and women
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 5: and children who lost their lives in the Great Flood,
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 5: this was a time of progress, a time when all
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 5: the tribes learned many new things. The surviving hairy folk
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 5: were thrown with members of the tribe of cave people
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 5: and learned the use of fire. The tree driller were
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 5: forced to walk upon the ground and learn new methods
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 5: of fishing and hunting from the cave people, the fashioning
• 2:01:07
  Speaker 5: of rafts made of bamboo poles bound together with tough
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 5: grasses and wild vines, which one could propel in the
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 5: water by paddling with the hands. The tall people, who
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 5: contributed a meager knowledge of flint, gained the use of
• 2:01:22
  Speaker 5: the bowl and arrow from their old enemies, the dart throwers.
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 5: It was a time when men learned much. Of course,
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 5: many of these things were forgotten in the days of
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 5: ease and plenty, until the children of the members of
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 5: the tribes discovered, or invented, or were shown them all
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 5: over again in the years that followed. Strong Arm and Quack,
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 5: Quack and laughing Boy in company with the Foolish One,
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 5: and Tall and Bigfoot in the Hairy Man, followed the
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 5: shore of the river in order to reach the home
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 5: of the cave people. Scarcely a sound they made as
• 2:01:58
  Speaker 5: they wound their way through the heavy grasses that sprung
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 5: up with the magic of the tropics from the rich
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 5: soil left by the flood of food. There was now
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 5: every day a greater abundance fruits ripened and grew luscious.
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 5: Over night. Hundreds of fish were laughing shallows by the
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 5: receding flood, where they could be gathered by hand, and
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 5: it was impossible to avoid stumbling over the egg filled
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 5: nests of the gulls and the ouie. Also there were
• 2:02:27
  Speaker 5: unknown dangers, and Tall grew ill with the fever that
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 5: made the touch of his hands like the flames of
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 5: the protecting fire, and although Bigfoot and quack Quack brought
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 5: him every day fresh fruit and other food, which they
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 5: sometimes roasted in the coals, he drove them away steadily.
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 5: He grew worse, until madness came into his eyes, and
• 2:02:49
  Speaker 5: his voice rose above the quiet of the night, and
• 2:02:52
  Speaker 5: Laughing Boy grew fearful in spite of the friendly fire,
• 2:02:56
  Speaker 5: for the wars of the sick man Tall echoed through
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 5: the woods, and the forest enemies would hear an approach,
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 5: but Tall could not be restrained. A new strep that
• 2:03:06
  Speaker 5: comes with the fever feed his veins, and a night
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 5: came when he thrust his companions from him and disappeared,
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 5: screaming into the woods. They never saw him again, for
• 2:03:18
  Speaker 5: as he ran, his wild cries filled the night, and
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 5: the very branches of the trees seemed to waken with
• 2:03:25
  Speaker 5: the tumult. Then came the grim howl of the hyhena,
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 5: and the soft fall of padded feet upon the earth.
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 5: Down the gully, a strange voice arose, life stirred in
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 5: the bushes, and the hair on the head of Laughing
• 2:03:39
  Speaker 5: Boy rose in terror. Father and father receded the wailings
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 5: of the sick man till at last a howl we
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 5: echoed in the darkness that brought the band of tribes
• 2:03:49
  Speaker 5: people huddling together in fear, for it was the cry
• 2:03:53
  Speaker 5: of the saber toothed tiger. Came then a stillness, with
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 5: only the voice of Tall driving the sweat out upon
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 5: their bodies. And while the little band fed the friendly
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 5: fire and gathered nearer its protecting flames, they waited for
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 5: the end of the sick man. It came at last,
• 2:04:13
  Speaker 5: one long scream of agony, when the greatest enemy of
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 5: all the hordes came upon him. Bigfoot knew, and strong
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 5: Arm knew, and the others of the tribes knew also
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 5: that the danger to themselves was over for the night.
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 5: But long they crouched in the light of the flames,
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 5: ears twitching, nostrils quivering like images of bronze, frozen with fear.
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 5: Many other adventures befell the mixed group from the different
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 5: clans on their journeyings toward the hollow, which had been
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 5: the home of the cave people. There were dangers encountered
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 5: and evaded or welcome in every hour of these eventful days.
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 5: But at last they reached the ridge above the edge
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 5: of the hollow, Quack Quack, and strong Arm and the
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 5: foolish one and the other climbed the hill and gazed
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 5: over into what had been once a lovely valley, But
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 5: much of this lay filled with the soil left by
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 5: the flood. Tall grasses waved in the breeze, and many
• 2:05:13
  Speaker 5: new blossoms lifted their heads, and nearly all of the
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 5: old familiar caves were filled with mud and covered up.
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 5: It was all very queer. And while they proceeded with
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 5: caution as men going into a strange land, the brush
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 5: before them parted, and they beheld the grinning features of
• 2:05:33
  Speaker 5: big nose and lightfoot, and behind them others of the
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 5: cave people, and a fuzzy woman from among the hairy folk,
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 5: and strange people, and former enemies from the other clans,
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 5: all of whom had escaped the flood and wandered back
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 5: toward the dwelling places of their tribes. And strong Arms
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 5: scooped out the soil that had been washed against the
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 5: opening of a high cave upon the hill, and entered
• 2:05:57
  Speaker 5: it to rest after his long journey, And he dug
• 2:06:01
  Speaker 5: with his hands into the soft earth, for he remembered
• 2:06:05
  Speaker 5: the tubers he had buried there. One day when he
• 2:06:07
  Speaker 5: had been hunting with the men of the tribe, for
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 5: he was hungry, and lo many juicy tubers he found
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 5: where he had buried only two or three, and strong
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 5: Arm in quack quack ate of the potatoes. While for
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 5: a cave man, strong Arm pondered deeply on these things.
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 5: He thought much of one tuber, and how it had
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 5: made many tubers, and recalled the words of his father,
• 2:06:33
  Speaker 5: who had spoken of the mother potato. Then he felt
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 5: quack quack at his side, and forgot the matter and
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 5: fell asleep. Necessity has been the great spurs to the
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 5: progress of mankind, and it is probable that over and
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 5: over again, in the early stages of primitive culture, the
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 5: use of fire was discovered and lost, and forgotten and
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 5: regained before men realized the need which fire supplied. It
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 5: is almost certain that the art of pottery was discovered
• 2:07:04
  Speaker 5: and lost and rediscovered times without number. It is equally
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 5: certain that it took primitive men many, many, long, dark
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 5: years to learn to plan for the periods of want
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 5: and famine. In tropical countries where food was to be
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 5: had in abundance almost the whole year round, no necessity
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 5: arose for the raising of crops, Man would never have
• 2:07:27
  Speaker 5: felt the need of learning to cultivate food stuffs. In
• 2:07:30
  Speaker 5: this environment, Savages had only the vaguest notions of the
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 5: relation of cause and effect. It was necessary for buried
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 5: tubers to sprout new potatoes year after year, for the
• 2:07:42
  Speaker 5: plants to multiply before their very eyes, and the necessity
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 5: of planting food to have arisen before the relation of
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 5: sowing and reaping could begin to bring anything to them.
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 5: Only then did planting assume any tribal significance. Doubtless it
• 2:07:58
  Speaker 5: was in some semi tropical country that the discovery of
• 2:08:01
  Speaker 5: strong arm first began to make an impression upon the
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 5: awakening minds of the early savages. Buried sweet lambs and
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 5: others of the potato family, which had multiplied and become
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 5: many yams or potatoes, must have been a wonderful windfall
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 5: when discovered by the half starved tribes in the midst
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 5: of a long season of one. The cause of their
• 2:08:24
  Speaker 5: growing would then be carefully observed by the clans. Be
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 5: sure that it was necessity that forced the first early
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 5: savage to sow and bury against the days of coming hunger.
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 5: Man did not take naturally to work for several hundreds
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 5: of thousands of years, he dwelt in tropical or semi
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 5: tropical lands, where food was usually plentiful. It was only
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 5: an urgent need that forced him to sow and till
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 5: the soil. Before that time, he had dwelt in the
• 2:08:54
  Speaker 5: continual problems of the day, and had been compelled to
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 5: give no real thought nor plan for the marrow. Strong
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 5: Arms slept in the cave with quack Quack after their
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 5: long journey back to the home of their fathers, and
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 5: he dreamed a dream wherein he saw Tall, the great
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 5: man from the Strange tribe, alive and walking about, just
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 5: as he had done before the sickness came upon him,
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 5: when he had wandered out intil the night and met
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 5: the sabre toothed tiger. And in his dream strong Arms
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 5: saw Tall stand before his cave and thrust many tubers
• 2:09:30
  Speaker 5: in the ground where one tuber had been. And when
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 5: strong Arm awoke, he told Quack Quack and his brothers
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 5: and laughing Boy of his dream. In the few words
• 2:09:40
  Speaker 5: he knew, and in signs and pantomime and so much,
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 5: strong Arm wondered that when he ate of the fish
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 5: that had been roasting, he removed one fish from the
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 5: ashes and carried it to his cave, where he buried
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 5: it in the soft earth. Then he took the bones
• 2:09:56
  Speaker 5: of a young boar and buried them also, For when
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 5: these these bones are cracked, the marrow is very sweet
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 5: to eat. He desired one fish to grow into a
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 5: hundred fish, and the bones of one wild pig to
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 5: become a whole forest of bones. And he tried to
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 5: tell these things to the tribe, to say that perhaps
• 2:10:16
  Speaker 5: it was the spirit of tall which would come in
• 2:10:18
  Speaker 5: the night and make many fish are the one and
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 5: a forest of bones from one young boar. The cave
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 5: people came and watched him at his labors, and chattered
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 5: and gesticulated and wondered. And in the morning they gathered
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 5: about to eat of the many fish which strong Arm
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 5: hoped to find in the earth in his cave, and
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 5: to crack the bones and partake of the marrow. But
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 5: there were only the fish in the bones which strong
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 5: Arm had planted, and he sat down upon his haunches
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 5: and wept bitterly. The cave people were disappointed, and Bigfoot
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 5: mocked him. Perhaps strong Arm was one of the first experimenters.
• 2:10:57
  Speaker 5: He did not give up altogether. Occasionally, the thought of
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 5: many little tubers grown from one big tuber would seize
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 5: hold of him. And one day he buried a yellow
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 5: yam which resembled our sweet potatoes, and turned up the
• 2:11:12
  Speaker 5: ground the next day, only to find that it had
• 2:11:15
  Speaker 5: not become a whole dinner of sweet potatoes. He was
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 5: not sure that Tall, the dead man, or the spirit
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 5: of Tall, had anything to do with these things. Tall
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 5: had not returned again to strong Arm in his dreams.
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 5: It was all very strange. Strong Arm did not understand.
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 5: Everything was mysterious and confused. Another time he buried several tubers.
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 5: The day following he dug them up, but he forgot
• 2:11:43
  Speaker 5: one or two of these, And when after some time
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 5: he jammed about in the soil again, he found a
• 2:11:49
  Speaker 5: whole armful of tubers. The miracle had come back again,
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 5: and Tall, or the spirit of the dead man, had
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 5: not returned to make possible the wonder the miracle was
• 2:12:01
  Speaker 5: stranger than ever. Almost strong Arm evolved an idea, an
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 5: idea that tubers or potatoes planted in the earth in
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 5: the sun and left for a whole tribe of sons might,
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 5: in some mysterious manner beyond his understanding become the mother
• 2:12:17
  Speaker 5: of many potatoes. Then the hairy folk descended from the
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 5: ridge upon the cave people. They came with long spears
• 2:12:25
  Speaker 5: in their hands and cries of death in their fuzzy throats,
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 5: and strong Arm in the cave people gave them to battle.
• 2:12:32
  Speaker 5: Many were killed, and Bigfoot roasted the body of one
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 5: of the enemy upon the coals, and the cave people
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 5: ate the hairy man with much zest and relish, and
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 5: the stomachs of the cave people were distended with the feast,
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 5: and strong Arms strutted and danced about the fire with
• 2:12:49
  Speaker 5: those who had accomplished the victory, and he forgot all
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 5: about the idea he had almost achieved, about the planting
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 5: of potatoes and the making of more sweet yambs. So
• 2:13:00
  Speaker 5: the discovery that was only half a discovery was lost
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 5: to the tribe for many years. Doubtless, if you had
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 5: reminded him of it, and he could have spoken to
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 5: you in the language you would understand, strong Arm would
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 5: have replied that there were the hairy folk and the
• 2:13:16
  Speaker 5: dark throwers to be annihilated, the children of the tribe
• 2:13:19
  Speaker 5: to be protected, and food to be provided, and that
• 2:13:23
  Speaker 5: he had ceased to think of such foolish things as
• 2:13:26
  Speaker 5: the sticking of fat tubers in the ground in the
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 5: hope of making them the mothers of many little potatoes.
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 5: And anyway, these were strange things, passed all the ability
• 2:13:38
  Speaker 5: of any man to understand. End of section nine.
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 3: Section ten Stories of the Cave People. This is a
• 2:13:52
  Speaker 3: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings were in the public domain.
• 2:13:56
  Speaker 3: For more information or to volunteer, visit vox dot org.
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 3: Recording by Jeff Blanchard. Stories of the Cave People by
• 2:14:06
  Speaker 3: Mary Marcy. The first pot. Sometime before the Cave People
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 3: discovered the use of the bow and arrow, they had
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 3: learnt to make clay pots or bowls. For many years.
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 3: The tribe lived in the tropical lands, where the bread
• 2:14:20
  Speaker 3: fruit ripened nearly the whole year round, and where nuts
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 3: were plentiful, and tubers and sweet yams were often to
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 3: be found, where there were more nests than there were
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 3: trees in the forests filled with treasures of fresh eggs,
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 3: and there were fowl and fish as much as the
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 3: Hordes loved to eat the wild duck, or the cocoanut,
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 3: or even the wild honey one and all knew that
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 3: when the hot sun beat down upon bare brown skins
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 3: in the heat of the day. During the summer, there
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 3: was nothing in the valley so sweet as a drink
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 3: of water. One could go without food for many suns.
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 3: But if one day passed without fresh water for the
• 2:14:59
  Speaker 3: members of the group, fevers came upon them, the strange
• 2:15:03
  Speaker 3: fevers that caused them to do many foolish things. At first,
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 3: no member of the tribe willingly journeyed far from the
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 3: source of fresh water, for they had nothing with which
• 2:15:14
  Speaker 3: to carry water from one place to another. Then they
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 3: used coconut shells, and sometimes the shells that lay upon
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 3: the banks of the great river, but these held little
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 3: and were easily upset. Then someone discovered that the hollow
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 3: joints of the giant bamboo were more easy to carry
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 3: and held more water, and these became the first water
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 3: jugs of the clan. Later, when it became the fashion
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 3: for men and women to decorate themselves with the skins
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 3: of the animals they had slain, they found that there
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 3: are many uses which hides may serve. The cave people
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 3: wore no clothes, but bound over their shoulders, they bore
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 3: great weights of skins and hides of heads, and tails,
• 2:15:59
  Speaker 3: of bones and teeth as marks of their skill and
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 3: bravery in the hunt. Great teeth, cunningly fastened together, made
• 2:16:07
  Speaker 3: necklaces that spoke every day more loudly than a man's voice,
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 3: of what that man had done. But as pride grew
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 3: in these emblems of prowess, little by little the people
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 3: of the tribe began to use these hides for other things.
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 3: They found that, with holes punched along the edges through
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 3: which a thong might be drawn as a gathering string
• 2:16:29
  Speaker 3: about a handbag, these skins made water bags that one
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 3: could carry on a far journey, taking with him drink
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 3: for a whole day. But it was only when the
• 2:16:39
  Speaker 3: sun beat down, like the flames of the fire that
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 3: they thought much of these things. Then, thoughts of water
• 2:16:46
  Speaker 3: and the milk of the coconut were never long absent.
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 3: It was at this time of the year, when the
• 2:16:52
  Speaker 3: scorching rays of the summer sun had licked dry all
• 2:16:55
  Speaker 3: the little brooks and most of the springs, that laughing
• 2:16:59
  Speaker 3: boy and webbed her he who could outswim the fastest fishes,
• 2:17:03
  Speaker 3: planned an excursion over the hills in search of wild honey.
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 3: They were fourteen years old, and stood straight and brown
• 2:17:11
  Speaker 3: and almost as tall as the men of the tribe.
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 3: But they had not yet learned to have care for
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 3: all the dangers that lurked in the unknown ways. As
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 3: older men, they were proud of the wild skins that
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 3: lay hot and heavy on their shoulders, and the teeth
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 3: that made chains about their throats. They were never done
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 3: showing the trophies they had gathered in the hunt to
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 3: their young companions, and they boasted much, for they were
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 3: more strong than the other boys of the clan. Laughing
• 2:17:40
  Speaker 3: Boy was proud of his water bag, which, when the
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 3: thong was tightly drawn and the bag was filled with water,
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 3: spilled scarcely a single drop, while Webtoe beat much of
• 2:17:50
  Speaker 3: the time upon his drum or tom tom, which he
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 3: believed made the most beautiful music in the world. This
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 3: tom tom he had made by stretching the soft skin
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 3: of some small animal over a willow branch, bent and
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 3: fastened in a circle. The older members of the tribe
• 2:18:07
  Speaker 3: were stretched in the cooling shade near the river bank,
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 3: or sleeping the sleep that comes from much eating in
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 3: the cool of the caves. But the children and the
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 3: youths romped about, vying with each other in games of
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 3: sport and in feats of strength. Among these, Webtoe and
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 3: Laughing Boy were easily the victors, throwing their boomerangs and
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 3: their stone weapons further and with greater accuracy than any
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 3: of the others. Laughing Boy had now smeared his whole
• 2:18:36
  Speaker 3: chest with the deep vermilion juice of the make brave plant,
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 3: and web Toe had gouged holes in both ears, from
• 2:18:43
  Speaker 3: which hung half a dozen shells and cougar teeth. And
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 3: they strutted about in the glory of their strength and
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 3: budding manhood. But at last they stole away from the
• 2:18:53
  Speaker 3: others and softly made their way through the thicket and
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 3: on up and over the hill to the high place,
• 2:19:00
  Speaker 3: where the dry grass crackled and rustled beneath their scurrying feet.
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 3: Laughing and chatting, they ran, flinging care and caution to
• 2:19:08
  Speaker 3: the winds, racing to see which would be the quicker
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 3: to reach this point or that, and again speeding on
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 3: to make the giant banyan tree. Here they paused to
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 3: rest and to laugh softly, and the cunning of all
• 2:19:21
  Speaker 3: wood creatures came back to their straggling senses, and they
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 3: proceeded cautiously, chatting more softly, and laughing more quietly. Laughing
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 3: Boy carried his stone weapon and his water bag, which
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 3: bulged with ample fulness, while Webfoot brandished his tom tom
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 3: in one hand and his stone sling in the other.
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 3: Only now he made not a sound with his beloved
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 3: music box. It was a time to avoid the creatures
• 2:19:47
  Speaker 3: of the forest. Though all were sleepy and lazy from
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 3: abundant food and the warmth of the sun. They jabbered
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 3: of the sweet sweet, meaning wild honey, which they meant
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 3: to take back to the tribe, and with which they
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 3: intended to show the other youths how much more clever
• 2:20:04
  Speaker 3: and courageous they were than the other boys in the clan.
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 3: With every gay and confident step, as they advanced up
• 2:20:10
  Speaker 3: the small plateau, the land grew more parched. Laughing Boy,
• 2:20:14
  Speaker 3: who saw things that escaped the eyes of Webtoe, pointed
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 3: to little hollows now and then which had been dried
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 3: by the sun. And when Webtoe soon grown thirsty, sought
• 2:20:25
  Speaker 3: to take his bag for a drink, Laughing Boy shook
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 3: his head. No, he said, and pointed to the sun
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 3: high overhead. He meant to save the water for the
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 3: journey cave ward berries they ate and nuts gathered hastily
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 3: on the way, and when they neared the tall cocoanut palms,
• 2:20:43
  Speaker 3: both boys, forgetting the dangers that might be set them,
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 3: dashed their heavy weapons to the ground and rushed forward.
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 3: In a few moments, both were encircling the straight, tall
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 3: trunks of the trees with their arms and climbing up
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 3: them in a sort of walk, their toes pressed close
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 3: and almost clinging to the bark. Soon the great nuts
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 3: were tumbling to the ground, and the boys slid back
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 3: to refresh themselves with the sweet of coconut milk. But
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 3: the thicket parted, and an angry and suspicious black she
• 2:21:15
  Speaker 3: bear lumbered toward them with two curious, tumbling black cubs
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 3: at her heels. It was no time to dispute for
• 2:21:23
  Speaker 3: the possession of their weapons, It was not the time
• 2:21:26
  Speaker 3: to pause for a drink of coconut milk. And so,
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 3: with the pretense at nonchalance, as though they had seen
• 2:21:33
  Speaker 3: nothing and had no concern in the two rollicking cubs,
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 3: laughing boy in webtoe glided towards the thicket. They knew
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 3: that females of every species are eager to contest the
• 2:21:46
  Speaker 3: right of all ways, when accompanied by their young and
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 3: their courage lay with their stone weapons. The black bear
• 2:21:54
  Speaker 3: sniffed angrily and slowly followed the boys. Their little red
• 2:21:58
  Speaker 3: eyes rolled wickedly. The two curious cubs dashed on ahead
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 3: to learn what manner of beast these new animals were,
• 2:22:06
  Speaker 3: and Mother Brewin quickened her pace. Her heart was running
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 3: over with fears for her young, and she considered that
• 2:22:13
  Speaker 3: particular part of the woods her own domain. A deep
• 2:22:17
  Speaker 3: humming filled the ears of the boys as they broke
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 3: into a run, and Laughing Boy cried softly, sweet, sweet,
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 3: for he smelled wild honey. The cubs ran still faster,
• 2:22:28
  Speaker 3: for they remembered the feast they had enjoyed when guided
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 3: by their mother, they had last visited the wood, with
• 2:22:35
  Speaker 3: the old bear close behind. Laughing Boy flung himself out
• 2:22:39
  Speaker 3: and upward, grasping the tough vines of the Oohee in
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 3: his hands and pulling himself up on a large stone slab,
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 3: where he lay panting for breath. Webtoe scrambled up a
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 3: slim pine and waged himself between two slender forked limbs.
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 3: There he huddled, peering about in fear of new dangers.
• 2:22:58
  Speaker 3: But he saw nothing, and presently growing bolder. He looked
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 3: down at the bear, which stood on hind legs, gazing
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 3: angrily up at him. Now and then she would run
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 3: away and dash back, jolting the tree and setting the
• 2:23:13
  Speaker 3: branches a quiver. Webtoe forgot all caution and jeered down
• 2:23:17
  Speaker 3: at the enemy. He pulled his tom tom around and
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 3: over his shoulder and beat it triumphantly with his fists,
• 2:23:24
  Speaker 3: while the black bear tried to climb the tree and
• 2:23:27
  Speaker 3: failed because it was slender of trunk. Laughing Boy lay
• 2:23:32
  Speaker 3: on the smooth bolder, flat upon his belly, making no sound.
• 2:23:37
  Speaker 3: Not a muscle betrayed him. Only his eyes moved, following
• 2:23:40
  Speaker 3: the movements of the black bear. Apparently she had forgotten
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 3: all about him. He wanted to call out to Webtoe
• 2:23:48
  Speaker 3: to be silent. Webtoe seemed to think that the matter
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 3: was a joke, but Laughing Boy knew better. It was true.
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 3: He and Webtoe were at the moment safely out of
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 3: reach of the enemy's claw. But if she remained on watch,
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 3: how would they get down to earth again? All that afternoon,
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 3: Webtoe was compelled to cling to the fork of the
• 2:24:08
  Speaker 3: pine tree. Soon he grew quiet, for he remembered that
• 2:24:12
  Speaker 3: safety lies in silence. He folded his arms about a
• 2:24:16
  Speaker 3: branch and made himself as flat and inconspicuous as he could.
• 2:24:20
  Speaker 3: The cubs curled themselves up at their mother's feet and
• 2:24:24
  Speaker 3: went to sleep, and at length, close to the pine tree,
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 3: she also seemed to doze. It might have been possible
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 3: for laughing Boy to slide down the opposite side of
• 2:24:34
  Speaker 3: the boulder and steal away unnoticed. Who can say? It
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 3: may have been a fear of the long journey back
• 2:24:40
  Speaker 3: to the cave people alone that deterred him. Anyway, He
• 2:24:45
  Speaker 3: clung to the rock and waited. A long drink from
• 2:24:48
  Speaker 3: his water bag relieved his thirst, and he too fell asleep.
• 2:24:53
  Speaker 3: But there was no drinking for poor Webtoe. He had
• 2:24:56
  Speaker 3: only his mouthless tom tom in place of a water bag,
• 2:25:00
  Speaker 3: and his lips grew parched, and he longed to scream
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 3: from fear and thirst. After a long time, darkness came,
• 2:25:07
  Speaker 3: and at last the moon arose, and still the two
• 2:25:10
  Speaker 3: boys neither moved nor spoke. The cubs awoke and stretched
• 2:25:14
  Speaker 3: themselves and moved about, And at last the black bear
• 2:25:17
  Speaker 3: arose also and led them away to some hidden spring
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 3: known only to herself. Then very cautiously, Webtoe slid to
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 3: the ground and called to a laughing boy, who joined him,
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 3: And together, with great fear in their hearts, they turned
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 3: their faces homeward, and all that fearful, weary way, Webtoe
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 3: thought of new dangers and of cool springs, and laughing
• 2:25:41
  Speaker 3: boys emptied water bag. Never again would he go honey
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 3: hunting or any other sort of hunting in the dry
• 2:25:48
  Speaker 3: season without water at his side. And when at last
• 2:25:51
  Speaker 3: they reached the dwelling place of the tribe, Webtoe ran
• 2:25:55
  Speaker 3: to the spring and threw himself into the water and
• 2:25:58
  Speaker 3: drank until he was near water. And so Webtoe became
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 3: the great waterman of the tribe, another great waterman who
• 2:26:05
  Speaker 3: spoke always words of warning of the terrible things that
• 2:26:09
  Speaker 3: may before boys and girls, and men and women who
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 3: journey far from the spring without a bag of water. Stories.
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 3: He told the people of the tribe on his return
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 3: with laughing Boy, of how sick of thirst he had
• 2:26:23
  Speaker 3: faced the black bear and driven her before him. But
• 2:26:27
  Speaker 3: he had nothing to prove his words, for laughing boy
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 3: returned also empty handed. It was adventures like this that
• 2:26:35
  Speaker 3: taught the Cave people and all the other tribes to
• 2:26:38
  Speaker 3: travel close to the water's edge. And so it was
• 2:26:41
  Speaker 3: that when the foolish one made the first clay pot,
• 2:26:45
  Speaker 3: the people praised him and called him wise. The clay
• 2:26:49
  Speaker 3: pot was the accident of a fall. Many great discoveries
• 2:26:52
  Speaker 3: have been the accidents of other fools. For wise people
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 3: to always everything as nearly as possible as their fathers
• 2:27:00
  Speaker 3: have done, and new things are only learned through departures
• 2:27:05
  Speaker 3: into new ways. The foolish one had discovered the use
• 2:27:08
  Speaker 3: of fire by playing with a burning branch ignited by
• 2:27:11
  Speaker 3: the lightning in the forest. A fool bestrode the first
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 3: wild horse and rode upon its back. Nearly always it
• 2:27:19
  Speaker 3: was the fools who did things first. Wise men were
• 2:27:23
  Speaker 3: too wise. They had seen too many fools die of
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 3: their folly. The fingers of the foolish one were never idle.
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 3: He made many things, and he pulled as many to pieces. Again.
• 2:27:34
  Speaker 3: The people of the tribe had grown very skillful in
• 2:27:37
  Speaker 3: weaving baskets from tough grasses. They even made hats to
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 3: keep out the sun, and later they wove willows into
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 3: rude roofs, which they patched with clay from the river
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 3: banks to keep out the rain. The baskets which they
• 2:27:53
  Speaker 3: made were almost watertight, and the foolish one made many baskets.
• 2:27:58
  Speaker 3: Each time. He worked hard and wove these baskets more tightly,
• 2:28:02
  Speaker 3: but they all leaked when he filled them with water
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 3: from the spring. One day he made a basket shaped
• 2:28:08
  Speaker 3: like a bowl and lined it with clay. Then he
• 2:28:11
  Speaker 3: wove the grasses upward like the neck of a large bottle,
• 2:28:15
  Speaker 3: dipping his fingers inside to plaster it with more clay,
• 2:28:19
  Speaker 3: For he wanted to surprise the folk with a basket
• 2:28:23
  Speaker 3: that would carry water without leaking. But when all was done,
• 2:28:26
  Speaker 3: he forgot his plans and went swimming in a pool.
• 2:28:29
  Speaker 3: And when he next saw the basket, he tossed it
• 2:28:32
  Speaker 3: into the fire, so sure was he that it would leak,
• 2:28:35
  Speaker 3: as all baskets leaked. And there in the red flames
• 2:28:39
  Speaker 3: beheld by all the members of the tribe, lay the
• 2:28:42
  Speaker 3: marvelous basket with its clay lining, And soon the grasses
• 2:28:46
  Speaker 3: of the basket burned away. And when the fire died down,
• 2:28:49
  Speaker 3: the foolish one saw the clay lining laying among the coals.
• 2:28:53
  Speaker 3: It was round and firm, and almost perfect in shape.
• 2:28:57
  Speaker 3: He peered into it, and running to the river, filled
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 3: it with water. And marvel of marvels. The clay had
• 2:29:05
  Speaker 3: grown hard in the fire, and the first jug the
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 3: tribe had ever made, or seen or dreamed of, held
• 2:29:11
  Speaker 3: water from which there leaked not one single drop. For
• 2:29:15
  Speaker 3: a long time, the cave people made their jugs by
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 3: lining baskets with clay and burning off the grasses, leaving
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 3: the jugs unmarred till they lent newer and better ways
• 2:29:26
  Speaker 3: of making pottery. End of Section ten.
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 5: Section eleven of Stories of a Cave People. This is
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 5: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings on the public domain.
• 2:29:39
  Speaker 5: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 2:29:45
  Speaker 5: Recording by d Random Stories of the Cave People by
• 2:29:50
  Speaker 5: Mary Marcy. Section eleven the Aerold Drawers. For many years,
• 2:29:56
  Speaker 5: the bowl and Aerow folks had been the most ferocious,
• 2:29:59
  Speaker 5: as well the most skillful, of all the tribes that
• 2:30:02
  Speaker 5: dwelt in the heart of the luxurant lands along the
• 2:30:05
  Speaker 5: banks of the Father of Rivers. Every other tribe had
• 2:30:09
  Speaker 5: long since learned to hate and fear them beyond any
• 2:30:12
  Speaker 5: other living creatures. The bow and Arrow folks might wander
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 5: whithersoever they wished, might drive the hairy folk and the
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 5: tree dwellers and the cave people from the places that
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 5: had known them might bring death and destruction in their train,
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 5: provided only that they traveled and fought in numbers and
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 5: bore wide quivers filled with very many of their magical
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 5: stinging darts. Up to the appearance of the dart or
• 2:30:39
  Speaker 5: arrow throwers with their marvelous weapons, the cave people had
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 5: always been able to meet their human folds on terms
• 2:30:47
  Speaker 5: nearly approaching equality. The hairy people and the tree dwellers,
• 2:30:52
  Speaker 5: and even the man eaters had all to come to
• 2:30:55
  Speaker 5: close quarters in their life and death contests. Then there
• 2:30:59
  Speaker 5: was much to thee the advantage of the cave people,
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 5: who were of heavier build and who possessed greater strength
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 5: and speed of limb than any of their man enemies.
• 2:31:09
  Speaker 5: None of these was able to shoot a dart across
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 5: the river into the breasts of an enemy. But the
• 2:31:15
  Speaker 5: arrow people were more fearful than the great saber Tooth himself.
• 2:31:20
  Speaker 5: One could dig pits covered with branches of leaves in
• 2:31:23
  Speaker 5: the hope that they might stumble into these and hence
• 2:31:26
  Speaker 5: be dispatched to the Long Sleep. It was quite as
• 2:31:30
  Speaker 5: likely as not that the arrow people would not approach
• 2:31:33
  Speaker 5: near enough to fall into them. When the arrow people
• 2:31:36
  Speaker 5: came whooping over the hills, sending down their rain of
• 2:31:40
  Speaker 5: arrows into the flesh of the cave people. Strong Arm
• 2:31:44
  Speaker 5: had gathered his small band about the big fire, where
• 2:31:47
  Speaker 5: they had crouched low. But even the protecting blades could
• 2:31:51
  Speaker 5: not prevail against the invaders. Their darts flew through the
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 5: smoke and the flame and penned more than one of
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 5: the cave people to the earth. And when strong Arm
• 2:32:01
  Speaker 5: was wounded so that blood dripped red from a hole
• 2:32:04
  Speaker 5: in his breast, the cave people flung themselves into the
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 5: brush and made their way on their bellies, as silent
• 2:32:11
  Speaker 5: as snakes, far out beyond the old hollow. With much caution,
• 2:32:16
  Speaker 5: they gathered together about some gray stone boulders that banked
• 2:32:20
  Speaker 5: the wild buried thicket. Then it was that some one
• 2:32:24
  Speaker 5: silently gathered twigs and leaves and dead branches for the
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 5: making of a fire, and a youth struck a spark
• 2:32:31
  Speaker 5: from his flint stones. And by the light of the flames,
• 2:32:35
  Speaker 5: the cave people saw and were astonished that it was
• 2:32:38
  Speaker 5: one ear who had come back to his own people.
• 2:32:41
  Speaker 5: No one of the older members of the tribe had
• 2:32:43
  Speaker 5: forgotten one ear, nor how he had lost one of
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 5: his ears when he was only a small boy, not
• 2:32:50
  Speaker 5: many moons from his mother's breast. It was this way
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 5: one ear had wandered from the caves and beyond the
• 2:32:57
  Speaker 5: space where it was safe for the children of the
• 2:32:59
  Speaker 5: tribe to go along. No one marked his ramblings, and
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 5: he chattered and scampered about, plucking the red blossoms of
• 2:33:07
  Speaker 5: the igari and chasing birds from their nests in happy content.
• 2:33:12
  Speaker 5: But he had not gone far when he heard the
• 2:33:14
  Speaker 5: grunt of the wild and hairy hog, which was thrusting
• 2:33:17
  Speaker 5: her short tufts into the soil for tender roots. A
• 2:33:21
  Speaker 5: litter of small black pigs followed close to their mother's
• 2:33:24
  Speaker 5: side and set up a mighty squealing when they beheld
• 2:33:28
  Speaker 5: in one ear a possible enemy. Immediately, the old soul
• 2:33:32
  Speaker 5: turned upon one ear and bit at his feet, and
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 5: snapped at his legs and tripped him. Then she flew
• 2:33:39
  Speaker 5: upon him with the wild fury of the forest mother
• 2:33:42
  Speaker 5: who believes her young to be in danger. One ear
• 2:33:47
  Speaker 5: raised his own voice and yells of terror, and threw
• 2:33:50
  Speaker 5: up his arms and rolled into the bushes, and sent
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 5: his small brown feet kicking with mighty show into the
• 2:33:56
  Speaker 5: face of the foe, and the uproar increased, while the
• 2:34:00
  Speaker 5: blood poured from the side of the boy's head. Whence
• 2:34:03
  Speaker 5: the wild soul had torn his small ear in her attack.
• 2:34:07
  Speaker 5: Soon the mother of One Ear and other members of
• 2:34:09
  Speaker 5: the tribe of Cave people appeared with their long bone
• 2:34:13
  Speaker 5: weapons in their hands, and killed the hog and carried
• 2:34:16
  Speaker 5: back as many of the young pigs as had not
• 2:34:19
  Speaker 5: scampered away in the conflict. And there was much feasting
• 2:34:22
  Speaker 5: in the hollow that day, and a great noise from
• 2:34:25
  Speaker 5: the wails of One Ear, whose wounds were many times
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 5: licked and plastered and caressed by his distracted mother. And
• 2:34:32
  Speaker 5: so the boy came to be called one Ear. It
• 2:34:35
  Speaker 5: was impossible to forget one so distinctly different from other
• 2:34:39
  Speaker 5: members of the tribe of Cave people, And so when
• 2:34:43
  Speaker 5: one Ear was later captured by the Aerofolk during a
• 2:34:46
  Speaker 5: raid made on the people of the Hollow, One Ear
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 5: was long worned and thought of by the tribe. Now
• 2:34:53
  Speaker 5: he was come back to his own people, And in
• 2:34:56
  Speaker 5: the light made by the flames of the fire, the
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 5: cave people sa all that he bore many of the
• 2:35:01
  Speaker 5: strange darts that the enemy had used with so much
• 2:35:05
  Speaker 5: skill and accuracy, the cave people were almost afraid of him.
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 5: But one ear at once showed himself friendly and busied
• 2:35:13
  Speaker 5: himself in helping to build coverings of sticks and brush
• 2:35:17
  Speaker 5: and leaves to form huts for the tribe. The night
• 2:35:21
  Speaker 5: was very dark, and the cave people were worn and
• 2:35:24
  Speaker 5: weary and very much afraid. They knew very little about
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 5: the life and the woods and the things that surrounded them.
• 2:35:31
  Speaker 5: When a man stumbled over a loose stone and slipped
• 2:35:34
  Speaker 5: and fell, the cave people believed that some of the
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 5: tribe's numerous enemies had wrought the evil. Little they understood
• 2:35:43
  Speaker 5: of the causes of the natural events that occurred around
• 2:35:46
  Speaker 5: and to them, and so they peopled the woods, the hollow,
• 2:35:50
  Speaker 5: the night, and all things with spirits were evil ghosts
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 5: that sought to do them harm. There were terrors everywhere,
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 5: both the enemies which they could see and the enemies
• 2:36:01
  Speaker 5: which they could not see. The enemies who dwelt in
• 2:36:05
  Speaker 5: in the dead tree trunks that lay upon the ground
• 2:36:08
  Speaker 5: over which they stumbled, The spirits who were hidden in
• 2:36:11
  Speaker 5: the stones that scratched their feet, the evil magic workers
• 2:36:16
  Speaker 5: who entered their stomachs, and made them sick, and hunted
• 2:36:19
  Speaker 5: the feet of the unwary, to cause them to faint
• 2:36:22
  Speaker 5: before the blows of the arrow people, and who sent
• 2:36:26
  Speaker 5: men and women upon the long sleep, from which their
• 2:36:29
  Speaker 5: spirits arose to prowl about over the lands. Primitive men
• 2:36:34
  Speaker 5: knew nothing about natural laws. They had no ideas about
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 5: what caused the rain. Therefore they thought someone made it rain.
• 2:36:43
  Speaker 5: They knew nothing about the melting of snows upon the
• 2:36:46
  Speaker 5: mountaintops that flowed downward, swelling the father of rivers far
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 5: beyond his banks, and thus causing the floods. Therefore, some
• 2:36:56
  Speaker 5: evil enemy brought the disaster. They knew truly that men
• 2:37:01
  Speaker 5: and women did not altogether die. All men possessed two selves,
• 2:37:06
  Speaker 5: the self with whom you might fight and dance, whom
• 2:37:09
  Speaker 5: you might touch and see and smell in the light
• 2:37:13
  Speaker 5: of broad day. Then there was also a spirit self,
• 2:37:17
  Speaker 5: who came to you in dreams, and who worked evil
• 2:37:20
  Speaker 5: or good unto you. When a child was lost in
• 2:37:23
  Speaker 5: the wood and devoured by the wild enemies of the tribe,
• 2:37:27
  Speaker 5: the people knew that it was an evil spirit that
• 2:37:30
  Speaker 5: had lured his footsteps into the danger. It is true,
• 2:37:34
  Speaker 5: too that they believed in good spirits, the spirits who
• 2:37:37
  Speaker 5: sent rain when the earth was parched, the kindly magic
• 2:37:41
  Speaker 5: makers who delivered an attacking enemy into your hand to
• 2:37:44
  Speaker 5: his own disaster, who stood beside you unseen during great dangers,
• 2:37:50
  Speaker 5: and thrust forth obstructions in the paths of those who
• 2:37:53
  Speaker 5: would take you unawares. But considered in a broadway from
• 2:37:58
  Speaker 5: the viewpoint of perramodive man, the world was peopled chiefly
• 2:38:02
  Speaker 5: with enemies who were down upon you at the slightest opening,
• 2:38:06
  Speaker 5: who might, anywhere, and in the strangest form imaginable, pounce
• 2:38:10
  Speaker 5: upon you to your own destruction or disaster. It cheered
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 5: the cave people greatly when they saw that one ear
• 2:38:18
  Speaker 5: had returned to the tribe, bringing some of the magical
• 2:38:21
  Speaker 5: arrows so effectively employed by the dart throwers. They believed
• 2:38:26
  Speaker 5: that the bone javelin of strong arm possessed some of
• 2:38:29
  Speaker 5: the strength and skill of this mighty cave man. They
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 5: knew that the dried head of the green snake, which
• 2:38:36
  Speaker 5: had been killed by Bigfoot and a great boulder, were
• 2:38:39
  Speaker 5: filled with his valor and his wisdom, For they had
• 2:38:42
  Speaker 5: seen run fast elude the wild boar with his snake
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 5: head in her hands. If any one thing was sure
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 5: in all the muddle of strange things and stranger events
• 2:38:53
  Speaker 5: in this world, it was that weapons, or adornments or
• 2:38:57
  Speaker 5: tools acquired the characteristics their owners, and that these characteristics
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 5: might be transferred to him who was fortunate enough to
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 5: secure them. The darts or the arrows of the dart
• 2:39:10
  Speaker 5: throwers brought skill to the holders, and so the cave
• 2:39:13
  Speaker 5: people were cheered when they beheld the darts in the
• 2:39:16
  Speaker 5: hands of one ear. All through the night, as they
• 2:39:20
  Speaker 5: huddled and shivered in the shadows, the cave people kept
• 2:39:23
  Speaker 5: the big fire burning and listened. For the arrow people.
• 2:39:28
  Speaker 5: It was when the moon rowed high in the heavens
• 2:39:30
  Speaker 5: that the soft wind brought the scent of the enemy,
• 2:39:33
  Speaker 5: approaching with quiet and with caution, with quivering nostrils. Strong arm, who,
• 2:39:39
  Speaker 5: in spite of the pain he suffered from his wounds,
• 2:39:43
  Speaker 5: was the first to smell the coming. Arrow throwers gathered
• 2:39:46
  Speaker 5: the tribe behind the protection of the giant rocks, and
• 2:39:49
  Speaker 5: when they advanced within the circle of light thrown out
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 5: by the flames of the fire, one ear drew his
• 2:39:56
  Speaker 5: great bow to his shoulder and sent arrow after arrow
• 2:40:00
  Speaker 5: into the gleaming breasts of those who made the attack,
• 2:40:03
  Speaker 5: until the arrow people were confounded and afraid and fled
• 2:40:07
  Speaker 5: away in the night whence they had come, And for
• 2:40:10
  Speaker 5: days there was peace, and the cave people encamped themselves
• 2:40:14
  Speaker 5: near a fresh water hole and built more mud caves
• 2:40:18
  Speaker 5: and huts of the branches of trees. But evil spirits
• 2:40:22
  Speaker 5: hovered over strong Arm and entered into him, and gave
• 2:40:26
  Speaker 5: him fever and sickness and pain from the wound in
• 2:40:29
  Speaker 5: his breast, until at last he died in the night,
• 2:40:33
  Speaker 5: and his spirit passed out of his body. So thought
• 2:40:36
  Speaker 5: the cave dwellers, and they mourned for strong Arm, both
• 2:40:40
  Speaker 5: in their hearts and with loud voices, for they knew
• 2:40:44
  Speaker 5: that his spirit would hover about to see what they
• 2:40:47
  Speaker 5: said of his words and his deeds. And they desired
• 2:40:51
  Speaker 5: very strongly to please and propitiate the spirit of strong Arm,
• 2:40:56
  Speaker 5: for he had always been a powerful and wise man,
• 2:40:59
  Speaker 5: able to help those he loved and bring evil to
• 2:41:02
  Speaker 5: those whom he had hated. And they wanted to win
• 2:41:06
  Speaker 5: the support and friendship of the Spirit of strong Arm
• 2:41:09
  Speaker 5: in order that it might work good in their behalf.
• 2:41:13
  Speaker 5: So even Bigfoot, who had always feared and enviat strong Arm,
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 5: spoke loudly in his behalf, saying brave, brave, strong, strong,
• 2:41:25
  Speaker 5: and he screamed as though he had lost his best friend.
• 2:41:28
  Speaker 5: This was all done to show the spirit of strong
• 2:41:31
  Speaker 5: Arm and what high esting Bickfoot held him. The cave
• 2:41:36
  Speaker 5: people chopped up the body of strong Arm and roasted
• 2:41:39
  Speaker 5: his arms, and his legs and his head on the coals,
• 2:41:43
  Speaker 5: so that every member of the tribe might acquire some
• 2:41:46
  Speaker 5: of the noble virtues of the mighty chief by eating
• 2:41:49
  Speaker 5: a portion of his body. To laughing boy was apportioned
• 2:41:53
  Speaker 5: the hands of his father, and he ate them, stripping
• 2:41:57
  Speaker 5: the flesh from the bones, so that his own hands
• 2:42:01
  Speaker 5: might become skillful and quick in killing the enemy. The
• 2:42:05
  Speaker 5: remainder of the body of strong Arm was laid in
• 2:42:08
  Speaker 5: a cavity in the earth, along with his sharp bone javelin,
• 2:42:12
  Speaker 5: and his stone knife, and his flint, and food also,
• 2:42:16
  Speaker 5: which they knew he would need in the spirit land
• 2:42:19
  Speaker 5: where he had gone. These things they covered with earth
• 2:42:23
  Speaker 5: and leaves, and weighed them down with heavy stones, so
• 2:42:27
  Speaker 5: that neither wild boar nor any other wild animal might
• 2:42:31
  Speaker 5: devour the remains of strong Arm. And in the night,
• 2:42:35
  Speaker 5: the spirit of strong Arm came back to his people
• 2:42:38
  Speaker 5: and their dreams, telling them many things. Once he appeared
• 2:42:43
  Speaker 5: in a dream to quack Quack with his bone javelin
• 2:42:46
  Speaker 5: in his hands, and the cry of danger upon his lips,
• 2:42:50
  Speaker 5: and a long arrow thrust in his hair, and quack
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 5: Quack and the cave people knew that this was a
• 2:42:56
  Speaker 5: warning to them that the arrow rowers were again still
• 2:43:00
  Speaker 5: upon them to drive them from their new land. So
• 2:43:03
  Speaker 5: they gathered up their bone weapons and the bowl and
• 2:43:06
  Speaker 5: arrows which one ear had brought, and their knives and
• 2:43:10
  Speaker 5: their adornments, and wandered toward the north in the hope
• 2:43:13
  Speaker 5: of escaping. But the hairy folk fell upon them, and
• 2:43:17
  Speaker 5: the man eaters and the tree people nagged them and
• 2:43:19
  Speaker 5: stole their food and wrecked disaster at every step, so
• 2:43:23
  Speaker 5: that there was no peace, only constant fighting and death
• 2:43:27
  Speaker 5: and terror in all the days. So the cave people
• 2:43:30
  Speaker 5: traveled wearily and furtively, ever farther north, where the fruit
• 2:43:35
  Speaker 5: rose only in one season, and the cold descends over
• 2:43:38
  Speaker 5: the earth for a long period of the year, and
• 2:43:41
  Speaker 5: where men are only able to survive by learning new
• 2:43:45
  Speaker 5: things and new methods of keeping food against the barren days. Then,
• 2:43:50
  Speaker 5: more than in all the previous history of their lives.
• 2:43:54
  Speaker 5: The cave people began to progress, began to plan, to build,
• 2:43:58
  Speaker 5: to preserve and store food, and finally to bury one
• 2:44:02
  Speaker 5: tuber in order that it might become the father of
• 2:44:05
  Speaker 5: many potatoes, to salt their meats so that they would
• 2:44:09
  Speaker 5: not spoil. And finally they discovered that scans, used formerly
• 2:44:13
  Speaker 5: only as a means of a dormant or decoration, skins,
• 2:44:17
  Speaker 5: which had formerly been merely visible proof of a man's
• 2:44:20
  Speaker 5: skill and valor in the hunt, were a warm and
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 5: comfortable protection against the cold days which had come upon
• 2:44:27
  Speaker 5: them in the strange new land. Many died, and many
• 2:44:31
  Speaker 5: fell in the long wars that the cave people fought
• 2:44:34
  Speaker 5: during their long journey to the north country. But one
• 2:44:38
  Speaker 5: ear grew strong and wise and tall in his young manhood,
• 2:44:42
  Speaker 5: and because of the things he had learned from the
• 2:44:45
  Speaker 5: arawd rowers, he became a leader of the tribe, which
• 2:44:48
  Speaker 5: he taught also to hurl the deaf tipped darts, both
• 2:44:52
  Speaker 5: to bring down the beasts of the forest and for
• 2:44:55
  Speaker 5: the protection of the tribe in battle with its human enemies.
• 2:44:59
  Speaker 5: And so all climate and the changing seasons drove the
• 2:45:03
  Speaker 5: cave people to learn, to discover, to invent, and for
• 2:45:07
  Speaker 5: the first time they began to consider their earth and
• 2:45:11
  Speaker 5: to subdue a little of it for their own food
• 2:45:14
  Speaker 5: and clothing, and for their own shelter and security. End
• 2:45:19
  Speaker 5: of Section eleven.
• 2:45:26
  Speaker 6: Section twelve of Stories of the Cave People. This is
• 2:45:29
  Speaker 6: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 2:45:34
  Speaker 6: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 2:45:39
  Speaker 6: Recording by Katherine Phipps. Stories of the Cave People by
• 2:45:43
  Speaker 6: Mary Marcy, the first priest. Although strong Arm, who was
• 2:45:48
  Speaker 6: the wisest and strongest and swiftest man among the Cave People,
• 2:45:52
  Speaker 6: had been dead and in part eaten and in part
• 2:45:55
  Speaker 6: buried beneath a great pile of earth and stones, the
• 2:45:58
  Speaker 6: cave people felt sure or that he had not remained dead.
• 2:46:02
  Speaker 6: More than one of the members of the tribe had
• 2:46:04
  Speaker 6: seen him fighting and hunting, eating, and dancing during the
• 2:46:08
  Speaker 6: dreams that come in the night, and so they believed
• 2:46:10
  Speaker 6: that a part of strong Arm, the spirit or ghost
• 2:46:13
  Speaker 6: part of strong Arm, still lived again and again he
• 2:46:17
  Speaker 6: had appeared to them in the spirit or in dreams
• 2:46:20
  Speaker 6: to advise them about the things the tribe intended to do.
• 2:46:24
  Speaker 6: The Cave People were unable to understand these things, and
• 2:46:27
  Speaker 6: there was nobody to tell them that dreams were not
• 2:46:30
  Speaker 6: of the world of reality. And so they believed that
• 2:46:33
  Speaker 6: strong Arms still lived, and that other dead men and
• 2:46:35
  Speaker 6: women and children of the tribe still lived in the
• 2:46:38
  Speaker 6: spirit world. It was true that the spirits of these
• 2:46:41
  Speaker 6: dead did not appear in the broad light of day,
• 2:46:44
  Speaker 6: but the Cave people believed that they haunted their old grounds,
• 2:46:48
  Speaker 6: invisible to the eyes of their tribesmen. They believed that
• 2:46:51
  Speaker 6: the spirits of the dead may return to befriend the
• 2:46:54
  Speaker 6: members of the tribe or to hinder their enemies, provided
• 2:46:58
  Speaker 6: always that the members of the tribe enlisted their aid
• 2:47:01
  Speaker 6: and their affections. Now, Bigfoot, since there was no longer
• 2:47:05
  Speaker 6: the wise voice of strong Arm, nor the mighty strength
• 2:47:08
  Speaker 6: of the old chief to enforce the good of his people,
• 2:47:11
  Speaker 6: set himself to become the leader of the cave people.
• 2:47:14
  Speaker 6: He slashed his hairy thighs with his flint knife to
• 2:47:17
  Speaker 6: prove how brave he was, allowing the gashes to become sores.
• 2:47:21
  Speaker 6: In order to prolong the evidence of his courage, he
• 2:47:25
  Speaker 6: strutted about and waved his poison tip to arrows. When
• 2:47:28
  Speaker 6: the young men refused to listen to his words. Also,
• 2:47:32
  Speaker 6: he rubbed the noses of all the women of the
• 2:47:34
  Speaker 6: tribe and sought to caress them, attempting to drive the
• 2:47:37
  Speaker 6: men of the tribe from the new nests or caves
• 2:47:41
  Speaker 6: or huts which they had built in the far north country,
• 2:47:44
  Speaker 6: so many moon journeys from the old hollow where little
• 2:47:47
  Speaker 6: Laughing Boy was born. Bigfoot boasted with a loud voice
• 2:47:52
  Speaker 6: and bullied the children and spoke soft words to the women,
• 2:47:55
  Speaker 6: while he glared at the young men and dorged them
• 2:47:58
  Speaker 6: into the forest to hunt for food. Always he kept
• 2:48:01
  Speaker 6: his poisoned darts at his side, and he managed to
• 2:48:04
  Speaker 6: secure for himself the tenderest portion of the young goats
• 2:48:08
  Speaker 6: which the people had discovered leaping and running wild amid
• 2:48:12
  Speaker 6: the sharp slopes and crags of the mountains. So the
• 2:48:15
  Speaker 6: tribe grew weary of his sorry ruling, and there was
• 2:48:18
  Speaker 6: much fighting and discord, which laid them open to the
• 2:48:22
  Speaker 6: attacks of their many enemies. Without doubt, Bigfoot was possessed
• 2:48:26
  Speaker 6: of much cunning, For while other men of the tribe
• 2:48:28
  Speaker 6: were as strong of limb and as fleet of foot,
• 2:48:31
  Speaker 6: Bigfoot was more powerful than they. Longer was his arm,
• 2:48:35
  Speaker 6: because he had learned first how to make and to
• 2:48:37
  Speaker 6: wield his great burned arrows, almost as well as young
• 2:48:41
  Speaker 6: one Ear, who had escaped from the arrow throwers and
• 2:48:45
  Speaker 6: returned to his own people, the cave dwellers, bringing knowledge
• 2:48:49
  Speaker 6: of the weapons of these strange enemies. The cave dwellers
• 2:48:52
  Speaker 6: had paused in their jannyings and battlings northward on the
• 2:48:56
  Speaker 6: banks of the lake that shone like white fire when
• 2:48:59
  Speaker 6: the sun beat down upon its rolling surface. The way
• 2:49:02
  Speaker 6: was new to them, and unknown dangers threatened everywhere, and
• 2:49:06
  Speaker 6: they had utmost need to walk wearily lest a new
• 2:49:09
  Speaker 6: tribe descend upon them with some new weapon of destruction
• 2:49:12
  Speaker 6: and turn them back into the dangers they had outstripped.
• 2:49:16
  Speaker 6: Instead of holding the people together with wise words, and
• 2:49:20
  Speaker 6: instead of preparing to search out the lands to prepare
• 2:49:23
  Speaker 6: for the strange evils that lie in wait for primitive man,
• 2:49:26
  Speaker 6: whenever he travels beyond the ways of his experience, Bigfoot
• 2:49:30
  Speaker 6: caused nothing but conflict. It was only his superior skill
• 2:49:34
  Speaker 6: in the use of the flint tipped arrows, which the
• 2:49:37
  Speaker 6: cave people were acquiring very rapidly, that prevented him from
• 2:49:41
  Speaker 6: being slain by the members of the tribe. Then it
• 2:49:44
  Speaker 6: was that one ear dreamed a dream. He thought that
• 2:49:48
  Speaker 6: his spirit had journeyed far into the spirit world, where
• 2:49:51
  Speaker 6: it encountered the spirit of strong Arm, and strong Arm
• 2:49:55
  Speaker 6: had spoken with one ear, sending words of wisdom to
• 2:49:58
  Speaker 6: the people of the tribe. They had called Bigfoot the
• 2:50:01
  Speaker 6: enemy of the cave people. And when he wakened in
• 2:50:04
  Speaker 6: the morning, one ear remembered his dream. So he gathered
• 2:50:08
  Speaker 6: all the people together and told them these things. And
• 2:50:11
  Speaker 6: no man or woman among them knew that he spoke
• 2:50:14
  Speaker 6: only of a dream. They believed that the spirit of
• 2:50:17
  Speaker 6: strong Arms still lived, and that the things in one
• 2:50:20
  Speaker 6: ear's dream had actually occurred. So the cave people chatted
• 2:50:24
  Speaker 6: together and gesticulated and stole the fresh meat Bigfoot had
• 2:50:28
  Speaker 6: hidden in his cave, and menaced him from cover by
• 2:50:31
  Speaker 6: shaking their clubs and growling like angry dogs. Bigfoot fled
• 2:50:36
  Speaker 6: to his branch hut, where he glared at the members
• 2:50:39
  Speaker 6: of the tribe and waved his long arrows. The cave
• 2:50:42
  Speaker 6: people had long respected the words of strong Arm, and
• 2:50:46
  Speaker 6: when they heard what he had spoken to one ear
• 2:50:48
  Speaker 6: in a dream, they hated Bigfoot more fiercely than ever.
• 2:50:53
  Speaker 6: At last, Bigfoot returned to the people of the tribe,
• 2:50:56
  Speaker 6: many of whom were sitting about a wood fire, and
• 2:50:59
  Speaker 6: he spoke to them, trying to gain their good will,
• 2:51:02
  Speaker 6: and attempting to show them that none was so swift,
• 2:51:05
  Speaker 6: so strong, or so brave as he. But the people screamed,
• 2:51:10
  Speaker 6: strong Arm, strong Arm, to remind Bigfoot that the old
• 2:51:14
  Speaker 6: chief had spoken against him, And Bigfoot grew frantic with
• 2:51:18
  Speaker 6: the rage that came upon him. He seized the club
• 2:51:21
  Speaker 6: of strong Arm, which had been given to Laughing Boy,
• 2:51:23
  Speaker 6: in order that he might derive from it some of
• 2:51:26
  Speaker 6: the virtue of bravery which his father strong Arm had possessed.
• 2:51:30
  Speaker 6: Bigfoot spat upon it and crushed it beneath a great stone.
• 2:51:34
  Speaker 6: Then he hurled the shattered fragments far out into the
• 2:51:36
  Speaker 6: green waters of the lake. All the cave people shivered
• 2:51:40
  Speaker 6: with fear, for they thought this was a very foolish thing.
• 2:51:43
  Speaker 6: They believed that the spirits of the dead grow angry
• 2:51:46
  Speaker 6: when their weapons are broken or destroyed, and they felt
• 2:51:49
  Speaker 6: sure that the spirit of strong Arm would punish Bigfoot
• 2:51:53
  Speaker 6: for the desecration he had worked on the club of
• 2:51:55
  Speaker 6: the old Chief. But Bigfoot was too angry to be afraid.
• 2:52:00
  Speaker 6: Foam appeared upon his lips. When he thought of the
• 2:52:03
  Speaker 6: spirit of strong Arm, he longed for a tangible foe,
• 2:52:06
  Speaker 6: with flesh upon his bones that he might crush, with
• 2:52:09
  Speaker 6: red juice in his skin that he might spill with ears,
• 2:52:13
  Speaker 6: and a nose that he might bite and twist and tear.
• 2:52:16
  Speaker 6: He desired an enemy into whose soft belly he might
• 2:52:20
  Speaker 6: hurl one of his sharp arrows. But there were only
• 2:52:23
  Speaker 6: the cave people beside him, and the menace in their eyes,
• 2:52:26
  Speaker 6: and their lips pulled back, snarling from their teeth made
• 2:52:30
  Speaker 6: him afraid. So he lifted up his voice in a
• 2:52:33
  Speaker 6: frenzy of hate and scorn. While he called the name
• 2:52:35
  Speaker 6: of strong Arm, strong Arm, maker of lies, he called
• 2:52:40
  Speaker 6: him and full cowered, weak one baby and snake that crawls.
• 2:52:45
  Speaker 6: While he made violent gestures of hatred and disgust. The
• 2:52:49
  Speaker 6: cave people watched him fearfully. To them, it did not
• 2:52:52
  Speaker 6: seem the part of wisdom to mock and defy the
• 2:52:54
  Speaker 6: spirit of strong Arm, which still lived though his body
• 2:52:57
  Speaker 6: had perished. Something was bound to happen. Strong Arm had
• 2:53:02
  Speaker 6: never permitted any man to speak thus of him when
• 2:53:04
  Speaker 6: he was living in the flesh, and they did not
• 2:53:07
  Speaker 6: believe his spirit would endure insult from Bigfoot. Indeed, yes,
• 2:53:12
  Speaker 6: something was sure to happen, But it was not good
• 2:53:15
  Speaker 6: for the whole tribe to be punished or blamed for
• 2:53:17
  Speaker 6: the foolishness of Bigfoot. This they knew, and they made
• 2:53:21
  Speaker 6: haste to put wide distances between themselves and him, pursuing
• 2:53:25
  Speaker 6: their own work or their own ends, with much ostentation,
• 2:53:29
  Speaker 6: as far as possible, removed from his presence. If the
• 2:53:32
  Speaker 6: spirit of strong Arm was hiding in the valley and
• 2:53:35
  Speaker 6: had chanced to overhear the evil words of Bigfoot, no
• 2:53:39
  Speaker 6: flat headed savage among the tribe wanted strong Arm to
• 2:53:42
  Speaker 6: fancy he had anything to do with these things. They
• 2:53:46
  Speaker 6: washed their hands of the whole affair and departed from
• 2:53:49
  Speaker 6: the immediate presence of Bigfoot. The more Bigfoot raved, the
• 2:53:53
  Speaker 6: oftener one ear called upon the Spirit of strong Arm, crying, brave,
• 2:53:58
  Speaker 6: one wise, one swift Foot, and give us of thy council.
• 2:54:03
  Speaker 6: And the cave people began talking in loud voices of
• 2:54:06
  Speaker 6: the good deeds of their old chief, of his courage
• 2:54:09
  Speaker 6: and strength, of his wisdom, and his eye that never slept.
• 2:54:14
  Speaker 6: While Bigfoot defied the Spirit of strong Arm. One ear
• 2:54:17
  Speaker 6: and the cave people sought to propitiate him with loud
• 2:54:21
  Speaker 6: words of admiration and some flattery. Stronger than the hairy mastodon,
• 2:54:26
  Speaker 6: they called him, and father of all the lions. He
• 2:54:30
  Speaker 6: could outleap the mountain goat and outclimb the longest armed urrangutang.
• 2:54:34
  Speaker 6: His voice was like the thunder, and his breath like
• 2:54:38
  Speaker 6: the winds that bend the trees on the river banks.
• 2:54:41
  Speaker 6: They felt more certain than ever that something was going
• 2:54:44
  Speaker 6: to happen. They expected the Spirit of strong Arm to
• 2:54:47
  Speaker 6: make it happen, but they did not desire to share
• 2:54:50
  Speaker 6: in untoward events if a little information given to the
• 2:54:53
  Speaker 6: Spirit of strong Arm could prevent this thing. But the
• 2:54:56
  Speaker 6: day passed, and the sun slid down the wings of
• 2:54:59
  Speaker 6: the sky into the red fire of the lake, and
• 2:55:02
  Speaker 6: still Bigfoot strutted about with loud and boasting words. Still
• 2:55:06
  Speaker 6: the cave people waited and hoped and were afraid. And
• 2:55:11
  Speaker 6: that night the spirit of strong Arm again appeared to
• 2:55:13
  Speaker 6: one ear in a dream, and his voice was fierce
• 2:55:16
  Speaker 6: with anger against Bigfoot. And in the dream he counseled
• 2:55:21
  Speaker 6: one ear to tell the cave people to push Bigfoot
• 2:55:24
  Speaker 6: from the tallest crag along the mountain gorge, so that
• 2:55:27
  Speaker 6: his body would be crushed upon the sharp stones below.
• 2:55:31
  Speaker 6: In the morning, one ear told these things to the
• 2:55:33
  Speaker 6: people of the tribe, and they drank the words of
• 2:55:35
  Speaker 6: strong Arm, eagerly, begging Bigfoot to join in a hunt
• 2:55:39
  Speaker 6: for the wild goat amid the slopes of the mountain.
• 2:55:42
  Speaker 6: But Bigfoot was afraid and hid in his hut, making
• 2:55:46
  Speaker 6: queer mouthings and snatching food from the children, and waving
• 2:55:50
  Speaker 6: his sharp arrows. So the cave people gathered about one ear,
• 2:55:54
  Speaker 6: urging him to meet the spirit of strong Arm once more,
• 2:55:57
  Speaker 6: and to ask for more wisdom on how to dispatch
• 2:56:00
  Speaker 6: the evil man who brought dangers and conflict to the tribe.
• 2:56:05
  Speaker 6: Again in the morning, one ear called the people together,
• 2:56:08
  Speaker 6: saying that the spirit of strong Arm counseled the people
• 2:56:11
  Speaker 6: to build fires about the hut of Bigfoot in the night,
• 2:56:14
  Speaker 6: so that he might be destroyed. And so, when darkness
• 2:56:18
  Speaker 6: wrapped the valley in her soft folds, the cave people
• 2:56:21
  Speaker 6: stole from their shouters, each bearing branches and glowing coals
• 2:56:25
  Speaker 6: from the camp fire, which they hurled in the door
• 2:56:28
  Speaker 6: of Bigfoot with stones and spears, so that he might
• 2:56:31
  Speaker 6: not escape and injure the tribe. The night was black,
• 2:56:35
  Speaker 6: and Bigfoot was unable to hit the people with his
• 2:56:37
  Speaker 6: sharp arrows. Coals were thrown upon the dry thatch of
• 2:56:41
  Speaker 6: his hut, and soon the flames encircled him with their
• 2:56:44
  Speaker 6: burning tongues. And when it was discovered that his body
• 2:56:48
  Speaker 6: was burned to ashes, and that the spirit of Bigfoot
• 2:56:51
  Speaker 6: had escaped, the cave people rejoiced in their hearts, but
• 2:56:55
  Speaker 6: their lips were dumb. For the first time they spoke
• 2:56:58
  Speaker 6: well of Bigfoot, whom they in their hearts for was
• 2:57:02
  Speaker 6: not the fate of Bigfoot, proof of the foolishness of
• 2:57:04
  Speaker 6: speaking ill of the dead, was not the victory of
• 2:57:07
  Speaker 6: the cave people, who had spoken well of strong Arm,
• 2:57:10
  Speaker 6: proof of their wisdom. In these things, the cave people
• 2:57:14
  Speaker 6: believed the spirit of Bigfoot would be actively inimical to
• 2:57:17
  Speaker 6: the tribe, just as they believed that the spirit of
• 2:57:21
  Speaker 6: strong Arm had proved itself to be the friendly father
• 2:57:24
  Speaker 6: of the people. And one ear continued to dream dreams
• 2:57:28
  Speaker 6: which he related to the cave people, giving them words
• 2:57:31
  Speaker 6: of wisdom and courage from the spirit of strong Arm,
• 2:57:34
  Speaker 6: and evil words from the spirit of Bigfoot. Thus they
• 2:57:38
  Speaker 6: grew to believe wondrous things of strong Arm, his virtues
• 2:57:41
  Speaker 6: grew with the passing of the sons, just as his
• 2:57:44
  Speaker 6: strength increased and his wisdom was extolled, until he became
• 2:57:48
  Speaker 6: almost a god to the people of the tribe. And
• 2:57:51
  Speaker 6: when ill befell the cave people, one ear told them
• 2:57:55
  Speaker 6: it had been caused by the evil spirit of Bigfoot.
• 2:57:58
  Speaker 6: And when they escaped from these evil he reported how
• 2:58:01
  Speaker 6: the spirit of strong Arm had befriended the tribe. Always
• 2:58:05
  Speaker 6: was one ear dreaming dreams. He told how the spirit
• 2:58:09
  Speaker 6: of strong Arm had counseled the people to make of
• 2:58:11
  Speaker 6: big Nose their leader and chief, which they did. As
• 2:58:15
  Speaker 6: he grew in years and in power, one ear demanded
• 2:58:19
  Speaker 6: that the best joints of meat, the warmest place by
• 2:58:22
  Speaker 6: the fire, the safest cave or hut be his portion.
• 2:58:26
  Speaker 6: These things, he declared, were the commands of strong Arm,
• 2:58:30
  Speaker 6: and so one Ear became a great man of the tribe.
• 2:58:33
  Speaker 6: When the forest fire swept the plains and drove the
• 2:58:36
  Speaker 6: wild fowl and the forest animals far inland, and brought
• 2:58:40
  Speaker 6: famine to the cave people, one ear reported that the
• 2:58:43
  Speaker 6: spirit of strong Arm had done these things to punish
• 2:58:46
  Speaker 6: the people because they had not brought young fowl, of
• 2:58:49
  Speaker 6: which he was very fond every day to one ear.
• 2:58:53
  Speaker 6: Thus one ear became the first priest of the tribe,
• 2:58:57
  Speaker 6: protected before other men, in all order that the good
• 2:59:00
  Speaker 6: spirits might not take vengeance upon the tribe should ill
• 2:59:04
  Speaker 6: befall him. People brought him sharp knives and soft skins,
• 2:59:08
  Speaker 6: with which he made himself warm when the far northern
• 2:59:11
  Speaker 6: winds blew cold in the winter time, and one ear
• 2:59:14
  Speaker 6: said good words to the great spirits for these bearers
• 2:59:17
  Speaker 6: of gifts, so that they might be prospered and escape
• 2:59:21
  Speaker 6: the sharp tooth of the crocodile. By and by there
• 2:59:24
  Speaker 6: came other dreamers of dreams, who spoke with the great spirits,
• 2:59:28
  Speaker 6: and also brought messages to the people. Strong arms of
• 2:59:31
  Speaker 6: the tribe clashed, and there were great battles among the
• 2:59:34
  Speaker 6: Cave people till the pretenders were slain, when once more
• 2:59:39
  Speaker 6: peace and harmony reigned within the valley upon the shores
• 2:59:42
  Speaker 6: of the great Lake. End of Section twelve. End of
• 2:59:49
  Speaker 6: Stories of the Cave People by Mary Marcy