Open Writing

The men were knapping flints, chipping stones and scraping stout straight lengths of tree branches. The women were working with flax fibres to make the cords which were used in hafting tools and weapons.

The group of several families had converged on this place after searching and hunting for a period during which Saawell, the sun, had many times dropped from the high sky to the far-far place, and reappeared after the dark-time of night. They had put together a few shelters, some with timber uprights, and one supported by the bones and tusks from a massive furred creature some of the men had trapped and killed. Pieces of its skin provided them with rough wraps to keep themselves warm and dry when the vengeful spirits of the high sky attacked them or when sickness weakened them.

The smell of openly rotting meat, infested by flies and maggots, pervaded the place. They had eagerly consumed much of the creature; good food was not easily caught and it had to be eaten quickly. When Saawell was hot in the high sky, some strips of meat could be laid out and dried for use later. The women could cook other pieces over a fire to preserve it for longer. Small animals were quickly disposed of but this creature was too large for them to deal with quickly and wasted meat had to be thrown out. There was always a danger that it would attract predatory animals scavenging for food.

The boys were being taught how to use fibre to bind flint and stone blades to the freshly smoothed tree-wood handles. They worked with their brothers including those who were made by different mothers. Girls worked with their mother and with sisters made by other mothers. Although men made the rules and led the hunts, it was the women who worked the secret magic of fertility. When children died too early, unable to survive the rigours and risks and wounds of living, more had to be made. Only women could do that.

Women could also die too early, weakened by lack of food or broken by the labours of childbirth. Men whose flesh was torn and bones broken while pursuing and fighting animals might not survive. If anyone lived long enough for their hair to turn grey, they were greatly respected and honoured. The shaman of the group was given the name Gheu-Per, 'the leader who could call the spirits'. His hair was grey. He had seen forty of the longest passings and shortest passings of Saawell across the high sky and forty seasons of leaf-rise and leaf-fall.

There were rocks near this place, where they could retreat in fear if one of the great tusked creatures strayed close when they were not ready to attack it. There was a forest of trees, which gave them timber, leaves, nuts and berries though they were afraid to venture too deeply into its dark confines. There were strange noises and sudden movements which could only be signs of the presence of unseen other-beings. There was water, in a lake which frightened them — they had no mind-pictures of what might be in its depths apart from death — but it gave them something to drink.

When they moved from place to place, they took little with them, for they had little to take — sticks, spears, axes, stone scrapers, stone and flint blades, animal hides, furred wraps, strips of animal skin leather, twine, and a few beads which had been carved from stone or ivory or small coloured rocks they had found.

There was one carved piece which had special significance. It represented the woman's magic — though without a face it exaggerated the shape and size of the place from which new children emerged and the breasts which gave them milk. Long after these people disappeared from the land, this small carving and a jumble of bones would be, perhaps, the only signs that they had ever been there. They would have long since joined their ancestors in the dark other-place of dreams and death, but the goddess of fertility would live on.

© Copyright Brian Barratt 2013.

Do read the first two episodes in this series:
http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2013/07/together_with_t.php#more

http://www.openwriting.com/archives/2013/07/together_with_t_1.php#more

And also accept the stimulating challenges presented on Brian's Web site www.alphalink.com.au/~umbidas/