Soon they had her hurrying away from the herd. She broke into a run, but in the wrong direction: away. They strode after her, maintaining the line, but closing it up somewhat. When the beest finally summoned courage and made ready to charge them, they shouted and waved their arms, changing her mind. So the cow ran away again. She still could have looped around and run by too swiftly for them to intercept, but she just wasn't smart enough to figure that out. So she was doomed.
Hue, though a predator, nevertheless had some sympathy for the prey. He hoped that he would never allow himself to be maneuvered similarly to his disadvantage. He would try to take the necessary forceful action, despite his fear, if he thought that he were being herded where he did not want to go
Now the chase was on in earnest. The big marsh had filled up much of their hunting ground, but there was hilly country ahead, and this was where the beest fled. The band had not yet explored that region, but the chances were that if the cow went there, there were no lions nearby. In any event, lions seldom advanced on a full band of people; they preferred to hunt down solitary animals, exactly as the band was doing now. So it was probably safe enough, and if it wasn't, well, it wouldn't be the first time they had fought such a creature. They never did it by choice, because the lion well might kill one of them before they beat it off, but enough men with clubs could sometimes make a single lion retreat.
The beest had lost the smell of the herd, and no longer knew where she was going. She wouldn't turn now; she would just keep going straight ahead, trying to leave them behind. And she could do so, for a while—but they would keep following her spoor, and would catch up in time. All it required was patience and good legs.
As the day passed, the terrain became irregular, with ridges and valleys. There were even some trees—and some berry patches. The women and children broke off to feed on these, and that was all right, because the full band was no longer needed to chase the beest.
In fact now another aspect of the hunt developed. The women not only fed themselves, they picked extra berries and put them in baglike patches of animal hide they carried. Then, when darkness came and the men had to halt the pursuit, they brought these bags to the men so they could eat without leaving the trail. Lil brought Hue a nice meal of berries, then gave him sex before joining the spot camp and going to sleep.
Hue realized something he perhaps should have noticed before: though Lil indulged him in sex as always, she was not in heat, and had not been for some time. Now her body was thickening, and she seemed to tire more readily than usual. She was old, of course, but he thought it was more than that. She was carrying a new baby.
He pondered that as he sought sleep, and concluded that it was time to find a new mate. A man normally had several. It was a sign of maturity. But he had no particular prospects in mind, and the matter wasn't urgent.
In the morning the men moved out early, leaving the women and children behind. The men had to maintain the pursuit of the beest, giving her no time to rest by day, while the women foraged so as to sustain the men during the hunt.
They soon spied the cow, who had simply lain down to sleep when the pursuit seemed to stop. It had been safe to let her be, because her kind had no real initiative. Individual beests moved when the herd did, or to find better grazing, or to avoid threats. Otherwise they slept.
They closed on her, and she lurched up and away, still being driven from the original herd. She fled into the hills, not pausing to nibble grass, and they followed. Their striding was slower than the beest's running, but it was constant. The cow could not rest.
Hue looked around at the landscape as he moved, maintaining his place in the line. He was used to hunting on the plain, while the women foraged in the garden regions. These hills were eerie. Now he saw greater hills beyond them, with steep slopes, and clouds shrouding their tops. His people had seen a lot of clouds recently, with many days of heavy rain. The water had coursed across the land and into the lake, and the lake had grown, encroaching on the garden and their hunting range. Between rains the water ebbed away, but left muck. So at last they had had to search for new land, and that had taken them to this weird hilly country. Others disliked it, but Hue was intrigued. He wanted to explore those strangely steep slopes, afraid they would be gone before he had the chance. He almost seemed to remember terrain like this, though it must have been a dream.
But the hunt came first. They had not had solid meat for many days, and they were hungry for it. Berries were food for women and children; a man needed flesh. However, the beest was heading straight into the hills, so he would get to see some of them anyway.
All day they chased the cow, penetrating deeper into the alien territory. The hunt was going well. But there was one disturbing thing. They saw traces of their own kind. Was there another band in the region? There were old footprints near a berry patch, and the ripest berries were few, as if it had been well picked over a few days before. Who had been foraging here?
Yet they saw no actual people, and continued the hunt. The women spread out to find other patches. By dusk the beest seemed to be tiring; the next day should finish the hunt.
There was a good grove of trees on the slope. This provided them the rare luxury of safe sleep off the ground. Lil joined Hue in a large tree, with Bee and Lee sharing another branch. Rae and his sister Fae were in the next tree over. The feeling of security was wonderful.
Next day was mixed. They entered a broad valley with a small lake, surrounded by impressive hills. The beest was definitely tiring, having had no daytime rest or grazing; she staggered as she fled the line, and they were closing the gap. Soon they would make their final run, catching her and clubbing her to death. But here too the berry patches had all been picked over, forcing the women and children to go far afield in their foraging. Someone had definitely been here.
Bil looked at Hue. He was considering when it would be time to make the kill. Hue nodded; it could be any time, if the cow did not show any special reserve of strength. Soon Bil would signal Joe, and they would break into their finishing run.
There was a scream. Hue turned his head immediately, recognizing it: Lil. She was across the valley, by a berry patch, with Bee and Lee and another female. And—two strangers were near them.
Ordinarily Hue would go to the support of his woman, in the fashion of any male. But with the hunt so near to the finish, he hesitated. He wanted to be in on the kill. Lil and the others should simply run from the strangers, who probably wouldn't pursue them. This simply meant that the others had found the patch first, and were driving off intruders.
Then the other woman screamed. Rae jumped. That was his twin sister Fae. The strangers were grabbing her! They were going to hurt her, or rape her, or haul her away to join their band. Or all three. Lil and the children would not be able to fight them off.
Hue and Rae looked at Bil. Bil looked at Joe, then made his decision. “Go!” he grunted. He thought the remaining men could finish the hunt on their own.
Hue and Rae screamed challenges and ran across the valley. Now they were breathing hard. Striding tired a person slowly; running tired him quickly. But they could not let Fae, who was just coming into nubility, be stolen from the band. Mature women were too valuable.
The strangers heard the screams. They retreated, one of them hauling Fae along with him. She was struggling, but the strange male opened his jaws and bared his teeth warningly, and she was cowed. It was the nature of women to obey men, even strangers, because if they didn't they got chomped, and whatever they feared happened anyway. However, when they were together in a band, they could assert themselves to some degree, and things did not always go the male's way. So they were not eager to be taken into new bands.
By the time Hue and Rae reached the patch, the strangers were gone. But Lil and the children were there. “Bub!” Lil cried. “Sis!”
So this was that band! Somehow Bub and his spiteful sister always seemed to turn up at the worst times. Relations had been bad, because Bub kept
trying to poach game in territory that wasn't his. Now they had hold of Fae, and her fate would not be kind if she weren't promptly rescued.
So they ran on after Fae and her abductors. It should be possible to catch them. Meanwhile the children were running across the valley to tell the others what was happening. Lil, wiser in the ways of things, slowly followed Hue.
The trail was easy to follow; the grass was pressed down and the ground scuffed in places. It led around a knoll to a thin forest. The trees were mostly saplings, not suitable for climbing, and there was a small stream.
Hue, always curious, looked around as he ran. Though the trees were small, it was not possible to see all the way through the forest. The irregular folds of land also hid much of the terrain from immediate view. Beyond, the enormous mountains seemed suddenly close. This was a nervous region, with too much hidden, compared to the open plain. Hue would be happy to explore it at leisure, but right now he didn't trust it at all. He liked to be able to see clearly to the horizon, in case there was a bad animal lurking.
There was a cry ahead. That was Fae again, by the stream; she was trying to get away, and Bub was hitting her with his closed hand, hurting her.
Rae reacted as if struck himself. But Hue was more cautious. It was almost as if Bub were trying to make Fae cry out, to attract attention. There should be other members of Bub's band nearby. This could be an ambush.
He caught Rae's arm, attracting his attention. “Danger!” he said, gesturing around at the too-close scenery. Rae understood, and controlled his impulse to go immediately to the aid of his sister. They slowed, and watched, looking for signs of others in hiding. They waited, not approaching, though Fae was taking a beating. It was a difficult thing to do, but they knew how devious the enemy band members were; they could have snatched Fae deliberately, to lure other members of the band into a trap where they could be pounced on and killed. Bub could readily have raped Fae and left her before other members of her band got there; instead he was making her hurt. Yet though Hue strained to hear the breathing or motions of the ambushers, he could not; his acute hearing was not good enough in this situation.
Then Bil and Joe ran up, followed by other males of the home band. Bill, too, must have realized that there was something suspicious about this, and acted. The tired beest would keep; they could run her down after handling this attack on one of their females.
They spread out, circling the three by the stream. They had numbers, now; they could flush out ambushers.
Bub saw them. He made a cry of rage and insult, and fled up the stream. Sis followed. Fae was left alone.
Hue was the closest to her. He ran to her, and she jumped into his arms, almost like a child. He hugged her close, reassuring her. He had always been somewhat protective toward her, for she was his friend's sister, and a nice person. Now he had grown huge compared to her, and was better able to protect her.
Rae glanced at them, and ran on. He wanted to get Bub. Joe and Bil and the others also ran on. There was no ambush, but they could still get the bad pair, kill Bub, and do to Sis what Bub had meant to do to Fae. For Sis, despite her meanness, was an interesting female. They would probably have to hold her down to stop her from biting and clawing, the first few times.
Fae's embrace became more intimate. She spread her legs, offering him sex from the front. She had the smell of a woman. Hue had not had this in mind, but now that she brought it up, he realized that he was interested. He had always liked her, and had enjoyed playing with her when they both had been children. Sex was another kind of game, and the idea of doing it with a longtime friend appealed. She did not care that he wielded his club with the wrong hand.
So he bore her down to the ground and drove into her tight body, experiencing phenomenal fulfillment. She moved with him, eager to oblige and to experience, and derived the same satisfaction he did. No biting or clawing here! Then she hugged him again, possessively, and he realized that he had found his second mate.
The others returned. Bub and Sis had eluded them, knowing this odd terrain better. They were frustrated, but satisfied that they had rescued Fae and driven off the attackers. It was time to return to the interrupted hunt.
Rae paused, knowing by the smell what had happened between his friend and his sister. He saw Fae standing very close to Hue, almost touching him, happy. Then he shrugged and moved on, accepting the situation.
They moved as a group back the way they had come. Fae stayed right with Hue throughout. When they returned to the berry patch, where Bee and Lee waited, the two children stared, immediately knowing the changed relationship. Then they too shrugged; these things happened.
Joe screamed with outrage. Everyone looked. There on the far side of the valley was a band of strangers consuming the beest. They had run down the prey the home band had worn out, and killed her, while Hue and the others were rescuing Fae. Now they were hacking and tearing off the most available portions, to carry away for slow consumption elsewhere.
The home band charged in a mass, eager to fight the interlopers. But it took time to cross the valley, and in that time the strangers were busily eating. Finally they retreated, as they were about to be caught, leaving the carcass to the home band. But the best parts of it were gone.
Hue realized what had happened. There had been no ambush. Bub and Sis had deliberately lured Hue, Rae, and the other males away from the chase, and kept them occupied while their other band members poached the cow. It was a marvel of sneakiness. Now the home band was left with the leavings, as if they had come across carrion. It was an insult, but there was nothing to be done. At least they had a good deal of solid meat remaining. All of them came to eat, their anger fading along with their hunger.
That night Fae joined Hue in his tree, bringing him further novelty of new sex and attention. Lil did not object; it was not her nature or her place. A man could have as many mates as he could govern, and Fae had always been nice to the children. Perhaps Lil was satisfied to avoid sex for a while. They would get along.
Sex among chimpanzees is frequent and universal; each member of a band may do it on an hourly basis, and every male has access to every female with the possible exception of his mother. Females can be quite forward about it, approaching males, giving them sex, then taking food from them. The competition for procreation occurs mostly in the testicles, which grow large and produce enormous quantities of sperm, so as to displace the sperm of rivals, rather than displacing the rivals themselves. It is a way of facilitating group social relations: a male did not fight with a female with whom he shared sex. Early humans may have followed that pattern, or shifted to the harem pattern, with dominant males reserving a number of females to themselves. Monogamy was a concept whose time had probably not yet come. But perhaps within the harem, man and women were reasonably loyal to one another, once they had made their choices, as they are today. Sex was not a matter of great concern, as long as it was among friends.
Lake Victoria probably expanded and contracted many times as the local climate shifted, causing the people living there to move back and forth more than they might have chosen. It is not surprising that some bands left it to range southeast through the neighboring geography. Hue and his friends did not realize it, but they had discovered a section of the Eastern Rift Valley, whose volcanic soil made for rich plant life, and therefore rich animal life. They left their footprints and their bones there, all the way north to the Afar Triangle. The great Rift system, including the Lake Victoria basin in its center, was the crucible that forged man. But it had not yet completed the job.I
CHAPTER 4
* * *
FIRE
By two million years ago, mankind was using stone tools. He had always used clubs, which did not survive as fossils, and stones, which have not been recognized as tools or weapons because they were not modified. He simply threw them as they were. But now Homo habilis, Handy Man, was pounding rocks into specialized shapes, and so was able to attract the notice of archaeologists. He was the
gracile variant, competing with the robust variants of the Southern Ape for a million years.
Several significant things were occurring at this time, and they may be related. The ice ages were in progress, mankind was using the hand axe, and his brain was expanding. So, probably, was his vocabulary. He was getting less like a two-footed animal.
BEE and Lee were almost like twins, always close together though they weren't related. They were still children, but the next two or three years would see them become women, and then things would change. They didn't care. They were getting almost as curious about things as Hue, and loved helping him explore new places. Lil was tolerant; after all, she had her new baby, Hue's son, to keep her occupied. Hue had named him Jae.
So now the two girls raced ahead, seeking stones, while Hue followed as closely as was feasible. Then came Lil carrying Jae, and Fae. Other members of the band were foraging in other directions, not caring to go any farther toward the huge smoking mountain than they had to. So it was just Hue's family for this excursion. They would return to the band by nightfall.
The stones they sought were special: the kind that could be chipped to form sharp edges. Vik had a touch with such stone; he could pound it into a perfect hand axe. Every man in the band had his own axe, together with lesser tools, but they wanted to have more, because there was a special use for extras. The axe was the most versatile of weapons, and its use was carefully cultivated.
But fetching suitable stones could be nervous business, because the best ones were found near the smoking mountains. Those mountains were dangerous; the band people had seen and heard more than one shoot smoke and fire from its top, and often enough they dribbled burning red spittle that flowed down the sides, setting fire to everything it touched, until finally it settled and slowly cooled and solidified.
There was a scream of discovery. The two girls came running back. Bee was holding a chunk of rock. “See! See!” she cried. “Tool! Weapon!”