New Home, New Mates and New Neighbors
Leader Brog wasn't terribly happy with sharing a cavern system with the Others, but he had to admit that the part of it they had given to the women and children that they had rescued, was easily a dream come true for any clan leader. There were relatively few adult Others, though having learned from the mogur of the local Others about the Bad Luck cave and it's lazy leader, he wasn't surprised that the only survivors had been the good hunters and hard workers. He was a bit surprised that most of those had been children. The following Spring, those children had wisely alerted the mogurs of the group of caves they had been born to, then left the region in search of one that had responsible people in charge of it. The oldest looked after the youngest and all had found what they'd been looking for, but after their experience in the cave of their birth, they were determined not to allow other people's poor decisions and laziness determine their fate again...they'd found a place of their own. It was their experience with the kind of suffering brought by bad luck that wasn't their own or caused by anything they had done that had led these Others to welcome the Clan's women and their children.
That they were willing to share it with any in need of a home was commendable. The Stupid, Bad Luck men of their own people had been safely sealed away from the living quarters of their former mates and spirit barriers had been put in place by both the Other's mogur and his own. The females had a place in the underworld made for them where they could not endanger the Clan males, was safe from predators and still good shelter. Food and what was needed for sleeping places was taken with them. Because it was underground, there was plenty of stone, so they took carving tools and made new bowls and such that would never leave the Women's Place.
Sometimes a female mogur of the Others entered to make sure the barriers that held the spirit world away from the mortal one were still sound, down there, in the Women's Place. They did this so that no clan male, even the mogur, needed to endanger himself. They didn't come out naked as the clan women must, but they did stop by the Medicine Cave to visit with the Medicine Women...they did that often anyway, often bringing a fresh harvest of some medicine or another, or meat or a green cured hide, or wood of a good size, grain and shape to make into bowls...which no one else needed, to drop it off with the busy Medicine Women, who had twice as much work to do as most of the other women. This was a kindness for the Medicine Women had daughters who were still learning Medicine but which had the time to carve bowls or work hides.
One of the Others hunters had answered him, when he asked why they still supported the clan even though the men were there now, with affection in his odd green eyes, "We are kin. You are one kind of human, I am another, but we are both still human. One of our ancient mogurs taught us that long ago, we and the clan had a common ancestor...one that the clan still tells of in your own ancient legends of the time before the clan became clan."
"What ancestor is this?"
"Durc and those who went south with him...we, whom you call Others, are descended from Durc who lived in the time before the Clan became the Clan...before you were clan and we were us: So, we are kin. We treat you like kin, that is all. It is how we are taught. Some learn the lessons better than others do, but every one of my kind of human in these caves understands and accepts that your kind, Leader Brog, are as much my kin as my mother or my brothers." The hunter had shrugged. "We behave accordingly."
That had certainly been a shock, but it explained why they'd shared such a grand cavern system...it was the sort of kindness that family shows to family, nothing less.
One of the male hunters of the Others stopped a middle ranked hunter of the Clan one day in late spring to invite the clan on a seashore harvesting expedition. "There are two or three kinds of migrating fish, like salmon and sturgeon due in, there are several kinds of seal and if luck is with us, a whale might beach itself, there's a herring run and a crab run, plus there are kinds of smaller deer that need to be hunted. We only go every five or six years and we stay from late spring until it's time for the gatherers to harvest grain. That is many months." Hannock told the clan hunter. "Your wolf pups need to start learning to hunt and that's easier to teach them on the shore where deer are smaller...it's also easier to teach them caution. Poking their noses at a crab or two tends to drive that lesson home...one pinch..." He motioned, then the Other's Hunter imitated the kiyi sound of a nosed pinched puppy while using his fingers to imitate the motion of a crab's claw closing on a tender black nose.
The hunter, Veck, snorted in amusement. He did not laugh for that wasn't the clan's way, but amusement could be seen in his body just the same. The clan had picked up a few things, like proper moccasins, leggings, tunics and such things, for they were more efficient uses for the hides the men brought their women and kept a person warmer. The moccasins covered the whole foot and the lower part of the leg, to just below the knee.
Brog and his hunters finally understood why the Others put odd designs on the things that they made. One of the Medicine Women had asked during the time they were without men and had later told her new mate...one of the brothers of Brog, a man protected by the Spirit of Mammoth, called Thun. His first mate had died but left him with a young son, weaned, but still very young that his new mate accepted as her own, Second Medicine Woman Ega, one of the adopted women. The Third Medicine Woman was actually the one they had brought with them, for the other one of the rescued Medicine Women was called Igu, and was from an ancient line. He understood that taking the time to do the work meant that the cave was a wealthy one. All the harvests and hunting had provided a massive surplus and everyone had more than enough clothing for the winter...and that meant that there was very little work to do. Carvings, dyeings and other kinds of crafting arose from the boredom that follows when one is well provisioned and there's nothing to do but sleep. Carvings on weapons were the symbols of hunting luck...and the better the carver was, the better the luck would be. When the best carvings were colored correctly, the luck increased again. The designs of shells and brightly colored stones, drilled through and strung on sinew before being sewn onto clothing were pictures of a person's skills and accomplishments so everyone could see it and everyone could understand a person's rank at a glance.
He'd sent two mid ranked hunters to the nearest Gathering to report these things to the Clan and return. They were not due at a gathering this year because of this emergency: But the Gathered Mogurs and Leaders needed to be told. The hunters had returned with the decision that the expressions of visual rank make sense and so wasn't as strange as they'd thought. Apparently, there were some Others at the Gathering that also explained that for women's work...bowls, hides and such, a small design carved into the item could represent her name I am name-sign mated to name-sign, clan of Leader name-sign so everyone who saw the item knew who she was, who her mate was and which leader they answered to.
Good work raised her mate's status, poor work lowered it because it meant he wasn't making sure she was as useful as she should be. It was considered by the leaders to be an additional way to make sure all the members of each leader's clan was living up to their responsibilities.
Just having Igu and her three daughters, Agu, Ega and Obra in his clan had raised Brog's status a great deal. Next Clan Gathering, he would give two of her daughters to men in other clans as mates and the daughters of the lesser Medicine Women as well. Each woman's First Daughter would be kept and mated to the sons of the women of his clan, particularly the sons of his original medicine woman. When a leader mated a man whose mother was a medicine woman to another line's medicine woman's trained daughter, any girls were welcome because they would usually be valuable when traded to other clans as high status mates. Two of the younger women had sons who were born to the hearth of the sons of the mates of the higher ranking leader and if their mother's mates had survived, would have one day been leaders themselves. If none of the mates of the sons of his mate had sons, the firstborn of these boys might still be the leader after his mate's son. As it was, they were training up into fine Second or Third ranked hunters for his mate's first son's generation.
They were, of course, still boys, not men...but they were learning very fast.
Brog hadn't really believed the Others when they had told him of the sheer number of children that these women had, but it was hard to argue with your own eyes. Some of the older or pregnant women had stayed in the cave with several of the wolves belonging to the others as protective guards for them. This allowed all of the smaller children to be left behind along with nursing mothers and elders to watch them. Even so, there were a lot of young, strong, healthy women doing the work that was their duty, working hard, too, proud of the skills they showed the men and the leader. Their body language displayed clearly that they wanted their new mates to be proud of them.
That pride in their skills showed in every motion, saying, "Here am I, working as I should! See how useful I am? See my skill in my chores? Daughters, do not slacken! This is how you do this task to make it faster but still done correctly. My sons, you are not yet men...but you are stronger than your female siblings. Take your practice spear for safety and gather wood near the forest edge for the meal I shall make. Tell my mate where you're going so one of the real men who are real hunters can see that you stay safe."
This was good, females who were skilled and eager at their tasks had higher status. Higher status women raised the status of their mates and that raised his status...and together all of them raised the status of their entire clan. He and his men seldom had to cuff the new women, though their own were a bit lazier because they had never gone without a man's protection. The new women showed their value openly because they understood better the value of their new mates.
The spirits had blessed and protected them until good men could be brought to replace the bad luck ones. They'd explained this to the Leader's Mate once, when she complained and she had said no more. Nor did the other women, but they understood that these women and their children had gone into danger alone and although afterward, the Others had rescued them, the rescue hadn't come until after the stampeded bison were gone.
Several of the children and older babies had been Chosen and Marked by the living examples of Totem Spirits that wanted to help the women while they waited for new men to come. That one baby boy, Chosen of Cave Lion, would one day be a powerful hunter. Because of this, Grud, the first son of the mate of his Second Hunter had mated with the boy's mother. That the Chosen of Lion had a brother that was Chosen of Leopard was another reason, the boys would need a good teacher and Grud was one his best hunters.
He paused for a time to watch as his clan worked together with the Others to make a massive harvest possible. One big enough to last for many years. The distance from the Cave to the main portion of the Shore was short, but this was further up the coast and had taken two weeks to reach. The fishing was over, but they also hunted seals, seal lions and a few elephant seals as well as the huge rookeries of nesting seabirds. The smaller deer that Hannock had mentioned were used to teach the older boys to a stalk prey in more open areas, a harder skill to learn, especially with some of the mothers of the boys not far away, down on the beach harvesting clams for tonight's dinner. Women were loud and scared off game. The rest of the women were harvesting seabirds in the rookeries near the shore.
Younger, lower ranking males of every breed swarmed the nesting sites of their kind, hoping to steal a mate from another male. The women waded into the nesting colonies and after a moment to chose the fattest, grabbed the bachelor males by the neck, wrung it and added the bird to a deep bellied collecting basket while another, filled with straw, was used to harvest newly laid eggs from the easier to reach nests on the outer edges of the colonies.
It was a good thing that women of the Others were usually present with the women of the clan, Brog thought later, after it was over. The men were too far away to be of any use, when the big bear showed up. It was was grizzly, a young male and it wanted the blue footed booby colony to itself. One of the Others' women had merely snorted a denial of the bear's opinion and had used one of her throwing spears to place a dart in each of it's eyes, killing it immediately. As was her habit, she removed the darts, then gave the carcass to a woman who she knew needed the hide for her son whose Totem was Grizzled Bear. He didn't yet have a token from his totem.
"The hide, the largest claw and largest tooth for your son. The hide for his sleeping place and the tooth for his amulet, the claw he can wear around his neck to display it when he's older." Bera had told Voga, and the rest of the bear for your own stores, not the cave's, because it's the first Grizzled Bear since your son's Totem was named, that has been hunted and killed. Your mate will be expected to decide what to do with the rest of the teeth and all of the bones, but the meat is for your own family. Bury the liver in the place that most of the blood has pooled on the sand...or tell your mogur that I told you to do so. He will understand why and might want to honor Bear in some other way. Grizzled Bear is eating mostly fish and berries this time of year, but I don't trust that liver yet...I think it's still too early in the year."
Brog sighed, the gifts increased the boy's status while he was still nursing.
The bear hide, a claw for a display piece and a tooth for his amulet was a gift for the still nursing boy baby with the bear totem, the woman was given the meat, her mate was given the teeth and bones...and Bera had continued gathering eggs and birds as though nothing important had occurred.
Kin, Brog thought. Their ways were very different from the ways of the clan, often very strange. But also some of their ways were easily understood...Bera considered the clan kin, giving a large bear to a woman who had a son who needed a token of that kind of bear was an act of kindness by a hunter for a woman who was kin. It was nothing less than an ordinary thing for the female hunter of the Others, nothing to be dwelled upon or anything. Nothing special. Those that didn't hunt had needed protection and afterward the animal had gone to the woman who needed it most.
Kin. Brog sighed. It was difficult to get used to such a notion but in every line of their bodies they could see that to the Others, Bera's action was considered the only correct one. SHE didn't need the bear, either it's meat or the hide. She had enough bear hides and meat stored away. It was birds and eggs she wanted and once the bear had been killed and given to Voga, it was for Voga to butcher the bear...not Bera.
Voga was one of the women that had been born to Brog's clan, she had never been given such largess but she understood from the new women's body language that this wasn't anything new, that she was considered a cousin and one who needed the bear. She set her baskets aside and drew out a sharp handknife to begin to process the large bear with two other women...sisters...stopping to assist her. The mogur had been told of Bera's advice concerning the liver and had indeed had a Clan tradition that concerned the keeping livers of bears too early in the year. He agreed with Bera that the liver was still likely to be poisonous and disposed of it himself.
As the sun set on the last day on this part of the beach, the hunters that had been sent with half the women, all the females loaded down with heavy burdens back to the cave two weeks before, returned with them. Unlike the trip back, their baskets were mostly empty, intending to fill them and start filling the travois and pannier baskets of their mares as soon as they got back. The rest of the women and different men would depart at dawn to take back more harvested foods to be put away by the childminders at home.
The men mostly traveled a bit higher up the beach, leaving the wet sand near the water untrampled for the women who were raking up clams to harvest as they moved. The adults had eaten, but the children were being fed fresh clams and sometimes oysters, by their mothers whose strong hands easily popped the hinges on the shellfish and used one half of the shell to scoop out the soft-bodied animal inside.
Two days of rather pleasant travel later and a large beached whale provided a massive harvest that took many days to complete, along with many trips with loads of preserved meat and blubber back to both caves. After the whale, the leaders of both caves consulted and the Others changed the direction of travel a bit, starting a long curve by following a particular river upstream. Eventually, this river, they told Brog, would have them within eye-shot of the cave. But there was much hunting and harvesting to do before they got that far. And they had to wait until the clan hunters returned with the last group of women.
By the time the last hunt was done and the last bits of plant, root, seed or fruit had been plucked and they wearily entered their caves., there was a decided chill in the air and the next morning showed frost on the vegetation when people went outside. Now the women and children gathered only one thing...wood. There was a huge surplus of food and hides, great variety were in stores...but wood needed stockpiling. First they gathered enough for the day...and then they gathered enough that day to last a week. That was the habit the lost women had gotten into until the men came. Anything not needed for heat would be worked into bowls or other things. Male children who were old enough were put to hauling large chunks of sandstone or flat river rocks back to their mother's mate's hearthcave while females worked with their mothers. There was still quite a bit to harvest, though, from the food plants and also from snares set to catch rabbits and other small animals, and the half grown girls were put to doing that while adults and younger girls gathered wood. In this way, both resources were used.
When the first flake of snow drifted down to begin to cover the ground one night, one of the women saw it and gestured to several others to help her hang the barrier over the mouth of the cave. The new women watched, confused as a hide covered wooden frame was attached to two posts that had always been on either side of the door, so that it swung from one, to open and close. Another woman brought two flat, long, thick pieces of wood and laid each in a bracket set in the posts...the new women understood immediately. This barrier kept out the wind. The flat boards kept the barrier closed but could be removed to go out. They were shown the place a second woman left two more boards and they hung a second barrier on the outside, tying the first shut, then the second.
"If the boards lie over the outside barrier and the inside one is tied closed, nobody is in the cave. If the boards lie over the inside barrier and the outside one is tied closed, nobody is outside. Do not tied a barrier and bar the other unless you know where everyone is." One of the medicine women told the rest of the women. "When everyone is in the cave and the outer barrier is tied shut and the inside one is boarded closed, it is much, much warmer inside the cave."
The mate of the former leader nodded. "Summer weight clothing is enough, once the barriers are closed to the outside and all the tunnels. Food lasts longer when no one is cold."
~*~TBC~*~