Death in the Time of Ice (11 page)

Hama motioned for Enga to stand, so she rose and relayed the dismal news from the traders. When she finished, Hama gave her a curt nod and motioned her to sit. Enga knew the dead Hama would have thanked her for delivering the message.

Frustration emanated from her brothers and sisters, then fear. Enga waited for Hama to calm them.

The tribe’s muttered consternation blended together. They disliked the news, but knew the males had to go farther. They sent sympathy and mourning to Goe, the Cuva, hoping good fortune would befall him. No answer came. Enga wondered if Goe was too weak to receive the wishes.

Hama, instead of reassuring her tribe, proposed that a hunt by the children should take place at the next first sun.

Four of our males are gone trading
, thought-spoke Hama,
and Fee Long Thrower, as well as Ung Strong Arm, are disabled. Someone must try to bring meat home. We have speared caribou in the forest in the past.

And how will we spear caribou with no spear throwers?
shot back Ongu Small One.

The children,
Hama answered.
They have never hunted before
,
but now, in this hard time, they must try.

Enga thought Gunda was brave to offer.
I will try. I have been training and can sometimes hit the target.

Kung stood up and transmitted his feelings.
I can do it with Mootak and Doon. We are larger than Gunda and we should throw the spears.

Enga ignored this, as males never used spears.

Roh Lion Hunter, mother of the little ten-year-old female, Gunda, gave her opinion.
The young girls should try. They at least have training. The young males have none.

Jeek, the son of Zhoo of Still Waters, nodded agreement at this.

My Gunda has trained for years now,
Roh thought-spoke
. She is ten summers old and will be ready for her Passage Ceremony in only two summers.

Hama countered that their training might be spoiled by hunting when they were not yet ready.
Maybe the young males can take an animal. They have no future as spear throwers and so cannot ruin their education if they fail, or are injured.

Ongu protested.
My boys are too young. They will be hurt. Maybe killed.

Her oldest child was Mootak, the companion of Kung and Doon. She had two males younger, ages six and eight. None of them had ever been on a hunt.

This is what we must do. The young males must hunt.
Hama frowned at Ongu.
They must do it for the tribe.

Many of them grumbled and disagreed, but none had another solution. Enga noticed that only Hama considered her idea good. Cabat managed to convince Hama to wait for the space of one sun, to prepare for the hunt tomorrow and to hold the hunt just after Sister Sun appeared the next day. A few Hamapa would scout for recent signs of caribou and point the hunters in the right direction. The deer usually returned to the woods nearby for mating at about this time in the cycle of seasons. Also, spear shafts had to be fitted for the youths.

Sannum Straight Hair tried to reassure Enga.
The decision of Hama is not a bad one. And no one has a better idea. She has a point about ruining the training of the girls. Perhaps soon we will have enough food for the Dark Season and we can all relax for a time.

Enga loved her adopted tribe and feared for them all. She gazed at them in the flickering light. They studied the sparks of their communal fire, their wide-set eyes in their strong, broad faces clouded and serious, and Enga tried to picture the next hunt, led by the rebellious youths.

Then Hama held her rattle high and declared an opinion, but not aloud. She sent a depiction of the nearest tribe of Mikino, who lived several suns’ journeys toward the place where Sister Sun retired at the end of the day, opposite the direction the traders had taken. Her vision of the Mikino was soaked in blood and death.

The Mikino killed the Aja Hama. A Mikino must be killed.

Enga sent an objection back.
No! The Mikino have not been here.
Sannum and Panan joined Enga in protesting.

Kung stood, and Doon with him. Kung agreed that the Mikino had killed their leader and so the Hamapa should kill one of them.

Attack the Mikino! Attack the Mikino!
thought-screeched Doon.

This is not what we need now
, mused Enga privately, narrowing and darkening her mind to keep the idea in,
not more agitation and fear
.
Is there no wisdom in our leader?

It startled Enga that most of the others heeded the new Hama, however. Maybe they were relieved to stop thinking about whether or not one of them had killed their Hama. Maybe it was just easier to go along with the leader.

Cabat the Thick, the Most High Male, stood to thought-speak.
It does appear there are a few small footprints near the wipiti where Hama died. Panan One Eye has told me this. Although most of them were covered by those of Enga Dancing Flower. Even if the Mikino did kill our leader, we will wait until the rest of the males are back to confront them. We are too few without them.

Enga admired his adept sidestepping of the real issue of who killed their leader. But was there an undercurrent to what he thought-spoke? Did he think she deliberately obliterated some footprints?

Panan, the Storyteller, confronted Cabat.
Are you throwing suspicion where it does not belong? Are you hiding something? Did you want Hama dead because she was returning to me?

Cabat ignored the accusation and turned his back on Panan.
A Hamapa would not kill another Hamapa. A Mikino did this.

Fear for her tribe welled up more strongly yet inside Enga. What would happen to them if they could not agree on anything? They needed a wise leader, one who considered her opinions before she announced them.

The council ended with no decision on doing battle. Most wanted to wait until the males returned. Then they would have adequate food, and could gather enough strength to make the journey and, if Hama could not be deterred, engage the Mikino in battle.

Chapter 9

Only one extant weir has been described from the Midwest, a stone structure located on the Chariton River (near its confluence with the Missouri River) in Missouri (Connaway 1982:156). Shields (1967:490) presents evidence that this was indeed a prehistoric structure, and that it was originally “V”-shaped (with a gap in the center), but was reconstructed (and its design altered) by European Americans sometime after 1837.

—From Prehistoric Fishweirs in Eastern North America, Master’s Thesis by allen lutins. Found at http://www.lutins.org/thesis/

Soon after first light the child-hunters spread out at the edge of the spruce forest. Sannum Straight Hair had scouted and found a caribou herd that had returned to the forest. He had heard the males rutting, he reported, clanking their horns together and grunting. The Hamapa did not hunt caribou as often as they hunted mammoths since one mammoth provided so much meat and fur, but as the mammoths were moving away maybe they could hunt caribou more often.

Jeek eyed his young companions and squared his small shoulders, then flung his long tangled hair behind him.

The adolescent males, Kung, Doon, Mootak, and young Akkal, held the spears that Sannum Straight Hair and Enga Dancing Flower had fashioned for them. The shafts were short, for their smaller arms. They would attempt to use them for the first time. Jeek looked up at Kung, the tallest of the four spear holders, and down on Doon, the smallest. He saw Kung and Akkal wipe sweaty palms on their garments. Jeek felt his hands sweat, too, even though he held no spear.

Kung bragged,
This spear seems light. It should not be a problem for me to get a big caribou.

No, it shouldn’t
, answered Jeek.
Since we will drive them right at you.

To himself Jeek wondered,
Why does Kung think spearing should be easy? Has he ever used one? Did he stab the Aja Hama? Could that be why he thinks spearing an animal looks easy?
A chill came over Jeek when this occurred to him. Doon’s bragging echoed Kung’s, but Jeek did not consider Doon at all capable of using a weapon.

His mind wandered further.
I do not understand why the rest of the tribe thinks Enga Dancing Flower wrong when she says a Hamapa killed our leader. That has to be what happened. But who? Kung? Maybe it was.

Jeek reeled in his speculations and returned to the task. He and Gunda gave each other nods. Normally he would be thrilled to be this close to little green-eyed Gunda, but their mission was too important for him to even think about this now. Enga had felt she needed to stay with Ung, so she was not here to help. Enga had little experience hunting caribou, so she had not felt the need to go along and, as she put it, be in the way.

But what was this? Why was Gunda standing next to Kung, tilting her head up at him, and smiling at him with such glee? He tuned in. He couldn’t catch the substance, but Gunda and Kung were flashing thoughts back and forth. Was Gunda admiring Kung? Did she not know he was full of talk only? Jeek balled his fists and clenched his teeth.

I will show her how skilled I am at flushing game. After all, I can do this because I have done it before. Now she will see who is competent.

Sannum had found signs of a herd deeper into the woods, so they headed that way, leaving the spear holders where the trees began.

With Roh Lion Hunter leading them, Gunda, her two sisters, Jeek, and the two birth brothers of Mootak crept into the woods to flush out the caribou. Roh, recovered enough now from losing her baby to help them, had been on several caribou hunts in the past. Three of the flushers, Gunda and her two younger sisters, were her birth children.

Jeek and the others stole through the brush, seeking the animals with their eyes, their ears, and their noses, hoping to hear the clashing sounds of the males vying for females. Forest birds called out in alarm as they passed and rodents rustled in the fallen leaves and needles underfoot.

They searched for a long time. They walked through the spruce, tilting their nostrils up to sniff for scent of the animals, and casting their glances from side to side, watching for signs they had been there. The herd sighted yesterday must have moved deep into the woods. They did startle many small animals—hares, shrews, and one porcupine—but no caribou. A cat of long-tooth lounged on a ledge outside a cave, but didn’t bother the children. Jeek took note of where the cave was. Maybe later one of the real hunters, an adult female, could spear this cat.
Or could I spear it myself? That would impress Gunda.

At last Roh halted, held both arms up, and silently sent out a strident signal.
Straight ahead. Near the edge of the water.

Jeek sucked his breath in, then worried that he had made a noise. But the herd did not turn toward them. The two males were making too much noise. They lowered their heads and swung their impressive racks at each other, connecting and stepping back in a kind of dance. They snorted and grunted as they clashed. The female caribou and a few more males stood in a huddle watching the competition. The caribou could not have been more fascinated than Jeek was.

All of the children crowded in close to Roh. Jeek stole up next to Gunda to watch. Roh grinned and thrust up all the fingers of one hand and two of the other hand. That was the number of adult females. The Hamapa would concentrate on the females since they and their antlers were smaller and there would be less chance of getting hurt if the animals challenged the hunters. She poked her tongue between her teeth and motioned her plan partly with her hands and partly with thought-signals. Jeek hoped it would work.

The children half circled the animals. The two little brothers went behind the herd, and Gunda’s two sisters took one side. Roh went with them. Jeek and Gunda took up position on the other side and crouched, waiting until all were in place.

His chest thumped like a herd was stampeding inside it. To calm himself he grabbed Gunda’s hand and took several deep breaths. She returned his look with her soft green eyes. His chest thumped again. One more deep breath. Then he was ready. She nodded. She was ready also.

Roh Lion Hunter remained motionless a few moments more, then gave the mental signal.
Go!

The children leaped up, waving their arms and shouting, “Yiy yiy yiy yiy,” as loud and as fast and as high-pitched as they could. The male animals stopped, tossed their heads, then fled through the trees. The females jerked their heads up, looked around in panic, and started to stampede.

The children trampled after them.

Over there!
Jeek pointed.
I’ll get the female who is leaving the herd.

He put on speed and brought her back to the stampede so the caribou would meet the hunters when they emerged from the forest.

The deer had been found deep into the woods and ran a long distance with the six Hamapa children chasing them, yelling and flapping their arms to keep the creatures moving. Two or three young males split from the stampede.

Should I get them?
asked Gunda.

No, let them go
, answered Jeek.
They are small. We must concentrate on the adult female caribou
.

Suddenly, Jeek’s toe caught in a root and he sprawled on his stomach. Blushing furiously, he jumped up and continued the chase. Had Gunda seen him fall? Roh had. She sent him a wave of encouragement with a kind smile. He hurried to catch up with Gunda, gritting his teeth and scolding himself for being clumsy.