by J. H. Rosny
“Aoun does not fear the red beast,” he cried.
A roar sharper and more strident than the first surprised the warriors.
“It’s voice is greater than its body," said Zouhr, “its teeth are sharper than those of any other flesh eater."
"Aoun will fell it with a blow of his club.”
The animal made a bound measuring twenty cubits, and stooping down, Aoun perceived another monster, a giant, which was trotting along at the base of the promontory. Its skin was naked, its legs were like young willow trunks, and its muzzle was enormous and stupid looking. It was a male hippopotamus in full strength. It tried to regain the river. But the sabre-tooth barred its way at every tum, and the hippopotamus came to a standsill, its gaping jaws uttering a growl.
“The animal is too small to overcome the hippopotamus,” said Aoun. “The hippopotamus does not fear the lion."
Zouhr looked on without saying anything. An intense curiosity possessed the two men—all the passion for strife which lies dormant in man.
Suddenly the sabre-tooth made its spring. It alighted on the neck of the hippopotamus and held on to it with its sharp claws. The pachyderm, howling with pain, galloped towards the river. But the sharp teeth penetrated the leather-like skin, and lodged in the thick flesh beneath. An ever-widening wound appeared in the colossal neck and the sabre-tooth drank the red flood which flowed from it with sounds of joy and triumph.
At first the hippopotamus hastened his pace, he no longer howled, his energy was concentrated on regaining the river. There he would plunge into his native pastures and heal his wound, there he would find the joy of renewed life. His massive paws beat down the savannah, and despite the swaying body on his back, he still progressed as fast as a wild boar or an onager. The river was near, its damp smell raised the monster's courage. But the savage teeth were plunged in once more, a new wound began to open, the hippopotamus reeled. The short legs trembled, the rattle of death came from his monstrous muzzle, and the relentless teeth of his assailant struck ever deeper.
Just as he had reached the margin of the rushes, the victim turned slowly round, he was seized with giddiness. . . . He drew one more hoarse breath and then the immense mass subsided.
The sabre-tooth reared himself on his lithe paws, gave forth a roar which caused the buffaloes to flee in the distance and settled himself to devour his yet living prey.
Aoun and Zouhr remained silent. They felt the approach of carnivorous night, an uncomfortable feeling shivered down their spines, they vaguely understood that this new world was a land belonging to another age, older than that in which the Oulhamr habitually roamed, a land where animals still existed which had lived in the time of the earliest men. The deep shadow of the past settled down with the twilight, and the age-old river flowed all red through the savannah.
THE FIRE IN THE NIGHT
It took them two days to fashion their arms. The spears were tipped with pointed flints or sharp teeth; they had each a harpoon whose point was of hom, two bows which could shoot arrows to a distance, and finally the oak had provided clubs, of which the heaviest, wielded by Aoun, was calculated to be dangerous for even the largest wild animals.
They climbed down from the point of the promontory into the plain, helping themselves with thongs cut from the skin of a deer. When they were once on the savannah the horde of the Oulhamr seemed immeasurably distant. Aoun was carried away by the strength of his youth and the spirit of conquest which is innate in human animals. He only needed to hide himself in the grass to surprise the wild goat or the spotted deer or the antelope. But he did not kill herb-cropping animals wastefully, for flesh is slow in growing and man must eat every day. When the horde had abundance of provisions, Naoh, the chief of the Oulhamr, forbade hunting.
Moreover the newness of it all astonished the companions. They watched the gavial, which was twelve ells long, with its long slender snout. They could see it floating in the river or lying in ambush on an islet or among the rushes by the bank. The dryopithecus* shewed his black hands and human body in the branches of the trees. Troops of wild cattle, strong as the urus and armed with horns which were capable of goring the chest of the tiger or crushing the lion, roamed at will. Black gayals displayed their massive stature and prominent withers.
* An extinct genus of long-armed apes, remains of which are found in the Miocene beds of the South of France.
A cheetah disappeared suddenly at the turn of a thicket; a pack of wolves, in pursuit of a nylghau, slunk along in a furtive and sinister manner, and the dholes, with their noses close to the ground, followed closely on a trail or raising their fine heads in the air howled in chorus. Sometimes a tapir rose up terrified from its lair, or fled into the mazes of the banyan trees.
Aoun and Zouhr, on the alert and with dilated nostrils, were on their guard against cobras, and in terror of the beasts of prey. These creatures, however, were sleeping in their dens or among the bamboos; only a red panther shewed himself in the hollow of a rock towards the middle of the day, and fixed his green eyes on the two men.
Aoun lifted his club and straightened his muscular form, but Zouhr, remembering the sabre-tooth, held back the arm of his companion.
"The son of Urus must not fight yet."
Aoun understood Zouhr’s thought: he argued that as the sabre-tooth had shewn itself to be more powerful than the lion, even so this red panther might prove to have the strength of a tiger. Naoh, Faouhm and Goun of the Dry Bones, teach prudence as much as courage: one must know one’s enemies. All the same the Oulhamr did not at once lower his cudgel: he cried, "Aoun does not fear the panther!”
As the wild beast did not stir from the cavern, the men resumed their way. They sought a place of retreat. In that torrid country, the night must teem with carnivorous animals; even near the fire, too many perils threatened the nomads. The Oulhamr had the custom and the art of homemaking. They knew how to protect the mouths of caverns by the aid of boulders, boughs and trunks of trees; they could make shelters for themselves either in open ground or under overhanging rocks.
All day the companions found nothing, and towards evening they left the river bank. The first stars came out as they halted on a rising ground where only some sparse brushwood and thin grass grew. Protected on one side by a wall of slate they arranged their fire in a semicircle. They were to take turns to watch. Aoun was to be on guard first, because his hearing was sharpest and his sense of smell most subtle: for the early part of the night is the most dangerous.
A gentle breeze wafted the disagreeable odours of the beasts and the pleasant smell of the vegetable world towards him. The young Oulhamr’s senses were aware of the lightest shades of sound, phosphorescence or effluvia.
First the jackals shewed themselves, furtive, uncertain and graceful. The fire at once attracted and alarmed them. They remained immovable for a time, then, gently pawing the ground, they drew near to the mystery. Their shadows lengthened behind them, their brilliant eyes became alive with red light, their pointed ears were stretched in all directions. They recoiled altogether at the slightest movement that Aoun made. The moment he moved his arm they fled, giving vent to faint yelps. Aoun was not afraid of them even when they came in great numbers, but their strong smell incommoded him, by rendering the emanations from the other wild beasts less distinct.
Not to waste his weapons he picked up some stones. At his first throw they dispersed. Then the dholes appeared, their numbers and their hunger making them audacious. They prowled in clusters or darted forward with growls, which passed from one to another as if they were talking among themselves. The fire brought them up short. They were as curious as the jackals and sniffed the smell of the roast meat and of the two men. A confused supplication seemed to be blended with their covetousness.
When Aoun threw stones at them the advance guard drew back and heaped themselves together in a comer, while threatening howls proceeded from the semi-darkness. They rallied when they were out of reach and sent out scouts, who sought cunnin
gly for openings. The spaces which separated the sides of the fire from the ridge seemed to them too narrow; they returned to them, however, sniffing all the time in an irritating manner. Sometimes they feigned an attack, or a group would gather behind a rock and howl there, in the hope that a sudden panic would yield up the meat to them.
Little by little the jackals had come back, more crafty than ever, but kept at a little distance from the dholes. They retreated before a dozen wolves who had appeared from the qast, but who presently dispersed, leaving the place free for the hyenas. These animals trotted along in an exasperating way, with a convulsive motion of their sloping backs, giving vent at intervals to bursts of laughter like those of an old woman.
Two dwarf bats were circling round on their soft wings; higher up a roussette, whose wings were as wide as an eagle’s spread, floated under the stars; near the fire the bewildered nocturnal insect world quivered in myriads, the gnats formed into humming columns and the foolish beetles fell among the glowing logs.
Two bearded monkeys’ heads were peeping out from a banyan tree; a marsh owl moaned on a hillock and a hornbill thrust its enormous beak through the feathered leaves of a palm tree.
Aoun was beset by anxiety. He watched all those gaping jaws and sharp teeth, arid those staring eyeballs, which shone in the fire-light like living carbuncles.
Death was hovering about him. There was enough energy assembled there to destroy fifty men. The dholes had the strength of the horde, the hyena's jaws were as strong as the tiger’s: the tall wolves shewed their muscular necks, even the jackals, with their pointed teeth, could have tom Aoun and Zouhr to pieces in the time it would take a branch to burn. The fire stupefied these staring animals; they were cunning but not audacious, and the difference of their species disunited their common covetousness.
They waited for some event to happen such as rewards those who watch and wait: and at intervals mutual hate threw them upon one an other. When the wolves howled the jackals took refuge in the shadows, but the dholes gave tongue together, and all fell back before the hyenas. These animals, who are but a slight menace to man, being averse to all risks and accustomed to prey on the dead or the defenceless remained there, held fast by the crowd around them and by the fascination of that strange light which emanated from the ground.
At last a leopard appeared and Aoun woke Zouhr up. The wild beast crouched before the dholes. His amber coloured eyes were riveted on the Barnes and on the tall forms of the two men.
Aoun exclaimed indignantly, “The son of Urus has killed three leopards."
The animal stretched .out its paws with the long claws, and let its lithe flexible body lie at full length. It was of great height and more massively built than the spotted leopards which the Oulhamr were acquainted with. Its skin was loose over its muscles. It could easily have sprung over the fire and attained the ridge where the two men stood. It endeavoured anxiously to recognize what those two upright creatures were. Their smell and the shape of their bodies reminded it of the gibbon, but the gibbon was smaller and had not the same appearance. The red light shewed them to be taller than the gaur: their movements and the curious objects which they balanced at the end of their arms, awoke the leopard’s prudence. Besides he was alone and these creatures were ready to face him.
Aoun shouted more loudly, his voice sounded like that of a powerful enemy. . . . The leopard crept towards the left, hesitated a moment before the empty space which separated the fire from the ridge, then passed to one side and backwards. A stone struck him in the face. He gave vent to a howl of rage, but retreated. He crouched in a threatening attitude as if about to spring, then scratched the earth with his claws and swerved towards the river. He was followed by a party of jackals, the dholes and wolves gave signs of fatigue, and the hyenas roamed in ever increasing circles, and only appeared intermittently in the flickering light. . . .
Suddenly all the hordes were on the qui vice, all their nostrils sniffed the air towards the west, and the sharp ears were pricked. Short strident roars broke the silence and made the men on the ledge start. Then a sinuous body rose up in the shadow and alighted in the full blaze of the fire-light The dholes had gone away, tense excitement kept the wolves immovable and caused their eyes to flame, the hyenas came back at a trot; and two civet cats mewed in the half light
Aoun and Zouhr recognized that red fur and those terrible teeth. . . .
The beast crouched by the fire. He was hardly bigger than the leopard and not so large as the tallest hyenas, but all the other animals bowed before a mysterious power which emanated from his movements and his immense eyes.
Aoun and Zouhr held their weapons in readiness. The son of Urus had a harpoon in his right hand, his club was at his feet; Zouhr who was not so strong preferred the spears. They both considered the sabre-tooth was superior in strength to the tigeT, and perhaps even as much to be feared as the enormous wild beast from which Naoh, Caw and Nam had made their escape some time ago in the country of the Men-Devourers. They already knew that he could cover twenty ells at a single bound, a greater distance than that which separated him from the ridge. But the fire stopped him. The red tail lashed the earth; the thunderous voice resounded in volleys; the two men’s muscles stiffened as if they had been made of granite. . . .
Aoun brandished his harpoon and took aim . . . the sabretooth leaping sideways deferred the combat, and Zouhr said in a low voice, "Once he is struck the red brute will spring despite the fire . .
Although he was as skillful as Naoh himself, Aoun was not capable of inflicting a mortal wound on a wild beast twenty ells away. He took Zouhr’s advice and waited.
The sabre-tooth stood in front of the blazing fire.
He came near to it until he was only fifteen ells from the warriors. They could see him better. His chest was covered with fur of a paler hue than that on the upper part of his body, his teeth shone like onyx stones, and when he turned his head towards the shade the fire of his eyes shone like glow-worms.
Two points of rock prevented him from making his spring, and also impeded the men in throwing their javelins or harpoon.
He must advance three ells. He prepared himself to do so; for the last time he gazed hard at his adversaries, while his bosom throbbed with ever increasing rage, for he foresaw the courage of the human race.
Suddenly a pandemonium broke out in the ranks of the dholes; the wolves were in a tumult, and the hyenas beat a retreat towards the banyan trees. By the light of the stars they could make out an enormous heaving mass. Soon the red blaze disclosed a heavy muzzle towards the end of which grew a horn longer than that of the buffalo. The skin was like the bark of old oak trees; wrinkled columns supported a body which was as heavy as that of six horses. Haughty, purblind and unobservant, agitated by some incoherent anger, the beast trotted along. All got out of his way; a wolf, whom panic had thrown on the rhinoceros’ path, was crushed like a rat. Aoun knew that a lion or a cave-wolf would have suffered the same fate. It seemed as if even the fire would not stop the monster. But it did stop him. The colossal body swayed before the scarlet flames, the small eyes dilated, the hom menaced those around it. . .
Then the sabre-tooth appeared before the rhinoceros.
Stretched out so that he seemed like a snake, his chest flat on the earth, the carnivorous beast snarled without ceasing.
A vague recollection made the pachyderm uneasy but this quickly gave way to fury. On the steppes, in the jungle, far away on the moors, no life had been able to resist his weight; he had crushed everything which did not flee from him. His hom pointed towards the red beast, his heavy legs resumed their course. . . . He was like an avalanche. It would have needed a rock or a mammoth to stop him. Another two steps and the sabre-tooth would have been in shreds . , . but the sabre-tooth effaced himself.
Before he had time to turn the colossus rolled up to the banyan grove, and the red beast was upon his shoulders. It gave vent to a hoarse roar, dug in its four sets of claws and began its work. The artery which i
t knew and which had been known to its ancestors millions of years before, was there under a fold of the skin, which was thicker than the bark of ancient cedar trees, and as hard as the shell of the tortoise. It was impenetrable to the tiger’s or the lion’s teeth or to those of the giant feline of the caverns. Only his long incisive teeth knew how to force a passage. The skin and flesh were gashed open and a jet of blood gushed out, rising the height of an ell into the air. The immense beast tried to shake off its assailant, and being unable to accomplish this rolled upon the ground.
The sabre-tooth was not defeated. With growls of pleasure he bounded to one side and defied that strength, which was twenty times as great as his own. An unfailing instinct told him that the beast’s life was ebbing away with that hot stream and that he only had to wait. Already the rhinoceros was staggering, the dholes, hyenas, jackals, and civet cats were approaching the antagonists, clamouring enviously.
The vanquished colossus would afford food for all of them for one day; the sabre-tooth purveyed more than any other wild beast for the parasitic hordes that escorted the great carnivora.
One more effort. The fierce hom charged the enemy, the muzzle dribbled and the voice became hoarse, despair beat at the heart of the powerless mass. . . . Then the end came. The hot flood ceased to flow; all energy was lost in the mystery of a swoon, the fear of death was wiped out by death itself. The rhinoceros sank down like a rock, and the sabre-tooth enlarged the wound which had killed the monster, and devoured the yet warm flesh. Then the jackals licked up the blood from the ground, and the dholes, hyenas and wolves waited humbly till the red beast was satiated.
THE MEN AND THE RED BEAST