We planned to be gone for 3 days, one day to get there, one day to find suitable flint, and one day to return. Bear was along to guide me, and his wife, Flower, and Hannah were there to help with the grunt work. We had no problems getting to the flint "mine," no animals disputed our passage and we ate jerky, so there was no need to prepare food.
The mine was pretty well picked over, so we had to break up some more of the chalk matrix before we could find the flint I needed. However, we were still able to get as much as we wanted for that first trip in only one day. We assembled a travois to carry the flint, and Hannah and Flower pulled it back to the cave while Bear and I ran interference.
I started knapping the day after we got back with the flint. It took me about 4 hours to make the first point, since I had to work out the proper size and shape as I went along. However, I was able to turn out a point every 2 hours after that. I worked until I had 20 points made, nearly 3 days work.
I attached one to a spear shaft and Big Foot tried it out. The results were spectacular. He was dead on at 25 yards and hit the target almost every time at 50 yards. I was sure that he would only get better with more practice. I was pretty good with the atlatl, but not anywhere near Big Foot's class. That was OK with him, shamans weren't expected to be good with weapons.
I made enough points so that each hunter would have at least 4 spears for his atlatl. Since the points broke easily, I planned to keep making more every chance I got. At the rate I was going, I would have to make another trip to collect more flint within a few weeks. This time, I would bring more blanks back. I planned to go into the business of selling spear points once I could get a little ahead.
I suggested that the next hunt take place in that same glade, but this time using the atlatls. Big Foot was all for the experiment, so he took 4 hunters with us as we went on the hunt. There were only four elk in the glade this time, though they were fairly close together. All 5 of the active hunters crawled to within 20 yards of the elk. Big Foot whistled and everybody stood up and launched his spear. All four animals were hit and brought down in their tracks. The hunters ran to their kills and slit their throats just to be on the safe side.
As we were packing up the travois to leave, Wolf pointed to three men trotting toward us. They came up, and one said, "How did you get so many kills? It's hard to believe that so few of you could have had such luck."
Chief Big Foot answered, "The credit belongs to our new shaman." He pointed to me. "He has taught us to use a new weapon which is much more effective than the stabbing spears that you are using. We no longer have to creep up on the game. It is now possible to kill at a distance."
"That is hard to believe! How can you kill at a distance?"
"I will show you. Look at that clump of tall grass about 20 yards away." With a motion almost too fast to follow, he raised his atlatl and flung a spear into the middle of the clump. You could almost hear 3 jaws hit the ground as the spear buried its head in the dirt.
"You must show us how you did that!"
"No. It is not my place to show you. You must talk to our shaman."
They turned to me, and I said, "I must talk to Chief Big Foot before I can decide. Wait here, and I will give you my answer in a few minutes. Chief Big Foot, please come with me so that we may consult."
We walked out of earshot, and I asked, "Will our people be in danger if I give the secret of the atlatl to these people?"
"No, I don't think so. They are friendly to us, and I think it would be safe to give them the atlatl."
"Very well, I'll give it to them, but I want to emphasize the role of the gods in this. Please go warn them about the smoke before I come back to them."
Big Foot grinned and walked briskly back to the visitors. "Our shaman will commune with the gods. As a sign of their favor, the gods will send smoke from his head. Do not be frightened, it won't hurt you."
I lit a cigarette, and blew a big cloud of smoke from my mouth. I walked back, puffing as much smoke as I could manage. When I rejoined the group, I could see the fear in the eyes of the three petitioners. "The gods look favorably on you. I have been ordered by the gods to tell you how to make and use the new weapon. It is too complicated to do here, so you must come to our cave tomorrow. I will show you everything, then."
Chapter Three
The next morning, a parade of people showed up at our cave. Every one of the people from the neighboring cave was there to see the new weapon and, hopefully, to see the smoke come from my head. The children were most interested in that!
There were 5 men, 4 women, and 4 children in the group. The oldest man in the bunch must have been over 30 years old and was their shaman. I wasn't quite sure why, but I felt an immediate dislike for him. He seemed a bit too sly and shifty for my taste.
I warned everybody about the smoke and lit a cigarette. The children's eyes bugged in awe and one of the visiting women fainted. Hannah took care of her while Chief Big Foot demonstrated his skill with the atlatl for all the visitors to see. I kept up a steady string of cigarette smoking as I explained how the atlatl worked and showed them how to make one.
The adults were just as much in awe of my knife as they were of the smoke. I had to explain that the knife was a gift from the gods, and I had no idea how to make a duplicate. They were disappointed, but the atlatl was enough of a wonder to keep them happy.
I had Big Foot demonstrate how much more effective the spear was with a flint point attached and pointed out that, at least at the moment, I was the only source of suitable points. They were warned that the flint points broke easily, but they could always get replacements from me whenever they were needed.
The training session lasted the whole morning, right up until we took a break for lunch. Big Foot acted the part of the gracious host and ordered that the visitors be fed out of our larder, since we had plenty of meat (brag!). The women whipped up a delicious stew in short order, and we had an excellent lunch.
After the meal, the other group's shaman drew me aside and asked, "How do you do that trick with the smoke? It is very impressive, I would like to learn it for when I need to put pressure on my people."
I didn't like the man, but I decided that I may just be applying 20th century standards that weren't appropriate to the Stone Age. Anyway, I thought that I would extend professional courtesy and show him how it was done. "You must use one of these things called a cigarette to make the smoke. Hold one end between your lips like this. Hold a source of fire to the other end and draw air in through the cigarette. That will start it burning. Smoke will collect in your mouth as you draw the air through the cigarette. Once you have a mouth full, blow the smoke out past your lips.
"There are other tricks you can do with the smoke, once you learn how to do that first part well. But, remember, and this is all-important, don't let any smoke get into your lungs! Smoke in your lungs will make you cough and can make you so sick that you will wish that you were dead, so be careful. Here, I will show you."
I lit a cigarette and puffed a few times to show him how it was done. I suggested, "It is sometimes difficult to light a cigarette at first. Take this one that I have already lit. Remember, don't get any smoke in your lungs."
The shaman was so anxious to try the cigarette that he practically jerked it out of my hand. He put it between his lips and, despite my repeated warnings, drew in a mighty breath through the cigarette. Of course, he exploded in a fit of coughing as soon as the smoke hit his lungs. He dropped the cigarette into some dry grass; I was afraid that it would start a fire so I took the time to stomp it out.
He continued to cough, and there was nothing I could do about it. I knew that it wouldn't kill him, but I figured that he would pay more attention to my instructions, next time. His face turned red, and then turned blue as he ran out of air. He finally stopped coughing as he fainted, but his face was still blue.
I wanted to help him, but the only thing I could think of to do was to blow air into his mouth while pinching his nose closed. Ev
erybody had run up at the first sign of trouble and were standing around us in a big circle. They were all sure that the other shaman was dead, but he began to stir as I blew air into his lungs.
I kept this up for nearly 10 minutes until his eyes fluttered open. He pushed me away, violently, and shouted, "You piece of shit! You tried to kill me!"
I had fallen onto my back, and I was lying there in surprise as he jumped up and pulled a long bone knife. He swiped at me with the knife, but I rolled out of the way. He drew back for another try when I heard him grunt. Suddenly, there was a spear point sticking out of his chest! Chief Big Foot had saved me by using his atlatl to kill the shaman before he could strike again!
I was afraid that this would mean war with our neighbors, and it would be my fault! But, no! The other chief turned to Big Foot and raised both his hands, palm out, in the sign of peace. "Thank you, Chief Big Foot! You have done my people a great service by killing that turd of a shaman. He has been terrorizing us for years, but I have not been able to do anything about it. He had arranged with evil spirits to kill and eat all of us if we did anything to resist or harm him."
Big Foot said, "I have never killed a shaman, before! I hope Jacob can protect us from the evil spirits."
I said, "Chief Big Foot, thank you for saving my life. That's the first time anybody has tried to kill me, and I was so surprised that I didn't know what to do. Rest assured, the gods will reward you by protecting you and all our people from evil spirits."
The visiting chief, Long Nose, said, "You have a powerful shaman. We all saw him bring that evil man back to life. We need a shaman to protect us, too. May we join you? I will resign as chief and gladly call you Chief Big Foot."
"Welcome, Long Nose, to our fire. Under those conditions, we would be happy for you to join us. We have enough room in the cave for all of you, and more. With our new weapons and our shaman to guide us, we will surely have plenty of meat."
I said, "I, too, welcome you, Long Nose, and your people. I will do all in my power to protect you all from evil spirits. I guarantee that no evil spirit will eat you!"
Big Foot said, "Let's go get all your stuff from your former home this afternoon. Tonight can be your first night in your new home." Big Foot was now responsible for 42 people, 16 of whom were children. He detailed 4 men to stay behind as guards and 2 women to watch over the children. The rest of us were soon marching toward the other cave to gather up everything left behind this morning. I was sure Big Foot planned to use some travois to haul stuff back if it was necessary.
When we saw the condition of the people's personal effects, I was appalled! Everything was tattered and dirty, except for the food. Big Foot must have felt the same as I did. Big Foot asked, "Long Nose, why is your stuff in such a foul mess? I can't imagine anyone wanting to live like this."
"You are right. But we had no reason to do any better. Our shaman would take anything he wanted, and we couldn't stop him. We were afraid of the evil spirits that he said protected him. Anything decent he saw, the turd would take, so the only way to keep clothes on your back was not to have anything clean and in good repair. Not only that, he would take any one of the women whenever he felt horny, which was most every night."
Big Foot said, "Leave this junk! We'll give you what you need from our stores. Just bring the food and any thing of sentimental value. Don't worry about the rest."
These hunters must have been very good. There was plenty of meat and cured skins. There were also lots of tubers and greens; no wonder that the people were healthy, even though they dressed like the poorest of the poor. It didn't take half an hour for the people to gather up what they wanted, and we returned to our cave mostly unburdened.
As soon as we reached our cave, Big Foot sent the new people to root around in the storeroom and take what they wanted. There was considerable joy as the people discarded the "rags" they were wearing and changed into good quality clothes. While they were having fun getting dressed, Big Foot asked me to have some sort of welcoming ceremony for the new people, tonight. I immediately agreed.
My new ceremonial wolf-skin robe was not completely finished, yet, but I thought that I should wear it, anyway. After supper, Big Foot called everyone together, men, women, and children. Once they were gathered, I came out in my new robe and spouting smoke right and left. I even managed to blow a few smoke rings!
Most of the newcomers were frightened, at first, by this strange wolf-like creature shooting smoke everywhere. But they were reassured by the "old-timers," and they soon relaxed. I danced around and put on what I thought was a pretty good show. I then made a speech welcoming them to the family and saying that they should now consider themselves under the protection of the dire wolf spirit. Though this would be no help in the physical world, they could expect that they would be in good hands in the spirit world. They seemed pleased by this reassurance, and Big Foot told me later that I had done him proud. He was seriously thinking of calling us the "Wolf Clan."
By noon the next day, the newcomers had settled in and were now part and parcel of the Wolf Clan. They even took to the latrine with only a little explanation; being a powerful shaman who could blow smoke like no one else certainly had its advantages!
Things went along fine for two weeks or so, then I had a very disturbing "dream." I actually was sleeping when I got a wakeup call from the ETs. They talked directly to my mind and said I could do the same, so that I didn't have to speak out loud; that way we wouldn't disturb the other people in the cave.
"Jacob, we have some very bad news for you. Despite the fact that you are doing very well and we are very happy with your activities so far, we are going to have to sever our relationship. Our funding has been cut off, and our research project has been canceled. We are fighting to get funding reestablished, but nobody knows how long it will take to win our point. Until then, you are on your own. You may keep Hannah to help you, since it would cost more to bring the android home than it would cost to replace it. The only thing you will lose is that we will no longer be updating the memory in the computer.
"You will still have your knife, your cigarettes, and your Zippo, but we won't be giving you anything else until our funding is restored, and that might well be years. However, you have done so well so far, that we are confident that you will continue to survive without our direct support.
"Good luck, and we hope to be back in contact with you, soon. Goodbye for now."
The connection was cut, and there we were, left high and dry. Somebody needs to give those ETs a course in people-skills! Well, unless there were some major changes, I thought that we could do pretty well.
I asked Hannah, "Do you have maps of mineral resources?"
"Yes, but I have only a limited printing capacity. Perhaps, it would be better if you used my display screen. It's small, but highly detailed."
"You have a display screen? Where the hell is it?"
"It's hidden behind my left breast. I can remove that breast, and you can see the screen. Would you like to try it out?"
"I sure would. Show me a map of the local area with the mineral resources highlighted."
Hannah twisted her left nipple two turns counterclockwise, and one turn clockwise. She pulled on her nipple, and her breast popped off. I found a round screen about 5 inches in diameter. A map was displayed which showed several mineral deposits. There was a sulfur deposit, as well as the flint I knew about, copper, and tin.
"Hannah, that looks fishy. Is it normal for sulfur, copper, and tin to be found so close together?"
"No, the ETs set them up as soon as they found out that their project was being canceled. I wasn't supposed to tell you about them unless you asked. It was a test to see how alert you were. You get an A++ as a mark for asking so soon. I'm proud of you!"
"Thank you. How about animal and vegetable resources?"
"I can show probabilities, not certainties. What are you looking for?"
"I'd like to find some horses. Is there anything nearby?"
"I'd like to find a better transportation system than just walking. Horses would be a real boost toward civilization for us. We could start out with travois, but it wouldn't be too hard to switch to wagons. Plus, we could ride the horses. Please show me where they might be."
"Here they are. One place is quite close. We could probably walk there in one day."
"I'll talk to Big Foot about it, tomorrow. Put yourself back together and let's get some more practice with the sex training."
This time, Hannah showed me the "doggy position." She explained that not all women liked this position because there was little direct clitoral stimulation, but she could handle that. She also suggested that I reach around with my hand and rub her clit while I was fucking—this was sure to get a reaction. She demonstrated, and I was nearly thrown to the ground by her response.
"Damn, Jacob, I didn't expect you to learn so fast!"
We got the usual reaction among our cave mates, but we all fell into a sound sleep, except for the posted guard.
It was raining when I woke up the next morning. I needed to ask if Hannah could do weather predictions. Just one or two days' forecast would be a big help. I still looked up Big Foot to talk about finding the horses. I was looking forward to his reaction to the suggestion of riding a horse.
Big Foot was lazing around and watching the rain fall. I sat down beside him and stared at the rain. It took about 10 minutes before he turned to me with a big grin. "OK. You win. My curiosity has beaten me down. What did you want to talk about?"
"How would you feel about moving around your territory without having to walk?"
"That would be great, I guess. Will your spirits carry us from place to place?"
The Hole Page 3