Manak-na's Story, 75,000 BC

by Bonnye Matthews

  “They’re good!” Yomuk said with enthusiasm. “I thank whoever put these in here,” Yomuk said into the air.

  Manak-na nodded to Yomuk and began to roll up his bedding. He tied the roll to the top of his backpack. Yomuk did the same. It was time to put on his warm outerwear, load his backpack, and head to the sea. Yomuk copied what his uncle did.

  The man and the youth stepped outside the cave, walked down the short path, and turned onto the path to the sea. They could see the sea beyond them extending far beyond where they could see. It was an amazing sight. Yomuk had never seen the sea and he was dumbstruck. The largest water he’d ever seen was the lake where the People used to fish from bamboo boats. He knew just looking at the sea that the big lake to which his People headed was not nearly as big as this sea. The size of the sea was a revelation to Yomuk. They walked purposely in quiet each realizing that life was about to change and not having any way to anticipate how significant that change might be.

  The boatbuilding area was clear to them as they followed the path. It was as if the path were built to end at the boatbuilders’ place. Manak-na wondered whether the giants had built boats in the same place. There were people, some with tanned skin, who looked like Mol crossed with something else but not People or Minguat, but no giants as far as he could tell. There were some People and some Mol, maybe a few Minguat. Everyone seemed to be very busy doing work that Manak-na didn’t really understand. He felt comfortable that whatever the work was, he and Yomuk could learn it. First, he must find Pah.

  The boatbuilding covered a huge area of land. There were piles of bamboo and places where bamboo floated in the sea. There were neat stacks of bamboo. On a slope there was what Manak-na thought were two boats being built. He marveled at the size of them. They were made of bamboo that curved upward in the front and back, and they were held together somehow. He couldn’t see detail at that distance. They were, he estimated, longer than the bent tree house they had left to begin their trek. Yomuk was overcome with the scene. He’d never seen any place so busy or so many people doing things he didn’t understand. He noticed that on the hillside there were buildings made from huge bamboo supports and covered with bamboo, which was covered again with what looked like skins, covered by dirt. The roof sloped slightly towards the sea. A few plants grew on the roof. It was a place of excitement to both Manak-na and Yomuk. There was so much going on at the same time. It made their heads spin.

  Manak-na noticed a small hut in the midst of the boatbuilding activity’ and he headed toward it. He guessed that the hut might be a place he could either find or ask for Pah. He cautioned Yomuk not to speak to anyone unless he was first asked to speak. Manak-na wanted to be the speaker and not have to worry about interruption. Yomuk agreed immediately. He was definitely in a situation where he had no idea what to say or how to act.

  They arrived at the hut and Manak-na saw a man moving around inside. He waited to be recognized, and the person inside either didn’t see him or postponed recognition. Manak-na couldn’t tell which, or whether something else kept the man from communicating.

  After more than a polite wait, Manak-na, said in the best Mol language he could, “I come from Kipotuilak to find Pah.”

  The man in the hut turned sharply. “I am Pah, who are you?”

  “I am Manak-na and this is my nephew, Yomuk. We come to build boats, to travel to the land beyond the rising sun, and to return here together.”

  Pah studied them for a quite a while in silence. Then he said, “Go to the big bamboo structure on the hill over there.” He pointed to the largest structure. “In the back on the north side are sleeping places. Put your backpacks on a sleeping place where no bedding is. Those places are not in use. Stop at the food table and eat. Do not avoid eating to hurry back. You will need to be well fed. Then, return here. Do you understand?

  “Yes.” Manak-na said.

  Pah looked at Yomuk. “And do you understand?”

  “Yes.” Yomuk replied.

  “When someone asks or tells you something here, it is important to acknowledge. Each must do it for himself. That way the person asking or telling knows you got the message. Understood?”

  Manak-na said, “Yes.”

  Yomuk said, “Yes.”

  Manak-na and Yomuk turned and left for the bamboo structure.

  People were rushing about carrying bamboo poles, rope, strips of leather, tools, and all looked as if an enraged rhino was chasing them. They moved fast, as if their lives depended on it. Manak-na tried to judge how they felt about what they were doing by their expressions, but most had flat expressions—no emotion shown at all. He assumed the men were absorbed in their work. Manak-na wondered whether he had expression on his face during a hunt.

  He and Yomuk entered the bamboo structure to find sleeping places arranged at the north end. A big hearth was in the center of the structure and there was a hole for smoke to exit similar to what they had constructed for the bent tree structure they used to call home. There was a huge table filled with food. They found two vacant sleeping places next to each other at the far end of the structure. They put their backpacks and spears on the vacant sleeping places and headed to the food.

  They brought their food bowls to the table, and they filled them from a table arrayed with a very large choice of food. They stood to eat—something they didn’t do in the home cave. The food was remarkably good. Manak-na noticed an opening in the wall that appeared still to be enclosed. He walked through the narrow corridor and found the place where food was cooked. He had a feeling that he should leave the cooking area and he did quickly.

  “Where did you go?” Yomuk asked.

  “I think they cook the food there. Don’t go there unless you are told it’s permitted. It feels like a place where we should not be.”

  “I will remember.”

  “Good. Not bad food,” Manak-na said raising the leg of fowl he was eating. “Well seasoned, different but well seasoned.”

  “Not bad.” Yomuk thought it was good but chose to use Manak-na’s negative, something Manak-na rarely used. Yomuk was learning this new place and how it worked, and he was noticing subtle differences in Manak-na.

  Yomuk noticed that food bones apparently were placed in the hearth for burning. He dropped the remains of the leg he had devoured to burn there. Manak-na was pleased to see that Yomuk didn’t wait to be told everything to do. He also placed his bones on the sticks on the hearth with the others. Apparently they had no dogs to help to use the bones. They looked to see what else they might want to eat. Manak-na took a piece of roast and Yomuk put some greens in his bowl along with some fish.

  Yomuk looked at Manak-na seriously. “There are some different looking people here with light brown skin. Pah is one. What are they?”

  Manak-na replied. “I really don’t know. They look as if they work in the sun. My skin tanned when we lived far south from here. They are about the same color—a little darker. Even now, as cold as it is, they are going about with little clothing when it’s barely the season of new leaves. Just remember from Wamumur and the stories, all of us are people regardless of what our physical characteristics are.”

  When they finished, they wiped their bowls and put them back in their backpacks. They returned to the hut in the area where the boatbuilding was taking place. Pah wasn’t there. They waited.

  Finally, Pah returned.

  “We have good food, yes?” Pah asked.

  “Yes,” both Manak-na and Yomuk replied in unison.

  “What do you do?” Pah asked.

  “I am a hunter,” Manak-na replied.

  “I am learning to be a hunter,” Yomuk replied and then added, “I have landed a kill strike on an aurochs.”

  Pah stood looking at them, resting his chin on his hand. Pah was not very tall. He was obviously strong. Muscles were visible everywhere. In the cold, he wore a leather like the Mol, hair trimmed like Yomuk with a headband, and a short, two shouldered tunic over it. He did not wear pants and a jack
et. He was barefooted.

  “Why are you here?”

  Manak-na wondered what to say but did not hesitate. “I have longed for adventure since I was a child. I love to explore, to find new places, and to try to understand new ways of doing things. Then, I can bring them back to my People to let them know of differences in the world. Some may benefit us, if we choose to adopt them. Also, it is possible we may benefit those we meet.”

  Yomuk said, “I, too, long for adventure. I want to know what there is to know.”

  Pah continued studying them. Obviously the older one did not know the language well, but his use of the language was passable enough to communicate. He was smart. He’d learn the language fast. The younger one seemed fluent, but then he was Mol.

  “For the rest of this daylight, both of you will be carrying bamboo to the salting pen. Then when the next daylight arrives, you will go with the hunters to hunt. That will be your job. When the boat below is ready, you will be part of the travel. When we land, you hunt for food for us. When we are at sea, you may be needed to row the boat from time to time. Do you understand?”

  Both replied, “Yes.”

  “Do you have questions?”

  “What does row the boat mean?” Manak-na asked.

  “It means to hold a long stick that is flat on the far end, place it in the water that is too deep to touch the bottom. With the long stick, you push the water behind us. It takes much strength. When there is little wind, we need to row to move the boat through the water. Most of the people on the boat will row from time to time when we are in calm water. It is part of travel on a boat. It is hard work, but necessary. When called to row, you must respond. Some people use slaves to row. We find that makes too many mouths to feed. Our journeys are very long. Does that answer your question?”

  Manak-na said, “Yes.”

  “Are there any more questions?”

  Manak-na and Yomuk said together, “No.” Neither felt they knew enough to ask any more questions.

  “Follow me,” Pah said.

  They followed him through the boatbuilding space to a spot where bamboo logs were piled together, not neatly. Pah stopped there.

  “Each of you take a pole and start walking downhill.”

  Manak-na and Yomuk each took the same two bamboo logs, one in each hand. Manak-na was in front and Yomuk behind. They accurately judged where they should stand to make the weight bearing most efficient and they began to move to the water.

  “Stop!” Pah was fascinated.

  “You automatically did this the most efficient way possible, each of you carrying an end of each pole, even though I told you each to take one. You have done this before?”

  Manak-na looked at Pah. “Yes, we made small flat bamboo boats to fish the lake near us. It is easier to carry bamboo this way, especially when the bamboo has not been dried.”

  “Continue on,” Pah said.

  Manak-na realized Pah had tested them. He’d explain to Yomuk later that day while they transported logs. It might benefit Yomuk to know that Pah would test like that.

  When they reached the water, they could see that an area had been set aside where bamboo logs were floating in the salt water. Manak-na was fascinated.

  “Unload your logs into the pen,” Pah said.

  Manak-na and Yomuk put the logs into the pen.

  “Any questions?” Pah asked.

  “Why put them in salt water?” Manak-na asked.

  “It kills any bugs or worms that might be in the bamboo,” Pah answered. He was beginning to like this man who was not Mol. He asked smart questions briefly. He thought things out. It seems that Kipotuilak had done him a good service. He would remember.

  “Before you walk back up to get another log from the pile these came from, come over here and get a log apiece from this pen.”

  Manak-na and Yomuk did as they were told.

  “Now follow me to the place where these logs are stacked to dry.”

  Manak-na and Yomuk followed Pah up the hill to a place where the bamboo logs were stacked neatly with cross pieces of bamboo laid out to keep air spaces around the drying bamboo.

  “Unload the salted logs here, Pah said, “and when you hear a drum beating, that means the work day is over. It will be time to eat. Finish what you’re doing, and return to the bamboo structure for food.”

  Manak-na and Yomuk thought this arrangement was good for the purpose. They unloaded their bamboo logs and headed to the place to pick up more that needed to be penned in salt water. Pah watched them go. These were superior additions, he thought.

  For the remainder of the day, Manak-na and Yomuk worked hard taking as many logs as possible to the salt water pen and bringing up as many from the other pen as possible. They finished transporting the salted logs long before they finished taking the logs down to be salted. They enjoyed the work even though it was tedious. When they heard the drum, it took a moment or two for them to realize that the drum meant the end of the work time and the beginning of food time. They had seen no places to wash up, so they washed their hands and faces in salt water and returned to the bamboo structure.

  They smiled at the people in the bamboo structure, but few smiled back. Manak-na did not understand at all. Yomuk didn’t notice. Each person got their own bowl for food, so Manak-na and Yomuk got theirs and went to the food table. The food from earlier had been removed and new food was on the table. It occurred to Manak-na that what hunters brought to the person who cooked is what got put on the table. It was interesting to him. He was beginning to understand a little of how this place worked. There were greens and he wondered whether hunters gathered them.

  The food was wonderful. He thought that some of what was done with food here could contribute to what was done at home, but he’d need to learn what it was or figure it out.

  Yomuk was just enjoying the whole experience of being in the strange structure, eating wonderful food and plenty of it, being around a lot of men who seemed to be smart at what they did. It was a wonderful adventure.

  Manak-na was looking surreptitiously at the men wondering who was a hunter and who a boatbuilder, and whether there were people who did other things.

  One man, a Minguat, with no hair came over to Manak-na and said, “One of you has placed your backpack on my sleeping place.” He seemed enraged.

  Manak-na studied him. “We were told to put our backpacks on sleeping places where there was no bedding. We did.”

  “I have no bedding!” the man sneered.

  “He does, too!” another man shouted from the crowd.

  Manak-na noticed earlier that there were plenty of unused sleeping places. But it struck him that the issue wasn’t that he’d taken the man’s sleeping place. He thought he was being bullied. So he said, “You have a choice. Either I move my sleeping place and you sleep with no bedding at all, or we have a fight right now and if I win you shut your mouth, and my sleeping place is where my backpack is, and if you win, I move.”

  The people in the bamboo structure were dumbstruck. They couldn’t believe that Manak-na, who was shorter, was standing up to the bully. They gathered to see what would happen.

  “We will fight!” the bully growled.

  Yomuk had moved nearer the wall. He was frightened for Manak-na. Size clearly favored the bully.

  The group of men in the bamboo structure encircled the two so they could see what was happening. At first, Manak-na easily dodged the man’s wild swings. He could see that he fought from brute strength, not wisely. He continued to dodge the man, tiring him. Fighting after consuming a full meal was not wise. The group members could not understand what Manak-na was doing. Some were muttering about strange ways of fighting, seeming to think that Manak-na might be cowardly.

  Once the bully had gotten himself tired and had gained false confidence, he continued to swing at Manak-na harder and harder. Sweat poured from the huge man. His face was bright red. Manak-na saw an opportunity and slammed his fist into the man’s jaw, causing a tooth to de
tach and fall out, making a bloody mess. The bully was furious. As soon as he recovered from the shock of being injured, he came lunging at Manak-na who stepped quickly out of the way. The bully turned and fixed his eyes on Manak-na’s head. He lunged, and Manak-na blocked the swing of the massive arm, and hit the man in the throat with his tight fist. The man fell to the ground gurgling. He was clearly hurting, but he staggered to his feet one more time. Manak-na hit the man on the left temple. The bully fell to the floor and did not rise. Manak-na calmed his own breathing.

  Manak-na turned toward Yomuk and said, “The fish is good. I think I’ll have some more. You want some, too?” He gave the impression that the fight had been nothing to him.

  Yomuk reasoned that they were playing a bit of a game, so he said, “Yes, Manak-na, that sounds good.” Yomuk got both bowls and went to the table and handed Manak-na his bowl. Manak-na noticed the slight tremor in Yomuk’s hands. The two acted as if nothing had happened.

  After some time, the bully rose from the floor seemingly a little dazed. He went to his sleeping place, which was at the front of the sleeping places not the back, where Manak-na and Yomuk had put their backpacks. The bully lay down and covered himself with his own blankets. He would never again bully Manak-na, or Yomuk, for that matter, nor would he bully anyone if Manak-na were present.

  Manak-na, and Yomuk through association, had gained full respect of the group of men among whom they would live. Yomuk would wait until Manak-na and he were alone to ask how Manak-na knew to do what he did. Yomuk would have apologized and moved his bed. He knew now that would have been the wrong thing to do, but he needed guidance on how to make decisions like Manak-na had made. He knew he had a lot to learn.

  When Wisdom restored color to the land, a drum beat quickly and the men in the bamboo structure awakened. They went outside to the privy and returned to eat. Manak-na wondered when or whether they bathed. From the smell of it, they didn’t.

  “You’re a good fighter,” a man with tanned skin said to Manak-na.

  “I do not like to fight,” Manak-na replied.