The Cusp, Part III

He began to remove the entrails from the aurochs after giving them a last bite. They were huge animals. Lying on their sides they came almost to his shoulders. The chest cavities could almost hold him. It was still early in the day and they would have to work hard and quickly. He pulled the last of the entrails out of the cow and started on the young bull. The bull’s horns were as wide as he was tall. The brothers approached and began to help.

“We have a mountain of meat.”

“We are lucky that the weather is dry and the nights are getting cold.”

“We will be up all-night keeping the predators and scavengers off the carcasses.”

“It will be a lot of work building drying racks and cutting up meat, and then there are the hides to deal with.”

“We need more hands.”

The older brother nodded toward the younger.

“That one is a runner. If we send him back to our bands camp with just a water skin he could be there by nightfall.”

The younger brother nodded.

“I could take the rest of your hunter food and a water skin. Help could be here by mid-day tomorrow.”

“I have seen you run. You are much faster than any of us. I think you should start.”

The younger brother basked in the praise. He looked at his feet, struggling to speak.

“Thank you for what you did with the lion. I was foolish.”

“You will be a good hunter for your people. Your arrow was well placed. You were excited about the kill. I was much the same at your age. You have learned.”

He handed the younger brother his pouch of hunter food and a water skin and he trotted off in the direction of the camp of his people. He had an easy stride that would eat the distance.

The woman had begun to skin the lion. She was carefully working around the head preserving the ears and lips. A lion skin was very valuable among the tribes. A hunter would trade dearly for a claw or tooth to wear as a talisman. He and the older brother worked on the huge carcasses. The removed the skin from one side and placing it on the grass. Then they placed cuts of meat on the hide. The woman had finished with the lion and came carrying the hide to where they were working. It was a full load for her; the lion was old and had grown large. The woman placed the lion skin on the ground, he could see that she had left the claws on the hide, then went into the trees and began to cut poles to make drying racks. When she had gathered enough she cut thin strips of hide from the aurochs and lashed the poles into racks. The woman began to gather firewood, they would need to keep the fires going all night and put coals under the meat.

They worked with no words. Each of them knew what needed to be done and did it. Normally when a band had large animals to process, the women did the butchering while the men stood guard. They did not have any hands to spare. They cut the meat in strips half the thickness of a woman’s small finger and draped it on the racks. They worked as a team. He and the elder brother deboned the meat passing it over to the woman who cut it into the thin strips. On the larger pieces she would start on an edge, cut down but not all the way through and then turn the meat and repeat the process. A large piece of meat made a strip as long as a man was tall. Then the woman kindled a fire. She approached them with green sticks.

“We have made a good start. Why don’t we take time to eat.”

They roasted liver over the fire. The liver would spoil if not eaten. The woman moved coals from the fire under the drying racks using a scapula from one of the aurochs as a shovel. When they had finished one side of an animal, they rolled it back onto the hide and skinned the other side. It took all of their strength to move even half of a carcass. Dusk began to fall as the piles of meat grew larger. They started other fires to keep the scavengers away and to provide light. Just before full darkness, they heard a shout from the trees. Three men from the woman’s band walked into the area they were working in. They clasped forearms with them.

“Forgive the blood, we have had a full day.”

“We were hunting this way and ran into the young one who runs like a deer. He told us that you had a mountain of meat to prepare and about the lion. It looks like you could use help.”

“We wouldn’t say no if help was offered. There is plenty of meat to share.”

The woman spoke. “The meat is almost all cut up. It just needs to be put on the racks and the fire tended. I will start on the other hides tomorrow.”

“You three rest. We can watch things”

“Put some marrow bones into the coals. You have traveled far.”

They organized watches to tend the fires and add coals to the trenches under the racks. The hunters spread their sleeping robes on the ground and invited him, the woman, and her brother to rest. He and the woman lay side by side and soon fell asleep. One of the hunters woke him hours later. He looked at the position of the stars and saw that it had been longer than they had agreed.

“You three had a full day. We decided to let you sleep longer.”

“If I close my eyes, I still see piles of meat.”

The hunter laughed.

“There have been jackals prowling around the edge of the fire light, they run off when we sling rocks at them.”

“It will be light in a few hours.”

He stood and watched the woman sleep. Her face was smeared with blood and her hair was disheveled. She was beautiful. He went to the edge of the clearing and relieved himself and then checked the meat on the racks. It had been well tended and was almost dry. He woke the woman and her brother so that the hunters could sleep for a few hours.

“They let us sleep too long.”

“They are good men. We grew up together. Our band is lucky to have them.”

As daylight broke, they borrowed the ax that one of the hunters carried and cut green oak branches to add to the coals under the racks. The wood would smoke, giving the meat flavor and keeping away insects. They roasted more liver and pieces of meat. The woman cut finger diameter sticks and skewered pieces of meat alternating with fat on them. The fat basted the meat as it cooked. They were hungry and ate well.

They made holes in the edges of the aurochs hides and staked them to the ground flesh side up pulled tight. The hides weighed as much as a man and were thick. There was still bit of flesh and membrane on the hides that had to be removed.

“We need scrapers,” said the woman.

“I will go down to the river and look for flint, nothing I brought is big enough to make what we need.”

He went back to the overhang to get his pack frame. Then he walked down stream along the edge of the river. At a bend he came to a gravel bar that had a few head sized cobbles. He pried several loose with a length of driftwood. His tool maker’s eye spotted two cobbles with the white coating common to flint. Striking a glancing blow to outsides of the cobbles with a fist sized piece of granite, revealed that they were in fact flint. He placed the cobbles onto his pack frame and walked back to the clearing. The woman looked up.

“Not the best flint, but good enough to make scrapers.”

“What else do you need?”

“I need some branches of strong wood to mount the blades to. They need to be as long as your forearm and it would be nice if they have a slight curve. I can bind the blades to the handles with pieces of green hide. I will need to soak it in water and then dry it over the fire, It will shrink tight and hold the blades.”

“I will look for some oak branches for handles.”

She borrowed the hunters ax and went into the trees. He sat down and opened the pouch that contained his tools. Using a hammer stone, he began to remove flakes and rough shape blades for the scrapers. He used smaller hammer stones for more detail before switching to antler billets and punches. He worked quickly. He heard the knock of the ax coming from the trees. The woman came back carrying oak branches that would work for handles. She examined the scraper blades.

“These will work well. What can I do to help?”

He chose a very sharp flint flake and dulled one side of it. He passed the flake to her.

“Use this to cut the bark of the handles and smooth out any knots.”

The woman carved the bark off the handles and smoothed them. She would stop periodically and test the handles grasping them at the end with her right hand and near the top with her left hand as though scraping a hide. Her movements showed that she had scraped many hides. She saw him watching.

“My mother started teaching me when I was a little girl. I have done many hides with her and my sister.”

“Where is your sister?”

“She married a man from another band. I see her at the gatherings.”

She passed the handles over to him and he began mounting the scraper blades to them. Her brother approached.

“Those should work well enough.”

“It would be hard to ruin the aurochs hides; they are really thick. The lion hide is more delicate.”

“Let her work on the lion hide. She has a delicate touch on thin hides. That lion skin will be worth a lot at the gathering if you choose to trade it.”

“I really hadn’t thought about the lion skin. Your sister will have a say in what happens to it. Her spear would have been fatal eventually and she stood with me. I told her to run but she didn’t.”

“You will come to know her better. She is generous and kind but doesn’t take well to being ordered. The man who weds her will do well to keep that in mind.” Her brother smiled and winked.

He and the brother began to scrape the heavy hides. Normally the women of a band worked the hides, but a good hunter knew the basics of preparation. On a long hunt having the hides rough finished meant less weigh to carry and prevented spoilage. The work was hard and their forearms ached. They stopped to rest and the woman walked over. She looked at the hides.

“You two might get as good as some of the girls with a little more practice.” She said with a grin.

They walked over to the lion hide. The woman had worked it well. There were no holes even in the thin belly skin. The inside was already soft. It would be very supple when finished. The woman was very skilled. As they were drinking from a water skin they heard a sound and the younger brother ran into the camp. He smiled as he stopped and caught his breath.

“The rest of the family is coming. There are some people you might recognize too.”

He looked puzzled.

“My father invited your parents for a visit after we left on the hunt. He and my mother wanted to meet them.”

They doused the hides with water and pulled some meat off the racks. They had just started to eat when they heard a shouted greeting. Their parents walked into the clearing along with one of his girl cousins. The men clasped forearms and hugged their female relatives. His father spoke.

“You have killed well.”

“They know this area and are good hunters,” he said pointing to the woman and her brothers.

His parents looked at the woman. She met their gaze. She was tired and bloody. His mother spoke to her.

“My son speaks well of you?”

“I wasn’t sure he could speak more than five words at a time.”

“It is a struggle for him, but you loosened his tongue.”

His mother looked at the woman and her mother.

“It has been a long walk. I’m tired and dusty. Why don’t we go to the river and bathe?”