Dreams -- Fiction; Fantasy fiction; Prehistoric peoples -- Fiction
It was during this winter that Red-Eye killed his latest wife with
abuse and repeated beatings. I have called him an atavism, but in this
he was worse than an atavism, for the males of the lower animals do not
maltreat and murder their mates. In this I take it that Red-Eye, in
spite of his tremendous atavistic tendencies, foreshadowed the coming
of man, for it is the males of the human species only that murder their
mates.
As was to be expected, with the doing away of one wife Red-Eye
proceeded to get another. He decided upon the Singing One. She was the
granddaughter of old Marrow-Bone, and the daughter of the Hairless One.
She was a young thing, greatly given to singing at the mouth of her
cave in the twilight, and she had but recently mated with Crooked-Leg.
He was a quiet individual, molesting no one and not given to bickering
with his fellows. He was no fighter anyway. He was small and lean, and
not so active on his legs as the rest of us.
Red-Eye never committed a more outrageous deed. It was in the quiet at
the end of the day, when we began to congregate in the open space
before climbing into our caves. Suddenly the Singing One dashed up a
run-way from a drinking-place, pursued by Red-Eye. She ran to her
husband. Poor little Crooked-Leg was terribly scared. But he was a
hero. He knew that death was upon him, yet he did not run away. He
stood up, and chattered, bristled, and showed his teeth.
Red-Eye roared with rage. It was an offence to him that any of the Folk
should dare to withstand him. His hand shot out and clutched
Crooked-Leg by the neck. The latter sank his teeth into Red-Eye’s arm;
but the next moment, with a broken neck, Crooked-Leg was floundering
and squirming on the ground. The Singing One screeched and gibbered.
Red-Eye seized her by the hair of her head and dragged her toward his
cave. He handled her roughly when the climb began, and he dragged and
hauled her up into the cave.
We were very angry, insanely, vociferously angry. Beating our chests,
bristling, and gnashing our teeth, we gathered together in our rage. We
felt the prod of gregarious instinct, the drawing together as though
for united action, the impulse toward cooperation. In dim ways this
need for united action was impressed upon us. But there was no way to
achieve it because there was no way to express it. We did not turn to,
all of us, and destroy Red-Eye, because we lacked a vocabulary. We were
vaguely thinking thoughts for which there were no thought-symbols.
These thought-symbols were yet to be slowly and painfully invented.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account