“Hush,” he said softly, “elk.” Swiftly the men slipped off their loads
and with bows in hand each one crept flat on his belly over the hill
crest. Gesnip and Cleeta peeped through the high grass. Below them was
a wide plain, dotted with clumps of bushes, and scattered over it they
could see a great herd of elk, whose broad, shining antlers waved above
the grass and bushes upon which they were feeding.
“Are those elk too?” asked Cleeta, presently, pointing toward the
foothills at their left.
“No,” replied her sister, “I think those are antelope. I like to see
them run. How funny their tails shake. But watch the men; they are going
to shoot.”
As she spoke, four of the hunters, who had crept well up toward
the game, rose to their feet, holding their bows horizontally, not
perpendicularly. These weapons, which were made of cedar wood, were
about four feet in length, painted at the ends black or dark blue, the
middle, which was almost two inches broad, being wrapped with elk sinew.
The strings also were of sinew. The quiver which each man carried at his
side was made from the skin of a wild cat or of a coyote. A great hunter
like Sholoc might make his quiver from the tails of lions he had killed.
Projecting from the quiver were the bright-feathered ends of the arrows,
which were of reed and were two or three feet long, with points of bone,
flint, or obsidian.
The hunters, knowing how hard it was to kill large game, had chosen
their arrows carefully, taking those that had obsidian points. Almost
at the same moment they let fly their shafts. Three elk leaped into the
air. One tumbled over in a somersault which broke one of its antlers,
and then lay dead, shot through the heart by Sholoc. Another took a few
leaps, but a second arrow brought it to its knees. Then it sank slowly
over upon its side; but it struck so fiercely at the hunter who ran up
to kill it with his horn knife that he drew back and shot it again.
“Where is the third elk?” asked Cleeta, looking around.
“Over there,” said Gesnip, pointing across the plain.
“Then they have lost it,” said the child, with disappointment.
“No, I think not. It is wounded. I saw the blood on its side,” said
the sister. “See, one of the men is following it, and it is half a mile
behind the herd. I am sure he will get it.”
“This has been a lucky day,” said Gesnip. “So much food. Our stomachs
will not ache with hunger for a long time.”
“That is because mother wove a game basket to Chinigchinich so he would
send food,” said Cleeta.
By the time the party had traveled two miles, Gesnip, with her load, and
Cleeta, whose bare brown legs were growing very tired, lagged behind.
“O dear,” said the elder sister, “we shall surely be too late to go into
camp with uncle.” Just then a whoop sounded behind them, and a boy of
thirteen, dressed in a rabbit-skin shirt, carrying a bow in his hand,
came panting up to them.
“Payuchi,” said Gesnip, eagerly, “carry my basket for me and I will tell
you some good news.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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