In little more than an hour Burl's audience had diminished to Saya.
Within two hours ants found the spider where it had been placed for the
tribe to admire. Within three hours there was nothing left of it. During
the fourth hour--as Burl struggled to dredge up some new, splendid item
to tell Saya for the tenth time, or thereabouts--during the fourth hour
one of the tribeswomen beckoned to Saya. She left with a flashing
backward smile for Burl. She went, actually, to help dig up underground
fungi--much like truffles--discovered by the older woman. She
undoubtedly expected to share them with Burl.
But in five hours it was night and Burl was very indignant with his
tribesfolk. They had shifted the location of the hiding-place for the
night, and nobody had thought to tell him. And if Saya wished to come
for Burl, to lead him to that place, she did not dare for the simple
reason that it was night.
For a long time after he found a hiding-place, Burl fumed bitterly to
himself. He was very much of a human being, differing from his
fellows--so far--mainly because he had been through experiences not
shared by them. He had resolved a subjective dilemma of sorts by
determining to return to his tribe. He had discovered a weapon which, at
first, had promised--and secured--foodstuff, and later had saved him
from a tarantula. His discovery that fish-oil was useful when applied to
spider-snares and things sticking to the feet was of vast importance to
the tribe. Most remarkable of all, he had deliberately killed a spider.
And he had experienced triumph. Temporarily he had even experienced
admiration.
The adulation was a thing which could never be forgotten. Human
appetites are formed by human experiences. One never had an appetite for
a thing one has not known in some fashion. But no human being who has
known triumph is ever quite the same again, and anybody who has once
been admired by his fellows is practically ruined for life--at least so
far as being independent of admiration is concerned.
So during the dark hours, while the slow rain dipped in separate, heavy
drops from the sky, Burl first coddled his anger--which was a very good
thing for a member of a race grown timorous and furtive--and then began
to make indignant plans to force his tribesmen to yield him more of the
delectable sensations he alone had begun to know.
He was not especially comfortable during the night. The hiding-place he
had chosen was not water-tight. Water trickled over him for several
hours before he discovered that his cloak, though it would not keep him
dry--which it would have done if properly disposed--would still keep the
same water next to his skin where his body could warm it. Then he slept.
When morning came he felt singularly refreshed. For a savage, he was
unusually clean, too.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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