In the Beginning Read Online Free PDF Page B

tribe had moved off, as they always did, at the first lifting of the sun above the edge of the world, before its rays reached down into the valley itself. Now the sun stood up above the eastern slope and its light lay golden on the village. And Dom saw the hedge open as the branches of thorn were pulled away from inside. Figures came out, the figures of men driving cattle. Others also—men, women, even children.
    Dom’s anger rose, for a moment overcoming the pain in his poisoned leg. If the other hunters had been there he would have raced forward, swinging his club, weakness discounted by the strength of his hatred for the enemy. Automatically his grip tightened on the club’s hilt. But despite his fury he had the sense to remain concealed; on his own he was helpless. There was nothing he could do but watch as the cattle were grazed, fodder brought in, and women and children picked berries from the bushes, pulled plants out of the ground and dug up roots. He went on watching as the slow day passed and the sun traveled across the sky to lose itself behind the western hills. He watched as the people of the village went back in with their cattle, and the opening in the hedge was closed.
    In the evening the tribe returned and Dom ate the meat they brought him. He told his father what he had seen, and his father listened with anger even greater than his own had been.
    â€œTomorrow,” he said, “when they come out we will be waiting for them. Tomorrow there will be a great killing.”
    So next morning the tribe did not go away but stayed close to the village. They watched from behind the screen of leaves, waiting for the hedge to open. Nothing happened. The hedge stayed as it was, and the enemy stayed behind it.
    For more than an hour the tribe watched and waited. Then, impatient, the hunters went out into the clearing and hurled insults at the enemy. But the enemy paid no attention, except to throw stones if a hunter ventured within reach. In the end, still angry but with their throats dry from shouting, they gave up.
    Dom’s father said: “They are cowards. They only come out when we are away hunting.”
    â€œPerhaps they did not come out at all,” said the old woman who had made the ritual of calling the good spirits to Dom’s aid.
    â€œDom saw them.”
    â€œEvil spirits poison the mind as well as the body,” the old woman said. “I have known wounded hunters who saw things that were not there. I remember one who shrieked that lions were clawing at him, though there was no lion near as all could see.”
    Dom’s father looked at him. Dom said:
    â€œIt was not the evil spirit. I saw them come out through the hedge—many of them and their beasts also.”
    â€œThey did not come out today,” Dom’s father said.
    He looked at the old woman and then at Dom. After that he turned to the hunters.
    â€œTomorrow we hunt.”
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    Dom’s sleep was still more troubled. In a dream he followed an antelope which, at the moment his club was raised to strike, turned into a lion that grew bigger and bigger, towering up into the sky, and at last leaped on him. Its claws raked his leg and he awoke crying out and felt the pain still there—the pain of his poisoned wound. After that he could notsleep, but lay shivering in the chill of the night.
    The tribe had made their nests in the opposite direction of the valley from the village, and perhaps twice as far away as on the previous night. Again they left Dom behind when they went off in the morning, telling him they would bring him back meat. He felt the loneliness and fear again, but in a different way; because now the poison seemed to be in his head. His brow ached and his thoughts were wild and would not fit together properly, and when he stood up there was a weakness in his legs quite apart from the throbbing pain. He lay down again in the grass and watched the tribe go away to