Zan-Gah: A Prehistoric Adventure Read Online Free PDF

to give credence to Chul’s pronouncement that Dael was alive. Maybe he was! The mammoth Chul could be as stupid as he was large, but on those rare occasions when his brute mind engendered an idea, it took on the glow of a prophesy. Chul was consulted and he repeated his words. Zan made ready.
    Once the venture was accepted and the family was exchanging views, Thal stated firmly that he would accompany his son. But Zan said, and he saw for himself,that Wumna could not be left behind alone to wonder day and night whether she would ever see any member of her family again. That would be too heavy a burden to place on a woman who was already shattered by the loss of one son. Nor could Chul go, for he had a wife of his own and three girls yet of tender years. They all sat together at their fire and began to make plans for Zan’s solitary search.
    Zan shared an idea with his family: Often, in the days when he and his brother played and hunted together, Dael had urged him to go further from home than they were allowed. Dael, Zan remembered, had been particularly fascinated by the river, Nobla, that ran nearby. While Zan had always wondered where the current might take him if he would follow its downward flow, Dael (how different the boys were!) always wished that he could follow Nobla to her mysterious
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in the direction of the distant hills. The thought of finding her birthplace had enthralled Dael. Did the river come from afar in the fading blue beyond or gush from some remote cavern deep in the hollow earth? Some day, Dael had said, they might follow Nobla to her place of birth, hunting and fishing as they went. Perhaps the twins would by this time have begun the adventure if Dael had not vanished from sight.
    In trying to decide which way to go in search of him, Zan had to make a difficult decision. Would it not be easier for Dael to have gone with the flow of the river? No, Zan explained to his family, Dael did not care where Nobla went, only where she came from. That is what he always talked about, never the other. He might, in his anger, have decided to make the trip alone instead ofsharing it with Zan as he had promised. Zan resolved to travel upstream for eight days, by which time he hoped he would find a clue or sign of Dael. If he did not, he would reverse his direction. Thal and Chul approved. Now Zan-Gah knew where the first step would lead. (He little guessed how far this step would take him, nor what adventures and trials lay ahead!)
    Wumna was not slow to point out that every stride might carry him further from his brother, even if he were alive, and that any path was full of dangers. Zan held up his spear, cheerfully reminding his mother that he had slain a lion with it and could as successfully face any other enemy. He was boasting, but he wished to reassure her. Wumna was not comforted. Would he always be as lucky? The clansmen might call him Zan-Gah, but she never once had honored him with that name except with sarcasm. If she spoke it, it was: “Zan-Gah, straighten up the mess you made, Zan-Gah,” or she would say: “Zan-Gah, we need more wood, oh mighty warrior.” Never was it otherwise. To her he was a boy, not the man he pretended to be, and the search he was now resolved to undertake seemed to her a frightful absurdity that somehow she was powerless to stop.
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    Zan and his people rose early—Zan to prepare for his journey, and his parents, as well as others of his clan, to help him and to pray for his success. Zan was advised to travel light. He would need his spear and a few other things which he would bring in a pouch made of animal skin. In it he could carry some dried meat, anothersmall skin, some thongs of leather in case he had to tie something, and a stone blade he had laboriously made from a piece of flint. He also had a hollow gourd to carry water, ingeniously fashioned. With regret he left his splendid lion skin in the hands of his uncle, Chul. It was simply too