The Thinking Rocks (17 page)

Cano had been listening,
but he was thinking about Ceola. The question forced him back to the present.
"What he says is true.  Bana doesn't forget.  He will have a hard
time if he returns.  There is something else to remember.  The clan
has lost many members in the last days.  Even though he's young he will be
a hunter one day.  The Clan will need him.  However, we could also
use him, not only help with wolf, but also in the camp and to help with
hunting.  The clan has cast us out.  We have to do what we can to
live.  Dola has chosen to come with us.  I say he should be allowed
to come.  No, I said that wrong, he should be allowed to become one of
us."

Gennos nodded his head
in agreement. "You are welcome to become one of us. But there is only one
thing that you must promise us."

Dola looked at him
questioningly, "I will promise anything.  I must be allowed to come
with you."

Gennos said with a firm
look on his face, "You won't be able to bring your dollies along."

Dola took a moment to
understand, they were doing it again.  They seemed to love to make jokes;
it was hard to tell when they were serious and when they were trying to trick
you. He decided to try to play their game. "I couldn't bring any of them
with me, Bana wanted to play with them."

Neither Cano nor Gennos
understood at first, the very idea of Bana playing with dolls was
laughable.  Understanding slowly dawned on both of their faces at the same
time. Dola had carried their joke one step further. 

Cano spoke first,
"I can see that you will fit into our Clan." He looked at his brother
and saw him nod his head.  “Welcome, we are proud to have you join
us."

Dola was
overjoyed.  His smile was so wide it almost broke his face.  He's
squared his shoulders and said, "I know I am small now, but I will
grow.  I will show you that I will be a good member of our new clan."

Cano looked at him with
a smile on his face, "Take some time to pay attention to your small hairy
friend and then find a place to sleep.  We will be up early and head out
on our journey."

"Where are we
going?" asked Dola.

"That's an easy
question," said Cano, as he looked over at Gennos. "Away--- that
way," touching his chest with his right hand, palm down, and then making a
sliding motion toward the direction of where the Sun would rise.

The next morning they
were up as the sun poked its head over the low mountains to the East. They had
eaten little, because they had little.

Cano led the way with
Dola following close by.  Their pace was being set by Gennos, although he
didn't seem to know it, because of his bad leg.  It was always painful for
him, but he did not complain.  How could he when the others were here
because of him?

Cano tried to pick a
path that did not require climbing the steep ridges or passing through heavy
brush. The country was covered with hills and brush, and to find a flat place
was rare. They eventually found a trail made by some large animals and that made
traveling easier. Even when they came to the occasional fallen tree across the
trail, it was a simple matter to bypass it. He stopped frequently to explain
the woods and the terrain to Dola.  The real reason for these stops was to
let Gennos rest.

As they passed some
strange tracks on the ground Cano stopped. "Dola, come look at these. Tell
be what you can about them."

Dola looked down and
said, "There are tracks on the ground."

"Yes, they
are.  What can you tell me about them?"

"There isn't much
to tell.  Something passed this way."

"As with most
things in life, you are right and wrong."

"I don't
understand.  How can something be right and wrong at the same time?"

"You are right that
something passed this way.  However, there is more to tell from these
marks.  You only saw a small portion of what the tracks tell us.  You
can tell by the size of the tracks how big the thing was and how many feet did
it have?”

Dola examined the tracks
again; "It looks like it had as many as the wolf."

Cano nodded, "Have
you ever heard of a bird with that many legs?"

"No," answered
Dola.

"That helps us, now
we know these tracks were left by an animal and not a bird," Cano
said.  He paused as if thinking of his next question, "Now how big is
the animal?"

"How can I tell how
big an animal is by the tracks?  I can see the tracks, but how can I know
how big an animal is?"

"Try to look at it
this way.  Could a mammoth have made these tracks?"

"No, a mammoth's
track would be much larger." 

"Is this track
bigger or smaller than your own track?"

"It’s smaller, a
lot smaller."

Cano said, "Good,
you are doing great. Now look at the ground around the track, check to see if
it's hard or soft."

"Soft, it's easy to
mark."

"Good, now look at
the track, how deep is it?"

"Not too
deep."

"Is it as deep as
your track would be if you stepped there?"

"No it's not."

"That tells us that
the animal is lighter than you."  Cano paused for a moment,
"Take out your wolf and let her walk across the ground by the track."

Dola opened his pack and
extracted the squirming puppy.  When he put it on the ground the wolf
looked around and then walked across the ground sniffing, and then squatted
down and left its spoor on the ground.

Cano said, "Now
compare the tracks of the wolf with the tracks we found.  What can you
tell?"

"The tracks on the
ground are bigger and deeper than those of white face."

"That's
right.  So what do we know?"

"The animal that
left the tracks is bigger and heavier than white face, but smaller and lighter
than I am."

"Good, but there's still
more to learn from these tracks.  Look at the tracks of the wolf and the
other tracks.  Do you see any difference?"

"The shape is
different and they aren't as clear as those of the wolf."  Dola said
as he studied the tracks.

"Why do you think
that is?"

"The shape being
different means it wasn't a wolf that left them."  He looked up
toward Cano and got the approval he was looking for. "I don't know why
these aren't as clear is the wolf's."

"It's because the
track of the unknown animal are older.  When an animal leaves a track it
is sharp because the foot pushes the dirt away.  As time goes by the dirt
or mud fills the track again.  From the way the track looks, I would say
it was from yesterday."

"You are right
Cano, I can tell more from the tracks than I thought.  I know the animal
was smaller than I am and not as heavy.  It was bigger than white
face.  It came this way yesterday."

Cano smiled at Dola and
then said to Gennos, "What more can you tell us about tracks,
brother?"

Gennos knelt down by the
tracks and looked at them carefully.  He touched them and then smelled his
fingertips, before moving on his hands and knees down the trail of small
tracks.  He picked up the dirt from one of the tracks, smelled it
carefully, then spit into the dirt and stirred it with a finger until he had a
small puddle of mud in the palm of his hand. Next, he tasted the mud and then
made a mark on his forehead over his right eye. He then stopped and picked up a
small object, a feather.  He settled back at his heels and said, "The
animal has different marks for its front feet and for its rear feet.  This
animal is a hunter, which has sharp claws, and eats birds--- water birds. 
It probably has sharp teeth.  It has a tail without hair.  It has a
footprint that looks like our own handprint, but smaller and has claws on the
end. It probably has its eyes on the front of its head and not on the side of
its head.  It would be good to eat."  He sat back with a
self-satisfied look on his face. "It's probably about this big," he
held his hands apart a short distance, "and is gray in color."

Dola was dumbfounded,
"You could tell all those things from the tracks?  How can you be so
sure?"

Gennos replied,
"You have to have experience and look at what there is to see. First, I
studied the tracks, and then smelled them.  I could see an animal left the
tracks with as many feet as the wolf. Some animals leave their scent from their
feet, and you can smell it.  This one did not smell.  The feather I
found was from a duck.  To kill this type of bird it would have to have
sharp teeth.  Next, I noticed a small line that went over the track. It
was like something was dragged along the ground after the animal."

Dola interrupted,
"How could you be sure it was dragged along behind and not something that
was being carried in its mouth, that dragged along the ground?"

"Good
question," Gennos said, "look at the tracks here."  He
pointed to a small mark, "See this mark?  You can see the mark moves
over the mark of the footprint.  If it was carried in front, the footprint
would be over the drag mark not underneath it."

Dola nodded, "I see
and I also see the different footprints and the claw marks.  But how can
you tell it has its eyes on the front of its head and not on the sides?"

           
Gennos replied, "Animals that have their eyes on the front of their head,
like we do, are hunters. Animals that have their eyes on the sides of their
heads are the hunted. This may be so that they can see danger sooner, I'm not
sure, but I think that is true."

"All right, I can
understand all that, but how can you tell its color and that it doesn't have
hair on its tail, just by looking at the tracks?"

Gennos looked very
serious, "There are things that a hunter knows. I know the animal that
made these tracks.  I have hunted and killed them before.  I
recognized that tracks.  Another way I could tell," he paused before
continuing, "was that I saw it looking at us from that hollow
tree."  Gennos smiled slightly as he pointed to a nearby tree.

Dola looked startled and
then noticed the smile on Gennos and Cano's face.

"You tricked
me."

Cano was trying hard to
keep from laughing aloud as he poked Dola's small shoulder. "Yes we did,
but still you did good and you are learning."  He looked over toward
the tree where the opossum was hiding. "It's time for us to get some
food."

When they got to the
tree, they found that the opossum had crawled up the hollow center of the
tree.  They could not get to it.

Cano asked Dola
"How do you think we can get it out of the tree?"

Dola thought for a
moment before answering, "We could pound on the tree and hope it will come
out."

Gennos looked at him and
said, "We could do that, but he might not come out.  We need a way to
make it come out. It can have no choice.  Remember, if we don't get it, we
don't eat today."

Cano came to Dola's
rescue, "We will make a small fire at the base of the tree and burn green
leaves, and smoke will go up inside the hollow and will force the opossum to
come out.  When he finds that he cannot breathe, he will come out."

Three of them soon had a
small fire going and the smoke filled the interior of the tree.  The
hunters waited in a small semi circle around the entrance hole at the base of
the tree.  Soon, there was a scraping noise from the tree and a large gray
colored animal looking like a large rat staggered out of the smoke.  It
saw the hunters and hissed at them, something was dripping from its toothy
mouth. Cano called to Dola, "get it, hit behind its head". Cano
jumped forward and the opossum turned toward him.  Dola sprang forward and
landed a blow with Gennos's Canohawk.  The opossum died instantly. 
Dola stood quietly looking at the small still form. "It's dead, I killed
it."  He looked up uncertainly, first at Cano, then at Gennos.
"This is the first time I've killed; I thought that I would feel good
about it.  But I don't.  I feel bad.  It was alive and I took
its life."

Gennos moved forward and
put his hand on Dola's shoulder. "I know how you feel; every hunter knows
what it feels like to kill.  We don't kill to make us feel good.  We
kill to live."  He paused for a moment and then he continued,
"You had a job to do, and you did it."  He moved over to the
opossum and placed his hand on the still form. "We thank you for your
life, and we thank Dola for feeding us on this day."

They put the fire out,
gathered their weapons, and resumed their journey. Dola carried his first Kill.
Cano led the way as usual.  He knew that they would have to find water
tonight so that they could fill their water skins.  As they stopped at the
top small rise, he could see something shining through the trees.  It
looked like it might be a small stream.

Just before the sun was
starting to set, they came to the stream that Cano had seen earlier.  They
built a small fire, cleaned, and roasted the opossum over the fire. While they
waited, they ate nuts that Gennos had found along the way. The three sat
quietly munching nuts and waiting for the food to cook.  There was a
slight breeze and it seemed to be a good day to be alive.