The Land of Painted Caves - Jean M. Auel [126]
Since they had stopped, Zelandoni took out a new torch from her backframe and used the one Jondalar was holding to light it. Although his was not burned out yet, it was smoldering and had been giving off a lot of smoke. When she was through, he hit his torch against a stone to knock off the burnt charcoal from the end, which caused it to burn brighter. Ayla felt her baby still squirming a little in the blanket on her back. Jonayla had been sleeping, the darkness and the motion of her mother walking lulling her, but she might be waking, Ayla thought. Once they started walking again, the infant settled down.
“The men of the Clan hunted mammoth,” Ayla said. “I went along with the hunters once, not to hunt—women of the Clan don’t hunt—but to help dry the meat and carry it back.” Then, as an afterthought, she added, “I don’t think the people of the Clan would ever come into a cave like this.”
“Why not?” Zelandoni asked as they walked deeper into the cave.
“They wouldn’t be able to talk, or maybe I should say they couldn’t understand each other very well. It’s too dark, even with torches,” Ayla said. “Besides, it’s hard to talk with your hands when you are holding a torch.”
The comment made Zelandoni again aware of her odd way of saying certain sounds, as was often the case when Ayla talked about the Clan, especially the differences between them and the Zelandonii. “But they can hear and they have words. You’ve told me some of their words,” she said.
“Yes, they have some words,” Ayla said, then continued to explain that to the Clan, the sounds of speech were secondary. They had names for things, but movement and gestures were primary. It wasn’t only hand signs; body language was even more important. Where the hands were held when the signs were made; the posture, bearing, and stance of the person communicating; the ages and genders of those both making the signs and to whom they were given; and often barely perceptible indications and expressions, a slight movement of a foot or hand or eyebrow, were all part of their sign language. One couldn’t even see it all if one focused only on looking at the face, or just listening to the words.
From an early age, children of the Clan had to learn how to perceive language, not just hear it. As a result, very complex and comprehensive ideas could be expressed with very little obvious movement and even less sound—but not over a great distance or in the dark. That was a major disadvantage. They had to see it. Ayla told them of one old man who had been going blind, who finally gave up and died because he couldn’t communicate anymore; he couldn’t see what people were saying. Of course, sometimes the Clan did need to speak in the dark, or shout over a distance. That was why they had developed some words, used some sounds, but their use of speaking words was much more limited. “Just as our use of gestures is limited,” she said. “People like us, the ones they call ‘the Others,’ also use posture, expression, and gesture to speak, to communicate, but not as much.”
“What do you mean?” Zelandoni said.
“We don’t use sign language as consciously, or as expressively, as the Clan. If I make a beckoning gesture,” she said, showing the movement as she explained, “most people know it means to ‘come.’ If I make it quickly or with some agitation, it implies urgency, but from any distance there’s usually no way to tell if the urgency is because someone is hurt or if the evening meal is getting cold. When