The Land of Painted Caves - Jean M. Auel [275]
“Look at that stampeding bison,” Ayla said. “He’s really running and breathing hard, and the lions,” she added, first smiling, then laughing out loud.
“What’s so funny?” Jondalar asked.
“See those two lions? That female sitting down is in heat, and the male is very interested, but she’s not. He is not the one she wants to share Pleasures with, so she’s sitting down and won’t let him get close to her. The artist who made them was so good, you can see the disdain in her expression, and though the male is trying to look big and strong—see how he’s baring his teeth?—he knows that she thinks he’s not good enough for her, and is a little afraid of her,” Ayla explained. “How can an artist do that? Get that look just right.”
“How do you know all that?” asked the Watcher. No one had ever given that explanation before, but as Ayla spoke it seemed entirely right; they did seem to have those expressions.
“When I was teaching myself to hunt, I used to watch them,” Ayla said. “I was living with the Clan then, and Clan women are not supposed to hunt, so I decided rather than hunt animals to eat, since I couldn’t bring them back and they would go to waste, I’d hunt the meat-eaters that stole our food. I still got in bad trouble when they found out, though.”
The Watcher had started humming again, and Jonokol was singing many notes of harmony around her tones. The First was getting ready to join in when Ayla stepped out of the alcove.
“I liked the lions best. I think that frustrated lion would sound like this,” she said, then started the grunting buildup and let out a tremendous roar. It echoed off the rock of the cave all the way to the end of the passage ahead, then out toward the chamber with the bear skull.
The Watcher jumped back in shocked surprise and a little fear. “How does she do that?” She glanced at the First and Willamar with an incredulous look.
Both of them just nodded. “She still surprises us,” Willamar said when Ayla and Jondalar moved on. “If you really listen, it’s not as loud as it seems, but it is loud.”
On the other side of the alcove was a panel of mostly reindeer, male reindeer. Even female reindeer had antlers, the only deer that did, but they were small. The six reindeer on the panel had well-developed antlers, with brow tines and a full curving backsweep. There were also a horse, a bison, and an aurochs. But she didn’t think all the paintings were done by the same person. The bison was rather stiff, and the horse looked unrefined, especially after seeing the beautiful examples earlier. The person who made it was not as good an artist.
The Watcher walked to an opening at the right side that led to a narrow passageway that had to be taken single file because of the shape of the side walls and the rock pendants hanging from the ceiling. On the right side was a complete drawing in black of a megaceros, the giant deer whose defining characteristic was a hump on the withers, along with a small head and a sinuous neck. Ayla wondered why these artists showed them without antlers, since that was the defining characteristic to her, and the reason for the hump.
On the same panel, in a vertical position facing up, was the line of the back and two frontal horns of a rhinoceros, with its double arcs that represented ears. On the left side of the entrance was the shape of the head and back of two mammoths. Farther down the left wall were two more rhinos, facing in opposite directions. The one facing right was complete. It also had a broad dark stripe around its midsection as many rhinos in this cave did. Above it, the one facing left was only suggested by the line of the back and the little double-arc ears.
Even more interesting to Ayla was the line of hearths along the corridor, likely used to make the charcoal to make the drawings. The fires had blackened the walls near them. Were they the hearths of the Ancients, of the artists who created all the incredible paintings and drawings in this magnificent cave? It made them seem more real, like people, not like spirits from another world. The floor sloped down