The Land of Painted Caves - Jean M. Auel [336]
There was a silence when Ayla finished. Zelandoni who was First broke the silence. “In our Histories and Legends, the Great Earth Mother gave birth to all life, and then to those like us who would remember Her. Who is to say how Doni formed us? What child remembers its life in the womb? Before it is born, a baby breathes water and struggles to breathe when first born. You have all seen and examined human life before it was fully formed, when it was expelled early. In the first stages, it does resemble a fish, and then animals. It may be she is remembering her own life in the womb, before she was born. Ayla’s interpretation of her early experience with the ones she calls the Clan does not deny the Legends or the Mother’s Song. It adds to them, explains them. But I am overwhelmed that those we have called animals for so long would have such great knowledge of the Mother, and having such knowledge in their ‘memories,’ how they could not recognize Her.”
The zelandonia were relieved. The First had managed to take what at first seemed like a basic conflict of beliefs, told by Ayla with such credible conviction that it could almost create a schism, and instead blend them together. Her interpretation added strength to their beliefs rather than tearing them apart. They could, perhaps, accept that the ones they called Flatheads were intelligent in their own way, but the zelandonia had to maintain that the beliefs of those people were still inferior to their own. The Flatheads had not recognized the Great Earth Mother.
“So it was that root that brought on the black void and the strange creatures,” Zelandoni of the Fifth said.
“It is a powerful root. When I left the Clan, I had taken some with me. I didn’t plan to; it was just in my medicine bag. After I became a Mamutoi, I told Mamut about the root and my experience with Creb in the cave. As a young man, he had once been injured while traveling and a Clan medicine woman healed him. He stayed with them for a while, learned some of their ways, and participated at least once in a ceremony with the men of the Clan. He wanted us to try the root together. I think he felt that if Creb could control it, so could he, but there are some differences between the Clan and the Others. With Mamut we did not go back into past memories; we went somewhere else. I don’t know where—it was very strange and frightening. We went through that void and almost didn’t return, but … someone … wanted us back so much, his need overpowered everything else.”
Ayla looked down at her hands. “His love was so strong … then,” she said under her breath. Only Zelandoni noticed the pain in Ayla’s eyes when she looked up. “Mamut said he would never use that root again. He said he was afraid he’d get lost in that void and never return, never find the next world. Mamut said that if I ever used that root again, I should make sure that I had strong protection or I might never return.”
“You still have some of that root?” the First was quick to ask.
“Yes. I found more in the mountains near the Sharamudoi, but I haven’t seen any since. I don’t think it grows in this region,” Ayla said.
“The root you have, is it still good? It’s been a long time since your Journey,” the large woman pressed.
“If it’s dried properly and kept out of the light, Iza told me that the root concentrates, gets stronger with age,” Ayla said. The One Who Was First nodded, more to herself than anyone.
“I got a strong impression that you felt the pain of childbirth,” the visiting Zelandoni said. “Did you ever come near death giving birth?”
Ayla had told the First about her harrowing experience giving birth to her first child, her son of mixed spirits, and the large woman thought that might account for part of Ayla’s ordeal of childbirth in the cave, but she didn’t think it was necessary to tell everyone.