The Mammoth Hunters - Jean M. Auel [273]
The anticipation and tension were so intense on the night before the Spring Festival that no one could sleep. Both children and adults stayed up late. Latie was in a state of especially high excitement, feeling impatient one moment and nervous the next about the short puberty ceremony that would announce her readiness to begin preparations for the Celebration of Womanhood that would take place at the Summer Meeting.
Though she had reached physical maturity, her womanhood would not be complete until the ceremony that would culminate in the First Night of Pleasures when a man would open her so that she could receive the impregnating spirits joined by the Mother. Only when she was capable of motherhood was she considered a woman in all respects and, therefore, available for establishing a hearth and joining with a man to form a union. Until then, she would exist in the in-between state of no-longer-child but not-yet-woman, when she would learn about womanhood, motherhood, and men from older women and Those Who Served the Mother.
The men, except for Mamut, had been chased out of the Mammoth Hearth. All the women had gathered there while Latie was being instructed for the ceremony the next night, to offer moral support, advice, and helpful suggestions to the fledgling woman. Though she was there as an older woman, Ayla was learning as much as the young woman.
“You won’t have much to do tomorrow night, Latie,” Mamut was explaining. “Later you will have more to learn, but this is just to give notice. Talut will make the announcement, then I will give you the muta. Keep it in a safe place until you are ready to establish your own hearth.”
Latie, sitting in front of the old man, nodded, feeling shy, but rather enjoying all the attention.
“You understand, after tomorrow, you must never be alone with a man, or even speak to any man alone, until you are fully a woman,” Mamut said.
“Not even Danug or Druwez?” Latie asked.
“No, not even them,” he said. The old shaman explained that during this transitional time, when she lacked the protection of both the guardian spirits of childhood and the full power of womanhood, she was considered very vulnerable to malignant influences. She would be required to stay within the watchful eye of some woman at all times, and must not even be alone with her brother or her cousin.
“What about Brinan? Or Rydag?” the young woman asked.
“They are still children,” Mamut said. “Children are always safe. They have protective spirits hovering around all the time. That’s why you must be protected now. Your guardian spirits are leaving you, making way for the life force, the Mother’s power, to enter.”
“But Talut or Wymez wouldn’t harm me. Why can’t I talk to them alone?”
“Male spirits are drawn to the life force, just as you will find that men are drawn to you now. Some male spirits are jealous of the Mother’s power. They may try to take it from you, at this time, when you are vulnerable. They cannot use it to create life, but it is a powerful force. Without proper precaution, a male spirit may enter and even if he doesn’t steal your life force, he may damage or overpower it. Then you may never have children, or your desires may become those of a male, and you will wish to share Pleasures with women.”
Latie’s eyes opened wide. She didn’t know it was that dangerous. “I’ll be careful, I won’t let any male spirit come too close, but … Mamut …”
“What is it, Latie?”
“What about you, Mamut? You’re a man.”
Several women giggled, and Latie blushed. Maybe it was a stupid question.
“I would have asked the same question,” Ayla remarked. Latie gave her a grateful look.
“It is a good question,” Mamut said. “I am a man,