The Mammoth Hunters - Jean M. Auel [340]
Talut came striding into Camp then, and greeted the co-leaders of Mammoth Camp in his booming voice. “Vincavec! Avarie! You finally made it! What held you up?”
“We made some stops along the way,” Vincavec said.
“Ask Tulie to show you what he brought her,” Nezzie said.
Tulie still felt a little embarrassed, and wished Nezzie hadn’t said anything, but she opened her hand and held out the amber for her brother to see.
“Those are beautiful pieces,” Talut said. “You decided to do some trading, I see. Did you know Willow Camp has white spiral seashells?”
“Vincavec wants more than seashells,” Nezzie said. “He wants to make an offer for Ayla … for his hearth.”
“But she’s Promised to Ranec,” Talut said.
“A Promise is only a promise,” Vincavec said.
Talut looked at Ayla, then Vincavec, then Tulie. Then he laughed. “Well, this is one Summer Meeting that won’t be forgotten for a long time.”
“It wasn’t only the stop at Amber Camp,” Avarie said. “Seeing you, Talut, with your big red mane reminds me. We kept trying to go around a cave lion with a reddish mane, but he seemed to be heading in the same direction we were. I didn’t see a pride, but I think we’d better warn people there are lions around.”
“There are always lions around,” Talut said.
“Yes, but this one was acting strange. Lions don’t usually bother with people that much, but for a while, I thought he was stalking us. He came so close I had trouble sleeping one night. He was the biggest cave lion I ever saw. I still shake when I think about it,” Avarie said.
Ayla listened carefully, frowning, then shook her head. No. Just coincidence, she thought. There are a lot of big cave lions.
“When you get set up, come up to the clearing. We’re talking about the mammoth hunt and the Mammoth Hearth is planning the Hunting ceremony. It won’t hurt to have another good Caller. I’m sure you will want mammoth meat for the Matrimonial Feast, since you plan to be a part of it, Vincavec!” Talut said. He started to leave, then he turned around to Ayla. “Since you are going to hunt mammoth with us, why don’t you come back with me, and bring your spear-thrower. I was going to come and get you, anyway.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Tulie said. “I have to go to the Womanhood Camp and see Latie.”
“This is good quality. Especially for blade tools like chisels, scrapers, drills,” Jondalar said, hunkering down on one knee, examining the smooth gray interior face of fine-structured flint. He had used a specially shaped piece of fresh antler, strong and resilient enough to resist breaking, as a digger and a lever to pry out the exposed lump of hard silica from its chalky matrix. Then he broke it open with a hammerstone.
“Wymez says some of the best flint conies from here,” Danug said.
Jondalar motioned up at the perpendicular cliff face of a river gorge that had been worn down over time by the churning water. More lumps of the hard flint encased in a white opaque crust jutted out from the somewhat less hard chalky stone. “Flint is always best if you can get it from the source. This is similar to Dalanar’s flint mine and his is the best stone in our region.”
“The Wolf Camp certainly thinks this is the best flint,” Tarneg said. “The first time I came here, I was with Valez. You should have heard him rave. With this place so close to their Camp, they count these workings as theirs. You did the right thing in asking their permission to come, Jondalar.”
“It’s only courtesy. I know how Dalanar feels about his mine.”
“What’s so special about this stone? I’ve often seen flint on river floodplains,” Tarneg said.
“Sometimes you can find good nodules that were recently washed out, on floodplains, and they are a lot easier to get. It’s work digging them out of the rock. But flint tends to dry out if it lies in the open very long,” Jondalar said. “Then the flakes come off shorter, more abruptly.”
“If it’s been on the surface too long, Wymez sometimes buries flint in damp soil for a while to make it easier to work,” Danug said.