The Plains of Passage - Jean M. Auel [193]
Jondalar and Ayla had demonstrated the spear-thrower. It took a great deal of skill and patience to get close enough to a chamois to make a kill, and when the Shamudoi hunters saw how far a spear could be thrown with it, they were eager to try it on the elusive mountain antelopes. Several of the Ramudoi sturgeon hunters were so enthusiastic about it that they decided to adapt a harpoon to it, to see how it would work. In the discussion, Jondalar brought up his idea of a spear in two parts, with a long back shaft fletched with two or three feathers, and a smaller detachable front end tipped with a point. The potential was immediately understood, and several approaches were tried by both groups over the next few days.
Suddenly there was a commotion at the far end of the field. The three women looked up and saw several people hauling up the supply basket. Some youngsters were running toward them.
“They caught one! They caught one with the harpoon-thrower!” Darvalo shouted as he approached the women. “And it’s a female!”
“Let’s go see!” Tholie said.
“You go ahead. I’ll catch up as soon as I put my thread-puller away.”
“I’ll wait for you, Ayla,” Roshario said.
By the time they joined the others, the first part of the sturgeon had been unloaded and the basket sent down again. It was a huge fish, too much to bring up at one time, but the best part had gone up first: nearly two hundred pounds of tiny black sturgeon eggs. It seemed propitious that the large female was the result of the first sturgeon hunt with the new weapon developed from Jondalar’s spear-thrower.
Fish-drying racks were brought out to the end of the field, and most of the people there were beginning to cut the great fish into small pieces. The great mass of caviar, however, was brought back to the living area. It was Roshario’s responsibility to oversee its distribution. She asked Ayla and Tholie to help her, and she dished out some for all of them to taste.
“I haven’t eaten this in years!” Ayla said, taking another bite. “It’s always best when it’s fresh from the fish, and there’s so much.”
“And a good thing, too, or we wouldn’t get to eat much of it,” Tholie said.
“Why not?” Ayla asked.
“Because sturgeon roe is one of the things we use to make the chamois skin so soft,” Tholie said. “Most of it is used for that.”
“I’d like to see how you make that skin so soft sometime,” Ayla said. “I have always liked to work with leather and furs. When I lived with the Lion Camp, I learned how to color skins and made a really red one, and Crozie showed me how to make white leather. I like your yellow color, too.”
“I’m surprised Crozie was willing to show you,” Tholie said. She looked significantly at Roshario. “I thought white leather was a secret of the Crane Hearth.”
“She didn’t say it was a secret. She said her mother taught her, and her daughter wasn’t too interested in working leather. She seemed pleased to pass the knowledge on to someone.”
“Well, since you were both members of Lion Camp, you were the same as family,” Tholie said, though she was quite surprised. “I don’t think she would have shown an outsider, any more than we would. The Sharamudoi method of treating chamois is a secret. Our skins are admired and have a high trade value. If everyone knew how to make them, they would not be as valuable, so we don’t share it,” Tholie said.
Ayla nodded, but her disappointment showed. “Well, it is nice, and the yellow is so bright and pretty.”
“The yellow comes from bog myrtle, but we don’t use it for its color. That just happens. Bog myrtle helps to keep the hides soft even after they get wet,” Roshario volunteered. She paused, then added, “If you stayed here, Ayla, we could teach you to make yellow chamois skin.”
“Stayed? How long?”
“As long as you want; as long as you live, Ayla,” Roshario said, giving her an earnest look. “Jondalar is kin; we think of him as one of us. It wouldn’t take much for him