The shelters of stone - Jean M. Auel [145]
“I can spare a little time now,” Zelandoni said. “Get a cup for tea and join me.” She motioned to Ayla to sit on a mat on the ground.
“I just wanted to ask you if you know of anything more that I could have done for Shevonar. Is there any way to heal internal wounds? When I lived with the Clan, there was a man who had been accidentally stabbed with a knife. A piece broke off inside and Iza cut in and removed it, but I don’t think there was a way to cut in and fix Shevonar’s wounds,” Ayla said.
It was obvious how much it bothered the foreign woman that she had been able to do so little for the man, and Zelandoni was moved by her concern. It was the sort of thing a good acolyte might feel.
“There is not much that can be done to help anyone who has been stepped on by a full-grown bison, Ayla,” Zelandoni said. “Some lumps and swellings can be lanced to drain, or small objects cut out, slivers or that broken piece of the knife that your Clan woman removed, but that was a brave thing for her to do. It is dangerous to cut into the body. You are creating an injury that often is bigger than the one you are trying to fix. I have cut in a few times, but only when I was sure it would help and there was no other way.”
“That’s how I feel,” Ayla said.
“It’s also necessary to know something about what the inside of the body is like. There are many similarities between the inside of a human body and the inside of an animal’s body, and I have often butchered an animal very carefully to see what it looks like and how they are connected. It’s easy to see the tubes that carry blood from the heart, and the sinew that moves the muscles. Those things are very similar in all animals, but some things are different, an aurochs’s stomach is different from a horse’s, for example, and many things are arranged differently. It can be useful and quite interesting.”
“I have found that to be true,” Ayla said. “I’ve hunted and butchered many animals, and it does help to understand about people. I am sure Shevonar’s ribs were broken, and splinters had penetrated his … breathing sacs.”
“Lungs.”
“His lungs, and I think his … other organs. In Mamutoi. I would say ‘liver’ and ‘spleen.’ I don’t know the words in Zelandonii. They bleed heavily when damaged. Do you know which ones I mean?” Ayla said.
“Yes, I do,” the First said.
“The blood had no place to go. I think that’s why he turned black and got so hard. It filled him up inside until something burst,” the young woman said.
“I examined him, and I agree with your assessment. The blood filled his stomach and some of his intestines. I believe part of the intestines burst,” the donier said.
“The intestines are the long tubes that lead to the outside?”
“Yes.”
“Jondalar taught me that word. They were damaged on Shevonar, too, I think, but it was the blood filling him up inside that made him die.”
“Yes. The small bone in his left lower leg was also broken, and his right wrist, but those would not have been fatal, of course,” Zelandoni said.
“No, and I wasn’t so concerned about those breaks, I just wondered if you knew of anything else that I could have done for him,” Ayla said, her earnest face full of concern.
“It bothers you that you couldn’t save him, doesn’t it?”
Ayla nodded and lowered her head.
“You did everything you could, Ayla. We will all walk in the world of the spirits someday. When Doni calls us, young or old, we have no choice. Not even a Zelandoni is gifted enough to stop it, or even to know when it will happen. That is a secret Doni shares with no one. She allowed the Spirit of the Bison to take Shevonar in exchange for the bison we took. It is a sacrifice She sometimes demands. Perhaps She felt we needed to be reminded that Her Gifts should not be taken for granted. We kill Her creatures so that we may live, but we need to appreciate the Gift of Life She has given us when we take the lives of Her animals. The Great Mother is not always gentle. Sometimes Her lessons are hard.”
“Yes. That is what I have learned. I do not think the Spirit World is a gentle place. The lessons