Chapter 5

I do not know how I have come to this place, but it is surely not the place of our people. It is a place of strange things and strange ways and a strange manner of speech and nothing familiar at all.

The woman is strange, too. She is older like me, and thin; I think it may be that there is no food, or not much.

Yet she has given me rich broth, full with flavor, and more again. I remember she took none herself. Does she give me her food and go hungry? Why would she do this for one she does not know?

But one who lives with so many wondrous constructs cannot lack food, I think, else she would trade for food.

Nothing is sensible.

Is the woman alone? Where is her man? Perhaps he hunts; yet no hunter would go in snow such as I see, the game is scarce and even if it can be found it will flee when one approaches and the snow will hinder pursuit. Is it that she has no man? She is not yet so old that she cannot bear children, and she is not deformed so that men would shy from her. Her features are regular, her breasts full, her hips perhaps small but I think wide enough for giving birth.

Is she barren? Even barren women find men, though not so easily as those who may bear children.

I understand nothing of this place or the woman or anything about me.

But I am here, and here I must stay until I am healed and may go to seek my people.

I will heal quickly, I think, the woman knows of hurt and how to help. She did as must be done when ribs are broken, she felt first to find sharp edges where the bone can do harm and when she found none she bound my chest. It is a wondrous binding, I have never seen such, it is far better than the sinew and skin that I have used before on others who were hurt as I am now. I almost have comfort, though I must still move carefully.

I would help this woman who helps me if I could do so, but my hurt will not allow much. And I do not understand enough of this place to know what help I can give.

In winter such as this the women do most things at the hearth. The men fashion spears for the hunting season, when time cannot be spared for that; they sharpen bone into tools for digging and fletching and other tasks; the ones who know how knap the flint for knives and spearheads and such uses; they teach the male children what can be taught of the hunt.

The men will also venture out to gather snow or ice to be melted for drinking, but that is not a thing that is needed in this place. When I need to go out to make my pee the woman tells me no and leads me to another part of her dwelling. There is a strange bowl with water in it, and she shows me that I am to make pee in this water. This is not unusual, in my own hearth is a vessel for pee and even stool when the snow is too heavy to go abroad, though we do not first fill it with water.

But when I finish and begin to go from that place the woman stops me. She puts a cover with a hole in it over the bowl; I think it may be a place to sit when one makes stool, instead of squatting as I am used to. Then she touches a thing nearby and I see the water with my pee in it flow out of the bowl and fresh water flow back in.

Even more strange, she goes to another bowl that is higher and turns a thing and water runs out! She places her hands in the water and laves them with a substance that sits nearby. As she dries her hands on a strange material she gestures for me to do as she did, but when I go to do so the water is hot, so hot I jerk away my hands. Yet I see no fire, and when she turns the thing with which she started the water it is only warm. I turn the thing myself when I finish and it turns only a little before it sticks and the water stops.

And the walls themselves open and close in this place. The opening is visible once I know what to look for, and there is a boss at about the level of my hips; if I pull on the boss the wall will not open, but when I turn the boss and then pull it opens easily. I learn this, too, by watching the woman, who knows to do these things from what appears to be long custom.

There is so much to learn about this place that I do not know where to begin.

I think the beginning must be speech. This is what makes men better than beasts, and allows us to do what the beasts cannot, for learning can be fast if it can be spoken and does not have to be shown.

It is the woman’s place, therefore it is I who must learn her way. I have visited before in places where people do not speak the same, and I have learned their way. If the woman will help me I think I can learn quickly. But for now I must be as a child and take teaching from her.