Chapter 7

Doug was seen as the savior of the village. He tried to soft pedal his contribution by talking up the fighting actually done by the women until Little Bear and his men showed up. Nevertheless, everybody was well aware that it was Doug's actions that had saved them. After all, he was the inventor of the crossbow and the tactics that enabled them to win with no casualties on their side. Doug was the hero of the hour, and there was no way he could talk his way out of it.

His wives, of course, were very proud of him and did all they could to make sure that everybody in the village knew everything that Doug had done to help them since he had arrived. Doug didn't know it, yet, but his wives were priming him to be the next chief of the village.

Chief Raven was no fool—he could see that it was inevitable. Baring Doug's death, nothing was going to keep him from being the next chief. Actually, Raven was happy to see the situation developing this way. The position of chief of the village was more advisory than any thing else. The chief could not order anyone to do anything; the village was the freest sort of democracy. The chief could suggest that a certain policy be followed, and his influence was great, but, if somebody wanted to do something else, he did it, and nobody found fault with the counter move.

The chief was elected at a big meeting of the whole village, and he served for life unless he was challenged by someone else. If the challenger won, he became the new chief, but, if the challenger lost, he was run out of the village by the sheer force of being shunned. The social pressures were so great that no one ever challenged a chief for a trivial reason; it would be social suicide to do so and lose!

Raven was happy to see somebody of Doug's obviously good qualities come along at this time. Raven had been chief for 32 years, and he was simply tired of the job. He wanted to retire and have some time for himself and his family. This looked like the best possible opportunity to step down and have a competent person take over. Raven could see great social changes coming, and he didn't think that he could cope with them. The people needed somebody of proven ability that they could trust to take over and guide them through the changes. Raven was sure that Doug was the man for the job. He had talked to his wife about it, and she had agreed that Doug would make a good chief. Now, all he had to do was to convince Doug!

Raven enlisted Doug's wives, Evening Star and Cactus Flower, to go to work convincing Doug that the village needed him and that he could do the job. The started out their job by concentrating on a subject near and dear to the women of the village, namely, the way Doug had revolutionized the sex practices of the people. The men had learned from Doug to take their partner's feelings and desires into consideration during the sex act and even before. It was as if Doug had invented foreplay, and the women idolized him for that! Of course, the men enjoyed the new sex forms better than the old, but it would be difficult to find a man who would admit it. Whatever; it was there whether they would admit it or not! His wives pointed out the noticeable increase in the birth rate since Doug had arrived, and the reduction in the number of domestic brawls in that same time period.

Then they shifted to Doug's introduction, first of the atlatl, and then of the crossbow, and how this had greatly improved the food of the village, both in quality and quantity. Everybody looked healthier now than they ever had before, and the children were the most obvious sign of the improvement. Before Doug's arrival, there had been many children with the swollen belly and the sunken chest that was so common of malnourished children, but, now, not a single child in the village had that problem. The older people of the village now had enough to eat; they had always been the last to receive a share of the limited supply of food and had often been hungry. With the current food surplus, some of them were actually getting fat!

Speaking of the older men of the village—they were no longer left to vegetate. Now that Doug had started a regular business of trading crossbows to the neighboring villages, these older men had something useful to do and no longer felt like a useless drain on village resources. Their pride had returned as they strove to produce the finest crossbows that could be made from contemporary materials and resources.

The production of crossbow dart points had become a major industry, and Doug had taken on 3 apprentices to teach them the fine points of flint knapping. (Doug was amused that the Clovis points that he had set out to study were those very points that the apprentices were making.) Doug was sure that the crossbows and darts with their characteristic points would spread all over the continent very quickly. Man, wouldn't the colonists from Europe be surprised when they finally got here. Doug may have even pushed the locals into some sort of metal working civilization by then.

His wives reminded Doug of the medical techniques he had taught them, such as the tourniquet, and the new medicines he had introduced, such as willow bark tea as a pain killer. He had also taught them of the necessity for cleaning a wound before it could fester into a sickness that nothing could cure. They went on and on about the wonderful things that he had done for the village and even the surrounding people.

Finally, Doug caught on to the trend and asked, "OK, I surrender. What are you setting me up for? I know that you have some plot in mind." He smiled at this statement so that they would not be frightened by his remark about a "plot."

Evening Star said, "I wondered how long it was going to take you to catch on. Chief Raven asked us to convince you to take over his job when he retires."

"OK, I'll consider it, but Chief Raven has many years ahead of him before he decides to retire."

"Oh, no. Chief Raven wants to retire as soon as you will agree to take over from him. He has discussed the matter with many people, and they all agree that you are the perfect person for the job."

"Now, wait a minute. I'm not ready to be the chief. I don't know the first thing about the job."

"Yes you do! All of those things we mentioned are the kinds of things a chief would do. You are much more ready than anybody else that takes the job. You are just what we need to lead the village and do what's best for our children. Please say that you will take the job."

"OK, OK! I'll do it if Chief Raven asks me, himself, and the village goes along."

"No problem there. Let's go to my father's hut, right now. He will be waiting for us."

Chief Raven welcomed Doug's family with open arms and immediately put the question to Doug. The moment Doug agreed to take the job, Raven sent word to the villagers to gather that evening for an important meeting. Doug definitely had the feeling of being railroaded!

Doug was elected unanimously at the meeting and was dressed in the ceremonial robes of office. He was handed a ceremonial war club and told that he was now the arbiter of justice for the village. Ouch, Doug had forgotten that little duty of the office. Oh, well, there were no laws, as such, to be enforced, just custom, and everybody was careful not to step on these. Mostly, he would just judge personal disputes which were not serious breaches of custom. Doug planned to introduce the jury system for anything like a major crime.

Chief Doug could see Raven relax the moment the duties were passed on. Was the job really that stressful? Doug hoped not! In any case, it was too late to back out, now. Besides, his wives looked too happy and proud for him to disappoint them, so he was stuck with the job of chief. After all, Raven did promise to act as advisor for the sticky questions. Doug just hoped that he didn't screw up.

Doug's first real test came three weeks later when two men showed up at his door with a question for him to decide. They both wanted to marry the same woman, and they wanted Doug to select which one of them it would be. "Damn!" thought Doug, "Nothing like an easy one to start me off!" Doug listened to their appeals and told them that he would mull it over and give them his answer very soon. He was uncertain which way to go; he was sure that he couldn't get away with Solomon's solution of having her cut in half, so he had better get some advice.

Doug talked to Raven, whose first words were, "Now you know why I wanted to quit the job!" Raven said that this was a no-win situation for Doug. No matter which man was chosen, the other was going to resent the solution. All Doug could do was make a choice and hope for the best.

Doug talked to the woman and, to his surprise, discovered that she didn't want to marry either one of the men. The woman had her eye set on a third man who also wanted her, and they were just waiting for her pregnancy to show before they got married, as was the custom. Doug now had his answer, and he planned to send for the two men the next day to tell them both that they had been rejected.

This plan was canceled when one of the men was found dead, stabbed in the back with an atlatl spear. The other man in the disagreement disappeared at the same time, and was never seen, again, in the village. Everybody assumed that the second man had killed the first man and run off to escape punishment. This bothered Doug because he wondered if he had somehow been responsible for the murder by telling the men that they had to wait for a decision. Raven told Doug to forget the whole thing; both men were known to have short tempers, and one could have easily said or done something to antagonize the other beyond their current dispute. Raven thought that the village was actually better off without either of the two men. Doug went along, but he was not happy about the whole thing.