Chapter 15

It was the time of the year to travel south. Everyone knew it. It was less than half a moon since Ivory's village celebrated the Autumn Equinox with traditional solemnity, but the snow had settled at night and not melted, the mammoths were restless, and the sky was thick with flying geese.

"Tomorrow!" announced Chief Cave Lion. "Today we gather what we need for the journey. Tomorrow we leave."

Ivory was as reluctant to leave as anyone in the village, but the chief had spoken and the auspices were right.

"I hate Winter!" Ivory sulked as she and Glade sorted the herbs and medicaments needed for the trek south. These they tied together by cord and stuffed in the deer-skin sacks the shaman and her apprentice would carry with them. When they were ready, Ivory and Glade accompanied everyone around what for so many months had been where the villagers gathered to feast and celebrate. They then waited as the village congregated in anticipation for the start of the long southwards trek along the path they traditionally followed in either direction once a year. Northwards in Spring. Southwards in Autumn. The southern plains were undoubtedly beautiful and Ivory was in awe of the mountains that signalled the trek's southernmost point. Unfortunately, this land was at its most inhospitable when its bounty was in most demand.

Ivory was to abandon to the mercy of wolves and lions the village that was her Summer home. She gazed longingly at the tepee she and Glade had shared for the last few moons. She would carry the most precious things that could be collected from their home in sacks strapped to her back, but what she would most miss was the humdrum daily routine and the warmth of a fire that was never extinguished. Until now, of course. When the villagers returned in the Spring, everything in the village would have been sniffed at and pissed on by wild animals. Most tepees would collapse under the weight of snow and then be trampled on by large beasts.

Chief Cave Lion eventually emerged from his tent. It was the custom that he should be the last man to leave. He scraped aside the snow and kissed the bare earth. He raised his spear on both outstretched arms above his head and strode to the head of the waiting column of villagers who despite the warmth of their thick furs were already shivering in the chill Northern wind.

There was one last ceremony to be observed before the village could at last begin its trek. This had to be performed by the shaman accompanied, naturally, by her apprentice. Glade and Ivory walked hand-in-hand together towards the sacred stones that marked the village's boundary with the shaman singing in her rich alto voice and her apprentice in a reedy soprano. The words were in the tribe's tongue—not one of Glade's choosing—and they were addressed to the spirits of Winter and Snow to guard the village and defend the spirits of their ancestors.

As her mother was one of the spirits to be protected, Ivory took this ceremony very seriously. It was imperative that her mother should rest in peace and shield the village from the evil spirits of the long night. It hurt her though to reflect that Glade attached no great significance to the ceremony. But then what could the shaman know? She hadn't been born in the Mammoth steppe and none of her family was buried in its frosty soil.

The ceremony was soon over. The sacred stones had been blessed. The village was bade farewell as tradition demanded. The Mammoth Hunters could now sleep at ease confident that everything possible had been done to guard their summer home. As long as the goodness of the spirits prevailed, the village soil would welcome them back at the Spring Equinox.

Every day of the southwards march was hard. Generally, progress was frustratingly slow. The travellers were weighed down with provisions. Fresh meat needed to be gathered each day. The travellers generally tried to keep in step with the migrating mammals such as mammoth, rhinoceros and great deer, although they were also mindful of an accompanying migration of cheetah, leopard and hyena that could no more survive the winter than their prey.

Ivory wept when she finally lost sight of the village far in the distance across the open steppe. Wolves and lions would already be tearing at the furs they had left behind and trampling over the shattered shards of earthen pots and bowls. She squeezed Glade's hand though she was careful under the watchful eye of her fellow Mammoth Hunters not to make her display of affection too obvious.

"It must have been very pleasant to live with the Ocean People all year round and to never have to migrate," Ivory remarked, envious of the better life Glade had once known.

"Life was certainly comfortable," admitted Glade. "There was so much food in the ocean that could be harvested with the right tools for those brave enough to swim out to sea. The Ocean People never knew hunger. Every day the sea provided a bounty of fish, crab, lobster, shrimp and sometimes seal or dolphin. Even the sky had its bounty of birds that the Ocean People caught in nets they threw off the side of steep hills. There were also more familiar animals such as deer, okapi and antelope that wandered towards the sea and could be easily speared on the sand or pebbles where they were no longer so fleet of foot."

"The Ocean People must have considered themselves fortunate to have so much ready food."

"They might have done had they ever known otherwise, but they very rarely thought about it. The Ocean People put far more significance in the merits of philosophy."

"Philosophy?" wondered Ivory, who had no idea what the word meant.

"Yes," said Glade as she wearily adjusted the weight of her deer-hide sack on her back. "Philosophy is the art of debate and reason. It is what the Ocean People most enjoy doing. They gather together in small groups in the shadow of trees or under the stars and talk. They talk about the existence of spirits, the size of the world, and the nature of the moon and stars: anything and everything."

"Why's that called 'philosophy'? Isn't that just what everyone does anyway?"

"Yes, but not everyone does so methodically. And not everyone shares the outcome of these discussions with the rest of their tribe."

"What was so wonderful about that?"

"I was very impressed," said Glade who chose not to counter Ivory's scepticism. "The Ocean People made many discoveries through their debates that had a real practical bearing. You might remember, for instance, that the Ocean People maintained huge fires on top of the steep hills. Why do you think they did that?"

"To keep them warm when they camped there," said Ivory who wondered what was so special about that. "And to cook food. How can anyone survive without fire? It's as essential to life as water, food and the sun."

"They also used the smoke from the fires to communicate over long distances," said Glade. "They'd devised a language of smoke signals that they used to send messages from one village to another. That was how they knew that Knights were hunting for slaves along the sea shore and why there were never any Ocean People for them to find. Each village would warn the other villages of the Knights' precise movements."

Ivory was also impressed. "By the spirits! What a clever idea. Perhaps we could use such an art to communicate across the Mammoth steppe."

"Your villages are far too widely spread for that to be possible. And there are too few hills across the plains. It was more practical for the Ocean People as their camps are spread along the coast line. This skill of speaking over distances beyond the echo of the loudest shout was just one fruit of their philosophical debate."

"What else did they discover?" wondered Ivory who was excited at the notion of such wisdom and knowledge.

"They discovered a way to count numbers greater than the number of fingers on a man's hand. They calculated exactly how many moons there are in a year. They knew exactly on which day the sun is at its highest and when it is at its lowest. This is something your tribe can do only by measuring its elevation in the sky against the position of sacred relics. They debated the existence of spirits which, like you, they believed was the explanation for anything they didn't understand. They discussed the nature of the world which they believed was shaped like a pebble or an egg. They made decisions as to the relative value of gifts and how trade between villages should be measured. And they also debated whether a village should be led by a chief."

"It is as natural as the fact that birds fly and winters are cold that a village should have a chief," Ivory asserted.

"There was no chief for any clan of Forest People," Glade reminded her apprentice. "Nor did we have a chief when we lived by the river."

"That's because your people are ... peculiar," said Ivory as tactfully as she could. "Just as you wore no clothes and had sex all the time, so you didn't have a chief."

"Well, the Ocean People wear no clothes either," said Glade. "And they also don't have a chief. As far as I know, none of their villages have a chief and of this they are very proud."

"So how do they ever make decisions?"

"Each village has a counsel of men and women who are elected by all the villagers because they are believed to be the ones best fit to make wise decisions," said Glade. "Even though this counsel can make decisions for the whole village, there are also greater discussions where the whole village can attend in which everyone, whoever they are, can speak. It's in this way that decisions that affect the welfare of the whole village are determined."

"There must be a lot of rubbish spoken in these meetings!" exclaimed Ivory. She wondered how the Ocean People could lead anything but the most chaotic lives without the reassuring guidance of a chief.

"Indeed there is," said Glade, "but there's also a lot of good sense. When a decision is made, everyone knows why and everyone accepts it as the communal will. It works extraordinarily well. The Ocean People are enormously proud of their method of government. There had once been a time when their villages were governed by chiefs, just like yours, but such a system of government is now completely discredited."

Ivory was still far from convinced. "Were you and your companions permitted to join in these discussions?" she asked.

"Yes we were," said Glade, "but only, of course, when we'd learnt to speak their language. This was where I had an advantage over Macaque and Dignity and, indeed, all my companions. It wasn't only the Knights' language I was able to speak and understand rather better and more fluently than most other people. I was also the first to master the Ocean People's language. And I learnt it not only from discussion with the other women in the village, but also, and rather less openly, from the men who fucked me."

"Didn't the women mind?" wondered Ivory, who still found it incredible that there were women throughout the world so careless about the object of their men-folk's lust.

"Yes, they did," said Glade. "They minded very much. This was another new experience for me. Amongst my own people, there was no such thing as sexual jealousy. Amongst the Knights, there was no issue of sexual infidelity. But here, for the first time, I was living amongst and having to conform to the ways of people who, like your tribe, generally maintain stable monogamous heterosexual relationships. As someone who'd never known anything like that before, it was very peculiar for me. Consequently, although I maintained casual sexual relations with nearly every man, and many women, of the village, very few of these were publicly known. I even had to hide the carnal nature of my relationship with Macaque and Dignity with whom I shared a hut."

Ivory sniffed, though she wasn't sure whether it was because she disapproved of her lover's troilism or because she was envious. She just didn't understand why Glade couldn't be content with the love of just one good woman. Why did she need further carnal distraction with other men and women? Ivory was sure that if she wasn't bound to the chief and if Glade could just forswear the temptation of other women, they would make a perfectly content couple.