"Not exactly, but I have something almost as good. Have you ever wanted to ride on a horse's back? With a little help, I can train a horse to carry you around so that you don't have to walk."
"I never heard of that! Can you really do it?"
"Yes, but it may not be easy the first time. I'll be following instructions from the gods, so I'll have to learn some of the technique as I go along. Will you help me?"
"Certainly! What sort of help do you want?"
"The first thing I'll need is a lot of rope. Do you have any that I can use?"
"We have about 200 feet of rope in the store room. The women can make more if you need it."
"I'll need about 1000 feet of rope strong enough that 4 men can pull on it without breaking it. Can they make it that strong?"
"I think that our current rope is not strong enough, but we could make the kind you need from braided leather. The skins contributed by our new people will easily supply enough leather. I'll get the women started right away." Big Foot got up and walked toward the interior of the cave. He was back in a few minutes. "The women are working on lunch right now, but they'll start on the rope right after lunch. It's quite possible that they'll have what you need by tomorrow night. You are popular, so they will work hard for you."
"Thank you. Once the rope is ready, I'll have to find some horses. The gods have told me of a place where I can probably find some horses, but, as usual, there's no guarantee. Can you arrange for 3 men to help me. They will have to work, I don't want any women on this trip. It's not the kind of work women are used to, and I'm not sure that they would be strong enough to do the jobs. Also, there is some danger in the work."
"When you explain it that way, there won't be any problem getting men to agree to help you. I'll talk to them, this afternoon."
"Very good. We might be gone as long as two weeks. Can you let us take that much jerky and pemmican with us so that we don't have to worry about hunting or cooking?"
"Yeah, that shouldn't be a problem. When do you want to leave?"
"I'd like to leave the day after the rope is ready. Meanwhile, I'll knap some more spear points."
Chapter Four
This was my first trip without Hannah since I had met her, and I actually felt lonely. Hell, I needed to grow up and act like a man, there were a lot of people depending on me. I didn't dare screw up!
We reached the place where there should be horses, and, sure enough, there they were. This was an area with lots of steep hills and many small caves; a few were ideal for shelter for a short time, though they were too small to be home for a large number of people. We set up shop in a convenient cave and ate supper. It was too late that day to do anything about the horses, but I hoped to get an early start the next morning.
After a breakfast of jerky and pemmican, we started looking for a suitable place for our corral. It wasn't long before we found a place which was ideal for our needs. It was a small 3-sided valley with water and plenty of grass. This meant that we only needed to block off one exit with a brush fence. Now was when I wished that I had my machete, or, better yet, an ax, but we were able to cope by using some flint axes I had managed to put together. It took all day, but we were able to block the entrance to the valley with an adequate fence. We had left a gap in the brush fence and rigged a funnel-like guide to take the horses where we wanted them, once we got them to move.
We four men were enough to drive most of the horses into the fenced in area after a few false starts. The lead stallion escaped, but I didn't want him, anyway. I figured that with my inexperience, I'd have a hell of a time taming him. I decided to concentrate on mares this time; uncut males would be just too much of a challenge!
With some false starts and some ludicrous mishaps, we were still able to get six of the younger mares to accept us as riders after 18 days of effort. We didn't have much in the way of tack, so we all had trouble staying on the horses even when they were just walking. Several times, I heard the mumbled comment, "I'd rather walk!" I assured the other 3 men that everything would be easier when we got back home, and I had a chance to make us some decent tack. I don't think they really believed me, but I did get the benefit of the doubt, at least.
It was going to take a lot of work to make the saddles, but I had my always-sharp knife as a tool. That was certainly better than having to sweat the job with flint tools! I could see that I was going to have to make a foundry so that I could push us into the bronze age ASAP in order to have some adequate tools. Shit, I was going to have to train some assistants; there was no way around it.
I had travois made for the two horses we weren't riding, and we were carrying our gear on them as we rode home. The journey out had taken 3 days, but we made it back in only 1 day, so that proved something to my 3 companions. I hoped that they would become more enthusiastic about horses after they had gotten some experience with proper tack.
We made quite an impression as we rode into camp in time for supper. Most people had not understood what we were going to do with the horses after we had caught them, so there were many cries of amazement as we came into sight. The women were particularly impressed with the travois pulled by the horses; that they could appreciate—no more carrying heavy loads when it was necessary to travel.
We rigged a rope corral for the horses before we stopped work for supper and the welcome-home celebration. All 4 of us were looking forward to tonight and the breaking of our 3 weeks of celibacy.
With all the other things I had to do, it took me nearly a month to get the first saddle made, but finally it was done. The horses weren't all that happy with the saddle, but, with persistence, they accepted the necessity. My 3 assistants on the first horse breaking expedition learned how to use the saddle and actually began to enjoy horseback riding.
We were moving into the winter season, so there was not much to do beyond the necessary hunting. Therefore, I was able to recruit some help with making saddles and some of the other stuff we needed as boredom set in from the enforced idleness. By the time spring finally broke through, Bear had become an accomplished saddle maker, and he appeared to enjoy the job. I hoped that he would stick with it. We had 8 full sets of tack ready by the time the weather had warmed up enough for us to go back for more horses.
I had learned my lesson, and this time we took our wives with us; yes, I had formally married Hannah, and she seemed to be happy about this—I certainly was! The women were pleased that all of our equipment and supplies were transported on 4 travois. Naturally, the men rode horses and the women walked, but I planned for the women to ride on the way home; we had enough saddles for 8 people.
Now that we had some trained horses to help, we were able to train 10 more mares on this trip. The women could now appreciate the full value of horses as mounts and as draft animals. Now that the women were on my side, I had no doubt that the men would put up with the horses.
The acquisition of horses pushed us onto a lot of paths the people had never considered. For example, the use of stirrups was a lot easier if the rider had shoes with a hard sole, but such shoes had never been made before. To make things a little easier to fabricate, I designed some flip-flops which could be worn over the usual moccasins or even bare feet. We used a stirrup with a closed front so that we didn't need high-heeled shoes. The women started competing with each other to see who could produce the best quality items as the need came up. Thus, we developed a very useful division of labor in which a woman concentrated on the things she did best.
The men became jealous at the attention the women were getting for the products of their labors and looked for things that they could do better than the women. I knew that this wouldn't be a problem as soon as we started farming, but I kept my mouth shut, letting the men stew for a while. I figured it was good for them, it certainly was good for the egos and morale of the women!
As soon as I felt it was safe to do so, I wanted to go after some of the copper and tin. I asked Big Foot to assign 6 men and their wives to come with Ha
nnah and me on an expedition to fetch the copper and tin. Hannah had told me that we could find both metals on the surface in sufficient purity for making my first bronze. It was a beautiful day when we finally set out on our grand adventure.
I had the men bring their atlatls, and both men and women bring stabbing spears which I was now calling "lances." I wanted both sexes armed in case we were attacked by humans or animals: the horses made very attractive targets. We were going to hunt for most of our meat, but our tubers and greens were brought along on a travois. We had some jerky and pemmican along for emergencies.
Even with the horses for transportation, it was going to take several days to reach the tin, the first item on my shopping list. The first day was spent shaking everything and everyone down into traveling fitness, so we didn't get very far.
As it turned out, we didn't have to make a special effort to hunt. We ran across some elk who dismissed us as not dangerous, I assume because the sight of people on horses was so far outside their experience that they didn't know how to categorize us. Anyway, one of our men was able to bring down a fat doe with his atlatl without even leaving his saddle.
The women had the doe skinned and hung up to bleed-out in record time while we set up camp right there. There was a lot of laughing and joking at supper, and it turned into a grand celebration. I suspect that some babies were started that night.
There was some grumbling, but nothing serious, when I set up a guard schedule. Hannah, who really didn't need to sleep, said that she would unobtrusively keep watch to make sure that there was no goofing off, and that nothing could sneak up on us. So, after our nightly romp where Hannah continued my education into the finer points of sex, I went to sleep and she stayed alert.
We were visited by a dire wolf that night, but it must have been out of curiosity more than anything else, because it left when the guard shouted and waved his spear at it. Other than that, we had an uneventful night and rose with the dawn.
We managed to travel a reasonable distance the next day, and Hannah said that we would reach the site of the tin on the following day. The hunters had to go out this time, but they soon returned with an elk. The whole animal was dressed and cooked, so that we would have plenty for tomorrow. This was turning into a long picnic outing!
The next day, we reached the location of the tin and found some lying on the surface, so I was able to show the people what we were looking for. For this trip, I was sure we would find all of the tin we needed lying on the surface, so that we did not need to dig for it. The women were, by far, the most skilled in finding something on the ground, so I had them form a line to scour the surface for tin nodules. While they were at it, I asked them to pick up anything edible they came across. The men were set out as guards.
Since bronze only used a few percent of tin, the women had found more than enough in two days. We packed up and moved on to the copper deposit. The tin had been loaded into skin bags and put on a couple of travois, so it was no trouble to transport.
The camping at the tin deposit had been very pleasant, as it was in a grassy valley with plenty of water. The site of the copper was not nearly so attractive. I wanted to camp near the copper, so that it would be easier to protect the "miners." But this forced us to bring in the water. This was really only a minor annoyance, but it was a little bit of a letdown from our previous camp.
As it turned out, we were not bothered during the day while the women were gathering the copper, but we did have a night attack by two dire wolves. They went after the horses, but were beaten back and finally killed by a storm of atlatl spears. None of the horses were injured, but they were skittish for a couple of days after that. I detailed a couple of men to ride the horses around the camp to burn off their adrenaline, and this seemed to do the trick.
It took only 6 days to gather the few hundred pounds of copper nodules I wanted for my first experiments, so we loaded it on travois and started home. Everything went well on the first day of our return trip, but we met some humans on our second day. It was a close call between talking and fighting, because they had not had good luck hunting and wanted our horses to feed their camp.
I suggested that, instead, we would hunt for them and trade the prey for something of value. They scoffed at the idea that we could hunt better than they could, but a simple demonstration of what the atlatl could do convinced them that we, indeed, had better magic on our side. This was reinforced by me smoking a cigarette and blowing smoke during the atlatl demonstration.
Two of our men went hunting in an area suggested by Hannah while I showed the men the copper nodules and said that we would trade the secret of the throwing spears for two times the amount of copper that we currently had with us. We agreed to meet at the hunter's cave in one month to make the exchange. In a couple of hours, our hunters returned with 4 elk loaded on 2 travois, and we went to the cave of our new friends to cement the agreement.
Everybody there was amazed at the atlatl and our riding horses. I explained to their chief the tentative agreement, and he was all for it. He also wanted to know what we would take for our horses. I told him that we needed the horses we had, but we would trade one horse with all the tack for a load of copper equal to what he was paying for the atlatl secret. I promised that we would endeavor to supply as many trained horses and tack as he wanted as long as he supplied the copper. I planned to steer him to supplying me with tin, as well, as soon as I had him hooked! He knew about the copper, all I had to do was direct him toward the tin.
We spent the night with our new friends and left for home the next day. Other than having to travel through a gentle rain and the resulting mud, we had a good trip the rest of the way home and were greeted with enthusiasm when we arrived.
Before I left, I had asked Boar to construct a shelter near the cave for my foundry. It was ready for use, so I set out to make a kiln for melting copper and tin to make bronze. Boar's wife, Stork, had fashioned a bellows for me, so now I needed charcoal for the kiln. I explained to Boar how to make charcoal; the method was inefficient, but it worked well enough. He started in on the charcoal while Hannah and I built a mud-brick kiln. Finally, everything was ready, and we started the fire. I had fashioned a crucible out of clay, and I put some copper and tin nodules in it in the right proportions for the type of bronze I wanted.
Hannah pumped the bellows while I tended the fire. Everything was so damned inefficient that it took nearly 10 hours to get all of the nodules melted. I didn't have any way to stir the molten metal, so I just had to hold it in its molten state for a while and hope that the two metals would mix well enough. I knew they wouldn't, but, at this point, all I had was hope. Hannah told me to go ahead and pour it up, we had hit the point of diminishing returns.
I used a wooden clamp I had made to pick up the crucible and pour the molten metal into a sand mold. The mold was in the shape of a crude hammer head, an essential tool for the rest of the experiments I had in mind. We doused the fire and left the bronze to cool overnight.
The next morning after breakfast, we broke the sand away from our first product, and there it was! It actually did look like a hammer head. I had already fashioned a handle for it, so we quickly assembled the two and we had our first forge hammer. I rushed to show the hammer to Big Foot, but he quickly punctured my balloon when he said, "That looks very nice, I guess. But what is it?" He'd never seen a hammer.
Suitably deflated, I went back to the foundry, and worked with Hannah to melt another batch of metal. This time, I wanted to make an ax head. I had found a rock large enough to use as an anvil, so I was ready, once the bronze was available. Our technique had improved and it didn't take as long to melt the nodules. I poured out the molten metal into the mold to make a more-or-less flat sheet and left it to cool.
I still had some time before supper, so I knapped a leaf-shaped spear point about 10 inches long and 3 inches wide at its maximum. I used this to make several sand molds and set them aside for use tomorrow.
After breakfast,
I recruited Boar to help Hannah with the kiln while I worked on the ax head. The casting from the day before had come out about like I expected, so I was ready to forge it into the shape I was looking for. The piece was roughly rectangular, I wasn't looking for anything fancy at this point. As expected, the piece of bronze was not uniform in thickness, so I selected the thinner edge for the cutting edge and the opposite side for attaching the handle.
I started pounding on the flat plate with my new hammer and began to roll it into a somewhat cylindrical shape. I wasn't going for beauty, I was going for usability. After about two hours' work, I had a serviceable cylinder I could force a handle into. I made up a suitable handle about 30 inches long and forced the ax head onto it. That's when we all took a break for lunch.
Hannah and Boar had already poured up two spear points and were ready to repeat the exercise after lunch.
After lunch, I started to sharpen the ax by pounding on the thinner edge. I didn't have a file, so the only substitute I had was a flat stone. Since I needed the edge to be hard so that it had a chance to stay sharp, I wanted to work-harden it by pounding on it with the hammer. This would accomplish two things, it would thin the metal to make it "sharper," and it would harden it.
Four hours of pounding produced the thinnest edge I was going to get, and I was exhausted! I'd try sharpening the edge with a stone, come tomorrow. Right now, all I wanted to do was eat supper and go to bed! Now I knew why blacksmiths had such big muscles.
The next day, I asked Boar and Hannah to cast as many hammer heads as they could. My forging was hard on my hammers!
I had managed to get a pretty good edge on the ax blade just by pounding, so I didn't have much work to do to finish the sharpening with the stone. By noon, I was ready to demonstrate my new toy to the rest of the group. Not being a complete fool, I had tested the ax before showing it off.
After lunch, I asked everybody to gather around, as I was ready to demonstrate the latest gift from the gods. I had dragged up a limb about 4 inches in diameter and proceeded to chop down on it as hard as I could with my new ax. The blade penetrated about half way, such that I had trouble getting the blade back out of the cut. I flipped the limb over and hit it just as hard on the other side. Two pieces of wood went flying as I chopped the limb in half.
The Hole Page 4
