Bonesetter

by Laurence Dahners

  “Agan?!” Pell was nonplused. “How can she be the leader? Anyone who disagreed with her could simply… k—k, cast her aside. Then they could proclaim themselves the leader.”

  Deltin stared at Pell. “The tribe chooses her as leader because she is so wise. She always consults with the people of the tribe before making important decisions. We have our say. If she begins to make bad decisions, we will probably choose someone else. We choose anew at the midwinter feast each year.”

  “How do you ‘choose’ a leader?”

  “Well, you would be surprised at how complex it is! Five adults are chosen from volunteers by voice acclamation of the tribe at a feast the night before. The five then pick from a pile of river pebbles, taking turns and each trying to get the largest but, of course, eventually getting some pebbles that are pretty small. When each of the five has one pebble for each member of the tribe, they dole them out to tribe members as people lay down to sleep that night, putting them in small baskets at the head of each person’s sleeping place. They give the pebbles out to people according to the value that they feel that that person has to the tribe; good hunters, powerful medicine makers and good mothers get large pebbles while children, and those who may have been lazy receive small pebbles. Then before anyone moves, Agan checks each basket to be sure that each person has five pebbles, one for each of the five ‘valuators’. Agan thinks that the next part is the most important event of the year, when each person finds out how they are viewed by the members of the tribe. Believe me your heart is pounding with fear that you may find five tiny pebbles in your basket! Some have found grains of sand when they have been particularly slothful the year before. You hold your pebbles in your possession until the next night, when you place your pebbles in the basket of the person that you feel would make the best leader. The person with the heaviest basket at the end of the night becomes the next year’s leader. Sometimes in the past twenty winters, others than Agan have had quite a few pebbles placed in their basket, but never enough to make it close. Those people always wind up giving any pebbles they accumulate to Agan when they realize they cannot win. She finishes the night with all the pebbles every time.”

  Reminiscing of the people from their decimated tribe had brought tears to the eyes of Manute and Deltin. Neither Tando, nor Pell knew what to say, so the group walked on in silence for a while. Pell pondered the concept of the leader “consulting” with the tribe before making important decisions. It seemed a good thing to do, but it was hard to even imagine Roley doing such a thing. Considering the benefits of consulting with the others, he felt bad that he and Tando had just, a few minutes ago, decided to ask the others to join their tribe without even thinking of whether Donte might welcome them.

  Tando did not say anything to the other two men about joining during the remainder of the trip back to the cave. Instead, after they regained their composure, he carried on a cheery conversation about hunting techniques and enthusiastically described some of the “great kills” he had been in on.

  They and their deer were welcomed back at the cave with a great deal of excitement. Agan and Gia immediately began preparing the heart and liver of the deer for Panute, claiming that some of the spirit of the deer resided there and would help her heal.

  When Pell heard the words, “help her heal,” he felt the hair prickle on the back of his neck and looked at Panute more closely. He had avoided looking at her when they first arrived back, fearing the worst. Elatedly he realized that she did look better. Still wan, but even he saw that the redness had faded significantly from her arm. Pell’s insides did little gyrations and he wanted to jump up and down. He looked over to see if Tando and Donte had noticed Panute’s condition as well and saw them in deep conversation off to one side. So instead, he went over to speak to Panute. As he approached, she smiled, waving with her good hand at her bad arm, “It’s much better Pell! It doesn’t hurt as much and I’m not feverish. I thank you, and beg you to thank the spirits for me. Whichever spirits that you called on to help me so!”

  Pell was embarrassed. How could he tell Panute that he had little or no knowledge of the spirits? Perhaps he should pretend that he did? But no, he had promised himself that he wouldn’t act like Pont had. Without speaking much, he adjusted the splints on her leg, changed the poultice on her hand then retreated to the cooking fire where he carefully watched the special preparations of the deer’s organs. This involved cooking strips briefly, then rolling them in crushed herbs. Before presenting them to Panute, Gia and Agan chanted mystically over them awhile, their voices weaving a strange harmony. Panute complained about the taste of the liver, nonetheless she dutifully ate several strips of it. She consumed her portion of the heart with great relish. Gia set much of the rest aside for Panute to eat over the next two days but everyone else got a strip of the heart and a strip of the liver in their own bowl at dinner. Pell found the heart edible but, as usual, almost couldn’t choke the liver down. Gia went on and on about how eating it strengthened your own heart and liver. Listening to her, Pell managed to gulp it all down. In fact, by watching Gia’s gray eyes flash as she spoke, he got it down without noticing the flavor all that much.

  A pause came in the conversation and Tando cleared his throat. “I have spoken with Pell and Donte and our group of three here at Cold Springs, have a proposition for you members of Aganstribe.” Pell stared at Tando. So, that’s what Tando had been speaking to Donte about earlier? Tando wouldn’t have considered talking to Donte about uniting the groups before hearing Deltin’s description of how things were done in Aganstribe. Listening to the men’s description of Agan’s consultations before major decisions must have made as big an impression on Tando as it had on Pell. When everyone was listening, Tando went on, “Your tribe has been devastated so that now it is too small to be safe from attack or to hunt well for its sustenance. We would welcome you to join us here in Cold Springs. We consider the successful hunt today by the combined hunters of our tribes a great omen.”

  Startled looks passed among Agan’s group. Surprise and disbelief held the greatest sway. They all eventually looked to Agan to speak. The old woman slowly looked from Tando to Donte to Pell and then into the fire. After gazing there a while she began, “This is a generous offer to make late in the fall, to a group with one old woman, one sick woman, one child and no stores laid by. We must think on it well. I myself do not know you well enough to say yes, having only met you once before yesterday. I must admit that yesterday… yesterday… I thought it had been a great mistake to come here.” This last came out in a rush. Then she looked up at Pell, “I… I had… had never heard of such a thing as to cut away a part of someone. Certainly, I never considered the possibility that inflicting an additional injury might help to heal a person and so… I thought it, at best—a terrible blunder, at worst—a grievous depravity. I was aghast when Pell bent everyone to his will in what I thought to be his evil intent. I am ashamed to say that I wished for evil to fall upon Pell in return. And now I see – see clearly, that your intent was not evil at all, but instead an admirable intent that I am merely too simple to comprehend. Now, but a single day after I, in my ignorance wished you ill, I realize that all that I truly know of the three of you,” she swept her gaze over them, “is good. Both from what Gia has told me of the time you helped with Falin’s ankle, and from this time when you have helped Panute. Now you offer to help us through a winter that will almost certainly claim my life, if not that of the others.” She stared back into the fire, “Still, grateful as I am, as all of us in our broken little tribe should be, we must talk on this ‘joining’ more. Both of our groups look to be in for a very hard winter. Will we truly do better together? You have some, though not a great deal of food stored up, while we have none. We know how to hunt in our regular wintering area, and don’t know how to hunt here. For that matter, I understand that this is your first winter at Cold Springs as well. Perhaps you won’t know how to hunt the winter game in this area either? If our two tribes did join,
perhaps it should be at our area? Before we decide whether to join, let us talk of how things would be decided, and, who would be our leader. We must think of who will do what, as we try to ready ourselves for winter. We must all understand the benefits and risks of such a joining for our individual groups.”

  Pell had not heard the old matron say so much at one time before—later he would realize that she seldom said much at one time, preferring to listen and to steer the conversations of others with a word or two now and then. However, he was astonished not only at the length of her words but the wisdom they contained. His opinion of her as a crotchety old hag had rapidly metamorphosed since he learned that she was the leader of their tribe.

  Discussion of the union of the two groups ranged on late into the evening and spanned many topics. They spoke of the dangers of being raided by another tribe—here it seemed that the members of Aganstribe had little fear, having gotten on well with their neighbors for many years. Their neighbors, first because of Agan’s and now because of Gia’s reputation as a healer, desperately wanted to remain their friends. One factor mitigating any rush to join the Cold Springs band on their part, was their expectation that they had a good chance of being taken in by one of those tribes. They did fear though, that they might have to split up and go to two separate tribes, if one did not feel it could take them all.

  Nonetheless, Pell realized that their plight wasn’t as wretched as he and Tando had thought. In fact, as the conversation continued, he realized that most other tribes were less tyrannical and aggressive than the Aldans had been. Few, perhaps, were as democratic as Aganstribe had been, but it appeared that the chances of Agan’s little band being massacred by their neighbors were much lower than those chances for the Cold Springs group.

  They spoke of winter stores, where it seemed that Agan’s group had nothing. Pell’s group had stores, Agan acknowledged, but she didn’t think the Cold Springs’ stores enough by any means, to get them all through the winter. Again, the old woman wondered how well they would do, hunting in unfamiliar territory for their first winter. Pell let slip the fact that they had stores hidden before he caught Tando’s warning glance. Tando apparently had wanted to keep that their own secret a little longer—when Pell asked him about it later, Tando said that he hadn’t wanted Agan’s group joining just to get access to their stored food, but rather because they were willing to work together to survive the winter. After considering this idea, Pell agreed that such would have been a good strategy and regretted revealing their hidden stores so soon. Nonetheless, he thought, telling them that they had some smoked meat hidden away was quite different from revealing the huge quantity that the traplines had allowed them to preserve. Revealing that they had some hidden meat had some benefit though, for when Agan heard that they had hidden food stores, she revealed that her tribe had already harvested some grain and stored it at their winter cave earlier that summer. In view of the surplus of smoked meat that lay beneath their feet, she felt that stored grain made a good match.

  They spoke of governance and after hearing more of how Agan’s tribe had worked out their differences; the Cold Springs band agreed that it seemed much fairer than what they were used to. However, their form of democracy depended on everyone in the tribe knowing each other well, a situation they had not achieved as yet.

  They spoke of each person’s particular skills. Agan described Manute as a hunter with a second skill in leatherwork, Deltin as a woodworker with a second skill in hunting and Panute as a gatherer with a second skill for cooking. She and Gia were medicine women who also gathered; though, due to her arthritic joints, Agan was no longer of much use in gathering. Falin was too young to have shown a skill as yet.

  Tando described himself as a hunter with a second skill of flintworking, Donte as a gatherer, basket weaver and cook, and Pell as a bonesetter and a toolmaker. Tando grinned a moment then said, “And, if you do join with us, I guarantee that you’ll be astonished by some of the tools he makes!” Pell wondered a moment what “tools” he spoke of, then realized that he probably was referring to the snares.

  Agan thought for a moment, then said, “We will need other skills, a maker of clay pots, a fire maker, a real flint worker—I’m sorry Tando but I have seen some of the flint you have worked yourself, they are serviceable tools, but we will need better. We need more good hunters, and gatherers, though I can tell from the quantities of grain and tubers that you have here that Donte gathers more than most women can.” Pell thought for a moment of interrupting to tell her that he and Tando also knew how to gather, and that their efforts had contributed to the volume of the Cold Springs’ stores. Then he thought better of it, Tando may not want them to know this as yet either.

  Agan went on, “We have too many ‘healers’. We may be able to trade our healing services to other tribes someday, but that won’t happen until other tribes learn of our skills. Even joined, our tribe will still be too small, though certainly better than if we remain separate.

  They talked on and on. Much later than their usual sleep time Agan finally said, “Well we have learned much of one another. Nonetheless, we have much more to learn during the following days while we wait until Panute is well enough to travel. We need not decide whether we should join our tribes until she is healthy. Let us all think on the wisdom of this joining for the next days.”

  The next day dawned crisp and clear with leaves falling off trees, blowing and swirling, sure signs of winter’s approach. They talked more during breakfast. Manute asked about their hunting techniques and Pell remembered the conversation that Manute and Gia had had during their previous stay when Falin had been hurt. At first, Tando described typical hunting techniques such as they had used when they lived with Roley. Manute continued to probe, asking about the smaller animals they brought in so frequently. Animals that obviously had not been speared...

  The conversation stopped briefly while Tando gazed at him, brow furrowed. After a moment he said, “You suspect that we have another means of hunting. That is true. It is a very important secret for us, and one that we believe will get us through the winter with plenty of meat. We will share our secret with you if our tribes join. Perhaps you feel that we should share our secret freely, even if we don’t join, for it is true that our ability to hunt would not be diminished by the sharing of our secret with you. But, as much as you need to learn our new hunting methods and our technique for preserving meat, so do we need more strong hunters to protect ourselves from raiding by larger tribes.”

  Pell felt guilty. They should simply share their secrets with their friends. However, he definitely felt the same need that Tando felt, the need to have more strong men at his side in any confrontation with the Aldans. The inner guilt he felt didn’t overrule his self-interest.

  After eating, Manute began preparing the skin of the deer from the previous day’s kill. Pell watched these preparations with great interest, while he and Tando cut the meat into strips for smoking. As he scraped away at the skin, Manute cheerfully described each of the many steps required to make the skin into supple leather. Pell pulled Tando aside and suggested that they teach Agan’s group how to smoke meat. He felt it would be a gesture of good faith toward the joining of the tribes. As before, Tando opposed sharing their most powerful secrets. Pell, however, pointed out that it was going to be hard to hide the technique, unless they wanted to try to set up a completely new smoking site. Otherwise, they would be smoking meat in the cave right there in front of their guests who would surely learn the important principles.

  Tando agreed, but made a big show of how, in their gratitude for Manute’s lessons on working leather, they were going to teach their guests from Aganstribe the secret of preserving meat. They brought in some lumps of the dirty rock salt and put them in a skin full of water. After enough had dissolved to make the water taste quite salty, they soaked the strips of deer meat in it. Next, they stretched the fillets over the branches of a dead bush in the high recess at the back of the cave where all of the
ir smoking was done.

  During a pause in the meat-smoking lesson, Manute cracked open the deer’s skull and scooped out the brains. He rubbed the brains into the deerskin, continuing to demonstrate more of the steps in the leather working process. As they came to trust one another more, they went into more and more detail on the techniques, eventually holding back none of their little secrets. Deltin finished making a new spear shaft to replace the one damaged in killing the deer the day before. Then, while the others worked on their projects, he lashed together a frame of small straight, wooden shafts. Pell studied the frame in puzzlement, then finally asked what the frame was for. To his surprise, Deltin told him that it was for smoking their meat strips. Pell immediately saw how this regular frame would be more effective and efficient than the random arrangement of branches in the dead bush they had been using.

  Pell and Gia worked together to change poultices on Panute’s hand. At first he had been surprised when she didn’t just do it herself. On the third day after the amputation, Pell had been about to leave to check their snares. Gia had said, “Before you go, shouldn’t we change Panute’ bandage?”

  Pell had turned slowly in surprise. Gia had looked at him with concern. “Uh, I thought you were the expert with bandages and poultices?”

  Gia had stared, “But I don’t know anything about a finger removal! You have to help me.”

  Rather than reminder Gia that he didn’t know anything about amputation wounds himself, Pell had untied the soft leather of the bandage and tugged off the old poultice. There had been a puffy area on the back of the hand and Pell had touched it with a finger. When he did, pus ran out of the wound.

  Gia’s eyes had widened, “See! I wouldn’t have known to do that and the evil humors would have remained in her hand!”