DOMESTIC MATTERS.
Attention has already been called to the fact that the family of Ab were
of the aristocracy of the region, and it should be added that the
interior of One-Ear's mansion corresponded with his standing in the
community. It was a fine cave, there was no doubt about that, and Red-Spot
was a notable housekeeper. As a rule, the bones remaining about the
fire after a meal were soon thrown outside--at least they were never
allowed to accumulate for more than a month or two. The beds were
excellent, for, in addition to the mass of leaves heaped upon the earth
which formed a resting-place for the family, there were spread the skins
of various animals. The water privileges of the establishment were
extensive, for there was the river in front, much utilized for drinking
purposes. There were ledges and shelves of rock projecting here and there
from the sides of the cave, and upon these were laid the weapons and
implements of the household, so that, excepting an occasional bone upon
the earthen floor, or, perhaps, a spattering of red, where some animal
had been cut up for roasting, the place was very neat indeed. The fact
that the smoke from the fire could, when the wind was right, ascend
easily through the roof made the residence one of the finest within a
large district of the country. As to light, it cannot be said that the
house was well provided. The fire at night illuminated a small area and,
in the daytime, light entered through the doorway, and, to an extent,
through the hole in the cave's top, as did also the rains, but the light
was by no means perfect. The doorway, for obvious reasons, was narrow and
there was a huge rock, long ago rolled inside with much travail, which
could on occasion be utilized in blocking the narrow passage. Barely room
to squeeze by this obstruction existed at the doorway. The sneaking but
dangerous hyena had a keen scent and was full of curiosity. The monster
bear of the time was ever hungry and the great cave tiger, though rarer,
was, as has been shown, a haunting dread. Great attention was paid to
doorways in those days, not from an artistic point of view exactly, but
from reasons cogent enough in the estimation of the cave men. But the
cave was warm and safe and the sharp eyes of its inhabitants, accustomed
to the semi-darkness, found slight difficulty in discerning objects in
the gloom. Very content with their habitation were all the family and
Red-Spot particularly, as a chatelaine should, felt much pride in her
surroundings.
It may be added that the family of One-Ear was a happy one. His life with
Red-Spot was the sequence of what might be termed a fortunate marriage.
It is true that standards vary with times, and that the demeanor of the
couple toward each other was occasionally not what would be counted the
index of domestic felicity in this more artificial and deceptive age. It
was never fully determined whether One-Ear or Red-Spot could throw a
stone ax with the greater accuracy, although certainly he could hurl one
with greater force than could his wife. But the deftness of each in
eluding such dangerous missiles was about the same, and no great harm had
at any time resulted from the effects of momentary ebullitions of anger,
followed by action on the part of either. There had not been at any time
a scandal in the family. The pair were faithful to each other. Society
was somewhat scattered in those days, and the cave twain, anywhere, were
generally as steadfast as the lion and the lioness. It was centuries
later, too, before the cave men's posterity became degenerate enough or
prosperous enough, or safe enough, to be polygamous, and, so far as the
area of the Thames valley or even the entire "Paris basin," as it is
called, was concerned, monogamy held its own very fairly, from the
shell-beds of the earliest kitchen-middens to the time of the bronze ax
and the dawn of what we now call civilization.
There were now five members in this family of the period, One-Ear,
Red-Spot, Ab, Bark and Beech-Leaf, the two last named being Ab's younger
brother and little more than baby sister. The names given them had come
in the same accidental way as had the name of Ab. The brother, when very
small, had imitated in babyish way the barking of some wolfish creature
outside which had haunted the cave's vicinity at night time, and so the
name of Bark, bestowed accidentally by Ab himself, had become the
youngster's title for life. As to Beech-Leaf, she had gained her name in
another way. She was a fat and joyous little specimen of a cave baby and
not much addicted to lying as dormant as babies sometimes do. The
bearskin upon which her mother laid her had not infrequently proven too
limited an area for her exploits and she would roll from it into the
great bed of beech leaves upon which it was placed, and become fairly
lost in the brown mass. So often had this hilarious young lady to be
disinterred from the beech leaf bed, that the name given her came
naturally, through association of ideas. Between the birth of Ab and that
of his younger brother an interval of five years had taken place, the
birth of the sister occurring three or four years later. So it came that
Ab, in the absence of his father and mother, was distinctly the head of
the family, admonitory to his brother, with ideas as to the physical
discipline requisite on occasion, and, in a rude way, fond of and
protective toward the baby sister.
There was a certain regularity in the daily program of the household,
although, with reference to what was liable to occur outside, it can
hardly be said to have partaken of the element of monotony. The work of
the day consisted merely in getting something to eat, and in this work
father and mother alike took an active part, their individual duties
being somewhat varied. In a general way One-Ear relied upon himself for
the provision of flesh, but there were roots and nuts and fruits, in
their season, and in the gathering of these Red-Spot was an admitted
expert. Not that all her efforts were confined to the fruits of the soil
and forest, for she could, if need be, assist her husband in the pursuit
or capture of any animal. She was not less clever than he in that
animal's subsequent dissection, and was far more expert in its cooking.
In the tanning of skins she was an adept. So it chanced that at this time
the father and mother frequently left the cave together in the morning,
their elder son remaining as protector of the younger inmates. When
occasionally he went with his parents, or was allowed to venture forth
alone, extra precautions were taken as to the cave's approaches. Just
outside the entrance was a stone similar to the one on the inside, and
when the two young children were left unguarded this outside barricade
was rolled against what remained of the entrance, so that the small
people, though prisoners, were at least secure from dangerous animals.
Of course there were variations in the program. There was that degree of
fellowship among the cave men, even at this early age, to allow of an
occasional banding together for hunting purposes, a battle of some sort
or the surrounding and destruction of some of the greater animals. At
such times One-Ear would be absent from the cave for days and Ab and his
mother would remain sole guardians. The boy enjoyed these occasions
immensely; they gave him a fine sense of responsibility and importance,
and did much toward the development of the manhood that was in him,
increasing his self-reliance and perfecting him in the art of winning his
daily bread, or what was daily bread's equivalent at the time in which he
lived. It was not in outdoor and physical life alone that he grew. There
was something more to him, a combination of traits somewhere which made
him a little beyond and above the mere seeker after food. He was never
entirely dormant, a sleeper on the skins and beech leaves, even when in
the shelter of the cave, after the day's adventures. He reasoned
according to such gifts as circumstances had afforded him and he had the
instinct of devising. An instinct toward devising was a great thing to
its possessor in the time of the cave people.
We know very well to-day, or think we know, that the influence of the
mother, in most cases, dominates that of the father in making the future
of the man-child. It may be that this comes because in early life the
boy, throughout the time when all he sees or learns will be most clear in
his memory until he dies, is more with the woman parent than with the
man, who is afield; or, it may be, there is some criss-cross law of
nature which makes the man ordinarily transmit his qualities to the
daughter and the woman transmit hers to the son. About that we do not
know yet. But it is certain that Ab was more like his mother than his
father, and that in these young days of his he was more immediately under
her influence. And Red-Spot was superior in many ways to the ordinary
woman of the cave time.
It was good for the boy that he was so under the maternal dominion, and
that, as he lingered about the cave, he aided in the making of threads of
sinew or intestine, or looked on interestedly as his mother, using the
bone needle, which he often sharpened for her with his flint scraper,
sewed together the skins which made the garments of the family. The
needle was one without an eye, a mere awl, which made holes through which
the thread was pushed. As the growing boy lounged or labored near his
mother, alternately helpful or annoying, as the case might be, he learned
many things which were of value to him in the future, and resolved upon
brave actions which should be greatly to his credit. He was but a cub, a
young being almost as unreasoning in some ways as the beasts of the wood,
but he had his hopes and vanities, as has even the working beaver or the
dancing crane, and from the long mother-talks came a degree of
definiteness of outline to his ambitions. He would be the greatest hunter
and warrior in all the region!
The cave mother easily understood her child's increasing daringness and
vigor, and though swift to anger and strong of hand, she could not but
feel a pride in and tell her tales to the boy beside her. After a time,
when the family of Oak returned to the cave above and the boys were much
together again, the mother began to see less of her son. The influence of
the days spent by her side remained with the boy, however, and much that
he learned there was of value in his later active life.