It all started when Uri (some say, "Uro") lost his leg after an injury incurred during an early spring hunt. He was gored by a mastodon. If it were not for Oldred, The Witch, hed be dead. He could no longer move at the speed of the clan hunters. No hunter trusted Uri with the women while they were out on the hunt. The clan decided to sent Uri packing with two young clan women and his teenage son who everyone called for short "Ugly" which in clan language meant "Boy, is he ugly!" There was no proof that Uri was the father of Ugly, but it was a pretty good guess because of Uglys thick red hair and buck teeth. Ugly fished and hunted to supply food to the foursome. But Uri sired several children and Ugly could not supply enough food to keep everyone in tip top shape. Uri realized that his little sub clan would perish if he did nothing. He sent Ugly back to the clan with the women and children. This all occurred between 130007 and 130012 before Ziglo the Idiot. Uri traveled south until he found a better climate and sufficient food and water for his needs. He found an uninhabited valley near the river called The Big River." He fished and dug roots and caught some small animals in traps and snares. One spring Uri caught some young rabbits. He had made a big mistake in building a trap. It did not kill the rabbit but caught it alive. Uri built a cage for the rabbits by weaving reeds from the bank of The Big River. At first he fed his bunnies by pushing grass into the cage, but he learned he could take the rabbits out of the cage and let them feed at his feet. They never ran too far away and they always came back. Uri was a strong observer as were all proto-humans at that time. He noticed that some of the grain from grain-yielding grasses he fed the rabbits fell under the rabbit cage. That was where the "raisins from the rabbits fell too. The newly seeded under-gage grasses grew taller than those which grew wild. Uri spread rabbit "raisins" in some of the areas where the wild grain grasses grew. After all, he soon had many rabbits and plenty of rabbit raisins. He got a higher grain yield than from wild grass. One day Ugly visited Uri. He saw that Uri had rabbit meat, grain, and rabbit fur. Uri looked very great in his rabbit-fur sports coat. Ugly saw that survival was possible living with Uri. Uri said he could bring the women and children back to live with him. He told Ugly, "I don't have to hunt for rabbits anymore. I raise them by the gritchfuds!" The women were good at making tightly woven baskets. Zeegla could make pots by rolling clay into long snakelike strips on the inside of her bare thighs. (Ugly liked to watch her do this.) She could build a pot by circling one strip on top of another and then molding everything together with her wet hands. Zeegla made the clay hard by first drying the pots and then building a fire over the top of them. She decorated the pots too, so you could sit and look at them all day. The containers kept the rodents out of the grain. Uri became famous. Hunters came to him to trade furs for grain or live rabbits (which they could carry home without spoiling). Although, the clan had been cave dwellers, they knew how to make temporary shelters from whatever was available. Sometimes they built such shelters when they visitied Uro. Uri strengthened some of these shelters and used them to store grain and skins. Gradually clan members left the clan and moved to live with Uri. It was Oldred, the witch, who suggested a structure large enough for clan meetings and sances. At the Moon of the Harvest she could do her Saber Tooth Tiger Dance. The building was called "The Big Building." It was made with long flexible limbs completely covered with stretched rabbit hides. It was something to see. The Big Building attracted hunters from far and wide. Many moved into the community. Ugly handled the daily affairs of the community while Uri though up new ways to survive in that harsh world. One day one of the children, Duonohandsome, son of Ugly, yelled, "Grandpa! Something is coming up the The Big River!" Uri saw that it was a canoe bigger than any he had ever seen. When the boat arrived, he could see that the men were very tall and didn't look like the clan people at all. They spoke a strange language that Uri could not understand. However Uri, being too old and crippled to fight these creatures, decided to feed them instead. To Uri's surprise, the visitors gave him a metal sword, several pieces of gold, and a travel guide to Norway. They also gave him a drink that made him feel tipsy and they told him how to make it from grain. (What a bonanza! They had many a party in The Big Building.) The visitors left with a buddle of rabbits, grain, pots, and baskets. That was not the end of it. They came back at the same time every year. The visitors were Vikings of course. They were the first to discovery everything. They called Uris community, "Primitive Place on the River" which in Old Norse is sjaldan atseta hvl. (See http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/lrc/eieol/norol-EI-X.html) CopyrighrtJohn T. Jones, Ph.D. 2005 |
