CHAPTER VI
SHE WOLF
She Wolf was the name of a woman. She lived in a cave of her own, and supported herself by hunting and fishing. Men had wooed her, but had been so ferociously rejected, that they had been content thereafter to leave her strictly alone.
She could run, swim, climb, use the club or jab the spear nearly as well as a man, and it was said that she lived apart because she was barren and ashamed. She was long of arm and flank, deep-breasted, deep-bellied, hairy and powerful. No Man cast his eyes upon this woman, who was more man than himself, and desired her. He hung about her cave, as a bear hangs about a tree full of honey—and bees. He stuck bright feathers in his hair and smiled and nodded whenever she cast a glance in his direction. He scratched upon bone scenes in which she figured as a heroine and he left them in places where she would find them. He grew sick with lust and forgot all about Strong Hand and the vengeance which was ripe. He made attempts to enter into conversation with her, only to be cut short.
The less his suit prospered the more keenly did he wage it. But when he found that ordinary methods were of no avail, he turned to that old friend of his, cunning, and thought out a plan.
Early upon a morning before the sun had risen, he took his bow and arrows, and went in silence and sat down before the mouth of She Wolf’s cave. Then he laid his arrows on the ground and began to twang the string of his bow. At the first twang, She Wolf woke twitching; at the second, she crawled to a place where she could see what was going on outside the cave and yet not be seen.
When she saw that it was only No Man, playing the fool, with a bent stick and a stretched skin, she was disgusted.
No Man knew perfectly well that he was being watched, and so the next time he twanged the bow, he closed his eyes and rolled his head, as if pleasure unutterable possessed him. Then She Wolf’s curiosity was aroused and she came out of the cave, and in the white mist of the morning she seemed wonderfully alluring to No Man, so that little shivers ran thro’ him.