The people ate the frozen meat that was left near the caves, and when they found they could get no more they began to pray to their gods. “O, Big Bear,” they prayed, “send us thine aid. Help us now or we die. Drive the horses and reindeer out of thy caverns. Send them back to our hunting grounds.”
When the first rumor of famine came, Fleetfoot took down his drum. And he set out over the hills to call a meeting of the brotherhood.
At the first sound of the drumbeat, the people knew what it meant. Everybody felt a gleam of hope. The young men passed the signal along and fresh courage came to the hearts of the people in the neighboring clans.
Buckling their hunger-straps around them, the young men started at Fleetfoot’s call. They met near the Bison clan’s cave. There they told of the heavy snowstorms and the disappearance of the herds. They told of the beginnings of famine and considered ways of finding food.
Some said, “Let us leave the old hunting grounds for our elders. Let us take wives and go to far away lands.”
Others said, “No, let us dwell together and let each clan keep its own hunting ground.”
“But how can we dwell together,” said one, “when there is not food enough for all?”
A Cave-man’s engraving of two herds of wild horses.
The silence which followed the young man’s question showed that no one could reply. It was then that Fleetfoot turned to Flaker and asked him to speak what was in his mind. And Flaker arose, and turning his eyes toward the heavens, he raised his baton, whereupon all the young men were silent. Then he turned to the young men and said, “The gods will surely provide food for the hungry Cave-men.”