I even slept for a time, and when I awoke I felt stronger. I raised myself against the rock and looked more closely upon what was near me. There were objects which for a little time I wondered at, but which, in the end, aided my memory and, though for a time but partially, brought back my understanding.
Almost within my reach lay a bow and a stone axe and spear. They were faultless, and I laughed aloud when I saw them. They were wonderful weapons. The bow especially was surprising. It was of some dark wood such as I could not then remember to have seen before, and, though shaped properly and with perfect symmetry, was so massive that it seemed to me for the moment that only the arms of the great brown bear might bend it. Unconsciously, I looked at my own arm and felt myself comprehending a little more. Dressed in bearskin I was, but arms and legs were bare, and it seemed to me that I was thewed like a bull of the aurochs herd. Could that mighty weapon be my own bow? Oddly enough, the powerful thing was strung, and that troubled me. A bow, weak or strong, should not be left to strain itself, and surely such a good bow as this should not be so neglected. It must have been dropped as it was in the midst of a fight, but it was not good for it to lie thus tautened, and all my instinct was to somehow release the weapon from its strain. My strength, which had gone from me because of my hurt, was fast returning now, and I reached out and grasped the thing which must be so good in the hands of hunter or fighting man who had the power to use it. I struggled to my feet and, with my knee upon the middle of the bow and what was a great wrenching effort, managed to unstring it. There was no doubt about it! The bow was surely mine! If, with only a part of my strength, I could thus bend it, surely when all myself I could draw an arrow to the head upon the mighty thing. What arrows they were, too—one lying upon the ground beside me and others in a great skin quiver, straight-shafted and with spearlike flint heads keen of edge and polished so smoothly that they might, sent from that bow, pass fairly through the body of wolf or man or reach the heart of bear or urus. The axe and spear, too, were as fine in their way as was the bow, and their heads were as keen of edge and smoothly finished as were those of the arrows. There showed dried blood upon the edge of each, as also, I found, upon the flint knife in my belt, hafted into the ribbed part of a stag’s horn, and a weapon as perfect as the others. Surely I was well equipped for facing beast or man!
As my strength came so also did a better perception and a sudden compelling desire to learn who I was and where. I rose to my feet again and walked about a little, albeit somewhat unsteadily at first. Then what was lying beside a clump of bushes at a little distance attracted my attention, and I moved toward it. Two dead men were sprawled out there, one with his head crushed in, the other with an arrow driven through his body so fiercely that its head stood forth. I drew out the arrow, though it came hardly, and saw that it must be one of mine, a mate to the one lying beside the rock and to those in the quiver. The crushed head of the other body must also be my handiwork, for it was cloven downward to between the eyes, and strong must have been the arm and heavy the axe to shear through bone so deeply.
I considered the dead men more carefully. They were not men, one would think, to greatly fear. Their arms and legs were not strong-muscled and their faces were flat and ugly. Each was clad in a single garment of goatskin, belted about the middle, and carrying a pouch, together with a quiver at the hip. A broken spear lay beside one of the men, its head unpolished and its size but puny compared with that which I now knew to be mine. I wondered from what strange tribe these men had come?
But where was I? Who was I? The puzzle grew upon me. Surely I had seen this land before, though it seemed to me I had never known it well. I could have seen it only for a little time. Suddenly I turned. From behind a huge group of rocks at a little distance, but farther up the slope, rose the sound of voices, and it came to me that I had heard those same voices before, though I could not remember where. The voice of Black Bow was not among them. Then I thought of bushes and the deadly little snakes, but here was no such country. I was lost again.
The blood was pulsing through my veins now; the buzzing of the bees in my head had ceased entirely and I could walk more strongly and freely. I put on my quiver with its few remaining arrows, thrust my axe into my belt, restrung my bow, and with it in one hand and my spear in the other, went toward the rocks from behind which came the hoarse but, somehow, not unfamiliar voices. I need not have made ready for fight. As I turned at the end of the rocks and came in sight of those behind it there rose a shout which was not one of threatening, but rather of rude welcome. The sight astonished me. There were at least a hundred men there, some lying down, some wandering about or seated upon the rocks, while a group of them, those whose voices I had heard, were gathered together engaged in some debate. All were armed as I was and clad in nearly the same manner. As I looked upon their faces recollection came upon me swiftly. They were my comrades; they were of the wanderers and raiders, my own restless, often marauding tribe, who had come from afar, facing perils all unknown, of fighting men or fighting beast, but led on ever by an instinct for plundering and adventure. We knew, as yet, no other tribe like ours or one of which we were afraid. They were brawny men, these brother tribesmen, but among them all was none to boast a front so bull-like nor of such brawn and strength as mine. They closed about me with hoarse shouts and much laughter.
“We left you by the rock that you might sleep a little and be strong again,” said one to me. It was Old Horn, our leader, who spoke, a man huge and gray-headed and gray-bearded and rough of way and to whom I was as his right hand in the fighting or the hunting.
“We knew that you were but stunned. No Goatskin may split such a head as yours!”
I understood now; we had fought again with the Goatskins, as we called them, from lack of any other name, and because they were clad in the skins of goats, which creatures they must have grown and bred. They were a tribe of the wide valley lying between the mountains and the great sea, and they had assailed us promptly when we first entered their borders, only a few days before the latest fight. They could not match us and we slew many of them and drove them back. We had not thought they would attack us again, and so had been somewhat careless and were unprepared when they came upon us in the early morning. We had beaten them back again only after a fierce struggle in which scores of them had been slain as before. It was in the midst of the fight that I had gone down under the blow delivered by a Goatskin who had come upon me from behind and who was speared a moment later by one of my companions. My comrades had seen that I was but stunned and so had brought my cloak after the fight was over and left me lying upon it by the rock, that I might recover in the warmth of the sun. Little knew we of further help than this to the wounded in battle. They had done for me the best they knew, and it was enough.
I had no trouble in remembering all now, of who we were and of our adventures and our plans. Far had we fared from the shores of what was called the Black Sea to the northwest, though why such name had been given it I could never understand, for its waters were a glittering blue, a blue like that of the sky, only a little deeper. Our entire tribe had come to the sea from a country still farther to the northwest, just as our great-grandfathers, so the elder men told us, had come from a region many hundreds of leagues to the westward, where was the mighty ocean. Our own tribe had come to the southern shores of the Black Sea, seeking what might be better hunting and seeding grounds and, assuredly, a warmer and more pleasant climate. Not that it was very cold where the stream, later called the Danube, had its source far, far to the north and west, and following the banks of which we had taken our way, but our tribe was ever restless and followed its own fancies as to its abode. So we had wandered until we reached the sea and had drifted southward along its shores until we found its southern shore, crossing a deep but narrow strait which we thought must connect it with another larger sea, which we learned from tribes we had met lay still farther to the south. This strait we had crossed easily in boats we made and then were fairly on the southern shore of this sea called Black. Here was our place; here should our village be! The climate was warm, there were broad seeding grounds and much game in the forests and on the plains. Here we established ourselves, and the women sowed and reaped and there was much fishing, and the men hunted or went on expeditions of venture, for we were sometimes raiders.