CHAPTER VIII

 While Demino lighted the fire, his wife brought some corn and ground it in the stone mortar¹.

 

Another woman cooked more piki on the hot stones, while one of the men went to the reservoir² for a jar of water.

 

Then the hunters skinned the animals and roasted them.

 

The women were not hungry, so while the men ate they busied themselves weaving baskets and mats of coarse³ grass.

 

Demino’s wife stretched the deerskin on the rocks in the sun.

 

“Let me help you,” said Teni, as he ran toward⁴ the woman.

 

She let him help her stretch the skin and then thanked him.

 

“What are you going to use this skin for?” said the boy.

 

“It will make a warm winter coat for my little boy,” she said.

 

“My mother makes my coats from skins, too,” said Teni.

 

As the men ate, they talked.

 

They wished for rain, that they might plant their corn and beans.

 

The wind might blow the seed away if the rain did not come to wet the dry sand.

 

“The rain is late this year,” said one, “but our dried fruit will last a long time even though we have no grain.”

 

The cliff⁵ people dried their fruit in the sun.

 

We would not have liked it because it was so sour.

 

Soon the men noticed Teni and Mavo and asked who they were.

 

“They are children of the Bear people, our neighbors,” said Demino.

 

“This morning, as I was walking near the tower, I saw a band of Indians coming toward me.

 

“I knew them to be our enemies, so I ran quickly toward some cedar⁶ trees.

 

“The Indians did not see me, but these children were hiding behind the trees, and called to me as I came along.

 

“They had lost their way and could not find their home.

 

“I was afraid that the Indians would find us, so went straight to the tower.

 

“We crawled⁷ through the tunnel and came here.

 

“I shall take the children home as soon as the sun goes down.”

 

Teni and Mavo heard Demino say this, and kept watching for the sun to tell them when it was time to go home.

1 mortar   

n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合

参考例句：

• The mason flushed the joint with mortar.泥工用灰浆把接缝处嵌平。
• The sound of mortar fire seemed to be closing in.迫击炮的吼声似乎正在逼近。

2 reservoir   

n.水库，蓄水池；(人才等的)储藏，汇集

参考例句：

• The town is supplied with water from a reservoir.该城镇由小山中的一座水库供水。
• A large quantity of water is stored in the reservoir.水库存了大量的水。

3 coarse   

adj.粗的，粗糙的；粗劣的；粗俗的

参考例句：

• His coarse habits have gradually fined away.他的粗俗习惯渐渐变得文雅起来了。
• She never wears clothes made of coarse material.她从来不穿粗布衣服。

4 toward   

prep.对于，关于，接近，将近，向，朝

参考例句：

• Suddenly I saw a tall figure approaching toward the policeman.突然间我看到一个高大的身影朝警察靠近。
• Upon seeing her,I smiled and ran toward her. 看到她我笑了，并跑了过去。

5 cliff   

n.悬崖，峭壁

参考例句：

• The cliff edge is dangerous and should be railed.崖边危险，应该用栏杆围起来。
• He took the measure of the cliff before he climbed it.他把悬崖的高度估量一下后再攀登。

6 cedar   

n.雪松，香柏(木)

参考例句：

• The cedar was about five feet high and very shapely.那棵雪松约有五尺高,风姿优美。
• She struck the snow from the branches of an old cedar with gray lichen.她把长有灰色地衣的老雪松树枝上的雪打了下来。

7 crawled   

v.爬( crawl的过去式和过去分词 )；（昆虫）爬行；缓慢行进；巴结

参考例句：

• They crawled along on their bellies. 他们匍匐前进。
• She crawled onto the river bank and lay there gulping in air. 她爬上河岸，躺在那里喘着粗气。 来自《简明英汉词典》