I know that we were turned from our course countless4 times by streams and lakes and slimy seas. Then there were storms and risings of the water over great areas of the low-lying lands; and there were periods of hunger and misery5 when we were kept prisoners in the trees for days and days by these transient floods.
Very strong upon me is one picture. Large trees are about us, and from their branches hang gray filaments6 of moss7, while great creepers, like monstrous8 serpents, curl around the trunks and writhe9 in tangles10 through the air. And all about is the mud, soft mud, that bubbles forth11 gases, and that heaves and sighs with internal agitations12. And in the midst of all this are a dozen of us. We are lean and wretched, and our bones show through our tight-stretched skins. We do not sing and chatter13 and laugh. We play no pranks14. For once our volatile15 and exuberant16 spirits are hopelessly subdued17. We make plaintive18, querulous noises, look at one another, and cluster close together. It is like the meeting of the handful of survivors19 after the day of the end of the world.
This event is without connection with the other events in the swamp. How we ever managed to cross it, I do not know, but at last we came out where a low range of hills ran down to the bank of the river. It was our river emerging like ourselves from the great swamp. On the south bank, where the river had broken its way through the hills, we found many sand-stone caves. Beyond, toward the west, the ocean boomed on the bar that lay across the river’s mouth. And here, in the caves, we settled down in our abiding-place by the sea.
There were not many of us. From time to time, as the days went by, more of the Folk appeared. They dragged themselves from the swamp singly, and in twos and threes, more dead than alive, mere20 perambulating skeletons, until at last there were thirty of us. Then no more came from the swamp, and Red-Eye was not among us. It was noticeable that no children had survived the frightful21 journey.
I shall not tell in detail of the years we lived by the sea. It was not a happy abiding-place. The air was raw and chill, and we suffered continually from coughing and colds. We could not survive in such an environment. True, we had children; but they had little hold on life and died early, while we died faster than new ones were born. Our number steadily22 diminished.
Then the radical23 change in our diet was not good for us. We got few vegetables and fruits, and became fish-eaters. There were mussels and abalones and clams24 and rock-oysters, and great ocean-crabs that were thrown upon the beaches in stormy weather. Also, we found several kinds of seaweed that were good to eat. But the change in diet caused us stomach troubles, and none of us ever waxed fat. We were all lean and dyspeptic-looking. It was in getting the big abalones that Lop-Ear was lost. One of them closed upon his fingers at low-tide, and then the flood-tide came in and drowned him. We found his body the next day, and it was a lesson to us. Not another one of us was ever caught in the closing shell of an abalone.
The Swift One and I managed to bring up one child, a boy—at least we managed to bring him along for several years. But I am quite confident he could never have survived that terrible climate. And then, one day, the Fire People appeared again. They had come down the river, not on a catamaran, but in a rude dug-out. There were three of them that paddled in it, and one of them was the little wizened25 old hunter. They landed on our beach, and he limped across the sand and examined our caves.
They went away in a few minutes, but the Swift One was badly scared. We were all frightened, but none of us to the extent that she was. She whimpered and cried and was restless all that night. In the morning she took the child in her arms, and by sharp cries, gestures, and example, started me on our second long flight. There were eight of the Folk (all that was left of the horde26) that remained behind in the caves. There was no hope for them. Without doubt, even if the Fire People did not return, they must soon have perished. It was a bad climate down there by the sea. The Folk were not constituted for the coast-dwelling life.
We travelled south, for days skirting the great swamp but never venturing into it. Once we broke back to the westward27, crossing a range of mountains and coming down to the coast. But it was no place for us. There were no trees—only bleak28 headlands, a thundering surf, and strong winds that seemed never to cease from blowing. We turned back across the mountains, travelling east and south, until we came in touch with the great swamp again.
Soon we gained the southern extremity29 of the swamp, and we continued our course south and east. It was a pleasant land. The air was warm, and we were again in the forest. Later on we crossed a low-lying range of hills and found ourselves in an even better forest country. The farther we penetrated30 from the coast the warmer we found it, and we went on and on until we came to a large river that seemed familiar to the Swift One. It was where she must have come during the four years’ absence from the horde. This river we crossed on logs, landing on the other side at the base of a large bluff31. High up on the bluff we found our new home most difficult of access and quite hidden from any eye beneath.
There is little more of my tale to tell. Here the Swift One and I lived and reared our family. And here my memories end. We never made another migration32. I never dream beyond our high, inaccessible33 cave. And here must have been born the child that inherited the stuff of my dreams, that had moulded into its being all the impressions of my life—or of the life of Big-Tooth, rather, who is my other-self, and not my real self, but who is so real to me that often I am unable to tell what age I am living in.
I often wonder about this line of descent. I, the modern, am incontestably a man; yet I, Big-Tooth, the primitive34, am not a man. Somewhere, and by straight line of descent, these two parties to my dual35 personality were connected. Were the Folk, before their destruction, in the process of becoming men? And did I and mine carry through this process? On the other hand, may not some descendant of mine have gone in to the Fire People and become one of them? I do not know. There is no way of learning. One thing only is certain, and that is that Big-Tooth did stamp into the cerebral36 constitution of one of his progeny37 all the impressions of his life, and stamped them in so indelibly that the hosts of intervening generations have failed to obliterate38 them.
There is one other thing of which I must speak before I close. It is a dream that I dream often, and in point of time the real event must have occurred during the period of my living in the high, inaccessible cave. I remember that I wandered far in the forest toward the east. There I came upon a tribe of Tree People. I crouched39 in a thicket40 and watched them at play. They were holding a laughing council, jumping up and down and screeching41 rude choruses.
Suddenly they hushed their noise and ceased their capering42. They shrank down in fear, and quested anxiously about with their eyes for a way of retreat. Then Red-Eye walked in among them. They cowered43 away from him. All were frightened. But he made no attempt to hurt them. He was one of them. At his heels, on stringy bended legs, supporting herself with knuckles44 to the ground on either side, walked an old female of the Tree People, his latest wife. He sat down in the midst of the circle. I can see him now, as I write this, scowling45, his eyes inflamed46, as he peers about him at the circle of the Tree People. And as he peers he crooks47 one monstrous leg and with his gnarly toes scratches himself on the stomach. He is Red-Eye, the atavism.
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1
untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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2
protean
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| adj.反复无常的；变化自如的 | |
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3
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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4
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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6
filaments
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| n.（电灯泡的）灯丝( filament的名词复数 )；丝极；细丝；丝状物 | |
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7
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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8
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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9
writhe
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| vt.挣扎，痛苦地扭曲；vi.扭曲，翻腾，受苦；n.翻腾，苦恼 | |
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10
tangles
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| （使）缠结， （使）乱作一团( tangle的第三人称单数 ) | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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12
agitations
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| （液体等的）摇动( agitation的名词复数 )； 鼓动； 激烈争论； （情绪等的）纷乱 | |
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13
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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14
pranks
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| n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 ) | |
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15
volatile
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| adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质 | |
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16
exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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18
plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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19
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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20
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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21
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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22
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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23
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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24
clams
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| n.蛤；蚌，蛤( clam的名词复数 )v.（在沙滩上）挖蛤( clam的第三人称单数 ) | |
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25
wizened
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| adj.凋谢的；枯槁的 | |
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26
horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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27
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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28
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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29
extremity
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| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
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30
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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31
bluff
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| v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗 | |
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32
migration
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| n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙 | |
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33
inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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34
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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dual
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| adj.双的；二重的，二元的 | |
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36
cerebral
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| adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的 | |
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37
progeny
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| n.后代，子孙；结果 | |
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38
obliterate
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| v.擦去，涂抹，去掉...痕迹，消失，除去 | |
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39
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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41
screeching
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| v.发出尖叫声( screech的现在分词 )；发出粗而刺耳的声音；高叫 | |
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42
capering
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| v.跳跃，雀跃( caper的现在分词 )；蹦蹦跳跳 | |
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43
cowered
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| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
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44
knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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45
scowling
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| 怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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46
inflamed
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| adj.发炎的，红肿的v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
crooks
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| n.骗子( crook的名词复数 )；罪犯；弯曲部分；（牧羊人或主教用的）弯拐杖v.弯成钩形( crook的第三人称单数 ) | |
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