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    Once Upon a Time Long, Long Ago
    Once Upon a Time Long, Long Ago
    Once Upon a Time Long, Long Ago
    Ebook125 pages1 hour

    Once Upon a Time Long, Long Ago

    By Henry Shykoff and Marilyn Mets

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    About this ebook

    Short-listed for the 2001 Silver Birch Award,

    How did we get to be US? Who are WE? This story for the younger reader, set in the period some 50,000 years ago when an almost explosive change in people’s behaviour occurred, addresses these questions. From this period on, people, the Cro-Magnon or Homo sapiens sapiens who are considered to be our ancestors, became what we term human. This recreated story presents a sister and brother in a sequence of events that fits what little is known about that time. Learn to create fire, shape tools, partner with wolves and develop into thinking, creative persons who can influence the world around them. Discover what effect a few curious and reasoning people can have on their society

    A devoted grandfather and reader of stories to grandchildren, Henry Shykoff has created a classic adventure for the younger reader, answering the question, "How did we get to be human?" "This is an intriguing story that vividly brings to life an exciting moment in human evolution. Full of struggle and adventure, this highly readable tale is as entertaining as it is informative."

    - Linda McQuaig, Author and Journalist

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDundurn
    Release dateMar 15, 2001
    ISBN9781554882540
    Once Upon a Time Long, Long Ago
    Author

    Henry Shykoff

    Henry Shykoff's family came to Canada from Poland when Henry was six years old. He grew up in Toronto and graduated from the University of Toronto medical school in 1949. He enjoyed 40 years of a distinguished medical career, which included teaching and research. After retiring from the hospital, he pursued his love of storytelling and the study of paleoanthropology. His first book, Once Upon a Time Long, Long Ago, was a Silver Birch nominee.

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      Once Upon a Time Long, Long Ago - Henry Shykoff

      Banias.

      One

      The Clan

      The boy Sim sat watching the flickering light on the cave wall. He felt good. He was warm and dry. For the first time since the season of the berries he was not hungry. He was comfortable. This day was so different from what he had known! A great change had taken place over the past three days and he had a feeling of satisfaction and pride he had never felt before. His sister Eevo lay curled up sleeping nearby.

      Five days ago everything had been horrible. The bad time started after Mother and Father had gone a long way off to find Mother’s clan. Father’s only knife, the flint one she had given him, had broken. In her clan there were people who knew how to make flint knives and scrapers, but no one in his clan had this skill. Without a knife, the skinning of animals after a hunt was extremely difficult, sometimes almost impossible. They had to go to Mother’s people where a new knife could be made.

      But Mother did not know how to find her home clan. She knew she had been lost and had wandered for four days before Father rescued her from the hyenas. She remembered that she had told him that they called themselves the Wet-land Clan. But go they must! In preparation for the journey, she had gathered the best of the few skins she had cured, to trade for a knife and to give as gifts.

      Ideally, they all would have gone together, Mother, Father, Eevo and Sim, but Sim could not walk very well. He had been born lame, born with a club foot. Because of this, Sim and his sister Eevo stayed behind. Ab, Father’s good friend and hunting partner, had promised to look after both of them, but especially Sim, since so many people of the clan resented the lame child. Early one morning, the rising sun behind them, the parents left.

      Good food providers were important to the clan and Mother and Father were among the best. But now they were gone. Soon after their departure, both Ab and Ro, his hunting partner, had been attacked by a pack of hyenas, fierce dog-like animals, and badly injured. If they recovered they might be able to provide the clan with food again, but it would take many moons. Only two able hunters were left, Yo, an adult, and Og, an older boy who was now given the job of a man. The long cold time was coming and the people were afraid. Would there be enough food? Who would look after the lame boy? How could they feed people who could not help gather food? Everybody might be in danger of starving, especially if the winter was a harsh one. The crippled one only meant more work for someone. He was more trouble, they felt, than he was worth.

      Sim was about 10 years old, taller than the other boys his age and quite strong, but lame. He would never be a hunter and a food provider. In the eyes of the clan he was useless, and they called him Sim, meaning the lame one. His sister, Eevo, about two years older and almost a woman, could work. The people saw her as useful and wanted her to stay.

      At first, everything had gone on as before for Sim. But when as many days as there are fingers on a hand had passed, and Mother and Father had not returned, the people of the clan chased him away. Yelling and throwing stones at him, they drove him far away from the safety of the cave.

      The people of this group or clan lived inside a large cave. At night they huddled together for warmth and protection. These early humans were really a group of medium-sized mammals, rather weak and slow compared to the other animals that lived around them. As hunters, they were not quite fast enough or strong enough to catch more than the occasional small animal for food. They ate what they could find, a diet of mice, insects or grubs and, if they could steal it, the remains of any larger beast that some stronger predator had killed. Whenever possible, plant roots were dug to eat and, in the hot season before the time of falling leaves, there were plenty of berries, a special treat for everyone. This was the only time of the year when the people were without hunger.

      Not many people were living in the world at that time. The few people that did exist, lived in small family groups or clans. Each cave, usually found at some distance from another clan’s cave, sheltered only twenty or thirty people. Since the surrounding land did not provide enough food for any more people, the size of each family group was small. Many babies died because there was not enough food for the mothers. Babies born in the winter season usually did not survive because there was no way to keep them warm. Any serious injury was almost always fatal. Under these harsh conditions, people might easily have become extinct and disappeared from the earth.

      Fortunately, people had learned to work together and, because they had hands, had started using simple tools like tree branches for clubs and sticks for digging roots. They had learned to throw stones as weapons for hunting and for defence. Sometimes they used stones as hammers. Even more fortunately, people were curious and learned from experience. Better still, they had speech and so had a way of teaching each other, even if their language only had a few words.

      In Sim’s clan there were about twenty-seven members. About half of them were children. Father was called Dedu, which meant good hunter. When he was a young man, he usually hunted alone. He would follow a group of hyenas, the best of the animal hunters, for days until they had killed an antelope or some medium-sized animal. When they had eaten, and temporarily left their kill, he would snatch away as much of the carcass as he could carry, and return to the home cave as quickly as possible. Sometimes he would be followed by a pack of hyenas. For safety he would have to climb a tree and stay there until his pursuers got tired and left. Life for people was very hard and very, very dangerous and very short in length.

      It was because of Father’s habit of following hyenas that he met Mother. One day, he spied two trying to capture something they had chased up a small tree. Since there were just two hyenas, Father thought that he could drive them away with his thick club and his throwing stones. He, then, could capture whatever they had treed. Getting as close as possible, he began hurling stones at them. One hyena, hit on the shoulder, ran away, yelping in pain. Making as much frightening noise as he could, Father ran toward the other with his club raised. It turned tail and fled.

      Looking up to find out what had captured the interest of the hyenas, he discovered a frightened young woman, a stranger, looking down at him with terrified eyes. Father signalled her to come out of the tree. After hesitating a bit, she did, just as the two attackers returned. The young woman bent down, picked up one of Father’s stones and hurled it at the lead hyena. To his amazement, she was very good at throwing. When her stone not only hit but knocked one hyena down, the other ran off. Father killed the injured animal with his club.

      Together they skinned the carcass, or rather she did, using a sharp stone knife. Father had never seen a cutting tool before. He knew only throwing stones and stones that could be used as hammers. His people had to use their teeth for cutting and tearing to remove any animal skin. This new cutting tool the woman used made this tough job much much easier. Once finished, she took the hyena meat that could be carried by the two of them and wrapped it up in the fresh still-bloody skin. Hyena meat was not very good for eating, but it was food.

      The woman put her flint knife into a little skin sack worn around her neck and wiped her hands on some grass to remove the blood. Together, they headed back to Father’s home cave. By following a route that would keep them close to trees, they could spend the nights up high in the branches, safe from the meat eaters who hunt in the dark.

      This stranger, separated from her people, lost and hungry, was thankful to have found a friendly man. At first they could only talk with hand gestures, but since both their languages were very simple, she soon learned to speak Father’s tongue. When they arrived at his home cave, they stayed together as mates.

      Mother was very different from the women at the home cave. More slender and taller than the other women, she was as tall as the

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