UGH-LOMI AND THE CAVE BEAR
H.G. WELLS
IN the days when Eudena and Ugh-lomi fled from the people of Uya towards the fir-clad mountains of
the Weald, across the forests of sweet chestnutand the grass-clad chalkland, and hid themselves at last in
the gorge of the river between the chalk cliffs, men were few and their squatting-places far between. The
nearest men to them were those of the tribe, a full day's journey down the river, and up the mountains
there were none. Man was indeed a newcomer to this part of the world in that ancient time, coming
slowly along the rivers, generation after generation, from one squatting-place to another, from the
south-westward. And the animals that held the the hippopotami and rhinoceri of the river valleys, the
horses of the grass plains, the deer and swine of the woods, the grey apes in the branches, the the
uplands, feared him but little - let alone the mammoths in the mountains and the elephants that came
through the land in the summer-time out of the south. For why should they fear him, with but the rough,
chipped flints that he had not learnt to haft and which he threw but ill, and the poor spear of sharpened
wood, as all his weapons against hoof and horn, tooth and claw?
Andoo, the huge cave bear, who lived in the cave up the gorge, had never even seen a man in all his wise
and respectable life, until midway through one night, as he was prowling down the gorge along the cliff
edge, he saw the glare of Eudena's fire upon the ledge, and Eudena red and shining, and Ugh-lomi, with a
gigantic shadow mocking him upon the white cliff, going to and fro, shaking his mane of hair, and
waving the axe of stone - the first axe of stone - while he chanted of the killing of Uya. The cave bear
was far up the gorge, and he saw the thing slanting-ways and far off. He was so surprised he stood quite
still upon the edge, sniffing the novel odour of burning bracken, and wondering whether the dawn was
coming up in the wrong place.
He was the lord of the rocks and caves, was the cave bear, as his slighter brother, the grizzly, was lord of
the thick woods below, and as the dappled lion - the lion of those days was dappled - was lord of the
thorn-thickets, reed-beds, and open plains. He was the greatest of all meat-eaters; he knew no fear, none
preyed on him, and none gave him battle; only the rhinoceros was beyond his strength. Even the
mammoth shunned his country. This invasion perplexed him. He noticed these new beasts were shaped
like monkeys, and sparsely hairy like young pigs. "Monkey and young pig," said the cave bear. "It might
not be so bad. But that red thing that jumps, and the black thing jumping with it yonder! Never in my life
have I seen such things before."
He came slowly along the brow of the cliff towards them, stopping thrice to sniff and peer, and the reek
of the fire grew stronger. A couple of hyænas also were so intent upon the thing below that Andoo,
coming soft and easy, was close upon them before they knew of him or he of them. They started guiltily
and went lurching off. Coming round in a wheel, a hundred yards off, they began yelling and calling him
names for the start they had had. "Ya-ha!" they cried. "Who can't grub his own burrow? Who eats roots
like a pig ? . . . Ya-ha!" For even in those days the hyæna's manners were just as offensive as they are
now.
"Who answers the hyæna?" growled Andoo, peering through the midnight dimness at them, and then
going to look at the cliff edge.
There was Ugh-lomi still telling his story, and the fire getting low, and the scent of the burning hot and
|
