Some forty thousand years ago plus or minus a few odd centuries, years, months, weeks and days, a strange group might have been seen wending its way northward through the very heart of France. It was the Ape Boy and his two animal friends, the Hairy Mammoth Elephant and Woolly Rhinoceros. The two shaggy beasts lumbered on side by side, the former towering twice above the height of his smaller companion. On the Mammoth’s neck settled deeply in the depression between head and shoulders, sat Pic with ax held across his thighs and his hyena robe trailing behind him in the breeze.
Hairi a beast of burden? How hath the mighty fallen! We must go back a bit to learn why.
When the duet became a trio—Ape Boy, Mammoth and Rhinoceros—and the party left the Grotto of Sha Pell to journey northward, Spring was already far advanced. Warm weather was something of a hardship to Hairi and Wulli, all bundled up as they were in their shaggy overcoats,[90] to say nothing of thick woolen underwear concealed beneath. And so they made all haste to reach a more congenial climate. In spite of their vast bodies and stumpy legs, both could travel fast; but the need of food and rest had some voice as to the speed at which they travelled. They were tremendous eaters, but unfortunately the high rocky country provided poor feeding-grounds.
Their favorite foods were scarce, the grass-tufts few. Their northern march was a constant turning this way and that in search of edibles which were snatched up greedily wherever found. On the rough ground, Pic had the better of his comrades. No rock was too high, no ravine too deep to bar his way. His step was sure, his head clear and he found little trouble in making rapid progress over obstacles which caused the others endless annoyance and delay. Up hill, down dale, through tangled forest undergrowth and over fallen trees, the Ape Boy led the other two a merry dance until the party approached the Loire River. Here the tables were turned. The ground which they had covered was a gradual descent from forested highlands to comparatively level lowlands as the land-surface dipped down to the northwest. On the high, rough country, the Mammoth and Rhinoceros had been at a disadvantage but in the broad level region of the[91] Loire, food was abundant and everything promised a speedy journey.
But now an unforeseen complication arose; Pic was too slow. He could not walk as fast as the others, simply because his heels were much too short; also each big toe stood apart from its mates and lacked stiffness. Soft, flexible feet were well suited for climbing and clambering about in rough, broken country;—among cliffs, ravines, rocks and tangled undergrowth—but in the open they were at a disadvantage. With his short heels and soft feet, Pic promised to become a burden to his friends, through no real fault of his own.
“Where is Pic? Stopping to crack rocks, I suppose,” grumbled the Mammoth, as for the fifth time he halted and observed the one in question lagging far in the rear. Pic was shuffling along at his best gait with knees half bent and head held forward, making hard work of the little he accomplished and tiring fast with the doing of it.
Hairi and Wulli ground their teeth and stamped impatiently until the laggard finally caught up. He halted before them, squatted on heels and haunches and wiped the sweat from his brow. He looked warm, tired and discouraged, knowing well that the best he could do was poor enough. His comrades’ remarks were little calculated to give him comfort.
[92]
“You must walk faster,” Hairi scolded. “If you cannot do better than that, I will soon have to carry you.”
“Carry me?” Pic looked up quickly at the great giant towering over him; at the Elephant’s head-peak and mighty shoulder-hump and the deep depression where neck joined body. His face brightened. He rose to his feet and stepped to the Mammoth’s side.
“Yes, it might be done if you will. Raise your foreleg.” He laid his hand on the great right wrist which rose above the level of his own knees.
“Fancy my taking orders from small creatures,” Hairi thought to himself; but he raised his foreleg obediently and stood waiting, curious to see what would happen next. The Ape Boy climbed upon the outstretched limb and reaching on high with his hands, secured a firm grip on the Mammoth’s ear. “Now your trunk,” he commanded. “Help me to climb up.”
Hairi’s trunk curled around sideways and raised the other with scarce an effort. With this assistance Pic scrambled up. Before the astonished Mammoth realized what had happened, his neck bore a rider and for the first time in his life, the head of a living creature towered above his own.
“I am so small, you can easily carry me,” a voice[93] sounded from behind his ears. “Now you may go on as fast as you please.”
Before many hours, the Mammoth had become accustomed to his rider and in that time the wisdom of the new arrangement became apparent to all. From his elevated position, Pic was enabled to inform his friends regarding the nature of the country ahead and call their attention to various interesting things among which they passed. Then too, he selected the best routes and chose the safest fords when crossing streams. In these and many other ways, he relieved his friends of many perplexing problems. In short, he had become the eyes and brains of the party.
Northern France was beginning to prepare itself for a season of warm breezes and sunny skies when our three tourists crossed the Loire River and entered the more rolling country beyond. And yet none but hardy forms of green growth dared show themselves; for the ice-fields yet hung threateningly to the north, casting their sombre shadows over Western Europe. Only scattered clumps and single trees—dwarf birch, fir, spruce and arctic willow strewn sparingly along streams and hillside—marked once-forested regions. Coarse grass and sedge formed but a threadbare carpet on meadow and pasture land. And yet this semi-bleak waste abounded with animal life,—hardy forms in keeping[94] with the grass, brush and trees. There were wild horses, stilt-legged bison with shaggy heads and shoulders, long-horned cattle and lesser creatures of the open pasture lands; stags, roe-deer and Irish Elk of hill and glade; and least numerous but most menacing, prowling wolves and hyenas which crawled and skulked from sight, awaiting their chance to secure any tender colt, calf or fawn or even grown animal that strayed from the protection of its fellows.
Horse, bison, ox and all stopped work—feeding, playing, sleeping—to inspect the strangers coming from the south. As the latter drew nearer, all eyes, ears and noses were gradually drawn to the Mammoth or rather to something upon his neck which looked and smelled like a Trog-man, but of course must be something else. Men and beasts did nothing but quarrel with one another as a rule. No elephant ever travelled about with a man upon his neck; such a thing was unheard of in the animal world.
But for all that, something of the kind was happening under their very noses; so the horses, bison, oxen and everything else crowded as closely as they dared along the line of march, leaving a wide lane through which the strangers might pass without interruption.
Hairi could not conceal his satisfaction at this[95] publicity so suddenly thrust upon him. He held his head high and swept on at his most majestic gait while the spectators stared and admired and wished they were as big and grand-looking. The Ape Boy caught the spirit of his noble steed and bore himself right royally, with ax held over one shoulder, like a ruler parading before his vassals.
Several days journey in this regal splendor brought the party to the border of a vast, shallow depression scooped as it were from the earth. Its sides were coated with patches of loam and sand becoming deeper towards the bottom as though giant hands had washed therein and left their grime. It was like a saucer—a mighty basin too broad for mortal eye to span—bounded by a rim of encircling hills which dipped lower and lower as they swept in two wide arcs to the northwest. Thus the saucer stood not squarely on its broad base but tipped as though to empty itself of a river winding through it from the southeast. After passing a small island which reposed at the bottom of the saucer, the river swung from northwest to southwest, then turned back and forth upon itself thus forming a rude inverted letter S.
Far to the southeast, a tributary joined the larger stream. Low hills and pastures, sloping towards the valley through which the central river flowed; scattered shade-trees dotting the western[96] lowlands; scrub and brush adorning the eastern heights;—such was the Paris Basin, the Seine River winding through it and the Marne tributary flowing from the east.
Slopes, river banks and even the river surface itself were dotted and blotched with living forms, single and in groups, some motionless, others shifting restlessly about; sleeping, lunching or besporting themselves as wild animals do when in the midst of congenial surroundings.
A herd of horses was gliding swiftly along the southern slopes overlooking the valley—sorrels, bays, chestnuts, with manes and tails streaming behind them—all uniting to form a single moving mass of color. Groups of long-horned cattle lined the river-banks farther below, standing high and dry, wading in the water or swimming with all but their heads submerged.
To the west, a score of bison grazed beneath the scattered shade-trees. Others lay on the grass near by, chewing their cuds and gazing dreamily into space. A tiny calf consisting of a small piece of body mounted on four stilts, ran here and there calling “Ma-ma” and causing no disturbance but its own noise. By some peculiar combination of sight, smell and sound whereby cows and calves find each other without mistakes, the bawling infant soon discovered the object of its search and its[97] troubles ended with a draught of home-brewed nectar, of which the fond mother carried an abundant supply. Meanwhile the bull bison leader found nothing to do but loll about awaiting the day’s end and whatever the morrow might bring. But with all his cud-chewing and seeming laziness, he kept one eye upon a burly brown bear who in the distance was poking the stones and rotten logs about with his big paws in search of grubs............