West of Eden

south that the snow never came and it was warm always. In that warm land there are murgu that eat grass and graze in the forests and in the swamps. Though they are not like the deer or other animals that we hunt, they can be eaten and their flesh is good. I know, because that is what I ate all those years."
    There was only silence now. Even the women stopped talking to each other, the children ceased their play, as they all listened to Kerrick's strange and frightening story.
    "What Ulfadan has told you is true. There are great murgu who eat the smaller ones. I have seen them and have seen even stranger things as well. But that is not important. What is important is this. How do the murgu-who-walk-like-Tanu live there? How do they exist among the killing murgu? They eat the meat of animals just as we do. Why are they not killed by the murgu as high as trees?"
    There were many reasons he could have mentioned, but none of these were relevant now. Only one thing was and he was determined to speak of that and that alone.
    "They are not killed because the murgu-who-walk-like-Tanu kill anything that threatens them or their meat animals. They kill them with this."
    He bent and picked up the hèsotsan that lay on the ground beside him, held it up high. There was not a sound now and every eye was upon it.
    "No matter how large the beast, this will kill it. A murgu that would need all your spears and all your arrows to kill will fall dead when a single dart from this pricks its hide."
    "I have seen this," Herilak broke in, bitterness in his voice. "I have seen the murgu come from the sea with these death-sticks, seen all in my sammad fall before them. Have seen the largest mastodon fall before them when the death-stick cracked. Kerrick speaks the truth."
    "And now we have many of them," Kerrick said. "Many of them, darts as well. I know how to care for these death-stick creatures and I can show you the manner in which it is done. I know how to make them send out the darts of death, and will show that to you as well. If you go south there will be good hunting, West of Eden - Harry Harrison
    good forage for the mastodons. And with these—" he held the weapon high above his head so all could see "—only certain death for the murgu."
    After this there was excited talk and much argument, but no decision. Kerrick had eaten little during the day and when he saw Herilak leave he went after him. They went to the fire where the women were roasting meat on green boughs, brewing bark tea as well. Merrith, the woman of Ulfadan, saw them sit down and brought them food to eat. She had few teeth left, but she was wide and very strong and the younger women did as she ordered.
    "I hope the death-sticks will obey us as they do you, or we will all leave our bones in the south." Her voice was husky, almost like a hunter's. She spoke her mind freely.
    "Do you think, then, that we will go south?" Herilak asked, talking with difficulty around the mouthful of meat.
    "They will argue all night, but that is what they will decide in the end. They talk too much. We will go south because there is no other way to go." She looked at Kerrick with frank curiosity. "What are these murgu like who held you captive? Are their tents big? Do they use mastodons—or giant murgu to pull their travois?"
    Kerrick smiled at the thought, then tried to explain. "They don't live in tents, but grow special trees like tents that they sleep in."
    Merrith laughed loudly. "You are telling me wicked stories. How can you load a tree behind a mastodon when you move to another campsite?" The rest of the women around the fire were looking their way, listening as well, and there was much giggling at this thought.
    "It is the truth—because they stay in the same place all of the time so they do not have to move their sleeping trees."
    "Now I know that you are telling me stories. If they stayed in one place they would hunt and kill all of the animals there. They would pick all the fruit and then they would die of starvation. Such a funny story!"
    "This is true," Herilak said. "That is the way that they live. I have been there and I have seen them, but I did not understand them. They do not need to hunt because they keep all of their animals in one place so they cannot escape, then kill them whenever they want to. Is that not the way it is?" he asked Kerrick.
    Merrith had shrugged her shoulders at such useless stories and gone back to her fire, but the other women remained, eyes wide