How Things Began

It is very hot and the tropical sun is burning down on the grassland.  The group of huntsmen crouching and lying down in the long grass have fanned out and are working their way slowly towards the target animal, which is upwind.  The animal was slightly detached from the main herd.  It somehow appeared to sense the presence of something near and moved away from it.  Away from the main herd!  This allowed the line of huntsmen to get between it and the herd.  The hunt was on!  Slowly and surely the animal was persuaded to move further from the group and towards the edge of the escarpment.  Suddenly the animal raised its head and realised that it was isolated and it turned to return towards the herd. 

NOW!

We all stood up revealed ourselves and shouted, the animal started and stood still for a moment but did not turn. It then began once again to move quickly towards us to get back to the herd between me and the next in line.  I was the closest and therefore the chosen one so I ran towards the animal and planted my wooden spear firmly in the animal’s neck and got quickly away before it caught me with its horns, a good strike.  It bellowed in pain. But again did not turn away from the herd.  The second choice ran in and made a strike into the neck on the other side but the animal continued to move back towards the main herd with the spears dangling from its neck.  The animal was bleeding profusely and moving slower now trying to rejoin the herd. If the animal had turned away from us and run away it would probably have fallen over the edge and we we would have had quick meat but we would have to be patient and follow the herd. All in good time the animal would sicken and we could complete the kill and our families would be fed for many days as long as the lions or hyenas did not spot the prize and force us away from our justly earned kill.  We quietly followed and kept our distance from the target waiting for our next opportunity.

Hrumpfh! I woke up with the sharp pangs of hunger reminding me that it was only a dream. 

I stayed still lying on the ground and listened, there were the quiet sounds of the family breathing, no sounds of immediate danger,  then I was aware of a strange noise in the distance. 

Shoosh ...  splosh  ...    Shoosh  ....  splosh ...

I opened my eyes to see the stars fading and remembered that in our journey to find new lands we had reached the shores of the great lake with undrinkable water.  Pressure from other families and a shortage of good hunting spots had pushed us always towards the setting sun and eventually we found there was nowhere else to go.  There was food here but it was difficult to find because there were no large animals to be killed and even with all the family foraging for fruit and small things it was difficult to be well fed.  Here, in a cave close to the shore was safe but half of the  distance we could hunt in a day was water and undrinkable water at that. 

Fortunately there were plentiful springs of drinkable water here together with berries and nuts but what we needed was a good source of meat to make the children strong and grow well.

We had been here for several moons now and as leader it was important to decide what to do next should we move or should we stay.  I had been watching the vast lake for many days and had seen no signs of the crocodiles that make the drinkable rivers and lakes so dangerous in the lands from which we had been forced.  Maybe it was safe to go into the water without a desperate need to make a crossing.

I got up quietly in the growing light and climbed down to the shore watching the water carefully. There were no signs of large creatures or any other danger so I ventured in a short way.  There were plenty of small creatures but they were fast and difficult to catch.  Then I remembered my dream.  These creatures live in water so they may die on land and that is the escarpment against which I can trap them. I spotted a small gully between two lines of rocks some distance away. This led towards shallow water and the beach and carefully worked my way round the opening watching some of the small fast creatures go into it.  Then I entered making as much of a splash as possible to chase the creatures up the gully and on to the beach.  Most escaped past me  but a few ventured into such shallow water that they got stuck in the sand long enough for me to grab them and I caught them!  Success!  But were they good to eat?  The water was undrinkable maybe the animals were uneatable.

I took a bite out of one of them.  The fins were spiky and the skin crispy but the flesh tasted good most definitely not uneatable and salty.  I would eat one and see if I stayed well and then show the others what I had done.

****

Time passes

****

The family was much larger now and they were all well fed and healthy.  Their founding father had been forgotten for many years but the lessons he taught them had not.  Their techniques of fishing had improved beyond measure they had found and improved more sections of the shore that served as fish traps and learned to go in groups to chase the plentiful fish that was now their staple food.  These could be caught without the great risks of injury and death that the old hunting of large animals had been on the distant plain.  Furthermore the lifestyle and better nutrition had produced more profound changes in them.

They were now very happy in the water.  Very often just going in to enjoy the coolness and feel of it whereas many of their kind in the past had always avoided it wherever possible. Their fur was now much thinner than it used to be and some of them had very little body hair.  They had also started to make stone and bone tools to help them with removing the scales and fins from the fish.  They had also found that the fish could be kept for a long time against a famine if put out in the sun to dry.

A new life had come from the dream

The first of many great leaps had been made.

Background Comments

Written for and presented at Tiverton U3A "in your own words" group  15 Dec 2010 - Ian Kimber

The title came from a series of BBC schools programmes in the late 40's and 50's were vignettes of great events in prehistory and ancient history were presented.

Just in case it isn't obvious.  It is a story to illustrate how the early hominids in Africa took up eating fish and liking water one of the important steps  (as several experts suggest) in developing into modern man. I managed to get variations of "all in good time" and "life could be a dream"  into the story.