Page:Weird Tales Volume 4 Number 4 (1924-12).djvu/29



HE Great Cliffs teemed with bustle and confusion. From every one of the subterranean chambers that honeycombed the rocky escarpment poured a steady stream of men and women. Tottering age and toddling youth with all the intermittent ages were represented in this stream of humanity that the caverns discharged. They made their way with one accord to the clearing at the foot of the cliffs, for Gra, chieftain of the tribe, had summoned them, and when Gra summoned they must heed his call.

At the far end of the clearing, on a crude throne of huge rocks, sat Gra. His massive frame was clothed in the shaggy coat of the mighty cave bear, and in his hand he bore a gnarled and knotted staff tipped with a monster lance-head of stone. On his right stood Gra, son of Gra, tall, lithe and powerful, a perfect specimen of physical manhood. On his left sat Zo-na, fairest daughter of all the tribe of Gra.

Gra looked down into the semicircle of upturned faces and raised his hand. A hush fell upon the waiting throng. Gra spoke in short, mono-syllabic sounds, amplified by many eloquent signs and gestures, for the art of speech was young and undeveloped and the primitive mind often groped long in the darkness before it found expression. It could not be accurately transcribed. The nearest one can come to it is to record the ideas, expressed by the combination of sounds, expressions and gestures.

“It has long been a custom with the people of Gra that, when a youth desires to mate with a woman of his people, his desire should be made known before the tribe in the great council.

“Long, too, have we given the woman the right to choose whether or not she would mate with the man who seeks her, for are not the best children borne by the woman who mates with the man of her choice?

“And now Gra, son of Gra, seeks a mate, that his race shall not cease to live upon the earth. And from the women of the people of Gra, now Gra, son of Gra, seeks to mate with Zo-na, daughter of Dur, who with his naked hands has slain the mighty cave bear."

Gra’s ponderous voice echoed and reverberated as he reached the end of his oration. The crowd broke into excited chattering as he paused, but fell