The Clan of the Cave Bear
- Tape 1
Side A
- The naked child ran out of the hide- covered lean-to toward the rocky beach at the bend in the small river. It didn't occur to her to look back.Nothing in her experience ever gave her reason to doubt the shelter and those within it would be there when she returned.
- They needed a shelter, but almost more important, their protective totem spirits needed a home, if they hadn't already deserted the clan. They were angry, the earthquake prooves that, angry enough to cause the death of six of the clan and detroy their home.
Side B
- By the time evening approached, Iza was feeling the strain of the additional burden she carried and was grateful to let the child down when Brun called a halt for the day.
- "All right, if you can discover her totem, we'll take her into the clan, Mog-ur, and they can live at your hearth, at least until Iza has her child." For the first time in his life, Brun found himself hoping that an expected child would be a girl rather than a boy.
The Clan of the Cave Bear
- Tape 2
Side A
- He removed the liver, cut it into slices, and gave a piece to each hunter. It was the choicest part, reserved for men alone, imparting strength to muscle and eye needed for hunting.
- Ebra was the first to jump up. She danced with intricate steps in a circle around Iza, and as the medicine woman increased the tempo, it stirred the senses of more of the women. Soon they all joined the leader's mate.
Side B
- Ebra tied a piece of red-dyed sinew around the umbilical cord and bit off the part still attached to the placental mass, then lifted the baby for Iza to see. She got up and went back to her own hearth to report the medicine woman's successful delivery and the gender of the child to her mate.
- The members of the clan filed past, each repeating the name to familiarize themselves and their totems with this newest addition. Iza was careful to keep her head down so she would not inadvertently look upon any of the men who came foreward to acknowledge her daughter.
The Clan of the Cave Bear
- Tape 3
Side A
- Broud took the sling from the lad and picked up a stone. He inserted it in the pocket of the sling and hurled it toward the post. It landed short of the mark. That was the most common problem men of the clan had with the sling.
- "Pay close attention, Ayla. The leaves are a dull pale green with spiky edges, and see the long hairs growing along the middle?" Iza touched the fine hairs while Ayla looked closely. Then the medicie woman picked a leaf and bruised it. "Smell," she instructed.
Side B
- If Ayla had been her true child, Iza would only have had to remind her of what was already stored in her brain, to get her accustomed to using it. But Ayla struggled to memorize knowledge Uba was born with, and Ayla's conscious memory wasn't as good.
- Many times, though she crept close enough to hurl a stone, she refrained and merely watched. She developed a stronger feeling that it was a waste to kill an animal who did not threaten the clan and whose pelt she could not use.
The Clan of the Cave Bear
- Tape 4
Side A
- Using the same piece of bone, the toolmaker retouched the entire blade edge of a smaller, rounder flake into a steep convex form, creating a sturdy, slightly blunt-edged tool that would not break easily from the pressure of scraping wood or animal hides, and would not tear the skins.
- The custom was so ancient and so well understood, it hadn't even been invoked for generations beyond count. The legends surrounding it were closely linked with the legends about a time when women controlled the access to the world of the spirits before the men took them over.
Side B
- He saw Ayla still sitting where he had seen her when they left in the morning. She expects the worst, he said to himself. What else can she expect?
- But Brun said I could come back, he said so. Ayla hung on to that idea. Well, I won't take my sling, that's for sure. What about my collecting basket; Creb burned my other one. No, I won't need it until next summer; I can make a new one then.
The Clan of the Cave Bear
- Tape 5
Side A
- "O Powerful Spirits of the Past, your ways are no longer the ways of the Clan, yet once they were and must be again for this one who sits with us." We entreat you, Ancient Spirits, scantify her to your ways. Accept her, Protect her and give your protection to her clan."
- "If you fill the water up to here," Iza pointed to a mark on the side of one of her medicine bowls, "and boil it down to a cup this size," Iza held up a bone cup, "it should be about right." One cup is usually enough. Chrysanthemum flowers sometimes work.
Side B
- Ayla leaned heavily on her digging stick as she climbed, using it for a walking staff. She stopped often, swallowing hard to keep down her nausea and fighting not to give in to the dizziness that threatened to become darkness.
- A deformed child stigmatized the mother. It advertised a certain inadequacy, an inability to produce a perfect baby. It made her less than desirable. Even if the deformity was small enough not to pose a major handicap, there were considerations of status and future mates.
The Clan of the Cave Bear
- Tape 6
Side A
- They passed massive herds of bison, and giant deer with huge palmate antlers, horses, onagers, and asses; more rarely, saiga antelope with horns growing straight out of the tops of their heads slightly curved back at the tips; tens upon tens of thousands of grazing animals supported by the extensive grassland.
- The host clan always foraged far away from their cave before a Gathering, but even that courtesy was inadequate to satisfy the needs of all. Though no long journey limited their time to store food for winter, the clan that hosted the meeting still had to build up an extra reserve.
Side B
- "She was born to the Others, how can she be a woman of the Clan?" the flute-playing Mog-ur demanded. "Others are not Clan, they never will be. You say she came to you already marked with Clan totem scars, but those are not the marks of a woman's totem.
- She had a fleeting glimpse of the cave again, followed by a confusing kaleidoscope of landscapes, laid out not with the randomness of nature, but in regular patterns. Boxlike structures reared up from the earth and long ribbons of stone spread out, along which strange animals crawled at great speeds; huge birds flew without flapping their wings.
The Clan of the Cave Bear
- Tape 7
Side A
- Iza's breath expired with a bubbling sigh. She did not take another. "Iza! Iza!" Ayla sreamed. "Mother, don't go, don't leave me! Oh Mother, don't go."
- Creb turned Durc's head to look at his profile. Yes, definitely her forehead, but the brows and the eyes, they're Clan, and the back of his head, that's more like Clan, too. Ayla was right. He's not deformed, he's a mixture, a mixture of her and Clan.
Side B
- The summer drew to its polychrome close and the clan settled down to the slower pace of the cold season. Uba's pregnancy progressed normally until well beyond her second trimester.
- The old man looked angry. But not nearly as angry as Brun. His face was a black rage as he watched Ayla return to her place. He struggled to control himself, to keep from interfering. There was more than anger in his eyes, the pain in his heart showed, too.
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