Читать книгу Primitive Islands - Michael Klymovytskyi - Страница 5

The mother of the tribe was the old female mammoth (living totem) living in a corral of large stones. Chains of smaller stones went far into the steppe – the tundra, forming pens for deer and musk ox. The gaps between the boulders were closed by thorny branches and deadwood. These were titanic structures created by the first people. In addition to Mom, the tribe had four more tamed mammoths – her daughters, who grazed freely and even brought Mom bunches of branches and grass.

The eldest daughter of the shaman grew up with her first daughter Mom and drove her. Her three sisters drove three more female mammoths.

The snow still shone dazzlingly in the bright April sun, but it had already settled down and gathered water, which froze in the morning in a hard crust. The foxes started the race back in March, now they are joined by wolves and wild cats. Groups of animals drunk from the spring sun were scampering around and around the camp. The first flocks of nomadic birds appeared: rooks, ravens and polar owls. Fluffy buds appeared on the sheds and willows on the banks of the river and on the island and their rods became even tastier for ungulates and elephants. In early May, water began to fill the ravines and hollows, and at the end of the month the entire tundra-steppe was covered with water by an endless chain of lakes and swamps. This attracted millions of flocks: geese, ducks, swans and white cranes. Wild grooms appeared around the camp and pens. Bitches often ran into the field to the wolves. People were most worried about two female mammoths, which this year needed a male.