The First Rider
A Proto-Indo-European short story
Around 4000 BC there lived a small tribe near the Pontic-Caspian steppe. They spoke a Proto-Indo-European language. This story is about them.
The evenings were lighter now, and Hester was lingering at her favorite spot under a large tree by the narrow and calm river. She rose to leave and was about to throw a stick in the water when she noticed a lonely duckling scurry back and forth near the reeds. It was lost. The color of the sky was now orange and she really had to get going, but something stopped her. She removed her flaxen apron and lay it on the low riverbank. Then she put one single pea from a wildpea pod on the cloth and waited. The sky was almost purple when the duckling found the pea. She quickly wrapped up the protesting bundle and walked home.
She was admonished for bringing home the duckling and it was soon decided that it would be eaten in the upcoming feast to honor Dyes Phtér, the great Sky Father. That was so it would have time to grow and get bigger. Grandfather, who was wise and who had a soft spot for Hester, allowed her to keep the duckling as a pet. For now.
The duckling followed Hester everywhere. She named it Swepna, little dreamer. Her brother promised he would gladly break its neck if she brought it into their tent at night. Hester then quickly built a small tent for the duckling right next to the wall of the family tent, and if she carefully lifted the covering she could take a peek at Swepna before falling asleep. Swepna slept in her own little tent and all was well. In the daytime she followed Hester like a shadow. Close or far away from the small village, she never left the girl’s side.
A moon or so later, after a period of rain, things began to grow out of the mud outside all the tents. Hester’s mother remarked one day:
“It looks like a bunch of wild peas are growing right by Swepna’s tent!”
Hester ran over to look and saw the purple flowers encircling Swepna’s tent. Then she glanced over at the other tents nearby and saw some nettles and dandelions.
“Swepna made it bloom!” Hester shouted. “Tuhmene! Come and look!”
Her big brother was cleaning some muskrat skins and pretended not to hear.
Her mother said: “Let’s see if we will get enough peas to make something for the Great Feast! I’ve seen a few wild peas near the river but nothing to speak of.”
The Great Feast was going to take place when the days were the longest. That was when Dyes Phtér was strongest and also most generous. It was still a while until then, and Hester tried to not think about what would happen to Swepna.
Her father was away on a hunting trip and Tuhmene was sulking because he had to stay home with Grandfather and protect the family. It was boring. He wondered if his father would bring home horses. Or maybe they would see a giant grazer and come back and tell wonderful stories around the fire.
A moon later their father came back with the men from their small village. They brought horses and goats, bear skins and bear meat, skins of various animals, salt, and several strange looking rocks. All gathered around the men and admired everything they did or unloaded or hung up or handed to the women and children to store away. Everything was exciting and strange new scents and smells hung in the air around the hunters.
The men were tired, dirty, and most of all relieved to be home alive. Some were injured but pretended it wasn’t much to talk about. A medicine woman brought out spongy white lichen to wrap a wound and then chased them all to the river with a handful of soap root. Mother Earth demanded respect and they had to purify themselves before the first star appeared after returning from a hunting trip. The village became quiet again and off in the distance they heard the men’s laughter.
It was decided that a there would be a feast the day after the following night to thank Mother Earth, Déǵōm Méhtēr, for bearing all these creatures and allowing the hunters to receive them from her.
The village came to life. It seemed as if everyone suddenly had woken up from a dream and was fortified with extra energy. Children were obedient and doing even the most boring and difficult tasks their parents, and even other parents, demanded of them. Old people walked straighter and with less of a limp. The village Elder, Hretkos, sat on a hollowed tree stump from daybreak until dusk so that he could mutter and bark things to everyone while chewing on willow bark and tapping his right foot into the soft moss. Under his beard he was smiling and remembering when he once lead hunting trips. Life was good.
Hester snuck up behind her father and pushed her head underneath his arm. He squeezed his arm gently around her and kissed her hair. Everyone sat around the fire after celebrating Mother Earth. The fire sank lower and people spoke quietly in tune with the flames. Earlier, when the flames were vigorous and new, they danced and shouted and threw pretty amulets filled with pollen dust into the fire so that flames would shoot up now and then and make children laugh. Now the flames lulled the group into contemplation.
“Hester! My star. What did I hear about a duck that thinks it’s a tame wolf?” her father said and laughed.
“Father, Swepna made it grow wildpeas outside our tent!” Hester looked at her mother for approval, and her mother smiled and told her husband:
“Yes, melnes (honey), the duck is such a fast eater that some of it comes out the other end as good as it was when it entered. And it grows well in that which comes out!”
They all laughed and even Grandfather’s shoulder were shaking up and down in silent mirth. Then, for a moment, everyone around the fire hushed down and listened. They heard a neigh. Soon after that, a long and then a short whistle was heard. Some men stood up ready to leave, and then sat back down and relaxed. All was well. The guards on duty had signaled peace. But Hester recognized the neigh. It was Ekwos! Her father’s horse. The first horse. The horse that should not be touched.
Hester grabbed her father’s arms and begged him:
“Father, tell us about when Ekwos found you! Tell us!”
Others nearby heard her request and they made encouraging sounds and someone shouted:
“Yes, Bergu! Tell us about when you were young and foolish! Tell us!” And all broke out into roaring laughter. But they all wanted to hear the story again. So Bergu waited until only the birch wood made crackling sounds and then he began to tell.
“First, may Déǵōm Méhtēr (Mother Earth) and Dyes Phtér (Sky Father) watch over us tonight. We receive what we deserve and we remember those who came before us.
Now — what I tell you is what happened when I was a bit older than Tuhmene here. By the way, did I ever tell you how he got his name?”
The listeners groaned ‘How?’ even if they’d heard the story many times before.
“When my wife was in labor she was angry and wanted it to be over and done with. She screamed and yelled and nothing would stop her. She said the child was going to be a wild one and that it probably would run away as soon as its legs would hold it. So the moment this child came out and drew its first breath, she yelled: ‘You’re mine! You are mine! Tuh me!’ And Tuhmene hasn’t run away.”
Tuhmene was irritated that this stupid story would be brought up, and it caused more laughter.
“Here’s what you want to hear. One day my father told me that I was finally old enough to join the hunting party and we went to the great plains far away, where the old snow once sat. Where the giant grazers still wander, if you know where to look. We were coming to the end of our journey and that is when we rest and eat plenty before the long return home. It was sunny, there was a small lake nearby with fish, and Hretkos was such a powerful leader that most of the packing had already been done. All that was left was to rest.
“Some men wasted time competing with each other trying to run next to horse and grab hold of its mane and fling himself up on the horse. It was a game. To see how long one could hold on and sit on a horse. All got kicked off eventually but some were pretty good. I watched them carefully. Not a single man was able to stay on for long.
“It was difficult to rest, so one afternoon I snuck off to a hilltop and looked at the horses far away on the plains. I tried to pick out my favorite, but they were so far away I couldn’t tell them apart.
“My eye wandered to another direction, and that is when I saw them. I stood up so I could see better. Yes, it was another hunting party! A group of strangers. They were very far away but I could see them. I held up my fingers to my eyes and formed slits so I could see them even better. There were double the amount of them as in our party. And then I saw that they had several oxen and they were dragging a large object that looked like a bent bone. It was the tusk of a giant grazer!
“I ran back to the men and told them what I had seen. Everyone woke up from slumber and a few ran up the same hill to see what was going on. We all knew that this group wasn’t friendly. We had to leave right away and hope we wouldn’t get trapped by them.
“It was decided that we would leave at nightfall. It was a good plan, I thought, until we got attacked right after sunset. It was a strange attack because no one was beaten to death. Instead they overpowered us, beat us with sticks and tied us down and took most of our belongings, including all the live animals we had captured. This fired fury in us, and we asked Dyes Phtér to close his eyes on the evil hunters and instead let us be strong and fortunate.
“A few of our men had broken bones and could not walk, and others had large gashes on their arms and bodies. I was lucky because I only got hit once with a willow branch and all it did was leave a red line on my belly.
“Once we had freed ourselves from the ropes and tended to wounds, I ran back up to the hilltop and saw that the other hunters had built a fire. On the other side of the hill, in the moonlight, I spotted horses. I had an idea but I was sure that my father and the others would beat me and throw me in a tent if I suggest anything right now. So I did what young men sometimes do.
“I ran down toward the horses and became still. I heard them neigh and knew they had heard me from far away. Of course. They know. Horses know. So I told myself to think like a horse. Calm and alert. Restful in the moonlight. I approached one horse that was a bit off to the side and stood quietly next to it. It let me stay. I stood there for a long time until I held out my hand and touched it. It breathed out warm air and gently wiggled its mane. I kept thinking like a horse. I breathed out warm air and moved my head like a horse. And then I whispered:
“Ekwos, I will need you to carry me far. Ekwos, you will always be free and I will never hurt you. Carry me far tonight. We are both friends of Déǵōm Méhtēr (Mother Earth).”
“And then I grabbed hold of as much mane as I could and quickly swung my body into the air and hoped I would land on the horse. To my surprise I did. I twisted my hands in circles around the mane on both sides and squeezed my legs and feet into the horse’s side. This is when things began to happen.
“Ekwos woke up and began shaking me off like I was a louse. I held on and kept whispering soft words to the horse and I kept thinking like a horse. I discovered that I could tug on the mane and Ekwos would obey me. Sometimes it helped if I kicked a little into its belly and I could make it turn with pressure from my knees. Somehow we made it to our hunting site and terrified men were able to witness me, Bergu, sit on top of a horse for a long time without being kicked off. While still on the horse I told them in a whisper that I intended to sit on Ekwos and ask it to take me to our village to get help.
“Hretkos declared I was mad, but I gladly took that instead of a beating. They were much too impressed that I sat on a horse to start beating me. Then, when they saw that I wasn’t about to fall off, they began to smile and then the smiles turned into head shakes of disbelief and fists stretched up into the air with power!
“Bergu! You will do it!” declared Hretkos, and then he quickly thought of something and slung me a waterskin. And off I went.
“It soon became painful to sit on the horse but I was too afraid to get off in case I couldn’t get back on. I wrapped a blanket that I slept on and tucked it under me, and it felt better but it kept sliding and moving too much and I was afraid of losing it. Once we stopped by a lake so the horse could drink, and then I moved my body around. My legs felt as if wrapped in pismires and nettles and my arse — well, I was no longer sure I had one.”
Laughter broke out and Bergu stood up and turned around so they could see he still had one.
“Before the sun rose I arrived here, and some of you who are sitting with me here now saw it and know that I speak the truth. Ekwos brought me here on his back, and I still have scars on my hands from holding his mane and — and no hair will ever grow back on my thighs after that journey.
“So — I warned our village about the attack and arranged for more men to go to the hunting site to fight the strangers. But that’s another story for another time. Perhaps Hretkos can tell how he got hold of that giant tusk!
“Now — one more thing. Ekwos is still with us, as am I. Each year around the Great Feast some shallow breathing fool suggests that we slaughter Ekwos so that we can enjoy good meat for one evening. Ekwos is protected by Mother Earth, and he allowed me to be the first human to sit on his back and travel a great distance. He is getting old now, as am I, but in the meadow with him are his sons and daughters — and they’re allowing young humans to journey far on them as well. No other people have done this before us. Not even the wanderers who follow the giant grazers. Who knows what stories some of you will tell around the fires of your tomorrow. But you can always tell them about how Bergu came back on Ekwos.”
Silence fell over the crowd. The flames were now low and blue in the orange coals but warmth still radiated out of it. Then a distinct neigh pierced the night, and all joined in with laughter. Then Bergu lifted up Swepna on his shoulders and shouted:
“And if I can tame a horse then you, my star, can tame a duck!”
Bergu and his family began to walk back to their tent. Hretkos yelled:
“But don’t try to ride it!”
Proto-Indo-European vocabulary
