entire day when no one spoke. From the moment he opened his eyes in the morning until he crawled into bed that night, not a single vocal utterance had been made. He wondered about this for a long time, until it occurred to him that perhaps it was a basic survival tactic, an inbred desire to keep from drawing unwanted attention to themselves by passing predators. Despite this innate reticence, they were extremely communicative in other ways, employing a full repertoire of facial expressions that would have done a professional mime proud. Added to that was a range of gestures that bordered on sign language. In combination, the gestures and expressions were often all that was necessary to get surprisingly complex messages across.
But that was not all. In the first few days, Kit observed that the entire clan appeared to possess an uncanny instinct for empathy within the group—a sixth sense that told them what the others were thinking. At first he imagined that perhaps it was due to the fact that they lived so closely and in such harmony with one another that they had simply developed a fundamental understanding that did not need words. But as time went on he saw that it was something far more subtle and specific than that: it was a sort of telepathy. As Kit got to know them better, he came to believe that the clan did not talk much because each just instinctively knew what everyone else was thinking.
The most potent demonstration of this came late one afternoon a few days after he had come to River City. An early dusk was settling on the camp, and some of the females were chopping a haunch of wild pig in preparation for cooking; a few of the males were chipping flint to make scrapers or ax blades. Everyone was busy, working away quietly, when all of a sudden one of the males dropped his flint stone and stood up. Instantly he was joined by the three females. Not a word was spoken—not even a grunt—but all four disappeared into the wood. Those who remained behind also stopped working and began preparing a bed of fresh reeds and rushes by the fire ring.
Intrigued, Kit watched as they heaped the reeds high and covered them with skins; they then built up the fire—clearly in anticipation of something that was about to take place. And only a few minutes later, the group that had gone into the wood returned carrying one of the younger males—scratched and bleeding and obviously injured. They laid him on the reed bed and nursed him through the night.
All this took place without so much as a single syllable breathed aloud. The more he thought about it, the more convinced Kit became that at the moment of the young one’s injury, they all knew that he was in trouble and had gone to rescue him. They just knew.
Yet, as extraordinary as that was, the thing that impressed Kit most was how very gentle they were with each other. In those first days with them, he did not witness any angry or aggressive behaviour. Indeed, they seemed to tolerate one another very well, if not to enjoy being together. The older ones definitely doted on the younger—at least in camp, for the smallest of the clan were not allowed to wander very far into the surrounding woods unless an adult was in tow.
There was still much to learn about them, of course, but Kit was content to allow that learning to take place naturally. In the meantime, he tried to be a good guest and not bother his hosts or make a nuisance of his presence. Nevertheless, the clan appeared as fascinated by him as he was by them. For their part, they missed nothing he did, following his every move—from the way he washed his hands and face, to brushing his teeth with chewed hazel twigs, and taking off his shoes to sleep—which drew great excitement the first time he performed any of these activities.
The younger members of the clan tried to imitate him, the older ones merely watched from a polite distance. The thing that produced the greatest amusement for the clan was Kit’s attempt to wash his clothes.
One morning, awakening to the fact that his shirt and trousers were filthy and that he had not had a proper wash for more days than he cared to think about, Kit decided that the time had come to take the plunge—literally.