The First Horseman

by H. G. Wells

Overview

Now, in the days when Ugh-lomi killed the great cave bear there was
little trouble between the horses and men. Indeed, they lived apart--
the men in the river swamps and thickets, the horses on the wide
grassy uplands between the chestnuts and the pines. Sometimes a pony
would come straying into the clogging marshes to make a flint-hacked
meal, and sometimes the tribe would find one, the kill of a lion, and
drive off the jackals, and feast heartily while the sun was high.
These horses of the old time were clumsy at the fetlock and dun-coloured,
with a rough tail and big head. They came every spring-time
north-westward into the country, after the swallows and before the
hippopotami, as the grass on the wide downland stretches grew long.
They came only in small bodies thus far, each herd, a stallion and two
or three mares and a foal or so, having its own stretch of country,
and they went again when the chestnut trees were yellow and the wolves
came down the Wealden mountains.

It was their custom to graze right out in the open, going into cover
only in the heat of the day. They avoided the long stretches of thorn
and beechwood, preferring an isolated group of trees, void of
ambuscade, so that it was hard to come upon them. They were never
fighters; their heels and teeth were for one another, but in the clear
country, once they were started, no living thing came near them,
though perhaps the elephant might have done so, had he felt the need.
And in those days man seemed a harmless thing enough. No whisper of
prophetic intelligence told the species of the terrible slavery that
was to come, of the whip and spur and bearing-rein, the clumsy load
and the slippery street, the insufficient food, and the knacker's
yard, that was to replace the wide grass-land and the freedom of the
earth.

Down in the Wey marshes Ugh-lomi and Eudena had never seen the horses
closely, but now they saw them every day as the two of them raided out
from their lair on the ledge in the gorge, raiding together in search
of food. They had returned to the ledge after the killing of Andoo;
for of the she-bear they were not afraid. The she-bear had become
afraid of them, and when she winded them she went aside. The two went
together everywhere; for since they had left the tribe Eudena was not
so much Ugh-lomi's woman as his mate; she learnt to hunt even--as
much, that is, as any woman could. She was indeed a marvellous woman.
He would lie for hours watching a beast, or planning catches in that
shock head of his, and she would stay beside him, with her bright eyes
upon him, offering no irritating suggestions--as still as any man. A
wonderful woman!

At the top of the cliff was an open grassy lawn and then beechwoods,
and going through the beechwoods one came to the edge of the rolling
grassy expanse, and in sight of the horses. Here, on the edge of the
wood and bracken, were the rabbit-burrows, and here among the fronds
Eudena and Ugh-lomi would lie with their throwing-stones ready, until
the little people came out to nibble and play in the sunset. And while
Eudena would sit, a silent figure of watchfulness, regarding the
burrows, Ugh-lomi's eyes were ever away across the greensward at those
wonderful grazing strangers.

In a dim way he appreciated their grace and their supple nimbleness.
As the sun declined in the evening-time, and the heat of the day
passed, they would become active, would start chasing one another,
neighing, dodging, shaking their manes, coming round in great curves,
sometimes so close that the pounding of the turf sounded like hurried
thunder. It looked so fine that Ugh-lomi wanted to join in badly. And
sometimes one would roll over on the turf, kicking four hoofs
heavenward, which seemed formidable and was certainly much less
alluring.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013770614
Publisher:	WDS Publishing
Publication date:	01/12/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	16 KB

About the Author

H.G. Wells (1866–1946), born Herbert George Wells, was an English author known for not only his popular science fiction books but also works of social commentary, history and biography. His first novel, The Time Machine, was published in 1895. Socially progressive and visionary in intellect, H.G. Wells became one of the most prolific writers of his generation. Through books like The Invisible Man, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and War of the Worlds, Wells delved into a plethora of social, philosophical and political ideas through the medium of what we now call science fiction.

Date of Birth:

September 21, 1866

Date of Death:

August 13, 1946

Place of Birth:

Bromley, Kent, England

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

Normal School of Science, London, England