CHAPTER XLII.
As the cold continued and strengthened, and about all the animals had left the Cocoanut Hill region, the Ammi began to consider whether they also should not migrate. They had resisted the change of climate thus far by building mounds, adding to their clothing, and habitually using fire. (For they had given up their superstition about this element, to whom it long since ceased to be a God, and was now not even an animal.)
By these and similar devices they could live in the cold longer than other animals, and they made many improvements in their condition, which would have defied the weather had it been of an ordinary kind. But a glacial period had set in, which was to last, not for a winter, but for an age. The snow was falling that was to pile up in mountains, and to march for centuries over the land as glaciers, and no life could resist it; and hence, when they were satisfied that there was to be no thaw, or early return of warmth, they asked themselveswhether they should not abandon their homes and their country.
“The cold has come to stay,” said Cocoanut-scooper, “and we cannot always dig for a living. The hogs and tapirs which excel us in rooting, have left, and we should not try to live where a hog can’t.”
“Our fingers and toes are frozen,” said Gimbo, “and if we don’t soon get away we will have nothing to walk away with.”
“How do we know,” asked Koree, “that we will find it better elsewhere?”
“I notice,” replied Abroo, “that none of the birds or beasts that go are ever seen to come back, and they all go one way.”
“Perhaps they are frozen, and can’t return through the snow,” remarked Koree.
“The birds, which do not have to walk, do not come back any more than the beasts,” retorted Abroo.
“I think,” said Gimbo, “that any place where one can’t walk on four feet is no place to live,” and he raised himself up on his hind feet to warm his hands by blowing them—a method that they had only recently learned.
At this moment a great roar was heard in the mountains, and a shaking of the earth like that which followed the upheaval of the Alps. A rush of snow descended from a high peak, crashing into the valley below, and burying everything beneath it. It was the first avalanche seen by man, and it laid the foundation of a mighty glacier which was to be followed by others in its march across the country.
The Ammi were frightened at this new wonder, and thought that part of the sky had fallen, and that the gods would come next. Gimbo died from the fright, not so much because of what he saw and heard, as from the expected descent of the gods. Thus passed away the last four-footed man.
After regaining their composure they quickly decided to flee from the Cold, the Famine and the falling Heavens.
It was, accordingly, determined to go South; and they immediately began preparations for the exodus.
As soon as they were ready, they therefore left their ancient Paradise of Cocoanut Hill—the first Eden of the Human Race—driven by the cold, bleak God of Snow; but they sought another Eden.
As they started South, Koree and Sosee led the way, not caring whither they went, so they went together.
They directed their steps toward Egypt and Western Asia, whence their ancestors had come.
They soon got beyond the snow, and out of their sufferings; for the glacial region did not extend far south of Cocoanut Hill. They accordingly had abundant fruits and mild climate for their journey, and they proceeded with merriment, as well as regret, stopping often and delaying long where the country through which they passed pleased them.
They were soon beyond the Alps, which they did not, like Napoleon and Hannibal, have to scale; but many of the present peaks and ridges were not yet thrown up in the air, so that they easily passed through the defiles on level ground.
Nor were they stopped by the Mediterranean; for that sea did not then exist in its present extent. The whole surface of Europe, indeed, differed from its present contour. Spain was still connected with Africa at Gibraltar, and Italy at Sicily; while the British Isles were still joined to the continent. It was subsequent convulsions that first tore the continents apart, and sent deluges over Europe. For the upheaval of the Alps, already mentioned, was to be followed by others still greater, which would upset the basins of the old world, and spill their contents over nearly all Europe, destroying its life.
It was not difficult, therefore, for these primitive pilgrims to make their way to the tropics; and, like the Phocaeans, they went resolved never to return; and not for many centuries was Man again seen in Europe or the North.
The region that was covered with snow remained a waste for ages; and it was, according to a prophecy of the Ammi, to continue unpeopled, until one of the descendents of Koree and Sosee should return, and, under the name of Adam, (Ammi or Man) recapture Cocoanut Hill, and enter again the North as a Paradise Regained.
But some said that the man who should thus re-people the North would be the lost one mentioned in the preceding chapter, who would wander till the appointed time in Alligator Swamp; and they maintained also that he would then be found to be no other than the faithful Aloo, who had fallen back with Osa to die; that onaccount of their faithfulness these two lovers would not be destroyed by cold, or hunger, or fatigue, or time; but that, overcoming all hardships, they would wander on until the Sun should come again; when they would find rest at last amid the retreating snows, and there start a new race, after all others had passed out of history.
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