CHAPTER XXXVI.
The next day the Ammi were startled at the sight of a strange ape, which was at first taken for one of the Lali, and they thought that the rest would soon be upon them. He was soon seen, however, to be of a different species, and so was allowed to pass unmolested. Next a whole group of apes appeared; but, as they were small and apparently peaceable, they produced no consternation. It was deemed best, however, to make a reconnoisance; and so Pounder and Cocoanut-scooper each climbed a tree to examine the surrounding country.
They reported the Swamp full of apes, which wandered about in groups apparently without purpose. There were generally a male and three or four females together.
These were some of the immigrants which had recently come from the north, and were going south to escape the cold. They had remained a few days with the Lali, and were now scattering in all directions. The Lali themselves, they said, had all determined to migrate.
The Ammi, being therefore relieved of their fears, now determined to return to the battle-field. For, as the reënforcements of the Lali had dispersed, they thought they could safely fight them again.
They accordingly started back toward the Lali with renewed courage. The cold was still increasing, and the waters of the Swamp through which they had come were frozen over. For most of the way they walked on ice, which made their return easy. They found some animals and birds along the route, which had been frozen to death, of which they ate as they went, and from which they re-supplied their stores.
“The cold has made a bridge for us across the waters,” said Koree, “and we can now walk where we before waded.”
“True,” said Oko, “but it has taken away the water, and we shall have no fish, and not even anything to drink.”
“It has turned the water into stone,” observed another, “and the land has all been changed into a white foam, so that we shall hereafter have neither land nor water.”
The situation was critical indeed. The whole earth seemed about to be taken from them, or else turned into a new substance, cold, hard and forbidding.
“What can we do,” asked Oko, “but migrate like the Lali?”
“Splash!” “Splash!” “Splash!”
Such were the sounds now heard in quick succession, and accompanying them were cries, growls and great confusion.
The ice had broken and let some of them into the water. Pounder, Cocoanut-scooper, Abroo, Oko, and others were floundering in the waves, some swimming and others wading to their chins. The whole army was thrown into a panic. The earth seemed to have given way beneath them, or what they supposed to be new formed solid rock.
THE AMMI BREAKING THROUGH THE ICE.
THE AMMI BREAKING THROUGH THE ICE.
“It doesn’t look as if the water had given out,” growled Pounder, with a savage glance at Oko.
“I wish it had,” observed Oko, as he tried to keep his head above the floating ice.
A great scramble now ensued to regain the land, or a footing on solid ice. Several got to fighting in the water, and there was a great splashing and series of duckings.
Those who got out stood shivering in the snow, and occasionally tried to help out others; but most were afraid to go near the place of danger.
When all had regained solid footing it became their chief care not to break in again. They had evidently met a new danger greater than the Lali. It was the water of the Swamp, which they had shortly before bewailed as having gone forever. They moved more cautiously, therefore, testing the strength of the ice as they proceeded.
Before leaving the scene of the catastrophe, however, Oko, seeking to turn their misfortune to profit, picked up some pieces of floating ice, and proposed to take them along.
“These rocks,” he said, “will make good missiles. By using them on the Lali, we need not throw away our cocoanuts.”
He accordingly filled a skin pouch with them, and carried some in his arms, while others followed his example. They soon found them, however, not only heavy and bulky, but having a new inconvenience. They imparted a sense of discomfort, now know as cold, which, being unknown to them, was dreaded as mysterious, like the effects of fire.
After marching awhile they were rejoined by Fire-tamer, who had gone in search of another “wood-eating beast.” He was successful in his search, and his gamewas acceptable to the Ammi, who had learned to appreciate the beast in cold weather. Even Gimbo was secretly glad, though he had to protest, from force of habit, that they were introducing a demon among them, and that they might as well be destroyed by the cold as eaten by the hot monster.
They now all collected brush, and soon there was a roaring fire on the ice, at which they dried themselves and planned their future movements. The pieces of ice which Oko and others had carried for weapons, and which they had laid by the fire to warm, were found to have disappeared. They had melted and run away. Oko thought somebody had stolen them, and he got into a fight with Pounder over the matter, when finally a halt melted piece was seen to be turning into water. They then charged the theft to the wood-eating monster, which they thought was devouring their rocks.
“He is worse than a hog,” said Oko, “to eat both wood and stone.”
They observed at this time that neither apes nor wild beasts approached them while they sat by the fire, but turned off at the sight of it with fear; so that Fire-tamer remarked:
“If we could always have this animal with us, no other danger would come near.”
It was sometime after this, however, before men took to building fires as a protection against wild beasts.
They observed also that some of the fruits and roots which Cocoanut-scooper had tried to warm by placing them near the fire (for they were frozen) became scorched,or boiled in their own juice, and thereby much changed in taste. They found them better for the change; so that they soon sought to do by design what they first did by accident—prepare their food by fire—which was the beginning of the art of cooking.
They also discovered that their food, thus treated, was more tender and wholesome, so that they could eat many things which were before too hard or tough, and they thereby greatly increased their food, which was a matter of importance at a time when it was being reduced by the cold.
They also observed that when the fire was burning at night, it illumined the space about them, making a kind of artificial day. Night fled from it, as well as Cold and wild beasts, and stayed away as long as it remained. By its means they could see without sun, or moon or Aurora Borealis; and to overcome darkness in this way seemed the greatest triumph yet made by man or beast.
Taking a stick one night which had been lighted at a heap of coals, Fire-tamer was enabled, by carrying it around, to find a wolf skin which Koree had lost, and which could not be found in the dark. This opened the eyes of the Ammi, and from that moment they began to use fire for light, as well as heat; and that stick was the first candle of the human race. That day could be carried about in small pieces seemed astounding.
Through this discovery Fire-tamer gradually became the most important man among the Ammi. Neither the strength of Pounder, nor the courage of Koree, nor the wisdom of Abroo impressed the populace so much as themastery by this man of the wood-eating beast. He was appealed to in all matters relating to fire. No other would venture to manage the animal. Fire-tamer came at length to be thought sacred. The beast, it was believed, dared not touch him. And Fire-tamer artfully used this mystery to strengthen his influence among the Men. He purposely kept them in ignorance and fear of the monster. He meant to keep control of this interest, which he had the wisdom to perceive was soon to become the most important one among the Ammi. He had, in short, a “corner” on fire, and meant to keep it.
The awe in which Fire-tamer was thus held, and the influence which he had in consequence among the people, excited the jealousy of Koree and other leaders, who saw their own star declining. Several quarrels ensued, and there was a crisis, when a happy solution was reached by making Fire-tamer a sort of high priest, whose business it was to have charge of the wood-eating monster and keep it burning, in return for which distinction he was to abandon his ambition to control the Ammi in other matters. His office was the predecessor of that of the vestal virgins, and his charge—fire—became worshipped as a deity, while he, as keeper of it, became the chief ruler of men in religious matters.
While they were discussing these interests, and the reciprocal bounds of church and state were being first laid off, there arose a great commotion among them.
“Splash!” “Splash!” “Splash!”
Such were the sounds that were now heard a second time; but the terror was greater than before, and such a scene of confusion had never yet been known to men.
The fire had melted the ice, which gave way, and men, fire and all went down into the water. One over another they tumbled, and, amid smoking logs and sissing embers, struggled with one another and with the floating ice. The fire was put out, and with it went the prestige of Fire-tamer, at least for awhile.
Some thought the wood-eating monster had taken a plunge and was running away with them. They expected to be carried under the ice and into the ground; and they were much relieved when they found that the monster had gone alone and left them behind, and, as they gradually regained the shore, or rather the firm ice, they presented such a mass of shivering and dripping humanity as had not been seen till that day.