CHAPTER XIIHOW RA-NA SAVED HIS PEOPLERa-Nawas a wise old man who had dwelt in the valley for nearly a hundred years. He was lame, having had his leg almost torn off by a bear while hunting in the marshes, but his wits were very keen.He was one of the watchers of the Sacred Fire, and lived in the Fire Cave with another old man named Sut, who was almost blind.There were great piles of firewood before the cave, and more was stored inside, to be used in wet weather. In the centre of the cave was a flat rock, with a deep hollow in the top of it, in which the fire burned. This fire was never allowed to go out. One or the other of the old men watched it day and night, throwing on a few pieces of wood whenever they were needed. When rain came and the fires the cave men had built outside were put out, it was easy to build them again by taking hot coals from the Sacred Fire.Later on, the cave people learned a way to make fire by rubbing two sticks together, but it was a long time before they found out how to do this, and meanwhile, they had to keep their precious fire always burning, for fear they might lose it.Since the old men who watched the fire were never allowed to leave it, they could not go out to hunt for food for themselves, and so the cave people brought it in to them; bits of fish, and meat, and roots and grains and nuts. After a while these offerings they brought to the fire watchers came to be looked on as offerings to the Fire itself; the people were thankful to the Fire because it warmed them, when they were cold, and frightened away wild beasts, and cooked their food. So they began to think of the Fire as a sort of god, and showed their thanks to it by bringing in these offerings of food. In this way it soon came about that the supply of meat, and fish, and other things the people brought to the cave was much more than the two old men could possibly eat, so they hung the fish, and the strips of meat, on poles stretched across the roof of the cave, inorder that it might not be wasted. The nuts, and grains, and sweet-tasting roots they piled up in great heaps in the back of the cave. Ra-Na and his companion did not know when they hung the strips of meat and fish in the roof of the cave that the smoke from the fire would preserve them. They only thought that they would dry. But we know now that if we hang fish, or meat, in the smoke of a burning fire, it will be preserved from decay, and will keep, without spoiling, for months and even years. There are certain chemicals, such as creosote, in the smoke from burning wood, which go into the meat or fish and keep it from decaying, and this way of preserving food has been used from the earliest times, and is still used to-day, just as it was thousands of years ago, to make smoked fish, and bacon and ham.The weather in the valley had been growing colder year after year, but so far there had been very little ice or snow. Mother Nature, who was now ready to teach her children another lesson, called Cold to her."Cold," she said, "you have certainly helpedme a great deal. Now I have something more for you to do.""What?" Cold asked. "Do you want me to freeze your little people again? I love to make them shiver and shake.""I want you to send them Ice and Snow. They might as well get used to such things, for they are going to see a great deal of them from now on."So Cold flapped his wings, and blew a bitter blast from the frozen north, and all the little raindrops were turned to beautiful white flakes of snow, and all the marshes and streams and lakes were covered with ice many inches thick.The north wind swept through the valley like a knife, and made the cave people shiver and shake to their very bones. They put on their fur coats, and huddled over fires in the caves, waiting for the cold to go away, as it always had before. But this time the cold did not go away, but got worse and worse, and the snow whirled down and covered all the valley, and the ice got thicker and thicker. The cave people had never seen anything like this before, and they were afraid.After a while, when they had eaten all the food they had in the caves, they began to get hungry, so hunting parties went out to find food. These parties searched everywhere through the valley, and the marsh-land outside, but they could find hardly anything. The ice on the marshes kept them from spearing fish; they broke holes in it here and there, but the fish would not come near the holes, and they could not reach them with their spears. The thick snow which covered the ground prevented them from finding any of the sweet roots they often ate when other food was scarce, and there were scarcely any animals about that they could kill. The few that they saw easily got away, for the cave people could not run through the thick snow fast enough to catch up with them. Party after party came back to the caves with little or nothing at all; a few wild fowl that they had managed to knock down with stones, and some small animals that they found frozen in the snow. There was not enough food to go around, only a mouthful apiece, and as the days went by, and the cold got worse, the cave people once more found themselves starving.THE SACRED FIREMany of them went to the cave of the Sacred Fire, and prayed to it, for they thought the fire was a god which could drive away the cold.Many of them went to the cave of the Sacred Fire, and prayed to it, for they thought the fire was a god, the spirit of warmth and heat, which could drive away the cold. But they brought no offerings of food to place before the fire, because they had none to bring. Even to the fire watchers they could bring nothing.This, however, made no difference to Ra-Na and his companion, because the fire cave was full of food, and they had plenty to eat.Ra-Na got to thinking about how hungry the people were, and of all the good food in the cave, so when any came to worship the Sacred Fire, he gave them something to eat. Soon all through the valley the people were saying that the Fire God was taking care of his children by giving them food, and they came, and were fed with the smoked meats, and fish, and the roots and nuts which the two old men had stored away.It did not take very long to eat all this food up, for there were many people in the valley, but by the time it was all gone, the storm had passed, and under the heat of the sun the snow and ice began to melt, so that the hunting parties wereonce more able to find fish and animals for food. They had a hard time, and many starved to death, but the tribe was saved.Ra-Na explained to the people how the Sacred Fire had kept the meat and fish for them, and they thought it a very wonderful thing, a miracle. After that, when food was once more plentiful, they brought great offerings of it to the Fire Cave, to show how grateful they were for their escape from starvation, and they laid away stores in their own caves too, all through the summer, for they had learned a great lesson, the need of storing food for use during the winter. From that time on the cave people were never in danger of starving in the cold months, and for this they gave thanks to the Fire God, and to Ra-Na and Sut, who came to be looked upon as the Sacred Fire's priests.When the first men began to worship Fire, they were giving thanks to one of God's great forces, which had brought them comfort and happiness in the shape of warmth and cooked food and safety from their enemies, the wild beasts, who feared the hot flames. This worshipof God's great natural forces was the beginning of religion. Later on, they came to worship the Sun, the Rain, the Wind, the Sea, the Lightning, the Rivers and Mountains, seeing in each the power of the Great Spirit which had created them all. This early kind of worship was in many ways very beautiful, but it was not long before the priests of the Fire or other god began to change it to suit themselves. Having nothing to do but live in the cave or temple, and be fed by the tribe, they found life very easy and comfortable, and this made them think themselves better than the common people. So they became proud and arrogant, and made every one believe they could get special favours from the gods. In this way they came to rule the people, for they would threaten any one who did not obey them with the anger of the gods. It was very easy for these priests, they had great power, and instead of being two old men who watched the fire, younger men became priests, with many followers about them, all of whom the people had to feed and support in idle luxury. Soon the priests began to make all sorts of rules, telling the peoplewhat they should eat, and wear, ordering them to build fine temples, in which the priests might live, forbidding them this and that, and claiming to have wonderful powers given to them by the gods. They became very cruel, too, and not only frightened the people by clever tricks, which to these simple creatures seemed like wonderful miracles, but told them to make all sorts of sacrifices to the gods, sometimes even human beings, men, women and children, who, they said, had to be killed and offered upon altars so that the gods would not be angry. All this work by the priests soon changed the simple religion of the people, worshipping God through His great forces into a brutal kind of religion which we call Paganism. This rule by the priests lasted for a very long time; it was found among all the ancient peoples, in Nineveh and Babylon, in Egypt, Greece and Rome, and it was only when Christ came to teach people a better way to worship the Divine Creator that people began to understand that God is not cruel and angry, asking sacrifices, but a God of Love.
CHAPTER XIIHOW RA-NA SAVED HIS PEOPLERa-Nawas a wise old man who had dwelt in the valley for nearly a hundred years. He was lame, having had his leg almost torn off by a bear while hunting in the marshes, but his wits were very keen.He was one of the watchers of the Sacred Fire, and lived in the Fire Cave with another old man named Sut, who was almost blind.There were great piles of firewood before the cave, and more was stored inside, to be used in wet weather. In the centre of the cave was a flat rock, with a deep hollow in the top of it, in which the fire burned. This fire was never allowed to go out. One or the other of the old men watched it day and night, throwing on a few pieces of wood whenever they were needed. When rain came and the fires the cave men had built outside were put out, it was easy to build them again by taking hot coals from the Sacred Fire.Later on, the cave people learned a way to make fire by rubbing two sticks together, but it was a long time before they found out how to do this, and meanwhile, they had to keep their precious fire always burning, for fear they might lose it.Since the old men who watched the fire were never allowed to leave it, they could not go out to hunt for food for themselves, and so the cave people brought it in to them; bits of fish, and meat, and roots and grains and nuts. After a while these offerings they brought to the fire watchers came to be looked on as offerings to the Fire itself; the people were thankful to the Fire because it warmed them, when they were cold, and frightened away wild beasts, and cooked their food. So they began to think of the Fire as a sort of god, and showed their thanks to it by bringing in these offerings of food. In this way it soon came about that the supply of meat, and fish, and other things the people brought to the cave was much more than the two old men could possibly eat, so they hung the fish, and the strips of meat, on poles stretched across the roof of the cave, inorder that it might not be wasted. The nuts, and grains, and sweet-tasting roots they piled up in great heaps in the back of the cave. Ra-Na and his companion did not know when they hung the strips of meat and fish in the roof of the cave that the smoke from the fire would preserve them. They only thought that they would dry. But we know now that if we hang fish, or meat, in the smoke of a burning fire, it will be preserved from decay, and will keep, without spoiling, for months and even years. There are certain chemicals, such as creosote, in the smoke from burning wood, which go into the meat or fish and keep it from decaying, and this way of preserving food has been used from the earliest times, and is still used to-day, just as it was thousands of years ago, to make smoked fish, and bacon and ham.The weather in the valley had been growing colder year after year, but so far there had been very little ice or snow. Mother Nature, who was now ready to teach her children another lesson, called Cold to her."Cold," she said, "you have certainly helpedme a great deal. Now I have something more for you to do.""What?" Cold asked. "Do you want me to freeze your little people again? I love to make them shiver and shake.""I want you to send them Ice and Snow. They might as well get used to such things, for they are going to see a great deal of them from now on."So Cold flapped his wings, and blew a bitter blast from the frozen north, and all the little raindrops were turned to beautiful white flakes of snow, and all the marshes and streams and lakes were covered with ice many inches thick.The north wind swept through the valley like a knife, and made the cave people shiver and shake to their very bones. They put on their fur coats, and huddled over fires in the caves, waiting for the cold to go away, as it always had before. But this time the cold did not go away, but got worse and worse, and the snow whirled down and covered all the valley, and the ice got thicker and thicker. The cave people had never seen anything like this before, and they were afraid.After a while, when they had eaten all the food they had in the caves, they began to get hungry, so hunting parties went out to find food. These parties searched everywhere through the valley, and the marsh-land outside, but they could find hardly anything. The ice on the marshes kept them from spearing fish; they broke holes in it here and there, but the fish would not come near the holes, and they could not reach them with their spears. The thick snow which covered the ground prevented them from finding any of the sweet roots they often ate when other food was scarce, and there were scarcely any animals about that they could kill. The few that they saw easily got away, for the cave people could not run through the thick snow fast enough to catch up with them. Party after party came back to the caves with little or nothing at all; a few wild fowl that they had managed to knock down with stones, and some small animals that they found frozen in the snow. There was not enough food to go around, only a mouthful apiece, and as the days went by, and the cold got worse, the cave people once more found themselves starving.THE SACRED FIREMany of them went to the cave of the Sacred Fire, and prayed to it, for they thought the fire was a god which could drive away the cold.Many of them went to the cave of the Sacred Fire, and prayed to it, for they thought the fire was a god, the spirit of warmth and heat, which could drive away the cold. But they brought no offerings of food to place before the fire, because they had none to bring. Even to the fire watchers they could bring nothing.This, however, made no difference to Ra-Na and his companion, because the fire cave was full of food, and they had plenty to eat.Ra-Na got to thinking about how hungry the people were, and of all the good food in the cave, so when any came to worship the Sacred Fire, he gave them something to eat. Soon all through the valley the people were saying that the Fire God was taking care of his children by giving them food, and they came, and were fed with the smoked meats, and fish, and the roots and nuts which the two old men had stored away.It did not take very long to eat all this food up, for there were many people in the valley, but by the time it was all gone, the storm had passed, and under the heat of the sun the snow and ice began to melt, so that the hunting parties wereonce more able to find fish and animals for food. They had a hard time, and many starved to death, but the tribe was saved.Ra-Na explained to the people how the Sacred Fire had kept the meat and fish for them, and they thought it a very wonderful thing, a miracle. After that, when food was once more plentiful, they brought great offerings of it to the Fire Cave, to show how grateful they were for their escape from starvation, and they laid away stores in their own caves too, all through the summer, for they had learned a great lesson, the need of storing food for use during the winter. From that time on the cave people were never in danger of starving in the cold months, and for this they gave thanks to the Fire God, and to Ra-Na and Sut, who came to be looked upon as the Sacred Fire's priests.When the first men began to worship Fire, they were giving thanks to one of God's great forces, which had brought them comfort and happiness in the shape of warmth and cooked food and safety from their enemies, the wild beasts, who feared the hot flames. This worshipof God's great natural forces was the beginning of religion. Later on, they came to worship the Sun, the Rain, the Wind, the Sea, the Lightning, the Rivers and Mountains, seeing in each the power of the Great Spirit which had created them all. This early kind of worship was in many ways very beautiful, but it was not long before the priests of the Fire or other god began to change it to suit themselves. Having nothing to do but live in the cave or temple, and be fed by the tribe, they found life very easy and comfortable, and this made them think themselves better than the common people. So they became proud and arrogant, and made every one believe they could get special favours from the gods. In this way they came to rule the people, for they would threaten any one who did not obey them with the anger of the gods. It was very easy for these priests, they had great power, and instead of being two old men who watched the fire, younger men became priests, with many followers about them, all of whom the people had to feed and support in idle luxury. Soon the priests began to make all sorts of rules, telling the peoplewhat they should eat, and wear, ordering them to build fine temples, in which the priests might live, forbidding them this and that, and claiming to have wonderful powers given to them by the gods. They became very cruel, too, and not only frightened the people by clever tricks, which to these simple creatures seemed like wonderful miracles, but told them to make all sorts of sacrifices to the gods, sometimes even human beings, men, women and children, who, they said, had to be killed and offered upon altars so that the gods would not be angry. All this work by the priests soon changed the simple religion of the people, worshipping God through His great forces into a brutal kind of religion which we call Paganism. This rule by the priests lasted for a very long time; it was found among all the ancient peoples, in Nineveh and Babylon, in Egypt, Greece and Rome, and it was only when Christ came to teach people a better way to worship the Divine Creator that people began to understand that God is not cruel and angry, asking sacrifices, but a God of Love.
HOW RA-NA SAVED HIS PEOPLE
Ra-Nawas a wise old man who had dwelt in the valley for nearly a hundred years. He was lame, having had his leg almost torn off by a bear while hunting in the marshes, but his wits were very keen.
He was one of the watchers of the Sacred Fire, and lived in the Fire Cave with another old man named Sut, who was almost blind.
There were great piles of firewood before the cave, and more was stored inside, to be used in wet weather. In the centre of the cave was a flat rock, with a deep hollow in the top of it, in which the fire burned. This fire was never allowed to go out. One or the other of the old men watched it day and night, throwing on a few pieces of wood whenever they were needed. When rain came and the fires the cave men had built outside were put out, it was easy to build them again by taking hot coals from the Sacred Fire.
Later on, the cave people learned a way to make fire by rubbing two sticks together, but it was a long time before they found out how to do this, and meanwhile, they had to keep their precious fire always burning, for fear they might lose it.
Since the old men who watched the fire were never allowed to leave it, they could not go out to hunt for food for themselves, and so the cave people brought it in to them; bits of fish, and meat, and roots and grains and nuts. After a while these offerings they brought to the fire watchers came to be looked on as offerings to the Fire itself; the people were thankful to the Fire because it warmed them, when they were cold, and frightened away wild beasts, and cooked their food. So they began to think of the Fire as a sort of god, and showed their thanks to it by bringing in these offerings of food. In this way it soon came about that the supply of meat, and fish, and other things the people brought to the cave was much more than the two old men could possibly eat, so they hung the fish, and the strips of meat, on poles stretched across the roof of the cave, inorder that it might not be wasted. The nuts, and grains, and sweet-tasting roots they piled up in great heaps in the back of the cave. Ra-Na and his companion did not know when they hung the strips of meat and fish in the roof of the cave that the smoke from the fire would preserve them. They only thought that they would dry. But we know now that if we hang fish, or meat, in the smoke of a burning fire, it will be preserved from decay, and will keep, without spoiling, for months and even years. There are certain chemicals, such as creosote, in the smoke from burning wood, which go into the meat or fish and keep it from decaying, and this way of preserving food has been used from the earliest times, and is still used to-day, just as it was thousands of years ago, to make smoked fish, and bacon and ham.
The weather in the valley had been growing colder year after year, but so far there had been very little ice or snow. Mother Nature, who was now ready to teach her children another lesson, called Cold to her.
"Cold," she said, "you have certainly helpedme a great deal. Now I have something more for you to do."
"What?" Cold asked. "Do you want me to freeze your little people again? I love to make them shiver and shake."
"I want you to send them Ice and Snow. They might as well get used to such things, for they are going to see a great deal of them from now on."
So Cold flapped his wings, and blew a bitter blast from the frozen north, and all the little raindrops were turned to beautiful white flakes of snow, and all the marshes and streams and lakes were covered with ice many inches thick.
The north wind swept through the valley like a knife, and made the cave people shiver and shake to their very bones. They put on their fur coats, and huddled over fires in the caves, waiting for the cold to go away, as it always had before. But this time the cold did not go away, but got worse and worse, and the snow whirled down and covered all the valley, and the ice got thicker and thicker. The cave people had never seen anything like this before, and they were afraid.After a while, when they had eaten all the food they had in the caves, they began to get hungry, so hunting parties went out to find food. These parties searched everywhere through the valley, and the marsh-land outside, but they could find hardly anything. The ice on the marshes kept them from spearing fish; they broke holes in it here and there, but the fish would not come near the holes, and they could not reach them with their spears. The thick snow which covered the ground prevented them from finding any of the sweet roots they often ate when other food was scarce, and there were scarcely any animals about that they could kill. The few that they saw easily got away, for the cave people could not run through the thick snow fast enough to catch up with them. Party after party came back to the caves with little or nothing at all; a few wild fowl that they had managed to knock down with stones, and some small animals that they found frozen in the snow. There was not enough food to go around, only a mouthful apiece, and as the days went by, and the cold got worse, the cave people once more found themselves starving.
THE SACRED FIREMany of them went to the cave of the Sacred Fire, and prayed to it, for they thought the fire was a god which could drive away the cold.
THE SACRED FIREMany of them went to the cave of the Sacred Fire, and prayed to it, for they thought the fire was a god which could drive away the cold.
THE SACRED FIRE
Many of them went to the cave of the Sacred Fire, and prayed to it, for they thought the fire was a god which could drive away the cold.
Many of them went to the cave of the Sacred Fire, and prayed to it, for they thought the fire was a god, the spirit of warmth and heat, which could drive away the cold. But they brought no offerings of food to place before the fire, because they had none to bring. Even to the fire watchers they could bring nothing.
This, however, made no difference to Ra-Na and his companion, because the fire cave was full of food, and they had plenty to eat.
Ra-Na got to thinking about how hungry the people were, and of all the good food in the cave, so when any came to worship the Sacred Fire, he gave them something to eat. Soon all through the valley the people were saying that the Fire God was taking care of his children by giving them food, and they came, and were fed with the smoked meats, and fish, and the roots and nuts which the two old men had stored away.
It did not take very long to eat all this food up, for there were many people in the valley, but by the time it was all gone, the storm had passed, and under the heat of the sun the snow and ice began to melt, so that the hunting parties wereonce more able to find fish and animals for food. They had a hard time, and many starved to death, but the tribe was saved.
Ra-Na explained to the people how the Sacred Fire had kept the meat and fish for them, and they thought it a very wonderful thing, a miracle. After that, when food was once more plentiful, they brought great offerings of it to the Fire Cave, to show how grateful they were for their escape from starvation, and they laid away stores in their own caves too, all through the summer, for they had learned a great lesson, the need of storing food for use during the winter. From that time on the cave people were never in danger of starving in the cold months, and for this they gave thanks to the Fire God, and to Ra-Na and Sut, who came to be looked upon as the Sacred Fire's priests.
When the first men began to worship Fire, they were giving thanks to one of God's great forces, which had brought them comfort and happiness in the shape of warmth and cooked food and safety from their enemies, the wild beasts, who feared the hot flames. This worshipof God's great natural forces was the beginning of religion. Later on, they came to worship the Sun, the Rain, the Wind, the Sea, the Lightning, the Rivers and Mountains, seeing in each the power of the Great Spirit which had created them all. This early kind of worship was in many ways very beautiful, but it was not long before the priests of the Fire or other god began to change it to suit themselves. Having nothing to do but live in the cave or temple, and be fed by the tribe, they found life very easy and comfortable, and this made them think themselves better than the common people. So they became proud and arrogant, and made every one believe they could get special favours from the gods. In this way they came to rule the people, for they would threaten any one who did not obey them with the anger of the gods. It was very easy for these priests, they had great power, and instead of being two old men who watched the fire, younger men became priests, with many followers about them, all of whom the people had to feed and support in idle luxury. Soon the priests began to make all sorts of rules, telling the peoplewhat they should eat, and wear, ordering them to build fine temples, in which the priests might live, forbidding them this and that, and claiming to have wonderful powers given to them by the gods. They became very cruel, too, and not only frightened the people by clever tricks, which to these simple creatures seemed like wonderful miracles, but told them to make all sorts of sacrifices to the gods, sometimes even human beings, men, women and children, who, they said, had to be killed and offered upon altars so that the gods would not be angry. All this work by the priests soon changed the simple religion of the people, worshipping God through His great forces into a brutal kind of religion which we call Paganism. This rule by the priests lasted for a very long time; it was found among all the ancient peoples, in Nineveh and Babylon, in Egypt, Greece and Rome, and it was only when Christ came to teach people a better way to worship the Divine Creator that people began to understand that God is not cruel and angry, asking sacrifices, but a God of Love.