THE CONQUERORS
MANY hundreds of years had passed, since Ka-Ma and his wife Tula left
the valley, and the tribe of the cave people had grown very large. The
whole valley was now filled with them, and they had spread out over the
hills which surrounded it, and far into the country beyond.
The head man, or chief of the tribe lived in the largest of the rock
caves, and had many wives and children. Those who had gone outside the
valley formed separate tribes of their own, each with a smaller chief,
but all of them were under the rule of the head chief.
The rocks all about the valley sides were honeycombed with caves, and
as the tribe grew, and there were not enough caves for all, these bands
of adventurers would leave the valley, and make new homes of their own
on the hillsides, and in other valleys beyond them.
There were no longer any animals to be killed for food in the valley of
the caves, and the people there gave up being hunters, and spent their
time making things, such as pottery, stone implements of all sorts,
weapons, leather, moccasins, and smoked meats and fish. They were the
workers, while the tribes outside were the hunters and fishers. When
any man in the outside tribes killed more deer, or caught more fish,
than he needed, he would bring them to the people in the valley, and
exchange them for spear heads, smoked meats, pottery, tanned leather,
or any of the other things he needed. This was the very beginning of
barter, or trade. When one tribe had more than they needed of one
thing, and another tribe had more than they needed of another, they
would exchange with each other, so that both were better off. This
trading of things between peoples is what makes up the business of the
world to-day. If the people in the United States have more wheat, or
beef than they need, and the people in England have more leather goods,
or cutlery, or woolen cloth, or the people in France more silks and
satins, we send our wheat or beef, or cotton to them, and bring back
their leather goods, or cutlery, or silk.
In the beginning, it was very easy for a hunter to bring a bundle of
skins, or a string of fish into the valley, and exchange it for what
he needed, a stone axe, or a leather coat, or a pottery bowl. Later
on, when the tribes of men had spread far over the country, it often
happened that the hunter who brought a bundle of skins to one tribe,
did not want to buy anything from that tribe, but instead, wanted to
go to some other tribe, a long distance off, to get something they had
which he particularly wanted. This made a difficulty, and to overcome
it, something was needed that could be exchanged with any tribe, and
yet could be easily carried about, on long journeys. So the people
began to use beads, and later on, when metals had been discovered,
ornaments such as bracelets, or rings made of copper, or gold, and
these beads and ornaments became the first money used by man. But this
came later on; now the traders exchanged one thing for another, just as
they do in savage countries to-day.
There were some grasses which grew in the valley, which bore tiny hard
seeds or grains on their tops, and for a long time the cave people
had made use of these grains for food, when other things were scarce.
After a while, they noticed that if they let any of these grains fall
in the soft earth, they would grow up again, and have more grains on
them. They saw that this was an easy way to get food, so they took the
grains and planted them, scratching up the hard ground with the points
of their spears. Later on they made a tool something like a hoe, by
fastening a sharp piece of stone crosswise at the end of a stick, and
used this to loosen the ground for planting the grain.
All the grains, such as wheat, corn, rye, or oats, the roots, such as
potatoes, beets, carrots, parsnips, and the like, and the many other
vegetables we eat, once grew wild, and were very small and hard. But
every sort of plant grows better, and has larger seeds and roots and
fruit, if it is cultivated, that is, if the soil in which it grows
is loosened up and made soft, so that the rain can easily get to its
roots, and the roots can spread out, sucking moisture and chemicals
from the ground. For this reason the early men found that the grains,
or roots which they planted, kept growing larger and better to eat,
year after year, and as the valley and the country around it became
filled with people, and food became scarce and harder to get, the
people in the valley who did not move away began to plant and grow many
of these roots and grains, and they were the first farmers. As Mother
Nature had so often told the Sun, it was the search for food, the
struggle to keep alive, that taught the first people almost everything
they knew.
At first, the people chewed the hard grains, and swallowed them, just
as they would eat nuts, but it was a good deal of trouble to do this,
so while the men were away hunting, the women would take the grains and
pound them up in a hollow stone, with another stone, round and smooth,
and sometimes having a handle to it. This made a coarse kind of flour.
Adding a little water to it, they mixed a sort of paste, which they
moulded into little cakes and placed in the sun to dry. In this way
they made the first bread. Later on, instead of drying these cakes in
the sun, they found they could do it more quickly by placing them on
flat stones, heated very hot in a fire, and these cooked cakes of oats,
and wheat and rye soon became one of their chief articles of food.
They found it easy to keep the grains and roots during the winter by
storing them in their caves, usually in great earthen jars. They tried
to keep some of the fruits in this way too, berries, and wild grapes,
but the fruits would not keep. Instead, they turned sour and fermented,
forming wine, which the people drank, when they were tired, and cold,
to cheer them up. Among the very earliest peoples of which we have any
record, wine was used; we find it spoken of often in the Bible, and
the writings on the tablets of clay dug up in the most ancient ruins.
Living as they did a rough life in the open air, these early peoples
could drink wines without harm. It was not until thousands of years
later that men found out how to distil the strong spirits and liquors
which are so harmful to people living the indoor lives we lead to-day.
[Illustration: EARLY METHODS OF BREAD AND FIRE MAKING]
The valley people were by now no longer savages. Even in the arts they
had made some progress. Their pottery bowls and jars were ornamented
with designs in black, and red and other crude colours. They made
ornaments of beads, and painted designs on their leather clothing,
or sewed coloured beads on them, in various patterns. The walls of
their caves were covered with rude pictures or drawings, they carved
drinking cups from the horns of the animals they killed, and their
stone axes and other implements were smooth and polished, and sometimes
carved with pictures and rude signs like letters. Weaving had begun
among them, as well as among the sea tribes, but the cords they wove
together, instead of being made of grass, were of twisted hair, or
wool, scraped from the skins of animals. They were much more civilized
than the people who lived by the sea, for although the sea people had
made boats, with sails, and hooks and nets for catching fish, they knew
nothing of planting grains, or making bread from them. Each people was
going ahead in its own way.
Among the hunters who spread from the valley into the surrounding
country was a young chief named Ban. He was very strong and brave, and
nobody in his tribe could throw the spear so far, or strike so hard a
blow with the axe. Being a mighty hunter, he pushed farther and farther
away from the valley, always seeking the places where the most game was
to be found. Year after year he and his tribe moved nearer to the sea,
but this they did not know, for they had never seen it.
One night, while chasing a huge bear, Ban and his hunters reached the
top of some low hills, and here, having killed the bear, they made a
camp and slept. In the morning, Ban, who had climbed upon a tall rock,
found himself looking over a great wide valley, which sloped down and
down, mile after mile, until the far side of it was lost in the morning
mists. Soon the sun dried up the mists, and there, far away, was a wide
strip of water, shining in the early sunlight like a river of silver.
Ban called some of his companions to him, and they gazed at it a long
time in silence. They knew it was water, but they did not know it was
the ocean, but supposed it to be a great river.
Ban was tired of living in the hills, and wanted to find a new home
where fish and game were more plentiful, so he told his companions to
go back and bring up the whole tribe.
Soon they came, several hundred of them, the young men with their
weapons, the old men, the women and children bringing the pottery
bowls, the furs and skins, the food. They left the brush huts they had
been living in, and swarmed down the slope of the hillside like so many
bees. Whenever the early tribes got tired of living in one place, and
decided to find another home, they moved like this, in a great swarm,
just as bees do when the hive becomes overcrowded, and some must seek
a new place to live in. Later on, when there were many more people on
the earth, these great movements or migrations of tribes and races were
made by hundreds of thousands, and even millions, wandering through the
country for thousands of miles, destroying everything in their path,
and finally coming to rest in a new home, and founding a new nation.
Ban and his people moved slowly toward the sea, hunting and camping
as they went. At last one day they came to the seashore, and stood
on the smooth white sand, gazing at the ocean in wonder. They saw no
one about, and there was very little to eat, so they set out along the
shore, hoping to find a better place to make a camp.
For two days they wandered along the ocean, shooting wild-fowl,
catching some turtles, and killing a few seals they saw on the rocks.
When they found they could not drink the ocean water, some of them
wanted to go back to the hills, but Ban would not let them.
"Let us keep on," he said. "Somewhere there will be water we can
drink." So they went on, slaking their thirst with the blood of the
birds and animals they killed, or with rainwater they found in hollows
in the rocks.
On the third day, some of Ban's men, who had been going on ahead, came
back, and said that they saw smoke rising into the air, far up the
beach. They thought it might come from the fires of one of the other
valley tribes, on a hunting trip. Ban gave the order to hurry on.
Soon they came to a point of rocks, on which there were many seals.
Far out on the point they saw some men, hunting them. Ban's people set
up a great shout to these men, who stood looking at them in surprise.
Ban and some of his fighters called to the strangers, and the men
on the rocks called back, but neither could understand what the
others said, for in all the many years the children of Ka-Ma and Tula
had lived by the sea, they had made a new language for themselves,
different from the language of the people of the valley. When the hill
people heard these strange words, and saw the grass-cloth clothing the
sea people wore, they knew them to be strangers, and not of the valley
tribe. This at once made them enemies, and they began to throw stones
at them with their slings, and to shoot at them with arrows, and hurl
their spears.
The little band of sea folk fought back as best they could, but the
hill people were too many for them, and soon they were all killed.
Then the hill men took their weapons, and ornaments, and clothing, and
divided them up, and went on, shouting, toward the smoke they had seen.
They found other bands of the sea people along the shore, and some
fought and were killed, while others ran swiftly back toward their
homes to give warning to the tribe.
When Ban and his men reached the village of huts, a little army of the
sea tribe stood ready to give battle, but they were not many, for most
of the young men were away in their boats, fishing.
A terrible fight now began. The sea folk tried bravely to defend their
homes, and killed many of Ban's men, but there were not enough of them,
and before long they were overcome. Then the hill tribe swarmed down
on the village, killed the old men and children, and took the women
prisoners to make them slaves. The village they set on fire and burned.
Some few of the women escaped, and ran down to the shore of the river,
near where it emptied into the sea. Here a path led to some rocks,
where the fishermen got aboard their boats.
A great log canoe, seeing the smoke from the burning village, came
quickly down the river, with ten men on each side paddling as hard
as they could. They knew that their people were in danger, and came
to save them. As they reached the little landing, the women who were
huddled there cried out to them, telling them that a great army of
strange men had killed all their companions, burned the village, and
taken the women prisoners. At first those in the boat wanted to come
ashore and fight, but in a moment Ban and his followers came crowding
down toward the landing, shouting, and throwing stones and shooting
arrows. So the men in the canoe quickly dragged the women aboard, and
paddled away from the shore, out into the middle of the river, where
the hill men could not get at them. Here many of their companions, who
had been fishing in other canoes, joined them, shouting with rage at
the enemy on shore, and shooting at them with bows and slings.
The battle raged in this way for hours, but although more of the sea
people came up in their boats, they were not nearly as many as the hill
men were, because most of the tribe had been lost in the first battle,
defending their homes. So they dared not go ashore, for they knew if
they did they would be killed.
All night they stayed in their boats, calling out in rage against their
enemies, who shouted back, daring them to come ashore and fight. In
the morning a storm came up, and scattered the boats. Some of them
were driven ashore, and the men in them captured or killed by the hill
people. Some were driven out to sea, and being small and light, were
sunk. But the great log canoe in which the women had taken refuge had a
grass-cloth sail, and the storm drove it far out over the ocean.
There was a young chief in this boat named Tul-Ab, who was strong, and
skilful and brave. He divided the water they carried among the men and
women, and gave them fish, which they had caught, to eat, and sat in
the stern of the boat all night and guided it with a paddle, to keep it
from being upset by the waves. He had heard, when a child, of the land
of the flying birds across the Great Water, and he hoped that the storm
might carry them there, and so save their lives.
By the next afternoon the weather had cleared, and Tul-Ab saw in the
distance a high, rocky coast, against which the waves were beating
fiercely. He roused the men in the boat, and told them to take their
paddles and keep the canoe from being driven ashore until he could find
a safe place to land.
After a time they came to a place where a river ran through the cliffs
into the sea, and here they found a little harbour, and were able to
make a landing on a quiet beach. Tul-Ab's companions went ashore and
threw themselves on the sand, tired out after the terrible night. But
Tul-Ab went in search of water, and found some in hollows in the rocks
and filled their jars. Then they caught some fish, and made a fire to
warm themselves, and spent the night in some holes in the side of the
cliff.
All these things the Sun had been watching, and he was sorry to see the
sea folk destroyed. When Mother Nature came to look at the earth, he
spoke to her.
"What is the use of making such a nice tribe by the sea, and then
letting the people from the hills kill them?" he asked sourly.
"They are not all killed," Mother Nature replied, laughing at him. "I
wanted some of them to go to that big island they have just found, and
so I let Ban and his people come and drive them there."
"Why did you want them to go to the island?" asked the Sun. "Weren't
they getting along very nicely where they were?"
"Yes. They learned many things. But here, on this new island, they will
learn much more. It is a very large island, as you can see, and there
are metals on it, and many other new things for them to find out about.
If I don't spread my new men around a little, they will always stay in
one place, and the earth will never be populated."
"It is a pity they have to fight, and kill each other," the Sun said.
"Yes," said Mother Nature. "It is a pity, but men are going to keep on
fighting and killing each other for thousands and thousands of years.
The battle you saw between the sea people, and the tribe from the
hills, was the beginning of war. These two peoples hated each other,
because their language, and their clothes, and their ways of living,
were different. And as one tribe hates another, for these reasons, so
will nations, which are only great tribes after all, hate each other,
and fight and kill, for a very long time indeed, even after they have
become what they call civilized, and fight with terrible engines of
war, which fly in the air, and swim under the water, and blow thousands
of persons to pieces in a single moment. That is the law of force, that
the strong must overcome the weak, and only when man has become really
civilized, and learned the law of love, will fighting stop. They have
to fight now, for in that way they become strong, and brave, and get
courage to conquer the winds and the sea, and the cold and heat, and
spread to all the parts of the earth. Not until long after this is done
will men learn that they all belong to one great tribe, and that it is
not necessary to fight each other any longer, but to help each other.
It is the same on all my other worlds—the people fight each other for
a long time, like bad children, until one day they find that they are
not children any longer, but grown up men and women, and then they do
not fight any more."
"I should think that God would make them that way in the first place,"
grumbled the Sun.
"He could, you foolish creature," said Mother Nature, with a frown,
"but if He made His people and His worlds perfect to begin with, there
would be no need to create them at all. God is like a weaver, weaving
a wonderful pattern. He finds joy in His work. If it were all finished
as soon as it was begun, even God Himself would have no purpose. All
things must grow slowly and beautifully, from the seed to the plant,
from the plant to the tree, from the tree to the perfect fruit. You,
Sun, are growing too. Some day, your heat will be gone, and you will
grow old and die. You will be cold, and dark, without any light to
shine with. Then it may be that the Great Mind that made you, will
cause you to live again. Meanwhile, do each day what you have to do,
and stop grumbling about things you do not understand."