[Illustration]
After the Snakes had been driven from the region of Cocoanut Hill, and
the land thus rid of both wild beasts and reptiles, the Apes, who had now
undisputed possession, got to fighting among themselves for the land.
Those, therefore, who had united for defense now divided for conquest.
There were two principal varieties of Apes, as we have said,—the Ammi
from whom the Men are descended, and the Lali, who, while resembling the
former, were inferior in manners, and more closely resembled the present
Orang-outang. They had both sprung from the same original stock, and,
until several generations before, lived together in a more southerly
country. At length they separated, (while still in the south), the Ammi
going eastward, and the Lali westward, like the separation between
Abraham and Lot.
Being thus separated, and so removed from mutual influence, they soon
diverged in customs. The Ammi, under more favorable circumstances, began
to walk erect, to live more on the ground, to find many uses for their
hands, and to make some progress in speech. The Lali, who had wandered
into a less hospitable country, made no progress whatever, but rather
degenerated; so that when, generations later, the two varieties met again
on Cocoanut Hill, there were marked differences between them.
They had both come to the Cocoanut Hill country in a great migration of
monkeys from the South, the Ammi coming from the southeast and the Lali
from the southwest. This migration was caused by the failure of fruits
in the south on account of some cataclysm in Nature of which we have no
reliable accounts; and monkeys of every kind came north, so that there
were soon all the varieties of which we have spoken in the Cocoanut Hill
region. And this failure of fruits, we may add, was a principal cause of
the providence of the Monkeys in laying up stores; for they were anxious
that a second famine should not occur like that in the land from which
they had come.
These apes, having therefore met again, met with differences such as did
not separate them in the south country; and, though they imitated one
another to some extent (the Lali picking up some of the sounds of the
Ammi, and so acquiring by degrees the habit of speaking, and also walking
at times upright and using their hands), there were, nevertheless,
irremovable differences between the two; and, though they made common
cause as long as they had to fight tigers and snakes, they again asserted
their differences with the return of peace, and so found it impossible to
assimilate.
In view of this incongeniality the Ammi in time were found associating
wholly among themselves, and the Lali likewise among themselves.
Jealousies and suspicions arose between the two, and frequently fights.
Class distinctions gave rise to class controversies, and finally to class
wars. The Lali were soon hated as much as the snakes by the Ammi, who
conceived the project of driving them from the country; and the Lali, in
turn, resolved also to get the country for themselves.
After several conflicts, in which now one party and then the other was
successful, and after several temporary compromises, in which they tried
to live together, the Lali, partly vanquished and partly persuaded,
consented to withdraw to the lands beyond the Swamp, leaving the Ammi in
possession of the Cocoanut Hill region.
The separation, however, was no settlement. The Lali claimed the land
which they did not take, and hoped to get in the future what they were
willing to surrender for the present. The two parties stood, like Germany
and France over Alsace and Lorraine, growling much, but doing little.
Occasionally they made incursions into each other’s territory, and
carried away some fruit or provisions; but, though they talked chiefly
of war, they lived mainly in peace. Separated by snakes and swamps, they
were kept at peace by the difficulty of coming together. The danger of
crossing, and the delay in going around the Swamp, were too great for war.
This was the condition and situation of the two forces which occupied the
world as known to our ancestors at the time of this story.
Having made this digression on the antiquities of the Apes and a bit
of their history, in which we have seen the origin of their religion,
government and industries, and of many of their customs, we shall now
return to the scenes beginning this story, which are nearly a century
later.