[Illustration]
Having repaired the damage of the earthquake and flood, the Ammi set out
on their march to the country of the Lali, having, first, however, armed
themselves with the light weapons and provisions already mentioned. The
expedition was led by Koree, who labored hard to remove every obstacle,
and he set an example of endurance, as well as infused courage in the
irresolute.
“We start out for Sosee and glory,” he said. “The time will come when we
will delight to recall the difficulties which now trouble us.”
They marched more around the Swamp than through it, keeping, however,
near its borders. This was a longer route, but fraught with less danger
and difficulty. At night they retired to the Swamp, lest they should be
surprised by the Lali, and when they became hungry they scattered to
collect food, of which there was great abundance. The earthquake shock
and the floods had shaken the fruits and nuts from the trees, where they
could now readily be gathered.
Oko, the greedy fellow mentioned, suggested that they collect stores for
the whole campaign, and take them along, since they might not find fruits
so abundant as they proceeded. “There is plenty in the Swamp,” replied
Koree, who had recently passed that way. “The whole region between the
Ammi and the Tali abounds with things to eat. Let us not, therefore,
burden ourselves with what we may gather as we need it.”
[Illustration: THE GREEDY OKO.]
Determined, therefore, to forage as they went, and so to live at the
expense of beasts and reptiles, they proceeded on their march for several
days almost uninterrupted. They moved slowly, planning the details of
their campaign as they went.
Among those who took part in this expedition, and were prominent in the
counsels and events that followed, were these:
First was Cocoanut Scooper, the great hunter of the hills, who, if not
fierce in battle with wild beasts, was no less esteemed because of his
services in procuring provisions. He had scoured all the country round
about, and knew every tree and the quality of its fruit. He could at a
distance distinguish a palm, a walnut, a fig and a cinnamon tree; from
the appearance of a region he knew its value as a source of supplies; he
was expert in finding thickets where rabbits and other game abounded,
and he learned all the shoals of the Swamp where crabs and clams could
be taken. This man had charge of the commissaries, and looked out for
provisions for the expedition. During all their march his eye was on the
foliage of the forest, rather than on the trail of the Apes, looking for
something to eat rather than to fight.
Next was Fire-tamer, the bright-eyed hunter who took prisoner the
red-winged beast that feeds on wood, and, having caught him in his
lightning errand to earth, kept him a captive in the camp of the Ammi,
feeding him on brush and bark, and confining him within an earthen mound.
The all-devouring monster could not be satiated, but, after consuming all
the wood they could carry him, died when they stopped feeding him.
Next in valor and wise in counsel was Spread-mouth, the first man that
was known to laugh. His associates observed the changing size of his
mouth, which took as many dimensions as the chameleon took colors, and
was seen to be biggest when he was with women. Others learned to imitate
him, which was at first thought to detract, and then to add, to their
beauty, until, at the time of which we speak, half of the Ammi had
learned to laugh, but many of them awkwardly. The first laughs of men
were hardly distinguishable from grins and growls, and many indulged in
them unwillingly because of the huge teeth they displayed, which called
forth shudders rather than responsive smiles. They who laughed, laughed
alone, and not for many generations did a whole company join in laughter
together. As there was little wit to encourage laughter, the habit was
of slow growth, and its indulgence promoted quarreling rather than good
humor, because of the defiant appearance of the laugher. Only when men
became acquainted with laughter did they learn to like it, and not to
resent it. This great Spread-mouth was, therefore, long the terror and
the puzzle of the Ammi.
Next in honor and influence was the great jawed and big-fisted Pounder,
whose mouth and hands were a double terror to his enemies. He scorned to
fight with clubs or sharpened stones, but thought himself sufficiently
armed by nature to meet his enemy, whether man, or ape, or wild beast.
He had fought the woolly Rhinoceros and Cave Bear; he had climbed after
wild cats, and fought in the Swamp with alligators. Pounder had a long,
narrow head, with retreating forehead, and great jaws filled with oblique
teeth, which struck terror into an enemy. He was woolly-haired, being
covered with coarse, dark-brown bunches of hair over his whole body, and
a beard of lighter color. His arms were long, reaching almost to the
ground, so that he could walk as well as fight with them, using sometimes
one and sometimes both. They were powerful, whether to hold an object or
deal a blow. His legs were short and thin, with undeveloped calves, and
he walked half erect with in-bent knees, carrying a huge body that was
ever ready for assault. He was impatient to reach the enemy, and at times
quarreled with his friends that he might have somebody to fight. Pounder
was more useful in war than in peace; and had not this conflict broken
out to make him a hero, he would have been killed as a criminal.
A very different man from this, one shrewd in counsel and valiant in war,
was Abroo, known also as Family-Man. He had kept to one woman for years,
and kept together the children born to them, so that they constituted a
family. The children of his children were also recognized, and they, with
his other relatives were bound together in a kind of clan. He favored
this group, and sought to gain every advantage for it from the other
men. They kept their fruits together, and lived in common. A few others
were, indeed, admitted to their number, and all together they formed a
“set,” and the social distinction thus made was the foundation of caste.
Abroo was the leader, or patriarch, of this group, and all its members
adhered together in time of dispute. He acted for them all, which was
the beginning of representative government. He considered more what was
to their advantage than what was to the advantage of the whole people;
and many issues turned on whether the Abrooides or the rest of the Ammi
should control. The adherents of Abroo formed a kind of aristocracy. They
were high-minded, and, by general consent, deemed better than the average
man. Abroo had a great contempt for Pounder, and in a recent quarrel
would have been killed by the latter, had not his clansmen interfered to
save him. Abroo proposed that they fight by clans, saying that he would
lead his own hosts; but the suggestion did not prevail, as most of the
Ammi were not grouped in families, and did not even know their relations.
Abroo, however, persisted in keeping his party together in war, as in
peace, and in directing their movements.
There were many other valiant men who went up in this march, and some
women. Among the latter was Watch-the-girls, who protected females
from the embraces of the stronger sex. She beat Spread-Mouth almost to
death for trying one of his smiles on a young girl in the woods, and
pulled bunches of hair out of his back. She scratched an eye out of
Goat-strut for his persistent attentions to unwilling females, and even
Pounder was afraid of her, not that she could vanquish him in fight, but
because other men generally assisted her in a fight against a lascivious
lover. She went fearlessly to war, and led many women and young girls
to battle. For, as yet, both sexes fought, and not the male only; and
Watch-the-girls had more followers than Abroo.
Such were the hosts that went up against the Lali. They numbered two
thousand, although subsequent accounts placed them at many times this
number. They were less numerous, however, than the Lali; but owing to
their greater skill and to their arms, they hoped to overcome larger
numbers.