THE BATTLE IN THE SWAMP.

FROM MONKEY TO MAN
OR
Society in the Tertiary Age

A Story of the Missing Link

SHOWING THE FIRST STEPS IN INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, GOVERNMENT,
RELIGION AND THE ARTS

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT EXPEDITION FROM COCOANUT
HILL AND THE WARS IN ALLIGATOR SWAMP

BY
AUSTIN BIERBOWER
Author of “The Virtues and Their Reasons,” “The Socialism of Christ,”
“The Morals of Christ,” Etc.

Illustrated by H. R. HEATON

CHICAGO
INGERSOLL BEACON CO
1906

COPYRIGHT 1906
BY
WM. H. MAPLE
CHICAGO

M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY
PRINTERS AND BINDERS
407-429 DEARBORN STREET
CHICAGO

PUBLISHER’S PREFACE.

The extraordinary interest which this book has excited has induced the publisher to issue a new and revised edition at a reduced price, believing that, as it is the first attempt at a prehistoric novel, it will have a wide reading. The subject, the characters and the period are here for the first time introduced into fiction.

The scenes are laid in the Tertiary Age when, according to the Darwinian Theory, men were emerging from the Ape, and they portray the supposed exploits of our ancestors at that stage of development. The author has aimed to exhibit the features of the time—climate, foliage, animals, etc.—as understood by Geologists and Biologists, and to be scientifically accurate, with no more variations in proportion than are usual in historic fiction.

If Evolution is the true theory of man’s origin there is a long period of forgotten history, covering thousands of centuries, during which men lived and fought and learned, and this book seeks to revivify it and make it realizable. In this period nearly all the arts and industries were started, and the author suggests their crude origin in a variety of episodes. The origin of arms, building, religion and government, the first use of fire and clothing and the primitive form of many social and business problems are indicated in the course of a simple story.

In addition to its valuable scientific hints, the work is rich in practical wisdom. It is also spiced throughout with a vein of quiet humor which provokes mirth and makes it highly entertaining as well as instructive.

The illustrations by H. R. Heaton, an artist of national reputation, are believed to be the best work of his genius.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHAPTER I.

About ninety years after the fight between the Monkeys and Snakes on Cocoanut Hill, which was five hundred thousand years before our era, and near the end of the Tertiary Age, Sosee was sitting on a limb sucking a mango, when Koree came up in great consternation.

“The fat baboon, from across the swamp,” he said, “has carried off Orlee while her mother was hunting berries in the bushes.”

“If you love me, Koree,” replied Sosee, uttering a wild scream, “you will fetch her back, and bring me the tail of the baboon before night.”

Sosee, who spoke these words, was a comely girl of twelve years, one of the new race which had recently separated from the Apes, and would no longer recognize them as equals. There was a hostility between the Apes and these upstarts, and frequent incursions were made from the territory of one on that of the other.

The Apes had mostly retreated to the swamps and forests beyond, while the new race were occupying the region about Cocoanut Hill, which their ancestors of two generations before had taken, after many conflicts, from the Apes, and from which they had driven the savage beasts. Here the parents of Sosee were living, and here Sosee had grown to womanhood.

The Cocoanut Hill region was a large tract, in what is now Southern France, stretching from Alligator Swamp toward the mountains in the distance. This section was plentifully covered with fruit trees—mangos, palms, figs and limes; the under brush furnished berries and succulent herbs; the waters of the swamp, which bordered this land, abounded in fish, frogs, turtles, snakes and alligators; while great flocks of ducks, geese and other water fowl frequented it at seasons. The forests abounded in Uri, Woolly Oxen, Musk-Deer and other game. This abundance of vegetable and animal life supplied food for the Ammi, as the new race was called, and they would have lived in comfort but for the attacks of the Apes beyond the water, who, keeping an envious eye on these fruits, often came over the Swamp for food.

Shortly before the event of which we speak, some apes in one of these predatory incursions, were met by a larger number of the Ammi, when several of the former were killed, and one, a small boy, taken prisoner. The Ammi, expecting the Apes to attempt reprisals for this, kept a watch at night, while during the day they guarded their children.

Several times on the day mentioned signs of approaching Apes had been seen. Gimbo, the grandfather of Sosee, who still persisted in walking on four feet, (although the Ammi generally had begun to walk upright), said he could scent the trail of the Apes, and had noticed the marks of one walking on four feet. But Gimbo was deemed a garrulous old man, somewhat unreliable, who claimed exceptional wisdom about the animals lower than men, so that little attention was given to his warning.

The mother of Orlee, however, had observed a sudden starting up of geese from the swamp; but this also raised little suspicion, as they might have been startled by a fox. Later, however, her keen sense of hearing detected successive splashings in the water, as if made by plunging alligators or turtles on the approach of an enemy. She was, accordingly, slow to leave the spot where her child was playing—a girl of three years, the sister of Sosee.

Gaining confidence, however, with the restored silence of the swamp, she took a club with which she usually warded off reptiles when hunting berries, or killed them when requiring them for food; and, armed in this way, she waded into the swamp, still keeping, however, in sight of her child.

As the berries were plentiful, she had soon eaten all she wanted, making thereof her morning meal, when she was attracted by some luscious ones farther in the swamp, which she hurried to get for the child. Having filled her hands she was next startled by a huge snake of the Boa species, which swung suddenly down from a tree, like a great vine and sought to fasten its coils around her.

SOSEE’S MOTHER ENCOUNTERS THE SNAKE.

Dropping the berries and uttering a wild scream, she seized the serpent, and, sinking her nails and teeth in its flesh, began a fatal struggle with it. The snake, which had fastened one coil about her leg, swung round violently with the intention of encircling her waist. Her screams startled the child, which began crying, and the two noises attracted the attention of Koree, the lover of Sosee, who was sporting in a puddle near by.

Koree started to the rescue of the woman, but, in the tangled underbrush could not find her; but, instead, he ran against a gigantic ape, which had also been startled by the cries, and, in his fright, was running about in confusion. This ape gave Koree a powerful blow with his fist, and then ran out of the swamp to where the child was playing. Seizing the child he next ran with it into the bushes and was out of sight.

Too weak, or too frightened, to follow, Koree now hurried back to give the alarm, when he encountered Sosee on the tree, as we have related. Sosee’s screams and calls to Koree to rescue the child roused some men near by, who now all rushed for the swamp.

As they approached they saw the mother of the child emerging from the bushes carrying the huge snake in triumph about her neck, part of which was hanging down in long folds, pending from her arms. Never was a woman prouder over a necklace of diamonds or pearls. Her bloody face and arms added to the terror inspired by her Amazonian air, as, with a proud step, she advanced to the men and threw down her trophy.

Disburdened of her load, and sinking from the stimulant of battle, she now became faint, through loss of blood, and was about to drop to the ground; for, in the struggle with the serpent, she had been severely bitten and wrenched, so that her own blood was mingled with that of the reptile on her body.

As she was about to faint away, however, she observed that her child was gone, when all the excitement returned which had attended her in battle, and, on hearing of its capture, she sent up a wail which echoed through the forest, and flew into a rage that terrified the bystanders.

CHAPTER II.

The events related in the preceding chapter occurred, as we have said, about ninety years after the fight between the Monkeys and Snakes on Cocoanut Hill. As the time of the Ammi is reckoned from this fight, we shall go back, for awhile, to the affairs which immediately preceded it.

The Apes of all kinds had, till then, been roving promiscuously over the country along with wild beasts of every description. The forests being free to all, and likewise the swamps, there was a scene like that of the jungles of Central Africa to-day. Land and water teemed with life, and were animated with struggles for the food of the region. Gigantic lions, tigers, woolly rhinoceroses, mastodons, cave-bears and other savage beasts sported in their favorite element. Serpents were particularly abundant, especially in the great Alligator Swamp, from which they emerged to the high country to catch rabbits and other game. The Apes, which were mostly vegetarians, did not at first interfere with the more savage beasts hunting in these forests; so that there was an endless variety of animals in the region of which we speak.

The Apes at this time lived mostly on trees, especially at night. This was necessary on account of the more savage beasts which roamed over the ground. When game became scarce the tigers and some other animals attacked the Apes, and often killed them. The weaker animals which could not climb the trees were generally in danger of becoming the prey of the stronger ones.

This arboreal life became in time irksome to the Apes, many of whom had made some progress in methods of living and hunting. These were, accordingly, anxious to acquire a right to the ground, and security in its possession. They had become so large that a fall from a tree was a serious matter. Nor was a tree always convenient to climb when they were in danger.

They could not, however, come to the ground while so many savage beasts occupied it. A sleeping ape was liable to suffer death if met by a tiger, especially in recent years when many fights occurred between the two. The Apes, accordingly, conceived the project of ridding the country of the more dangerous animals.

There were two principal species of Apes at this time, the Ammi, who afterwards became known as men, and the Lali, who were the enemies of the Ammi on the other side of the swamp; and, though there had come to be marked differences between the two, (of which we shall presently speak,) they were, at this time, both living together as Apes (the Man-Apes of Biology), and were alike interested in ridding the country of the stronger beasts.

A council was, accordingly, called to take measures for their common welfare. In this council they gave their respective views without those formalities which now attend such gatherings. They spoke mainly in gestures and growls, which constituted all there was of language then, (articulate speech not having been developed beyond a few broken sounds). One, Shamboo, believed to be the great-grandfather of Sosee, was the acknowledged leader of the Apes, and he directed the deliberations of this assembly. Speaking in the manner indicated, this Ape harangued the multitude to the following effect:

“Tailed Apes, upright Apes, Baboons and Monkeys of low degree: I am tired living on trees. I am getting too old and fat to climb, and cannot go up in the air every time I want to sleep. My eyes are bad, and can’t tell a rotten limb from a sound one. Only two days ago, while eating a cocoanut, the limb broke on which I was sitting, and I fell to the ground, striking a porcupine; and there has been a sick monkey ever since. Just before the big rain I was chased up a tree by a hyena, when, before I got out of reach, he seized my tail, already reduced to a stump, and I had to let go of either the tree or my tail. I stuck to the tree, but to-day I am a tailless Ape! Why should the ground be conceded to tigers and snakes? The earth was made for monkeys. Our food is mostly on the ground, and it is easier to walk on a level than up and down. We can run faster than we can climb. We cannot fly, like the birds, and there is no easy way for such big folks to get up a tree. But we dare not come to the ground. If we do we must fight some brute. The tigers want the earth; and we can’t afford to maintain perpetual war. I am, therefore, for peace, and so favor killing off our enemies. If the forces of the trees will but combine, dropping their disputes about the milk that is in the cocoanut, they can conquer the forces of the earth. Resolve, then, monkeys all, to make a fight for the land, and not be so often found up a stump. True to your ape-hood, join me in an oath to drive out the ground-beasts. Everything in this valley will then be ours. We shall have the plants and berries, and frogs, and little fishes. We can then lie down to sleep without falling off, and run about without getting tired. Whoever loves monkeykind will, therefore, follow my advice. Now, all of you who are resolved to drive out the beasts which claim this land, swear with me by scratching your top rib while I crack this butternut and eat the kernel.”

The eloquence of Shamboo gained the assembly to his proposition. Every rib got a scratch, and the solemnity of the hour was felt in every breast. An aged priest of the Mountain Apes bowed low his head, breathing a blessing on the undertaking; and from that hour the savage beasts of Cocoanut Hill were doomed.

CHAPTER III.

The plan of attack on the beasts was two-fold. One method was to associate together and make a combined assault by two’s or more, according to the strength of their antagonists. The other was to get on trees and spring upon the enemy when asleep or at other disadvantage. In this way they hoped to so worry the larger beasts that they would quit the region of their own accord.

This coöperation was important as being the beginning of association among Apes. By uniting in two’s and three’s for attack or defense they learned to confederate, and so laid the foundations of society. Till that time they had roamed the forests and jungles solitary, each one hunting alone his food, like the tigers, and forming no lasting or frequent attachments. They met the opposite sex casually at a spring or in the fruit regions. They did not recognize their own children, or care for them except for a few years after birth, until they could roam for themselves. Only occasionally did they meet for a common purpose, and then only for a little while. They were not gregarious, though they sometimes met in large numbers where food was abundant, and became slightly acquainted. They chattered or fought while together, and then parted to see one another perhaps no more.

Having now, however, formed a League of the Apes, offensive and defensive, these animals, who disputed with the tigers the right to be called the lords of the land, soon became acquainted with one another, and therefore learned to like each other better. They found that they had many common interests, and there sprang up warm attachments between them. Their mutual disagreements disappeared before their disagreements with the tigers. They learned to help one another that they might destroy a common enemy, founding their unity on their common hatred. Many sentiments were, accordingly, developed, to which ape-hood had before been a stranger. Hearts were touched where before there were thought to be only stomachs, and a new sentiment—love—was awakened in the race; and when they parted after a night’s watch, or fight, they often presented one another with a cocoanut or bull-frog. Unselfishness gradually took the place of unrestrained competition, and a monkey etiquette grew up and became recognized. Some of the apes became noticeably polite, especially to the opposite sex, and there was soon quite a little social intercourse between them. They would go out by two’s and three’s for food or water, as well as for a fight, and thus they learned to labor together, as well as fight together.

Nor was this all. Having got together in a league, it was not easy to separate them. They came together to stay, and they stayed to co-operate in many measures besides their own defense. After their wars certain industries sprang up, among which was the damming of part of the Swamp (where it was entered by a stream), so as to form a lake, in which they could with more convenience drink and wash. Having tasted the sweets of association, they wished, in short, to remain in society; and when subsequently the younger ones became restive, and tried to regain the liberty of independent or single life, the older heads compelled them to adhere to the social compact.

Scarcely had they formed their alliance for war, when they set out for the enemy. Their chief foe was the tigers and snakes, because these were most numerous, although there were some lions, pachyderms, bears, and other savage beasts, of which also they meant to rid the country. One proposed that they all start out together, saying that while they would thus be fighting as a whole, the enemy, which would be fighting singly, could be easily overcome. Shamboo opposed this plan, however, as likely to attract too much attention, and, perhaps, to cause the tigers also to confederate. “Let us,” he said, “indeed, fight each enemy singly; but it does not require more than three apes to kill one tiger.”

They accordingly broke up into small bands, and started on a tiger hunt. On the first day of the War of the Beasts, a body of three, led by Shamboo, climbed a Yew tree near the Swamp, where a great tiger was known to come to slake his thirst. It was agreed, or rather laid down by Shamboo as the method of attack, that when the tiger should pass under the tree, one of them, the youngest and strongest, should drop upon the tiger’s back, and fasten his jaws in his neck, when the rest would follow and dispatch their victim.

SHAMBOO’S RIDE.

Scarcely had this been resolved upon, when the tiger appeared, marching slowly toward their tree. He was carrying a sheep in his mouth, and his great show of muscular strength and fierce expression seemed to despise danger. The ape who had been chosen to drop on the tiger drew back in fear, and told Shamboo to do that part himself.

No time was to be lost, and, before the words of the timid ape were fully uttered, Shamboo dropped upon the tiger. His great weight crushed the beast to the ground, and compelled it to let go of the sheep. The tiger immediately got up, however, and, not knowing what to do, in his embarrassment, started on a full run. Shamboo clung to his back, and away they both went, like John Gilpin, dashing over hill and dale and through jungle and forest. The deer fled at their approach, squirrels ran up the trees, a flock of ducks started from a pool near by, and the flight of birds and beasts from their path was like the stampede which precedes a prairie fire. Shamboo’s teeth were fixed in the tiger’s neck, and his feet like spurs were sunk in his sides.

So they ran, and the earth rapidly receded behind them. The other two apes followed, but at a distance, so that the tiger and Shamboo were practically alone, and must soon, it seemed, try their strength in single combat. The tiger, however, was too scared to take an inventory of what he was carrying, while Shamboo’s thoughts were divided equally between how to hold on and how to let go. The tiger himself soon solved this problem for Shamboo by running through a hole in a thicket which was too small to admit both, so that Shamboo was knocked off. He fell into a cluster of bushes, and the fall was so violent as to cause him to turn several summersets, so that he did not know in which direction he had been going. The tiger, lightened of his load, but not of his scare, kept on, and was soon out of sight and out of this story.

Shamboo picked himself up and, looking round, spied the other two apes coming slowly toward him. He limped back to them with an air of disappointment, rather than of suffering, and, without uttering a word, fell upon the younger ape, who had shown cowardice, and killed him for his breach of military discipline in disobeying orders.

The fame of that ride and that fight remains to the time of this story, though there are different versions of it among the Ammi and the Apes beyond the Swamp.

And long subsequent to this time, when the descendants of these Apes got to riding on the backs of horses and cattle, there was a legend ascribing the origin of the uses of beasts of burden to this unwilling ride of Shamboo; and in the mythology of the later Apes Shamboo became the god of Domestication.

CHAPTER IV.

In the course of the contest with the tigers, which lasted several years, many improvements were made in the art of warfare, which afterwards served the Apes in time of peace. After the experience of Shamboo and others, who attacked unarmed the savage beasts, they found it advisable to fight at a distance. Taking their position on trees, which was done for safety, the problem was how to reach the enemy. They commonly showered cocoanuts and other large fruits upon them, which, while annoying to small animals, had little effect on tigers. They next carried stones up the trees for missiles, which they dropped with some effect. In time they became expert at throwing, and could strike a tiger’s head ten paces off. Shoozoo claimed to have killed a hyena at a distance of many alligators’ lengths with a rock larger than his head; but Shoozoo had a reputation for lying, which was greatly developed during the war.

The Apes also broke off branches of trees, with which they pounded the savage beasts, not only by throwing them from the trees as missiles, but by using them as clubs, until they became skilled in the art of pounding, as well as of making clubs. When catamounts, bears and other climbing beasts attacked them on the trees, and fought paw to paw with them, they used the stones as knives, and often cut their assailants fatally, having learned to select sharp stones for this purpose, and, in time, to sharpen them specially. Before the war they had used stones only to crack nuts. But now they learned both to use them for many other purposes, and to make them into the size and shape which best suited them.

The first manufactures of the Apes were thus of military implements, their necessity being the mother of invention. In time of peace, however, they found new uses for these implements, like their descendents who afterwards beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks. The missiles with which they had attacked the tigers they soon used for hunting, and in time for building. When they came down from the trees, and lived more on the earth, they knocked cocoanuts down, instead of climbing after them; they killed birds and rabbits by throwing stones at them, instead of lying in wait for them, and they speared fish with their clubs which they had learned to sharpen. They could thus act at a greater distance, and so had more power, both to defend themselves from wild beasts, and to obtain food.

Shoozoo, the liar just mentioned, told some wonderful stories of a stone which he sharpened and the exploits he performed with it. He saw a lion, he said, sleeping at the foot of a tree, when, throwing the stone, he cut the tree from its stump, which, falling on the lion, killed him; and he would have brought the dead lion to verify the story, but it was so big that all the monkeys of Cocoanut Hill could not have carried it away; but he showed the sharpened stone as evidence.

He related also that when hunting owls at night, after killing all that were in the forest, and having nothing more to throw at, he threw his stone at the moon, and hit it with such force that he cut off a piece; and, as evidence of this, he pointed to the moon, which was, indeed, seen to have a large piece gone, so that many Apes believed him for once, though they knew he was habitually a liar. For the evidence of their senses was generally deemed enough for the Apes. Shamboo, however, doubted the story and asked Shoozoo why he did not bring home the other piece of the moon. “When I cut it off,” he replied, “it fell into the Swamp and was swallowed by an alligator. I expect to catch that alligator, and then I will show you the rest of the moon.”

The Apes of Cocoanut Hill, however, who placed little confidence in Shoozoo’s stories, placed less in his promises; although the next generation, which accepted him as the founder of their religion, believed him to be a better man, and accepted his stories as history and his promises as prophecy; so that what was incredible to contemporaries became indisputable to posterity; and the traditions that gathered about his name were sufficient to silence the doubts in a generation later which they had raised in a generation before. In course of time the bigger stories only gained credence, the rest being forgotten; so that what was received with most distrust was handed down with most confidence; and the farther they got from the time of their performance the easier it was thought to be to get at the truth about them.

For many generations every alligator that was killed was opened in order to find the moon; and, though it was often claimed to be found, there was never as much confidence in the story of its recovery as of its loss; for the Apes early learned to distinguish between religious stories, and only accepted those for which there was adequate evidence. The uninterrupted testimony of the fathers, which had come down in regular succession, and had never been doubted, was deemed the best evidence. Apes have accordingly differed about the incidentals of the story; for many accounts have come down about the details, which are not to be reconciled; but as to the great essentials—that the holy Shoozoo actually did knock off a piece of the moon, and that an alligator swallowed it—there is a substantial agreement; and as often as the moon, in generations later, appeared in crescent form, the festival of the Holy Crescent was celebrated by throwing sharpened stones in the air in honor of the great exploit of their Founder, Shoozoo.

But, though Shoozoo, who passed in one generation for a liar, and in the next for a God, left a questionable heritage to the Apes, they still retained out of his age something of substantial value. The use of implements was invented, and the arts of making and using them were handed down to Monkeys and Men.

CHAPTER V.

After the savage beasts had been driven from the region of Cocoanut Hill, and the Apes had come down from the trees, and were habitually on the ground, they found themselves encountering new dangers. The snakes were troublesome. The snakes had, indeed, been troublesome before, but it was mainly when they climbed the trees for birds’ nests or fruits. The Apes did not then encounter them so often, and amid the greater dangers from the four-footed beasts, did not find it necessary to make war against them. But now, when the Apes walked more on the ground, they met the snakes oftener, and under more disagreeable circumstances. The snakes, moreover, had greatly multiplied since the destruction of the savage beasts, many of which devoured, or fought with, snakes, or else lived on the same food. With the departure, accordingly, of the enemies of the serpents, and their increase of sustenance, the serpents became powerful, and at last threatened to drive the Apes from the region. It became dangerous to walk abroad, especially near the Swamp. At night they disturbed the slumbers of the Apes. Shoozoo declared that he once found two in his ear when he awoke, and that he had swallowed some big ones during the night, although Shamboo declared contemptuously that he only had worms.

Many precautions were, from time to time, taken against the snakes. Some of the Apes persisted in still sleeping in the trees. Most of them, however, sought holes in the ground and caves in the rocks, which they fortified by piling brush and earth at the entrance; while others, not finding holes conveniently at hand, dug them and covered them with brush, so as to form a mound. The race had thus begun to build, and one of the first arts—architecture—was founded. The home originated in a fight against the serpent.

The snakes, however, soon attacked these homes, and all the more eagerly because of the food stored in them. For the Apes found that they could put their structures to many uses not before known. They would hold their provisions, as well as themselves, and would protect such provisions from the weather, as well as from the snakes, and so preserve them for a longer time. Their homes accordingly became store-houses, and this facility for keeping provisions by storage stimulated the collection of them. Instead of gathering only what they wanted to eat at the time, the Apes now picked up all they could find, and placed it in their dug-outs. They soon learned to allow nothing to go to waste, and became economical. They even collected when they did not want anything, from the mere fact that they could store it, and thus became provident. They believed they might want in the future, and so often stored large quantities; for some Apes early became avaricious. They got in time to be as proud of their possessions as of their homes, and often gathered from a feeling of ambition. Shoozoo claimed that he had enough fruits in his mound to feed all the Apes of Cocoanut Hill for a lifetime; which nobody of that generation believed, and nobody of the next doubted.

These great quantities of fruits, we say, attracted the snakes, who were soon found more plentiful about the homes than about the swamps. Wealth always has its enemies, and a snake no more than a man, will work for what he can get more easily. It was thought easier to get cocoanuts in Shoozoo’s dug-out than by climbing a tree.

One day an ape, who had made a large collection, found, on returning home, that all his store was gone. The snakes had broken in and eaten what they could, and destroyed the rest by half eating it. The only sign of the thieves was an old snake which had eaten so much that he could not get away, and lay, like a drunken man, helpless on the ground. The ape soon dispatched him; but that did not satisfy the ape. He was indignant, and in his sense of suffering wrong we have the first appearance of the ethical sentiment. The sense of wrong in others appears before we recognize it in ourselves. The snakes did not feel the wrong; nor did the same monkey when afterwards he went to steal some of Shoozoo’s fruit (and found none), although he felt an indignation at Shoozoo that might be called an incipient sense of the wrong of falsehood. He wanted to charge Shoozoo with lying; but as that would have disclosed his own theft, or attempt at it, he suppressed his indignation in his prudence.

THE ROBBERS OF THE AMMI.

Other depredations were committed by the snakes, so that almost every ape soon had a property grievance. Added to this was a growing personal animosity between the Apes and the Snakes. As they had frequent contests over the fruits, they had learned to fight, and so to hate, each other, and finally to look upon each other as public enemies.

Nor was all the fault with the snakes. For as soon as the Apes got to accumulating, they scoured the swamps as well as the hills for provisions, and so met the Snakes in their own element, who had to fight for the ungathered fruits as well as the gathered. In fact, through their strongly developed acquisitiveness, the Apes had drained the country so generally of its productions, that there was not enough left to support the Snakes, so that the latter had to become criminals and attack the gathered stores. Whenever the rich gather up everything so close as to leave nothing for the poor, the latter will turn criminals, whether they be snakes or men, and will steal from the rich, whether these be men or monkeys.

There, accordingly, sprang up an antagonism between the Snakes and the Monkeys, which had all the bitterness of class feeling, as well as of race prejudice, and soon an irrepressible conflict was impending. The Monkeys demanded the extirpation of the Snakes as violently as they had, in the preceding campaign, demanded that of the tigers; and from one end of the highlands to the other was heard the cry, “The snakes must go.”

“Steppers and crawlers,” said Shamboo, “cannot live in the same country. If there is anything a monkey hates it is to tramp on a snake. Only to-day one bit me in the heel, and to-morrow I shall crush his head. Enmity is declared between our race and theirs. A snake in the grass can never be loved by our seed; and so, until there shall be no more Snakes, or else no more Monkeys, the conflict must go on. We came down from the trees to the ground only to find others who had got still closer to the ground, and were climbing the land as we had climbed the trees; and it is a question whether belly or feet shall walk the earth. When the Apes got down off the trees they got up on their feet; and we do not mean to again walk through life on four feet to look for snakes.”

CHAPTER VI.

The fight with the snakes, which now began, was not remarkable except for the stories to which it gave rise. The reptiles were nearly all driven from the country before it was over, although many of them took refuge in the Swamp. But many tales of prowess were related of that war, which made it famous in after times, and caused it to be the event from which subsequent time was reckoned. Shoozoo claimed to have killed more snakes and bigger snakes than any of the rest, and, as none could boast much of their actual exploits, which were small compared with those claimed by Shoozoo, they all took to lying, and thus started the habit of making snake stories, which has come down to their descendants. These accounts were so great that the next generation, which was the first to believe them, ascribed marvelous powers to the heroes of this war, and so made it the commencement of an epoch, as well as preserved the stories, with additions, for their future theology.

“Why do you not,” asked Simlee, a young gorilla for whom Shoozoo had formed an attachment, “bring home one of those big snakes of which you kill so many, and proudly lay it at my feet?”

“Is it not enough,” retorted Shoozoo, “that I bring home the story of it? The honor that comes from snakes is not in having them, but in killing them.”

“But I want the proof of both your exploits and your love,” replied she; “the other baboons bring something to their loved ones, and the girls are all taunting me with your failures and your neglect. I am pining for snakes.”

Shoozoo felt embarrassed, but, being always ready with a promise when he lacked an achievement, said:

“I will bring you the great dragon of the swamp, the winged alligator that rules these waters and darkens the sun when he flies.”

“I would rather have plain snakes,” she said; “I would entwine them in my hair, and, like the girls of Jo and Kibboo, drape them as trophies about my neck.”

“Never doubt my love,” he replied, “You shall be ensnaked; and my conquests and your adornments will be the pride of all monkeydom.”

Simlee, thus reassured, ran laughing up a tree, while Shoozoo departed to achieve, or invent, fame.

Arming himself with a club and a vivid imagination he went out, like Don Quixote, for snakes and glory.

“SEE, BELOVED, HOW THE MIGHTY FALL AT THE WORD OF SIMLEE AND THE STROKE OF SHOOZOO.”

He had not gone far when he encountered an enormous snake, the first real one he had found since the war, notwithstanding his stories, and one which would, indeed, have delighted Simlee and given Shoozoo fame as its slayer, had he brought it home. But, instead of Shoozoo making for the snake, the snake made for Shoozoo. Back he turned excitedly, and there was a long race between the snake and the monkey, the monkey keeping ahead and gaining; and long after the snake ceased to follow Shoozoo continued to run. At last, however, Shoozoo panting and almost out of breath, climbed a tree, and looked about to take in the situation. And, though he did not see the snake, he nevertheless would not come down, but remained in the tree till night, when he sneaked home by a route different from that by which he came.

On nearing the place where he had left Simlee in the morning, and wondering what account he should give of his day’s adventure, he found another huge snake lying in his path. He started back in fright; but, assuring himself that it was dead, he approached with courage. “This,” he said, “is my opportunity; it will both satisfy Simlee and astonish the rest.” And so, shouldering the snake he bore it proudly back to Simlee, and laid it at her feet with these words:

“See, beloved, how the mighty fall at the word of Simlee and the stroke of Shoozoo!”

Simlee leaped from the tree with glee, and taking up the snake, called to the other girls who were sitting among the branches or lying about the mounds, to witness her good fortune.

“That’s the same snake,” replied one, “that was brought here two days ago by Kibboo, and thrown away this morning because it had begun to smell.”

At this Simlee grew angry, and flew at the girl with open jaws, tearing her hair and beating her face; and there would have been as hot a fight between the women as between the men and the snakes, but for the return of the warriors with their trophies, when the curiosity of the female apes, which was greater than their anger, put an end to the quarrel, and they all ran to possess themselves of the snakes for ornaments.

CHAPTER VII.

We have said that the stories of the exploits of this war have been handed down in the religion of the Apes. This is due not so much to the achievements of the heroes as to the accounts of them by Shoozoo, who was much more active in relating battles than in fighting them; so that, as the heroes of the Trojan War owe more to Homer than to their own prowess, (for many great men lived before Agamemnon, whose exploits are forgotten for want of an imaginative historian); so the heroes of the fight about Cocoanut Hill are chiefly indebted to the Homer of the Apes for his reports of them. As gods, demi-gods, heroes and fair women rose from a ten days’ skirmish on the banks of the Scamander, so divinities, good and bad, had their origin in the Cocoanut Hill battles by reason of a good telling. Shoozoo was, fortunately, unlike Homer, both warrior and historian, and so, like Xenophon and Cæsar, made himself the chief character in his accounts. The other apes nearly all drop out of history, and their deeds are ascribed to him, who at the time of this story, was deemed the chief character in that conflict; showing that for future fame a good liar is better than a good fighter.

Thus the driving out of the snakes from Cocoanut Hill came in time to be wholly attributed to Shoozoo, so that, like St. Patrick, he was honored for the entire service of their expulsion. The great dragon, or flying alligator, of which he only spoke to Simlee as an excuse, was, in time, believed to have been actually killed by him, as a primitive St. George. The snake that had entered the mound of one of the apes, and gorged himself with its treasured fruits, and which was killed by the ape, was alleged to have been slain by Shoozoo while guarding great treasures in a cave, as Siegfried slew the Nibelungen dragon. The expulsion of the snakes from Cocoanut Hill found its way into various stories about a primitive pair of apes—Shoozoo and Simlee—whose fruit was stolen by snakes, for which the snakes were driven from the country; reversing the story of Adam and Eve, who took the fruit from the snake and were themselves expelled, instead of the snake. Had Adam been his own biographer, like Shoozoo, the story of Eden might have been reversed.

The long contest and great enmity engendered between the Monkeys and the Snakes, also caused in time the serpent to be taken to represent everything bad, and this conflict came in the Apian Mythology to be represented as the conflict between good and evil, in which a great serpent fought with Shoozoo and was overcome by him, but not altogether slain; so that, as in the Persian Theology, the contest between good and evil still went on, although Shoozoo was expected to come again in the great future, and put the serpent entirely under his feet.

Also, as the serpent came to represent evil, it was believed that the great winged alligator, with which Shoozoo fought, was the King of Evil, or Devil, and, that, being the chief of serpents, he led all assaults against the interests of the Apes. He was pictured with wings, tail, and great claws, and was supposed to be the power that ruled over Alligator Swamp, or the Land of the Bad. Apes frightened their children by saying that the great flying Alligator would come up out of the Swamp and devour them. Simian demonology thus had its birth. Like Juno springing from the head of Jove, it issued full grown out of the imagination of Shoozoo, with an alligator for its only foundation in fact.

It will thus be seen that the fight between the Monkeys and Snakes on Cocoanut Hill, which was important in the history, became more important in the mythology of the Apes, and, from its prominence in their profane and sacred traditions, it is natural that the Apes should make it the commencement of an epoch.

CHAPTER VIII.

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.

CHAPTER IX.

Sosee had come down from the tree in which she received the news of the rape of Orlee, described in Chapter I, and, though she had given orders to Koree to bring back the child, she did not herself remain inactive. She rushed into the crowd, and, calling upon all, with wild screams, to rescue the child, went herself into the Swamp, and without any notion of where she was going, wandered about aimlessly till night, being completely lost. She found her way back only by the light of the moon, whose position in the heavens was some guide in her wanderings. Nor would she have returned at all, had she not hoped that some one else had, in the mean while, brought back the child.

On returning to the place from which she had started, she was distressed to learn that Orlee was not found, and she could scarcely be restrained from immediately starting again in pursuit of her. As Koree, however, had not yet returned, having searched farther and later than any, except Sosee, she hoped that he, inspired by her love, would come back with success. She had most confidence in him because she had most love for him, believing that what most pleased her fancy would best serve her purpose.

Her first disappointment in love was when she saw Koree return without the child; for in this crisis she felt more for her sister than for her lover, the newly lost being ever dearer than the long loved. Koree had failed to meet her expectation, or rather her desire; and in times of disappointment the little that is lacking outweighs all that is not.

“You have failed to bring back Orlee and the tail of the fat baboon,” she said, “Despair of my love till you fetch me both.”

This was spoken in the half-articulate manner already explained, as was the balance of the conversation (which we translate, however, into modern expression).

“What all the race of the Ammi could not do,” he replied, “you ought not to blame your lover for not accomplishing.”

“The love of one,” she retorted, “can do more than the indifference of many. If Orlee is ever found it will be by love, and not by numbers.”

“I will yet fetch her back,” he said; “love’s work is not exhausted in one effort, but requires time for its fruit. She will come in response to your love acting through mine. Neither man nor monkey shall defeat me, or excel me, in this task.”

“Go, then,” she said, “and I will go with you. Love co-operates, and never commands only.”

“I will go,” he replied: “and not care whether I return. With Sosee at my side, I could roam forever, indifferent whither we come, so we be still together. Had we not gone alone before we would not have returned without Orlee; but we came back to see each other. Love left behind defeats its own purpose sent before. If we separate we will be hunting each other, instead of keeping our thoughts on Orlee.”

“Let us then go,” she said, “and keep ourselves and our purposes united, and resolve not to return till we come with her.”

“I will go; for then will I have everything with me, and nothing to come back for.”

“If you go for my company only,” she said, “and not for the child, you will soon have neither. To be my lover you must want what I want, and not merely want me; and if you do not get it you will soon be without me, for love must achieve success to be rewarded with love.”

“I want more your wish than my own, and will give up everything for it.”

“Except me.”

“Yes, and you even.”

“You mean thing! I won’t go with you.”

“Well,” he replied, “I won’t go alone.”

“You don’t care for me a bit,” she said.

“You only care for me to serve your purpose,” he retorted.

“I will get Kibboo to go with me,” she next said.

“He may go,” replied Koree, “and I will stay with Alee till you return. She is a better climber, and can run faster than you.”

“Boo! hoo! she has no hair on her back, and is meaner than you. She ran from a little snake which I could bite in two.”

“But she loves me, and never quarrels with me.”

“She don’t love you; she only hates me, and wants to make you do so. She loves Ki, and picked the fleas off him when he came from the Swamp this evening.”

“Do you love me, Sosee?” he next asked with more tenderness.

“I won’t tell you,” she replied, sobbing.

“Will you go with me, and stay with me?”

“I never said I wouldn’t.”

Here followed a long pause, during which Sosee sobbed and sighed, and Koree looked about in his mind for some excuse for making peace without seeming to want to. Sosee came to his relief, however, with a question.

“Koree?”

“Well?”

“Will you go with me to find Orlee?”

Sosee, too proud to ask for his love, had asked for his service.

“Yes,” he replied, glad to give both, “and will not come back till we find her.”

“Won’t that be delightful! to hunt and find her together!”

“Yes,” he replied, “and let us start to-night, and before morning we may find her.”

But night and weariness had settled down upon them, and as the older men and women had determined to wait till morning before recommencing the search, the two lovers concluded to do likewise, saying that they could then search with greater vigor.

They then walked awhile, though weary, in the moonlight, and discoursed of love and Orlee, he speaking of his devotion and she of her confidence that he would bring back her sister.

“How approvingly,” he said “the monkey in the moon looks down upon our love.”

“And upon our resolution,” she replied.

They then parted to sleep for the night; and soon their love, their weariness and their purpose were all forgotten, except in disturbed dreams, in which he thought of wandering through unknown swamps with Sosee, and she pictured the rescue of her sister by a heroic lover.

In the silence and longing of that night, however, Koree audibly breathed the following sentiment, which is the first poetry made by the human race:

What is life

Without a wife?

CHAPTER X.

As rosy-colored Morn advanced to greet the opening eyes of monkeys and men, and spread her beams over Cocoanut Hill, lifting at last the veil of mists which hung over Alligator Swamp, a fat baboon was seen wending his way with a child in his arms to the settlement of the Lali. All night long he had traversed wood and swamp, picking his way through bush and fen, eluding the serpent and fleeing from the cry of the catamount, his only companion the moon, and his only hope the morning.

“I have avenged the rape of Soolee,” he said, as he approached the assembled Apes who were expecting the several warriors back which had gone to the country of the Ammi to recover the child that had been recently captured by them.

Great chatterings and shouts of gratification went up from the Lali as they saw one of their number thus return victorious. Only the mother of Soolee appeared distressed.

“Where is my child?” she asked.

“I have brought one of the Ammi instead,” was the response of the warrior.

“A man,” replied she, “is no compensation for a monkey; and the finding of another is no comfort to a mother for the loss of her own.”

I HAVE BROUGHT ONE OF THE AMMI INSTEAD.

“You can have her for a slave,” was the reply. “You lost one, and you get one: it makes no difference whether you have the same or not.”

The mother, however, was not satisfied, although the rest thought her grievance a small matter. The honor of the Apes was asserted by the reprisal; and when the public interest is conserved the multitude cares little for the individual loss.

Orlee was placed in charge of this woman, who, notwithstanding her dissatisfaction, was delighted, not only at having a child, but at the fact that it represented the vengeance of her people. This double relation to the infant made her both love the child and mistreat it, the first because it was a child, and the latter because it stood in place of her own.

It was customary for the Apes, and also for the Men, when they had taken prisoners from each other, to reduce them to slavery, a custom which had arisen, however, only since their separation; for prior to that, they had neither property nor interest in each other’s work; and so neither man nor ape was believed to be worth anything. But, in acquiring property they put value on men as well as on cocoanuts, and kept each other as a treasure where before they had killed each other as a nuisance. Some even went to war for the prisoners, and the more valuable they found men to be the more they fought them, until they soon came to want enemies more than friends, and to like them better than allies. They fought for something instead of against something, and numbered their prisoners rather than their victories. Both sides became kidnappers, instead of warriors, and the principle and practice of slavery was established, as a result of learning the worth of men.

The warrior Oboo, who had brought Orlee to the Lali, was seen all day to hang around the woman in whose charge the child had been placed. Some thought it was on account of his interest in the child; but shrewder apes said it was on account of his interest in the woman. As the newly-arrived child had obtained a mother he thought it ought also to have a father. The female ape did not repel the advances of the warrior, but said that if he would also restore her own child he might be father to both. The mother was, however, much comforted for the loss of her child by this gain of a father for it. The two wanted both to attend to the new child, the result of which was that the child received no attention, which proved serious, as we shall see. For they paid so much attention to each other that they often wholly forgot the child.

This warrior, Oboo, had not a good reputation among the Lali. Several scandals had already disgraced him, and his attention to this new woman was looked upon with suspicion.

“No good will come of it,” said an observant ape, who remembered his gallantries to others, and who was aware that he seized every pretext to ingratiate himself with a susceptible female ape. His bravery, however, had made him a favorite among the women, although his gallantry had much to do with it. He was a Simian “Masher,” and twice got his head pounded by male apes who did not like his attentions to their female friends.

This ape was charged with starting out for the child, not because he wanted it, but because he wanted the mother, and because he hoped that his bravery would be rewarded with her love. Thus are the motives of apes, like those of men, impugned from jealousy, and our greatest warriors are traduced by their rivals. No pains were spared to suggest these suspicions to the woman herself, especially by another ape who had loved her, and had likewise started for her child and come back unsuccessful. These two male apes finally came together, and when one charged the other with cowardice, and was charged in turn with “spooniness,” they came to blows, or rather scratches, and would have killed each other had not the woman interposed.

“There is not much difference between you in virtue,” she said, “and whoever brings back my child shall be thought the braver.”

“Will you give up that ape if I bring back your child?” asked the new-comer.

“Yes, but I will stay with him till then for having brought this one,” was her reply.

The ape departed at this rebuff, divided in his thoughts between the purpose of recovering the child and that of punishing his rival for his insolence and his success.

CHAPTER XI.

The morning after the quarrel and make-up between Koree and Sosee, these two lovers started out to rescue Orlee from the captivity just mentioned. They tried in vain to induce the Ammi to go out as a body to recapture her, but nearly all except these two had exhausted their strength and their interest the day before. An excitement did not last as long with the Ammi as with their present descendants, and when they were not all interested they were quickly reconciled to an outrage. Koree and Sosee, however, in their first ardor of love, knew no rest, and had not yet learned to despair.

Arming themselves, therefore, with clubs and sharp stones, they started around the Swamp, intending to travel by day and at night to steal upon the camp of the Lali and take the child by some artifice. They kept along the border of the Swamp, and where it was not too deep to wade, cut across its waters. The danger of neither wild beasts nor serpents terrified them. They were together, and were fixed on one purpose. Koree was willing to die with his Sosee, and Sosee believed she was in no danger with her Koree. So with resignation or confidence they marched on, heedless of a plunging alligator or swinging python which occasionally disturbed the stillness of the Swamp. Occasionally they stopped to gather mussels or climb after nuts; for they did not think it necessary to take provisions with them. The supplies of scouts and armies in those days were light—they foraged on the country. They marched without chart or compass, and yet rarely missed their way; for they had learned to guide themselves by the sun and the lay of the land. If occasionally, in the thick of the forest, they could not get their bearings, they emerged from the swamp to look at the mountains with whose ranges they were familiar.

It was not easy for primitive man to get lost, and it did not much matter if he was lost. Wherever he placed his foot he was at home, carrying his citizenship with him. Everywhere around were his possessions—the ungathered fruits and fish and game. Everywhere were his friends—the chance baboon or man that he might meet. Only recently, with the association which we mentioned, had there sprung up attachments for individuals. Before that their love was for the race, and anyone represented that race about equally well, as in the case of dogs. Even since they had come to associate, their attachments were not permanent; and they relied much on chance-comers for their society. Should they, therefore, be lost, they would not feel that they were among strangers, any more than that they were away from home.

“If we do not find Orlee will we go back?” asked Koree.

“We will not go back till we find her,” replied Sosee.

“We could live nicely in this forest,” said he; “there is plenty of food, and we need no company.”

“When we find Orlee,” she replied, “we will have company.”

“Two is company,” said he, “and when we find her and take her to her mother, shall we not come here to live?”

“Let us first find her,” she persisted; “we can then decide what to do next.”

“There is nothing that we can lack here,” mused Koree; “a forest and a swamp include all human desires;” and then, after a pause, he added, “and Sosee.”

“And Orlee,” interposed Sosee.

“Love in a cottage” was long antedated by “love in a forest.” A sycamore tree was cottage enough for our first parents.

“O! O! O! O!” ejaculated Sosee, too frightened to say more, as she suddenly ran up a tree.

“Oo! Oo! Oo! Oo!” shrieked Koree, as he ran up another tree.

The cause of this sudden fright was a huge mammoth which slowly lifted itself from a clump of bushes and walked toward the lovers. A great hairy elephant, twice as large as those now existing, with long front legs, carrying his bushy body high up in the air, and a back gradually sloping to the ground, like a giraffe—such was the monster that confronted them.

KOREE AND SOSEE ENCOUNTER A MONSTER.

Sosee had run up a slim sapling which this beast could easily have torn up with his trunk, or from which he could have shaken her down like a cocoanut; while Koree had run up a tree stout enough, indeed, to resist uprooting or shaking, but so low that the monster could easily have reached him with his long trunk. Their safety lay, therefore, in their silence, and they were accordingly quiet,—quiet even for lovers.

The mammoth was in no hurry to leave the place. He browsed about slowly, picking up bunches of grass, or reaching after leaves. Once he picked a trunk full of leaves from the tree in which Koree was sitting; but he took no notice of Koree, whether because he did not see him, or because he did not care for him. Koree and Sosee alone were concerned,—not the pachyderm. They remained simply quiet, and left the great beast in undisputed possession of the field. Never were two lovers more cruelly interrupted, and never did an unwelcome intruder stay so long.

“Two is company,” said Koree to himself, “and three is a great big crowd.”

The lovers could neither touch nor speak.

“Would that our trees were nearer,” whispered Koree.

“Or stouter,” replied Sosee.

“Or taller,” returned Koree.

“Never did I think,” muttered Sosee, “that anything so great could come between our love.”

“Ugh!” shuddered they both.

The huge beast kept on eating, unconscious that he was a bore.

“I wonder when that brute will get enough,” muttered Sosee in impatience.

“If he is going to fill all that big carcass,” replied Koree, “we are up here for all day.”

“Our only hope is that the leaves of these trees will give out,” replied she, “so that he must go elsewhere to finish his dinner.”

“Or that he will want to take something to drink with his meal,” replied Koree, “and so go to the Swamp to wet his snout.”

These breathings of the lovers were unnoticed by the monster, who took them for whisperings of the wind, and went on leisurely eating.

“Never did I see such an appetite,” said Sosee.

“Or one so contented with its dinner,” added Koree.

“I don’t like this seat,” grumbled Sosee, “I wish we were on the same tree.”

“I neither want to sit up here,” returned Koree, “nor get down.”

“I’m hungry,” said Sosee, after a long pause. “Never did I sit so long at a meal, and not eat anything.”

“If this meal of the brute goes on much longer,” said Koree, “we will both starve, or else be eaten.”

Just then, to the inexpressible relief of the tired, hungry and bored lovers, the animal showed signs of satiety. He quit eating, looked around with an air of satisfaction, stretched himself, and made a start, as if about to leave the place. Their gratification, however, was short. He walked around a few steps, and then, to their dismay, lay down under the tree on which Koree was perched, and disposed himself for an afternoon nap.

Koree looked at Sosee, and was silent.

Sosee returned the look, but was too disgusted and empty for utterance.

“If that beast sleeps as long as he eats,” she said, “we will get neither supper nor slumber to night.”

“We will, however,” returned Koree, “be safe; for neither ape nor snake will attack us with such a watch at our door. So one danger wards off another.”

They were now reconciling themselves to spend the balance of the day, and perhaps the night, in this situation, and also to add to their weariness, hunger and disgust, the additional discomforts of sleeplessness and danger. For as Sosee had never slept on a tree (the Ammi having come to the ground before her birth), it was feared that, although her feet were still prehensile, and served her well in climbing, they might fail her from lack of practice when it came to holding to a limb when asleep. Koree determined not to sleep under these circumstances, both because he could not trust himself on a tree when asleep, and because he wanted to watch Sosee in order to rescue her from the mammoth in case she should fall. Love up a tree was thus faithful to the last.

While they were making their preparations for a continued disappointment, however, an accident, which at first seemed disastrous, came happily to their relief. Koree, in restlessly changing his position, fell off the tree, and came down with a thump on the back of the mammoth.

Whether Koree or the monster was more frightened we know not. Koree, however, was uninjured, the great beast breaking his fall, for the huge back of the animal reached, when lying down, well up toward the branches on which Koree was sitting. Sosee was, perhaps, the most frightened of all, as one is often most scared at the danger of another; and she gave a scream which the animal hearing, believed, in connection with the thump on his back, to be caused by some other animal that was attacking him.

He started from his sleep and his position at once, and, without looking for the cause of danger, rushed through the forest, while Koree ran up another tree and waited till the brute was at a safe distance. Then both he and Sosee came down, and returned thanks to the great Shoozoo for their deliverance.

CHAPTER XII.

The two lovers had no other adventure until they came the next afternoon to the farther side of the swamp, where the Lali were settled. There they were astonished at the multitude of the Lali, who greatly outnumbered the Ammi, fairly swarming in the trees and in the open country beyond.

It was not deemed safe to venture out of the Swamp in the presence of so many apes, some of whom would doubtless recognize them as belonging to the Ammi; so they determined to hide in the bushes till night, and then reconnoitre.

In the meantime they had abundant opportunity to watch the movements of the Apes, who kept in groups, as if fearing an attack, although an occasional one was seen alone, and some few came even into the Swamp. The two lovers did not fear the approach of single apes, or even of a small group; for, as there were many varieties among the Lali, and not a single kind only, as among the Ammi, the appearance of a new kind raised no suspicion. The Ammi, or Men, moreover, were hardly distinguishable from certain of the Lali, at least by the Apes.

“The chance of finding Orlee among so many,” said Sosee, “is not good; and if we find her we cannot take her from them.”

“Wait till it is dark,” replied Koree, “and the groups will disperse, when we can both approach them without suspicion, and carry her off without resistance. Trust your lover.”

“I trust you, or I should have not come with you, or have asked you to come,” she answered; “but I see no way to accomplish our object.”

“Do you see that big baboon beyond the crowd walking alone with an ape?” he next asked. “He looks like the fellow that struck me when Orlee was carried off.”

“It must be the same,” replied Sosee; “for there is a child near him which looks like Orlee.”

“I think that is only a young monkey,” replied Koree, “which has been taken out by its parents.”

“The three pay no attention to the other Apes,” replied Sosee, “and are wandering still farther from them. Let us approach them; in their absorption it will cause no alarm.”

“If it is the baboon which I think it is, he will know me,” replied Koree. “At least I cannot mistake him.”

“If we could get a little nearer,” said she, “I could tell whether it is Orlee or not.”

“But we cannot get near the child without getting near the parents,” replied Koree.

“She has wandered off from her keepers,” retorted Sosee. “Let us approach slowly.”

“Wait till it is darker,” said he. “We can then get near enough to recognize her without being recognized by them.”

“They pay no attention to the child,” continued she, “which is moving away from them; and if she goes much farther we can get near enough to see her distinctly without their noticing us.”

“They seem, however,” said he, “to be much interested in something. Such earnestness among monkeys has a meaning.”

“It cannot concern the child,” replied she, “and between their absorption and her distance, we can get her away while they are thinking about themselves.”

“I hate the looks of that baboon,” mused Koree.

“I like the looks of that child,” replied Sosee.

“I will get her if it is Orlee,” he said, “but I want to avoid a blow from that brute. We had better be sure it is Orlee before we take the risk of a broken head in finding out.”

“The child keeps upright far more than the others, which makes me think it is not theirs,” said Sosee.

“I should like to have the child just to avenge the blow I received,” said Koree; “but I don’t want to have a second blow to avenge.”

“I will take the blow if you will get the child,” replied Sosee.

“As long as the two old apes are so near it, we could not carry it off if we got it,” he said. “They would pursue us and overtake us with our load.”

“Two ought to be able to resist two; and Orlee would help us,” replied she.

“Before our fight could end the other apes would come to their succor,” said he.

“Perhaps,” suggested Sosee, “they would give up Orlee if I would stay with them instead.”

“I do not like that suggestion,” replied Koree, “I will get Orlee and keep you. Would you rather have Orlee than me?”

“I was not thinking of that, but only of Orlee.”

They had now approached near enough to see the girl distinctly, whom they recognized to be Orlee. She had wandered so far from her keepers that they did not observe the approaching lovers. Koree and Sosee concluded to steal up to Orlee, and, without raising any suspicion, lead her in the direction of the Swamp and then hurry with her into the bushes where they could not be followed. As it was getting dark the time seemed propitious for their scheme.

The couple in charge of Orlee, were, as will be surmised, Oboo, the ape who had carried her off, and the woman Oola, in whose charge she had been placed. This ape continued his attendance on this woman without interruption, having, while the other Lali were amusing themselves in groups, wandered off with her and the child to be alone. This accounts for their distance from the rest of the Apes. They were so much absorbed, moreover, with each other, that they did not notice that the child, Orlee, had wandered away from them, and was now almost out of their sight, and entirely out of their thoughts. Oboo and the woman simply kept up their love-making, while Koree and Sosee were approaching their prize. What made one pair of lovers forgetful made the other pair alert. Love shuts and opens the eyes of mortals in turn, and lays off the harness from one which it puts on another.

As soon as Orlee recognized her sister she gave a scream of joy which disconcerted the plans of Sosee and Koree. It also startled Oboo and the woman out of their bliss, who now experienced all the horrors of interruption which the other two lovers had suffered the day before on the appearance of the mammoth. Oboo felt most disappointed, and the woman most frightened. They sprang up, and, for a minute, were bewildered, thinking that some curious apes, perhaps rivals, had come suddenly upon them, through jealousy or stupidity, to interrupt their tète-a-tète. The woman instinctively sprang in the direction of the child, while Oboo looked around to see who was the cause of the interruption. Soon they both took in the situation and started in pursuit of the child.

Koree, perceiving that no time was to be lost, had picked up the child and started for the Swamp, Sosee following at full speed. The child, frightened by the bustle, set up a combined screaming and chattering, which attracted the attention of the other Apes and called a large number of them into the pursuit. The scene for a few minutes was like that of a couple of foxes pursued by a pack of hounds, in which the foxes were fast making for the woods.

CHAPTER XIII.

All now depended on whether Koree and Sosee with the child could reach the Swamp in time to conceal themselves before the Lali should arrive. For so dense was the under-growth in the Swamp that it was next to impossible to discover man or beast that should attempt to hide there.

Sosee could easily have gained the Swamp in time for safety, but Koree, who was encumbered with the child, and so could not run as fast as she, was in danger of capture by Oboo, who was fast gaining upon him. Sosee, indeed, had already reached the Swamp, and was about to plunge into its thickets and out of danger, when she turned to see if Koree and the child were making their escape.

She was horrified to perceive that the pursuers were close upon them; and so, instead of saving herself, she turned on them, and made a desperate effort to rescue her companions. Before she could reach them, however, Koree was overtaken by Oboo, when, releasing the child, he dealt Oboo a powerful blow, which stunned him, and, at the same time, avenged the blow received by Koree from the same ape some days before. Sosee now came up, and, flying at the ape with screams and scratches, dealt him another blow scarcely less severe than that administered by Koree. These two blows compelled the ape to loose his hold for the moment.

THE RESCUE OF ORLEE.

Released in this way from his pursuers, Koree picked up the child and again started for the woods, while the ape, recovering from his blows, again started in pursuit. He was gaining on Koree a second time, and would have overtaken him again, had not the course of Koree and Sosee now begun to diverge; for in their anxiety to escape neither had noticed the direction taken by the other in their new start, and so they became separated.

Oboo, observing the beauty and agility of Sosee, felt a desire to possess her which outweighed his anxiety for the child. “She is prettier than the old woman,” he said to himself, “and I will go for her.” Oboo always had time, even in a fight or a race, to observe an attractive female, and his head was invariably turned by the sight, no matter at what business he was engaged. He accordingly turned from the pursuit of Koree and Orlee, and started after the girl. The scratches and pounding which he had received from her were no warning to him, but rather increased his infatuation by testifying to her spirit. Love at first sight is greater among Apes than among Men, and overcomes more obstacles. Accustomed to fight for their females, and often to take them by overcoming them in fight, the love of our primitive ancestors was often “love at first fight.” Oboo, therefore, forgot his heroism in his passion, and, abandoning all that he had set out to accomplish, started in pursuit of his pleasure before he was yet out of his pain, and thought of enjoying the caresses of a lover, while still smarting under her blows. The battle of Mars thus turned into the battle of Cupid, and the warrior, turned lover, continued the pursuit without much changing his method.

While Oboo was thus pursuing Sosee, Koree with the child in his arms had reached the thicket, and was safe. Other apes came up, indeed, to the edge of the swamp, and penetrated its depths; but, as it was getting dark, they soon turned back, discontinuing the pursuit. While there were many things to be found in the Swamp, their experience had taught them that nothing was ever found there which was sought for. They might get other apes or other game, but any particular thing that had escaped in that tangled waste was deemed irretrievably lost.

In the mean time the pursuit of Sosee continued. Love added its inspiration to that of prowess in the breast of her pursuer. Oboo ran for both pleasure and glory. He must have the girl both because he wanted her, and because he dared not return without her. Hence he ran as one who had everything at stake; and so did she. Like Camilla, scouring the plain, she put the Ape-land far behind her, while the distant forest seemed, like Birnam Wood, to be fast approaching her.

Like the timid hare pursued by the hunter, which darts straight for the shelter of the thick brush or dense cedars, her ears laid back upon her shoulders, and her feet in the air, gliding with a billowy motion to a place of safety, so the swift Sosee ran, measuring off the rapid miles under her feet, while her panting warrior-lover, hotly pursuing, sought to take her ere she should find a refuge in the dense groves beyond.

Sosee at last gained the swamp, and was secure from the determined Oboo, who saw her disappear at once out of his sight and out of his hope. The other apes, moreover, which had pursued from a distance, abandoned the chase when they saw her enter the jungle, as a dog ceases to pursue a bird which has flown into the air.

But while she thus escaped her pursuers, she did not so easily escape those who awaited her. Scarcely had she entered the forest when she was met by several apes who were returning from the pursuit of Koree. These, seeing Sosee approach the forest, ran along its border (still keeping behind the foliage), with a view of heading her off. These now sprang suddenly upon her, and, after a short struggle, made her a prisoner.

CHAPTER XIV.

Sosee was led back to the settlement of the Lali, where she was the admiration of all the Apes. Her bright face, her beautiful form, and her shapely limbs fixed the attention of old and young. Her captors were particularly proud and received the congratulations of all the rest, who had now returned from the pursuit of the fugitives.

Oboo alone was unhappy. He was disappointed, both because he did not capture the girl, and because another did. One’s loss is greatest when it is another’s gain. He had visions of love which he must now exchange for those of jealousy. Quick to conceive a fancy he was slow to give it up. Started on a pursuit of love, he was never satisfied till he had achieved a success. And, to make his condition worse, the woman Oola, in whose charge Orlee had been given, and to whom Oboo had been making love, flew into a rage because he had allowed Orlee to escape.

“I am now wholly without a child,” she said; “you are no ape, to fail to overtake a boy encumbered with a girl. You sought my love only to betray me, and now I am without either lover or child; for with you I will have nothing more to do. You care less for me than for the girl whom you followed, instead of my child. If you ever make a soft face at me again, I will scratch out your eyes. I have lost everything through your unmonkey-like conduct.”

Oboo had not much to say, for he could not talk anything well except love, and that he could not talk in company. So he took her reproaches, but felt humiliated; and his embarrassment was increased by the raillery of the others, who said he could love but could not run, and that in the tussle with the girl, he had been beaten. They were so merry at his expense, all the company joining in, that he got his “monkey up,” and, becoming enraged, vented his ill humor on Ilo, the successful ape, who had brought back Sosee.

“You could not have caught her,” he said, “if I had not driven her into your arms.”

“You would never drive a girl into another’s arms, if you could avoid it,” replied Ilo; at which the company chattered merrily their assent.

“I should have caught her,” he said “had you not interfered. She was already mine, and you only took after her after she was captured.”

“I suppose,” replied the other, “you would like to have her, now that you have lost the old woman.”

“I am entitled to her,” he said, “and I shall take her from you.”

“You could not keep her when you had her,” replied Ilo; “and do you expect to both take her from me and keep her yourself?”

“You got her by chance, and could not help taking her when she ran into your arms.”

“I notice, however, that you did not take her when she ran into your arms,” was the reply.

“I will show you,” said Oboo, “that I can take her from both herself and her captor;” at which he seized the girl, and was about to lead her away, when the other dealt him a severe blow.

This was the signal for a great fight. Oboo sprang at the assailant, striking him with hand and foot. The latter then flew at Oboo with both hands, seizing him by the neck. There was now a hand to hand struggle, in which Oboo tried to punch the stomach of his rival, while the latter tried to throw Oboo to the ground. Oboo with his great jaws seized the shoulder of Ilo, who, in turn, dealt Oboo a blow with the other hand, and then bit off his ear. They now fought with both hands and feet and jaws, and the region round about echoed with their growls. Oboo was finally thrown to the ground, when the other jumped upon him, and nearly beat out his breath. As often as he tried to rise the other knocked him down, and sat upon him. The victory was evidently with Ilo, and Oboo would have fared worse had not the woman, who really started the quarrel, now interfered to end it. She took the part of her quondam lover, for whom she discovered a lingering affection, as soon as she saw that he was likely to be slain. She growled and seized the victorious ape, and, after a little struggle between the three, Oboo was allowed to get up and walk away. Too weak to fight and too cross not to, he gave some savage growls as he retreated, and threatened to whip his contestant and take away the girl at another time.

Oboo felt that this was an inglorious day for him—to lose two lovers and get one thrashing. He had, however, only himself to blame. He persisted in making love when he should have been watching a captive. He failed to catch either a young man or a young girl, and when the latter ran into his arms, he failed to retain her, but got worsted in the struggle which ensued; and when he finally would avenge his failures on a more successful ape, he was ingloriously beaten. He therefore lost prestige, military and social, for which he said all the Apes would have to suffer. He was more angry after his fights than in them, so that his rage came at a time when it could not serve him. Monkeys, like men, are more angry at others for their own failures than for anything else, and so Oboo determined to avenge his own blunders on others.

The only one who showed him any sympathy was the woman Oola, who got him into all his trouble. She indicated a willingness to take him back into favor. But Oboo was too cross to entertain proposals even of love, and he went grumbling away, like Achilles, to meditate mischief and make himself more miserable.

CHAPTER XV.

Such was the wrath of Oboo, great monkey from beyond the Swamp, which, kindled by defeated love, against all mortals, sent many souls of heroes to the Shades, and gave their bodies a prey to beasts and birds. Unappeased it flamed in wars unquenchable, and almost sent the human race out of history, and gave back the earth to monkeys, snakes and wide-spreading marshes.

Instigated by the woman who had lost her child, and who was for a second time bereaved by the loss of its substitute, Oboo proposed the next day that Sosee be given back to the Ammi, in exchange for the child first captured. This was suggested, not because he cared for the child, but because he desired to punish the ape who had got possession of Sosee. If he could not himself have the girl, he did not want another to have her. Such jealousy was in the minds of sub-mortals.

This the swift-footed Ilo, captor of Sosee, stoutly resisted. “If you touch a hair of that maiden,” he said, “I will jump with both feet against your belly and scratch out all monkeydom. To your licking of last night I will add your death to-day. Hear me, O Shoozoo, if ever monkey was so wronged as I, and help me to avenge myself upon this insolent gusher, who has already made love to all the apes, and now wants my little and dear prize, which alone is to comfort my home, and gather my plantains in the far off forests of the uplands.”

And he walked along the shore of the loud-roaring frog pond.

In the meantime Koree, who had eluded his pursuers, was picking his way through the Swamp, carrying Orlee in his arms and Sosee in his heart, hoping that his beloved was likewise threading her way by another route to the Ammi, where they would soon meet to enjoy perpetually their love. This consummation, however, was not to be reached so soon; but many adventures must first be encountered by both.

As he journeyed on he saw a great cloud spreading over the Swamp, darkening the skies, so that he supposed that Night had suddenly settled down upon Day. Great swarms of bats came out and filled the air with their dull beatings, which added terror to the mystery.

Then followed a great rain, or flood from the skies, which, though lasting but a few minutes, came in such torrents that trees were broken in two and all the land submerged. Koree believed that the Sea had suddenly come upon the Land with the Night, and that Death had come with both to claim him and all things else.

The sun, however, soon came out, reviving his hope; but it came so hot, that though it scarcely penetrated the thick foliage, which was matted with tangled vines, it generated stifling gases, which, rising from the damp shades, nearly strangled him; so that, having escaped death from the water, he now expected it from the air.

Next came a great terror, and he expected to die from fright. There was a desperate battle between a hippopotamus and an alligator which reddened the yellow flood, and stirred it into a wilder foam than the great rain had done. The alligator he believed to be the great Dragon of Shoozoo, or Devil of the Watery World.

Soon the whole swamp was filled with animals. Called out by the rain, some had come to feed, knowing that the waters, stirred by the shower, would be alive with fish and reptiles, while others—great land animals—had been disturbed in their lairs by the washout. Among these last was a great three-toed tapir, which seemed to be lost; and, following near it, came a more graceful animal, having a long tail and two-toed feet, forming a kind of intermediate type between a hog and a deer. These two animals were closely watched by a cave lion, which, washed out of his cave by the flood, was approaching them stealthily in hope of a meal. The sight was one of mingled fear and relief to Koree; for if the lion had not his eye on some desirable game, he would have attacked him. He awaited, therefore, with anxiety the next movements of the beasts, expecting another fight like that between the hippopotamus and the alligator, when a more dreadful sight alarmed both him and the lion, as well as the game which the lion was pursuing, and started them all in different directions.

THE BATTLE IN THE SWAMP.

This was the appearance of a Dinotherium running at full speed, with another animal on its back, both engaged in a fatal conflict. This Dinotherium looked to Koree like a moving hill, so huge were his dimensions. He was a combination of elephant, camel and kangaroo, having a huge hunch on his back, powerful tusks issuing from his jaws, and a pouch underneath, like our Marsupials. The beast on his back was what is known to scientists as a Machairodus, a terrible, carnivorous, cat-like creature, with long saber-shaped canines in its upper jaw, fitting it to pull down and destroy the huge pachyderms (which could easily shake off a lion or tiger.) This monster and this terror of the forest, which together seemed like all the great animals rolled into one, were now united in a death deal. While the cat-like beast was fastening its fangs in the flesh of the other, the latter tried alternately to shake him off and to roll over him. But the savage beast, with great skill, defeated these attempts. The huge monster next tried to run under the horizontal limb of a tree, which, though high, was yet too low to permit him to pass under with his load. Koree thought that the beast on top would now be scraped off; but not so. On approaching the limb he jumped over it, like a circus-rider, and alighted on the running beast on the other side. The two now darted on through the Swamp, and at last plunged into a deep lake. The rider was thrown from his place, and, as he could not swim, was drowned. The other, however, which was accustomed to navigate the lakes of this region, and often entered even the open sea, swam across the lake (a deep pool in the slough,) and there, after floating awhile, like a ship unable to find a harbor, moored himself to the bank with his tusks; and in this position Koree left him.

“Where can Sosee be during this flood?” soliloquized Koree, as he started again on his way; “and will she escape the rage of all these beasts?” He remembered, however, her agility in climbing trees, and her repeated escapes from greater dangers; so that his fears were soon calmed in his confidence, and the thought of meeting her again made him quickly forget the great forces of nature and animals which he had just seen in their struggles.

CHAPTER XVI.

When Koree returned with his charge to the Ammi, these were engaged in one of their sports, which consisted in throwing cocoanuts, and the rush of all to get them, much as their descendants now play football. Some of the younger ones amused themselves by racing up and down the trees trying to catch one another, and occasionally shaking each other from the branches. One little girl had caught a skunk which she was trying to feed with figs, to the great disgust of the skunk. All had apparently forgotten the absent ones; for the memory of our first ancestors was short, not having yet been exercised on history.

“I told you to drop that skunk,” said an old woman, “and had you minded me you would not now be sneezing and spitting so violently. Go down to the spring and wash yourself.”

Just then a cocoanut flying through the air, struck the woman in the eye, and for a moment she did not know whether it was the odor from the skunk, or a ball from the players that knocked her down.

“I told you to be careful with your cocoanuts,” she said, “and had you minded me you would not get this shaking;” at which she seized the nearest player by the hair and administered several pulls and scratches.

Finally Koree made his appearance, leading Orlee by the hand. His first anxiety was to know whether Sosee had returned, whom he was alarmed not to see among the players. The mother of Orlee ran franticly to receive her child, which she fondled with an incoherent chattering.

“Where is Sosee?” asked Koree.

“Where is Sosee?” asked the mother at the same time.

Both looked at each other in amazement, and no words were needed to express their mutual disappointment.

“Have you restored to me one child only to lose another?” asked the mother reproachfully.

“Have I lost a lover,” replied Koree, “only to rescue a baby?”

Both, forgetful of what they had, were about to quarrel over what they had not. Koree, however, was the more inconsolable, because he had lost all that he went for, which he had, indeed, before starting, and went to retain rather than to acquire. For he went for Sosee rather than for Orlee, seeking the latter only that he might not lose the former.

“Wait,” said Gimbo, the grandfather of Sosee, “and she may yet return. She is doubtless in the swamp detained by some attraction or difficulty.”

“Sosee, unincumbered and swift of foot,” replied Koree, “would not be longer in returning than I with the child. She has either been re-captured by the Lali, or else met with a disaster in the swamp. Perhaps the lion I saw chasing the tapirs devoured her;” and he grieved like Pyramus mourning for Thisbe.

Little did he think that at that moment she was the cause of a quarrel between Oboo and Ilo in the far off land of the Lali. The mother was less concerned, both because she was in the first joys of receiving a restored child, and because, in addition to the uncertainty as to whether Sosee would not return, it was not customary for our ancestors of that day to concern themselves about their grown children. When their offspring had passed the disabilities of infancy, they were allowed to shift for themselves. Orlee, being still a child, was, therefore, dearer to the mother than Sosee; and so, measurably content with the former, she was willing to trust the other to her lover or herself.

When Koree, however, became satisfied that Sosee was lost, he resolved to find her; and, as his fears early persuaded him that she was lost (since fear acts faster in the absence and confidence in the presence of lovers,) he resolved at once to get up an expedition for her recapture.

To set all doubt at rest about her whereabouts, some neutral monkeys, who had recently visited the Lali in a migration southward, now came to the Ammi. They informed the latter that the chief talk among the Lali was about the capture of a beautiful girl, and the quarrel of two apes over her possession. They said also that they heard it intimated among the Lali, that as the girls of the Ammi were more beautiful than those of the Lali, they had a project to capture more of them.

Armed with this information and these threats, Koree now went about to rouse the infant race of men to arms. Rumor went before him, and that which had been a hint soon became an assertion. Horrid tales of captured maidens filled the imaginations of Cocoanut Hill. The young women were especially interested, some hoping they would escape capture, and others that they would not. The old men and women were indifferent, especially as babies were not to be captured. But the young men were easily aroused, especially those who had lovers, and they determined to defend their own.

A league was, therefore, entered into by the young men of the Ammi, which the older men soon after joined, to proceed, like the united princes of Greece, to recapture the stolen maiden and restore her to this earlier Menelaus. Another and older siege of Troy was thus planned, which, like many battles greater than Homer’s, was lost to history, and can now be restored only by meager relics saved from the past.

Let us then proceed, Homer-like, to build up the history of this war, as the mammoth has been rebuilt by putting together here and there a bone, and as Roman history has been constructed by inspecting coins and broken statues. Greater battles are lost than any that are retained in history. The greatest throes of earth and of its inhabitants have escaped even tradition, and are now to be exhumed only from the forgotten. We dig up history as we do potatoes, and wonder that so much activity has been buried. History is now built from this end, and long periods of forgetfulness are being reclaimed. Like the bridges which span the Mississippi, we throw up great highways across prehistoric periods, and prospect in times and lands beyond the known.

CHAPTER XVII.

Busy now were the preparations for dire war. Not that troops were to be armed, or supplies collected for a long campaign. No vessels were to be fitted out to cross the Swamp, or ambulances prepared for the wounded. No loans were to be negotiated or preliminaries of diplomacy settled. The early men were always ready for war, in fact were always at war. One of the first advances of mankind was made when wars were separated from peace, and men observed the difference. As yet war was the natural state, and never had to be declared. Whenever a man met an ape, or even a wild beast, the signal was given for a fight. The race had not yet learned peace, which had to be learned before war, the arts of peace being all of later development. Men had fists before they had plows, and took their food before they produced it.

But the Ammi were, nevertheless, busy with preparations for war. Those are often busiest who have least to do. The excitement made them active, and they rushed about impatient to begin the fray. They had not yet learned to wait, or to take time for things. To resolve was, as yet, to commence. Unaccustomed to those great achievements which require time for preparation, they would enter into a long war as quickly as into a single battle. Had they found their enemy they would have fought that day. The battle generally comes too late for savages, the impulse for war being expended before the fight begins.

Still a few things had to be prepared. While they expected to get their rations from the Swamp, and to rely on some stone heap for weapons, they remembered that in the few years of their separate life as Men they had accumulated some wealth. This it was thought best to protect. They had large quantities of cocoanuts and other fruits in their dens; they had made some valuable instruments of stones and shells; their dug-outs themselves were worth much to them, and would likely be destroyed in their absence; for all which reasons some of the older men opposed the project of war; for wealth is always a promoter of peace.

“It is better to keep our caves and cocoanuts,” said Oko, a stingy fellow, “then to get back a girl.”

Their very position in the Cocoanut Hill region was deemed valuable on account of its abundant fruits and its nearness to the Swamp with its game. They found it advisable, therefore, to protect their homes and country, and for that purpose determined to leave some at home. They learned also that some of their implements might be used in war, or rather recalled the fact, since they were first invented for purposes of war; and it took some time to select what they wanted and to provide for its transportation. Some, not accustomed to hunt, or not liking the products of the Swamp, concluded to take with them the sweetest nuts and juiciest fruits of the Cocoanut Hill region, while others were busy determining the best route to the other side of the Swamp.

These things required activity, and men and women were accordingly busy preparing for war. For the warriors were not confined to men. There were amazons before there were belles. Woman’s equality in public affairs was recognized before her inferiority, and equal rights were as yet the law of the race. Instead of leaving the women behind to protect their homes, they concluded to leave the old and the children behind, while the able-bodied of both sexes were all to go to the field. Oko, the stingy fellow just mentioned, proposed to kill off the non-combatants, as they would eat all the cocoanuts before the warriors should return, and perhaps not let the latter again have possession of their homes.

“You greedy ape,” replied one to this suggestion, “you have not yourself gathered all the fruit you now have; you took some from others’ dens. I saw in your hole a wedge which I made for myself, and a marrow bone sharpened by a woman. You would now like to kill them lest they get back what you stole from them.”

At this the avaricious ape, Oko, threw a cocoanut shell at the speaker, but took care that it was an empty one, for he was so economical, since he had begun the collection of nuts, that he never wasted anything.

The other threw back a filled cocoanut at him, and knocked him down. His generosity in using a whole nut served him a good turn, for liberality is necessary in war, where one may be too stingy even to fight, and lose a battle because he begrudges the price of the weapon. Oko picked up the cocoanut, and—kept it. The Ammi now expected a desperate struggle between the two men; but, one being satisfied with his victory and the other with his gain, they parted, one going off with an air of triumph, and the other with a cocoanut.

Other disputes arose over various details in the conduct of the war, but none broke out into violence.

“Whose girl will Sosee be if we get her back?” asked one.

“Mine!” replied Koree, defiantly.

“Are we all to fight, and only one to get the advantage of it?” asked another.

“You must fight,” retorted Koree, “or you will lose all you have. The restoration of my girl means the protection of yours.”

“If I capture her,” replied a third, “neither Koree nor any one else will get her. A girl, like a cocoanut, belongs to whomsoever gets her.”

“Whoever gets her,” replied Koree, “will get a broken head if he does not restore her to me.”

It was now feared that this altercation would lead to a civil war before the foreign war should commence; when the thoughts of the company were turned by the suggestion of Oko, the stingy fellow mentioned, that the Lali had doubtless acquired some possessions, so that they would all return laden with the spoils of war.

“If it were not so,” he added, “I would not fight at all.”

“Perhaps,” suggested one of the young men, “there are also some pretty apes among them, so that instead of one girl we may bring back many—enough for all.”

“Sosee must be recovered first,” said Koree, “when I will help you to catch all the rest.”

Some, however, could not be made to understand what the war was for.

“I can see no cocoanuts in it,” said one.

“I don’t want my eyes scratched out,” added another, who had lately become interested in a girl who was sitting beside him; “nor do I want her injured.”

“Who knows,” asked a third, “if we shall ever meet again? I fear we shall lose this place and lose one another.”

“Why did Koree lose his girl?” asked another. “He should not have taken her into danger.”

“Men and warriors!” interposed Koree at this point, fearing an insubordination that might be disastrous, “is this your resolution? A little while ago you were impatient for battle. Now you are seeking excuses for peace. None of you are worthy of such honor as awaits us. The defeat of the Lali will give glory to the Ammi, and many women and stores. We will divide their country among us, or, at least, have no more trouble from them. You fight not for me only but for yourselves, and fight that you may have to fight no more. For, this war will destroy all our enemies. Now swear to me not only that you will go to the war (for that you have already done), but that you will never abandon it till Sosee is restored.”

This they all swore by scratching their ribs, and again there was harmony in the counsels of war.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The war being resolved upon, preparations now went on, and consumed so much time that many again lost interest. They grew impatient, first at the preparations, and then at the expected war itself, and so had to be repeatedly stirred up by new infusions of resolution. Koree superintended the preparations, whose chief work was to keep the minds of the people prepared; for our early ancestors could not hold a resolution as long as we. Their anger was soon cool, like their love, and their attention went rapidly from one subject to another.

“Hollow out some water-melons,” said Koree, “in which to carry our weapons.”

The Ammi had used melon rinds for vessels, when they wanted something larger than a cocoanut shell. These lasted, indeed, but a short time, but they were easily replaced.

“Water-melons are too heavy,” said one, “and will spoil before we reach the enemy. Let us use bark which can be tied at the ends and hung over our shoulders.”

Some, accordingly, took bark, but many preferred melons or gourds, which, however, they exchanged for bark before proceeding far. It takes experience to learn what is best for war or peace.

“Sharpen your clubs,” said Koree, “but only at one end. Let the other end be blunt, so as to serve for a staff in marching and a weapon in battle.”

They accordingly sharpened their clubs, which served as spears, and also aided them in digging for roots, clams and other provisions.

They also provided split bones and broken cocoanut shells, which were sharp, and so served both as weapons to cut and implements to dig.

Some thought of still other things which might be useful in war, and filled their bark knapsacks with so much that, when they were ready to start they were so hopelessly overloaded that they could scarcely move. But they gained experience on the way, and soon learned what to leave as well as what to take, thus acquiring early the soldier’s virtue of learning to throw away.

The greedy fellow Oko, already mentioned, wanted them to carry all their stores with them, and he tried to get others to help carry his.

“We helped you gather those stores,” said one, “and will not serve you again by carrying them after you have taken them from us.”

“I did not take them by force,” he answered.

“No,” replied the first, “because you would not fight; but you stole them, or persuaded us to give them to you.”

“I always gave you something in exchange.”

“True, but it was in each case something worth less.”

Oko was the first man that had learned to cheat, his avariciousness being distorted into dishonesty which easily deceived them, since men, though they early learned to resist force, were slow to withstand guile.

Being unable to get help in carrying his stores he concluded to stay at home to watch them, when the thought of getting greater stores from the Lali again changed his mind; and his voice was now for war.

The preparations thus went on, and all seemed propitious for a successful campaign, when suddenly a tremendous shock was felt. A mountain range in the distance rose to the sky, forming a ridge of the Alps. A roar such as has not since visited the earth reverberated through the country, shaking the air as violently as the first shock shook the earth. The world rocked to and fro like a vessel at sea, tumbling every man to the earth, and rolling him over the ground. It was impossible to stand, or even to lie still. The whole human race became sea sick, and all were, in addition, more frightened than sick. Down came the dug-outs with their contents over the heads of the Ammi, and men and provisions were rolled promiscuously over the ground. Fruits and nuts fell from the trees, and many trees fell with them. There seemed to be no safety for anything on the earth, or even for the earth itself. The land appeared to be going, and all looked for a general collapse.

THE CATASTROPHE.

To add to the disaster the Swamp overflowed, and its waters rushed over the settlement of the Ammi, overwhelming everything except the huts that stood on high ground. Several of the men, and many of the women and children, who had escaped being scared to death, were finally drowned; while reptiles and wild beasts again overran the region of the Ammi. All Alligator Swamp seemed emptied upon Cocoanut Hill, and the infant race looked to see their country, like Holland, sink out of sight.

The return of the waves was scarcely less disastrous than their advance. As the earth settled again, and the flood came down from the hills, it swept away much that the advance had left. The earth for a long time swayed back and forth, the waters rushing alternately in each direction. Many of the Ammi escaped only by running into the trees, some of whom even then were shaken down into the water. To add to the terror the sky became dark, the sun being entirely hid by the thick clouds of dust and smoke which issued from the crevices of the earth. Noises were repeatedly heard as of great explosions, and, following every rest from the rocking of the earth, was a shaking up by intermittent convulsions. The birds did not find even the air still enough for flight, but many fell to the ground (or water) killed by the concussion. None knew when the next burst would occur, but all looked for their death, uncertain only whether it would come by fire, water, or engulfment. Thunder seemed to come from both the earth and sky, and lightnings flashed out from the rents of the earth as well as of the clouds. The world at times appeared to be on fire, and it looked as if it would be burned up in case it should escape all the other means of destruction. The sun, the moon, and the stars seemed all to be destroyed, and no human being looked again for light except from the fire of the destruction of all things. Death was expected to follow this disaster, in which men and animals alike were to take part.

In the midst of this despair, however, hope arose with the stillness that came as sudden as had the commotion. The earth seemed again to stand. The thunderings became quiet; the waters rushed back to their places; light began to appear through the smoke, and in time the sun was seen to be in his place. The distant mountain ranges again appeared in sight, but much changed. Some peaks were gone, or lay in heaps about the ranges, while new ridges arose where the plain had before stretched. A new earth seemed to greet the sky; the old horizon was gone, and a new sky-line along the mountains added grandeur as well as novelty to the changed scene.

For a moment the impression prevailed that the earth was not permanent, but changeable like the sea, the forest, and the men. The globe was at this time passing through a crisis as decisive as that of the human race, preparing for our present physical geography as well as our present society; and we may be excused for turning aside, for a moment, from the convulsions of the human mind in its preparations for war, to the physical convulsions of Nature in preparing the earth itself for its future uses.

CHAPTER XIX.

The smoke, the noise, the fire and the water having cleared away, the Ammi were now discussing the earthquake. They had forgot their war preparations in the presence of a greater enemy than the Lali. They had to make peace with the World. What had happened? Will it occur again? These were among the questions they asked.

“I do not see that we made much by coming down from the trees,” said one. “The earth is just as unstable as the trees, and shakes as much as they. I should have been thrown off many times had there been any place to fall to.”

“Had we kept to the trees,” observed another, “we should have had more experience in holding on. I got thrown down and rolled about, because I had nothing to hold to. When the ground rocks it is more violent than a palm or a pine.”

“It all comes,” said Gimbo, the grandfather of Sosee, “from walking upright. If the Apes had kept on all fours, they would not have been thrown to the ground. Nobody can stand on his hind legs alone, in such a shaking. While the rest of you tumbled I remained on my four feet. Men need to walk solidly, and nothing gives a firmer foundation than four feet. No elephant is fool enough to walk on two; and men, by keeping two of their feet in the air, are always falling. It was a great mistake to get up from the ground. Other animals have not done it. Men were made to go on all fours. Everything they want is on the ground, and they can see it better when looking down than when looking up. Their eyes are thus nearer what they are hunting, and they are not in danger of stumbling when they are looking at their feet.”

Another thought that the horror occurred because they were too irreligious. They had been neglecting their ceremonies, and there was general doubt about the traditions of Shoozoo. “It is a divine visitation,” he said, and he was in favor of sacrificing something.

Another said: “It was the voice of the great winged Alligator, with which Shoozoo fought. Chained under the Swamp this beast shook himself, which caused the waters to flow over these regions. The fire and smoke which he blew from his mouth, caused all the damage. He swallowed up the sun and stars for awhile, and the mountains which he carried off he has not yet returned. I think we should propitiate him, or he will come again.”

THE FIGHT WITH THE FIRE MONSTER.

The fire, which some had never before seen, or only vaguely observed in the lightning or a distant volcano, proved the greatest terror of all, as it was the greatest mystery. They saw it creeping through the grass, destroying scattered pieces of wood, as well as flaming in various parts of the forest. They thought it was a great serpent, and tried to kill it by throwing clubs at it, which it in turn devoured; when they declared that it was a monster that fed on wood, and ate whole forests. Some thought that it was the sun that had broken loose from the sky, and fallen in pieces to the earth; because, in addition to its light, they felt its heat. All were inclined to worship it as a divinity, some saying that it was Shoozoo himself.

“It is some kind of snake,” said one, “and I never yet saw a snake that I could not strangle;” whereat he seized a burning brand, which he took to be the body of the serpent, and tried to squeeze it to death. He dropped it quickly, however, with a loud scream, saying that it had bit him. He then jumped on the fire, thinking to crush the monster, when the sparks flew up in great numbers, frightening all who were present, and igniting the hair of the assailant, who was soon rushing about in flames.

“There is a fight between him and the monster,” said one; “let us see which will whip.”

The man was soon burned to death and his body nearly consumed, at which great terror seized the rest.

They called the monster the Sun-serpent, and for a long time, whenever fire appeared, they avoided it, or prayed to it, to avert its wrath. When it lightened they were afraid, and prayed that it would remain in the sky, and not come to the earth. They regarded the thunder as its voice; and when it struck a tree or destroyed a forest, they said it had come down to take a meal. In time, as they got more familiar with it, they took to feeding it with wood, to appease its hunger, and prevent it from devouring them or their possessions. When it went out, they thought it had crawled into the earth, like any other snake, and rarely was anybody bold enough to try to dig it out, or even to approach its hole. When they saw it flying through the air, as in lightning or a falling star, they predicted some great calamity, and were exceptionally religious. They pointed to the many thunder storms and to the damage done by the lightning and rain as evidence of all this; for these disturbances were all more frequent and violent in the Tertiary Age than at any subsequent time, the air being never for a long time either clear or silent.

There was, in short, so much that the early race did not understand, that they were perpetually in awe. Every convulsion of nature was a subject of worship to them. They thought it was alive, or produced by some living monster, and they feared its wrath and tried to appease it. Earth-quakes soon got a name, and were placed among the divinities. Thunder, Lightning, Rain, Hail, and subsequently Snow were canonized as heavenly spirits. The wind was the breath of Shoozoo, or of his great Alligator. Sunshine came to be the smile of the Great Serpent, when he was in good humor. The air came soon to be as full of monsters as the earth, and men’s imagination saw more than their eyes. A spirit world had dawned upon them, and the supernatural began to rule the race. All the unknown was fashioned into gods, and the realm of ignorance became one of terror and devotion.

“It all comes,” persisted Gimbo, “from looking up. If people only walked on their four feet they would not see the sky and its fires. I never see anything that is high, and so am not made afraid. The cure for all these evils is to return to all fours, when you won’t see anything that is so far off that it does not concern you.”

“But you see more snakes, and are more frightened by them than we,” retorted one.

“Snakes must be seen before you have to do with them,” replied Gimbo; “if they see you first you don’t come off so well. By keeping my eyes on the ground, I see them before they harm me, and soon they are out of the way, or I am. When your first acquaintance with a snake is made by tramping on him, there is a disagreeable surprise and a dangerous controversy. But it is not so with the Sun-serpent or the Alligator of Shoozoo, which you are always seeing and which never comes near; so that you are always frightened when there is no danger.”

A long religious controversy then ensued, which turned mainly on whether men should keep to the ways and traditions of their fathers, and walk, like them, on all fours, or whether they should stand up and look ahead. The latter course was thought to unsettle their faith and make them introduce new gods, if not to abandon entirely their religion. Gimbo thought there were swamp snakes enough to engage men’s attention, without troubling themselves about snakes in the air. “Shoozoo’s Alligator,” he said, “is a literal swamp reptile, and that is enough to worship. By introducing new snakes into our theology, you will confuse all our religion.”

Others, however, were not as conservative as Gimbo, but believed in acknowledging snakes wherever they found them. Religion is naturally progressive, they thought, and advancement in religion at this time was believed to consist in adding more snakes to theology.

While, therefore, Gimbo represented the Unitarians, or Mono-snakists, who claimed that there was only one great snake god—the Alligator of Shoozoo—there was a polytheistic, or poly-snake, party, which insisted on a many-snaked Pantheon, and particularly on a belief in the sun-snake and the wood-eating snake, which were thought by many to be one and the same; while still others thought that these, with the Alligator of Shoozoo, formed together a trinity of snakes which were in substance all one, but manifested themselves under the three forms of Sun-light, Wood-fire and Alligator.

CHAPTER XX.

There had up to this time been many sects in the religion of the Ammi. They all agreed simply in recognizing Shoozoo as its founder, and his fight with the Alligator as the great transaction on which it rested. There was early, however, a schism in the main body. One class had drifted away from the worship of Shoozoo to the worship of his Alligator, and in time they claimed that the Alligator was the god, instead of Shoozoo. This came from their habit of using the alligator, or figures representing it, as symbols of the Shoozoo religion, whereby the symbol became in time more important than the thing symbolized. There were, accordingly, in the Shoozoo religion, the pure Shoozoo party and the Alligator party, and for nearly a generation a fierce controversy raged between the two, resulting often in bloodshed.

The Alligator party, however, triumphed in the end, and many of the pure Shoozooists were exiled, and have since lived among the Lali and other apes, where they have continued to worship Shoozoo without any mixture of the Alligator, and have converted back some of the Apes to their faith.

In time, however, the Alligator party came to be divided among themselves, as the outgrowth of the same spirit. They accustomed themselves to use, as the symbol of the Alligator, a dragon-fly (for the alligator vanquished by Shoozoo was admitted to be a flying alligator which somewhat resembled a dragon-fly), and by many the dragon-fly came at length to be taken for the Alligator and to be worshipped as such. A fight accordingly arose between the pure Alligator party and the dragon-fly party that waxed more bitter than the original fight between the Alligator party and the Shoozoo party. The dragon-fly party were in the end victorious, and the Alligator party were slain or banished as heretics, just as the pure Shoozoo party had been.

There was soon after this a like division among the successful Dragon-fly party, and from a like cause. The people, finding it difficult to draw a dragon-fly, represented it by a cross, or two lines drawn transversely, the longer one representing the body of the fly, and the shorter one its wings. This symbol, which was soon seen on all the utensils of the Ammi, and frequently carved on trees and rocks, especially during the controversy with the Alligator party, came at length to be taken for the dragon-fly, and worshipped in its stead. This abuse was deplored by some of the Ammi, who tried to recall the people to the worship of the dragon-fly itself, and not its symbol. Others, however, had become attached to the cross, and soon there was a violent controversy between the dragon-fly party and the cross party, and the dragon-fly party fought the cross party more than they had both together fought the Alligator party. The cross party were successful, however, and the dragon-fly party were compelled to keep quiet; for by this time they had learned the first rudiments of religious tolerance, and stopped killing and banishing the dissenters, provided only that they would not preach their doctrines in public, or attempt to disturb the established faith.

Soon, however, the cross party was rent with dissensions, one class insisting on worshiping the long beam of the cross, and the other the short beam; and there was soon the long-beam cross party and the short-beam cross party in the church, and the long-beam party fought the short-beam party more than the whole cross party had before fought the dragon-fly party. The short-beam party insisted at last on making the short beam as long as the long beam, forming something like a Greek Cross, which finally came to be their symbol, while the long-beam party came in time to omit the short beam altogether and use only a one-beam cross; and they took as their symbol a straight line.

The short-beam cross party, however, were successful, and they greatly persecuted the long-beam party, though with less severity than their predecessors had done, because the spirit of religious liberty was always in the ascendant.

The short-beam cross party, however, soon broke up into other sects owing to disputes about the nature and form of the short-beam cross, which gave the long-beam cross party (which had at length become the one-beam cross party) an opportunity to urge its claims, and there was a reaction among the short-beam cross party in favor of the long-beam cross party, which gained many converts, and at one time threatened the disruption of the short-beam cross party; and it would doubtless have accomplished this but for a great reformation which now swept over the religious world of the Ammi.

This was a movement in favor of restoring the primitive religion of Shoozoo, or the worship of the Alligator. It was led by one Lookoo, who was afterwards known as the Great Reformer. With a fiery zeal and vigorous eloquence he called the attention of the Ammi to the fact they had got away entirely from their original faith, which was in the Alligator, and, instead, were worshipping short crosses and long crosses.

“Neither short crosses nor long crosses,” said he, “are anything, but only alligators. Not even a dragon-fly will avail you, but only the original Alligator of Shoozoo, who occupies the Swamp and flies through the air. He gives us warmth in the sun, and comes to the earth in lightning to punish his enemies. He is the Lord of the Ammi, and will put to flight the Lali and all monkeys beyond the Swamp. He led our fathers out from the Apes, gave us Cocoanut Hill, taught us to make darts and wedges, and led us to build houses. Our gathered fruits are due to his guidance, and by his jaws the reptiles of the great forest are kept in fear. Return, then, to your allegiance to the great Alligator, the companion of Shoozoo and equal deity with him.”

Lookoo gained many adherents, not only because it was evident to all the Ammi that they had departed from their god for his successive symbols, but because the priests of the short-beam cross religion had established the custom of drinking all the milk in the Cocoanut, which they had taught the rest of the Ammi that it was sacrilege for anybody to drink but the priests. The reformation, accordingly, gained headway out of a desire on the part of the common people to get some of this milk, as well as out of a change in theological convictions. There was a general demand for reform, and some of the worst, as well as some of the best men, were active in the movement. The priests made the principal opposition to it, although a few of them, in the hope of preferment, or because they had a grievance against the other priests, joined the new movement and became its leaders.

The reformation was generally successful. Some, however, refused to be led away by it, but became more devoted than ever to the short-beam cross worship, and cultivated such a devotion for the short-beam cross as had never been known. They were commonly known as the clerical or priestly party, and constituted the conservatives until the time of the great earthquake just mentioned. They insisted on retaining all that their ancestors had handed down to them, the very fact that it had come from antiquity being evidence of its truth; while the Reformers claimed the right of going back to original sources and re-establishing themselves on the truth of the great Alligator.

The tendency to skepticism and the introduction of new gods, deplored by Lookoo, as well as the explanation of the Alligator and other theological truths as phenomena of nature—fire, earthquake, wind, etc.—has generally been found among the Reformers, who early tried to explain all religion away, or else resolve it into natural causes and effects.

CHAPTER XXI.

Among the Lali the religion of Shoozoo was preserved in greater purity. There had not been such a great departure from Shoozoo himself, as among the Ammi, where he was entirely lost in his symbols. Neither had there been so many splits and reformations. The Apes preserved the unity of the church better than the Men.

Instead, however, of losing Shoozoo in the Alligator, like the Ammi, and then losing the Alligator in the dragon-fly, and the dragon-fly in the cross, and the cross in the short beam of the cross, the Lali went to the opposite extreme of deifying and worshiping not only Shoozoo, but everything connected with him. Before one generation had passed Shoozoo’s wife, Simlee, was admitted to equal divinity with him, and it was known as the Shoozoo-Simlee religion. There was thus a male and female deity, or king and queen of heaven. Soon after this Shoozoo’s parents and children were likewise added to the divine family, and worshiped by the Apes. Next came the dart with which Shoozoo struck the moon, and finally the moon itself.

Everything was deemed sacred with which Shoozoo had to do, except the Alligator, which the Apes persistently refused to worship, because the Ammi had taken it up. They claimed, instead, that Shoozoo had killed the alligator in order to take the swallowed moon out of it. Many relics of the dead alligator, indeed, were furnished, and kept as a perpetual testimony to the achievements of Shoozoo, and as a rebuke to the unbelieving Ammi, who dared to worship it. These relics were worn as charms, and many cures were alleged to have been effected by them. Among others the gallant Oboo had been cured of a violent disease. The Swamp in which the Alligator was killed was deemed sacred, and in their devotions the Lali turned their faces to it. Water from this Swamp was likewise deemed sacred, and was always kept on the altars of the Apes, and great devotion was paid to it when exposed to the sight of the worshippers. Forty apes were once killed for sacrilege committed by spilling water, most of them for being mere witnesses of the outrage. A drop of Swamp water was put on every Ape’s head when he was born, and the ceremony was often repeated through life. This water was used in the consecration of their priests, and its application once turned the scales of war. Its appearance was consulted for omens, and it was invoked by monkeys when about to go after fruits. Bad luck was attributed to certain disturbances of it. Water-songs were the first specimens of music known to the Apes, and were always sung at exhibitions of water taken from the Swamp. The finest gourds and cocoanut vessels were made to hold this water, and the decoration of these was the first step taken in Sacred Art. Among the first pictures sketched were crude representations of a stream. They called their children after this water, such being the meaning of the common names among them. “Ilo” signifies “touched with water,” and “Oboo” means “Soaked.” Rainy days were deemed more sacred than clear ones, on account of their water, whose descent from the skies was taken as influences from Shoozoo. A flood was regarded as this god coming in disguise; and to be drowned was to be lost in Shoozoo. The Lali washed oftener than the Ammi, not for cleanliness, but on account of their devotion to water; and they would not kill a snake that was still wet. As long as anything, indeed, had upon it water from the great Swamp, it was supposed to be under the protection of Shoozoo. The Apes drank water before eating, and the last thing they did when dying was to drink. To be deprived of water for certain rites was the most serious affliction that could happen to an Ape, and a rebellion once broke out among the Lali because, when on a long march, their leader would not go out of the way to find a stream for ceremonial purposes.

But the refinements of ritual among the Lali were not confined to water, although at the time of which we speak the water rites had attained their greatest ascendancy. The Apes were accustomed to make pilgrimages to Cocoanut Hill where Shoozoo performed his great exploits, which was regarded as Holy Ground, and there they often worshipped. It was the interference of the Ammi with these privileges that led to the quarrels between the Apes and the Men, of which we have spoken. The Ammi, however, claimed that the Apes came not for religious purposes, but to steal cocoanuts, and hence the reprisals already mentioned.

One of the rules of the Lali religion was to kill screech owls when the moon was quarter full, because it was at this period that Shoozoo had killed the owls of Cocoanut Hill, and all owl hunts were in commemoration of his great exploit. Another was to hide their darts for six days after this festival, because during this time Shoozoo rested from his hunt and needed no more owls. Another observance was to present snakes to one another at a certain period in honor of the great serpent which Shoozoo killed and presented to Simlee. For days before this festival the young monkeys were kept busy hunting snakes in the great Swamp. Another requirement was that on the day before Owl-hunt the Lali should walk upright as a preparation for the great festival, since on this day Shoozoo walked upright to aim at the moon. They were forbidden to take fish from the great Swamp on Snake Day, though they might then take them from other waters. No monkey must kill another during these festivals, as this right was reserved to the priests alone, who must, however, use their victims only in sacrifice.

Departure from these rules was punished by being plunged in the Great Swamp to wash away the guilt. The sinner was kept under as long as the celebrant deemed fit; and if he survived he was said to be reconciled to Shoozoo, and if not he was deemed incapable of purification and deservedly dead. There were other penalties for small offenders. Most of the offences among the Lali were religious violations, and the punishment was in the hands of the priests, which had much to do with the preservation of the unity of religion. Sin was recognized before wrong, nonconformity before crime, and ecclesiastical penalties before civil. Frequent attempts were made to throw off the tyranny of the priesthood, but the leaders of the revolt were quickly apprehended, and usually put to death with great tortures. Heresies were not infrequent among the Apes, who soon learned, however, that it was not policy to make them known. In general there was a remarkable unanimity among them—a greater degree than has since been known in religious affairs.

Among the maxims of the Lali, which were also current among the Ammi, (for, notwithstanding their religious differences, their morality was substantially the same), were the following:

Keep your snout in your own cocoanut.

Never bite off an ear in sport.

Stick to the tree you are climbing.

Don’t fight over what you don’t want.

Save what you can’t eat, remembering that you must eat again.

Don’t crack your cocoanuts on each other’s heads.

Half the time spent in washing that you spend in scratching would keep you more comfortable.

Don’t man the Ammi, (which among the Ammi reads, “Don’t ape the Lali.”)

Get up a tree rather than dispute the ground with a tiger.

If you don’t pick your neighbor’s fleas you will be bit by your own fleas.

After this digression on the religion and morality of the Lali, we will return to the affairs of the Ammi.

CHAPTER XXII.

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.”

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.

CHAPTER XXIII.

On the fourth day of their march the Ammi came to a body of water, which threatened to turn them back and defeat their expedition. The great earthquake, in tilting the country, had caused the Swamp to overflow, and cover a great part of the dry land. There was a large lake formed in this way, which was connected with the Swamp by a strait, or narrow neck of water. It was necessary for the Ammi to cross this strait, or else go round the new lake.

“This lake was not here when I passed this way before,” said Koree, “so that it cannot be deep. Let us, therefore, go through it, for we can easily wade.”

He thereupon marched in, leading the way for the hosts of mankind to follow. He was soon, however, beyond his depth, and ordered a retreat.

“We have not struck the right path,” he said; “let us cross farther away from the Swamp.”

He accordingly made a second attempt, but with no better result. The water was everywhere too deep to ford.

“I think,” said another, “that we had better go round. If the lake is a new one it cannot be large.”

“If the water is so deep,” replied a third, “it must extend far into the country. I think we had better go through the Swamp.”

“There appears,” said still another, “to be more water in the Swamp than anywhere else. I wonder where all this water comes from.”

“To settle the matter,” said Cocoanut-scooper, “I will climb this palm tree. From its top I can see the end of the lake if it is small.”

Suiting his action to his words he bounded up the tree, which was an easy matter for one who had climbed so many in prospecting for fruit.

“There is no end of the water,” he said, on returning. “The Swamp is flooded and the new lake extends far out of sight.”

“There is then nothing to do,” said Koree, “but to cross it. So let us spread out, and each hunt for a shallow place.”

“We might,” observed another, “wait till the water subsides.”

“Or,” said Oko, “we could go back and give up the war. If the country is flooded everything beyond is destroyed, and we will make nothing by conquering the Lali, who have no doubt been washed out with all their provisions.”

“There is plenty of fruit beyond,” said Cocoanut-Scooper, “I observed that before coming down from the palm. We shall have a prosperous march if we only get over this water.”

The great flood, however, rolled, like Jordan, between them and the promised land; and no power, human or apian, had yet crossed such a stream.

A few limbs and trunks of trees were floating in the water, which suggested an idea to Koree.

“If we could each get on one of these pieces of floating wood,” he said, “we might get over the water; for the wind is driving them in that direction.”

“Good,” said Pounder, “and I will be the first to try it. I can handle a wild beast or an alligator, and so need not fear a log.”

So he rushed into the water and seized the trunk of a dead tree floating near, and was soon astride it drifting toward the other shore.

Others followed his example, and soon the river was full of warriors, each trying to mount a log and sail across the lake. Some of the limbs, however, were too small to bear their weight, and had to be abandoned. Others were of awkward shape and would not remain long in the same position, and so could not be controlled. Several, however, mounted successfully, and expected soon to reach the opposite shore. Pounder was in the lead, and beckoned the rest to follow him.

But there were not logs enough to supply all, so that not many followed him, and some began to disparage this means of crossing.

“Come on,” cried Pounder. “If you are afraid of the water, how do you expect to meet the enemy?”

“Come back,” replied Koree, “till we can all provide ourselves with logs, or else find other means of crossing.”

POUNDER’S MISHAP.

“I will not come back,” he said; “you are cowards, and when I get on the other side I will”—

Just then his log turned, and the great Pounder was seen with his feet in the air, kicking at the sun. Down he went head first into the water and out of sight. Soon, however, he reappeared, and after spitting out a mouthful of water, and shaking his locks, tried to regain his log. But he could not raise himself for awhile, and when at last he succeeded in remounting the log it turned again and buried him a second time out of sight.

“I would rather have hold of an alligator than of this thing,” he said, as he came up spitting and shivering.

Finding, however, that he could not mount the log securely, he abandoned it, and swam back to the shore; and all the rest who had not been thrown from their logs followed his example, lest they should meet a like disaster.

But the experiment was not lost, and the fruitless attempt to cross in this way suggested several improvements in navigation.

“Some logs float better than others,” observed Koree; and there was a long discussion about how to trim and hew them so as to make them hold a man. Many experiments were made. They used their stone wedges and bear’s teeth to hollow them into shape. This work continued for days, and as a result of their consultations and efforts, a crude canoe, or boat was formed, but not till after many failures to make it hold its contents. The first success was accomplished by Duco who managed, after many dangers, to cross the lake in a vessel of his own construction.

There was now an ambition in every one to construct a boat, and they almost forgot the war in their enthusiasm for this new industry. The art of ship-building was thus begun, and a navy put in process of construction.

CHAPTER XXIV.

“We can never at this rate,” said Koree, “construct boats enough to cross this water. We have already toiled many days and only one man has yet crossed and returned.”

“Even if we could get our boats ready,” replied Pounder, “we could not rely on them to carry us safely across. Duco waited long for a good wind, and when it came it blowed him in many directions before landing him on the opposite shore. If we entered such vessels, we would be scattered and lost.”

“Let us go back,” said Oko, “or we will lose all.”

Koree at this moment observed that several of the logs had floated together, and were being driven about in a cluster. The boys were amusing themselves by jumping from one to another, and all were being carried along by the flood.

“If we could fasten those logs together,” he said, “they would hold many of us, and by making several such collections we could all get across.”

This was a new idea which was immediately acted upon by the Ammi. It did not take our early ancestors long to adopt a suggestion or introduce an improvement. From the thought to the act was only a step, and, though most steps were failures, they made so many that occasionally they achieved a success.

“Collect all the logs,” he said, “and get willows and bark to fasten them together.”

They were, therefore, soon busy collecting the logs that were in the water, and rolling others from the land with their clubs, which they used as levers, thus learning incidentally an important mechanical principle. With their hatchets of flint they chopped off branches, shaped the timber into the desired form, and even felled trees for their bark or trunks. It was obvious that a raft would soon be constructed and set afloat.

They had shortly before built in a similar manner a small bridge near their dwellings to enable them to cross to a dry point in the Swamp; and, seeing a flood carry it away, (when it floated on the water), they were not wholly unprepared to see this new raft also float.

“If one log floats why will not more?” asked Koree.

“If our bridge floated away, this also will do so,” replied another; and they thenceforth called it the “floating bridge.”

The raft was soon finished, and a large number of men and women at once rushed upon it, so many, indeed, that it began to sink.

This was looked upon as a failure, and the disappointment of the whole human race was no less than when Fulton’s first steamer failed to move.

“The thing will not float,” observed Oko.

“It floated,” replied Duco, “until we all got upon it. If some would get off it would float again.”

“But we must all cross over, or none,” replied Abroo, the Family-man.

“Let us build more rafts,” interposed Koree, “and in several of them we can all cross.”

“Instead of this,” said Abroo, the Family-man, “let part of our hosts cross at once, when this structure can be brought back for the others to cross. I and my party will cross first.”

This was agreed to, except that, instead of Abroo and his clan, Duco was chosen to take charge of the first load.

The next difficulty was in getting the raft started. It lay motionless with its load.

“Wait till the wind rises,” said Koree.

Presently a gust struck them, but it had no effect in starting them.

“Let us push the thing with our clubs,” said Duco, at which all applied themselves vigorously.

The raft was easily moved in this way, and continued to go as long as they could reach bottom; but in deep water it stood still, or floated at the mercy of the waves. Pounder tried to move it by sitting on one log and pushing with his feet against another. Others beat the water, which had a little effect. Duco then discovered that by pushing in the opposite direction against the water they could make it move; and soon they were paddling in the modern fashion. During much of the way the water was shallow enough to permit them to use their clubs as poles, or, to get out and push; so that they were soon far out from land and going in the right direction.

They would now have reached the opposite shore but for Pounder, who kept pushing in the way just described thinking he was forcing along the raft. By reason of his vigorous efforts he snapped the bands which held the logs together. The raft broke in pieces and he was the first to fall through into the water. He went down between the logs which he was pushing apart. Others fell into the water with him, but most remained on one part or other of the raft; for it broke into nearly equal parts. Pounder floundered awhile in the water; but, being accustomed to that, through his previous plunges from the log, he soon got hold of one of the rafts and lifted himself out of the water.

“These things can’t be depended on,” he said, as he regained his place on board.

They had now two rafts instead of one, and they pushed and paddled on each. Pounder, instead of sitting on one log and pushing against another, next took a seat on one log and pushed with his feet against a knot on the same log, and believed he was rendering the principal aid in propelling the raft.

It was easier to proceed with two small rafts than one large one, and accordingly both were soon landed on the opposite shore, but not till several of the passengers had fallen overboard and the craft had been badly damaged.

This was the first water voyage made by the human race. After repairing their vessels they returned and brought over the remaining hosts, but not without similar mishaps. Gimbo, the grandfather of Sosee, fell, with others, into the water, and was nearly drowned. Only by standing on tiptoes could he keep his head above water until he was rescued, when he made the following observation:

“The water is the only place where it is better to walk on two feet than on four.”

Having now crossed the lake it was proposed by Oko that they keep the rafts. “We spent too much work on them,” he said, “to throw them away.”

“We cannot take them with us,” replied Koree.

“We may want them when we return,” interposed Duco; “so let us fasten them where we can find them.”

“And let us leave somebody here to watch them,” said Oko, apprehensive lest some of their property should be lost.

Like the ships of the Greeks on the coast of Troy these rafts were, accordingly, made fast, so that they should be ready for the return voyage of the warriors at the close of the war.

CHAPTER XXV.

The Ammi now continued their forward march with but little interruption.

“I fear this expedition will end in disaster,” said Gimbo; “our falling into the water is a bad sign.”

“I think so to,” added Pounder, recalling his duckings; “but before it ends I shall have a fight with the Apes, and smash some of their jaws.”

“What looks to me worst,” said another, “is, that when I was sharpening my flint this morning, the Fire-monster suddenly appeared to me, starting up out of the flint and immediately disappearing again.”

“I saw the same thing,” added another, “when Pounder struck me in the eye. Fire flew in all directions and then disappeared.”

One of the scouts now returned breathless announcing that they could see the Lali in the distance.

“Let me reconnoiter,” said Koree, who advanced rapidly to the farther edge of the swamp, from which, indeed, the Apes could be distinctly seen.

These were running up and down the trees, apparently gathering fruit, and chasing one another over the plains without any apparent purpose except sport. But men never knew the deep designs of Monkeys.

“Where is Sosee, I wonder?” asked Koree, who was too much interested in the object of his love to attend closely to the requirements of war. He did not observe that at that moment a great ape was stealthily approaching him from one side.

For the Apes had out their pickets as well as the men, owing to apprehensions of an attack; while others were scattered through the Swamp hunting food.

After a little waiting and looking he thought he descried Sosee in the distance walking with a handsome ape who was exceedingly attentive to her.

Jealousy now succeeded to prudence, and his rage would have at once carried him alone into the ranks of the enemy to capture her (and be captured instead), but, another incident prevented him from accomplishing this disaster.

“I will have her at once,” he said, “and scatter the brains of that monkey attendant over any one who opposes me.”

At this instant the ape who was watching him ran up and dealt him a powerful blow, knocking his resolution, his jealousy and his love out of him for a while.

Koree, recovering his senses, now transferred his rage to this new quarter, and, following it up with blows, soon brought to the ground his assailant.

This was witnessed by other scouts of the Lali who ran to the rescue of their companion, and also by some scouts of the Ammi who closed on the combatants, so that an immediate fight was threatened between the pickets of the two forces.

THE BATTLE BEGINS.

This encounter, all unpremeditated, nearly defeated the schemes of both parties. It destroyed the hope of secrecy on the part of the Ammi, who thought to take the Lali by surprise; and destroyed the hope of ambush on the part of the Lali who meant to entrap the approaching enemy in the Swamp. Each party, moreover, being ignorant of the force by which it was attacked, and fearing that it might be larger than its own, shrank from fight.

As soon, therefore, as they got released from each other, they flew apart, as if they had been fighting to escape, and not to conquer. Both being afraid, and not daring to seem so, they affected to despise each other, and so, showing their teeth and grinning a defiance, they went in opposite directions, each hoping the other would take the encounter for a chance meeting of strange apes hunting for food, and not a skirmish between the advance guards of mighty hosts prepared for battle.

It was too late, however. Both powers were now apprised of each others’ designs, and both immediately put themselves in readiness for action.

Koree was much blamed by the Ammi for his rashness in precipitating this encounter.

“It was your love,” said Abroo, “which brought us here to fight, and it is your love which will now defeat us. O that love would take sense along with it when it goes either to woo a woman or fight a battle.”

“But it generally turns to foolishness before it accomplishes anything,” added Cocoanut-Scooper.

“And were there not a fool also on the other side it would never succeed at all,” said Oko.

“Koree’s case,” added a fourth, “makes more trouble for others than pleasure for himself.”

“For his falling in love once,” said Pounder, “I fell in the water twice.”

And so they went on reproaching poor Koree for having such a strong love that it would not let them rest, and such a foolish one that it would not let them fight.

Koree had nothing to say, but being himself most convinced of his own foolishness, was angry that others agreed with him, and so simply changed the subject.

“Be ready to fight at once,” he said, “as we may be attacked before we have time to decide whether we will fight or not. Between the lake and the Apes we have nothing left but to triumph.”

“It is either to be killed by the Apes or drowned in the water,” said Oko, “and I don’t like either.”

“We’ll kill some apes before we are killed ourselves,” answered Pounder; “at least, I will.”

“Their forces are more numerous than ours,” insisted Oko.

“That being so,” said Koree, who turned every objection into a new device, “we will fight them by stealth, creeping upon them by night, or enticing them into the woods.”

“Let us rather,” said Duco, “attack them openly, and all at once; though we are less numerous we are armed, and have more skill than they.”

“I think,” said Gimbo, “that the Apes will triumph; they walk on all fours, and people can fight better with four feet than with two; besides, it is not right to—”

“Be still,” said Koree, “or give us your help, instead of your fears.”

It was resolved at last, as they could neither retreat nor stand still, to go forward; and they determined to await an opportunity to make an assault.

And now dread Terror brooded over the hosts of men, causing hearts to flutter and visions of death to rush on the soul. Night and Blood and Pain visited many in dreams, while to some Glory appeared, walking over a vanquished foe. As Koree slept he thought he saw Sosee coming to him in beauty with a branch of evergreen oak, and promise that he should rule over a new race, while she should sit by his side as queen to receive the admiration of all men.

The Apes also quaked, and the convulsions which had just thrown up the Alps were trifling compared with the tremors that shook the breasts of the embattled hosts that night. The morrow was to witness a conflict that would decide whether the human race was to remain on earth or go out of history in its infancy.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Aurora now appeared in the east starting the sleepers from their dreams, and advanced so bright that the terrified Ammi thought the Fire-monster had seized the sky, and was spreading his wings over the whole world, portending death to mortals. First she tinted the new-born Alps with gold, then chased the mists from the valleys, and at last spread the whole earth with day. The courage of the hosts now returned, which had left them during the reign of the night-monsters in their dreams.

With the coming of the light the Ammi marched boldly up to the Lali, while the latter, thrown first into confusion, ran about in a panic, and then, gathering themselves into a body, offered defiance to the intruders.

As when a storm, rushing from the north, suddenly strikes the sea, rolling the waves in mountain ridges along the main, which again, breaking, rush back and fall like cliffs into the deep, stirring the great cauldron of waters to its bottom, and then spread out again into a calm, so the Apes, mightily stirred at the approach of stern War, and driven by their fears, rushed hither and thither over the plain, mounting the trees and scattering to places of safety, and then, as the storm of terror passed on its way regained composure and settled down on the field of battle ready for action.

First advanced from the ranks of the Ammi the mighty Pounder, impatient for battle, and, surveying the plain which lay between the Men and the Apes, he grinned a challenge to the whole Lali.

Him seeing from afar the mighty Scratch-for-Fleas, starting up from the hosts of the Lali and shaking himself, (at which the earth trembled as when Jupiter shook Olympus with a nod), advanced to him, saying:

“For what purpose come you to the shores of the Lali? Have the cocoanuts failed beyond the Swamp, or do you come for our women? We will defend our own, be they cocoanuts or girls. Go back, or taste the wrath of the Monkeys.”

Him answering with a grin, the fierce Pounder showed his teeth. His great lips parted, like the swinging gates of Babylon, bringing to view huge rows of marble-like columns that lined, like palisades, a deep, dark gorge.

A like mouth opened on the other side; and Scratch-for-Fleas, looking now to the east and now to the west, advanced, first on four feet and then on two. Next he moved sidewise, and, at last, for a moment, stood still, moving however in contemplation his great features, which, following his thoughts, changed fast in shape and color like clouds in a mountain storm.

“Do you come for the maiden of Ilo?” he said. “You will return without her. Give back your stolen fruits and women, and we may make peace before war begins.”

Pounder thereupon, without answering, rushed for Scratch-for-Fleas, being better fitted for war than for diplomacy.

Scratch-for-Fleas, fearing the mighty assault, retreated to the hosts of the Lali, unwilling to fight so great a champion; and thereupon a loud shout went up from the Ammi at their bloodless victory. Pounder, however, was disappointed, for he loved fighting better than conquering.

Then the nimble-shanked Nut-picker, he who had been reared on the slopes of Wildcat Mountain, went out from the hosts of the Lali bearing a cocoanut in his hand.

Him seeing, the avaricious Oko, not knowing whether it was a weapon or a truce-signal, went forth to meet, saying, “Do you mean war or cocoanuts? If you mean cocoanuts, produce enough and we may give up the fight.”

Then the nimble-shanked Nut-picker, true-aiming, threw and struck him, and the cocoanut rolled to the ground on one side, and Oko on the other. Picking up himself and then the cocoanut, Oko thereupon retired to the ranks of the Ammi bearing with him his defeat and his booty.

War was now declared and begun, and the two parties, hitherto friends, or indifferent to each other, became enemies. So great a difference does so slight a change produce.

Then, according to the legends of the Ammi, the great spirit of Shoozoo, looking out from the heavens at the combatants, and fearing that his worshippers might be destroyed, called a council of the gods. Simlee, his wife, Queen of Heaven, appeared, leaving her mists, and the great winged Alligator came up out of the Swamp, dripping with the flood, and the Fire-god left his place in the sky, and the Rainbow folded up his rays, and the Wind left the earth and sea, (so that there was a season of calms), and they all met in the sky to take counsel on the events that were about to transpire on earth.

“Dire war,” said Shoozoo, “is hovering over the world, and, unless it is averted, neither Men nor Apes nor earth will long survive. Only recently I saw the world mount up toward the sky, and to-day it stands on tip-toe trying to reach the heavens; for the Alps have not yet gone down. The great Swamp left its bed to march over dry ground, and has not yet gone back. The noise of the earthquake has hardly yet subsided, but still reverberates in distant thunders; and, should war yet rage, things will be so mixed up that nothing will remain for earth or sky that is certain for either.”

“I will arise as a mist,” said Simlee, “and, passing between the two armies, prevent their collision by destroying their sight.”

“The Fire-god will soon scatter the mists,” said Night, “so that they can fight in clear day. Let me rather settle down upon them, through whom none can see; and, though it be but noon, I will wipe out their day.”

And wrapping herself in thick clouds she started for the earth to cover the battle-field with impenetrable shadows.

“Let me rather,” said the great Alligator, “empty the Swamp on them again, and overwhelm them with a second flood.”

“They have made boats,” said the Wind, “and now defy the waters. Let me rather start the air against them. I will give it wings to beat their faces and call in Thunder to frighten them and Rain to blind them, and will so mix heaven and earth and sea together against them that they cannot proceed.”

“There is nothing,” said Shoozoo, “that will avail, but to assuage their wrath, which crosses streams and night and outlasts weather. An interruption to-day prolongs the war, but does not end it. Let us not, by impeding them, add to their rage against each other and their anger against us. For I fear that men will one day mount to heaven and destroy the Gods.”

This advice they consented to follow, not, however, because any of them wanted to, but because they could not agree among themselves what to do.

It was accordingly decided that the deities, operating all together, should descend to the combatants to work on their minds; and so, wrapping themselves in clouds, and mists, and rain, and shadow, and light, which were all mistaken by Mortals for forms of the weather, they entered the battle with both Men and Apes, and worked for peace and a mitigation of the horrors of war.

But when Men and Gods are thus at variance, the Gods fail; and the council of heaven having broken up, the war of earth went on.

CHAPTER XXVII.

First Koree, unmindful of the counsel of the skies, moved forward, and, fearing neither Gods nor Monkeys, sought to begin the battle.

He stood in the plain between the two armies, like an oak in an open field between two forests. Breathing defiance to the Lali, he called out:

“Who dares to meet me of all your hosts, and ward off death from his brow when I discharge this dart, the swift avenger of my wrong?”

Him seeing, and not fearing, the great Tree-climber of the mountains ran to meet, he who had often pulled the tails of cats, and grinned at larger beasts. Stopping often, and then starting again, like a great river that now rushes with violence, and then stops and whirls in an eddy, (showing commotion in its stop as in its onward course), he, seeming irresolute, plunged at last at Koree, having eluded his missiles, and seized him with hands and teeth. Hair and blood flew from Koree, who in turn sent a blow to Tree-climber’s ribs, which loosed his ribs and no less his fingers and teeth from Koree’s flesh; and the great warriors, bleeding and aching, flew apart. They stood, frowning like two mountain peaks about to fall with a crash upon each other, but were stayed in their rage by a return of Fear, the destroyer of battles. Both having enough, and being uncertain what it would be to get more, went back, one to the west like the sun, and the other to the east like a shadow; and there was a lull in the storm.

KOREE’S CHALLENGE.

Then Kimpoo, the skunk-scented, rising among the Lali, went forth, breathing war from his extended nostrils, and, scratching first his thigh and then his ribs, said in defiant tones:

“Invaders of our homes! go back to disgrace, or come forth to death.”

So saying he threw a cocoanut which grazed the ear of Duco, calling forth a little blood and a big howl, and then passed on and struck the stomach of Pounder, producing only a grunt.

Then High-tail, the Wood-pecker hunter, ran forth, he who knew all the holes in Possum Grove, and smelt at many and was sad. Aiming at Kimpoo a marrow bone, he threw it with such force, that, whistling through the air, it was heard but not seen. It entered his head where a flea had left a bite at early dawn; and as the bone went in his soul went out. Down he fell with a crash, as when a mountain fir is broken in the storm.

Then Ilko, a friend of the slain ape and lover of huckle berries, rushed forth to avenge his death, and, aiming a stone at the head of High-tail, threw it with such precision that death entered where he struck, and the losses between the two forces were equal.

Then seeing that Death was to be the companion of this War, and uncertain which army would survive, Koree invoked the aid of Shoozoo.

“Great spirit of the skies and Swamp, God and Alligator,” he said, “teach us to conquer on this field or to run away in time. May our arms be stronger than the enemy, or our feet swifter than Death.”

And then rushing out he called on any of the Lali to come forth to meet him in battle, and particularly Ilo, the robber of his pleasures.

But Ilo was sitting afar off with Sosee, guarding her against escape and the seductions of Oboo his rival, and he heard not the challenge to battle.

But Owl-catcher heard, and, fired with anger and a desire for glory, went forth to meet him. On all fours he went, looking up at times as he ran and rising on his feet to survey the field.

Koree, advancing, threw a sharpened flint at him, aiming at where the hair is parted on the brow, and there it entered. The distant Alps disappeared from the eyes of Owl-catcher, and, as all things faded from his sight, he knew not whether the world or a monkey was collapsing.

Now Ilo, hearing that he was challenged, came to the fight; but not willingly. Sosee had demanded that he play not the coward; for love cannot follow the timorous. But whether she deeply designed that he should die or be victor, none could fathom. He came to the front and met the proud Koree who said:

“I have a plentiful supply of death for the Lali, and for you I will send it on this bone;” and he discharged a split marrow-bone at his breast. It was one that Sosee had sharpened while they talked together of love and acted out their conversation, and she had graved on it, with a bear’s tooth, the wing of a dragon fly.

This marrow-bone pierced the flesh of Ilo, but not his love-tickled heart; and he ran away screaming and bleeding, not wishing to die while in the joys of his first love.

He sought out Sosee in the distance, who showered her compassion, if not her affection, upon him; and she drew the bone from his breast, when, seeing it was the weapon of Koree which her own hands had fashioned, she was thrown into consternation.

“Is my lover fighting my lover?” she asked, “and do I make the weapons that slay them?” and she rushed to the scene of battle and came between the lines.

At the sight of Sosee a shout arose from the Ammi, who thought that she had escaped, or else that the Lali, fearing their defeat, were surrendering her. Koree ran to meet her, forgetful that the battle was raging, when, being about to grasp her in his arms, he was struck by a cocoanut in the ear, which had been thrown by Tree-jumper, an ape from the Bamboo plains, who had started in her pursuit. Koree fell to the ground, stunned by the stroke of the ape and the sight of his beloved, for the double blow on his eye and ear exhausted him, being already weary from strife. But he fell unhurt, and was picked up by friends and carried to a place of safety.

Sosee, however, was seized by Tree-jumper, and taken back to the Lali, who placed her far from the front, where she was safe from both death and rescue.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Now the battle raged on all sides. Not one but many went forth from each army, and were engaged in groups fighting hand to hand, or throwing missiles. The sudden appearance of Sosee, which revived the hopes of the Ammi, who thought the girl and the end of the war were both within their grasp, increased their fury when they saw her followed by a captor, and a general rush was made to take the field and the girl by storm.

First Pounder entered the combat, and was met by an ape from the north country. This ape was descended from a long line of heroes; Sookaloo was his father, who had fought bumble-bees in the meadows about the great springs, and there the bones of his kindred repose. This ape, advancing to meet Pounder, drew the battle toward him. Both clenched and opened their jaws, and soon both were in each other’s arms and teeth. Anger and strength met in Pounder, and were united for the death of his antagonist. But this was delayed awhile, and struggles, growls and blood were yielded instead. Then weakness followed, and at last darkness gathered about the eyes of the ape; his thoughts took flight, and quiet settled over him even in battle.

Striding over his body Pounder now rushed on to new conquests, impatient for more strife. A great gorilla-like monster next met him, approaching from afar. With thoughts of death in his eye, he came walking on his hands, swinging his great body between them, like a huge kettle between two posts. He appeared to be walking and sitting at once.

“Come you to bring new honor to these arms?” said Pounder. “I will soon bear your death about me as a trophy, and those that I send out of the world will not be lonely beyond the Swamp.”

As when Day and Night meet at dawn, and, in hot contest redden the whole sky with blood, and, Night being slain, Day moves on over the sky in undisputed and undivided sway, so these mighty heroes met, and in the battle the ape was overcome and sank from the contest, while Pounder, rising like the sun from the death of Night, marched on victorious over the scene, and was lord of the field.

On again rushed Pounder, like Hector at Troy; and the Apes, seeing their warriors fall at his strokes, feared to engage him in single combat.

“Let us attack him together,” they said; and two great apes stood up to meet him, like twin mountain peaks approached by a storm. One met his fist with his eye and saw no more that day; the other seized his arm and in that grasp laid hold of Death, whom none survive; and as he fell the dull earth reëchoed the crash to the mountains, which he alone did not hear.

Terror now took hold of all that beheld the mighty Pounder, and they fled from his advance as peasants working in a field flee from an approaching flood, some to be overtaken and destroyed, and others to escape to a safe place in the highlands. Pounder now chased, instead of fought, the Apes, hunting for a foe with whom to measure his strength and with difficulty finding one.

At last Ilo, recovering from his wound, but not his rage, rushed again to the field, (impelled also by Sosee), and, seeing the advance of Pounder, which drove the Apes before him, met him with a stone, (which reaches further than an ape’s arm). Forth into the air, like Iris from the command of Jove, rushed this messenger of wrath, and, singing a battle cry as it went, it struck Pounder in the breast; when out went his breath and up went his feet—but only for awhile. Pounder arose again, but, being unable to fight, was carried back by his comrades; and again the fight went on without him, to his great disappointment.

The Apes, encouraged by the arrest of the flood of death, now returned to the field, and everywhere were single fights. Stones, cocoanuts, gourds and bones flew through the air. Cries and groans mingled with growls, and which was man and which was monkey could not be discerned in the battle.

Finger-at-his-nose, an ape from the shores lying to the south, where his ancestors fished for crabs with their tails, and made mighty grimaces while waiting for a bite, scraped the face of Stretch-mouth with a shell, and was put to flight with a club in hands of Abroo; and, as he ran a shower of stones followed him, and he thought the crabs of all the Swamp were pulling at him.

Then High-climber, who was quick to look around and unfriendly to mosquitos, advanced from among the Apes with a cocoanut in his hand. This cocoanut he had pulled in a dense grove at sunset and hid at the foot of a palm, where a buzzard was feeding on an aurochs. The buzzard dug it up and carried it to a mountain crag, where Imko, finding it, brought it to the camp of the Lali. There High-climber, seeing it, again took possession of it and slew Imko the supposed thief. With this cocoanut, High-climber, aiming at the head of Frog-catcher, struck him where the nose separates the eyes, like the mountains of Caucasus between two great seas. Frog-catcher fell and one less Ammi was left to propagate the new race.

Then Watch-the-Girls, furious with rage, rushed forth, and, with a sharp stone and loud shout, mixed in the fight. Ape after ape fell before her, wounded or scared. Like a she-wolf tearing the fold she ran about dealing destruction, while the timid flock fled on all sides, or gathered in groups too frightened to flee. One, Bushy-face thought to resist her, and, turning, aimed a dart at her bright eye. But, too dazzled or too terrified to aim, he missed his mark, when, from the same eye, she sent a dart of defiance and from her hand a stone. Both struck the eye which aimed the first blow, and back went retribution on the wrong intended. Down sank Bushy-face in darkness, and away went all things from his view. To the world the monkey was no more, and to the monkey the world was no more; and which was destroyed has never been settled between them.

Then off in the distance was heard a great chorus of screams, while a rush of all the Apes to that quarter drew the battle with it. The girls, who had been led to the war by Watch-the-Girls, then thought to enter the fight. They had been restrained by their leader; but now, impetuous, they rushed against the enemy; whom seeing, the salacious Apes, enamoured of the daughters of Men, and forgetting their anger in their lust, gave up the battle for a rape, and rushed upon the girls to make them prisoners. The girls, scorning to be carried away instead of attacked, (having come to fight and not to be wooed), struggled hard with their captors, but more from pride than desire.

Then all the Ammi, seeing that their girls were about to be taken, transferred the war to that quarter, and fought for their own, instead of against the enemy. Inspired by jealousy as well as rage, the battle now waxed fiercer, as when to a raging fire is added the wind, and the conflagration spreads into a forest. Death moved about rapidly over the field, visiting now a man and now an ape, and calling him to the Walhalla beyond the Swamp; and the plain was scattered with his victims.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Oboo, hearing there was a fight for girls, now came forward to take part. He had till now sulked in the rear, because of Ilo’s good fortune in possessing Sosee. Defeated in love, and still smarting from his wounds, he had refused, like Achilles, to fight, and, nursing his wrath afar off, desired the defeat of the Lali. He had long insisted that Sosee should be restored to the Ammi, and the war ended. But, as others continued it, he persisted in his absence, even when the Lali were in danger of rout and their possessions of loss. Many had fallen on account of his inaction. Oft did the chiefs approach him to assuage his wrath. But the volcanic fires in his breast refused to be cooled, and awaited their time to burst out and destroy his rivals. An ape will not waste himself on an enemy when he has a rival for his anger.

But hearing that there was to be a capture of girls, his anger melted into lust, and he relented. What neither the North Wind nor the Rain could do the warmth within him sufficed to accomplish—it moved his mighty will. For dread War, stalking over the land and breathing his hot breath in his face, had failed to arouse him. Mightier Reason, borne on the tongue of Pity, could not move him. Even Glory had no allurements to draw him from his retreat. But Beauty, which now visited him in fancies, tickled him into action; and, like the needle following the invisible pole, he went, strongly impelled, to the scene of battle, where to his thoughts a field was pictured with delights.

Rumor went abroad, and everywhere proclaimed to the female Apes that the great Oboo was coming to battle, and many hearts beat at the prospect of beholding him. Young women and maidens came to see, nor did the old stay away. Many who had an interest in him past, present or future, sought to look on; and those who could not be moved by love came from curiosity.

With majestic step their hero advanced. Not as the common warrior comes came he forth. Slowly like the Morning, he advanced to the eyes of a wondering world. A female ape had parted his locks in the morning and picked the burrs from his shaggy limbs; and, as he stood out against the sky, his form was a monument of beauty to both the women and himself.

Looking to one side and then to the other, (not to reconnoitre, but to receive the admiration of the females) he reflected, as he shook his slender legs, that they who now beheld him with solicitude would receive him back with gratitude. Victory seemed assured in his bearing, and, like the sun at noon, he dazzled the hosts with his splendor.

Such was the appearance of the mighty Oboo on entering the field; and as he advanced the eastern zephyrs moved through his louse-less locks, and his brow, like the forest-crowned head of Mt. Ida, seemed glorified.

Him seeing from afar the great Boomboo, calling all the Gods to his aid, ran forth to meet. “O Shoozoo,” he cried, “lend me all the heavens with their fires and loud thunders to match this terror of the plains, the wrath-inflamed fighter of men and lover of women; and to-night I will devote to you a live dragon fly caught where the thistles of the Swamp do bloom and the bats are sleeping.”

So saying he seized a big water-melon, such as two men of our day could not lift, and he raised it in mid air. It was a melon which had grown on the sandy banks of Alligator Swamp; three generations had eaten fruit from that spot, and cast the seeds along the wide-reaching shore. This great water-melon the mighty Boomboo smashed on the head of Oboo. For, throwing it with great force, he sent it heavily through the air, as when a huge rock is thrown convulsively from a volcano. A great flying terror it went, casting a moving shadow over the earth; and it went not in vain; but, descending from its flight, it struck the well-picked head of Oboo, and dreadful was the sound of the thud.

Bursting with a quake, as when the earth opens, it was scattered in countless pieces, never to be again united. Pulp and rind and seeds were splattered over his brow and well-smoothed locks, and the juice ran down over his face, and covered his hairy chest, and flowed from his limbs to the ground. Dripping and sticky the proud Oboo, like a half-drowned rat crawling out of a well, sneaked away, unfit to be seen, and would no longer match his prowess against the Ammi in battle.

THE RETREAT OF THE LALI.

Inextinguishable laughter arose among the men; while even among the Lali there was merriment. The females were most amused at the seed-besplattered lover; and Ilo, glad in his heart at his inglorious retreat, said with contempt:

“Go back to the women and get dried up; you were made not for war, but for love.”

Like a bubble blown by a boy, which swells bigger and bigger, until the sky and mountains are reflected in it, and then, at the moment of its greatest bulk, when it seems to carry the whole world, bursts and settles into a little suds, so the swelling Oboo, who matched the sun in its splendor when he came to battle, dwindled to a sop as he returned.

Meanwhile the girls who had been drawn into the battle, and for whom Oboo had left his retreat, fought so fiercely that none of them were captured, but many of their assailants were slain or left wounded on the field.

And now all the Lali retreated from the victorious Ammi, being demoralized by the victory of the girls and the discomfiture of Oboo, while the Ammi prepared to move with all their force on the Lali and to end the war that day.

But Night settled down on the contending armies, and the wheels of history stopped awhile.

CHAPTER XXX.

Sleep came not to the Ammi that night, but instead Pestilence settled down upon them. The water of the Swamp, stirred by the recent floods, and the strange fruits which they had eaten since leaving home, had brought Colic to the camp, and, like Dreams, it visited the couches of the heroes, and rolled them about in aches and pains. Night slackened its pace and dwelt long among them, covering with darkness their pain; and, as they ran about holding their stomachs and looking for sweet relief, which came not, the Lali, who faintly discerned their movements in the moonlight, thought they were making preparations for battle, and so they fled, lest disaster should follow on their defeat of the day before. Thus did the Lali run away from the Belly-ache.

And when Aurora, closing the gates of the world on Night, advanced, announcing with freshened breath the Day, and her golden train fell in rich drapery over the eastern sky, the Ammi were seen lying about in groups, doubled up and griping, each caring not for glorious victory but for peace within. Koree forgot his beloved Sosee, and Pounder lay in a big heap, caring neither for battle nor country.

Gimbo walking about on all fours administered relief, being physician as well as priest.

“There is nothing so good for colic,” he said, “as to pound the stomach;” and, taking a long-necked pumpkin, he gave each a blow on the spot where the pain was felt. This caused the patient to give a jerk and a howl.

“That is good;” said Gimbo, “it is the colic jumping out of you;” and in very bad cases he repeated the blow.

“It is well,” he added, “to keep your stomachs turned toward the Swamp; the colic always goes out on that side, owing to the influence of the Alligator.”

He also applied the wing of a dragon fly to those who had not yet contracted the complaint, with a view to keep it away.

“When the colic sees this sign of Shoozoo,” he said, “it is afraid to come near you.”

There were no hostilities that day, the Lali being kept back by fear and the Ammi by colic.

On the morning following, when Pain and Fear had fled from both camps, the combatants were far apart. The Lali had retreated either for safety or preparations, and the Ammi had the field, but were without an enemy either to fight or treat with for peace.

Anxiety now took the place of colic in their breasts, and uncertainty about what the Lali were devising made them hesitate about their own course.

Meanwhile other matters came to occupy their attention.

“I have long noticed,” said Gimbo, “that it is getting colder. Walking on four feet I learn things sooner than others. I used to walk without discomfort to my hands. But now the ground is so cold that I can hardly stand it with either feet or hands. I must get up a tree to keep warm, or else go into a hole.”

Others had observed the same change. In fact it was the sudden cold, coming the night before, that helped bring on the colic just mentioned. It disturbed the temperature of the body, and the first inconvenience from sudden changes of climate was felt by mankind.

Nor was this a small matter. The first Glacial Period had set in. That great catastrophe which, at the end of the Tertiary Age, covered the northern hemisphere with mountains of ice, burying the earth out of sight, and destroying all life, was beginning to make itself felt.

Farther to the north, (as they heard), the progress of the cold was well under way, but now its influence first reached the Ammi.

“What is that?” asked several at once, directing their attention to the sky.

A snow storm had come. It was the first snow that had fallen in those regions, and was a stranger to both Men and Apes.

“It’s the clouds coming down from the sky,” said one; “they have broken in pieces and are falling.”

“It is blossoms from the trees in heaven,” said Koree, who had grown sentimental from long thinking about Sosee; “Shoozoo is shaking them down as he runs through the forests after owls.”

“I think it is dragon flies,” said Gimbo, who observed the form of the flakes. “There is here the short-beam and the long-beam. Surely Shoozoo is coming to the earth, and we ought to be very devout.”

Among the Lali the snow produced still greater consternation. Some said it was the white form of Simlee, the wife of Shoozoo, who was coming to the Apes; and all agreed that it came on account of the war between the Apes and the Men. In as much as a snow-flake, when examined, was seen to turn to water, a priest of the Lali remarked that it was going back to Shoozoo, the great reservoir, or Swamp, into which all things at last return.

Suddenly there was a tremendous rush of arctic animals over both camps, and all the country, as far as the eye could reach, was alive with them. They came from the north where the heavy snows had started a migration southward. Aurochs, reindeer, Irish elk and other kinds now extinct, were in the herds. They rushed pell-mell before the snows, tramping down everything in their way, and falling over one another, like a stampede of buffaloes or wild horses. Many were trampled to death or else left maimed in their trail. Mingled among them were lions, leopards and other savage beasts, which followed them for food, or were also migrating to a warmer climate; so that there was a slaughter of many kinds in the herds. It seemed to the Ammi as if all the beasts had gone to war, as well as the Men and Apes, and were marching in great armies and fighting constant battles.

“The Sky and the North are both pouring out their forces upon us,” said Abroo.

“Let us catch them, and keep them for food,” said Oko, who had been trying to tame a calf of the Urus which he had captured, thus beginning the work of domestication, which the descendants of the Ammi have continued till now.

“It is better to let them go,” said Koree, who picked up the clubs and missiles which they had scattered; “we ought to be glad to be rid of them.”

For some of the Ammi had been trampled to death in the stampede, so that this incursion of cattle upon them was nearly as destructive as the war.

After the herds had gone by, they were seen to spread out over the plains in the direction from which the Ammi had come to the seat of war. There they found grass and were leisurely grazing.

“It looks,” said Abroo, “as if they had come to stay, so that when we return from the war they will dispute the possession of Cocoanut Hill with us.”

The snow, however, continued to fall, which, like the curse of the wandering Jew, was to give the fugitives no rest.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Meanwhile the Lali who had been worsted in the war, and whose defeat even the gallant Oboo could not avert, determined on a change of tactics. Recognizing their inferiority as combatants (being not so generally armed or so skilled in the use of arms as the Ammi), they resolved to make up in numbers what they lacked in skill; and so they sent out ambassadors and summoned all the apes from the countries beyond, shrewdly using the respite of the last few days from battle to collect allies.

Out into the forests and among the palm groves, therefore, they went, calling to the inhabitants of the trees and vines to come down, and sending their summons into the tangled thickets of the swamps. And the apes left their cocoanuts and cinnamon branches, and came up out of their fisheries, (abandoning their sports with parrots, and their fights with owls,) and hurried to the country of the Lali and the seat of war.

The Apes were far more numerous than the men, the latter being only one colony in the whole world, who were now all collected on one field of battle, whereas the Apes, though differing from one another, (being of many species besides the Man-apes,) were practically without limit (taking in all the country and all the varieties of Apes,) so that it was only a question of how wide a territory they should scour for allies, in order to bring any number to battle.

These apes, moreover, could be easily united on almost any project, as there were yet no conflicting interests to dissuade them; so that in a short time an innumerable host was assembled at the seat of war—great, small, tailless, speechless and everything from the big gorilla to the common monkey.

To add to the good fortune of the Lali, there had come also, along with the migrating cattle, several large herds of apes from the north. These, which at another time would have met the hostility of the Lali, and perhaps been slain as enemies, or as competitors for their food, were now welcomed and enlisted as allies against the Ammi.

But the Apes, though countless, were not so closely confederated as the Men. They did not live together in large numbers, and the few groups that did exist were not accustomed to act long together. In fact the Apes hardly knew one another, so that they were unconscious alike of their power and their weakness.

The forces of the two armies were, therefore, woefully unequal. On one side was a host as countless as the Myrmidons, composed, indeed, of motley groups, which might prove unmanageable in war, but which had to fight in order to cohere at all, and to fight soon. On the other side was a small, but skilled and disciplined body, more homogeneous and capable of keeping to a fixed purpose. It was obvious, therefore, that if the Apes should make a sudden attack they would overwhelm and extirpate the Ammi; for then, all the hosts would take part, and, being impulsive, would fight vigorously before having time to fall to pieces as a body.

It became as important, therefore, for the Ammi to now have a delay of hostilities as it was before for the Lali. This fact, however, was not known to the Ammi themselves, who, on account of the distance between the two forces, were not aware of the reinforcements of the Lali.

“Let us proceed at once against the enemy,” said Koree, innocently inviting his own destruction. “They have retreated so far that it may take some time to find them.”

“That’s right,” said Pounder, “we should begin early so that Night may not again overtake us before victory.”

“Come then,” said Koree, “this day will decide——”

Here there was a great surprise. As they were about to march to battle, and to their own destruction, Sosee burst in upon them, followed by a strange ape, both nearly breathless from running.

Koree uttered a shout of joy, and ran to meet her. Others seeing her pursued, seized the ape that followed her, and were about to slay him when Sosee caused them to desist.

“He is a friend, and has helped me to come hither,” she said.

And then, without regarding the expressions of joy on the part of Koree and others over her return, she called out loudly:

“Retreat! Hide in the woods!—and be quick!”

This was startling to the Ammi, who believed they were on the eve of complete victory.

She informed them of the countless hosts that had joined the Lali, who expected to move immediately on the Ammi and destroy them entirely.

“If you can retreat long enough to delay the battle,” she said, “you may be saved. I heard the counsels of the Lali chiefs, and they agree that if they do not fight at once their forces can not be held together, but, being composed of different tribes of Apes, unused to discipline, will break up in confusion.”

Sosee then told of her escape, which was undertaken as the only means of saving the Ammi, and accomplished at the risk of her own life.

She had been guarded, she said, by Ilo, Oboo and another, and so could not escape but by the greatest cunning and good fortune. Ilo, however, being engaged this day in the council of war, could not watch her closely, while Oboo, having become interested in some female apes belonging to the new comers, had wandered off after them, so that she was left practically alone. Being thus at liberty she persuaded the remaining guard,—a simple ape who did not understand his business,—to accompany her in a race, when she adroitly led him to the camp of the Ammi, and so escaped.

SOSEE WARNS THE AMMI.

On hearing her story, Koree, overjoyed at his good fortune and Sosee’s, said:

“There is reason in what she says. Let us retreat.”

For Koree, having now received back Sosee, did not care what became of the war, but was ready for peace at any price.

Pounder, however, objected.

“I’m not afraid of all the Apes between here and sunrise,” he said, “and I am for fighting them. I’ll kill the big ones with the little ones.”

Others, however, more prudent, agreed with Koree, and it was decided to follow the advice of Sosee.

So the whole force of the Ammi prepared to move back into the Swamp.

“Let us take everything with us,” said Oko. “We may need it when we get away.”

“Delay for nothing,” said Sosee, “or you will not get yourselves away.”

Soon, therefore, they started on their retreat; when Sosee remarked:

“I must now go back to the Lali.”

CHAPTER XXXII.

These words of Sosee, “I must now go back to the Lali,” caused more surprise to the Ammi than her sudden appearance among them had done.

“There is something unfathomable in that girl,” said Pounder. “We undertook this war for her, and now, when we have obtained her, she wants to go back to the enemy. I fear she has been won over to the Apes by flattery, or a new lover, and comes back as a spy. Don’t let her return.”

“I wonder,” observed Koree to himself, “if she really has a new lover.”

“If I do not go back,” she said, “all I have told you will be in vain. If the Lali, who do not yet know that I am here, should learn of my escape, they will attack you at once, suspecting that I have communicated their designs to you; and then all will be lost.”

“If you go,” replied Koree, “all will be lost at any rate—to me.”

And Koree insisted that see should not return.

“I do not believe her story,” said Pounder, “and I insist that we keep our ground and also keep her. Otherwise she may carry back information to the enemy.”

“I think too,” said Koree, “that we should not give up what we came for. If we go back without her our escape will not be worth the making.”

Others thought it best to let her return, so that a dispute arose and finally a quarrel. Koree, however, prevailed; and so, against her will, she was compelled to fall in line and enter the Swamp with the rest.

But though Koree gained her possession he did not gain her consent. She refused to be reconciled to him, and insisted during the retreat that she be allowed to return.

“I know,” said Koree to himself, “that she has another lover. But she will soon forget him, and I will keep her now that I have her. She will be more easily won back to me in my presence than in my absence.”

But Sosee, thus forced to remain, proved an enemy to him rather than a lover.

“I hate you,” she said, “and will never live with you if you do not let me go back.”

“You will never live with me if I do,” he replied.

“I can escape again,” she said, “when we have saved the Ammi, and then I will return to you.”

“If it required so much time and fighting,” he replied, “to get you once, how much will it take to get you again?”

“If I escaped before without your aid, can I not do so again?”

“I am not sure you will want to come back, with all your ape lovers.”

“I shall not want to come back to you, if you do not let me go; but to my mother and Orlee and the rest I will return. If you care for nothing but your love you are unworthy of mine.”

But Koree was determined, and would not let her go.

She thus saw all her unselfish sacrifices about to be defeated by a selfish lover.

The conversation of the Ammi now reverted to the probability of her story and the advisability of their further retreat.

“Let us wait,” said Abroo, after they had gone some distance into the Swamp, “till we see the result of the alliances formed by the Apes.”

“I will wait,” said Pounder, “only on condition that we return and fight them. If what the girl says is true they will soon fall out among themselves, so that even the cowardly need not fear them.”

“What is to be gained by fighting them at all,” asked Oko, “if they have nothing that we want?”

“You greedy beast!” returned Pounder, savagely; “is it nothing to vanquish the Lali? and if all the Monkeys of the forest are collected, is it nothing to whip them all at once? It is base to make this retreat; and I have a notion to smash the jaw of the fellow that proposed it.”

“This is not a retreat,” explained Abroo, calmly, “but a movement to disable the enemy by delay. We shall be better able to fight when they are less able to coöperate.”

And thus the talk went on for hours, when Koree suddenly interrupted it with the question:

“Where is Sosee?”

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The disappearance of Sosee without anybody knowing it was a new puzzle to the Ammi. Was she spirited away by some supernatural power? or did she simply drop out of line into the bushes? These were among the questions asked.

“She is a spy,” persisted Pounder, “having first become a traitor.”

“If her story be true,” observed Abroo, “she thinks more of her people than of her lover, and is a great heroine to thus sacrifice her love to save her race.”

“Whatever be the facts,” said Koree, not appreciating this kind of unselfishness, “let us search for her. If she be a spy she should not return to the enemy, and if she be a heroine she should not be lost to us.”

“In either case,” said Pounder, “you want to get her for yourself, and do not care what becomes of the war.”

“Let us first make ourselves safe,” said Abroo, “and then talk of finding her. In this great Swamp with its endless entanglement of bushes, we could not find her any sooner than the Lali can find us; whereas if we save ourselves from the danger she describes, we must retreat farther at once.”

“I shall search for Sosee,” said Koree, “and will return to you only when I find her.”

So saying Koree left the rest of the Ammi and started back to find his beloved, taking several friends with him.

They were soon lost in the wilderness; but by the position of the sun they kept their steps bent in the direction of the Lali.

“There is only one course that she could take,” said he; “whether she go as a spy or to a lover, she will seek the Lali by the most direct route, and in either case I want her, and want her soon; so let us head her off.”

Swift then through the wilds they pressed back, pushing aside the bushes, wading in the marshes, jumping over fallen trees, and picking out a possible route through an almost impassable country. When they came to an open place, they reconnoitred. Now and then they met a serpent or alligator, and continually they feared more savage beasts, whose cries were heard around them.

“This is a terrible wilderness for Sosee to pass through,” observed Koree, “but if she is going to meet a rival, or betray the Ammi, I don’t know whether I want her to get through.”

“We will at least reach the Lali first,” said one of his companions.

“I am not sure of that,” replied Koree. “Sosee is swift of foot, and finds her way better than anyone I know.”

Soon they came upon some straggling apes, but as these differed somewhat from the Lali they paid little attention to them, thinking they were chance hunters in the thickets.

These apes, however, were soon met so frequently, and finally became so numerous, that Koree remarked:

“I wonder if they are not some of the new comers of which Sosee spoke.”

Presently he climbed a tree, from which he looked beyond the confines of the Swamp, where he saw an innumerable swarm of apes, filling all the country about the habitations of the Lali. So many animals he had never before seen together. His worst suspicions were, therefore, confirmed.

“Sosee has, indeed, reported the truth,” he said; “such a multitude would have overwhelmed the Ammi in one attack, and left nothing remaining of the human race.”

Hurrying down, therefore, from the tree, he called on his comrades to turn back to the Ammi.

“Let us return and take precautions for our safety,” he said; “soon those apes will scatter, or kill one another off; no country can long support such a number.”

“But what about Sosee?” asked his companions.

“We cannot find her in this Swamp,” replied Koree; “and, as her story of the reinforcements of the Apes is true, the rest is not incredible, so that her return to them may be necessary for our safety.”

Now, therefore, for the first time, did Koree appreciate the heroism of Sosee; and the sacrifice of her lover seemed magnanimous when it was clear that it was not for another lover.

They retraced their steps, therefore, and before night were again with the main body of the Ammi, to whom they related what they had seen.

“Where is Sosee,” asked one.

“We have not seen her,” replied Koree, “but we found her true, which is more important;” for Koree before his search had begun to doubt the faithfulness of his beloved, which he was now glad to establish, even at the expense of her possession.

As night settled down on the Ammi in the Swamp a great light appeared in the north, an object of beauty and terror to them. The sky was illumined with brilliant and changing rays, like a sunrise at midnight. The heavens seemed to be on fire, and the conflagration to be approaching the earth. It was one of those gigantic electric storms which swept over the ancient world and vied with the earthquakes, mountain upheavals, and deluges of the period, when the Earth still acted as a whole. Night and Day were apparently in conflict, mixing great fields of light with alternate streaks of darkness, and chasing each other over the whole heavens.

“What can this mean?” asked several at once.

“The Fire-monster is sweeping down upon us, as well as the Monkeys,” answered one; “he has already seized the heavens.”

“It don’t mean any good,” said Gimbo; “Shoozoo is angry, and has sent his winged Alligator to destroy us. I will get the dragon-fly which cured us of the colic.”

Wearied, however, they soon sank to rest, and lying under an open sky, which seemed all on fire, they slept, and their dreams that night were disturbed equally by fears of the Aurora and of monkeys.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Several times during the night strange sounds were heard. Once they were all aroused, thinking the Lali were upon them. At another time they thought a wild beast was prowling near them, and again that they heard sounds made by the Aurora Borealis. Near morning, when the first glimmer of light appeared, there was a rush in the direction from which came an ominous growl. One after another followed the leader to learn the cause of it. In their haste the foremost stumbled on a huge living object, which nearly frightened him to death; while the rest, in their impetuosity, fell over the same thing, so that soon there was a great heap of living humanity and wild confusion.

All wondered what had thrown them, and, to increase their wonderment, the object did not move, but seemed indifferent to the tumbling which they did upon him. They were afraid to approach, until the light should become stronger; for they did not as yet have candles to guide them at night, but had to wait for the day, or else grope in darkness. As it dawned, however, and things became more distinguishable, one, more venturesome than the rest, advanced, and, to his relief, found that it was Pounder, who was rolled up in a heap, and lay before them dead drunk.

Among the roots dug up and eaten by the Ammi, was a species of mandrake, which had a stupefying effect. Pounder had become fond of this root, or rather of its effects, and he carried it about with him for occasional indulgence. His addiction to the habit was, perhaps, the cause of his quarrelsomeness; for he frequently quarrelled with others, although this was, perhaps, the first case of well-defined spree known to humanity.

Several of the Ammi, thinking he was dead, rolled him over, and repeated the rolling several times.

“He is only sleeping,” said one; “see how he breathes;” and they shook him to wake him.

Presently his eyes opened, when another exclaimed:

“He is neither dead nor asleep, but sick; perhaps he is dying. Call Gimbo.”

Soon Gimbo, who was doctor, priest and prophet, all in one, approached with his dragon-fly and long-necked pumpkin, and, after a brief examination, in which he looked mysteriously wise, said:

“It comes from the colic;” and, with these words, he seized the neck of the pumpkin, and with the big end pounded the stomach of his patient, adding: “This will fetch the colic out of him.”

Pounder first grunted, then groaned, and at last opened his eyes.

Gimbo, seeing this effect, congratulated himself, and went on pounding, saying, “He is coming out all right.”

Pounder who neither understood nor enjoyed this treatment, raised himself half up, and, to the surprise of all, dealt Gimbo a powerful blow with his fist, saying, “Get out you old four-footed ape with your big pumpkin!”

He then sank back in his stupor, but placed his hand on his stomach for protection.

Gimbo, picking himself up, said:

“The disease acts strangely; but he is gaining strength, and will soon be well.”

He did not recur to the pumpkin treatment, however, but relied henceforth on the dragon-fly for a cure, which he applied at a distance.

The Ammi now gathered about Pounder, and, with astonishment on their faces, contemplated the change that had come over him. The mightiest of their number was seen lying before them the weakest and silliest. It disgusted them that he should so put himself out of his own power, as to be at the mercy of the smallest monkey, and especially that he who could fight so bravely should grin and puke so contemptibly.

But these discussions did not interest Pounder, who slept on unmindful of his glory or his disgrace.

About this time the Ammi were again heard complaining of the cold, which had been rapidly increasing since the snow storm mentioned, and they cast about for devices to reduce its discomforts.

At night they sought the leeward side of trees and hills; they also went into caves and huddled up closely to keep warm. But this did not suffice. They were cold both by day and night, and every one sought other means of warming.

From the habit of covering themselves with leaves when sleeping, the thought was suggested, that if they could surround themselves with leaves during the day they might be more comfortable at all times.

“The difficulty is to make the leaves stick together,” said Abroo; “let us fasten them by their stems, or string them on blades of grass.”

Soon a garment of leaves and grass was woven in this way, which was the beginning of clothing and of the vast dry-goods interest of the world.

Up to this time the Men, like the Apes, had been naked. They had found no use for clothing; the climate was warm, and the feeling of shame had not yet entered their breasts. They were covered with hair, which grew longer since they had come north; and, though this furnished some protection, and was highly appreciated since the cold weather set in, it was not sufficient for their comfort. Some had longer hair than others, and so stood the change better, while those of little or short hair often fell sick and died of colds, rheumatism, and other winter complaints. The invention of clothing, however, equalized their condition again, so that long hair was deemed of no special advantage.

The leaf-garments, however, did not long satisfy them. They could not make a fabric of such materials that would stand the rough usage to which it was subjected. In their running, climbing and other violent exercises the wreaths broke or became detached, so that it was difficult to keep them on. One’s whole suit sometimes fell off in an instant, leaving him in his skin and hair.

“Bark, I think, would do better than leaves,” said Koree, who had made himself a suit of the inner rind of a tree. He found this so rough, however, that it soon wore off the hair and skin in places, so that he looked like a horse galled by the harness.

“Pound the bark to make it soft,” said Watch-the-girls, who had made a neat garment for herself from well-selected strips of bark, from which she had removed the rough spots.

“Skins would keep us warm; and they are soft,” said another woman, who had placed about her shoulders the hide of a sheep which had been used as a receptacle for darts.

This was an unfortunate discovery for the animals. For in a little while the Ammi, finding that skins were more desirable than anything else as a protection from cold, sought animals for their skins, and killed more for this purpose than they had before killed for food.

The use of clothing in time became general, and the Ammi learned the important lesson that they were independent of the weather, and could carry their climate about with them, making it to order.

The use of clothing, however, developed into a dangerous luxury. They soon came to have preferences, not only on account of warmth and softness, but on account of appearance. Bright colors were chosen as most desirable, and those were more in esteem who dressed well. Much of their time was accordingly given to making garments, especially among the women, and many bits of decoration were in time added, so that pride and art were soon developed in dress.

Pounder, however, always despised dress, and would not put on anything whatever; and several others, who admired his strength and bravery, were led to follow his example. Gimbo said it was wrong to dress, and that if people would only keep on all fours they would not need clothes; so he, as long as he lived, went naked and on all fours, no matter what the weather or the occasion.

But the men went on in their vanity about dress, until they soon wore more wool than the sheep; and Gimbo complained that something was wrong when each animal did not wear its own skin.

Fire-tamer said they might keep warm by getting a wood-eating animal and keeping it in the camp.