“I wish it had,” observed Oko, as he tried to keep his head above the floating ice. A great scramble now ensued to regain the land, or a footing on solid ice. Several got to fighting in the water, and there was a great splashing and series of duckings. Those who got out stood shivering in the snow, and occasionally tried to help out others; but most were afraid to go near the place of danger. When all had regained solid footing it became their chief care not to break in again. They had evidently met a new danger greater than the Lali. It was the water of the Swamp, which they had shortly before bewailed as having gone forever. They moved more cautiously, therefore, testing the strength of the ice as they proceeded. Before leaving the scene of the catastrophe, however, Oko, seeking to turn their misfortune to profit, picked up some pieces of floating ice, and proposed to take them along. “These rocks,” he said, “will make good missiles. By using them on the Lali, we need not throw away our cocoanuts.” He accordingly filled a skin pouch with them, and carried some in his arms, while others followed his example. They soon found them, however, not only heavy and bulky, but having a new inconvenience. They imparted a sense of discomfort, now know as cold, which, being unknown to them, was dreaded as mysterious, like the effects of fire. After marching awhile they were rejoined by Fire-tamer, who had gone in search of another “wood-eating beast.” He was successful in his search, and his game was acceptable to the Ammi, who had learned to appreciate the beast in cold weather. Even Gimbo was secretly glad, though he had to protest, from force of habit, that they were introducing a demon among them, and that they might as well be destroyed by the cold as eaten by the hot monster. They now all collected brush, and soon there was a roaring fire on the ice, at which they dried themselves and planned their future movements. The pieces of ice which Oko and others had carried for weapons, and which they had laid by the fire to warm, were found to have disappeared. They had melted and run away. Oko thought somebody had stolen them, and he got into a fight with Pounder over the matter, when finally a halt melted piece was seen to be turning into water. They then charged the theft to the wood-eating monster, which they thought was devouring their rocks. “He is worse than a hog,” said Oko, “to eat both wood and stone.” They observed at this time that neither apes nor wild beasts approached them while they sat by the fire, but turned off at the sight of it with fear; so that Fire-tamer remarked: “If we could always have this animal with us, no other danger would come near.” It was sometime after this, however, before men took to building fires as a protection against wild beasts.