Many died and many fell in the long wars that the Cave People fought during their long journey to the North country, but One Ear grew strong and wise and tall in his young manhood. And, because of the things he had learned from the Arrow Throwers, he became a leader of the tribe, which he taught also to hurl the death-tipped darts, both to bring down the beasts of the forests and for the protection of the tribe in battle with its human enemies. And so the cool climate and the changing seasons drove the Cave People to learn, to discover, to invent. And for the first time they began to consider the earth and to subdue a little of it for their own food and clothing and for their own shelter and security. [Illustration] XI THE FIRST PRIEST Although Strong Arm, who was the wisest and strongest and swiftest man among the Cave People had been dead, and in part eaten and in part buried beneath a great pile of earth and stones, the Cave People felt sure that he had not remained dead. More than one of the members of the tribe had seen him fighting and hunting, eating and dancing, during the dreams that come in the night, and so they believed that a part of Strong Arm, the spirit or ghost part of Strong Arm, still lived. Again and again he had appeared to them in the spirit, or in dreams, to advise them about the things the tribe intended to do. The Cave People were unable to understand these things and there was nobody to tell them that dreams were not of the world of reality. And so they believed that Strong Arm still lived, and that other dead men and women and children of the tribe still lived in the Spirit World. It was true that the spirits of these dead did not appear in the broad light of day, but the Cave People believed that they haunted their old grounds, invisible to the eyes of their tribesman. They believed that the spirits of the dead may return to befriend the members of the tribe, or to hinder their enemies, provided, always, that the members of the tribe enlisted their aid and their affections. Now Big Foot, since there was no longer the wise voice of Strong Arm, nor the mighty strength of the old chief to enforce the good of his people, set himself to become the leader of the Cave People. He slashed his hairy thighs with his flint knife to prove how brave he was, allowing the gashes to become sores in order to prolong the evidence of his courage. He strutted about and waved his poison-tipped arrows when the young men refused to listen to his words. Also he rubbed the noses of all the women of the tribe and sought to caress them, attempting to drive the men of the tribe from the new nests, or caves or huts, which they had built in the far North country so many moon journeys from the old hollow where little Laughing Boy was born.