“Then the Bug sang again, and he sang that Split-Nose was lazy, and he
sang also the ‘Song of the Bees.’ It was a strange song, and those who
listened were made mad, as from the drinking of strong fire-brew. The
song was of a swarm of bees, and of a robber wasp who had come in to live
with the bees and who was stealing all their honey. The wasp was lazy
and told them there was no need to work; also, he told them to make
friends with the bears, who were not honey-stealers but only very good
friends. And the Bug sang in crooked words, so that those who listened
knew that the swarm was the Sea Valley tribe, that the bears were the
Meat-Eaters, and that the lazy wasp was Split-Nose. And when the Bug
sang that the bees listened to the wasp till the swarm was near to
perishing, the people growled and snarled, and when the Bug sang that at
last the good bees arose and stung the wasp to death, the people picked
up stones from the ground and stoned Split-Nose to death till there was
naught to be seen of him but the heap of stones they had flung on top of
him. And there were many poor people who worked long and hard and had
not enough to eat that helped throw the stones on Split-Nose.
“And, after the death of Split-Nose, there was but one other man that
dared rise up and speak his mind, and that man was Hair-Face. ‘Where is
the strength of the strong?’ he asked. ‘We are the strong, all of us,
and we are stronger than Dog-Tooth and Tiger-Face and Three-Legs and
Pig-Jaw and all the rest who do nothing and eat much and weaken us by the
hurt of their strength which is bad strength. Men who are slaves are not
strong. If the man who first found the virtue and use of fire had used
his strength we would have been his slaves, as we are the slaves to-day
of Little-Belly, who found the virtue and use of the fish-trap; and of
the men who found the virtue and use of the land, and the goats, and the
fire-brew. Before, we lived in trees, my brothers, and no man was safe.
But we fight no more with one another. We have added our strength
together. Then let us fight no more with the Meat-Eaters. Let us add
our strength and their strength together. Then will we be indeed strong.
And then we will go out together, the Fish-Eaters and the Meat-Eaters,
and we will kill the tigers and the lions and the wolves and the wild
dogs, and we will pasture our goats on all the hill-sides and plant our
corn and fat roots in all the high mountain valleys. In that day we will
be so strong that all the wild animals will flee before us and perish.
And nothing will withstand us, for the strength of each man will be the
strength of all men in the world.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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