“We set two men on the divide, one for the day and one for the night, to
watch if the Meat-Eaters came. These were the eyes of the tribe. Then,
also, day and night, there were to be ten men awake with their clubs and
spears and arrows in their hands, ready to fight. Before, when a man
went after fish, or clams, or gull-eggs, he carried his weapons with him,
and half the time he was getting food and half the time watching for fear
some other man would get him. Now that was all changed. The men went
out without their weapons and spent all their time getting food.
Likewise, when the women went into the mountains after roots and berries,
five of the ten men went with them to guard them. While all the time,
day and night, the eyes of the tribe watched from the top of the divide.
“But troubles came. As usual, it was about the women. Men without wives
wanted other men’s wives, and there was much fighting between men, and
now and again one got his head smashed or a spear through his body.
While one of the watchers was on top of the divide, another man stole his
wife, and he came down to fight. Then the other watcher was in fear that
some one would take his wife, and he came down likewise. Also, there was
trouble among the ten men who carried always their weapons, and they
fought five against five, till some ran away down the coast and the
others ran after them.
“So it was that the tribe was left without eyes or guards. We had not
the strength of sixty. We had no strength at all. So we held a council
and made our first laws. I was but a cub at the time, but I remember.
We said that, in order to be strong, we must not fight one another, and
we made a law that when a man killed another him would the tribe kill.
We made another law that whoso stole another man’s wife him would the
tribe kill. We said that whatever man had too great strength, and by
that strength hurt his brothers in the tribe, him would we kill that his
strength might hurt no more. For, if we let his strength hurt, the
brothers would become afraid and the tribe would fall apart, and we would
be as weak as when the Meat-Eaters first came upon us and killed
Boo-oogh.
“Knuckle-Bone was a strong man, a very strong man, and he knew not law.
He knew only his own strength, and in the fullness thereof he went forth
and took the wife of Three-Clams. Three-Clams tried to fight, but
Knuckle-Bone clubbed out his brains. Yet had Knuckle-Bone forgotten that
all the men of us had added our strength to keep the law among us, and
him we killed, at the foot of his tree, and hung his body on a branch as
a warning that the law was stronger than any man. For we were the law,
all of us, and no man was greater than the law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account