“Then there were other troubles, for know, O Deer-Runner, and
Yellow-Head, and Afraid-of-the-Dark, that it is not easy to make a tribe.
There were many things, little things, that it was a great trouble to
call all the men together to have a council about. We were having
councils morning, noon, and night, and in the middle of the night. We
could find little time to go out and get food, because of the councils,
for there was always some little thing to be settled, such as naming two
new watchers to take the place of the old ones on the hill, or naming how
much food should fall to the share of the men who kept their weapons
always in their hands and got no food for themselves.
“We stood in need of a chief man to do these things, who would be the
voice of the council, and who would account to the council for the things
he did. So we named Fith-Fith the chief man. He was a strong man, too,
and very cunning, and when he was angry he made noises just like that,
_fith-fith_, like a wild-cat.
“The ten men who guarded the tribe were set to work making a wall of
stones across the narrow part of the valley. The women and large
children helped, as did other men, until the wall was strong. After
that, all the families came down out of their caves and trees and built
grass houses behind the shelter of the wall. These houses were large and
much better than the caves and trees, and everybody had a better time of
it because the men had added their strength together and become a tribe.
Because of the wall and the guards and the watchers, there was more time
to hunt and fish and pick roots and berries; there was more food, and
better food, and no one went hungry. And Three-Legs, so named because
his legs had been smashed when a boy and who walked with a
stick—Three-Legs got the seed of the wild corn and planted it in the
ground in the valley near his house. Also, he tried planting fat roots
and other things he found in the mountain valleys.
“Because of the safety in the Sea Valley, which was because of the wall
and the watchers and the guards, and because there was food in plenty for
all without having to fight for it, many families came in from the coast
valleys on both sides and from the high back mountains where they had
lived more like wild animals than men. And it was not long before the
Sea Valley filled up, and in it were countless families. But, before
this happened, the land, which had been free to all and belonged to all,
was divided up. Three-Legs began it when he planted corn. But most of
us did not care about the land. We thought the marking of the boundaries
with fences of stone was a foolishness. We had plenty to eat, and what
more did we want? I remember that my father and I built stone fences for
Three-Legs and were given corn in return.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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