“So only a few got all the land, and Three-Legs got most of it. Also,
others that had taken land gave it to the few that held on, being paid in
return with corn and fat roots, and bear-skins, and fishes which the
farmers got from the fishermen in exchange for corn. And, the first
thing we knew, all the land was gone.
“It was about this time that Fith-Fith died and Dog-Tooth, his son, was
made chief. He demanded to be made chief anyway, because his father had
been chief before him. Also, he looked upon himself as a greater chief
than his father. He was a good chief at first, and worked hard, so that
the council had less and less to do. Then arose a new voice in the Sea
Valley. It was Twisted-Lip. We had never thought much of him, until he
began to talk with the spirits of the dead. Later we called him Big-Fat,
because he ate over-much, and did no work, and grew round and large. One
day Big-Fat told us that the secrets of the dead were his, and that he
was the voice of God. He became great friends with Dog-Tooth, who
commanded that we should build Big-Fat a grass house. And Big-Fat put
taboos all around this house and kept God inside.
“More and more Dog-Tooth became greater than the council, and when the
council grumbled and said it would name a new chief, Big-Fat spoke with
the voice of God and said no. Also, Three-Legs and the others who held
the land stood behind Dog-Tooth. Moreover, the strongest man in the
council was Sea-Lion, and him the land-owners gave land to secretly,
along with many bearskins and baskets of corn. So Sea-Lion said that
Big-Fat’s voice was truly the voice of God and must be obeyed. And soon
afterward Sea-Lion was named the voice of Dog-Tooth and did most of his
talking for him.
“Then there was Little-Belly, a little man, so thin in the middle that he
looked as if he had never had enough to eat. Inside the mouth of the
river, after the sand-bar had combed the strength of the breakers, he
built a big fish-trap. No man had ever seen or dreamed a fish-trap
before. He worked weeks on it, with his son and his wife, while the rest
of us laughed at their labours. But, when it was done, the first day he
caught more fish in it than could the whole tribe in a week, whereat
there was great rejoicing. There was only one other place in the river
for a fish-trap, but, when my father and I and a dozen other men started
to make a very large trap, the guards came from the big grass-house we
had built for Dog-Tooth. And the guards poked us with their spears and
told us begone, because Little-Belly was going to build a trap there
himself on the word of Sea-Lion, who was the voice of Dog-Tooth.
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