“When we grumbled Big-Fat arose, and with the voice of God said that God
had chosen the wise men to own the land and the goats and the fish-trap,
and the fire-brew, and that without these wise men we would all be
animals, as in the days when we lived in trees.
“And there arose one who became a singer of songs for the king. Him they
called the Bug, because he was small and ungainly of face and limb and
excelled not in work or deed. He loved the fattest marrow bones, the
choicest fish, the milk warm from the goats, the first corn that was
ripe, and the snug place by the fire. And thus, becoming singer of songs
to the king, he found a way to do nothing and be fat. And when the
people grumbled more and more, and some threw stones at the king’s grass
house, the Bug sang a song of how good it was to be a Fish-Eater. In his
song he told that the Fish-Eaters were the chosen of God and the finest
men God had made. He sang of the Meat-Eaters as pigs and crows, and sang
how fine and good it was for the Fish-Eaters to fight and die doing God’s
work, which was the killing of Meat-Eaters. The words of his song were
like fire in us, and we clamoured to be led against the Meat-Eaters. And
we forgot that we were hungry, and why we had grumbled, and were glad to
be led by Tiger-Face over the divide, where we killed many Meat-Eaters
and were content.
“But things were no better in the Sea Valley. The only way to get food
was to work for Three-Legs or Little-Belly or Pig-Jaw; for there was no
land that a man might plant with corn for himself. And often there were
more men than Three-Legs and the others had work for. So these men went
hungry, and so did their wives and children and their old mothers.
Tiger-Face said they could become guards if they wanted to, and many of
them did, and thereafter they did no work except to poke spears in the
men who did work and who grumbled at feeding so many idlers.
“And when we grumbled, ever the Bug sang new songs. He said that
Three-Legs and Pig-Jaw and the rest were strong men, and that that was
why they had so much. He said that we should be glad to have strong men
with us, else would we perish of our own worthlessness and the
Meat-Eaters. Therefore, we should be glad to let such strong men have
all they could lay hands on. And Big-Fat and Pig-Jaw and Tiger-Face and
all the rest said it was true.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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