as out of a change in theological convictions. There was a general demand
for reform, and some of the worst, as well as some of the best men, were
active in the movement. The priests made the principal opposition to it,
although a few of them, in the hope of preferment, or because they had a
grievance against the other priests, joined the new movement and became
its leaders.

The reformation was generally successful. Some, however, refused to be
led away by it, but became more devoted than ever to the short-beam cross
worship, and cultivated such a devotion for the short-beam cross as had
never been known. They were commonly known as the clerical or priestly
party, and constituted the conservatives until the time of the great
earthquake just mentioned. They insisted on retaining all that their
ancestors had handed down to them, the very fact that it had come from
antiquity being evidence of its truth; while the Reformers claimed the
right of going back to original sources and re-establishing themselves on
the truth of the great Alligator.

The tendency to skepticism and the introduction of new gods, deplored by
Lookoo, as well as the explanation of the Alligator and other theological
truths as phenomena of nature—fire, earthquake, wind, etc.—has generally
been found among the Reformers, who early tried to explain all religion
away, or else resolve it into natural causes and effects.

CHAPTER XXI.

Among the Lali the religion of Shoozoo was preserved in greater purity.
There had not been such a great departure from Shoozoo himself, as among
the Ammi, where he was entirely lost in his symbols. Neither had there
been so many splits and reformations. The Apes preserved the unity of the
church better than the Men.

Instead, however, of losing Shoozoo in the Alligator, like the Ammi, and
then losing the Alligator in the dragon-fly, and the dragon-fly in the
cross, and the cross in the short beam of the cross, the Lali went to
the opposite extreme of deifying and worshiping not only Shoozoo, but
everything connected with him. Before one generation had passed Shoozoo’s
wife, Simlee, was admitted to equal divinity with him, and it was known
as the Shoozoo-Simlee religion. There was thus a male and female deity,
or king and queen of heaven. Soon after this Shoozoo’s parents and
children were likewise added to the divine family, and worshiped by the
Apes. Next came the dart with which Shoozoo struck the moon, and finally
the moon itself.

Everything was deemed sacred with which Shoozoo had to do, except the
Alligator, which the Apes persistently refused to worship, because the
Ammi had taken it up. They claimed, instead, that Shoozoo had killed
the alligator in order to take the swallowed moon out of it. Many
relics of the dead alligator, indeed, were furnished, and kept as a
perpetual testimony to the achievements of Shoozoo, and as a rebuke to
the unbelieving Ammi, who dared to worship it. These relics were worn as
charms, and many cures were alleged to have been effected by them. Among
others the gallant Oboo had been cured of a violent disease. The Swamp in
which the Alligator was killed was deemed sacred, and in their devotions
the Lali turned their faces to it. Water from this Swamp was likewise
deemed sacred, and was always kept on the altars of the Apes, and great
devotion was paid to it when exposed to the sight of the worshippers.
Forty apes were once killed for sacrilege committed by spilling water,
most of them for being mere witnesses of the outrage. A drop of Swamp
water was put on every Ape’s head when he was born, and the ceremony was
often repeated through life. This water was used in the consecration of
their priests, and its application once turned the scales of war. Its
appearance was consulted for omens, and it was invoked by monkeys when
about to go after fruits. Bad luck was attributed to certain disturbances
of it. Water-songs were the first specimens of music known to the Apes,
and were always sung at exhibitions of water taken from the Swamp. The
finest gourds and cocoanut vessels were made to hold this water, and
the decoration of these was the first step taken in Sacred Art. Among
the first pictures sketched were crude representations of a stream.
They called their children after this water, such being the meaning of
the common names among them. “Ilo” signifies “touched with water,” and
“Oboo” means “Soaked.” Rainy days were deemed more sacred than clear
ones, on account of their water, whose descent from the skies was taken
as influences from Shoozoo. A flood was regarded as this god coming in
disguise; and to be drowned was to be lost in Shoozoo. The Lali washed
oftener than the Ammi, not for cleanliness, but on account of their
devotion to water; and they would not kill a snake that was still wet.
As long as anything, indeed, had upon it water from the great Swamp, it
was supposed to be under the protection of Shoozoo. The Apes drank water
before eating, and the last thing they did when dying was to drink. To be
deprived of water for certain rites was the most serious affliction that
could happen to an Ape, and a rebellion once broke out among the Lali
because, when on a long march, their leader would not go out of the way
to find a stream for ceremonial purposes.

But the refinements of ritual among the Lali were not confined to water,
although at the time of which we speak the water rites had attained
their greatest ascendancy. The Apes were accustomed to make pilgrimages
to Cocoanut Hill where Shoozoo performed his great exploits, which was
regarded as Holy Ground, and there they often worshipped. It was the
interference of the Ammi with these privileges that led to the quarrels
between the Apes and the Men, of which we have spoken. The Ammi, however,
claimed that the Apes came not for religious purposes, but to steal
cocoanuts, and hence the reprisals already mentioned.

One of the rules of the Lali religion was to kill screech owls when the
moon was quarter full, because it was at this period that Shoozoo had
killed the owls of Cocoanut Hill, and all owl hunts were in commemoration
of his great exploit. Another was to hide their darts for six days
after this festival, because during this time Shoozoo rested from his
hunt and needed no more owls. Another observance was to present snakes
to one another at a certain period in honor of the great serpent which
Shoozoo killed and presented to Simlee. For days before this festival
the young monkeys were kept busy hunting snakes in the great Swamp.
Another requirement was that on the day before Owl-hunt the Lali should
walk upright as a preparation for the great festival, since on this day
Shoozoo walked upright to aim at the moon. They were forbidden to take
fish from the great Swamp on Snake Day, though they might then take them
from other waters. No monkey must kill another during these festivals,
as this right was reserved to the priests alone, who must, however, use
their victims only in sacrifice.

Departure from these rules was punished by being plunged in the Great
Swamp to wash away the guilt. The sinner was kept under as long as the
celebrant deemed fit; and if he survived he was said to be reconciled
to Shoozoo, and if not he was deemed incapable of purification and
deservedly dead. There were other penalties for small offenders. Most
of the offences among the Lali were religious violations, and the
punishment was in the hands of the priests, which had much to do with the
preservation of the unity of religion. Sin was recognized before wrong,
nonconformity before crime, and ecclesiastical penalties before civil.
Frequent attempts were made to throw off the tyranny of the priesthood,
but the leaders of the revolt were quickly apprehended, and usually put
to death with great tortures. Heresies were not infrequent among the
Apes, who soon learned, however, that it was not policy to make them
known. In general there was a remarkable unanimity among them—a greater
degree than has since been known in religious affairs.

Among the maxims of the Lali, which were also current among the Ammi,
(for, notwithstanding their religious differences, their morality was
substantially the same), were the following:

Keep your snout in your own cocoanut.

Never bite off an ear in sport.

Stick to the tree you are climbing.

Don’t fight over what you don’t want.

Save what you can’t eat, remembering that you must eat again.

Don’t crack your cocoanuts on each other’s heads.

Half the time spent in washing that you spend in scratching would keep
you more comfortable.

Don’t man the Ammi, (which among the Ammi reads, “Don’t ape the Lali.”)

Get up a tree rather than dispute the ground with a tiger.

If you don’t pick your neighbor’s fleas you will be bit by your own fleas.

After this digression on the religion and morality of the Lali, we will
return to the affairs of the Ammi.

CHAPTER XXII.

Having repaired the damage of the earthquake and flood, the Ammi set out
on their march to the country of the Lali, having, first, however, armed
themselves with the light weapons and provisions already mentioned. The
expedition was led by Koree, who labored hard to remove every obstacle,
and he set an example of endurance, as well as infused courage in the
irresolute.

“We start out for Sosee and glory,” he said. “The time will come when we
will delight to recall the difficulties which now trouble us.”

They marched more around the Swamp than through it, keeping, however,
near its borders. This was a longer route, but fraught with less danger
and difficulty. At night they retired to the Swamp, lest they should be
surprised by the Lali, and when they became hungry they scattered to
collect food, of which there was great abundance. The earthquake shock
and the floods had shaken the fruits and nuts from the trees, where they
could now readily be gathered.

Oko, the greedy fellow mentioned, suggested that they collect stores for
the whole campaign, and take them along, since they might not find fruits
so abundant as they proceeded. “There is plenty in the Swamp,” replied
Koree, who had recently passed that way. “The whole region between the
Ammi and the Tali abounds with things to eat. Let us not, therefore,
burden ourselves with what we may gather as we need it.”

[Illustration: THE GREEDY OKO.]

Determined, therefore, to forage as they went, and so to live at the
expense of beasts and reptiles, they proceeded on their march for several
days almost uninterrupted. They moved slowly, planning the details of
their campaign as they went.

Among those who took part in this expedition, and were prominent in the
counsels and events that followed, were these:

First was Cocoanut Scooper, the great hunter of the hills, who, if not
fierce in battle with wild beasts, was no less esteemed because of his
services in procuring provisions. He had scoured all the country round
about, and knew every tree and the quality of its fruit. He could at a
distance distinguish a palm, a walnut, a fig and a cinnamon tree; from
the appearance of a region he knew its value as a source of supplies; he
was expert in finding thickets where rabbits and other game abounded,
and he learned all the shoals of the Swamp where crabs and clams could
be taken. This man had charge of the commissaries, and looked out for
provisions for the expedition. During all their march his eye was on the
foliage of the forest, rather than on the trail of the Apes, looking for
something to eat rather than to fight.

Next was Fire-tamer, the bright-eyed hunter who took prisoner the
red-winged beast that feeds on wood, and, having caught him in his
lightning errand to earth, kept him a captive in the camp of the Ammi,
feeding him on brush and bark, and confining him within an earthen mound.
The all-devouring monster could not be satiated, but, after consuming all
the wood they could carry him, died when they stopped feeding him.

Next in valor and wise in counsel was Spread-mouth, the first man that
was known to laugh. His associates observed the changing size of his
mouth, which took as many dimensions as the chameleon took colors, and
was seen to be biggest when he was with women. Others learned to imitate
him, which was at first thought to detract, and then to add, to their
beauty, until, at the time of which we speak, half of the Ammi had
learned to laugh, but many of them awkwardly. The first laughs of men
were hardly distinguishable from grins and growls, and many indulged in
them unwillingly because of the huge teeth they displayed, which called
forth shudders rather than responsive smiles. They who laughed, laughed
alone, and not for many generations did a whole company join in laughter
together. As there was little wit to encourage laughter, the habit was
of slow growth, and its indulgence promoted quarreling rather than good
humor, because of the defiant appearance of the laugher. Only when men
became acquainted with laughter did they learn to like it, and not to
resent it. This great Spread-mouth was, therefore, long the terror and
the puzzle of the Ammi.

Next in honor and influence was the great jawed and big-fisted Pounder,
whose mouth and hands were a double terror to his enemies. He scorned to
fight with clubs or sharpened stones, but thought himself sufficiently
armed by nature to meet his enemy, whether man, or ape, or wild beast.
He had fought the woolly Rhinoceros and Cave Bear; he had climbed after
wild cats, and fought in the Swamp with alligators. Pounder had a long,
narrow head, with retreating forehead, and great jaws filled with oblique
teeth, which struck terror into an enemy. He was woolly-haired, being
covered with coarse, dark-brown bunches of hair over his whole body, and
a beard of lighter color. His arms were long, reaching almost to the
ground, so that he could walk as well as fight with them, using sometimes
one and sometimes both. They were powerful, whether to hold an object or
deal a blow. His legs were short and thin, with undeveloped calves, and
he walked half erect with in-bent knees, carrying a huge body that was
ever ready for assault. He was impatient to reach the enemy, and at times
quarreled with his friends that he might have somebody to fight. Pounder
was more useful in war than in peace; and had not this conflict broken
out to make him a hero, he would have been killed as a criminal.

A very different man from this, one shrewd in counsel and valiant in war,
was Abroo, known also as Family-Man. He had kept to one woman for years,
and kept together the children born to them, so that they constituted a
family. The children of his children were also recognized, and they, with
his other relatives were bound together in a kind of clan. He favored
this group, and sought to gain every advantage for it from the other
men. They kept their fruits together, and lived in common. A few others
were, indeed, admitted to their number, and all together they formed a
“set,” and the social distinction thus made was the foundation of caste.
Abroo was the leader, or patriarch, of this group, and all its members
adhered together in time of dispute. He acted for them all, which was
the beginning of representative government. He considered more what was
to their advantage than what was to the advantage of the whole people;
and many issues turned on whether the Abrooides or the rest of the Ammi
should control. The adherents of Abroo formed a kind of aristocracy. They
were high-minded, and, by general consent, deemed better than the average
man. Abroo had a great contempt for Pounder, and in a recent quarrel
would have been killed by the latter, had not his clansmen interfered to
save him. Abroo proposed that they fight by clans, saying that he would
lead his own hosts; but the suggestion did not prevail, as most of the
Ammi were not grouped in families, and did not even know their relations.
Abroo, however, persisted in keeping his party together in war, as in
peace, and in directing their movements.

There were many other valiant men who went up in this march, and some
women. Among the latter was Watch-the-girls, who protected females
from the embraces of the stronger sex. She beat Spread-Mouth almost to
death for trying one of his smiles on a young girl in the woods, and
pulled bunches of hair out of his back. She scratched an eye out of
Goat-strut for his persistent attentions to unwilling females, and even
Pounder was afraid of her, not that she could vanquish him in fight, but
because other men generally assisted her in a fight against a lascivious
lover. She went fearlessly to war, and led many women and young girls
to battle. For, as yet, both sexes fought, and not the male only; and
Watch-the-girls had more followers than Abroo.

Such were the hosts that went up against the Lali. They numbered two
thousand, although subsequent accounts placed them at many times this
number. They were less numerous, however, than the Lali; but owing to
their greater skill and to their arms, they hoped to overcome larger
numbers.

CHAPTER XXIII.

On the fourth day of their march the Ammi came to a body of water, which
threatened to turn them back and defeat their expedition. The great
earthquake, in tilting the country, had caused the Swamp to overflow,
and cover a great part of the dry land. There was a large lake formed in
this way, which was connected with the Swamp by a strait, or narrow neck
of water. It was necessary for the Ammi to cross this strait, or else go
round the new lake.

“This lake was not here when I passed this way before,” said Koree, “so
that it cannot be deep. Let us, therefore, go through it, for we can
easily wade.”

He thereupon marched in, leading the way for the hosts of mankind to
follow. He was soon, however, beyond his depth, and ordered a retreat.

“We have not struck the right path,” he said; “let us cross farther away
from the Swamp.”

He accordingly made a second attempt, but with no better result. The
water was everywhere too deep to ford.

“I think,” said another, “that we had better go round. If the lake is a
new one it cannot be large.”

“If the water is so deep,” replied a third, “it must extend far into the
country. I think we had better go through the Swamp.”

“There appears,” said still another, “to be more water in the Swamp than
anywhere else. I wonder where all this water comes from.”

“To settle the matter,” said Cocoanut-scooper, “I will climb this palm
tree. From its top I can see the end of the lake if it is small.”

Suiting his action to his words he bounded up the tree, which was an easy
matter for one who had climbed so many in prospecting for fruit.

“There is no end of the water,” he said, on returning. “The Swamp is
flooded and the new lake extends far out of sight.”

“There is then nothing to do,” said Koree, “but to cross it. So let us
spread out, and each hunt for a shallow place.”

“We might,” observed another, “wait till the water subsides.”

“Or,” said Oko, “we could go back and give up the war. If the country
is flooded everything beyond is destroyed, and we will make nothing by
conquering the Lali, who have no doubt been washed out with all their
provisions.”

“There is plenty of fruit beyond,” said Cocoanut-Scooper, “I observed
that before coming down from the palm. We shall have a prosperous march
if we only get over this water.”

The great flood, however, rolled, like Jordan, between them and the
promised land; and no power, human or apian, had yet crossed such a
stream.

A few limbs and trunks of trees were floating in the water, which
suggested an idea to Koree.

“If we could each get on one of these pieces of floating wood,” he said,
“we might get over the water; for the wind is driving them in that
direction.”

“Good,” said Pounder, “and I will be the first to try it. I can handle a
wild beast or an alligator, and so need not fear a log.”

So he rushed into the water and seized the trunk of a dead tree floating
near, and was soon astride it drifting toward the other shore.

Others followed his example, and soon the river was full of warriors,
each trying to mount a log and sail across the lake. Some of the limbs,
however, were too small to bear their weight, and had to be abandoned.
Others were of awkward shape and would not remain long in the same
position, and so could not be controlled. Several, however, mounted
successfully, and expected soon to reach the opposite shore. Pounder was
in the lead, and beckoned the rest to follow him.

But there were not logs enough to supply all, so that not many followed
him, and some began to disparage this means of crossing.

“Come on,” cried Pounder. “If you are afraid of the water, how do you
expect to meet the enemy?”

“Come back,” replied Koree, “till we can all provide ourselves with logs,
or else find other means of crossing.”

[Illustration: POUNDER’S MISHAP.]

“I will not come back,” he said; “you are cowards, and when I get on the
other side I will”—

Just then his log turned, and the great Pounder was seen with his feet
in the air, kicking at the sun. Down he went head first into the water
and out of sight. Soon, however, he reappeared, and after spitting out a
mouthful of water, and shaking his locks, tried to regain his log. But
he could not raise himself for awhile, and when at last he succeeded in
remounting the log it turned again and buried him a second time out of
sight.

“I would rather have hold of an alligator than of this thing,” he said,
as he came up spitting and shivering.

Finding, however, that he could not mount the log securely, he abandoned
it, and swam back to the shore; and all the rest who had not been thrown
from their logs followed his example, lest they should meet a like
disaster.

But the experiment was not lost, and the fruitless attempt to cross in
this way suggested several improvements in navigation.

“Some logs float better than others,” observed Koree; and there was a
long discussion about how to trim and hew them so as to make them hold a
man. Many experiments were made. They used their stone wedges and bear’s
teeth to hollow them into shape. This work continued for days, and as a
result of their consultations and efforts, a crude canoe, or boat was
formed, but not till after many failures to make it hold its contents.
The first success was accomplished by Duco who managed, after many
dangers, to cross the lake in a vessel of his own construction.

There was now an ambition in every one to construct a boat, and they
almost forgot the war in their enthusiasm for this new industry. The
art of ship-building was thus begun, and a navy put in process of
construction.

CHAPTER XXIV.

“We can never at this rate,” said Koree, “construct boats enough to cross
this water. We have already toiled many days and only one man has yet
crossed and returned.”

“Even if we could get our boats ready,” replied Pounder, “we could not
rely on them to carry us safely across. Duco waited long for a good wind,
and when it came it blowed him in many directions before landing him on
the opposite shore. If we entered such vessels, we would be scattered and
lost.”

“Let us go back,” said Oko, “or we will lose all.”

Koree at this moment observed that several of the logs had floated
together, and were being driven about in a cluster. The boys were amusing
themselves by jumping from one to another, and all were being carried
along by the flood.

“If we could fasten those logs together,” he said, “they would hold many
of us, and by making several such collections we could all get across.”

This was a new idea which was immediately acted upon by the Ammi. It did
not take our early ancestors long to adopt a suggestion or introduce an
improvement. From the thought to the act was only a step, and, though
most steps were failures, they made so many that occasionally they
achieved a success.

“Collect all the logs,” he said, “and get willows and bark to fasten them
together.”

They were, therefore, soon busy collecting the logs that were in the
water, and rolling others from the land with their clubs, which they used
as levers, thus learning incidentally an important mechanical principle.
With their hatchets of flint they chopped off branches, shaped the timber
into the desired form, and even felled trees for their bark or trunks. It
was obvious that a raft would soon be constructed and set afloat.

They had shortly before built in a similar manner a small bridge near
their dwellings to enable them to cross to a dry point in the Swamp; and,
seeing a flood carry it away, (when it floated on the water), they were
not wholly unprepared to see this new raft also float.

“If one log floats why will not more?” asked Koree.

“If our bridge floated away, this also will do so,” replied another; and
they thenceforth called it the “floating bridge.”

The raft was soon finished, and a large number of men and women at once
rushed upon it, so many, indeed, that it began to sink.

This was looked upon as a failure, and the disappointment of the whole
human race was no less than when Fulton’s first steamer failed to move.

“The thing will not float,” observed Oko.

“It floated,” replied Duco, “until we all got upon it. If some would get
off it would float again.”

“But we must all cross over, or none,” replied Abroo, the Family-man.

“Let us build more rafts,” interposed Koree, “and in several of them we
can all cross.”

“Instead of this,” said Abroo, the Family-man, “let part of our hosts
cross at once, when this structure can be brought back for the others to
cross. I and my party will cross first.”

This was agreed to, except that, instead of Abroo and his clan, Duco was
chosen to take charge of the first load.

The next difficulty was in getting the raft started. It lay motionless
with its load.

“Wait till the wind rises,” said Koree.

Presently a gust struck them, but it had no effect in starting them.

“Let us push the thing with our clubs,” said Duco, at which all applied
themselves vigorously.

The raft was easily moved in this way, and continued to go as long as
they could reach bottom; but in deep water it stood still, or floated at
the mercy of the waves. Pounder tried to move it by sitting on one log
and pushing with his feet against another. Others beat the water, which
had a little effect. Duco then discovered that by pushing in the opposite
direction against the water they could make it move; and soon they were
paddling in the modern fashion. During much of the way the water was
shallow enough to permit them to use their clubs as poles, or, to get
out and push; so that they were soon far out from land and going in the
right direction.

They would now have reached the opposite shore but for Pounder, who
kept pushing in the way just described thinking he was forcing along
the raft. By reason of his vigorous efforts he snapped the bands which
held the logs together. The raft broke in pieces and he was the first to
fall through into the water. He went down between the logs which he was
pushing apart. Others fell into the water with him, but most remained
on one part or other of the raft; for it broke into nearly equal parts.
Pounder floundered awhile in the water; but, being accustomed to that,
through his previous plunges from the log, he soon got hold of one of the
rafts and lifted himself out of the water.

“These things can’t be depended on,” he said, as he regained his place on
board.

They had now two rafts instead of one, and they pushed and paddled on
each. Pounder, instead of sitting on one log and pushing against another,
next took a seat on one log and pushed with his feet against a knot
on the same log, and believed he was rendering the principal aid in
propelling the raft.

It was easier to proceed with two small rafts than one large one, and
accordingly both were soon landed on the opposite shore, but not till
several of the passengers had fallen overboard and the craft had been
badly damaged.

This was the first water voyage made by the human race. After repairing
their vessels they returned and brought over the remaining hosts, but
not without similar mishaps. Gimbo, the grandfather of Sosee, fell,
with others, into the water, and was nearly drowned. Only by standing on
tiptoes could he keep his head above water until he was rescued, when he
made the following observation:

“The water is the only place where it is better to walk on two feet than
on four.”

Having now crossed the lake it was proposed by Oko that they keep the
rafts. “We spent too much work on them,” he said, “to throw them away.”

“We cannot take them with us,” replied Koree.

“We may want them when we return,” interposed Duco; “so let us fasten
them where we can find them.”

“And let us leave somebody here to watch them,” said Oko, apprehensive
lest some of their property should be lost.

Like the ships of the Greeks on the coast of Troy these rafts were,
accordingly, made fast, so that they should be ready for the return
voyage of the warriors at the close of the war.

CHAPTER XXV.

The Ammi now continued their forward march with but little interruption.

“I fear this expedition will end in disaster,” said Gimbo; “our falling
into the water is a bad sign.”

“I think so to,” added Pounder, recalling his duckings; “but before it
ends I shall have a fight with the Apes, and smash some of their jaws.”

“What looks to me worst,” said another, “is, that when I was sharpening
my flint this morning, the Fire-monster suddenly appeared to me, starting
up out of the flint and immediately disappearing again.”

“I saw the same thing,” added another, “when Pounder struck me in the
eye. Fire flew in all directions and then disappeared.”

One of the scouts now returned breathless announcing that they could see
the Lali in the distance.

“Let me reconnoiter,” said Koree, who advanced rapidly to the farther
edge of the swamp, from which, indeed, the Apes could be distinctly seen.

These were running up and down the trees, apparently gathering fruit, and
chasing one another over the plains without any apparent purpose except
sport. But men never knew the deep designs of Monkeys.

“Where is Sosee, I wonder?” asked Koree, who was too much interested
in the object of his love to attend closely to the requirements of
war. He did not observe that at that moment a great ape was stealthily
approaching him from one side.

For the Apes had out their pickets as well as the men, owing to
apprehensions of an attack; while others were scattered through the Swamp
hunting food.

After a little waiting and looking he thought he descried Sosee in the
distance walking with a handsome ape who was exceedingly attentive to her.

Jealousy now succeeded to prudence, and his rage would have at once
carried him alone into the ranks of the enemy to capture her (and be
captured instead), but, another incident prevented him from accomplishing
this disaster.

“I will have her at once,” he said, “and scatter the brains of that
monkey attendant over any one who opposes me.”

At this instant the ape who was watching him ran up and dealt him a
powerful blow, knocking his resolution, his jealousy and his love out of
him for a while.

Koree, recovering his senses, now transferred his rage to this new
quarter, and, following it up with blows, soon brought to the ground his
assailant.

This was witnessed by other scouts of the Lali who ran to the rescue of
their companion, and also by some scouts of the Ammi who closed on the
combatants, so that an immediate fight was threatened between the pickets
of the two forces.

[Illustration: THE BATTLE BEGINS.]

This encounter, all unpremeditated, nearly defeated the schemes of both
parties. It destroyed the hope of secrecy on the part of the Ammi, who
thought to take the Lali by surprise; and destroyed the hope of ambush
on the part of the Lali who meant to entrap the approaching enemy in the
Swamp. Each party, moreover, being ignorant of the force by which it was
attacked, and fearing that it might be larger than its own, shrank from
fight.

As soon, therefore, as they got released from each other, they flew
apart, as if they had been fighting to escape, and not to conquer. Both
being afraid, and not daring to seem so, they affected to despise each
other, and so, showing their teeth and grinning a defiance, they went in
opposite directions, each hoping the other would take the encounter for
a chance meeting of strange apes hunting for food, and not a skirmish
between the advance guards of mighty hosts prepared for battle.

It was too late, however. Both powers were now apprised of each others’
designs, and both immediately put themselves in readiness for action.

Koree was much blamed by the Ammi for his rashness in precipitating this
encounter.

“It was your love,” said Abroo, “which brought us here to fight, and it
is your love which will now defeat us. O that love would take sense along
with it when it goes either to woo a woman or fight a battle.”

“But it generally turns to foolishness before it accomplishes anything,”
added Cocoanut-Scooper.

“And were there not a fool also on the other side it would never succeed
at all,” said Oko.

“Koree’s case,” added a fourth, “makes more trouble for others than
pleasure for himself.”

“For his falling in love once,” said Pounder, “I fell in the water twice.”

And so they went on reproaching poor Koree for having such a strong love
that it would not let them rest, and such a foolish one that it would not
let them fight.

Koree had nothing to say, but being himself most convinced of his own
foolishness, was angry that others agreed with him, and so simply changed
the subject.

“Be ready to fight at once,” he said, “as we may be attacked before we
have time to decide whether we will fight or not. Between the lake and
the Apes we have nothing left but to triumph.”

“It is either to be killed by the Apes or drowned in the water,” said
Oko, “and I don’t like either.”

“We’ll kill some apes before we are killed ourselves,” answered Pounder;
“at least, I will.”

“Their forces are more numerous than ours,” insisted Oko.

“That being so,” said Koree, who turned every objection into a new
device, “we will fight them by stealth, creeping upon them by night, or
enticing them into the woods.”

“Let us rather,” said Duco, “attack them openly, and all at once; though
we are less numerous we are armed, and have more skill than they.”

“I think,” said Gimbo, “that the Apes will triumph; they walk on all
fours, and people can fight better with four feet than with two; besides,
it is not right to—”

“Be still,” said Koree, “or give us your help, instead of your fears.”

It was resolved at last, as they could neither retreat nor stand still,
to go forward; and they determined to await an opportunity to make an
assault.

And now dread Terror brooded over the hosts of men, causing hearts to
flutter and visions of death to rush on the soul. Night and Blood and
Pain visited many in dreams, while to some Glory appeared, walking over a
vanquished foe. As Koree slept he thought he saw Sosee coming to him in
beauty with a branch of evergreen oak, and promise that he should rule
over a new race, while she should sit by his side as queen to receive the
admiration of all men.

The Apes also quaked, and the convulsions which had just thrown up the
Alps were trifling compared with the tremors that shook the breasts of
the embattled hosts that night. The morrow was to witness a conflict that
would decide whether the human race was to remain on earth or go out of
history in its infancy.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Aurora now appeared in the east starting the sleepers from their dreams,
and advanced so bright that the terrified Ammi thought the Fire-monster
had seized the sky, and was spreading his wings over the whole world,
portending death to mortals. First she tinted the new-born Alps with
gold, then chased the mists from the valleys, and at last spread the
whole earth with day. The courage of the hosts now returned, which had
left them during the reign of the night-monsters in their dreams.

With the coming of the light the Ammi marched boldly up to the Lali,
while the latter, thrown first into confusion, ran about in a panic, and
then, gathering themselves into a body, offered defiance to the intruders.

As when a storm, rushing from the north, suddenly strikes the sea,
rolling the waves in mountain ridges along the main, which again,
breaking, rush back and fall like cliffs into the deep, stirring the
great cauldron of waters to its bottom, and then spread out again into
a calm, so the Apes, mightily stirred at the approach of stern War, and
driven by their fears, rushed hither and thither over the plain, mounting
the trees and scattering to places of safety, and then, as the storm of
terror passed on its way regained composure and settled down on the field
of battle ready for action.

First advanced from the ranks of the Ammi the mighty Pounder, impatient
for battle, and, surveying the plain which lay between the Men and the
Apes, he grinned a challenge to the whole Lali.

Him seeing from afar the mighty Scratch-for-Fleas, starting up from the
hosts of the Lali and shaking himself, (at which the earth trembled as
when Jupiter shook Olympus with a nod), advanced to him, saying:

“For what purpose come you to the shores of the Lali? Have the cocoanuts
failed beyond the Swamp, or do you come for our women? We will defend
our own, be they cocoanuts or girls. Go back, or taste the wrath of the
Monkeys.”

Him answering with a grin, the fierce Pounder showed his teeth. His great
lips parted, like the swinging gates of Babylon, bringing to view huge
rows of marble-like columns that lined, like palisades, a deep, dark
gorge.

A like mouth opened on the other side; and Scratch-for-Fleas, looking now
to the east and now to the west, advanced, first on four feet and then
on two. Next he moved sidewise, and, at last, for a moment, stood still,
moving however in contemplation his great features, which, following
his thoughts, changed fast in shape and color like clouds in a mountain
storm.

“Do you come for the maiden of Ilo?” he said. “You will return without
her. Give back your stolen fruits and women, and we may make peace before
war begins.”

Pounder thereupon, without answering, rushed for Scratch-for-Fleas, being
better fitted for war than for diplomacy.

Scratch-for-Fleas, fearing the mighty assault, retreated to the hosts of
the Lali, unwilling to fight so great a champion; and thereupon a loud
shout went up from the Ammi at their bloodless victory. Pounder, however,
was disappointed, for he loved fighting better than conquering.

Then the nimble-shanked Nut-picker, he who had been reared on the slopes
of Wildcat Mountain, went out from the hosts of the Lali bearing a
cocoanut in his hand.

Him seeing, the avaricious Oko, not knowing whether it was a weapon or a
truce-signal, went forth to meet, saying, “Do you mean war or cocoanuts?
If you mean cocoanuts, produce enough and we may give up the fight.”

Then the nimble-shanked Nut-picker, true-aiming, threw and struck him,
and the cocoanut rolled to the ground on one side, and Oko on the other.
Picking up himself and then the cocoanut, Oko thereupon retired to the
ranks of the Ammi bearing with him his defeat and his booty.

War was now declared and begun, and the two parties, hitherto friends, or
indifferent to each other, became enemies. So great a difference does so
slight a change produce.

Then, according to the legends of the Ammi, the great spirit of Shoozoo,
looking out from the heavens at the combatants, and fearing that his
worshippers might be destroyed, called a council of the gods. Simlee,
his wife, Queen of Heaven, appeared, leaving her mists, and the great
winged Alligator came up out of the Swamp, dripping with the flood, and
the Fire-god left his place in the sky, and the Rainbow folded up his
rays, and the Wind left the earth and sea, (so that there was a season of
calms), and they all met in the sky to take counsel on the events that
were about to transpire on earth.

“Dire war,” said Shoozoo, “is hovering over the world, and, unless it is
averted, neither Men nor Apes nor earth will long survive. Only recently
I saw the world mount up toward the sky, and to-day it stands on tip-toe
trying to reach the heavens; for the Alps have not yet gone down. The
great Swamp left its bed to march over dry ground, and has not yet gone
back. The noise of the earthquake has hardly yet subsided, but still
reverberates in distant thunders; and, should war yet rage, things will
be so mixed up that nothing will remain for earth or sky that is certain
for either.”

“I will arise as a mist,” said Simlee, “and, passing between the two
armies, prevent their collision by destroying their sight.”

“The Fire-god will soon scatter the mists,” said Night, “so that they can
fight in clear day. Let me rather settle down upon them, through whom
none can see; and, though it be but noon, I will wipe out their day.”

And wrapping herself in thick clouds she started for the earth to cover
the battle-field with impenetrable shadows.

“Let me rather,” said the great Alligator, “empty the Swamp on them
again, and overwhelm them with a second flood.”

“They have made boats,” said the Wind, “and now defy the waters. Let me
rather start the air against them. I will give it wings to beat their
faces and call in Thunder to frighten them and Rain to blind them, and
will so mix heaven and earth and sea together against them that they
cannot proceed.”

“There is nothing,” said Shoozoo, “that will avail, but to assuage
their wrath, which crosses streams and night and outlasts weather. An
interruption to-day prolongs the war, but does not end it. Let us not,
by impeding them, add to their rage against each other and their anger
against us. For I fear that men will one day mount to heaven and destroy
the Gods.”

This advice they consented to follow, not, however, because any of them
wanted to, but because they could not agree among themselves what to do.

It was accordingly decided that the deities, operating all together,
should descend to the combatants to work on their minds; and so, wrapping
themselves in clouds, and mists, and rain, and shadow, and light, which
were all mistaken by Mortals for forms of the weather, they entered the
battle with both Men and Apes, and worked for peace and a mitigation of
the horrors of war.

But when Men and Gods are thus at variance, the Gods fail; and the
council of heaven having broken up, the war of earth went on.

CHAPTER XXVII.

First Koree, unmindful of the counsel of the skies, moved forward, and,
fearing neither Gods nor Monkeys, sought to begin the battle.

He stood in the plain between the two armies, like an oak in an open
field between two forests. Breathing defiance to the Lali, he called out:

“Who dares to meet me of all your hosts, and ward off death from his brow
when I discharge this dart, the swift avenger of my wrong?”

Him seeing, and not fearing, the great Tree-climber of the mountains ran
to meet, he who had often pulled the tails of cats, and grinned at larger
beasts. Stopping often, and then starting again, like a great river that
now rushes with violence, and then stops and whirls in an eddy, (showing
commotion in its stop as in its onward course), he, seeming irresolute,
plunged at last at Koree, having eluded his missiles, and seized him with
hands and teeth. Hair and blood flew from Koree, who in turn sent a blow
to Tree-climber’s ribs, which loosed his ribs and no less his fingers
and teeth from Koree’s flesh; and the great warriors, bleeding and
aching, flew apart. They stood, frowning like two mountain peaks about
to fall with a crash upon each other, but were stayed in their rage by a
return of Fear, the destroyer of battles. Both having enough, and being
uncertain what it would be to get more, went back, one to the west like
the sun, and the other to the east like a shadow; and there was a lull in
the storm.

[Illustration: KOREE’S CHALLENGE.]

Then Kimpoo, the skunk-scented, rising among the Lali, went forth,
breathing war from his extended nostrils, and, scratching first his thigh
and then his ribs, said in defiant tones:

“Invaders of our homes! go back to disgrace, or come forth to death.”

So saying he threw a cocoanut which grazed the ear of Duco, calling forth
a little blood and a big howl, and then passed on and struck the stomach
of Pounder, producing only a grunt.

Then High-tail, the Wood-pecker hunter, ran forth, he who knew all the
holes in Possum Grove, and smelt at many and was sad. Aiming at Kimpoo
a marrow bone, he threw it with such force, that, whistling through the
air, it was heard but not seen. It entered his head where a flea had left
a bite at early dawn; and as the bone went in his soul went out. Down he
fell with a crash, as when a mountain fir is broken in the storm.

Then Ilko, a friend of the slain ape and lover of huckle berries, rushed
forth to avenge his death, and, aiming a stone at the head of High-tail,
threw it with such precision that death entered where he struck, and the
losses between the two forces were equal.

Then seeing that Death was to be the companion of this War, and uncertain
which army would survive, Koree invoked the aid of Shoozoo.

“Great spirit of the skies and Swamp, God and Alligator,” he said, “teach
us to conquer on this field or to run away in time. May our arms be
stronger than the enemy, or our feet swifter than Death.”

And then rushing out he called on any of the Lali to come forth to meet
him in battle, and particularly Ilo, the robber of his pleasures.

But Ilo was sitting afar off with Sosee, guarding her against escape
and the seductions of Oboo his rival, and he heard not the challenge to
battle.

But Owl-catcher heard, and, fired with anger and a desire for glory, went
forth to meet him. On all fours he went, looking up at times as he ran
and rising on his feet to survey the field.

Koree, advancing, threw a sharpened flint at him, aiming at where the
hair is parted on the brow, and there it entered. The distant Alps
disappeared from the eyes of Owl-catcher, and, as all things faded from
his sight, he knew not whether the world or a monkey was collapsing.

Now Ilo, hearing that he was challenged, came to the fight; but not
willingly. Sosee had demanded that he play not the coward; for love
cannot follow the timorous. But whether she deeply designed that he
should die or be victor, none could fathom. He came to the front and met
the proud Koree who said:

“I have a plentiful supply of death for the Lali, and for you I will send
it on this bone;” and he discharged a split marrow-bone at his breast.
It was one that Sosee had sharpened while they talked together of love
and acted out their conversation, and she had graved on it, with a bear’s
tooth, the wing of a dragon fly.

This marrow-bone pierced the flesh of Ilo, but not his love-tickled
heart; and he ran away screaming and bleeding, not wishing to die while
in the joys of his first love.

He sought out Sosee in the distance, who showered her compassion, if not
her affection, upon him; and she drew the bone from his breast, when,
seeing it was the weapon of Koree which her own hands had fashioned, she
was thrown into consternation.

“Is my lover fighting my lover?” she asked, “and do I make the weapons
that slay them?” and she rushed to the scene of battle and came between
the lines.

At the sight of Sosee a shout arose from the Ammi, who thought that
she had escaped, or else that the Lali, fearing their defeat, were
surrendering her. Koree ran to meet her, forgetful that the battle was
raging, when, being about to grasp her in his arms, he was struck by a
cocoanut in the ear, which had been thrown by Tree-jumper, an ape from
the Bamboo plains, who had started in her pursuit. Koree fell to the
ground, stunned by the stroke of the ape and the sight of his beloved,
for the double blow on his eye and ear exhausted him, being already weary
from strife. But he fell unhurt, and was picked up by friends and carried
to a place of safety.

Sosee, however, was seized by Tree-jumper, and taken back to the Lali,
who placed her far from the front, where she was safe from both death and
rescue.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Now the battle raged on all sides. Not one but many went forth from each
army, and were engaged in groups fighting hand to hand, or throwing
missiles. The sudden appearance of Sosee, which revived the hopes of the
Ammi, who thought the girl and the end of the war were both within their
grasp, increased their fury when they saw her followed by a captor, and a
general rush was made to take the field and the girl by storm.

First Pounder entered the combat, and was met by an ape from the north
country. This ape was descended from a long line of heroes; Sookaloo was
his father, who had fought bumble-bees in the meadows about the great
springs, and there the bones of his kindred repose. This ape, advancing
to meet Pounder, drew the battle toward him. Both clenched and opened
their jaws, and soon both were in each other’s arms and teeth. Anger and
strength met in Pounder, and were united for the death of his antagonist.
But this was delayed awhile, and struggles, growls and blood were
yielded instead. Then weakness followed, and at last darkness gathered
about the eyes of the ape; his thoughts took flight, and quiet settled
over him even in battle.

Striding over his body Pounder now rushed on to new conquests, impatient
for more strife. A great gorilla-like monster next met him, approaching
from afar. With thoughts of death in his eye, he came walking on his
hands, swinging his great body between them, like a huge kettle between
two posts. He appeared to be walking and sitting at once.

“Come you to bring new honor to these arms?” said Pounder. “I will soon
bear your death about me as a trophy, and those that I send out of the
world will not be lonely beyond the Swamp.”

As when Day and Night meet at dawn, and, in hot contest redden the whole
sky with blood, and, Night being slain, Day moves on over the sky in
undisputed and undivided sway, so these mighty heroes met, and in the
battle the ape was overcome and sank from the contest, while Pounder,
rising like the sun from the death of Night, marched on victorious over
the scene, and was lord of the field.

On again rushed Pounder, like Hector at Troy; and the Apes, seeing their
warriors fall at his strokes, feared to engage him in single combat.

“Let us attack him together,” they said; and two great apes stood up to
meet him, like twin mountain peaks approached by a storm. One met his
fist with his eye and saw no more that day; the other seized his arm and
in that grasp laid hold of Death, whom none survive; and as he fell the
dull earth reëchoed the crash to the mountains, which he alone did not
hear.

Terror now took hold of all that beheld the mighty Pounder, and they fled
from his advance as peasants working in a field flee from an approaching
flood, some to be overtaken and destroyed, and others to escape to a safe
place in the highlands. Pounder now chased, instead of fought, the Apes,
hunting for a foe with whom to measure his strength and with difficulty
finding one.

At last Ilo, recovering from his wound, but not his rage, rushed again to
the field, (impelled also by Sosee), and, seeing the advance of Pounder,
which drove the Apes before him, met him with a stone, (which reaches
further than an ape’s arm). Forth into the air, like Iris from the
command of Jove, rushed this messenger of wrath, and, singing a battle
cry as it went, it struck Pounder in the breast; when out went his breath
and up went his feet—but only for awhile. Pounder arose again, but, being
unable to fight, was carried back by his comrades; and again the fight
went on without him, to his great disappointment.

The Apes, encouraged by the arrest of the flood of death, now returned to
the field, and everywhere were single fights. Stones, cocoanuts, gourds
and bones flew through the air. Cries and groans mingled with growls, and
which was man and which was monkey could not be discerned in the battle.

Finger-at-his-nose, an ape from the shores lying to the south, where his
ancestors fished for crabs with their tails, and made mighty grimaces
while waiting for a bite, scraped the face of Stretch-mouth with a shell,
and was put to flight with a club in hands of Abroo; and, as he ran a
shower of stones followed him, and he thought the crabs of all the Swamp
were pulling at him.

Then High-climber, who was quick to look around and unfriendly to
mosquitos, advanced from among the Apes with a cocoanut in his hand. This
cocoanut he had pulled in a dense grove at sunset and hid at the foot of
a palm, where a buzzard was feeding on an aurochs. The buzzard dug it
up and carried it to a mountain crag, where Imko, finding it, brought
it to the camp of the Lali. There High-climber, seeing it, again took
possession of it and slew Imko the supposed thief. With this cocoanut,
High-climber, aiming at the head of Frog-catcher, struck him where the
nose separates the eyes, like the mountains of Caucasus between two great
seas. Frog-catcher fell and one less Ammi was left to propagate the new
race.

Then Watch-the-Girls, furious with rage, rushed forth, and, with a sharp
stone and loud shout, mixed in the fight. Ape after ape fell before her,
wounded or scared. Like a she-wolf tearing the fold she ran about dealing
destruction, while the timid flock fled on all sides, or gathered in
groups too frightened to flee. One, Bushy-face thought to resist her,
and, turning, aimed a dart at her bright eye. But, too dazzled or too
terrified to aim, he missed his mark, when, from the same eye, she sent
a dart of defiance and from her hand a stone. Both struck the eye which
aimed the first blow, and back went retribution on the wrong intended.
Down sank Bushy-face in darkness, and away went all things from his view.
To the world the monkey was no more, and to the monkey the world was no
more; and which was destroyed has never been settled between them.

Then off in the distance was heard a great chorus of screams, while a
rush of all the Apes to that quarter drew the battle with it. The girls,
who had been led to the war by Watch-the-Girls, then thought to enter the
fight. They had been restrained by their leader; but now, impetuous, they
rushed against the enemy; whom seeing, the salacious Apes, enamoured of
the daughters of Men, and forgetting their anger in their lust, gave up
the battle for a rape, and rushed upon the girls to make them prisoners.
The girls, scorning to be carried away instead of attacked, (having come
to fight and not to be wooed), struggled hard with their captors, but
more from pride than desire.

Then all the Ammi, seeing that their girls were about to be taken,
transferred the war to that quarter, and fought for their own, instead
of against the enemy. Inspired by jealousy as well as rage, the battle
now waxed fiercer, as when to a raging fire is added the wind, and the
conflagration spreads into a forest. Death moved about rapidly over the
field, visiting now a man and now an ape, and calling him to the Walhalla
beyond the Swamp; and the plain was scattered with his victims.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Oboo, hearing there was a fight for girls, now came forward to take part.
He had till now sulked in the rear, because of Ilo’s good fortune in
possessing Sosee. Defeated in love, and still smarting from his wounds,
he had refused, like Achilles, to fight, and, nursing his wrath afar off,
desired the defeat of the Lali. He had long insisted that Sosee should be
restored to the Ammi, and the war ended. But, as others continued it, he
persisted in his absence, even when the Lali were in danger of rout and
their possessions of loss. Many had fallen on account of his inaction.
Oft did the chiefs approach him to assuage his wrath. But the volcanic
fires in his breast refused to be cooled, and awaited their time to burst
out and destroy his rivals. An ape will not waste himself on an enemy
when he has a rival for his anger.

But hearing that there was to be a capture of girls, his anger melted
into lust, and he relented. What neither the North Wind nor the Rain
could do the warmth within him sufficed to accomplish—it moved his
mighty will. For dread War, stalking over the land and breathing his hot
breath in his face, had failed to arouse him. Mightier Reason, borne on
the tongue of Pity, could not move him. Even Glory had no allurements to
draw him from his retreat. But Beauty, which now visited him in fancies,
tickled him into action; and, like the needle following the invisible
pole, he went, strongly impelled, to the scene of battle, where to his
thoughts a field was pictured with delights.

Rumor went abroad, and everywhere proclaimed to the female Apes that the
great Oboo was coming to battle, and many hearts beat at the prospect of
beholding him. Young women and maidens came to see, nor did the old stay
away. Many who had an interest in him past, present or future, sought to
look on; and those who could not be moved by love came from curiosity.

With majestic step their hero advanced. Not as the common warrior comes
came he forth. Slowly like the Morning, he advanced to the eyes of a
wondering world. A female ape had parted his locks in the morning and
picked the burrs from his shaggy limbs; and, as he stood out against the
sky, his form was a monument of beauty to both the women and himself.

Looking to one side and then to the other, (not to reconnoitre, but to
receive the admiration of the females) he reflected, as he shook his
slender legs, that they who now beheld him with solicitude would receive
him back with gratitude. Victory seemed assured in his bearing, and, like
the sun at noon, he dazzled the hosts with his splendor.

Such was the appearance of the mighty Oboo on entering the field; and as
he advanced the eastern zephyrs moved through his louse-less locks, and
his brow, like the forest-crowned head of Mt. Ida, seemed glorified.

Him seeing from afar the great Boomboo, calling all the Gods to his aid,
ran forth to meet. “O Shoozoo,” he cried, “lend me all the heavens with
their fires and loud thunders to match this terror of the plains, the
wrath-inflamed fighter of men and lover of women; and to-night I will
devote to you a live dragon fly caught where the thistles of the Swamp do
bloom and the bats are sleeping.”

So saying he seized a big water-melon, such as two men of our day could
not lift, and he raised it in mid air. It was a melon which had grown on
the sandy banks of Alligator Swamp; three generations had eaten fruit
from that spot, and cast the seeds along the wide-reaching shore. This
great water-melon the mighty Boomboo smashed on the head of Oboo. For,
throwing it with great force, he sent it heavily through the air, as when
a huge rock is thrown convulsively from a volcano. A great flying terror
it went, casting a moving shadow over the earth; and it went not in vain;
but, descending from its flight, it struck the well-picked head of Oboo,
and dreadful was the sound of the thud.

Bursting with a quake, as when the earth opens, it was scattered in
countless pieces, never to be again united. Pulp and rind and seeds were
splattered over his brow and well-smoothed locks, and the juice ran down
over his face, and covered his hairy chest, and flowed from his limbs
to the ground. Dripping and sticky the proud Oboo, like a half-drowned
rat crawling out of a well, sneaked away, unfit to be seen, and would no
longer match his prowess against the Ammi in battle.

[Illustration: THE RETREAT OF THE LALI.]

Inextinguishable laughter arose among the men; while even among
the Lali there was merriment. The females were most amused at the
seed-besplattered lover; and Ilo, glad in his heart at his inglorious
retreat, said with contempt:

“Go back to the women and get dried up; you were made not for war, but
for love.”

Like a bubble blown by a boy, which swells bigger and bigger, until the
sky and mountains are reflected in it, and then, at the moment of its
greatest bulk, when it seems to carry the whole world, bursts and settles
into a little suds, so the swelling Oboo, who matched the sun in its
splendor when he came to battle, dwindled to a sop as he returned.

Meanwhile the girls who had been drawn into the battle, and for whom Oboo
had left his retreat, fought so fiercely that none of them were captured,
but many of their assailants were slain or left wounded on the field.

And now all the Lali retreated from the victorious Ammi, being
demoralized by the victory of the girls and the discomfiture of Oboo,
while the Ammi prepared to move with all their force on the Lali and to
end the war that day.

But Night settled down on the contending armies, and the wheels of
history stopped awhile.

CHAPTER XXX.

Sleep came not to the Ammi that night, but instead Pestilence settled
down upon them. The water of the Swamp, stirred by the recent floods,
and the strange fruits which they had eaten since leaving home, had
brought Colic to the camp, and, like Dreams, it visited the couches of
the heroes, and rolled them about in aches and pains. Night slackened its
pace and dwelt long among them, covering with darkness their pain; and,
as they ran about holding their stomachs and looking for sweet relief,
which came not, the Lali, who faintly discerned their movements in the
moonlight, thought they were making preparations for battle, and so they
fled, lest disaster should follow on their defeat of the day before. Thus
did the Lali run away from the Belly-ache.

And when Aurora, closing the gates of the world on Night, advanced,
announcing with freshened breath the Day, and her golden train fell in
rich drapery over the eastern sky, the Ammi were seen lying about in
groups, doubled up and griping, each caring not for glorious victory but
for peace within. Koree forgot his beloved Sosee, and Pounder lay in a
big heap, caring neither for battle nor country.

Gimbo walking about on all fours administered relief, being physician as
well as priest.

“There is nothing so good for colic,” he said, “as to pound the stomach;”
and, taking a long-necked pumpkin, he gave each a blow on the spot where
the pain was felt. This caused the patient to give a jerk and a howl.

“That is good;” said Gimbo, “it is the colic jumping out of you;” and in
very bad cases he repeated the blow.

“It is well,” he added, “to keep your stomachs turned toward the Swamp;
the colic always goes out on that side, owing to the influence of the
Alligator.”

He also applied the wing of a dragon fly to those who had not yet
contracted the complaint, with a view to keep it away.

“When the colic sees this sign of Shoozoo,” he said, “it is afraid to
come near you.”

There were no hostilities that day, the Lali being kept back by fear and
the Ammi by colic.

On the morning following, when Pain and Fear had fled from both camps,
the combatants were far apart. The Lali had retreated either for safety
or preparations, and the Ammi had the field, but were without an enemy
either to fight or treat with for peace.

Anxiety now took the place of colic in their breasts, and uncertainty
about what the Lali were devising made them hesitate about their own
course.

Meanwhile other matters came to occupy their attention.

“I have long noticed,” said Gimbo, “that it is getting colder. Walking
on four feet I learn things sooner than others. I used to walk without
discomfort to my hands. But now the ground is so cold that I can hardly
stand it with either feet or hands. I must get up a tree to keep warm, or
else go into a hole.”

Others had observed the same change. In fact it was the sudden cold,
coming the night before, that helped bring on the colic just mentioned.
It disturbed the temperature of the body, and the first inconvenience
from sudden changes of climate was felt by mankind.

Nor was this a small matter. The first Glacial Period had set in. That
great catastrophe which, at the end of the Tertiary Age, covered the
northern hemisphere with mountains of ice, burying the earth out of
sight, and destroying all life, was beginning to make itself felt.

Farther to the north, (as they heard), the progress of the cold was well
under way, but now its influence first reached the Ammi.

“What is that?” asked several at once, directing their attention to the
sky.

A snow storm had come. It was the first snow that had fallen in those
regions, and was a stranger to both Men and Apes.

“It’s the clouds coming down from the sky,” said one; “they have broken
in pieces and are falling.”

“It is blossoms from the trees in heaven,” said Koree, who had grown
sentimental from long thinking about Sosee; “Shoozoo is shaking them
down as he runs through the forests after owls.”

“I think it is dragon flies,” said Gimbo, who observed the form of the
flakes. “There is here the short-beam and the long-beam. Surely Shoozoo
is coming to the earth, and we ought to be very devout.”

Among the Lali the snow produced still greater consternation. Some said
it was the white form of Simlee, the wife of Shoozoo, who was coming to
the Apes; and all agreed that it came on account of the war between the
Apes and the Men. In as much as a snow-flake, when examined, was seen to
turn to water, a priest of the Lali remarked that it was going back to
Shoozoo, the great reservoir, or Swamp, into which all things at last
return.

Suddenly there was a tremendous rush of arctic animals over both camps,
and all the country, as far as the eye could reach, was alive with them.
They came from the north where the heavy snows had started a migration
southward. Aurochs, reindeer, Irish elk and other kinds now extinct,
were in the herds. They rushed pell-mell before the snows, tramping down
everything in their way, and falling over one another, like a stampede of
buffaloes or wild horses. Many were trampled to death or else left maimed
in their trail. Mingled among them were lions, leopards and other savage
beasts, which followed them for food, or were also migrating to a warmer
climate; so that there was a slaughter of many kinds in the herds. It
seemed to the Ammi as if all the beasts had gone to war, as well as the
Men and Apes, and were marching in great armies and fighting constant
battles.

“The Sky and the North are both pouring out their forces upon us,” said
Abroo.

“Let us catch them, and keep them for food,” said Oko, who had been
trying to tame a calf of the Urus which he had captured, thus beginning
the work of domestication, which the descendants of the Ammi have
continued till now.

“It is better to let them go,” said Koree, who picked up the clubs and
missiles which they had scattered; “we ought to be glad to be rid of
them.”

For some of the Ammi had been trampled to death in the stampede, so that
this incursion of cattle upon them was nearly as destructive as the war.

After the herds had gone by, they were seen to spread out over the plains
in the direction from which the Ammi had come to the seat of war. There
they found grass and were leisurely grazing.

“It looks,” said Abroo, “as if they had come to stay, so that when we
return from the war they will dispute the possession of Cocoanut Hill
with us.”

The snow, however, continued to fall, which, like the curse of the
wandering Jew, was to give the fugitives no rest.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Meanwhile the Lali who had been worsted in the war, and whose defeat even
the gallant Oboo could not avert, determined on a change of tactics.
Recognizing their inferiority as combatants (being not so generally armed
or so skilled in the use of arms as the Ammi), they resolved to make up
in numbers what they lacked in skill; and so they sent out ambassadors
and summoned all the apes from the countries beyond, shrewdly using the
respite of the last few days from battle to collect allies.

Out into the forests and among the palm groves, therefore, they went,
calling to the inhabitants of the trees and vines to come down, and
sending their summons into the tangled thickets of the swamps. And the
apes left their cocoanuts and cinnamon branches, and came up out of their
fisheries, (abandoning their sports with parrots, and their fights with
owls,) and hurried to the country of the Lali and the seat of war.

The Apes were far more numerous than the men, the latter being only
one colony in the whole world, who were now all collected on one field
of battle, whereas the Apes, though differing from one another, (being
of many species besides the Man-apes,) were practically without limit
(taking in all the country and all the varieties of Apes,) so that it was
only a question of how wide a territory they should scour for allies, in
order to bring any number to battle.

These apes, moreover, could be easily united on almost any project, as
there were yet no conflicting interests to dissuade them; so that in a
short time an innumerable host was assembled at the seat of war—great,
small, tailless, speechless and everything from the big gorilla to the
common monkey.

To add to the good fortune of the Lali, there had come also, along with
the migrating cattle, several large herds of apes from the north. These,
which at another time would have met the hostility of the Lali, and
perhaps been slain as enemies, or as competitors for their food, were now
welcomed and enlisted as allies against the Ammi.

But the Apes, though countless, were not so closely confederated as the
Men. They did not live together in large numbers, and the few groups that
did exist were not accustomed to act long together. In fact the Apes
hardly knew one another, so that they were unconscious alike of their
power and their weakness.

The forces of the two armies were, therefore, woefully unequal. On one
side was a host as countless as the Myrmidons, composed, indeed, of
motley groups, which might prove unmanageable in war, but which had to
fight in order to cohere at all, and to fight soon. On the other side was
a small, but skilled and disciplined body, more homogeneous and capable
of keeping to a fixed purpose. It was obvious, therefore, that if the
Apes should make a sudden attack they would overwhelm and extirpate the
Ammi; for then, all the hosts would take part, and, being impulsive,
would fight vigorously before having time to fall to pieces as a body.

It became as important, therefore, for the Ammi to now have a delay of
hostilities as it was before for the Lali. This fact, however, was not
known to the Ammi themselves, who, on account of the distance between the
two forces, were not aware of the reinforcements of the Lali.

“Let us proceed at once against the enemy,” said Koree, innocently
inviting his own destruction. “They have retreated so far that it may
take some time to find them.”

“That’s right,” said Pounder, “we should begin early so that Night may
not again overtake us before victory.”

“Come then,” said Koree, “this day will decide——”

Here there was a great surprise. As they were about to march to battle,
and to their own destruction, Sosee burst in upon them, followed by a
strange ape, both nearly breathless from running.

Koree uttered a shout of joy, and ran to meet her. Others seeing her
pursued, seized the ape that followed her, and were about to slay him
when Sosee caused them to desist.

“He is a friend, and has helped me to come hither,” she said.

And then, without regarding the expressions of joy on the part of Koree
and others over her return, she called out loudly:

“Retreat! Hide in the woods!—and be quick!”

This was startling to the Ammi, who believed they were on the eve of
complete victory.

She informed them of the countless hosts that had joined the Lali, who
expected to move immediately on the Ammi and destroy them entirely.

“If you can retreat long enough to delay the battle,” she said, “you may
be saved. I heard the counsels of the Lali chiefs, and they agree that
if they do not fight at once their forces can not be held together, but,
being composed of different tribes of Apes, unused to discipline, will
break up in confusion.”

Sosee then told of her escape, which was undertaken as the only means of
saving the Ammi, and accomplished at the risk of her own life.

She had been guarded, she said, by Ilo, Oboo and another, and so
could not escape but by the greatest cunning and good fortune. Ilo,
however, being engaged this day in the council of war, could not watch
her closely, while Oboo, having become interested in some female apes
belonging to the new comers, had wandered off after them, so that she was
left practically alone. Being thus at liberty she persuaded the remaining
guard,—a simple ape who did not understand his business,—to accompany
her in a race, when she adroitly led him to the camp of the Ammi, and so
escaped.

[Illustration: SOSEE WARNS THE AMMI.]

On hearing her story, Koree, overjoyed at his good fortune and Sosee’s,
said:

“There is reason in what she says. Let us retreat.”

For Koree, having now received back Sosee, did not care what became of
the war, but was ready for peace at any price.

Pounder, however, objected.

“I’m not afraid of all the Apes between here and sunrise,” he said, “and
I am for fighting them. I’ll kill the big ones with the little ones.”

Others, however, more prudent, agreed with Koree, and it was decided to
follow the advice of Sosee.

So the whole force of the Ammi prepared to move back into the Swamp.

“Let us take everything with us,” said Oko. “We may need it when we get
away.”

“Delay for nothing,” said Sosee, “or you will not get yourselves away.”

Soon, therefore, they started on their retreat; when Sosee remarked:

“I must now go back to the Lali.”

CHAPTER XXXII.

These words of Sosee, “I must now go back to the Lali,” caused more
surprise to the Ammi than her sudden appearance among them had done.

“There is something unfathomable in that girl,” said Pounder. “We
undertook this war for her, and now, when we have obtained her, she wants
to go back to the enemy. I fear she has been won over to the Apes by
flattery, or a new lover, and comes back as a spy. Don’t let her return.”

“I wonder,” observed Koree to himself, “if she really has a new lover.”

“If I do not go back,” she said, “all I have told you will be in vain. If
the Lali, who do not yet know that I am here, should learn of my escape,
they will attack you at once, suspecting that I have communicated their
designs to you; and then all will be lost.”

“If you go,” replied Koree, “all will be lost at any rate—to me.”

And Koree insisted that see should not return.

“I do not believe her story,” said Pounder, “and I insist that we keep
our ground and also keep her. Otherwise she may carry back information to
the enemy.”

“I think too,” said Koree, “that we should not give up what we came for.
If we go back without her our escape will not be worth the making.”

Others thought it best to let her return, so that a dispute arose and
finally a quarrel. Koree, however, prevailed; and so, against her will,
she was compelled to fall in line and enter the Swamp with the rest.

But though Koree gained her possession he did not gain her consent. She
refused to be reconciled to him, and insisted during the retreat that she
be allowed to return.

“I know,” said Koree to himself, “that she has another lover. But she
will soon forget him, and I will keep her now that I have her. She will
be more easily won back to me in my presence than in my absence.”

But Sosee, thus forced to remain, proved an enemy to him rather than a
lover.

“I hate you,” she said, “and will never live with you if you do not let
me go back.”

“You will never live with me if I do,” he replied.

“I can escape again,” she said, “when we have saved the Ammi, and then I
will return to you.”

“If it required so much time and fighting,” he replied, “to get you once,
how much will it take to get you again?”

“If I escaped before without your aid, can I not do so again?”

“I am not sure you will want to come back, with all your ape lovers.”

“I shall not want to come back to you, if you do not let me go; but to my
mother and Orlee and the rest I will return. If you care for nothing but
your love you are unworthy of mine.”

But Koree was determined, and would not let her go.

She thus saw all her unselfish sacrifices about to be defeated by a
selfish lover.

The conversation of the Ammi now reverted to the probability of her story
and the advisability of their further retreat.

“Let us wait,” said Abroo, after they had gone some distance into the
Swamp, “till we see the result of the alliances formed by the Apes.”

“I will wait,” said Pounder, “only on condition that we return and
fight them. If what the girl says is true they will soon fall out among
themselves, so that even the cowardly need not fear them.”

“What is to be gained by fighting them at all,” asked Oko, “if they have
nothing that we want?”

“You greedy beast!” returned Pounder, savagely; “is it nothing to
vanquish the Lali? and if all the Monkeys of the forest are collected, is
it nothing to whip them all at once? It is base to make this retreat; and
I have a notion to smash the jaw of the fellow that proposed it.”

“This is not a retreat,” explained Abroo, calmly, “but a movement to
disable the enemy by delay. We shall be better able to fight when they
are less able to coöperate.”

And thus the talk went on for hours, when Koree suddenly interrupted it
with the question:

“Where is Sosee?”

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The disappearance of Sosee without anybody knowing it was a new puzzle to
the Ammi. Was she spirited away by some supernatural power? or did she
simply drop out of line into the bushes? These were among the questions
asked.

“She is a spy,” persisted Pounder, “having first become a traitor.”

“If her story be true,” observed Abroo, “she thinks more of her people
than of her lover, and is a great heroine to thus sacrifice her love to
save her race.”

“Whatever be the facts,” said Koree, not appreciating this kind of
unselfishness, “let us search for her. If she be a spy she should not
return to the enemy, and if she be a heroine she should not be lost to
us.”

“In either case,” said Pounder, “you want to get her for yourself, and do
not care what becomes of the war.”

“Let us first make ourselves safe,” said Abroo, “and then talk of finding
her. In this great Swamp with its endless entanglement of bushes, we
could not find her any sooner than the Lali can find us; whereas if we
save ourselves from the danger she describes, we must retreat farther at
once.”

“I shall search for Sosee,” said Koree, “and will return to you only when
I find her.”

So saying Koree left the rest of the Ammi and started back to find his
beloved, taking several friends with him.

They were soon lost in the wilderness; but by the position of the sun
they kept their steps bent in the direction of the Lali.

“There is only one course that she could take,” said he; “whether she go
as a spy or to a lover, she will seek the Lali by the most direct route,
and in either case I want her, and want her soon; so let us head her off.”

Swift then through the wilds they pressed back, pushing aside the bushes,
wading in the marshes, jumping over fallen trees, and picking out a
possible route through an almost impassable country. When they came to
an open place, they reconnoitred. Now and then they met a serpent or
alligator, and continually they feared more savage beasts, whose cries
were heard around them.

“This is a terrible wilderness for Sosee to pass through,” observed
Koree, “but if she is going to meet a rival, or betray the Ammi, I don’t
know whether I want her to get through.”

“We will at least reach the Lali first,” said one of his companions.

“I am not sure of that,” replied Koree. “Sosee is swift of foot, and
finds her way better than anyone I know.”

Soon they came upon some straggling apes, but as these differed somewhat
from the Lali they paid little attention to them, thinking they were
chance hunters in the thickets.

These apes, however, were soon met so frequently, and finally became so
numerous, that Koree remarked:

“I wonder if they are not some of the new comers of which Sosee spoke.”

Presently he climbed a tree, from which he looked beyond the confines of
the Swamp, where he saw an innumerable swarm of apes, filling all the
country about the habitations of the Lali. So many animals he had never
before seen together. His worst suspicions were, therefore, confirmed.

“Sosee has, indeed, reported the truth,” he said; “such a multitude would
have overwhelmed the Ammi in one attack, and left nothing remaining of
the human race.”

Hurrying down, therefore, from the tree, he called on his comrades to
turn back to the Ammi.

“Let us return and take precautions for our safety,” he said; “soon those
apes will scatter, or kill one another off; no country can long support
such a number.”

“But what about Sosee?” asked his companions.

“We cannot find her in this Swamp,” replied Koree; “and, as her story of
the reinforcements of the Apes is true, the rest is not incredible, so
that her return to them may be necessary for our safety.”

Now, therefore, for the first time, did Koree appreciate the heroism of
Sosee; and the sacrifice of her lover seemed magnanimous when it was
clear that it was not for another lover.

They retraced their steps, therefore, and before night were again with
the main body of the Ammi, to whom they related what they had seen.

“Where is Sosee,” asked one.

“We have not seen her,” replied Koree, “but we found her true, which
is more important;” for Koree before his search had begun to doubt the
faithfulness of his beloved, which he was now glad to establish, even at
the expense of her possession.

As night settled down on the Ammi in the Swamp a great light appeared in
the north, an object of beauty and terror to them. The sky was illumined
with brilliant and changing rays, like a sunrise at midnight. The heavens
seemed to be on fire, and the conflagration to be approaching the earth.
It was one of those gigantic electric storms which swept over the ancient
world and vied with the earthquakes, mountain upheavals, and deluges of
the period, when the Earth still acted as a whole. Night and Day were
apparently in conflict, mixing great fields of light with alternate
streaks of darkness, and chasing each other over the whole heavens.

“What can this mean?” asked several at once.

“The Fire-monster is sweeping down upon us, as well as the Monkeys,”
answered one; “he has already seized the heavens.”

“It don’t mean any good,” said Gimbo; “Shoozoo is angry, and has sent his
winged Alligator to destroy us. I will get the dragon-fly which cured us
of the colic.”

Wearied, however, they soon sank to rest, and lying under an open sky,
which seemed all on fire, they slept, and their dreams that night were
disturbed equally by fears of the Aurora and of monkeys.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Several times during the night strange sounds were heard. Once they
were all aroused, thinking the Lali were upon them. At another time
they thought a wild beast was prowling near them, and again that they
heard sounds made by the Aurora Borealis. Near morning, when the first
glimmer of light appeared, there was a rush in the direction from which
came an ominous growl. One after another followed the leader to learn
the cause of it. In their haste the foremost stumbled on a huge living
object, which nearly frightened him to death; while the rest, in their
impetuosity, fell over the same thing, so that soon there was a great
heap of living humanity and wild confusion.

All wondered what had thrown them, and, to increase their wonderment, the
object did not move, but seemed indifferent to the tumbling which they
did upon him. They were afraid to approach, until the light should become
stronger; for they did not as yet have candles to guide them at night,
but had to wait for the day, or else grope in darkness. As it dawned,
however, and things became more distinguishable, one, more venturesome
than the rest, advanced, and, to his relief, found that it was Pounder,
who was rolled up in a heap, and lay before them dead drunk.

Among the roots dug up and eaten by the Ammi, was a species of mandrake,
which had a stupefying effect. Pounder had become fond of this root, or
rather of its effects, and he carried it about with him for occasional
indulgence. His addiction to the habit was, perhaps, the cause of his
quarrelsomeness; for he frequently quarrelled with others, although this
was, perhaps, the first case of well-defined spree known to humanity.

Several of the Ammi, thinking he was dead, rolled him over, and repeated
the rolling several times.

“He is only sleeping,” said one; “see how he breathes;” and they shook
him to wake him.

Presently his eyes opened, when another exclaimed:

“He is neither dead nor asleep, but sick; perhaps he is dying. Call
Gimbo.”

Soon Gimbo, who was doctor, priest and prophet, all in one, approached
with his dragon-fly and long-necked pumpkin, and, after a brief
examination, in which he looked mysteriously wise, said:

“It comes from the colic;” and, with these words, he seized the neck of
the pumpkin, and with the big end pounded the stomach of his patient,
adding: “This will fetch the colic out of him.”

Pounder first grunted, then groaned, and at last opened his eyes.

Gimbo, seeing this effect, congratulated himself, and went on pounding,
saying, “He is coming out all right.”

Pounder who neither understood nor enjoyed this treatment, raised himself
half up, and, to the surprise of all, dealt Gimbo a powerful blow with
his fist, saying, “Get out you old four-footed ape with your big pumpkin!”

He then sank back in his stupor, but placed his hand on his stomach for
protection.

Gimbo, picking himself up, said:

“The disease acts strangely; but he is gaining strength, and will soon be
well.”

He did not recur to the pumpkin treatment, however, but relied henceforth
on the dragon-fly for a cure, which he applied at a distance.

The Ammi now gathered about Pounder, and, with astonishment on their
faces, contemplated the change that had come over him. The mightiest of
their number was seen lying before them the weakest and silliest. It
disgusted them that he should so put himself out of his own power, as to
be at the mercy of the smallest monkey, and especially that he who could
fight so bravely should grin and puke so contemptibly.

But these discussions did not interest Pounder, who slept on unmindful of
his glory or his disgrace.

About this time the Ammi were again heard complaining of the cold, which
had been rapidly increasing since the snow storm mentioned, and they cast
about for devices to reduce its discomforts.

At night they sought the leeward side of trees and hills; they also went
into caves and huddled up closely to keep warm. But this did not suffice.
They were cold both by day and night, and every one sought other means of
warming.

From the habit of covering themselves with leaves when sleeping, the
thought was suggested, that if they could surround themselves with leaves
during the day they might be more comfortable at all times.

“The difficulty is to make the leaves stick together,” said Abroo; “let
us fasten them by their stems, or string them on blades of grass.”

Soon a garment of leaves and grass was woven in this way, which was the
beginning of clothing and of the vast dry-goods interest of the world.

Up to this time the Men, like the Apes, had been naked. They had found no
use for clothing; the climate was warm, and the feeling of shame had not
yet entered their breasts. They were covered with hair, which grew longer
since they had come north; and, though this furnished some protection,
and was highly appreciated since the cold weather set in, it was not
sufficient for their comfort. Some had longer hair than others, and so
stood the change better, while those of little or short hair often fell
sick and died of colds, rheumatism, and other winter complaints. The
invention of clothing, however, equalized their condition again, so that
long hair was deemed of no special advantage.

The leaf-garments, however, did not long satisfy them. They could not
make a fabric of such materials that would stand the rough usage to
which it was subjected. In their running, climbing and other violent
exercises the wreaths broke or became detached, so that it was difficult
to keep them on. One’s whole suit sometimes fell off in an instant,
leaving him in his skin and hair.

“Bark, I think, would do better than leaves,” said Koree, who had made
himself a suit of the inner rind of a tree. He found this so rough,
however, that it soon wore off the hair and skin in places, so that he
looked like a horse galled by the harness.

“Pound the bark to make it soft,” said Watch-the-girls, who had made a
neat garment for herself from well-selected strips of bark, from which
she had removed the rough spots.

“Skins would keep us warm; and they are soft,” said another woman, who
had placed about her shoulders the hide of a sheep which had been used as
a receptacle for darts.

This was an unfortunate discovery for the animals. For in a little while
the Ammi, finding that skins were more desirable than anything else as a
protection from cold, sought animals for their skins, and killed more for
this purpose than they had before killed for food.

The use of clothing in time became general, and the Ammi learned the
important lesson that they were independent of the weather, and could
carry their climate about with them, making it to order.

The use of clothing, however, developed into a dangerous luxury. They
soon came to have preferences, not only on account of warmth and
softness, but on account of appearance. Bright colors were chosen as
most desirable, and those were more in esteem who dressed well. Much of
their time was accordingly given to making garments, especially among the
women, and many bits of decoration were in time added, so that pride and
art were soon developed in dress.

Pounder, however, always despised dress, and would not put on anything
whatever; and several others, who admired his strength and bravery, were
led to follow his example. Gimbo said it was wrong to dress, and that
if people would only keep on all fours they would not need clothes; so
he, as long as he lived, went naked and on all fours, no matter what the
weather or the occasion.

But the men went on in their vanity about dress, until they soon wore
more wool than the sheep; and Gimbo complained that something was wrong
when each animal did not wear its own skin.

Fire-tamer said they might keep warm by getting a wood-eating animal and
keeping it in the camp.

“While I kept mine,” he said, “I was warm. When he shook himself the Cold
fled affrighted, and would not come near again until he disappeared.”

“That’s worse than clothes,” said Gimbo; “don’t bring it here, or we will
all be killed and eaten up.”

“The beast is liable to get loose,” said another, “and attack us any
moment. We have seen what he did at the volcano and in the forest.”

“I will get a young one,” said Fire-tamer, who thought a small fire was
an immature or half-grown animal, and that it could be easily managed.

But the Ammi were afraid, and would not allow the beast to be brought to
the camp, dead or alive; and so they went on shivering, and it took them
some time to shiver into sense.

CHAPTER XXXV.

The next day Fire-tamer, who had been hunting in the Swamp, returned to
the Ammi, with a piece of burning wood. Having seen a tree struck by
lightning, which was nearly consumed, and thinking he understood the
habits of the beast, he raked in the ashes till he found this brand.
Bringing it with him, he thought, as the fire curled on the end of it,
like a snake, that he had caught a wood-eating animal.

“There he comes with a little one,” said Koree, as Fire-tamer approached
the Ammi. Gimbo was horrified, and ran away. The rest, though prohibiting
its introduction the day before, had suffered so much during the night
from cold, that they were now willing to give it a trial, which Gimbo
thought very inconsistent in them.

Fire-tamer laid it down, when, to the surprise of all, it did not run
away. He then brought leaves to feed it, when it flamed up, or became
“mad,” as they thought. None, however, would come near enough to feel its
effects; when they said it was of no use as a warmer.

[Illustration: THE WOOD-EATING ANIMAL IN THE CAMP OF THE AMMI.]

“Wait till he shakes himself,” said Fire-tamer, “and you will get a
fanning from his wings that will warm you all over.”

He then fed the monster with brush, when to the surprise of all, who
now approached with confidence, it ate greedily, and soon warmed them
perceptibly.

“See how he cracks the bones with his teeth,” said Pounder, in admiration
of its strength, as the fire crackled and the sparks flew.

“See what a dust he kicks up,” said another, as he observed the smoke.

A spark at this moment flew out and lighted on Pounder, who gave a growl,
and said the beast had snapped at him. He could scarcely be restrained
from attacking it with his fists.

All were gratified, however, at the warmth produced; for the day was
cold, and they had not on their clothing, or else did not know how to use
it. They accordingly huddled about the fire, and soon came to regard it
as a necessity.

“How can we keep it from running away?” asked one, who thought of their
misfortune when they should be without it.

“How can we take it with us when we move?” asked another. “I would not
like to take hold of it or lead it.”

“Fire-tamer can catch another,” answered Koree, “for he is skilled as a
hunter of this monster, as well as a manager of it.”

They wondered most at the voracity of the beast, who ate all the brush
and logs they could carry to him.

“He grows bigger at once on what he feeds,” said one, as the fire
increased with the supply of several trees; “see how fat he is getting,
and how he struggles at his meals. One would think the tree is alive at
which he is eating, and that he is fighting to kill it, as when a tiger
eats an alligator.”

When the fire died down, and it was not convenient to get more wood,
Cocoanut-scooper threw in some vegetables and fruits, saying:

“I wonder if he will eat these. He seems, like a hog, to eat everything.”

But the fire continued to become less, and all were surprised that it was
fastidious about its food, and would eat nothing but wood.

More wood was, accordingly, brought, and soon the monster had reached its
full size again.

“It does not pay to keep this animal,” said Oko; “it takes all our time
to carry food to him. Loose him that, like the urus, he may wander
through the forest and feed himself.”

“He will eat the whole forest and us too, if he gets loose,” replied
Fire-tamer.

Several approached so near that they got burned, so that many doubted the
utility of the beast on account of its danger. One who got a whiff of
smoke in the face thought he was being attacked, and discharged a dart at
the monster.

“I am afraid to sleep at night with this brute in the camp,” said one;
“he will eat us all before morning.”

“When he appeared last night in the sky,” observed another, referring to
the Aurora, “he did not harm us.”

The people, however, were divided, some wanting to get rid of him, and
others to keep him. When it got warm the beast became unpopular, which
was about the middle of the day; but as it cooled off toward night, he
was more in favor.

“He must be thirsty,” said Pounder; “let us bring water and give him a
drink.”

So saying he went to a pool, and, filling a gourd, poured water on the
fire, which had become low from lack of fuel. The fire immediately went
out, to the surprise of all.

“He hates water and has run into his hole,” said Pounder.

“Let us dig him out,” said Koree, who thought he was a kind of woodchuck
that could be easily unearthed.

On examination, however, they found no hole into which he could have
crawled, and so gave up digging.

“He will come out of a volcano soon,” said Fire-tamer, “and I shall watch
for him in the mountains.”

Gimbo was profoundly thankful, however, that he was gone. He had
worshipped him as a god out of fear; but now that water destroyed him,
he worshipped the water instead, as a greater spirit, and he was nearly
converted to the religion of the Lali, who had great faith in the power
of water, and especially of the water of the great Swamp, in which the
winged Alligator dwelt.

As evening came, however, with its dampness, they again suffered, and
doubt came with their discomforts, and they slept uncertain whether fire
should be the companion of their lives.

And the night was full of stars and Gimbo of fleas, and as they passed
each other on the way of time the problems of life were unfolding to
reason.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

The next day the Ammi were startled at the sight of a strange ape, which
was at first taken for one of the Lali, and they thought that the rest
would soon be upon them. He was soon seen, however, to be of a different
species, and so was allowed to pass unmolested. Next a whole group
of apes appeared; but, as they were small and apparently peaceable,
they produced no consternation. It was deemed best, however, to make a
reconnoisance; and so Pounder and Cocoanut-scooper each climbed a tree to
examine the surrounding country.

They reported the Swamp full of apes, which wandered about in groups
apparently without purpose. There were generally a male and three or four
females together.

These were some of the immigrants which had recently come from the
north, and were going south to escape the cold. They had remained a few
days with the Lali, and were now scattering in all directions. The Lali
themselves, they said, had all determined to migrate.

The Ammi, being therefore relieved of their fears, now determined to
return to the battle-field. For, as the reënforcements of the Lali had
dispersed, they thought they could safely fight them again.

They accordingly started back toward the Lali with renewed courage. The
cold was still increasing, and the waters of the Swamp through which
they had come were frozen over. For most of the way they walked on ice,
which made their return easy. They found some animals and birds along the
route, which had been frozen to death, of which they ate as they went,
and from which they re-supplied their stores.

“The cold has made a bridge for us across the waters,” said Koree, “and
we can now walk where we before waded.”

“True,” said Oko, “but it has taken away the water, and we shall have no
fish, and not even anything to drink.”

“It has turned the water into stone,” observed another, “and the land
has all been changed into a white foam, so that we shall hereafter have
neither land nor water.”

The situation was critical indeed. The whole earth seemed about to be
taken from them, or else turned into a new substance, cold, hard and
forbidding.

“What can we do,” asked Oko, “but migrate like the Lali?”

“Splash!” “Splash!” “Splash!”

Such were the sounds now heard in quick succession, and accompanying them
were cries, growls and great confusion.

The ice had broken and let some of them into the water. Pounder,
Cocoanut-scooper, Abroo, Oko, and others were floundering in the waves,
some swimming and others wading to their chins. The whole army was thrown
into a panic. The earth seemed to have given way beneath them, or what
they supposed to be new formed solid rock.

[Illustration: THE AMMI BREAKING THROUGH THE ICE.]

“It doesn’t look as if the water had given out,” growled Pounder, with a
savage glance at Oko.

“I wish it had,” observed Oko, as he tried to keep his head above the
floating ice.

A great scramble now ensued to regain the land, or a footing on solid
ice. Several got to fighting in the water, and there was a great
splashing and series of duckings.

Those who got out stood shivering in the snow, and occasionally tried to
help out others; but most were afraid to go near the place of danger.

When all had regained solid footing it became their chief care not to
break in again. They had evidently met a new danger greater than the
Lali. It was the water of the Swamp, which they had shortly before
bewailed as having gone forever. They moved more cautiously, therefore,
testing the strength of the ice as they proceeded.

Before leaving the scene of the catastrophe, however, Oko, seeking to
turn their misfortune to profit, picked up some pieces of floating ice,
and proposed to take them along.

“These rocks,” he said, “will make good missiles. By using them on the
Lali, we need not throw away our cocoanuts.”

He accordingly filled a skin pouch with them, and carried some in his
arms, while others followed his example. They soon found them, however,
not only heavy and bulky, but having a new inconvenience. They imparted a
sense of discomfort, now know as cold, which, being unknown to them, was
dreaded as mysterious, like the effects of fire.

After marching awhile they were rejoined by Fire-tamer, who had gone in
search of another “wood-eating beast.” He was successful in his search,
and his game was acceptable to the Ammi, who had learned to appreciate
the beast in cold weather. Even Gimbo was secretly glad, though he had to
protest, from force of habit, that they were introducing a demon among
them, and that they might as well be destroyed by the cold as eaten by
the hot monster.

They now all collected brush, and soon there was a roaring fire on the
ice, at which they dried themselves and planned their future movements.
The pieces of ice which Oko and others had carried for weapons, and which
they had laid by the fire to warm, were found to have disappeared. They
had melted and run away. Oko thought somebody had stolen them, and he got
into a fight with Pounder over the matter, when finally a halt melted
piece was seen to be turning into water. They then charged the theft to
the wood-eating monster, which they thought was devouring their rocks.

“He is worse than a hog,” said Oko, “to eat both wood and stone.”

They observed at this time that neither apes nor wild beasts approached
them while they sat by the fire, but turned off at the sight of it with
fear; so that Fire-tamer remarked:

“If we could always have this animal with us, no other danger would come
near.”

It was sometime after this, however, before men took to building fires as
a protection against wild beasts.

They observed also that some of the fruits and roots which
Cocoanut-scooper had tried to warm by placing them near the fire (for
they were frozen) became scorched, or boiled in their own juice, and
thereby much changed in taste. They found them better for the change;
so that they soon sought to do by design what they first did by
accident—prepare their food by fire—which was the beginning of the art of
cooking.

They also discovered that their food, thus treated, was more tender and
wholesome, so that they could eat many things which were before too hard
or tough, and they thereby greatly increased their food, which was a
matter of importance at a time when it was being reduced by the cold.

They also observed that when the fire was burning at night, it illumined
the space about them, making a kind of artificial day. Night fled from
it, as well as Cold and wild beasts, and stayed away as long as it
remained. By its means they could see without sun, or moon or Aurora
Borealis; and to overcome darkness in this way seemed the greatest
triumph yet made by man or beast.

Taking a stick one night which had been lighted at a heap of coals,
Fire-tamer was enabled, by carrying it around, to find a wolf skin which
Koree had lost, and which could not be found in the dark. This opened the
eyes of the Ammi, and from that moment they began to use fire for light,
as well as heat; and that stick was the first candle of the human race.
That day could be carried about in small pieces seemed astounding.

Through this discovery Fire-tamer gradually became the most important
man among the Ammi. Neither the strength of Pounder, nor the courage
of Koree, nor the wisdom of Abroo impressed the populace so much as
the mastery by this man of the wood-eating beast. He was appealed to
in all matters relating to fire. No other would venture to manage the
animal. Fire-tamer came at length to be thought sacred. The beast, it
was believed, dared not touch him. And Fire-tamer artfully used this
mystery to strengthen his influence among the Men. He purposely kept them
in ignorance and fear of the monster. He meant to keep control of this
interest, which he had the wisdom to perceive was soon to become the most
important one among the Ammi. He had, in short, a “corner” on fire, and
meant to keep it.

The awe in which Fire-tamer was thus held, and the influence which he
had in consequence among the people, excited the jealousy of Koree and
other leaders, who saw their own star declining. Several quarrels ensued,
and there was a crisis, when a happy solution was reached by making
Fire-tamer a sort of high priest, whose business it was to have charge
of the wood-eating monster and keep it burning, in return for which
distinction he was to abandon his ambition to control the Ammi in other
matters. His office was the predecessor of that of the vestal virgins,
and his charge—fire—became worshipped as a deity, while he, as keeper of
it, became the chief ruler of men in religious matters.

While they were discussing these interests, and the reciprocal bounds of
church and state were being first laid off, there arose a great commotion
among them.

“Splash!” “Splash!” “Splash!”

Such were the sounds that were now heard a second time; but the terror
was greater than before, and such a scene of confusion had never yet been
known to men.

The fire had melted the ice, which gave way, and men, fire and all went
down into the water. One over another they tumbled, and, amid smoking
logs and sissing embers, struggled with one another and with the floating
ice. The fire was put out, and with it went the prestige of Fire-tamer,
at least for awhile.

Some thought the wood-eating monster had taken a plunge and was running
away with them. They expected to be carried under the ice and into the
ground; and they were much relieved when they found that the monster had
gone alone and left them behind, and, as they gradually regained the
shore, or rather the firm ice, they presented such a mass of shivering
and dripping humanity as had not been seen till that day.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

The first impulse of the Ammi, on recovering their safety and their
senses, was to kill Fire-tamer who was thought responsible for the
disaster. He was supposed to know the habits of the beast, and was deemed
negligent in allowing them to be exposed to such a calamity. Pounder
especially favored his death, and proposed to inflict it himself, as he
had been twice submerged that day, and was specially out of humor.

“I knew,” said Gimbo, “that it would come to this; but you never take the
advice of an old man. I don’t walk on four feet for nothing.”

What had become of the beast, was the next question.

“Shall we go after it?” asked one.

Another said: “Let us rather run away from it, and kill Fire-tamer if he
brings another.”

“It would be a good thing to have,” said Koree, “now that we are so cold
and wet.”

“As soon as it should dry us,” replied Pounder, “it would plunge us again
in the water.”

Fire-tamer was puzzled, and it was well that he had nothing to say; for
the Ammi were not in a condition to listen to him. He and his beast were
alike in disfavor, and so he waited for a cold day for his vindication.

The Ammi proceeded on their way, but were terribly afflicted with the
cold, which kept steadily increasing. Their feet and hands suffered
most, for which they had as yet provided no covering. Walking through
the snow and on the ice they had frequently frozen feet. Osa, a young
and pretty girl, admired by many, was completely overcome, and fell back
in the march to die. Aloo, her lover, sought means of taking her along;
but, after carrying her awhile in his arms, and enlisting others to aid
him, he gave up exhausted, but stayed with her while the rest moved
on, resolved to die also. As nothing more has been heard of them it is
believed that they perished together.

As the Ammi marched forward, they heard dreadful reports from the Apes
which they met, of the cold of the north. The whole country was covered
with snow; the rivers were frozen; the trees were dead; the animals had
left the country, or were perishing; great mountains of ice had formed
in the valleys; all fruit had disappeared, and the roots were under the
snow and could not be dug out of the hard ground. In the famine which
accompanied this change animals fell to eating one another, not only the
dead but the living, so that when the survivors reached the south they
were much thinned out.

“It is foolish,” said Oko, on hearing these reports, “to go back to fight
the Lali. Let us rather return home, gather up what is left, and go south
also.”

“Not till Sosee is recovered,” said Koree. “Neither Cold, nor Snow, nor
Famine shall make us desist from war. I mean to march through all these
to where she is, and to take her from the Lali even though they fight
twice as hard as the Storm.”

“She has, no doubt, left long since with some lover among the Lali, and
is now in the south,” replied Oko.

This was a more dreadful thought to Koree than that she should be
perishing in the north. He accordingly gave a savage look and growl at
Oko, and replied:

“Whether she be in the snows or in the arms of a lover, I shall rescue
her.”

He accordingly urged the army to quicken its pace, although to do so,
they had to leave many perishing ones to die. He feared more that they
would not find the Lali than they would, and so hurried to overtake those
whom he had shortly before hurried to escape from.

Watch-the-girls opposed this excessive speed, on account of the many
females in her charge who could not keep up, and whom she was unwilling
to abandon in the snow.

“If we go so fast,” she said, “we will have no forces left when we reach
the Lali, and will have to fight them with our leaders only.”

“I can whip them all myself,” said Pounder, who was eager for the fight,
and thought little of those who perished, whether of the enemy or of his
own people.

Koree, too, urged them to quicker speed, lest the battle, the Lali and
Sosee should all escape, and they themselves should be compelled to
return without glory or the girl. “If I must go south”, he said, “I want
the company of Sosee, and if I must die in the cold, I want to die with
her.”

And so his tenderness for one became cruelty to many; and he led the
forces hastily to the seat of war, while the girls and the weak fell
back, unable to keep up. Watch-the-girls fell back with them, though
abundantly able to go on. She said she would die with her charge, or else
bring them up to the front later on.

And so some remained behind suffering, while others went forward
suffering. Watch-the-girls was equally divided in her attentions between
caring for the dying and getting forward the living.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Meanwhile the Lali, to whom we will now return, had been passing through
a crisis no less serious than that of their enemy. After failing to
overtake the Ammi, whom they had prepared to overwhelm, as we have
related, by amassing against them the fugitives from the north, they
returned discouraged to their camp, there to encounter discontent among
their allies, and finally division. They were even threatened at one time
with extermination by the new-comers, which they averted by inducing the
latter to pass on. The allies accordingly began an exodus, and were soon
out of sight.

But they devoured, before going, nearly all the means of the Lali, and
carried off what they could not eat, so that, with the coming of the
snow and cold, the Lali were left in destitution. This was relieved
by catching some of the animals that had come from the north, and by
gathering those that had perished in the snow. They also learned to eat,
as all do in time of war or famine, many new kinds of food, and gathered
leaves and sprigs, which till then had not been tasted.

The flight of the Ammi before the allied Apes, which has already been
described, proved a serious loss to the Lali. These had hoped, on
conquering the Ammi, to take possession of Cocoanut Hill, and the stores
amassed there; and, had they succeeded, they would have had enough, both
for themselves and their allies, for some time, and could have lived in
comfort.

When, accordingly, it was discovered that Sosee was the cause of the
flight of the Ammi, and so of the misfortunes of the Lali, they resolved
to put her to death.

Several attempts were at once made at this, but singular obstacles arose
from the complications of the Apes with her, which secured her protection
by starting fights among themselves.

One, Hang-from-the-vines, who had led the combined forces in search of
the escaping Ammi, first flew at her, and would have torn her to pieces,
but for the intervention of Ilo and Oboo, who had her in charge. Ilo
seized him by the throat, while Oboo snatched her away to a place of
safety. Hang-from-the-vines now turned in his rage to Ilo, and these
two fought together, and both received bites and scratches; but, as Ilo
fought for love and Hang-from-the-vines for revenge, Ilo was successful,
though the other was the greater warrior.

Ilo marched proudly from his victory over Hang-from-the-vines, expecting
to receive the admiration of the people, and especially of Sosee, who had
been an indifferent lover.

Great was his disappointment, therefore, when Oboo claimed the
girl. “For,” said Oboo, “I rescued her when about to be slain by
Hang-from-the-vines, capturing her from you both, as you had captured her
from the Ammi in the first place. If she was yours then, she is mine now,
and I will keep her.”

This was too much for Ilo. Transported by rage he next sprang at
Oboo; when a fiercer fight ensued than when they both fought against
Hang-from-the-vines. Hair and blood flew; growls and bites came from both
mouths; and, as when the Wind and Snow had recently engaged in battle,
these mighty chiefs filled the air with confusion and wide-resounding
thunders.

But as Ilo fought for his one love, and Oboo for one of many, Ilo was
successful, though he had not fought so often, or won so many victories
as Oboo. He accordingly took possession of Sosee, and, crowned with two
triumphs, hoped to enjoy her forever.

But Oboo, being defeated, next resolved, in his double loss of honor and
lover, to effect her destruction. Whom he could not win he would kill.
This was more, however, from hatred of Ilo than anger at Sosee. He could
not endure that another should take a woman, especially from him; and
so he demanded her death as a punishment to Ilo, though ostensibly for
treachery to the whole. Joining, therefore, in a conspiracy with one whom
he had recently joined in a fight, he proposed to Hang-from-the-vines
that they kill her whom he had just rescued from death.

But Hang-from-the-vines was now in a changed mood, being unwilling to
gratify his recent enemy even by his own success.

“As you would not let me slay her,” he said, “you shall perpetuate your
victory as a defeat, and see her another’s. Preventing her death when she
was false to all, you shall not get me to kill her now because she is
false only to you.”

Oboo, however, was resolved on her death, at least for the moment, and he
easily enlisted others in his design. Oola wanted her to die because she
had won from her the affections of Oboo (which many others, however, had
since obtained). Other women desired her death because she had been their
rival for several lovers, and still others merely because she was pretty
and popular; so that, between her charms and her offenses, she was in
double peril. All, however, urged as a pretext for her death, not their
real reason, but the excuse of her treachery; so that the public welfare
had to bear the odium of their private jealously. Only those having no
interest in her death—the great masses—wanted it on the ground which all
alleged.

Her death, however, was ordered, and she was brought for execution before
the assembled Apes. Several were impatient to tear her to pieces. Oola,
fearing that others, by dispatching her, would deprive her of a coveted
revenge, made a pass at her, but was restrained by a male ape who had
begun to feel an attachment for her. A further delay was caused by a
priest who insisted on sprinkling the scene with Swamp water, which, like
the return of the ship from Delos, required time, during which, like
Socrates, she could still live.

[Illustration: SOSEE’S STRATEGY.]

Meanwhile she looked around for some means of escape. The chances for
this were small, as the last moment had now arrived; but her extremity
made action of some kind necessary.

While, accordingly, the Apes awaited the signal for her death, and the
silence was solemnly intense, she suddenly sprang to her feet, and, with
great animation, pointed to the sky, accompanying her movement with a
shout.

Every eye turned from her, and fixed its gaze on the sky. Those who had
been most intently looking at her, and expected to make the first rush
upon her, were the first to look away, and wildest in casting about their
heads to see what was the matter. There was an instant of general panic;
never did so many monkey heads move so rapidly, or in so many directions.
Nothing was to be seen, which made the search more intense. Many looked
more at the sky than they had ever done before, and some actually
believed they saw something, and were overcome by fright; for when people
see nothing they apprehend a great mystery.

While all eyes were thus fixed on the sky, Sosee, summoning her strength
and fleetness, started to run. Swift as the wind, and as noiselessly, she
passed away. She went in the direction opposite to that in which they
were looking.

For awhile her movements were not observed, but were supposed to be part
of the panic caused by the dash of all to see something; and it was some
seconds before any understood that their captive had broken away, and was
running for her life.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

The recapture of Sosee was an easy matter, though she had diverted from
her the attention of all before attempting her escape; and several,
standing near, sprang after her when they recovered from their surprise.

These would have instantly seized her but for Ilo and Oboo. These two
lovers and rivals, notwithstanding their ill success with her, were at
heart unwilling that she should die, hoping each that he might, by some
means, still possess her. Instinctively, therefore, they interrupted the
pursuit.

This was less, however, because they intended her escape, than because
they each resolved that the other should not have her. It was also
because they wanted no one else to have her; for her captor would be
entitled to possess her, and, in the Ape customs, recapture counted
as much as original capture, (since one allowing a female to escape
forfeited his title to her).

The interruption of the pursuit, however, was only temporary. For the
whole body of apes, recovering from their surprise, now rushed after
her. Oboo and Ilo joined in the pursuit, but still took more care that
others should not capture her, than that they themselves should. For they
feared their own success as liable to defeat their purpose. The hope
of each was that she would enter the Swamp, where the other pursuers,
becoming scattered, could not overtake her, when he, (Oboo or Ilo), might
pursue her alone, and make her his own. These lovers, therefore, while
running faster than the rest, managed to stumble in the way of those
nearest her, and especially in the way of each other; so that Sosee was
soon gaining on them all.

But her fleetness was of small avail, as also the rivalry of her
pursuers. The Lali closed upon her from three sides. Had she kept running
in a straight line toward the Swamp she might have escaped; but, just as
she had gained so much on them that she was nearly out of danger, she
changed her course, and, veering to one side, ran almost into the arms
of her pursuers. It was now a matter of only a minute when she would be
caught; and if taken she would be instantly killed, for the more savage
rabble, and not her lovers, were, by this turn, brought nearest her. Why
she made such a dangerous detour was understood by none but herself.

Her pursuers were, therefore, confident, and their concern was now less
about whether she should be captured than about who should capture her;
for the victor would be entitled to possess her—or kill her; so that,
instead of being a race with her, it became a race with one another.

A great bearded gorilla, after a spirited struggle to reach the front,
leaped ahead of the rest, like a racer on the home-stretch, and, with
his hair flying in the wind, and his jaws wide open, was on the point
of seizing her. Panting and furious he stopped for a last spring, which
would have both captured her and felled her to the ground; when a shout
arose from the Lali, which, being a shout of terror, made him stop and
look before leaping.

There was abundant cause for this delay. For suddenly out of the edge of
the Swamp, which Sosee now reached, came in full view the forces of the
Ammi with Koree at their head.

Sosee had dimly descried these a moment before, which was the cause of
her change of course; for she started to meet them by the most direct
route, knowing that if she could maintain her pace but a minute longer
she would be safe.

The great ape who was close at her heels stopped at the sight of the
Ammi, which gave Sosee a moment more to live, and in that moment she
rushed into the arms of Koree and her friends.

CHAPTER XL.

Sosee was, therefore, safe for the present.

But the pursuit did not end with the escape of the fugitive. The momentum
of the Apes was too great to let them stop, even when they wanted to.
They accordingly rushed on before they had time to think, and fell upon
the ranks of the Ammi, where their race was suddenly changed into a fight.

Not knowing the numbers of the Ammi, and so not fearing them, the Lali
commenced, before they had yet time to comprehend their situation, to
make the best of it. Turning their eagerness into rage, they resolved
to kill both Sosee and all her race; so that scarcely had she reached a
place of safety when she found that she had carried danger into the ranks
of her friends.

The impact of the Apes on the Men was resistless. It astonished them as
much by its shock as the Men had astonished the Apes by their appearance.

The Ammi were thrown into a panic, and would have taken to flight had
they known where to run, (for the Apes were enclosing them on all
sides). All thoughts of Sosee were forgotten by both sides, and even by
herself. Koree had no time to congratulate himself on her rescue, or the
Lali to reproach themselves for her escape. It was a matter of life and
death to all, and again the fate of the human race hung in the balance.

None fight so well as those who can do nothing else. The Apes, having got
into battle by chance, had to fight to get out; while the Ammi, drawn in
reluctantly, had to eagerly fight back. Both parties, therefore, fought
fiercely, who would gladly have quit altogether had they only known how.
But, having entered a battle which neither could abandon, both felt that
their only escape was through victory. Both therefore fought each other
fiercely as the only way to a mutual peace.

Dreadful, therefore, was the clash of fists and nails and teeth. The air
was filled with cries and the ground with blood. Countless bodies lay in
the snow, and many who escaped freezing, now met slaughter. Death seemed
about to settle like a cloud on both forces, and to cover them all with
one common shroud.

The Lali were both more numerous and more desperate. Having gained an
impetus communicated by their chase, they had every advantage. The Ammi,
though more skilled and better armed, were so taken by surprise that they
could use neither skill nor arms; so that, like the Apes, they fought
chiefly with their fists and jaws.

“Let us retreat to the Swamp,” said Koree, who saw his forces yielding at
all points.

“They won’t let us,” said Abroo, who knew that the Apes, being close,
would follow them, and prevent a second escape.

The only problem thus was how to retreat. There seemed no way of giving
up the fight any more than of continuing it. Any sign of weakening would
encourage the enemy to rally and destroy them all.

They continued, therefore, to fight against hope, but saw that even
battle would soon end them, since only a few now remained to either
escape or be killed.

Oko proposed that they all run, and take each his chance of escape. “By
regaining the Swamp,” he said, “we may be saved by hiding in the bushes.”

Abroo remarked that if they did so the women would be captured, and that
men without women were not worth saving.

“Besides,” said Koree, “if we hide in the Swamp, they will track us in
the snow.”

“There is nothing to do but fight,” said Pounder, who exhibited great
courage during all the encounter. “Let us make one desperate effort, and
kill as many Apes as we can before dying.”

This seemed their only hope, which was born of despair; and they resolved
to make a strong effort though in weakness.

Before exhausting that hope in their own extinguishment, Koree looked
sadly upon Sosee, and uttered these words as a last farewell:

“Bitter it is to die now that I have rescued you, and when it would be
so sweet to live. But it is more glorious to die after success than if
you were still in the hands of the Lali. Since, therefore, we cannot live
together, let us die together.”

Sosee, however, heeded not his despairing words, but continued fighting.
For scarcely had she gained the ranks of the Ammi when she turned on her
pursuers, and was one of the fiercest combatants against them.

“Rally to the fight,” she said, “and don’t give up to die while you have
power to kill.”

Her resolution was contagious, so that new spirit was infused into
the Ammi; and, had there been more for the contagion to spread among,
her words would have proved their salvation; but it was an enthusiasm
imparted to the helpless.

While, therefore, they looked to see the enemy rush upon them, bearing
with them Death, they were in a mind to receive this double enemy with
fortitude.

Suddenly a commotion was observed among the Lali. Apparent consternation
seized them, and they seemed about to retire from the field at the moment
of their complete victory.

The cause of this consternation was that reënforcements had suddenly come
to the Ammi, and from a quarter least expected. It was not Night that
had opportunely settled down upon them, as it had before upon the Lali
when it saved them from destruction. Nor was it a blinding Snow that beat
in their faces; as if the skies had come down to attack them by storm.
Instead of the Heavens it was the Earth that furnished their last relief.

Watch-the-girls, who had fallen back, as we have related, and could not
keep up in the march through the Swamp, because of the cold and fatigue
of her troops, now appeared in sight with her female warriors. Left to
die these heroines had fought their fate and conquered the elements, and
they now came up to succor those who had forsaken them, thus offering