Gouverneur Morris

“ Again Sunrise smote the boulder mightily so that sparks flew, and the shaft was shivered.
“He shivers the shafts,” said No Foot.
“My father, No Man, made this thing,” said Sunrise, [148] “and now it is mine.”
“I, too, will make one and again others,” said No Foot, “and after this day, men will no longer hunt with spear and club. But to him who first makes these things great wealth will accrue, and because the thing is young and was your father’s before you, you shall have half whatever men bring to me in exchange. Of what wood is it made?”
And so old No Foot got hold of the bow. ”

“ SHE WOLF
She Wolf was the name of a woman. She lived in a cave of her own, and supported herself by hunting and fishing. Men had wooed her, but had been so ferociously rejected, that they had been content thereafter to leave her strictly alone.
She could run, swim, climb, use the club or jab [67] the spear nearly as well as a man, and it was said that she lived apart because she was barren and ashamed. She was long of arm and flank, deep-breasted, deep-bellied, hairy and powerful. No Man cast his eyes upon this woman, who was more man than himself, and desired her. ”

“ No Man and She Wolf kept the secret of the bow safe in their cave, and in the early mornings She Wolf went forth to hunt armed with spear and club, while No Man sat in the sun, and scratched the story of his life upon a fine white bone. ”

“ He dropped his spear, and felt foolishly at the little tuft of feathers that had suddenly [114] become attached to him at a point just below the breast bone, and midway between the curling of the ribs.
Then his eyes grew red, and a roar that shook the thicket burst from his lips. He seized his club and rushed forward—and to the right, crouching, sneaking and whimpering with fear he saw [115] No Man running for dear life.
Once more Strong Hand bellowed, and when he heard that bellow No Man screamed, and dropping his bow and arrows, fled with redoubled speed. But Strong Hand was hard after him. ”

“ But this time he had smeared himself from head to foot with moose dung, and he knew that it would take a keener nose than Strong Hand’s to detect him.
Strong Hand had not killed [113] that day, and as he drew near his cave, the strong smell of moose came to him from a thicket on the left of the runway.
Ears and nose twitching and eyes alert he turned cautiously into the thicket. Almost in his face there was a loud twanging jar, and at the same instant a pain like fire darted through his entrails, and he knew that he had been struck to death. ”

“ No Man played with his sticks and became very fond of them. At night he hid them in his cave, but all day he had them out in the sunshine, where he could bend them and let them snap straight, and think about the idea that wouldn’t come out. The dryer the sticks got, the tougher they got, the more bendable and the more springy. Sometimes No Man got angry with his sticks for the very bendiness that he loved in them. ”

“ Strong Hand lifted No Man’s head until it was level with his own breast, and then he smashed it down upon the rocks. And after that first blow No Man had no face, and after the second, the life went out of him. ”

“ Moon Face was the oldest man in the tribe and the richest. He looked precisely like a baboon, only the hairs fringing his face were white, and that was why he was called Moon Face. Moon Face never let go of anything that he got his hands on. All his life he had been a collector. His cave was full of clubs, nets, spears, flints, bright-colored feathers, and smooth round stones for throwing. ”

“ She had died among the violets by the brook, and she was not yet cold. In her hand was a branch of birch half stripped of its leaves; for she had eaten them to stave off starvation.
He sat for a long time with her head on his knees. “I should have stayed with you, Dawn,” he said. “I should have let the man go.” ”

“ She Wolf and No Man trotted steadily for two hours until they had come to a good hunting ground. And as they ran their noses and ears twitched.
Presently and of one accord they stopped, and She Wolf pointed to a dense thicket of alders that stood about a pool of a stream. They could [77] hear the occasional clink of hoofs on submerged stones, and a sound of cropping and munching.
She Wolf and No Man dropped to the ground, and crawled to the alders and into them as silently as two serpents. A buck with a fine head was wading in the midst of the pool and feeding among the lily pads. ”

“ Strong Hand had offered three very finely balanced clubs. You had only to swing one to be confident of getting your man. And One Eye wanted the clubs very dearly. He loved to fight—and get the best of it. But then, Fish Catch, the renowned maker of nets, had [6] offered him one of his best for the girl. And One Eye, who could not make nets himself, knew that his own private net was so rotted as to be useless, and that in order to live comfortably it was necessary to have a net—for a good net meant good food. ”

“ No man was very sore because he had been beaten and robbed. Fish Catch being dead, he particularly hated Strong Hand and wanted Strong Hand’s blood. But he was afraid to go and take it, and so he dwelt in his cave and plotted mischief.
[27]
And because no artist can work when he is angry, he gave up scratching pictures on bone.
No Man was undoubtedly a coward, but he was very cunning. ”

“ One day, She Wolf said that she did not wish to go hunting. But No Man struck her and made her go.
[94]
“Do not come back,” he said, “without two haunches of moose for I have promised one to No Foot in return for some flints which he is making for me. And the other one we will eat ourselves.”
When the sun was high, No Man started on a round of visits, for he dearly loved conversation, and boasting. But he got no further than the cave of old Moon Face, for there he heard news which sent him packing after his bow and arrows. ”

“ No Man laughed provokingly.
“Go back to your cave, Do nothing, No Man,” said No Foot. “You are between me and the light. Furthermore your person is offensive and your face of appalling ugliness.”
No Man continued to laugh. Then he addressed the hillside.
“He is angry,” he said. [45] “Ho-Ho—because he can’t make them small. He has three feet and two of them are hands. Ho-Ho. He has three feet but he cannot run on legs. He has two hands but he cannot make little spear heads. He is a lump of mud, a filthy bear, a litterer of the ground. ”

“ That when One Eye fled from the great fire, he carried with him but one treasure, and that was neither club, nor spear, nor bow, nor net, but the flat bone upon which his own glorious deeds had been recorded by the clever fingers of No Man.
[192]
At no time had his weariness or suffering been so great as to make him part with this heavy article. Now he lay dead with the bone clenched in his frozen hands.
“One Eye is dead and done with,” said Sunrise, musing. “There is no woman to howl over him. He will never see with his one eye any more. He will not hear the sounds of the forest any more ”

“ And later.
“There will never be any solace to me in thinking of what I have done. My cave will be always empty now. [252] There will be no son to cling to my fingers with his little hands. There will be nothing for me now. For I shall always be finding you silent among the violets by the brook.”
For a long time the strong man was shaken with sobs, so that it seemed as if they would kill him. After that a kind of exaltation possessed him and he saw visions of her. Wherever he looked he saw her coming to him thro the young trees. ”

“ All day they wailed for the hunters who would not come any more, and in the dark they scraped out a hollow on the hill side, and collecting the bones of No Man and Strong Hand, placed them therein like the bones of brothers and covered them with earth and stones and tears. ”

“ Man in his fear found out many inventions by which he proved his fitness to survive. [54] And the battle did not go to the strong.
But when No Man awoke, he did not remember his dreams. He arose, shook himself, took up his bow and his arrows, and trotted into the forest. He trotted with caution, for he wished his secret to be his secret, until the sun stood over his head and he was far from the caves of his tribe. ”

“ He invented the spear. In return for his work, the tribe gave him fish and meat, nuts and berries, so that he lived on the fat of the land and was held in great esteem. But he was a surly old beggar, difficult to approach, avaricious and susceptible to nothing but flattery. He had [42] an ugly old wife who kept cave for him. No Man found No Foot sitting in the midst of his chipped flints, chipping busily. A goodly row of sharp polished knives and spear heads spoke also of his industry. He did not look up as No Man approached tho’ undoubtedly he both heard and smelt him. ”

“ It was not until he reached the plateau that Sunrise came up with She Wolf and Dawn. She Wolf was keeping an anxious eye out for him; but Dawn, broken with fatigue, [166] had thrown herself face downward and was asleep.
Sunrise, sick with grief, greeted She Wolf, and went about counting heads. Many had been overladen in that hunt; old men, women and children. One Eye had saved his skin, but Moon Face had perished with his riches. Maku was missing, and No Foot, and there were many others. ”

“ Nobody else is nearly as great. There is nobody of whom there is any [39] record that is so great. I will soon kill Strong Hand and take his woman to my cave. It is not good to live alone when one is great. No, I will not take Strong Hand’s woman, I will get a woman that is all new, and she shall be mine. But first I must get some sharp points for these things. And there is no one so clever with flint as No Foot and to him I will go. ”

“ By stepping in the man’s tracks Sunrise was able to calculate his stride and the speed at which he had been going.
“It is little better than a walk,” he said, “and if I run slowly, I shall gain fast.”
Running, therefore, slowly, he suddenly stopped all [220] a-quiver, for he smelt blood. There was a little splash of it on the leaves of a young moose-wood. Sunrise considered the blood to mean this:
“Dawn,” he said, “does not go willingly, the man is forcing her to run ahead of him, and here he found it necessary to prick her with his spear. ”

“ It is my pleasure to owe you far more than I can pay ever. In dedicating this story, it may be that I am adding grossly to that debt. If so, I ask your most lenient consideration. If not, I still ask your consideration—not for the dedication of my Pagan, but for the affection with which he is dedicated. ”

“ Strong Hand twined his left [24] hand in her long black hair and dragged her after him until the trees had closed behind them both.
When One Eye had done laughing, for the whole scene had seemed very humorous to him, he gathered together his treasures and hid them in the cave.
“I now have,” he said, “the clubs, the net, the strongest among three for a son-in-law, and also the picture bone. I am, therefore, the richest man in the tribe, save only Moon Face, and than him there is [25] none richer in all the forest.” ”

“ Now if you or I had been in the glade in front of One Eye’s cave, we would not have known that there was [11] anybody but One Eye, Strong Hand and Fish Catch within a hundred miles. But these three men having the acuteness of dogs, had heard footsteps that were half a mile away, and not only that, but they had almost instantly known to whom the footsteps belonged. ”

“ He arose and pursued unarmed. But No Man had gained. Still Strong Hand was the swifter runner, and if he had not been wounded, No Man could never have kept away from him so long.
Both were panting, and catching at the air with gulping mouths; but No Man was the more distressed, and his speed was diminishing. Inch by inch Strong Hand reduced the distance between them. The smell of the moose dung with which No [118] Man had smeared himself became nearer, more pungent. Now Strong Hand was only four leaps behind, now three, now two—but his strength was going. ”

“ Such were the thoughts that passed thro’ the mind of Sunrise, tho’ he did not say them out in words as I have done. He simply stood and wondered about death, and that is one of the reasons that man has become man. ”

“ Many of the flints had been broken, many lost and it behooved Sunrise to replenish the supply. So without saying anything to She Wolf he took his bow, some arrows with broken heads, and one good arrow for a model, and trotted off to old No Foot’s workshop on the flinty hillside.
“Please,” said Sunrise, “I am nearly out of flints, and I must have new ones or else She Wolf and Dawn [143] will starve for want of meat.”
“Who are you to talk so big of hunting?” said No Foot, looking up. ”

“ You might have thought that his was the first [100] child of which we have any record.”
“So he has gone hunting, has he?” said No Man. “I think I will drop round to his cave and have a look at the child.”
“Anything that has taken so long to make should be worth looking at,” said Moon Face. And they laughed heartily, and parted with mutual compliments and good will.
But No Man did not go at once to Strong Hand’s cave. First he went to his own and got his bow and [101] arrows. And then he hid himself in a clump of birches and poplars that Strong Hand would have to pass on the way home. ”

“ Nothing of the man shall go with him out of the world but that which he brought into the world with him. And tho’ it may be that there is none so presumptuous as to proclaim where and how the [xii] man shall arise, yet there are few indeed so obstinate as to believe that he has perished utterly.
For we know that all things move onward and upward. The cell became the ape, the ape became the man, and the man shall become—what? That we must not know clearly. But we must know that it will be something above man, and beyond. ”

“ No Man drew the arrow from the moose and withdrawing a little distance shot it into him again, together with his two other arrows. And he kept this up till dark; for it was in his mind that it would be best not to miss when it came to shooting at Strong Hand.
[62]
When night came, No Man tore meat from the moose and ate till he was full; then he went back to the stream and drank deep; then he returned to the moose’s carcass and, lying against it, slept.
Wolves came up thro’ the forest, and looked longingly at the dead moose, and smelt him—at a safe distance ”

“ But they are very little.”
“You are a mighty fisher,” said Sunrise, “and when we have a cave of our own, you shall do the fishing and the hunting, while I lie in the sun or before the fire.”
[204]
Thus in a bantering voice Sunrise proposed to Dawn.
And she turned away her face and was silenced. And thus she accepted him. She Wolf took the fish and went aside to clean them.
“It will be in the spring,” said Sunrise, “when the earth is soft for digging and the leaves are green on the trees. Are you willing?” ”